|
Richard Biscevic, of nohotwire.com, contacted us a few weeks before the 25 hours of Thunderhill. He was part of a team that was planning to run a Mitsubishi EVO in the event, but not just any Mitsubishi EVO. Their weapon of choice was the same EVO that had been running and winning the US Touring Car Championship for the past few seasons.
This endurance event would prove to be the perfect place for torture testing our COBB Tuning SF Intake. The weather called for rain, and the team had a plan of attack. Below is a first hand recap of the event told by none other than Richard Biscevic:
"We ran the car low on boost vs. a stock EVO in order to conserve the car. Power was great, the handing was good, and the brakes worked well, even without ABS.
The car ran great on Friday practice and the first stint. We qualified it 12th overall on the grid, and fourth in class with a 2:04. The top class qualifier was at 2:02. Saturday morning Tony Swan from Car and Driver said that rain showers were in the forecast for 3:00 AM and we were licking our chops. The plan was to run a conservative race: Don't loose too many laps to the leaders in our class, then as the rain came, or that final 6 hours, which ever was first, we'd charge ahead.
The strategy was a good one, and eventually the rain did come, however one little nagging problem reared it's ugly head early in the race. Tony Swan took the first stint as he enjoys starting. We were pretty well on pace until Tony called in reporting a twitchy car. He brought it in and we had a look. Turned out a bolt in the suspension had backed out onto the inside of the front left wheel, and machined the rim in half. It was held together by the tire. So we changed the tire, and replaced the bolt.
Unfortunately that left us with a situation where the bolt kept loosening up. We would drive, pit to tighten it, and after so many laps it would loosen up again. Many times we thought we had it fixed and the bolt would just loosen up again. As you came off the power and started to set the suspension for the turn, the car would first show signs of being unstable. Almost like there was too much rear brake biased. Then as the bolt loosened up, the car would change direction right, left, right as you came off the power. Finally, the car would jerk hard to the right, at say turn 8, which is a high speed left hander. You'd turn to correct, the car would take a set, and you'd make it through the turn, albeit, with slightly different suspension geometry. It was time to come in and try to fix it.
We really gave it our best effort. Often times it would hold for an hour or two. Other times, it would come loose after 7 laps. We soldiered on until 6 AM Sunday morning. The rain/snow came at 3 and we were running well, but the pit stops to tighten up the suspension prevented us from capitalizing on the conditions. At 6 AM the bolt had been worked so many times that we just called it off. It wasn't worth risking the car because one bolt wouldn't hold."
You can bet that Richard will want redemption in 2008, and we'll be there to make sure that happens!
|
