What a great first event! The COBB Motorsports racing team really came together this event and it seemed like the crew has been working with each other for years instead of just a month. Our performance on track was impressive for our first event together as well. Taking home the win in the Modified class with the GT-R was pretty sweet. Based on the laptimes of some of our competitors that had mechanical issues before the timed sessions, it looks like Modified may be a pretty tight fight.

Our Nissan GT-R is a whole different car this year. Despite a massively different tire however, we are achieving almost the same amount of lateral grip. We installed the AIT Racing widebody kit, which allowed for a 4 inch overall track increase. Our Jongbloed Racing Wheels were re-sized to take advantage of the additional width of the body kit. We also changed the rear wing to the APR Performance GT-R specific GT-500 wing, which is a less aggressive profile and produces less drag while still providing a lot of downforce. The JRZ triple adjustable shocks have also been re-valved based on data gathered from 2009. These aero and mechanical changes have really transformed the car this year and the GT-R feels much better balanced through the medium and high speed corners and really gives me a lot of confidence when I’m on a flyer of a lap. The wider track and shock changes have made the car much more stable everywhere, really improved front grip and helped tire wear immensely.

Bringing the car to the Modified class required the change in tires from a full slick to a DOT race tire. The new tires seem to have made the factory ABS system happy again and it’s not freaking out like it did on the slicks. Now I can carry lots of trail braking into the corner and keep my apex speed up. The problems we had getting out of the corner last year due to rear inside wheelspin have been addressed as well. The stock rear differential was replaced with an OS Giken TCD limited slip rear differential and the improvement was amazing. Our data acquisition shows that rear wheel speed difference has dropped from as high as 17mph down to nearly zero. The GT-R feels like it leaps out of the low speed corners now.

For the first time with the GT-R, we are not trying to overcome huge handling and aero problems, and now we get to focus on fine tuning our setup on the weekends. The difference is obvious with a laptime comparison between Super Lap Battle last year and Redline Time Attack Round 1 this year. Our best lap last year at Super Lap Battle was a 1:49.2 on Hoosier R6 slicks, while our best laptime at Redline Time Attack this year was a 1:48.8 on Toyo RA-1 DOT R tires. The incredible thing here is that an R6 slick is typically around 2-3 seconds per lap faster than a RA-1. That really shows the leap forward we’ve made with the GT-R over the break.

Our next event is at New Jersey Motorsports Park on April 10 & 11, which should be fun and exciting. I know Buttonwillow like the back of my hand as I’ve been there so many times. New Jersey is a whole new track for me, so the east coast guys will have a bit of an advantage. I come up to speed on new tracks pretty quickly, though, so it should be a good battle.

If you are going to be at the New Jersey event, stop by the COBB Motorsports trailer and say hello. I’m looking forward to meeting a bunch of east coasters!