Nathan Pitcher / AMS Sponsored 929 Evo claims 1st @ NASA – Autobahn!
Wow, welcome to summer track temps! It was easily 90+ all weekend with humidity. NASA was handing out bottles of water to everyone going through the tech/impound shed all weekend!
The results – 1st of 5 in TTA on Saturday and 2nd of 9 in TTA on Sunday. Good results, but my personal times were disappointing to me. I’m sure the heat had a LOT to do with it. I’m trying to figure out if running 100oct tunes on the stock turbo during the midwest summer heat is a good idea or not. I was holding about 26psi in 5th and ran a best of 1:35.2 this weekend. For reference, last year I set the TTB (lower class) record at 1:35.3 in cooler temps on my 21psi 93oct tune. So I was definitely hoping to top that by a much larger margin.
Here’s some vid from Session 3 on Sunday. It’s not my fastest laps, but close and more entertaining as I was tailing another Evo (Jeff).
And some GoPro vid from Session 2. Sound sucks, but good angle:
I was running in my ‘developing TTA’ trim this weekend. Meaning basically my usual TTB trim but with about 50whp more thanks to an AMS FMIC, AMS LICP, AMS MBC and AMS 100oct tune. I also tossed on a hotchkis RSB to see if that would help as I had it lying around. (click HERE for setup) It’s definitely not an optimal TTA setup and a work in progress as I’m not using all the allotted points so I’m leaving some time on the table to be sure.
As for the RSB I put on for the weekend, I’m not sure if it helped or hurt me. I had under steer on corner-entry all weekend and it seemed to get worse; probably because I was driving it harder! Being my own suspension guru – and no expert – I might have made things worse with moving the RSB to full stiff mid-day Sat. I stiffened the rear suspension more on Sunday to try and aid rotation with minimal effect. Later I did have another TT driver tell me I was lifting my rear tire on turn-in a lot! I’m planning new suspension next year and definitely someone to help me set it up!
Aside from the minor improvement in times, the car really performed flawlessly. The water temps, oil temps & brakes all were in check and not any different that previous weekends this year. I was confident in the setup and pleasantly happy with the results! I ran about 150 on-track miles this weekend and I pushed hard on ALL of them. If they had given me more tracktime, I would have taken it too!
All this thanks to the parts & tuning from AMS Performance along with engine oil protection and brake fluid from AMSOIL! Also a special thanks to GRD Performance for squeezing me in late Friday for a rear alignment.
Oh and I actually lost my traqmate in the 1st session on Saturday. And when I say lost – I mean the suction cup let go in a turn and it flew OUT of the entire car! I could see it on the corner exit for a few laps – about 2 feet off the course hoping nobody would hit it. It was returned to me – unscathed – at lunch!
– Nathan Pitcher
