moar Thermal Management…

This chapter of the blog might be the last time we talk about cooling for our 2024 Pikes Peak Hill Climb build…maybe. But in all seriousness, check out this sweet heat-shield setup designed to keep the hot headers from negatively affecting important components; like hard lines for the brake system.

Solid Engine & Transmission Mounts

After the first shakedown at Thunderhill, we realized the engine and transmission were moving around way too much which is bad for two reasons; drivetrain loss and we also risk breaking something. So we decided to ask our friends at VAC Motorsports for their bad ass solid billet engine and trans mounts. They are gorgeous pieces and really nicely made.

In September, we decided to squeeze in another test-day at Thunderhill Raceway. This time, we would be on the East Course and I was really excited to lay down some reference laps. Before heading up for the day, we did a thorough once-over at the shop and a fresh alignment.

Unfortunately, the car had other plans for me. From the very start of the day, I noticed a lot of smoke coming from the engine bay which is never a comforting sight. Marc confirmed we were seeing a ton of crankcase pressure and blow-by, so much so that the engine began to leak oil from the engine oil cap. We tried a few mitigating solutions; a new cap, turning off the accusump system, but we were trying to put a band-aid on a broken dam by this point.

RIP first engine…

Once we got back to the shop, Jon and Mike were able to confirm my worst fears. The block was toast and the rings were fried.

We decided to drop this engine out of the car and send it over to Nate at Steeldust Machine for a full build. In the meantime, the plan would be to run a spare stock long-block that I purchased from Marc; who in a matter of days brought his own car to the shop so we could take the engine from it.

See below for photos of the original engine, and why we were seeing such terrible crankcase pressures and blow-by. The cylinder walls were scorched and the pistons were wrecked.

New beefy s54 built by steeldust machine

The new engine has Supertech connecting rods, Supertech forged pistons, a VAC multi-layer-steel headgasket, Supertech valvetrain, ARP L19 studs, and much much more.

Sequential Time…

While Nate and Steeldust were busy building my engine, we got to work on installing the new Drenth DG-500 sequential transmission. This unit comes to us via our friends at VAC Motorsport and is made in the Netherlands. It’s a gorgeous gearbox.

To transfer power from the engine via the drivetrain, we decided to run an industry-best Tilton triple 5.5” disc clutch with lightweight flywheel kit from, you guessed it, our friends at VAC Motorsport.

These clutch discs are a work of beauty.

The S54 specific bell-housing and VAC Motorsport transmission cross-member. Fits like a glove!

spare engine and gearbox tuning on the dyno

Once everything was on the car and ready to go, I went over to VEX Offroad (thanks, Jessie, Jay, and Dean) for some dyno time with Jei. We needed to use dyno jet rollers in order to simulate the track for purposes of tuning the clutchless no-lift auto blip downshifts and clutchless “flat-foot” upshifts.

Global Time Attack Finals Nov 10th-12th

The next day, Marc, Mike and me headed down to Buttonwillow Raceway after work for Global Time Attack Finals. I still can’t get over how good the car looks…

broken muffler

Friday practice threw quite a few curve-balls at us. We blew out our already tired muffler early in the morning and ended up welding some reinforcement plates on both ends to ensure it lasted for the event. Son’s dog, Camber, approves.

broken wheel bearing

Then, on a solid lap during session two, I felt the brake pedal go long into Phil Hill and suddenly I noticed a really bad burning smell and smoke. I decided to bring the car in right away and after pulling into the garage we discovered the front left wheel bearing had suffered a catastrophic failure. One of the ball bearings seized/snapped and sent shrapnel everywhere. Yikes! Fortunately the brake caliper, rotor, and wheel were all fine.

broken front splitter

After sourcing two new wheel bearings locally (thanks Marc, for going to pick them up in Bakersfield), we were back in business. For the afternoon session, I made a mistake and went wide at the exit of Bus Stop. Normally, I would’ve just kept my foot in it and driven through the flat dirt section and back on track. However, I seemed to have found a huge crater in the dirt and as the car sank when it landed, the front splitter caught the berm and ripped off. It destroyed the lower support beam, a charge pipe, radiator fan, and quite a few other things. Fortunately, nothing critical was damaged.

After getting the car back together, we decided to call it a day in terms of Friday practice and went back to the hotel for some much-needed rest. The next day, I decided to try driving the car sans splitter just to see how it felt and quickly confirmed we needed one because we were 2.5 seconds slower without it. Luckily, our friends over at 7’s Only Racing had everything we needed to build a fully functional new-splitter out of plywood, support wire, and black duct-tape. After a few hours of hard work (and forgoing 2 sessions), we were back in business.

new front splitter

Sitting nicely in the sun…I decided to use the last session of the day on Saturday to give everything a solid try on track. The plan was to come back Sunday morning and go for it on fresh tires.

Looks pretty good, right? Mike and Marc did all of the hard work. I mostly helped with taping. I also might have gone a bit overboard in taping some of the gaps to make the car more slippery through the air. Haha.

New PB for the car around Buttonwillow CW13

Sunday morning came and I knew I needed to lay down a good lap. While I was on a mid 1:49 lap I began to notice growing vibration from the front left, and because I lost focus momentarily going into the highest-speed section of the track (Riverside). I dipped a tire in the dirt at entry, and went full opposite lock sideways at over 100MPH. Fortunately, the car was completely fine. But I did miss out on the best session of the day and my best opportunity to go faster. By the time session 2 rolled around, between cars going off, drifting, and hotter temps I was not able to go any faster. Ride-along with me for my fastest lap of the weekend, a 1:50.4 which was good enough for 5th in Unlimited Class and 14th Overall:

Key Takeaways

Setting aside our finishing position and my own frustration at not driving better, I am super happy about several things from GTA Finals. We went to the event with the primary purpose of shaking down the car. This was the first time I’ve ever driven with a sequential gearbox (not counting my street GT3 with PDK). The setup is awesome! I know we will continue to work with Jei to make the shifting smoother and we will try and minimize the fireballs (even though they’re super cool to hear/see, haha). Mechanically, the car was also nearly flawless. We saw excellent temperature and pressure ranges over 3 days, confirming that our cooling setup “should” be more than adequate for Pikes Peak.

tremendous gratitude for so many

Where do I even begin? A huge thank you to everyone back at the shop for grinding over the past few weeks and months to get the car done. I know it took a huge toll on Jon, Mike, Matteo, and Isaac in terms of long days and late nights. Thanks, boys. Shout-out to Marc for helping with so many different things, including letting me take the engine out of your own car. You’re an amazing friend. Thank you to Jei for working with us before and during the event to refine the engine and gearbox tuning. Thank you to Erik for helping me with the damper setup. And special thank you to our friends at 7’s Only Racing for lending us whatever we needed at Buttonwillow during GTA Finals. You guys are a big reason as to why the car ran all 3 days. I also want to give lots of love to Son and crew at Shop Formula S — thanks for feeding us all weekend long! And last, but certainly not least thank you to Bobby Yu and Yia Lor for some of the epic on-track photos. You guys rock!

Coming up in chapter 4

• New rear firewall between the driver cabin and the fuel-cell (so the car is extra safe ahead of Pikes Peak)

• Improvements to the shift-tuning

• New built motor and high boost tune

• Traction control

• And much much more!