Pacific German1
Ready to race!
- Location
- Laguna Hills, CA
Back in October we had the opportunity to run our GTI in the EuropeanCar Continental Tire GP event that they put on yearly. This event was strictly for European 2.0t (or smaller) engines, meaning it opened the class to VW, Audi, BMW, Mercedes, Porsche, etc. We missed the 2015 event which was specifically Golf / GTI; that would have been a great event with our car, but we were not within the rules for the event . Both of these GPs had strict rules in that the car entered must be in street legal trim - full interior, no welded in roll cages or race cars allowed. This was a tough call, and with only a few weeks until the event in November, we had to get moving on converting our GTI back to a street car if we wanted to compete.
We picked up a plasma cutter and had the roll cage out within a few hours. Actually we had the entire interior back into the car over a weekend. The GP event did allow for aftermarket bucket seats for safety, and since we no longer had a roll cage to mount the harness belts to, and not enough time for a custom solution, we sourced a set of Schroth QuickFit Pro harnesses as these are HANS device compatible.
The event was made up of two days, the first being a track day at Streets of Willow in Rosamond, CA, and the second day being a dyno day at World Motorsports in Torrance, CA. Each car was given a set of Continental ExtremeContact Sport tires to use through the two days. These are considered a summer performance tire and similar to a Michelin PSS or Pirelli PZero compound.
The first day of the event we met at Willow Springs to see which car would run the fastest around the track. We have ran Streets of Willow a few times in the past in the GTI, but only on soft compound slick tires. It was quite the challenge to run the car on street tires, since the track is a technical one compared to the Big Willow track next door. Most of the track is ran in 2nd or 3rd gear, which we fought traction with the entire day. Looking back at it, there were really only two straights where we could really wring out the car and put the power down. This is certainly not the track for big powered front wheel drive cars on street tires.
The all wheel drive S3 of 034 Motorsports that took first place managed to run less than 1.4 seconds quicker than us around the track, which really isn't too bad considering the conditions.
The second day we were scheduled second to run our car on the World Motorsports Mustang Wind Tunnel Dyno Cell. We took first place in the dyno segment with a whopping 485hp / 392ftlbs at the front wheels. Its no wonder we fought traction the day before!
Overall we had a great time at the event being our first GP and we're excited for the next.
It was a really difficult decision to convert our car back to street trim, but ultimately its made sense after weighing out the options. We achieved some goals with this car, it had received positive feedback from events and media. Now that the car is back in street trim, we do have some changes coming for this years show season and events. It is really still a blast to drive even on the streets with all of the go fast bits and suspension parts!
Photos by EuropeanCar Magazine - link to article http://www.superstreetonline.com/ev...-continental-tire-2-0t-tuner-gp-2016-results/
We picked up a plasma cutter and had the roll cage out within a few hours. Actually we had the entire interior back into the car over a weekend. The GP event did allow for aftermarket bucket seats for safety, and since we no longer had a roll cage to mount the harness belts to, and not enough time for a custom solution, we sourced a set of Schroth QuickFit Pro harnesses as these are HANS device compatible.
The event was made up of two days, the first being a track day at Streets of Willow in Rosamond, CA, and the second day being a dyno day at World Motorsports in Torrance, CA. Each car was given a set of Continental ExtremeContact Sport tires to use through the two days. These are considered a summer performance tire and similar to a Michelin PSS or Pirelli PZero compound.
The first day of the event we met at Willow Springs to see which car would run the fastest around the track. We have ran Streets of Willow a few times in the past in the GTI, but only on soft compound slick tires. It was quite the challenge to run the car on street tires, since the track is a technical one compared to the Big Willow track next door. Most of the track is ran in 2nd or 3rd gear, which we fought traction with the entire day. Looking back at it, there were really only two straights where we could really wring out the car and put the power down. This is certainly not the track for big powered front wheel drive cars on street tires.
The all wheel drive S3 of 034 Motorsports that took first place managed to run less than 1.4 seconds quicker than us around the track, which really isn't too bad considering the conditions. The second day we were scheduled second to run our car on the World Motorsports Mustang Wind Tunnel Dyno Cell. We took first place in the dyno segment with a whopping 485hp / 392ftlbs at the front wheels. Its no wonder we fought traction the day before!
Overall we had a great time at the event being our first GP and we're excited for the next.
It was a really difficult decision to convert our car back to street trim, but ultimately its made sense after weighing out the options. We achieved some goals with this car, it had received positive feedback from events and media. Now that the car is back in street trim, we do have some changes coming for this years show season and events. It is really still a blast to drive even on the streets with all of the go fast bits and suspension parts!
Photos by EuropeanCar Magazine - link to article http://www.superstreetonline.com/ev...-continental-tire-2-0t-tuner-gp-2016-results/
