There was lots of dicing in the field today actually which made for some good racing. The number 15 car of SpeedConcepts stepped up their game and TIED Catesby Jones in the Forged Prepped GT-R this morning. In the second session they continued to put the pressure on them in the afternoon finishing just 4 TENTHS of a second behind. The SpeedConcepts GT-R is climbing up the leader board going after the Chariots of Palm Beach 2012 GT-R!! Should turn out to be an interesting battle for 3rd place. 

In other news the AOK Networking GT-R of Bob Knoerzer (“NAGTROC CAR”) driven by Co-Driver Derek Heim took SECOND place in the evening AutoX beating out Catesby Jones by almost 2 TENTHS of a second!! Very cool stuff! Great job to the new comer team of AOK Networking! Also proved to be pretty good for us spreading the points gap 5 points more between us and the Forged Performance car. 

The team now has a 650 MILE drive to the next stop in Brainerd MN! It’s going to be a LONG NIGHT! 

Here are the official results from today’s events, along with the final standings. We have TONS of pictures below so check them out. Thanks for following guys!!

~Cicio

The first session was won by almost 10 seconds making the second largest spread yet! Leh and Doug did an amazing job today getting the car ready for the track. Leh said that the track was very low on grip this morning and was confident he would have more to work with this afternoon. In this morning session he ran a 1:53.7 @ Great Plains Raceway in the TSM GT-R & a 1:53.3 this afternoon.  The afternoon showed the TSM GT-R top on the boards once again, this time by almost 9 seconds as well.   

The reports from the team are that the car is running perfectly but everyone is getting pretty tired.  The event will for sure take a lot out of you by the end of the week.  

The team is currently loading up for the 335 mile drive to Mountain Park Hastings in Hastings, Nebraska! 

Below are some pictures from the day, and here is a video from Leh in the wet @ MidAmerica…watch this guys hands correcting that big car around the track. 

With round one behind us Leh downloaded the feeling of the car to Doug in order to brainstorm if there were any improvements to be made. With a couple hours before the afternoon session the team decided a small suspension change was in order. Off came the front wheels and Doug went to work making a small setup change to slightly improve the overall balance of the car. As the second session rolled around the car was ready to roll. Leh picked it up a notch from the first session running over 3 seconds faster overall than in the morning session. Catesby Jones in the Forged Performance GT-R fell off a little over a second leaving us with a total gap of 7 seconds on second place.

Another day of racing past, then loaded up for the 600 mile drive to CO to run High Plains Raceway tomorrow.

Stay tuned for more updates in the morning and some in car video from the last couple days as well!

Thanks for following the event’s progress…here are some pictures from the day at Hallett!

Some feedback from Doug:

“The TopSpeed GTR had another great day to add to the books!!

Everything about today was text book One Lap. Got to the track early enough so we didn’t have to scramble. Race fuel was open and ready for us to top off our tanks. I had plenty of time to find a very nice back road to verify everything was happy for the area’s altitude density. With the cooler weather today we were seeing a peak of 23psi, which is a tad bit higher than I would have liked to see since we are still using the stock map sensor.

With everything checked off on our pre-race list the TSM GTR was lined up in the P1 position on grid for the first session. Now I have to admit that I am very competitive, maybe too competitive depending on who you ask. But this morning watching both the GTR’s duke it out was AWESOME!! Catesby was wheeling the crap outa the Forged GTR, very very impressive watching him slide the back end all the way out and never lift coming onto the front straight. This guy can drive with the best of them.. Seeing the cars this morning flying around the track at absurd street tire defying speeds reminded me why I love my Job.

When all the dust settled and race gas cleared the TSM GTR took the P1 spot in this morning session.

After every event Leh and I do a brief download of how the car was responding on track. We decided to make a front ride height adjustment and leave everything else alone (power aero wise)

As of right now I am not sure the exact standings for the second session but I feel we did pretty good. This year has been a really fun cat and mouse game for me, trying to figure out how much we need to give to stay ahead of the next competitor while maintaining a level of safety.

In the end we have put another 2 events behind us and yet again increased our lead from the nearest competitor.”

Not only that, but the team pulled up to the track only to find out that there was no race fuel to be had. Normally that wouldn’t be a huge deal except the only thing offered at the pump in Iowa is 91 octane. With no time to hunt for anything better Doug was forced to re-calibrate the car to the crappy fuel giving up gobs of power.

With overcast skies and a chilly 20mph north wind the top 5 cars were let out first to battle around the track drying it off for the rest of the field. Usually this type of thing results in the leaders getting knocked down that event’s leader board, however that wasn’t so much the case for the TSM car. During Doug’s morning re-tune he had also made sure to calibrate the car in order to ensure the power was delivered in a way as to not shock the traction limited tires. Then it was Leh’s turn to shine. He piloted the car around the wet track leaving his closest competitor an amazing 8 seconds behind, even given their dry track advantage. The closest GT-R was Catesby in the Forged Performance car coming in over 15 seconds behind.

Here are a couple pictures showing how wet it was for the morning session.

With the morning event behind us we turned our sights to making sure we weren’t caught in the afternoon. The conditions would be dry for us in the afternoon but we were still down on power due to the 91octane fuel. There was always the option to tune on E85 for the event, however without the time to run a full tank of E85 through the car to ensure the fuel system is flushed of 91 it simply was not safe to push the car on it. So off to Advanced Auto Parts we went for some good old octane booster. While that certainly wasn’t the optimal solution, and surely didn’t yield power of even straight 93, it was better than nothing.

As the afternoon session rolled around Leh geared up to take the track. With the morning defeat we were sure the competition was going to bring their A game. Leh would have to push the car a little harder to ensure a victory. Lining up for the standing start the cars tore off into the distance for 3 flying laps around MidAmerica Motorplex. Slicing around the corners like a knife and pulling down the straights like a freight train, Leh put 4.9 seconds between him and Catesby in the Forged car! With that victory it has spread our overall points lead to 50 points after day 2.

As if the back to back wins weren’t enough, after Leh pulled the TopSpeed GT-R off the track he and Doug were congratulated by several track workers on the new production car track record….nice little bonus!

Overall we are very happy with the way the car is performing so far. There is lots of racing and tons of transit driving ahead of us so stay tuned to more updates from Hallett Racing Circuit tomorrow morning.

Here are some pictures from the day…I will also have some in car video up for you guys later tonight hopefully.

With the 3rd place finish on the wet skid pad and the win at the South Bend Paved Oval, Leh Keen and Doug Wilks brought the TSM to Autobahn Country Club for the 3rd and final event of the 1st day of racing at the 2012 One Lap of America. The competition brought their A game but the TSM team brought the TSM GT-R in with the overall win edging out Catesby Jones in the Forged Performance GT-R by 2.069 seconds. Overall, it was a fantastic start to OLOA leaving TSM at the top of the overall leader board with a 20 point lead.

From Leh:

“We are heading West to Mid America. We had a great day and the TopSpeed GTR is feeling Real Nice.. This is the first day so we stayed clean and mistake free.. Took it easy if you will…. Its important to get a good start.. We did well in the Wet Skid placing 3rd and then won the little oval track and Autobahn!! We finish the day with a 20 point lead overall…”

Next up is a 9 hour drive to be in Pacific Junction for the Mid-America Motorplex events. Racing starts at 8:30am so be sure to check out the live feed at topspeedtuned.com/onelap and check out the standings and pictures below from Autobahn today. We are looking for another great day of racing.

Top 5 Finishers at Autobahn

Top 5 Overall Standings

So the first event this morning was the wet skid pad.  The wet skid usually ends in a pretty scattered field, as a lot of FWD cars do very well.  This year the huge tires on the GT-Rs helped them stay up front.  The SpeedConcepts car took the overall win with a .922 G run.  We followed in 3rd place behind a well built CRX with a .851 G rating.  The Forged Performance car took 6th place with a .839 getting beat out by an ACR Viper as well as a Mazda Miata.

The second event was only minutes away at the South Bend Motor Speedway oval.  3 laps around the short oval only added up to a little over 40 seconds.  When the TSM and Forged car took to the track there were cheers and clapping coming from the stands.  The two cars tore around the oval after each other like a mini GT-R Nascar!!  After 3 flying laps the results showed TSM in the lead by 1.5 seconds.   TSM running a 41.535 & Forged running a 43.071.

With no time to waste Doug, Leh & LC loaded the car and headed for Autobahn…3 events in one day then they start the 9 hour drive to MidAmerica!!

Look for an update from Autobahn in a few hours…meanwhile here are some photos from todays first two events.

don’t forget to follow our feed @ http:\\www.topspeedtuned.com/onelap

As many of you may know, one of our favorite events every year here at TSM is Brock Yates’ OneLap of America race. This race is one of the more unique events in motorsports that we have ever been involved in. The rules are simple, yet brutal. The race demands the utmost respect, requiring the most out of every car and its drivers. It extracts potential, while shining light on all your weaknesses! It does not slow down for you, nor does it give second chances.

As an individual the race challenges you in so many ways, not only as a driver, but physically, mentally, and emotionally. Eight to ten days of non-stop driving across the country from track to track. Late nights and early mornings, fighting your opponents, the clock, the points board, weather, and at times…your car! Forced to learn tracks during just one morning walk, and expected to perform to the maximum potential of the car and yourself. It’s an experience we feel every racing enthusiast should have.

As a company we feel it’s the ultimate test of quality, longevity, craftsmanship, design, and innovation. We must build a car that not only has the potential to be one of the fastest street driven cars in the country, but also will withstand a four to five thousand mile road trip, with a scheduled twice a day beating thrown in there. The power must be enough to beat the clock and set the fast time, but not so much that you sacrifice reliability. Suspension tuning must be done with the utmost attention to tire life without giving up performance. A well-rounded, reliable car is a must! A car that will go around a road course, through an auto-x, or down a drag strip faster than most race cars, yet then throw your suit case back in the trunk, turn on the AC and some beats, and start an eight hour drive to the next event.

There are no trailer queens at this event. There are no supporting semi trailers, pit crews, extra parts, or even spare tire setups. There is only you, your co-driver and the car you drove in with. You run what you brung and if you fail, break, crash or use up your tires…you lose! There is nothing quite like it!

Please follow our live web feed at www.topspeedtuned.com/onelap

The purpose of this test was to really see the difference between the stock tire and the PSS. Michelin was very clear with me that the exact results were to be totally public whether good or bad…they wanted the community to have back to back, real world data.

So I went to work, I needed to find a completely stock GT-R (harder than I thought it would be) to use for testing and employ professional driver Leh Keen to give us the back to back driving precision we would need for an accurate test. With all that gathered up we headed for Roebling Road in Savanna to start testing.

The test was performed using three different setups, on the same car, back to back, with the same driver.

Track: Roebling Road Raceway
Car: 2010 GT-R BONE STOCK
Driver: Leh Keen

Setups

#1
Stock Bridgestone Potenza RE70

Sizes:
255/40/20 (F)
285/35/20 ®

#2
Michelin Pilot Super Sport (PSS)

Sizes:

255/40/20 (F)
285/35/20 ®

#3
Michelin Pilot Super Sport (PSS)

285/35/20 (F)

285/35/20 ®

Here is the feedback from driver Leh Keen concerning the three different setups.

Stock Potenza staggered – This obviously is a great tire for dry conditions. It works very well on the GT-R as it was designed specifically for the GT-R. This is a proven setup that the factory has chosen. It is a runflat and has a very stiff sidewall. I know this tire does not last long with normal road use. It is also horrible in the wet and noisy on the road. Compared to the factory sized PSS setup the Potenza was 0.1 seconds slower in lap time. The Potenza did not quite have the overall grip of the staggered PSS but did show more response from the front and better balance although still had a bit of push. The threshold of lateral grip held a bit longer than the PSS but then had a quicker release rate. The sharpness of the front helped with understeer and this gave the car better balance then the staggered PSS. The front would simply respond to inputs better resulting in a better balance in the car. Although the time was 0.1 slower on the PSS, the car was nicer to drive and “felt” better on the factory setup.

PSS Square – This was awesome. This setup “fixed” the understeer that the stock and staggered PSS setups had. The front responded well to steering inputs and had the overall front grip to make the car turn. Although not as sharp as the Potenza the general front grip made up for that. Overall grip increased but only marginal the big difference was the balance. The time was a full 1.0 second quicker using this setup! 80% of that time increase was thanks to the better balance in the car. Actually I would say the car was almost perfectly balanced (for a completely stock car). Slight understeer in lower speed corners with slight oversteer in entry to med and lower speed corners, which is simply a GT-R character trait. It was easier to find the limit of the tire and that resulted in a great overal feeling and confidence. I was very impressed with this setup and was surprised to see how much quicker it was.

Overall we are we were very happy with the performance of the PSS. The tire lasts longer, rides better, and is just as fast or faster than the factory setup. I want to personally thank Michelin for the opportunity to doing this testing for them and look forward to more real world/track research in the future. The new combination that Michelin just released (285/295) will be tested hopefully in the coming weeks. While it may add a little more push to the car we are hoping the increased rear grip will compensate for that and translate into lap times. If for no other reason the 295 simply looks better on the car

Please feel free to ask any questions you may have. I am sure that all of the information you guys need isn’t totally covered in this writeup, but we are here for that. Leh and myself will be answering questions that come up so don’t hesitate. I had the guys put together a little video for the community as well as some pictures….see those below.

We also have a huge stock of all the tested tires. Everything is in the building and ready to ship. So if anyone is looking for a PSS setup please shoot us a PM, email, or just call the shop.

Thanks for the continued support, we hope this writeup aids some of you in your decision making process.

~Team TSM

On March 9, 2012, TopSpeed Motorsports took a customer’s 2010 GT-R down to Roebling Road Raceway in Savannah, GA for the car’s chassis and suspension tune. Erick flew down for the day to meet his car after it received some new parts at the T|S|M shop.

2010 Nissan GT-R
Custom T|S|M tune
JRZ Suspension
Boost Logic Intercooler
Boost Logic Intercooler Piping
AMS Down Pipes
TSM Products Y Pipe
GReddy Exhaust

Grand Am Champion Leh Keen started taking laps in the car early morning and by mid morning, the car was already turning faster times thanks to the feedback from him and the adjustments made by the TopSpeed Motorsports team. The end result was a balanced car that Erick can take back to his local track and turn faster lap times. At T|S|M, we make faster cars through parts and setup to insure the best possible driving experience.

Erick weighed in on his thoughts from the day.

I want better lap times.

My 2010 GT-R is an incredible track car, but I wanted it to be better. I’ve given this a lot of thought. Every year Nissan improves the current GT-R and every year I think about getting the new one. I’ve gone through this cycle three times now. If I upgraded it would be better, but in less than a year Nissan will start talking about the next one with a little more power and some other refinements and mine wouldn’t be “the best” anymore. I also like the idea of having something special, perhaps something that is best suited for my needs and capabilities.

The One Lap of America is an incredible event. I’m not much of a motorsports spectator, but for some reason I’ve always liked One Lap. A few years ago GT-Rs started competing and I started rooting for them. Last year I started following the Topspeed team of Doug Wilks and Leh Keen on Nagtroc. I watched them live from my office as they raced around Daytona at 180 mph. I took a day off work to drive 3 hours south to see them in person at Autobahn where they clinched the 1st place victory. They destroyed the competition. As a fellow GT-R owner, they made me proud. I was and remain truly in awe with the combination of the tuning prowess from Topspeed and Leh’s superhuman driving skills.

This got me thinking. What if I could get Topspeed to tune my car and then have Leh Keen spend a day dialing it in just like they did for One Lap? Even better, what if I traveled to Georgia to watch the whole thing and then have Leh show me what the GT-R is truly capable of and give me a few pointers in my own car. Well my friends, that is exactly what I did.

What I ended up with is a car that not only makes buckets more power, but handles significantly better than before. Understeer? Gone. The sound? Amazing. Even better, after watching Doug and Leh tune my car for half the day and watching the lap times keep getting better, I have absolute confidence that I am getting every last penny worth of performance from all of my upgrades.

But the best part without question was the experience. There really is no way to explain the feeling of riding around the track in a Topspeed tuned GT-R as Leh Keen defies physics. I wish there was some way I could show my gratitude, but all I managed was, “Unbelievable. I don’t have words.”

This forum has been a huge resource for me over the years. I hope sharing my thought process and experience will in some way give back to anyone who might be in a similar situation.

If anyone has any questions, please don’t hesitate.

Cheers,

Erick