Came back from Atlanta today, eventful Formula D competition for us this time with a Fri night gearbox change, but also a lot of positives such as a super great Georgia crowd and me getting a OMT in top 32 tandem by outrunning McNamara’s 6,7 litre V8 Saturn Sky.

It was very close this time that I moved up to top 16. Even though the City Tire / Kallusive Clothing 350Z is still a little bit the heavy side, it is very competitive thanks to the impressive Hankook tires and our superfast Carbonetic diff. Here is a video just to show how good these products are.

Formula D – Atlanta Carl Vs DMac Run2 from John on Vimeo.

I love the Carbonetic diff btw, I can’t hear it, at low speeds it never makes any fuzz or puts any noticeable strain on bushings and suspension components, I can’t feel any sort of snap when it engages or disengages. It is almost funny, like I can’t feel it is there. But when I go for it, it just does what it is supposed to. I’d say this was the biggest performance boost we added during the winter.

Rundown of our event:

Thu:
Had some struggling with the setup during Thursday practice, car was sort of snappy. Lowered the rear end a bit, it got better but the car was still not responding well to aggressive driving. I was feeling calm for qualifying anyway.

Fri:
During Fri pre-qualifying practice I had a couple decent runs but the gearbox started to give me a hard time going from 2nd to 3rd gear. This was becoming a big problem as it is much needed at this track.

During my first qualifying run I was both conservative and wanted to make a line that would allow using only 3rd gear around the horseshoe, in order to keep some momentum and drive around the gearbox issue. It wasn’t very great but I just had to get a score to get into top 32 and I did. The 2nd run I wanted to try a normal run and bump up a good bit of points, went in with a good entry, hit the clipping points, better line around the horseshoe… But at the upshift 2nd to 3rd the gearbox completely refused and my run was lost.

The team started the hunt for a new gearbox and in the meantime I went to night practice (for top 32 only) to try and make something useful of using only 3rd gear around the horseshoe, I had time to make it work. However, in my second practice run, 3rd gear completely broke though, it was just like neutral.

Sat:
At 5 am Saturday morning, the car had a new gearbox, with the help from a lot of parties, most of all Carey from Team Dynamics for taking the lion part changing the box for us, and Drift Emporium for helping us out with a gearbox. There are not enough ways to say thank you for the help through the blog, but it is being taken care of elsewhere, however huge props for those guys. Also huge props for Michael Essa Tech Trix and Taka Aono for having all tools and lights necessary, so we could do the job. Obvisouly also major props to City Tire John for working it all out with everyone and both him and Charlie Kallusive Clothing for staying as we all worked with Carey on through the night.

We got a few hours of sleep from 6am-10am and just after noon we arrived to the track to fill up gearbox oil. This box felt soooo much better right away.

A side note to the tranny swap, while working on that I also found something that was really off with the rear suspension, compared to how I set the car up during pre-season testing and how I had it for Long Beach. This was not how I wanted it for Road Atlanta. I fixed it and after this, the car was back to Long Beach performance again with much more grip, more smoke, more everything. Here’s a vid from Saturday warm-up.

Formula D – Atlanta Carl’s Practice Run from John on Vimeo.

Did some good practice runs and some crazy ones to see just how far I could push the car, and some different things to vary the entry. I upped the boost in the Technoasquare VQ35 a bit to match the increased grip, Road Atlanta is tough, one needs a lot of power there, and it was hot and humid like crazy thoughout the whole weekend.

TOP32:
Started top 32 against 3rd qualifier McNamara, he wasn’t running at all as fast as rumors were saying. The weight difference between our cars was very obvious though coming into the first turn, man he slows down fast. But my Endless stoppers are wicked and his long e-brake ride only got me closer; knowing the sector times around the track I was feeling very confident. My only miss came later, I was getting too much on the inside around the horseshoe and I had to correct my line, this was completely my own fault.

Leading I created a gap early and I never really felt any presence of another car on the track. Later seeing the video I have no idea what he was doing. The judges voted one more time. Time to go again.

This time my tandem was closer at entry. I had a little wide first turn (I was just pushing it to – and a little past – the limit) but again with my Hankook rubber and the Cabonetic diff I had zero trouble to catch up without sacrificing too much angle.
Coming out of the horseshoe, I was getting closer but unfortunately the transition down at the final turn didn’t work out for me and I spun, which sucked big time (!). I felt I was getting a grip around this match, so this spin-out was a big disappointment.

My next lead run I just ran my line again but since I had spun he really just had to make sure to not get a zero. On the good side, this guy went on to win 2nd overall, losing only to Forsberg, after a One More Time there too.

Overall I am very happy about the outcome of the event. With several problems, we worked around it all and gave a podium winner a good challenge. We have learned a lot and we are making big progress each event. We are also seeing that the small improvements we make on our Hankook-shod City Tire / Kallusive Clothing 350Z each time is moving us forward step by step. And to be honest, in the tandem, there was nothing failing in the car, I was my error. I can make it a little easier for myself now by reducing the weight of the car, to at least be within a couple of hundred pounds to the competitors, but I will also make sure to get more seat time in the car before next event.

Now we are taking a short break to go to the 24 Hours of Nurburgring, where I will be racing the Hankook Levin Racing 996 GT3 RSR. During this break, the City Tire / Kallusive Clothing 350Z will be cleaned up, and as we come back there will be an intense, major weight reduction campaign and we will add some minor aero work. We also have some general stuff to do to tighten the car up. Preparation is everything.

Thanks to all who support the City Tire / Kallusive Clothing team; Hankook, Technosquare, Carbonetic, APR, Zeal, Endless, South Gate Collision, Everitt Boles Motorsports Insurance, all the awesome Georgia fans that came out and the FD and Road Atlanta organisation for another well run event. Congrats also to podium winners Forsberg, McNamara, Tuerck.