Long Time No Post - TT Update

OK, I know I’ve been pretty lame about posting to my blog, and while I have plenty of excuses I won’t bore you with them ;) The main reason is after my last post about “surviving” the OTR event, the car took its revenge and promptly blew the turbo-manifold gasket again. I fixed it, and then went to an event at the California Speedway in June 2004 and the damn gasket blew again!!!

At this point I’d just had it; it was like the fourth time I was going to have to get this fixed (and it ain’t easy, so that means it ain’t cheap!). APR had us try something different to resolve the problem each time; new studs, a special bracket to brace the turbo and take some of the load off the studs, but none if it worked. Finally they asked me to send them the manifold after the California Speedway incident, so I did, but after their inspection they concluded my mechanic had installed the studs correctly (their claim was most studs were installed wrong) and sent the manifold back with a new “improved” gasket and “good luck”. (This after they had my manifold for six weeks – during which time they essentially did nothing).

When we got the manifold back, I told Ken, my mechanic, that if it comes apart again that’s it, we’re going stock. Now I don’t know if it was the magical combination of the new gasket with the new studs and the bracket, or the fact I begged Ken to try and snap the studs when he torqued the turbo back to the manifold (seriously – “They’re iconel,” I told him, “and APR claims you can’t break ‘em; try!”), or the fear that I might actually de-tune the damn thing, but knock on wood I’ve done 5 track days since September 2004 and the gasket hasn’t blown!

So it seems after two-plus years we finally got the APR Stage III turbo installed correctly ;) Better late then never. Not that it’s been smooth sailing since; now that the motor is staying together, its breaking everything else LOL! The latest was during the TracQuest Thunderhill event, where I had all four Dunlop SuperSport R tires show signs of delamination (I guess there was a reason Tire Rack was blowing these out), requiring a 140 mile round-trip drive to Redding, CA to get some cheap BFGoodrich Z-rated street tires from Big O, the closest place with any sort of usable tires in my size, just so I could do two more 30 minute sessions the next day and have the driver’s side CV joint start coming apart on me. (You have to give it up to VW for these Mark IV-based cars; though, it made it the 500+ miles home without a tow, although it did start pulling violently in short spasms towards the end). I also figured out that the upper engine mounts must be going as well, thanks to the horrifying rattle/vibration sound that started coming from the mounts at about 3500+ RPM.

The upside is, of course, new toys for the car! Namely two new axles by Raxles. Marty at Raxles told me they make their high-performance axles for Mark IV cars out of Porsche 993 parts, and they’re guaranteed not to break, they don’t care how much horsepower you hook ‘em up to. I haven’t had them on the track yet, but they looked mighty beefy and all the guys at the shop were pretty impressed. The other new items are the VF Engineering engine mounts. I already had their lower pendulum (dogbone) mount, so these newly designed billet aluminum mounts seemed the logical choice. These things are beautiful – almost seemed a shame to put them in the engine bay where they can’t be seen! Ken said they were a perfect fit, exceptionally designed. They’re not for the weak-hearted, though – while I actually expected more vibration from the near-solid mounts, I was surprised by how much all the engine noise was amplified. For me its not a bad thing, I’ve always wished the car sounded more aggressive, but its just weird, sounds like the transmission is sitting in your lap, that sort of thing. The increased vibration is mainly noticeable at idle, you can feel the revolutions ticking through the steering wheel, but once you’re over 2,000 RPM it really isn’t that evident (if you’ve already stiffened the crap out of your car with shocks and springs, that is …). Next up will be VF’s front sway bar end links – they’re listed on their web page but apparently not available yet.

So, here we are, October 2005, and the car seems to be back in shape ready to head out to the track again. I’ve even already got new R-compounds, trying out the Avon’s since their rounded shoulders are supposed to be more “friendly” to camber-challenged cars like mine. We’ll see how they do – up to now I haven’t had much trouble with tires, but the front camber on the TT isn’t adjustable without installing aftermarket camber plates at the strut towers, and while lowering the car did help the camber somewhat its still pretty positive in front. The Khumo Victoracers always held up well, but I was diligent about rotating them every day at track events. Now that I’m pushing the car harder with the Stage III kit, it might be that the lack of camber is making its presence known. We’ll see how the Avon’s do at the next event.