1st Place Finish, NASA WSIR, July 12-13, 2008
The car finished strong on Saturday with a 1st place finish. With worn tires on Sunday, I finished in 3rd and within 0.4 second of the lead. I led with the best TTB class time of the weekend with 1:34.1 on Saturday.
This weekend was an important win. Only 20pts separate me from the championship win, with 4 competition days remaining (400pts total). The NASA TTB class is incredibly competitive, with fast and experienced drivers. Excellent car preparation is a must.
Thanks to John Mueller and his dedicated team (Chris, Orlando) at Muellerized Suspension, the car is up to the task. I wish I could claim that the success is from the driver, but the truth is that the car is fast because John has figured out how to take a tragically understeering 3,300lb passenger sedan and make it turn like it’s on rails. This STI’s speed is in the corners: momentum.
One of the recent changes to the car is that we’ve switched to Girodisc rotors. The performance has surpassed all expectations with significantly increased heat capacity and durability compared to our previous two-piece floating rotor. Most surprising is that the braking system is running significantly cooler (in 110F ambient heat no less). The rotor wear is also better, even with highly aggressive Hawk DTC-70 pads. One of the differences is the quality of the materials; Girodisc uses ductile iron castings (compared to the lower quality grey iron castings that most rotors use). Another difference is the craftsmanship; each rotor is individually assembled and carefully balanced to specification. We’re quite happy with them. I don’t know of a better rotor for the STI calipers.
The last two NASA TT events will be in October and November. Unfortunately, the August WSIR event is canceled. The good news is that the break gives us time to prepare. We’ll be ready.
Special thanks: Muellerized Suspension, Gruppe-S / Dynamic AutoSports, and Girodisc.
August 6th, 2008 at 4:14 pm
Hello, can you comment which other 2-piece rotors you used previously? Stoptech? DBA? Racing Brake?
August 6th, 2008 at 5:31 pm
A few, heh. What I can say is that there are few rotors available for the STI calipers that are suitable for a competition application. Many of these rotors don’t handle the heat generated by aggressive race pads and repeated braking well at all. The differences start there.
I’ll send you an email.