Coming off our test day last week at Summit Point, Chris Matthews of PAS and driver of the PAS Mustang RTR, Chris Cobetto, had a better feeling on how the car was going to react with the new suspension pieces from Kenny Brown and new coilovers from Moton. Even with this test day at a new track, there was still plenty of work to be done before returning for a weekend full of racing.
The week away from the track was used to make some minor suspension changes and repair a few damaged parts from Cobetto’s slight off after running through fluid on the test day off Turn 9. Mostly cosmetic…or so we thought.
The car arrived at the track Friday and it was a lazy day of just bedding in brakes and seeing if the suspension changes made a difference for the better. Got some driver feedback and the PAS crew made some more changes for Saturday mornings practice session at 9am.
A week before we go racing at Summit Point for the first time of 2012, we rushed to get the car up this past Friday for a quick test day to further dial in the new suspension. The new suspension consists of brand new coilovers for our Mustang RTR by Moton and some very neat suspension pieces by Kenny Brown Performance that we will cover in a separate blog posting soon. Moton is known world-wide for providing some very high quality coilovers for some of the most expensive cars in racing. Their highly recognizable remote reservoirs are now at home under the hood and trunk of the PAS American Iron racecar and will give us the adjustability that we’ve been looking for to better dial in our suspension setups.
Mustang RTR hits the road race circuit
RTR partners with Performance Auto Sport/Cobetto Racing for 2012 and takes the win on their first outing
WIXON, Mi. (3-26-12) – Mustang RTR has teamed up with Performance Auto Sport for the 2012 American Iron season and adds them to their list of elite Mustang RTR authorized dealers and installers. The RTR is the creation of Champion Drifter, Vaughn Gittin Jr., and is a new generation of Mustang comprised of a dealer-installed appearance/performance package available for 2011 and later Ford Mustangs’ at select Ford dealerships.
Coming off two wins, two pole positions, and a new track record definitely helps start off the season on a good note, but here at PAS thats not enough. We have an obsession with going fast and fast isn’t fast enough. We have 16 races left of the 2012 season and we are looking forward to each and every one of them.
Big changes were happening at Performance Autosport between the February and March events. With these big changes came BIG news in the form of a partner ship with champion drifter Vaughn Gittin Jr.’s company, Mustang RTR. With this partnership came lead sponsorship of the Performance Autosport American Iron Mustang race car and because of this the entire look of the car was refreshed to convert the car into a Mustang RTR.
Since the car had to be taken to the body shop for the damage caused in the last race, most of the yellow vinyl was removed as was the Saleen body work. The car was returned back to stock cosmetically with the addition of the RTR body pieces including: Front bumper lip/splitter, side skirts, and rear bumper with diffuser. The next step was to come up with the new livery for 2012.
2012 starts off with a BANG…and by BANG, I mean that figuratively and literally.
The off season for the Performance Autosport crew was a very busy one. Making more contacts, picking up new sponsors, and creating new relationships with companies that wanted to help us make 2012 another successful season. Last year we were extremely happy to fly the Speedlab Saleen flag for our friends up in Detroit. They helped us step by step, race by race to deliver a winning car, a championship for our region, and a great battle for the National Championship ending in a very respectable 2nd place for our debut season. We couldn’t of been more pleased with our results and the fact that we could put Saleen back in the winner’s circle so many times.
Performance Autosport is determined that 2012 will be continue with more wins, crushing records, and going to Nationals with more momentum than ever. With this event being the last we’d be running our Mustang as a Saleen, we wanted to make sure we went out with a good weekend for the Speedlab crew. Also our good friend Mark Evans from one of our new sponsors for 2012, Moss Muscle, was at the track checking out the team and everything that goes down to win races. Thanks for coming and hanging out, Mark!
There really wasn’t a lot done to the car during the winter. The only thing that was “changed” on the car was a part of the engine harness. We removed, boxed up, and sent our camshaft sensors/harness to the same company that makes them for Ford Racing after speaking to many of their engineers at SEMA, PRI, and over countless emails and phone conversations trying to nail down our mysterious power loss situation. The brains at Ford Racing all summized that it must be a break in connection between the plug and sensor on one or all camshaft position sensors. The Boss 302S/R and Cobra Jet cars made by Ford Racing have all those sensors hardwired so that vibration/heat/anything wouldn’t risk a break in connection of these very important sensors. Any loss of communication in these sensors would mean the timing of that camshaft would stop advancing until the key is cycled. It was highly to our advantage to have a custom harness made for us to ensure that this is not our problem. It wasn’t a guaranteed fix for our problem, but a very good possibility.
Other than that harness all we pretty much did was dust the car off, change fluids, swap in new brake pads, and made a seat adjustment to get Chris a little more comfortable in the car. Thats it. We took Hoosiers off and replaced them with Toyo RA-1′s as American Iron went back to the Toyo’s as their spec tire…no more running R6s. Threw the car on the dyno to verify that its still legal and after 3 pulls it was ready to be put on the trailer and taken to the track.
We arrived at VIR Friday morning ready for its first few laps to make sure everything felt ok to Cobetto. First session out was bedding brakes, second session would be scuffing in new RA-1s. No real hot laps, but everything felt ok to Chris so no changes were made.
Saturday’s weather was perfect. Completely sunny, a little cool, but perfect for going fast. And fast is what we like. Practice went well, Chris felt comfortable with the car, everything was working as it should. Qualifying went even better. Even on heavily heat-cycled RA-1s from the beginning of last year Cobetto managed to pull off a 2:05.907 which is second fastest lap we’ve ever turned in that car, the fastest being a 2:05.8xx on Hoosiers last year. That time placed us on the pole for Saturday’s race and had us just making a slight pressure changed before the race to adjust for the weather.
Here is a video of a few fast laps from qualifying:
Here is Saturday’s race. We apologize to Moss Muscle for losing their decal off our dashboard during the first lap. We’ll make sure the next decal is more securely attached!
During this race Cobetto knocked off a 2:05.834 which beat our previously set track record on Hoosiers! He was rolling! We started 1st, finished 1st, set a new track record. Can’t ask for more now can ya?
Sunday’s race was going to be a little different as the weather was looking bad and getting worse. Before the race started it was raining, then sleeting, then snowing, then back to rain. No matter what it was freezing…literally. We set the car to our rain setup and mounted up a brand new set of full tread RA-1s. NASA decided to bump the race to an earlier time so our race started at 10:10am which left no time for a warm up or qualifying. Our starting position was the same as Saturday, 1st, so it was looking like all we needed to do was stay out front and stay on track and we should be able to have a clean race. But, as you will see there was some contact with another American Iron car going into Turn 1 on lap 2. Steven Kent locked up under braking and slid into the back of us, forcing both cars to the grass. Thankfully Cobetto gathered the car back up, got back on track, and we never lost position. We ended up winning Sunday’s race as well, but obviously it was a much slower pace due to the slick track conditions.
Since our power loss problem only showed its head during the longer races it was never truly tested during the weekend since the track conditions wouldn’t allow for driving at 10/10ths for 40mins which is what we truly need to do. Hopefully in March we’ll have sunny skies and be able to make sure that this power issue has been dealt with.
Here are the first few laps of the Sunday race:
Here are your two PAS sponsored winners from this weekend. The #4 took 1st both days for American Iron and the #52 took 1st both days for Camaro Mustang Challenge (CMC). It’s almost as if these PAS Mustangs really know how to win or something…hmmm.
Minus the contact we had a very successful weekend. Two wins and a new track record. Looking forward to March now as the car will have it’s new look with full 2012 livery displaying all our new sponsors as well as some new suspension pieces to get the car even more glued to the track this season.
Again, special thanks for Speedlab Saleen for a great season last year and this past weekend. And a big thank you to our current sponsors for 2012, Moss Muscle, HRE Performance Wheels, Baer Brakes, Hawk Performance Pads, Ford Racing, VBD Graphics, OG Racing, and Grassroots Motorsports! Also thanks to Jon Felton for the video for Saturday’s race and Phillip Nugent for all the photography from this event.
It’s no secret that we love Grassroots Motorsports Magazine. The whole crew is a bunch of awesome car guys that like what we like and do what we do. We proudly fly the GRM banner at every race with many of their stickers all over our 2011 Mustang American Iron racecar.
Our brand new 2012 GT Shop car has been pushed aside long enough in effort to keep up with the massive demand to our customers. We know that customers come first so if we have to wait a little bit to get to play with our own car, then so be it. But we finally got a little time to throw some parts on the car, so here comes an update.
Yesterday our bone stock 2012 GT got a little bit of a change in a few different areas. First were the wheels. We chose to install a set of RTR 19×9.5′s wrapped with Falken FK452. With the current stance it’s not too impressive, but the car will be getting its new suspension on our next round of mods.
Before it left the shop it also got its big brakes up front which are StopTech 6-piston calipers with 15″ (380mm) two-piece cross-drilled rotors. Stainless steel lines, Motul 660 brake fluid, and a fresh flush and this car is going to STOP! Can’t wait to test it on the street when it finally stops raining here or at the track this season.
Lastly we installed a set of our prototype mufflers we’ve been working on. Should be something we will have to offer in a month or so as pricing has not been set. We will be supplying video clips of all sorts to give potential customers a solid idea of what it sounds like on their 2011+ 5.0L!
Keep checking back as we’ll be installing suspension next!
Over the years of working here I’ve compiled a LOT of photos of varying years of Saleens. Not only for customers or for posting cars for sale, but just because its my job. A big part of that is the history of the General Tire Saleens that we have 4 of in our very own showroom. A few years back we located these old photos from when the cars were being actively campaigned. Just sharing as many have not seen these cars while in action!
Mark and I just returned from the Performance Racing Industry (PRI) show in Orlando, Florida that was held December 1-3rd. We were lucky enough to be invited to display our 2011 Saleen S302R American Iron car in the HRE Performance Wheels booth over countless other motorsport and high performance vehicles that HRE supports. We were very happy to trailer the car on down to make sure we wouldn’t miss this opportunity.
The show was great and the PAS/Cobetto race crew made a lot of progress in signing on new sponsors and confirming deals that were started at the SEMA show with several new companies. More on that later…
Performance Autosport just recently sold it’s one-of-a-kind 2011 Saleen S302 #18 shop car…
…and moved onto another car that we could use as a test bed for parts development.
A brand spankin new 2012 Mustang GT.
We are just getting started with this car as we’ve had it for only a couple of days, but we are slowly building the plans for this new project car. The overall idea is to test new suspension parts PAS is developing to be an affordable alternative to some other parts currently available without risking ride quality or most important, performance. A new brake package will also be tested on this car as well as few other things here and there. We haven’t really nailed down all the pieces and parts, but we’ll keep everyone updated as we make progress.
This car will be seeing track time during NASA events throughout 2012 not only for testing, but to show customers what the car is like. You’ll be able to find it close to Cobetto’s S302R in the paddock for sure.
We threw the car on the dyno today for a baseline dyno. With under 200miles on it and still with the dealership’s 87 octane in the tank it churned out 373whp/359wtq. We’ll update this once the 87oct is burned out of the tank and replaced with 93.
