COBB goes to the Modified Tuner Shootout

[Justin]

Due to this event being a Modified Magazine Shootout, I cannot post results until the issue is released, but I will still try to give a decent recap of our weekend.

As like much of our events, this one started with some prep work, this time on our R35 GT-R. Billy was working on designing some aerodynamics, Eric was fabricating a cat back exhaust section, while Dave was working on some prototype coilover sleeves. Not to mention Joe and Rob were hard at work on that infamous un-hackable ECU

The week before the event we had rented out Miller Motorsports Park to shake down the car. The prototype coilover sleeves were fitted, and a slew of different spring's with different spring rates were ready to be tested. The aero was not yet completed, so it could not be tested. If it were to be finished within the week, it may not even be used due to lack of test time. We had a spare set of 19" Volk ME's laying around from our project G37. So on a whim we mounted some Toyo R888's (295/30/19 and 305/30/19) to see if the tire pressure monitoring system (TPS) would freak out when not in place.

Our testing day had arrived. A few days before were spent installing the Sparco seats from our 2006 STi time attack car to R35 specific Bride seat rails. The Bride rails fit perfect, but the seating position is a little high for my taste. The car is so big that Billy didn't mind....for now. Through the seats we mounted some Takata 5 point harnesses. The test day started off a little late, but once out there, the car was performing quite well. We conducted most testing on the OEM Rays wheels with the OEM Dunlops. Getting out on track confirmed the speed limiter had indeed been removed. The spring rates we had initially installed also seemed to be performing quite well. Since there was a slight delay in beginning the test session, it was late in the day, during our slalom testing that the Volks and Toyos were tossed onto the car. Needless to say the grip had substantially improved, though the R888's still had yet to prove to be able to contend with the girth of the R35.

The car seemed to be in solid condition. With a small list of modifications, we were ready to hit the road. Our R35 GT-R was leaving with the following:

COBB prototype test pipe section
COBB prototype cat back exhaust
COBB prototype coilover sleeves
COBB ECU reflash (speed limiter removed)

Sparco Pro2000 carbon seats
Bride Seat Rails
Takata Harnesses

Volk ME's (19x9.5 and 19x10.5)
Toyo R888's (295/30/19 and 305/30/19)





One of the more stock cars we have ever competed with, but we were eager to see what she could do against the powerhouse list of competitors. We load up the R35 and our MazdaSpeed3 in our race trailer and hit the road.

We leave a bit late, but our four man team is in good spirits. Its always a pleasure traveling with Billy, Eric, and Dave. We mesh well as a group and these guys know what it takes to get the job done. The perfect team to travel with in my opinion. Billy and Dave are our engineers, and Eric is part of our R&D team....yet they are all very accomplished drivers. Eric is to drive the COBB MazdaSpeed3 in the Super Lap Battle qualifier, and Billy is to drive the COBB R35 in the Modified Tuner Shootout and the Super Lap Battle qualifier.

[Justin]

We arrive in Phoenix between 4am and 5am on Friday morning. I don't really remember....Dave and Billy are rock stars when it comes to driving through the night. We squeeze our 48' trailer into the very back of our hotel parking lot and check in. The dyno competition begins in a few hours, so the lack of sleep really isn't going to effect our chances in this little shin dig just yet. We hike up to our rooms and pass out for a few hours. The morning brings an overcast sky, and it looks like its threatening to rain. Not at all what I expected...I should have packed more than shorts and t-shirts!

A few days before we left town we were discussing the dyno portion of this competition. The R35 GT-R apparently doesn't like Dyno Pack's due to the way they load the drivetrain. We received a heads up reading an Edmunds.com article (http://www.edmunds.com/insideline/do...ticleId=125172) when they saw their test car get mad on a Dyno Pack. Not wanting to take the chance we contacted the event organizers and they came up with a plan for our car. We would run our MazdaSpeed3 on the same Dyno Pack as everyone else, then head over to a local Mustang Dyno and run the MazdaSpeed3 again. This would give us a way to calculate the percentage between the two dyno's. We would then run our GT-R on the Mustang Dyno and submit the results.

Running between two shops was going to take some time, so we decided to head to UMS Tuning early to see about jumping on their Dyno Pack right away! The cool weather would play to the advantage for todays portion of the competition. It was cool out, not 100+ like I expected. Upon arrival the UMS crew welcomed us like old friends. Since the GT-R was behind the MazdaSpeed3 in the trailer, we unloaded both cars for the time being.



The UMS crew went right to work on our little MazdaSpeed3. I am used to being around our Mustang Dyno so this Dyno pack was a little foreign to me. It was a pretty cool little machine....oh so quiet. When you run a car on a Mustang Dyno the majority of the noise is coming from the tires. So it can get pretty loud at times. UMS had run a local MazdaSpeed3 a while before, so they were interested to see how ours was going to compare.





We pulled 276hp and 320tq and before we knew it, it was time to load up the trailer and head over to the other dyno! Before we left, Chris Rado arrived on the scene. Chris is a pretty cool guy, really laid back, down to earth, and had a rad dog with him.

[Justin]

We wanted to come back to UMS to watch the others get on the dyno, so we loaded up the trailer quickly and drove over to Evolution Motorsports. The outside of Evolution Motorsports does not really hint as to what is inside. Although if your lucky enough to get a glimpse of a customer car in the parking lot, you might get the idea. The Evolution crew was excited to see the GT-R. Once we saw what they had, we wanted to see some of their toys. Once again we were treated as old friends, and was given a tour of the facility. They had a customer car on their dyno and was just about finished, so we had some time to kill. Evolution Motorsports focus is primarily Porsche, but they also dabble with Mercedes, BMW, and VW. If you have a German hot rod, they can make it faster for you.

Here are a couple views of their shop....





and their showroom....



Well, enough play time. It was time to get down to business. We strapped our MazdaSpeed3 to their Mustang dyno and got to it! This Mustang measured our hot hatch with 275hp and 312tq. Once confirmed, it was time to swap out cars and strap down the GT-R.

[Justin]

We swapped cars and Billy got to work on the GT-R. The cool Arizona air held with us and we logged a 502hp and 489tq result out of this particular Mustang Dyno. Not bad until we realized that the dyno competition is going to rated hp per liter. Uh oh. Our car really isn't tuned....so our outcome will be dependent on driving. No pressure Billy



With our portion of the dyno competition over, we decide to load the trailer up one more time and head back to UMS to see how the others are getting along on the Dyno Pack. We roll back into the parking lot to see most of those who will be competing this weekend.

Science of Speed S2000


BC Racing G35

[Justin]

Skunk2 EVO


Turbo Lab NSX


Joe from Turbo Lab is one of our local friends. So it was good to see him out there. He recruited another friend of ours, Adam Munoa, to assist him in the pits. We actually helped each other out through the weekend. Spare a jack here, some jack stands there, borrow a fuel funnel....its all good between friends! Joe put on the best show during the drag racing portion. I"m sure stories and video of his adventures will be circulating soon if they are not already!

Anyway, our first day was coming to a close. We received some points for the dyno competition, though not as much as we hoped. There is still along way to go before this event is over! As we were getting ready to leave, there were a couple cool cars hanging around. It seems that GT-R's are not all to uncommon to see around town here.

[Justin]

The next morning was the Autocross competition. Our hotel was only about 10 minutes away so we woke up early and headed to the track. We set up shop and Eric began putting the OEM front lip on the car. We removed it because it was easier to get in and out of our trailer. We kept coming up with reasons why we needed a sweet Toter Home trailer while driving out to Phoenix....blah blah this truck is to cramped for 4 us us, blah blah, we could work on the cars while driving to events, blah blah, we could sleep right at the track and save on hotel costs, blah blah....I think X-box came into the conversation as well.......yeah, some reasons were more outlandish then others

Anyway, unloading the trailer and getting the car ready took up a lot of time. Before we knew it, the event organizers were running through the pits asking us to get our cars in grid! Billy hops in the GT-R, fires her up, and rolls over to grid for the drivers meeting. We were thinking this would be our event, after all we had Billy Brooks right!!?!? There were some serious machines out there though, and we never really fully tested the GT-R in real autocross situation before. We ran a few slalom tests at Miller Motorsports Park, but thats about it.

Some of the cars in grid:


While Billy was in the drivers meeting eric started to get a slightly worried look on his face:


I don't like it when Eric looks worried, and I knew what he was thinking. The OEM Dunlops are not going to allow us to be competitive. We made the decision to let Billy run them for his first warm up laps and switch over to the R888's we brought. Good thing we picked up those 19" Volks for the G37. They just happened to fit on the R35 well enough to stick some sticky rubber on them. After Billy ran a few laps on the OEM wheels and tires, we performed our version of a NASCAR wheel change...only it took us 5-10 minutes instead of 15 seconds. Our saving grace was some on course drama....someone sheared some wheel studs and was stuck. This allowed us enough time to get the Volks swapped over and Billy back into grid.