Topic: product testing 034 style

[SpeedyDTP247]

product testing 034 motorsport style

here's their test mule

[Hawk296]

Is that Christian's car?    Grrrrr......

[SpeedyDTP247]

yes it is. that cq is hot!

[Castle]

Ok two things stood out to me in that video.  First, the steering wheel isn't aligned properly which is a major pet peeve with me.  Second it looks as if his seat is mounted improperly cause its moving more than the car is.  Oh and his rollcage is old skool with the x-cross brace on the door.

[SpeedyDTP247]

i dont know anything about racing but i'm not if the camber affects the steering wheel that you mention.

[Rocket3004]

I don't think the camber would offset the alignement in this case. I think race cars run more negative camber for better grip through turns... or something along those lines. I'm sure other more knowledgable ppl on this board can chime in on that!

[Legato]

What Castle meant was how the steering wheel was off to the left from normal center relavent to where the car is steering.  I hate that too.  And he's right about the drivers seat being loose.  That thing is all over the place!  But what do you expect from a test mule?

[Hawk296]

Test mule? I thought that was Christian's personal all mighty CQ!   
But Castle, he does SCCA Spec Miata also so he must know what hes doing!

I guess its a neat car, but it's been over hyped.

[Castle]

ya what Pete said...the steering wheel is off center.

But Castle, he does SCCA Spec Miata also so he must know what hes doing!

you know as well as I do that any dweeb with a little bit of money can go spec miata racing

[SpeedyDTP247]

Ok two things stood out to me in that video.  First, the steering wheel isn't aligned properly which is a major pet peeve with me.  Second it looks as if his seat is mounted improperly cause its moving more than the car is.  Oh and his rollcage is old skool with the x-cross brace on the door.

here you go Castle (i found this over at mg) heres the mg link

This is a post I made on another forum to address some questions about the car and the event, and I though it would be appropriate to post it here as well 


I was checking out some of the responses to the video, and wanted to give any of you some insight to what you're watching. Sam has done a good job of summarizing the basic mods to the car, we've built the car from the ground up to perform on track, to demo our products and services at Audi Club and other track days, and also to compete in events like this Redline Time Attack and also the Eurotuner Grand Prix, etc.

Though literally EVERY part of the car has been modified to help the car go faster on track, a car like this is never finished, and can always be made faster. Its a great, fast car that can lap reliably, the car is a monster - it has such explosive power and traction coming out of corners, its one of the few cars we've driven that actually can scare the bejesus out of you rolling back on the throttle from apex to corner exit, usually requiring feathering of the throttle until the car is straight (and thus the surging, BOV noises you hear coming out of corners).

A little about Christian the driver - he has driven professionally for 4 years, 3-years in SCCA Pro Spec Miata where he won races and finished top 5- 2 years in a row. In 2006 he raced the 034Motorsport Jetta in World Challenge Touring car where he had a 6th place finish (where he passed Randy Pobst on the last lap in the rain for the 6th place position), and at Stasis own home track, beat all 3 Stasis cars for an 11th place finish. For 2007 he is campaigning an Acura TSX in Grand Am. You can read a little about his Bio and the race team at: http://www.merlinmotorsports.com/02-about.html

FWIW, I have known and been driving with Christian for over 5 years, he is certainly one of the best drivers I have ever known and continues to amaze all of us at 034Motorsport with his ballziness, natural skill and transcendent car control. In the case of this video, I believe he's literally wringing 99% of what is capable of the car. We know the car very well, its not perfect in its current form, it needs A LOT MORE than 255 series tires underneath it, it could use even more dampening, more rear brakes, and we're having a hard time keeping virtually every suspension component in the car from bending under the destructive forces they have to endure. Every time we take the car out, things break, improvements are made, and the car goes faster. We don't have a massive sponsor or $100k to develop the car, its all done out of our spare time and disposible income, and we have as much fun with it as we can

At this particular event, a time attack, the goal is to go REALLY fast for 1-2 laps, to go all or nothing. This particular video is of the second and final practice session of the day before the actual timed events. The car comes in for 30 minutes where it needs to be nut/bolted and prepped for the next session, so very little time is available for much tweaking.

Because Christian is pushing and driving the car so hard, we have our work cut out for us between sessions. As soon as the car hits our pits, the hood comes up, all turbo hardware is checked for tightness, we look for oil and coolant leaks, check fluid levels and signs of anything BEFORE its about to break. FWIW, the work we do and procedures we use are the same ones used when the Jetta was run in SCCA Touring Car.

The alignment is also checked, especially toe. Christian gives us feedback, he wants the car to be more tail happy, so another 1/16" of toe out is added to the rear, etc. After 3 laps, the alignment is up to 2-3 degrees out of whack, keeping the steering wheel centered is the least of the concerns , that's just aesthetics, we're concerned with getting the toe dialed in to exactly what Christian is requesting, only this way can he actually go faster. He knows what he wants, its the crews job to give it to him. Stock tie rods would literally pretzel under these conditions, currently the car is running custom Chromoly tie rods up front, and our billet aluminum rears, the fronts still take a beating and move/bend ever-so-slightly so we'll be doing some more robust ones in the future. The stronger these become, however, the more abuse the rack takes, etc, so its a constant battle to keep the car together.

Also during this time we download the telemetry from the AIM Dash system and the 034EFI Stage IIc ECU so we can measure performance as well as identify any problems with the tuning or performance of the car.

All in all, this much effort resulted in a 3rd place finish behind 2 heavily prepped EVOS with 275 RA1's and aerodynamic packages (that the Coupe has none of). Seeing as how we were the only German car in the competition, we were very proud of the effort.

We hope you guys enjoy this, as that's a large reason we do it , if you have any questions, feel free to ask away!

Thanks guys,

Javad Shadzi

[SpeedyDTP247]

check out a few pics from the event