The Days before the War Begins
May 1
1, 2002
"Gearing up for Opening Day"
aka The Art of the Cheating Bastards


7 Tracks in 7 Days to determine who really is the fastest driver/car combo
 

It's taken me forever to update the OTC story.  Sorry about that, but we had a zillion things going on after the OTC, stuff like getting ready for the FCA event, getting ready for the Hill Climb (note: I threw in the towel Friday, June 7th, because it did not look like we would be properly prepared for a potential podium finish.  We did not get the NSX finished in time.)

The drivers entering the Open Track Challenge are jump starting the economy, as evidenced by the hardware being ordered.  At the rate people are ordering go-fast parts and tires, the economy should be out of the doldrums by now.  People are starting to panic, which means that all go-fast parts and spares are being shipped next day air.   Monroe from Texas bought a bare bones race car from Lou G of LG Motorsports, and is rebuilding it from scratch. 


Monroe rebuilt Lou G's Mustang
(photo by Head-On  Photos)

Rumors are floating around about some truly epic Cheating Bastard tactics that are starting to see the light of day.   In one of the lower divisions, a team will we will call "Team A", was helping "Team B" with their suspension setup on the same model car.  With less than 9 days from the start of the OTC, "Team A" stops by the "Team B" race support shop unannounced, and sees the "Team B" mechanic uh.....installing a "Cheating Bastard Turbo" unto their normally aspirated car.  They were trying to sandbag, and were going to just show up at the track without announcing to anyone their sudden "boost" in horsepower.  Most excellent Cheating Bastard tactic.


Monoballs and steel bushings.  Entire NSX Suspension is disassembled

In another division, a team is publicly talking about their "ITS class" entry.  But in the background, they are anxiously awaiting their $14,000 full blown race motor to hurry up and arrive, so they can sneak the motor in, mate it to a race tranny, in an attempt to destroy the competition in their class, and also crush the drivers in the faster classes. They tried to do this without telling anyone, but unfortunately the engine got "lost" from one side of the USA to the other, which set their timetable back yet another day.  The rims for this car got shipped with holes for five lug nuts instead of four lug nuts, so it looks like that was the straw that broke the Cheating Bastard's back.

Sean, Mike and Brian, the Vette guys, were planning a two Vette team with three drivers.  New motors are ordered for both Vettes, but Sean's motor is leaking oil during his last minute shakedown runs for the OTC, so he is out of it.  Rumor has it the motor in the other Vette is also having problems.  They even went out and bought a backup car, a 240Z with extra wheels and parts, but decide that they do not have enough time to dial it in for the OTC.  Bummer for them......but two less Vettes to worry about for the overall OTC Championship. 

The Honda/Acura guys are ganging up against the non-Honda entries to compete for the OTC Constructors Championship.  And they ain't telling anyone else about their extensive training plans and tactics.  Rumor has it that a video tape was sent to the Honda/Acura guys to give them an unfair advantage against the non-ricer cars.


The mysterious narrator of the Cheating Bastard tape for Honda based entries

Team Pulp Racing Cheating Bastard Tactics?  Well......we have been sitting quietly on the sidelines, scrambling like crazy to get the Flamemobile ready for this event.  I don't want to just win my class against the other Unlimited Two drivers, I want to win the Overall Championship.  We are going for the whole enchilada.  Winning the OTC in the first year would be like being the first team of people to climb Mount Everest, the first team to put a flag on the moon, or the first team to discover America.  Dammit, it is gonna be Pulp Racing!

The agreement among the founders of the OTC was that for the First Annual Open Track Challenge, if you win your class, the trophy for the rest of eternity would be named something like, "The Unlimited Two Class Winner, aka Hayashi/Garcia Trophy".  So if I can win overall, I think I will call the trophy the "OTC Overall Championship trophy, aka the Pulp Racing Award".   Since we plan on doing this event every year until we die, I will be able to smirk at all the Viper/Vette/Porsche guys trying to win the trophy named after my team.  Heh heh heh.....that would be cool....

I knew it would take a long time to get the NSX ready for this event, so we started back on December 3rd.  Here's our story:

December 2nd, 2001
This was the last day the NSX was at the track.  The suspension was hopping and shaking all over the track.  Power was excellent, but we could not keep the power on the ground.  My new theory is that it ain't power that is gonna make you faster, it's handling that is the key.  Hell, I am putting out more HP that I ever had with the car, the car is running strong and reliable, but I am stuck in terms of getting the car to run faster laps.  Drastic measures must now be taken.....so we bring in EMI Racing Suspensions to give us the edge in handling.  I would describe EMI as a "boutique" suspension shop.  They only do suspension work.  Meaning the number of customers they have you can count on your fingers.  But the percentage of their customers that are among the top 3 fastest cars at various events is very high.  Erik Messley, the owner of EMI, did the suspension on his Viper, which ran 1:15 at Willow Springs.  To give you an idea of how fast that is, here are the track records for Willow.  In general, the Porsche guys are probably recognized as the fastest "club" drivers at Willow Springs, and their full blown turbo racecars are doing 1:18 or so.


Erik's Viper.  800 HP, 720 ft lbs of torque..

December 3rd, 2001 - January 19th or so.
Car was at Larry's, being worked on for NSX mechanical stuff like differential, fuel cell, etc.

December 20th or so.
Erik from EMI comes over to measure placement for remote cans for the Penske triple adjustable shocks. Shocks are ordered, with custom length cables.

January 25th or so.
Car is at EMI Racing, with their mission to make the Flamemobile stick to the ground.  Erik drove my car at Willow back in December, and he says he knows what he has to do to make it better.  It involves the following:

New Go-Fast Parts for the Flamemobile

Penske Triple adjustable shocks:
Top of the line shocks from Penske.  Lots of people can install shocks, but the problem is the adjustments on the shocks, which I have mentioned many times is a "black art".  Erik can drive a car around and "feel" what it needs in terms of adjustment.  Otherwise, I am stuck trying to read a manual like this and figuring out what needs to be "tuned" on the shocks.  


Penske Triple Adjustable shocks

Way too much rubber in the suspension:
All rubber bushings are now being replaced with custom machined, aerospace quality  monoballs.  The rubber bushings are one of the reasons why I am sawing away at the wheel like a madman in Turns 2 and 8 at Willow, as there is so much force on the rubber that the suspension is moving back and forth.  Replacing all this stuff with metal will make it so it will stick better, and you can now properly dial in the rest of the car's suspension and alignment.  This is time consuming, as you have to take apart the entire suspension.  Press out old bushings.  Take pieces of steel and aluminum, and machine them to be exactly like the old bushings.  Then, machine suspension parts so that the new steel bushings/monoballs fit perfectly.  EMI Racing spent literally hundreds of hours unassembling the suspension and machining parts to build this custom race suspension.  Erik suffers from "perfectionitis", which means that everything has to be machined perfectly.  Which is good, but it is like watching Michelangelo paint the Sistine Chapel, stroke by stroke...when you got 100 of your in-laws outside, waiting to enter the Chapel to see your wedding. 


Only true suspension gurus know the meaning of this picture

Not enough downforce in back:
New carbon fiber rear diffuser to start with.  If this does not provide enough downforce to match front splitter, then a bigger wing will be needed.  Purchased from Science of Speed.

New rotors with floating hats:
New Brembo rotors, with true floating hats.  After Erik gets the rotors, he notices that the hats are not true "floating hats", so he has to machine the rotors/hats to make sure they do what he wants them to do.  Apparently floating rotors make noise, and the street bling bling guys that buy these complain that the rotors are making noises, and try to return them back to Brembo.  But they want to tell their buddies that they have "floating rotors".   Go figure.

Not enough downforce in front:
New carbon fiber, full on Le Mans style front splitter with tunnel vortices underneath. Two of these are needed, in case I ahhh...go off-roading with the NSX.  Created by Erik's carbon fiber dude. 


Carbon fiber splitter, with under tray, and other goodies underneath

Proportioning valve for Bremo Brakes:
I protested this, saying that the Comptech Brembo kit is fine.  I never have problems with the back locking up under trail braking, and I don't see anyone out braking me at the track.  Erik claims that properly setup brakes can gain  you another 1/2 second at the track.  Okay, so it could be a case that I "don't know what I don't know".  I finally agree to go with the valve.

Eight new Kinesis Wheels:
Four of my nine Technomagnesio wheels have cracks in them.  Shit.  You cannot repair magnesium.  I got these wheels from Comptech, and they no longer sell them.  Other people sell sorta similar wheels, but I don't want to take a chance at mixing and matching different wheels.  We decide to go with new wheels, this way, if a wheel goes bad, we can make sure we can get a replacement.

Four new wheel bearings, hubs, studs:
Erik is driving me crazy.  He wants all new and perfect stuff.  Which is causing us to miss test days.  BUT, at least the car will be close to perfection when it hits the road.

We agreed to have the car on the track in March for testing.  But it ain't happening.  Custom suspension parts require lots of labor, time, materials. You need to order parts, etc.

March blows by.  My car is still on the lift.  We agree that April 1st, "April Fools Day", will be our first test day.  We miss that.  April 15th blows by us.  April 21st blows by.  We have missed about 9 scheduled test days.  Erik is getting closer.  But lots of unforeseen "incidents" happen.  Like when he is machining parts of the suspension, he has a friend with a shop nearby that has all the equipment.  But the guy moves his shop.  So Erik goes to the new machine shop, but the machining equipment isn't unpacked.  So he helps his friend unpack the equipment.  After all that, he discovers there is no 220 power in the shop.  So now he has to help wire in the 220 power.  After doing all this, he fires up the machining equipment....discovers that the piece he needs for the machining equipment is not there, so now he has to go buy a piece for the machining equipment to make the custom piece.  He finds where to pick up the machine piece, drives over there, and they discover they screwed up, and they don't have the piece in stock.  So now they have to ship in the piece that fits in the machining equipment to make the piece that he needs for my suspension piece.  It is kinda like you want a steak, but not only do you have to kill the cow and filet it, you have to fatten it up from when it was born and make the cow gain 500 lbs before you have your steak.  It is a painful waiting process...


And I mean entire NSX suspension is dissassembled....

Somewhere around mid April, I read a good review in either Rolling Stone or Spin or the LA Times about The Hives's album Veni Vidi Vicious that was re-released in the U.S.  The Hives are these Swedish dudes that formed a five piece rock and roll band.  I buy the CD, and that CD becomes my anthem for the OTC prep.  Meaning that I am running around buying parts, moving rims and tires from point A to point B, moving cars around, getting stuff for the trailer ready, printing out maps and travel logistics, etc.   I feel like Ray Liotta in the movie GoodFellas, where he is wired on cocaine, running around from place to place, paranoid that people are following him, getting the jitters, etc.  Except I am on the Go-Fast Crack Pipe, trying to make sure my car is gonna be ready to kick some OTC ass.  Anyways, I have The Hive's Veni Vidi Vicious CD in my car/truck, blaring at full blast, over and over again as I zip around, trying to do prep work for the OTC.


Can The Hives save Rock and Roll?  Buy this album and find out!

Mumford and Provost feel pretty confident that they can win the OTC with Mumford's Viper, and to add insult to injury, they intend to do it in the touring class.  Meaning they are going to drive the Viper on street tires between tracks, and also run street tires on the track. And they intend to win the Overall OTC Championship, and aren't worried about blowing by all the guys who are trailering their race cars with racing rubber.  So I start thinking....hummmm....I will guess that Mumford might be able to run a 1:27 on street tires at Willow, my best is a a 1:29.54 on Hooisers.  But now my suspension should be dialed in, giving me probably 2 seconds a lap...humm....I think I can beat them as long as they don't go to race tires.

Back in early April, I start to realize that I won't be able to figure out how to dial in the suspension at the various tracks of the OTC.  Kinda like you see how those Formula One suspension engineers have to figure out suspension setup for each different race weekend.   Wayne and I can't figure out the suspension on our Tony Karts, and it doesn't get much simpler than that.   Hummm.....what would be the best way to do it for the NSX?  Then the light bulb comes on......yeah.....I will just get Erik to sign on as my co-driver for the event, that way he can drive each track and ensure what settings should be used in terms of sway bar settings, springs settings, tire pressures, and more important, those three way adjustable shocks. 


John and Bryan with their EMI prepared 240Z. 
They planned to use another Z-car, but uh... their motor was shipped late!
(photo by Head-On  Photos)

But, being the cheating bastard I am, I don't want to tell anyone too early about this, and let people know too early in the game what my plan is.  Erik agrees to keep it quiet, and we spring it on everyone at the last minute, to make sure they don't have enough time to counter my cheating bastard tactics with some last minute maneuvering.  He won't tell Mumford/Provost about it, and he won't tell John Coffey, who works at Erik's shop and is running a 240Z in the OTC.  Much like playing 7 card stud, you don't want to show your cards until all bets are in, and you know you got a winning hand.

April blows by.  Car still isn't done.  Now I am starting to panic.  I started this rathole back in December, when I decided that dammit, I need to get a car built that can win the OTC.  I got five months....you think that would be enough time to do suspension and aero mods, right?  Yeah right.....

So back to strategy.  I can't beat Mumford if he runs slicks, unless I throw a ton of cash into the motor and also buy slicks, and even then it is a risky proposition. And I ain't got any cash left, it's all going into the suspension.  But if Mumford and Provost have been crowing for months about how they can win the OTC on street tires in Mumford's Viper ACR.  Well dammit... if they have slicks, I would concede.  But if they have street tires, dammit, they are going down for the count!  But I gotta get my car back, see if I can run 1:27 at a secret test day at Willow, and then I know I am a contender.  (Note:  I don't consider Hoosiers to be a true racing slick)

Now I am calling Willow and Buttonwillow every other day, scheduling semi-private test days, and then canceling them.  About 10 times.  Erik seems close... but it isn't quite perfect.  We aim for Friday, May 3rd.  We miss that.  Tuesday, May 7, we miss that.  Wednesday, May 8, we miss that.  The last possible test day is Thursday, May 9th, at Buttonwillow.  I can't test on Friday, I have go to the INS office with the wife to get her permanent resident green card, or else they ship her out of the country ASAP. She would have been a permanent resident in January, but there was a S2K Challenge race at Laguna Seca, so I made her reschedule.  Little did I know it would take the INS 5 months and they would pick the last day before the OTC.  I also have to pick up a rental RV and get a trailer brake installed on it so it can tow the go-kart trailer filled with about 30 tires, 10 cases of water, 6 cases of OTC T-shirts, two scooters, 9 cans of fuel.  Also have to pack clothes, pack big trailer, etc.  And I have to be at at Pahrump Saturday by 5 p.m., to help the OTC organizers with the registration/sign-in/stickers/t-shirts, etc.


Another Z-car that was entered in the OTC
(photo by Head-On  Photos)

Meanwhile, you can 't yell at Erik too much.  He works on my car what seems to be about 18 hours a day, and sleeps about 2 hours a day max.  It is almost like he is on an uberman's sleep cycle.

So Thursday, May 9th, I call him at 4:30 a.m. and ask him if he is ready. He says he is close, but not quite.  He has to do an alignment.  Well.....how long could that take, right?  He says probably 6 hours to get it perfect.  Holy shits.  9:30 a.m., I am at his shop, pushing, saying we HAVE to make this test day, because we will not have a chance in hell to win the OTC without a thorough shakedown of the car.  I wanted Larry to spend a couple of days tuning the car, but it hasn't left Erik's shop in four months.  Luckily, it ran strong at the last event, but I wanted it tuned and dynoed.

Erik says all he has to do is finish mounting the remote canisters for the Penske triple adjustable shocks.  Cool.  How long could that take?  10 minutes?  I then proceed to watch Erik do the following:

1.  Figures out where in the truck to mount shocks.

2.  Draws outline of mounting bracket

3.  Drills  hole perfect

4.  Gets out metal pick-like tool to make sure hole is smooth with no metal shavings

5.  Get out another tool to make sure surface has no shavings

6.  Measure one of the four bolts for mounting

7.  Decide bolt is too long

8.  Measure bolt

9.  Goes to big band saw, cuts bolt to appropriate length,  shaves off 1/8th of an inch or so

10.  Goes to another machine to take off metal shavings of bolt

11.  Goes to another sanding machine to smooth bolt out

12.  Repeats procedure for the 2nd of the four bolt.

The procedure takes about 15 minutes per screw.  I now ask him what in the FUCK are you doing?  We have to get to the track, and you are cutting screws?  He explains that whenever you have a bolt, and it extends a long ways past the nut it is supposed to go in to, you are getting excess weight.  I think about the size of the bolts for holding the canisters, and I think he saved about one tenth of gram in metal.  I am ready to take him by the throat and strangle him.  He then tells me that my car is down to something like 2580 lbs.  Huh?  I thought my car was around 2670 or so?  He then says, "Duh.....we got a lot of weight out of your car, cutting bolts, light weight diffuser, got rid of the parking brake, etc."  Okay....you can't really bitch and complain about his weight saving work, I guess it all adds up....

11:30 a.m. Erik is finally ready.  Larry and I throw the NSX in the trailer, and head off to Buttonwillow going as fast as we can in a 48 foot trailer.  Erik stayed awake the WHOLE night to get the car ready so we can test.  I figure we can get at least two hours of testing in, just to shakedown the car and make sure it stops and goes, and then Erik can start twiddling all the bits on the suspension.


Corvette that is entered in the OTC
(photo by Head-On  Photos)

Like I said before, suspension tuning is a black art.  It requires a magician to get right.  If you can adjust high-speed compression, low-speed compression, and rebound, combined with sway bar settings, camber and caster, along with spring settings.....you are worth your weight in gold.  There ain't a lot of people who can do that.  I know the basics of understeer and oversteer, but I can't twiddle all those bits and figure out the perfect combo.  Erik can.  Erik piloted his Viper team to 2nd place in points in Grand Am a couple of years go, 2nd to only the Saleen team.  Saleen spent well over 2 million bucks to win the championship, but Erik grabbed 2nd in points, and did it on about 1/10th of their cost.  Part of the cost savings was that he was the truck driver, the mechanic, the suspension mechanic, the tuner, and the cook, in addition to the driver. 

Anyways, we get to Buttonwillow at 2:30 p.m., pay our $550 for a test day (no such thing as a 1/4 day semi-exclusive test day....on a semi-exclusive day, you have to cough up the bucks)  Two Formula Atlantic teams are testing on one part of the loop, and we are on the other side where the Esses are.

Erik runs three laps, comes in, adjusts stuff, runs three laps, adjusts stuff, etc.  I am in the passenger seat, and I like the way the car sticks.  It sticks like my S2000 does at the Streets of Willow, except I've got double the power.  Yeah baby....this is gonna be fun!  The Atlantic teams are finished, so now we can use the full course and get some lap times.  Right before I get to hop in the car, the AP clutch blows up, and is leaking fluid.  Oh well.....but our mission for the day is accomplished.  We now know the engine runs strong, no error codes, no sputtering, no overheating, no boost problems.  Car sticks, suspension feels good, brakes stop like the hand of God coming down from the heavens.  We are ready to rock.  Something isn't quite right with the ABS and proportioning valve, but we can deal with that later.  Larry says he will throw in a ACR Motorsports clutch when we get back to the shop, and all Erik has to do is put on the splitter and diffuser on and we should be good to go.

Thursday night, midnight, I post to the OTC BBS that my car completed a successful test session, and we know we have a contender, and I am taking bets.  I wanted to have the car tested many days before this, because then we could start lining up a ton of bets about my car winning the entire OTC.  I also post that Pulp Racing and 1-800-Phoneguys are teaming up to form a team entry with two cars and three drivers.  That way if my car blows up or if Wayne's car blows up, we have the option of driving the other person's car if we need to. 

We also announce that our "third driver", is our suspension guy Erik Messley.  There is a minor uproar about that, saying we are Cheating Bastards for getting a pro driver on our team.  BP says it is the equivalent of getting Kobe Bryant to be your ball boy, having him "help" your pickup basketball team.  But we don't want Erik for his laptimes, we want him to drive our cars on each of these tracks, help us figure out the various settings on our cars for each of these tracks, we write those settings down, and then our cars dialed in for world domination at track events the rest of the year.  And since we waited until the last possible minute reveal our plans, hopefully that means the other OTC teams will not have enough time to counter our most excellent Cheating Bastard move.  Heh heh heh.......

Friday morning, May 10th.
I go to the INS.  Good news, my wife gets to stay in the country.  This is especially important as she is supposed to be on my OTC crew - team photographer, team navigator, team cook, etc.

I wanted to leave for Pahrump on this day, get there early, and relax.  But my splitter and diffuser are not on yet.  Erik also has to do some prepping of the Brian's 240Z that Brian and John are running in the event. Stuff like setting up suspension to work with some Hoosier slicks as opposed to the Hoosier RS03's that they usually use.  By 4:00 p.m., they still don't have the splitter or diffuser on, so it looks like I ain't going to Pahrump today.


Nice looking M Roadster
(photo by Head-On  Photos)

Saturday, May 11th. 
I want to leave at 7 a.m.  At 9:00 a.m., Erik is still working on the splitter.  He has stayed up all night again.  I thought it takes like 20 minutes to bolt on a splitter and another 30 minutes for a diffuser.  I didn't realize that it took 14 hours....but remember, Erik is a perfectionist.  The splitter is a full on honey-combed, carbon fiber piece, super sturdy, so if you hit a curb or a berm you don't blow it up. 

I have to be at the Pahrump hotel by 5:00 p.m. to help with sign-in.  At 9:30 a.m., Erik is machining parts for the splitter.  The words "machining parts", sounds real cool.  Until you realize that every time you hear the word "machine", it means six hours of labor.   I decide I have to bail for Pahrump, as I have the OTC T-shirts, stickers, etc, and they need those for the 5 p.m. sign in meeting.  Larry and Reuben agree to drive the 48 footer to Pahrump, so Wayne, Dagmar, and I are off to  Pahrump.

There are many "diaries" and stories written by the various OTC teams that offer other points of views about the event.  Below are the ones that I know about (if there are more, let me know)

1.  John Coffey and Bryan Lampe with their Datsun 240z

2. Dan Nguyenphuc and Jay Schreffler with their Porsche 944 Turbo

3.  Rick Weldon and Bill Cardell  - Team Flying Miata (aka Team Girly Car)

4.  Gary Sheehan and Richard Holdener with their Subaru WRX

5.  Scott Mosier and Martin Check  - Team Learner's Permit

6.  Dave Pratte and George Dedopoulo  - The Honda From Hell

7.  Mark O'Dell and Pat Hentges  - The Mini Cooper Adventure

I am sure there are many more great stories about the OTC from other participants, but the didn't have the time to write them up.  Perhaps you will be there for OTC 2003, so you can tell us about your adventure in your quest to be the OTC King of your division.

Signing off from Death Race 2002:  The OTC.