GOTO:Racing GT-R takes 4th at Superlap Battle!

retouch2blog1.jpg

The COBB Tuning-sponsored GOTO:Racing GT-R crew had a busy mid week event overcoming some serious issues to bring home a very respectable lap time at Buttonwillow Raceway at the Super Lap Battle. After coming from HB Speed where COBB Tuning calibrator Tim Bailey and HB Speed owner and Tuner Jon Drenas tuned the GT-R to make an astounding 787 whp, there were some questions about how the drivetrain would handle this massive amount of power. The first session out Brian Lock, lead driver for GOTO:Racing, reported major clutch slip, bad enough that the car could not be driven at speed. Upon the car’s arrival in the pit lane, fire was seen under the hood of the car as the heat shielding of a turbo line was smoldering. To make matters worse, Brian also reported that the car was getting serious rear brake lockup, and the car was way off pace. The crew went to work. A quick run over to the AMS paddock was made and some more heat shielding was acquired. A big thanks to AMS for the track support of their amazing turbos! After some tricky work the fire problem was fixed. Tim Bailey from COBB Surgline sent us some new maps to try on the car with manipulated load readings to try to get the clutches to engage harder.

The GT-R headed back out on track for its second session on the 22 psi map. Time to find out what the transmission would take on-track and if the dyno tune would be good under harsh conditions. Everything worked perfectly, the power delivery was nothing short of flawless, and Brian was getting some hot laps. The fun would not last though as going through the sweeper the transmission cooler line split and pumped out about 6 quarts of Willall transmission fluid all over the car. Unfortunately, the GT-R uses specialized transmission fluid and GOTO:Racing did not have enough spare Willall on hand to refill the transmission, the rest of the day was lost.

After a drive to LA and a lot of hard dirty work by the crew, the car was cleaned up and filled with new fluid and ready for the competition the next day. The crew did not sleep well though with the big question hanging in the air, is the transmission damaged? Brian also had a lot on his mind, could he actually get this pig of a car to handle the tight, bumpy, and technical Buttonwillow track? Thankfully one of GOTO:Racing’s amazing parts sponsors was on hand, Brian Hise from JRZ USA, and gave some input into the setup. Some drastic measures were taken which included sway bar adjustments, ride height changes, and shock changes.

On race day the crew was on pins and needles when the car went out for warm-up. “Transmission is perfect! Car is handling a lot better, I can acutally brake now,” reported Brian. The Dellâ„¢ Equallogic GT-R went on to set the 3rd fastest time in the morning session, and set 4th fastest time in class in the first timed session with a 1:49.3 lap time. This time was done on the 19 psi map. “I was on the ragged edge, I got everything I could out of the chassis this session,” Brian remarked after the first timed session, “we need to try to run the 22 psi map and hope we can put the power down.”

Unfortunately the chassis and brake development is a little behind the amazing power plant of the GT-R, and the fastest time would stand from the first session. Out of tires, and out of ideas other than take 1100 lbs out of the car to get down to the competition’s Lose Weight Exercise, the decision was made to save the car for Redline Time Attack the coming weekend. “California Speedway will suit this car much better than Buttonwillow,” commented Steve Lock, crew chief for GOTO:Racing, “We get to use our Hoosier R100 full slicks, which will put us back on par tire wise with the teams running C91’s, and the track is all about power, which we have plenty of.”

GOTO:Racing will be hard at work at HB Speed prepping the car for Fontana. With a solid result pulled out of a rough event, the crew looks forward to a podium finish in Southern California.


Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *