[BIG BLOG UPDATE #2]

On Saturday (July 19th), while Dave and I were over at MOD, Josh, Eric and Billy were busy at work preparing and testing our GT-R for Time Attack at the Auto Club (California) Speedway. Since the last event, we had added a second oil cooler in series with the factory oil cooler in an effort to control engine temperatures. We had experienced overheating issues at GT Live in June, and didn’t want to push power levels up very much until we knew we could control engine temps. From experience we all know too well that overheating motors pushed hard with lots of boost ultimately equates to a smoldering lump of broken metal in place of what once was a perfectly good engine. Much of the day was spent testing the new oil cooler setup, some aerodynamics tweaks, tire and alignment settings, and letting Billy get use to the car and the track. This was his first time on this track, and the first time to experience the high speed banked turn, so he wanted as much time on track as possible to find a good line.

Sunday was the day of the actual Time Attack. Our GT-R was entered into the Modified AWD class. This class is for street cars that have very extensive modifications but they still must have things such as glass windows, stock dash board, etc. The interior may be fully stripped out otherwise, and power modifications are pretty much open. The other big difference between all the classes are what tires you may run. For Modified class, we are allowed to run a much stickier tire than normal, daily driven street tires but we cannot run a DOT Race tire like a Hoosier. Our tire of choice for the Modified class has been the fantastic Toyo Proxes R888. Cars in our class included well prepared and heavily modified STIs, EVOs, and turbocharged 350Zs. Our GT-R, still very much in “street class” trim, certainly had some very stiff competition.

Our R35 is still not on pace with the top teams in the Modified class, but at the same time we were not that far off. We knew if we could get in a good, clean lap there was a chance to podium. For the first timed session, Billy tried in vain to put in a clean lap. After being blocked several times by a certain driver who has an unfortunate reputation for not knowing what mirrors are used for, Billy hung back and let cars pass in order to get some clean track ahead. However in these timed sessions the number of laps is limited and while able to put in a decent time, Billy came away frustrated that he hadn’t been able to show the R35’s full potential.

With the final timed session coming up, we swapped over to our brand new Toyo R888 tires mounted to our Volk RE30 wheels. This time Billy was graced with a clean track free of traffic and quickly went to work. His first lap was nearly 3 seconds faster than he’d gone all day! That was quickly backed up with two more equally impressive times. That left the question, was it fast enough for a podium? Unfortunately the answer came back as no, not today. But not by much. Billy’s time in the R35 was just over 0.1 seconds off the 3rd place finisher’s time. So, a happy 4th place all things considered. With more development, and more experience in the car, I think the R35 can most certainly fight for an overall class victory before the end of the year. That will be our goal.

Click here for official results.

MANY THANKS to Brad Jarvis for the photos. Definitely a photographer to keep an eye on.