Focus Challenge 3 ***NEW PICTURES ADDED*** - Focaljet

**BUR_ZX3** · 09-26-2004, 03:47 PM

First off:

Winner - Lorin Mueller (OmniFocus). 2 for 2 he is. The kid's an animal
Rookie Award - (to the first timer with the best performance) Lee Watkins (02 smurf)

Congrats!

Bad news:

The SVT Power Steering issue reared its ugly head once more... Car out after the first session.

Lorin suffered a "surging" at the track... It went away for a while so he drove again without problems... on the way back into vegas... he died and had to be towed into town. Diagnosis: Blown Head Gasket. Nothing too serious fortunately, but a PITA nonetheless.

Everyone is scratch free... the only damage came to a '00 SI who lost his ball joint and came slamming down on his LF tire. Apparently he'd been hitting berms HARD all day.

More will come, but much thanks to the folowing:

Redline Track Events for an excellent event, as always!
Barber Ford and Vortech for great trophies
Ford Motor Co. for the Support!
Cliff for the EXCELLENT house to crash at!

Oh yah.. we're goin back next year

**SlickShoes** · 09-26-2004, 08:48 PM

Congrats!!!

I think Lorin needs a weight penalty.

So, we want time sheets! Pics! Videos!!!!!

**guitarseth** · 09-26-2004, 09:31 PM

Congrats, Lorin! I concur, pics and videos, please! Its been a while since we've had any videos, since Slick hasn't been running lately.

**Z63R** · 09-26-2004, 10:45 PM

Congratulations Lorin and Lee!

Nice work, Todd!

Sounds like fun. Sorry I missed it.

In honor of the occasion, I took the ZX3 on a cross countryside romp; San Francisquito canyon south from Lake Hughes. Teh stock suspension was fun but not quite up to the job. Can't wait for the SVT parts.

Eager to see pics and hear more stories! Hurry!

**hotrodkris** · 09-26-2004, 11:58 PM

Just think, Sensei will have his car done in time for races next year.

All of you = pwned.

Glad you had fun. I gave Spongey a good rubdown in honor of your efforts.

**Driven** · 09-27-2004, 10:27 AM

Quote:

the only damage came to a '00 SI who lost his ball joint and came slamming down on his LF tire. Apparently he'd been hitting berms HARD all day.

lousy honda design. He could have sheered it off or the castle nut holding it to the LCA came out and collasped the suspension.

He'll need a new fender, ball joint and driveaxle.

Looks like all the Focus guys were having a blast as well. Sorry I didn't get to say hi to any of ya. Was busy trying to keep my group organized.

**Qbert** · 09-27-2004, 11:27 AM

Congrats Lorin and Lee!

Lee it was a lot of fun having you chase me around the track, I can't wait to see the video. I'm sure it will look kind of bad since I was looking in my mirror trying to figure out where I was pulling away from you and where you were gaining on me.

As for raw times I remember a few of them off the top of my head for people that like the raws:

Nik (Draxas) was running 2:04:??? (Nik, what did you have done?)

Lorin was running 2:06:5?? (new race tires and a lot of negative camber with suspension)

Lee was running 2:07:2?? (basically stock SVT with Kumho MX's)

Robert (Qbert) was running 2:07:5?? for the first two sessions before switching to street tires due to cording of old race tires and then ran a 2:08:1?? (Old Hankook Race tires and then Kumho 711's, intake, gears, LSD, exhaust, stock suspension)

Walter Marcy, 2:10:??? I believe he was having some issues though.

For me it was a fun experience. Definitely a track where negative camber comes into play with those long high speed sweepers. I ran into clutch issues at the end of every session, basically it was slipping so I could only get a couple of quick laps in and then have to let it cool off. The gears with the 205/50/15's didn't work very well on that course for me. Entering into turn 6 I was already on the rev limiter, but it wasn't worth the shift to 4th due to the clutch. In the midfield between 2 and 3 I had to shift 4th also, which made me have to come down two gears to get through turn 3. When I switched to the street tires I was slower on entry and exits plus they were taller allowing me to keep it in 3rd, but it wasn't nearly as much fun.

I think the clutch issues was coming from me having to switch gears so much and from the LSD fighting with the clutch (a lot of traction). If I would have read this before going Nik I would have let you take my car out for a couple laps just so you could have felt the gears and torsen. Anyway, nice meeting a lot of you, I'll definitely try and make it down again to another event, maybe in the NorCal area this time though.

**SlickShoes** · 09-27-2004, 12:59 PM

Hey Kam! How'd you end up doing and how'd the BALLS Challenge go? I heard a little about some ridiculously fast Porsches and I heard that some of the Radical owners were giving ride alongs... dooh.

**SlickShoes** · 09-27-2004, 01:11 PM

Hahahahaaaa... We've got to have a rental car challenge one of these days.

Looks like Chris wasn't alone on the stock suspension setup. Looks like probably stock rubber too.

Photo Album... snagged from Kam's clubsi post.

**BUR_ZX3** · 09-27-2004, 01:27 PM

Oh yah.. the debut of the prototype wing:

Kam... I wanted to come talk to you, but every time, you looked uber busy... so I didn't bother yah. But I hope your crew had as much fun as we all did!

**SlickShoes** · 09-27-2004, 01:50 PM

Yeah, how'd the wing do?

**aerostudent** · 09-27-2004, 02:21 PM

The wing worked very well. It is easy to create too much downforce and cause the car too push. The suspension needs to be sorted so we can run a a very high rated spring and still have proper dampening.

Walter made it home. We spend 4-5 hours sunday sorting his car. It was a combination of several things. The car started running like crap after a bad tank of gas, they had a LOT of alcohol in the gas as evidenced by the coating on the ground strap of the spark plugs (replaced twice). The other problem I will let Walter tell you about. We did manage to fix everything well enough for him to get home, thank god for quiksteel epoxy puddy.

I had a hell of a time getting home. midnight flight from vegas got redirected to fresno instead of SLO due to extreme fog in SLO. We got stuck, only people there, at the airport in fresno until 4 am roughly. They managed to charter us a bus and we got back to SLO at about 7am. That was a long ****** day.

**Mr. Blue** · 09-27-2004, 02:37 PM

This weekend was a lot of fun. Other than the whole broken car have to go back and get it next weekend thing.

Lorin, Lee, and I made it home safe last night although a little worse for wear after a trip through the Mojave in my no a/c beast. We are primed and ready to go back down next weekend and tow the car back up to Fremont.

Thanks for arranging another great Focus Challenge event guys. I know I for one really appreciate the effort and have greatly enjoyed the first two event.

Hopefully the next one is bigger and even better!

Rob "Next time I'll bring a blanket" Luebs

**airforcefocus** · 09-27-2004, 03:48 PM

Yeah man, it was a BLAST in the rental!!

I was keeping up with the 5-speed honda in my auto rental until I was black flagged for a loose hubcap, I forgot to remove them!

Am I the first to open track an 05?

**slidemaster** · 09-27-2004, 05:10 PM

man was that fun or what!!!! the best track evar!!!..the ol Fox stang didnt blow up....and best time was 1:57 with Aero student in the pass seat..that covered all the mustangs as far as I know..

I believe the radicals ran around 1:46...man I need to maybe run that balls challange as only 1 GT3 and a killer 99 Turbo had me covered

More pics are coming including some good group shots....1 and 2 turns are ripping 3rd gear sweepers....I am already dreaming of going back!!

You guys should have seen airforce and a no named Ford racing employee literally driving the wheels off the cars...in rentals...in airforces case black flagged for flying hub caps

..seriously!!!

drifting a ls-8 was great fun too!!! what a great experiance!!! I was proud of how everyone helped each other...which is one of the things that seperates us from some other groups...

Glad you guys liked the house....beats the hotels in lancaster by a mile!!

**02_smurf** · 09-27-2004, 05:17 PM

This was such a fun weekend. I'd like to thank redline and everyone else that set this up. The 9 hour one way drive was so worth it. The track was awesome, and except for a cold-tire/no rear seat first lap spin, I think I did rather well for no previous track experience. I'd like to thank Q-bert, the video didn't come out as nice as it could, but we both now how awesome it was!

Lorin, I'm sorry about your car, I know you would have killed my lap times if it had been running right.
I had a lot of fun meeting all the socal race guys, I think I'm starting to have too many second families

. I really appreciate how everyone worked together to try and help everyone out. We truley care for each other, and it shows. I can't wait for the next Focus challenge event!

Lee 2:05:3XX

**hotrodkris** · 09-27-2004, 05:26 PM

Some pics of the boys:

**slidemaster** · 09-27-2004, 05:26 PM

"The wing worked very well. It is easy to create too much downforce and cause the car too push. The suspension needs to be sorted so we can run a a very high rated spring and still have proper dampening."

you wing look very good...but I am SOFTENING my spring rates in the front....harder is not always better..and I learned that I was running a touch to much negitive camber...check the 1st pic of my car

**slidemaster** · 09-27-2004, 05:30 PM

Quote:

Some pics of the boys:

We are focus challenge groupies

**Driven** · 09-27-2004, 05:32 PM

Quote:

Hey Kam! How'd you end up doing and how'd the BALLS Challenge go? I heard a little about some ridiculously fast Porsches and I heard that some of the Radical owners were giving ride alongs... dooh.

Well, I placed 3rd overall. The two manic Porsches (the 996 w/ x50 option and the 993) both were in the 1:50.xxx and 1:51.xxx area, respectively.

I was turning 1:58s, but there's much more, since I had to brake about 20feet before I wanted to (spongy brake pedal, do'h!)

Quote:

Kam... I wanted to come talk to you, but every time, you looked uber busy... so I didn't bother yah. But I hope your crew had as much fun as we all did!

Yeah, between running, grabbing lap times, organizing lunch, and replacing an ENTIRE front brake setup (went from 12.19" rotors to OEM 9.5" rotors)... i was struggling during the middle of the day. Morning was pretty relaxed

We had a friggin blast though!

Quote:

I believe the radicals ran around 1:46...man I need to maybe run that balls challange as only 1 GT3 and a killer 99 Turbo had me covered

hey, i posted it! but, you have to come to the drag strip and autocross too!

and it was a '03 996 and a '99 993. No GT3. The Black GT3 was still learning, but it was blistering fast in the straights.

I was still trying to dial in the car with the brakes playing with me to a weird oil problem. between 2 and 3, right when i hit the bump, i'd shoot out a cloud of smoke. unknown why. needless to say, i took that turn as wide as i could

There's a 1:55.xxx in the car. I'll find out during the PCA event in two weeks.

good times everyone!!

**slidemaster** · 09-27-2004, 05:37 PM

which car where you...and where are the times???? no link here....for the times

never mind I found it ...Thanks!!! Nice job those two porsches were so nice....the one I thought was a turbo just walked away from me on the straights....simply amazing

**SlickShoes** · 09-27-2004, 06:02 PM

Quote:

(went from 12.19" rotors to OEM 9.5" rotors)

Especially in mid 90 air temps.

I'm surprised to hear you didn't take any fade induced agricultural excursions with such a drastic change like that!

Yeah, we want to see timing sheets!!! I believe I heard from someone that Nik or Chris will be posting all of them on the Redline site, right?

Also, Allan, any Cobra guys get any brake fade issues? Does the stock stuff seem to be up to the challenge of repeatedly slow those fatties (anything over 3000 lbs is a porker in my book

) down?

**slidemaster** · 09-27-2004, 06:35 PM

They seemed ok....both are sporting springs so weight transfer of the beasts is a little better....we are working on some water intercooler issues with powertrain engineering...both cars have suffered with limp mode after hot hard track use.....
they do come standard with brembo rotors....and we are doing lots of brake bleeding between events....if ya can make it to Buttonwillow...take some laps in one!

I think that they could have gotten to about 2:00 flat...I didnt get a chance to drive eather one...I was so busy...I was running two run groups with constant passangers...

Niel ran well as always...his car stock seems very balanced...and nik's car looked great....had a good look at him for a few corners....

Now the rental....thats another story

**02_smurf** · 09-28-2004, 06:05 AM

So whens focus challenge 4?

**SVT_Neil** · 09-28-2004, 09:12 AM

Quote:

So whens focus challenge 4?

And where?

When will the results for #3 be posted?

09-26-2004, 03:47 PM	#1
BUR_ZX3 [FJ] Addict Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Little Saint Clara, Isle of Queen Califia Posts: 35,702	Focus Challenge 3 *NEW PICTURES ADDED* First off: Winner - Lorin Mueller (OmniFocus). 2 for 2 he is. The kid's an animal Rookie Award - (to the first timer with the best performance) Lee Watkins (02 smurf) Congrats! Bad news: The SVT Power Steering issue reared its ugly head once more... Car out after the first session. Lorin suffered a "surging" at the track... It went away for a while so he drove again without problems... on the way back into vegas... he died and had to be towed into town. Diagnosis: Blown Head Gasket. Nothing too serious fortunately, but a PITA nonetheless. Everyone is scratch free... the only damage came to a '00 SI who lost his ball joint and came slamming down on his LF tire. Apparently he'd been hitting berms HARD all day. More will come, but much thanks to the folowing: Redline Track Events for an excellent event, as always! Barber Ford and Vortech for great trophies Ford Motor Co. for the Support! Cliff for the EXCELLENT house to crash at! Oh yah.. we're goin back next year

09-26-2004, 08:48 PM	#2
SlickShoes Moderator Join Date: Feb 2002 Location: Little Lebowski Urban Achiever Posts: 7,683	Re: Focus Challenge 3 Revisited and Results Congrats!!! I think Lorin needs a weight penalty. So, we want time sheets! Pics! Videos!!!!!

09-26-2004, 10:45 PM	#4
Z63R Official [FJ] Distinguished Advisor Join Date: May 2004 Posts: 20,140	Re: Focus Challenge 3 Revisited and Results Congratulations Lorin and Lee! Nice work, Todd! Sounds like fun. Sorry I missed it. In honor of the occasion, I took the ZX3 on a cross countryside romp; San Francisquito canyon south from Lake Hughes. Teh stock suspension was fun but not quite up to the job. Can't wait for the SVT parts. Eager to see pics and hear more stories! Hurry!

09-26-2004, 11:58 PM	#5
hotrodkris The One and Only HotRodKristina Join Date: Feb 2001 Location: Castle Albrecht Posts: 27,369	Re: Focus Challenge 3 Revisited and Results Just think, Sensei will have his car done in time for races next year. All of you = pwned. Glad you had fun. I gave Spongey a good rubdown in honor of your efforts.

09-27-2004, 11:27 AM	#7
Qbert Senior TEAM Member Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: Hillsboro, OR Posts: 1,218	Re: Focus Challenge 3 Revisited and Results Congrats Lorin and Lee! Lee it was a lot of fun having you chase me around the track, I can't wait to see the video. I'm sure it will look kind of bad since I was looking in my mirror trying to figure out where I was pulling away from you and where you were gaining on me. As for raw times I remember a few of them off the top of my head for people that like the raws: Nik (Draxas) was running 2:04:??? (Nik, what did you have done?) Lorin was running 2:06:5?? (new race tires and a lot of negative camber with suspension) Lee was running 2:07:2?? (basically stock SVT with Kumho MX's) Robert (Qbert) was running 2:07:5?? for the first two sessions before switching to street tires due to cording of old race tires and then ran a 2:08:1?? (Old Hankook Race tires and then Kumho 711's, intake, gears, LSD, exhaust, stock suspension) Walter Marcy, 2:10:??? I believe he was having some issues though. For me it was a fun experience. Definitely a track where negative camber comes into play with those long high speed sweepers. I ran into clutch issues at the end of every session, basically it was slipping so I could only get a couple of quick laps in and then have to let it cool off. The gears with the 205/50/15's didn't work very well on that course for me. Entering into turn 6 I was already on the rev limiter, but it wasn't worth the shift to 4th due to the clutch. In the midfield between 2 and 3 I had to shift 4th also, which made me have to come down two gears to get through turn 3. When I switched to the street tires I was slower on entry and exits plus they were taller allowing me to keep it in 3rd, but it wasn't nearly as much fun. I think the clutch issues was coming from me having to switch gears so much and from the LSD fighting with the clutch (a lot of traction). If I would have read this before going Nik I would have let you take my car out for a couple laps just so you could have felt the gears and torsen. Anyway, nice meeting a lot of you, I'll definitely try and make it down again to another event, maybe in the NorCal area this time though.

09-26-2004, 09:31 PM	#3
guitarseth Senior TEAM Member Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Wooster, OH Posts: 3,009	Re: Focus Challenge 3 Revisited and Results Congrats, Lorin! I concur, pics and videos, please! Its been a while since we've had any videos, since Slick hasn't been running lately.

09-27-2004, 12:59 PM	#8
SlickShoes Moderator Join Date: Feb 2002 Location: Little Lebowski Urban Achiever Posts: 7,683	Re: Focus Challenge 3 Revisited and Results Hey Kam! How'd you end up doing and how'd the BALLS Challenge go? I heard a little about some ridiculously fast Porsches and I heard that some of the Radical owners were giving ride alongs... dooh.

09-27-2004, 01:11 PM	#9
SlickShoes Moderator Join Date: Feb 2002 Location: Little Lebowski Urban Achiever Posts: 7,683	Re: Focus Challenge 3 Revisited and Results Hahahahaaaa... We've got to have a rental car challenge one of these days. Looks like Chris wasn't alone on the stock suspension setup. Looks like probably stock rubber too. Photo Album... snagged from Kam's clubsi post.

09-27-2004, 01:27 PM	#10
BUR_ZX3 [FJ] Addict Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Little Saint Clara, Isle of Queen Califia Posts: 35,702	Re: Focus Challenge 3 Revisited and Results Oh yah.. the debut of the prototype wing: Kam... I wanted to come talk to you, but every time, you looked uber busy... so I didn't bother yah. But I hope your crew had as much fun as we all did!

09-27-2004, 01:50 PM	#11
SlickShoes Moderator Join Date: Feb 2002 Location: Little Lebowski Urban Achiever Posts: 7,683	Re: Focus Challenge 3 Revisited and Results Yeah, how'd the wing do?

09-27-2004, 02:21 PM	#12
aerostudent Senior TEAM Member Join Date: Oct 2003 Location: Folsom, CA Posts: 2,689	Re: Focus Challenge 3 Revisited and Results The wing worked very well. It is easy to create too much downforce and cause the car too push. The suspension needs to be sorted so we can run a a very high rated spring and still have proper dampening. Walter made it home. We spend 4-5 hours sunday sorting his car. It was a combination of several things. The car started running like crap after a bad tank of gas, they had a LOT of alcohol in the gas as evidenced by the coating on the ground strap of the spark plugs (replaced twice). The other problem I will let Walter tell you about. We did manage to fix everything well enough for him to get home, thank god for quiksteel epoxy puddy. I had a hell of a time getting home. midnight flight from vegas got redirected to fresno instead of SLO due to extreme fog in SLO. We got stuck, only people there, at the airport in fresno until 4 am roughly. They managed to charter us a bus and we got back to SLO at about 7am. That was a long ****** day.

09-27-2004, 02:37 PM	#13
Mr. Blue Moderator Join Date: Feb 2002 Location: Newark, CA Posts: 4,043	Re: Focus Challenge 3 Revisited and Results This weekend was a lot of fun. Other than the whole broken car have to go back and get it next weekend thing. Lorin, Lee, and I made it home safe last night although a little worse for wear after a trip through the Mojave in my no a/c beast. We are primed and ready to go back down next weekend and tow the car back up to Fremont. Thanks for arranging another great Focus Challenge event guys. I know I for one really appreciate the effort and have greatly enjoyed the first two event. Hopefully the next one is bigger and even better! Rob "Next time I'll bring a blanket" Luebs

09-27-2004, 03:48 PM	#14
airforcefocus [FJ] Specialist Join Date: Feb 2002 Location: Moreno Valley , Calif. Posts: 5,828	Re: Focus Challenge 3 Revisited and Results Yeah man, it was a BLAST in the rental!! I was keeping up with the 5-speed honda in my auto rental until I was black flagged for a loose hubcap, I forgot to remove them! Am I the first to open track an 05?

09-27-2004, 05:10 PM	#15
slidemaster Professor PowerSlide Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: steering backward through the mirror Posts: 7,902	Re: Focus Challenge 3 Revisited and Results man was that fun or what!!!! the best track evar!!!..the ol Fox stang didnt blow up....and best time was 1:57 with Aero student in the pass seat..that covered all the mustangs as far as I know.. I believe the radicals ran around 1:46...man I need to maybe run that balls challange as only 1 GT3 and a killer 99 Turbo had me covered More pics are coming including some good group shots....1 and 2 turns are ripping 3rd gear sweepers....I am already dreaming of going back!! You guys should have seen airforce and a no named Ford racing employee literally driving the wheels off the cars...in rentals...in airforces case black flagged for flying hub caps ..seriously!!! drifting a ls-8 was great fun too!!! what a great experiance!!! I was proud of how everyone helped each other...which is one of the things that seperates us from some other groups... Glad you guys liked the house....beats the hotels in lancaster by a mile!!

09-27-2004, 05:17 PM	#16
02_smurf Moderator Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: With the wemenz: Em or mom Posts: 12,509	Re: Focus Challenge 3 Revisited and Results This was such a fun weekend. I'd like to thank redline and everyone else that set this up. The 9 hour one way drive was so worth it. The track was awesome, and except for a cold-tire/no rear seat first lap spin, I think I did rather well for no previous track experience. I'd like to thank Q-bert, the video didn't come out as nice as it could, but we both now how awesome it was! Lorin, I'm sorry about your car, I know you would have killed my lap times if it had been running right. I had a lot of fun meeting all the socal race guys, I think I'm starting to have too many second families . I really appreciate how everyone worked together to try and help everyone out. We truley care for each other, and it shows. I can't wait for the next Focus challenge event! Lee 2:05:3XX

09-27-2004, 05:26 PM	#17
hotrodkris The One and Only HotRodKristina Join Date: Feb 2001 Location: Castle Albrecht Posts: 27,369	Re: Focus Challenge 3 Revisited and Results Some pics of the boys:

09-27-2004, 05:37 PM	#21
slidemaster Professor PowerSlide Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: steering backward through the mirror Posts: 7,902	Re: Focus Challenge 3 Revisited and Results which car where you...and where are the times???? no link here....for the times never mind I found it ...Thanks!!! Nice job those two porsches were so nice....the one I thought was a turbo just walked away from me on the straights....simply amazing

09-27-2004, 06:35 PM	#23
slidemaster Professor PowerSlide Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: steering backward through the mirror Posts: 7,902	Re: Focus Challenge 3 Revisited and Results They seemed ok....both are sporting springs so weight transfer of the beasts is a little better....we are working on some water intercooler issues with powertrain engineering...both cars have suffered with limp mode after hot hard track use..... they do come standard with brembo rotors....and we are doing lots of brake bleeding between events....if ya can make it to Buttonwillow...take some laps in one! I think that they could have gotten to about 2:00 flat...I didnt get a chance to drive eather one...I was so busy...I was running two run groups with constant passangers... Niel ran well as always...his car stock seems very balanced...and nik's car looked great....had a good look at him for a few corners.... Now the rental....thats another story

09-28-2004, 06:05 AM	#24
02_smurf Moderator Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: With the wemenz: Em or mom Posts: 12,509	Re: Focus Challenge 3 Revisited and Results So whens focus challenge 4?