Sound Engineering vs. The Corkscrew

At this weekend's United States Touring Car race at Mazda Laguna Seca every car in the field sported new appendages.  In previous years USTCC had run on one of the few unrestricted sound days at the lovely facility, but this year sharing the track with SPEEDSF, a whisper-quiet 92Db was the rule.  If you fail sound once, you're done for the session.  Fail again, pack up and head home.

There's a number of reasons behind these rules, and if you're curious about their genesis at Laguna Secca, then I'd recommend listening to Gill Campbell's interview in Episode 17 of Dinner with Racers.  This post won't discuss the why.

What we will explore is the science, engineering, craftsmanship and, dare we say, art behind the protuberances behind the cars that kept them quiet along the unique 2.214 mile course in our season opener this year.

We begin with none other than the #85 Minideck Motorsports / BTM Motorwerks MINI Cooper S driven by yours truly.

In the past, this car has been a lot louder, yet for this event, Rich Petersen, the car's owner and Chief Tinkerer had fortified the new stainless steel muffler system some unknown amount of 'special high-tech packing'.  And proving size indeed does not matter, the car stayed clear of the dreaded meatball all weekend.

Ratings:

Stealth: 9/10
Tech Level: 9/10
Slim 'n' Trim Factor: 9/10



Mike Shawhan's Mighty BTM Motorwerks #22 BMW 330Ci sported a new custom setup just for the weekend.

Reportedly made from 'A Mustang muffler with MINI tip welded on the end' Mike's car was so quiet, hardly anyone could event hear it go by.  The whisper smooth I6 didn't suffer much as Mike led at least half of the race and finished a close second.


Ratings:

Stealth: 8/10
Tech Level: 7/10
Raid the BTM Parts Bin Factor: 9/10



Tom Milburn's #14 Bay Area Drafting RSX ended up with one of the more shiny and high-tech noise deflectors.

Reportedly, he'd been worried about both intake and exhaust noise, and got a strike from his peppy Honda exhaust note.  A passing wisenheimer quipped he should put an intake elbow on his exhaust pipe to pass sound.   That's exactly what he did, and he ran trouble-free the rest of the weekend.

Ratings:

Stealth: 6/10
Tech Level: 8/10
Make 'em Eat their Words Factor: 10/10



Mike McColligan's gorgeous #36 MC Racing RX-8 was right at home at Mazda Laguna Seca Raceway.

And he went right to the off-the-shelf for his sound deflectors.  No irony that it rained during the final race, and drainpipe was his weapon of choice.

Ratings:

Stealth: 6/10
Tech Level: 5/10
Home Improvement Factor: 10/10



Patrick Cho's #88 Speed SF Nissan 350Z has been a regular at the front of the TC field.

And he played the part well, with the longest shiniest cannon style muffler in the field.  V6's always sound a bit odd to me personally, but this bit of kit stayed under sound and ran some very fast qualifying times to boot.

Ratings:

Stealth: 5/10
Tech Level: 9/10
Super Shiny Factor: 9/10



The two Honda S2000s in the field, the Hartanto / Ostby Prima Racing #98 and the #82 S2000 driven by Victor Ng chose the same strategy.

Bone stock.  Considering the gains from a typical aftermarket S2000 Exhaust (not much) and the sound restrictions, this was a wise move.  Even wiser once Andrie took the checkered flag just a few feet ahead of Mike Shawhan's Mustang-mufflered BMW.

Ratings:

Stealth: 8/10
Tech Level: 9/10
Soichiro Knows Best Factor: 9/10



George Kibilov's #24 Speed SF e46 M3 sported a somewhat dented stubby elbow that appeared to carry equal parts DNA of both Supertrapp and Trumpet Mute.

At some point during the weekend, the M3 had issues which were thought to have been caused by the increased backpressure, but they were later attributed to a loose hose up front.  Once repaired, George proved to be speedy and sound great, handily winning the ST class.

Ratings:

Stealth: 4/10
Tech Level: 5/10
Blame it on the Exhaust Factor: 8/10



Daniel Akhromtsev's #16 Red Star Racing BMW M3 has run at the front of the GT field for some time now.

His offset elbow featured an additional sound deflector which looked like an up-side down smokehouse chimney.  Minus the bacon of course.  Mmm bacon.

Ratings:

Stealth: 3/10
Tech Level: 7/10
Spend a Lot of Time With the Welder Factor: 8/10


The Initial P Lexus IS300 driven by Edgar Lau chose a somewhat disturbing tentacle shaped design.

While effective on the race track, it reminded me of the limb of Chaos Eater from Dark Souls.  Late in the race, in fact, the exhaust took a hit in hard-fought action, and the speedy Lexus had to retire from the race for exceeding sound once it was broken.

Ratings:

Stealth: 2/10
Tech Level: 5/10
I'll Dream About Tentacles Tonight Factor: 10/10


And Finally, the King of Marching to His Own Drummer, Pete Bovenberg's #2 MBO Motorsports Honda Civic.

Pete's tailpipe actually began shorter earlier in the event, was meatballed, then grew steadily until in priapic fashion it finally reached its full potential.  Multiple bends?  Check.  Many yards of heat resistant / sound deadening wrap? Check!  A disturbing sound diffusing tip that resembles a shotgun pierced coffee can, yet appears to be able to light the whole back of the car on fire? Heck yeah! Check!

Stealth: 0/10
Tech Level: 4/10
Pete's Dragon Factor: 11/10


United States Touring Car will return to action May 20-21 at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, where sadly, sound is completely unrestricted.  We'll be keeping an eye out for more bits of technology enhancing the racing action.

Just Slow Enough to Succeed

Losing Our Head

Last weekend USTCC Round 4 took place at the Utah Motorsport Campus, and I was really excited.  Not only would I be back in Rich Petersen's outstanding MINI, but the car was in really great shape after a promising podium at Laguna Seca in Round 2, and a dangit-could-have-passed-that-guy result at Sears Point in round 3.

The MINI had been to the engine doctor, tuned, re-tuned, had a minor miss and an ever so slight vacuum leak fixed, and looked to be really competitive compared to the rest of the USTCC TC field.  The other more powerful heavy RWD competitors were sure to be good on the long drag race from a standing start at UMC's 3500ft front straight, but fresh optimal tuning, forced induction, a base elevation of over 4000ft, previous experience on the track and the possibilities looked quite good for the little car.

In fact, morning practice on Friday went well - in the midst of a busyish NASA Utah practice session, we dropped down to 2:14s during those first few re-discovery laps.  Given the allowed mods and power to weight ratio for the TC class, this looked pretty promising for the following day's race.

But in the second practice session, the car had difficulty starting, and didn't want to stay running.  A problem with an improperly mounted tire brought the car right into the pits, and then a small coolant leak surfaced.

After some diagnostics in the paddock, it became apparent the small coolant leak had been letting just enough water out of the engine for just long enough to not set off any major bells or whistles, but to cause the engine some serious problems.  The old 'turn it over with a spark plug out' test produced a perfect geyser of clear coolant right out of the cylinder 1 spark plug hole.  Not good.  Need a new head gasket.  At least.

After a few minutes of consideration (we'd come a long way, the field was reduced in size, some other cars had issues as well, good opportunity to score points) Rich began the intricate process of removing the head gasket, and I scoured every auto parts store from Tooele to Ogden looking for the right head gasket.  If the car could be just patched up to finish half the laps of the race, we could salvage some of the trip.

After locating the part in Napa Auto Parts of Salt Lake City, I hopped into my rent-a-Prius and motored away, made the 74 mile round trip, and returned to the final unveiling of the head as it came off the block.

Brad from BTM Motorwerks applied his expert eye to the cleaned up head, and few things became apparent at that point.

1. There was about an 8 thousandths gap between two cylinders.
2. The valves weren't sealing properly in their seats anymore.
3. The MINI would not be racing this weekend, at least not with that head.

Plan B

There are a number of top notch motorsports shops and race teams headquartered at the world class UMC facility, and between talking to anyone that would listed to me, and touring the paddock for anything that would remotely fit into the USTCC Touring Car class (this discounted the race-prepped Lamborghini Rich found for rent) three reasonable options:

1. Tatum Racing's beautiful Martini & Rossi liveried Porsche Boxter.
2. Another team's professionally prepared 350z.
3. A Touring Car B Spec Ford Fiesta.

The Boxter seemed like the best option, but there was some question as to how close to legal I could get it in the short time I had before the Saturday race.  The 350z owner quoted me $3000 plus tires rental fee.  =:-o

Pass the Nachos - we're having a Fiesta!

The Race

The first thing you notice while sitting in a grid of legit touring cars making between 220 to 300+ hp at the wheels is how competitively quiet a TCB car is.  I was also glad I'd chatted with the driver of the USTCC Sportsman class e36M3 that was gridded behind me, so he was aware I would be doing my best, but proceeding from my standing start in my 120hp Fiesta, it would not be a breathtaking procedure to say the least.

I did manage to keep the back of the field in touch for the first lap, but once the field hit UMC's main straight, they basically disappeared, and I set about the business of proceeding as fast as I could manage.  One area the Fiesta has going for it is a really outstanding braking system.  But I quickly found in my first few turns that if you used more than about 50% of it for more than a fraction of a second, then you'd slowed down way too much.

Sometime later, the GT and Super Touring leaders came through at what seemed like FA-18 passing a pigeon speeds, and finally the TC class cars.  BTM Motorwerks' Mike Shawhan's e46 328 was closely followed by Speed SF's Patrick Chio's 350z and Gogo Gear's Gary Sheehan's Hyundai Genesis.  Looked like if I could just keep it on the track for a few more laps, I'd end up a respectable 4th.

But a few turns later, I passed two huge clouds of dust, one on each side of the track - I couldn't tell at the time, but I'm told the Hyundai was in one of them.  I came around for a white flag, finished the race, and learned I'd managed to squeeze out a podium from a weekend where we'd completely lost our head.

I can't thank the fine staff of NASA Utah, Dave Kizerian for helping me scope out rental cars and especially Cheri Miller for loaning me a great little car...that went just fast enough.

USTCC will be back at Sonma Raceway at Sears Point Oct 29th and 30th - stay tuned to USTCC.COM and FinalDrive.tv for all the hard charging action.

The MINI goes to USTCC with WTCC

Friday, September 21st - 630am.  Arrive Sonoma Raceway.

After a drive from Southern California beginning at 10pm the previous night, Rich Petersen towed his MINI Cooper S into the paddock at Race Sonoma where Andy Chittum had just arrived with the BTM Motorwerks Racing Trailer ready to set up for three days of US Touring Car racing.  This weekend would promise to be a real crowd pleaser with The Maserati Trofeo World Series arriving from Paul Ricard, and both World Touring Cars and Auto GP arriving from the  Autódromo Internacional de Curitiba.

In addition to these international series that would be competing, the US Touring Car Challenge boasted a field of 31 cars that would also take part in the weekend’s racing.  In the MINI’s previous outing with USTCC, a 2 hour race at Thunderhill Raceway, Andy managed to show some speed in the MINI, but the race effort was cut short as the MINI was pulled into the pits for exceeding sound restrictions.  How would the team fare in the biggest USTCC race since 2005?

1000 am - Free Practice 1.

The team set up quickly and got the little car prepared, and was the first to grid.  At the green flag, it was the MINI that took to the track first, and kicked off the weekend’s proceedings with a few hot laps before coming into the pits for tire readings and adjustments.  Generously, the schedule included full 45 minute sessions for practice, which gave the team time to try a few settings, and Andy to re-familiarize himself with the car.  It was a surprise when the team found out their time on the modified course, a 1:58.9 was second fastest, only a tenth away from the fastest car, the KPAX Volvo c30 driven by Robert Thorne.  

1145am - Free Practice 2.

After setup adjustments, the team returned to the track for some longer running, and to test further changes.  While the team was only 4th fastest this time, the consistency the MINI showed was very encouraging, especially in the hot Sonoma weather.  Though they completed nearly a whole race distance, the MINI’s driver side CV joint let go toward the end of the session, necessitating the team to jump into action to find a replacement part.  NASA regulars on the team Hans Dinse and Mickey Kennedy set about removing the broken part, and Brad McClure of BTM Motorwerks came to the rescue with a replacement.  The piece arrived 25 minutes before Q1 began, Andy strapped in 15 minutes later, and the car hit the ground just as the end of the field filed out to start qualifying.

245pm - Q1

Chittum hit the ground running, and thanks to quick work from the team, the MINI was right back to form, posting another 1:58.9, in spite of the late afternoon Sonoma heat.  Brandon Kraus, the 2011 Champ posted the fastest time in his Honda Civic, while KPAX’s Robert Thorne kept his lead, leaving the MINI third in Q1.

Saturday, September 22nd - 1215pm.  Q2.

Overnight, BTM Motorwerks again made suspension tweaks on the MINI and made some weight adjustments to ensure the MINI could run a full race distance and still end at the right weight.  Even though most teams were slower, the MINI was still able to run a 1:58.9, and qualify P3 again for race 2.

420pm - Race 1.

The field lined up for the traditional standing start under the newly constructed starting lights at Sonoma raceway, and blasted off as they went out.  Dave Brown, starting from 4th next to Andy in the MINI got an astounding start in his AWD Mitsubishi Lancer, and shot to the front.  Thorne and Kraus got good starts as well, though the MINI wasn’t any faster right behind them.  Larry Bani’s M3 managed to get alongside the MINI and for several laps challenged before the speedy car got clear.  Kraus and Thorne got around Brown quickly, but the Chittum had to wait a few laps for the powerful Lancer to heat up, so good was its traction out of the slower turns.  Finally, Chittum made a daring move around the outside of T6, and got the inside line to T7, and drove away from the powerful car.  Late in the race, Chittum caught Thorne’s ailing Volvo c30, but only just as the checkered flag fell.  Perhaps a few more laps, and Chittum could have taken his traditional spot on the second step of the podium.

Sunday Saturday, September 23 rd - 315pm.  Race 2.

Once again, Chittum lined up P3 behind Kraus and Thorne, however, this time it was Chris Lock’s Honda Prelude that lined up in P4.  Without threat of Brown’s Lancer blasting through the field at the start, there was a little more parity at the front, but just to keep things interesting, Kraus bogged his civic down on the start, and Thorne, Chittum, and most of the front of the pack went flying by.  This left Thorne in P1, and Chittum in the MINI running P2 for the first part of the race.  But the additional rewards weight, the 50lbs added since Race 1 was to play a vital factor in the race.  The MINI’s tires only lasted a few laps this time, and in turn, Lock and Kraus were able to get by, with the MINI eventually finishing 5th.

Thanks!

This weekend would have not been possible without the support of

• Mickey Kennedy
• Hans Dinse
• Niello MINI
• Brad McClure and BTM Motorwerks Racing support
• Josh from BTM Motorwerks
• Jason Chittum
• Mary Walters
• Jennifer Chittum on the headset
• Rich Peterson RM Petersen Construction, for building a really outstanding little car - not only a real kick in the pants to drive, but the fastest and most reliable MINI to USTCC specifications

And the fans.  The team handed out tons of autograph cards and Niello MINI T-shirts this weekend, and the little car was a true crowd favorite.  We’ll hope to see you all at our next event! Follow us here on this blog, on Twitter @mmmotors (Andy Chittum) and @USTCC (US Touring Car Challenge), www.ustcc.com for our next adventure!