Hot Shoe's Gallery
- Thread starter hot_shoe
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- OPTION_XIII
Having recently started a tuning shop, I felt the need to have a car to show off our tuning talents. Of course, it had to be fiendishly quick, but it should be a unique car, something that would show that we could do more than just bolt on pre tuned parts and call it our own. Something that would stand out from the crowd at a show or race, that would bring attention to our fledgling operation. While I was surfing Bring a Trailer one day, the answer showed up in Germany.
The Ford RS200 is the ideal car in my eyes - lightweight, turbocharged, AWD, and mid engined for supreme balance. It's got an excellent double wishbone suspension on all four corners. The whole thing was designed by F1 engineers, powered by Cosworth, and draped in a body by Ghia. The basics of the car are solid, but lets face it - the car is getting old. Engine management and suspension tuning has come a long way since the glory days of Group B, so no matter how well it was designed, it still is in need of updating. Upon finding a pristine example in Germany, I had a local contact pounce on it before the seller raised the price.
While we were out to pick it up, I made a bit of a side trip before putting it on a container ship bound for the States.
While checking in for a few laps at the 'Ring, my contact snapped the first picture of the car. Unfortunately the original wheels were long gone, replaced by some period black alloys with a polished lip. As you can see the clouds are a bit foreboding, we were lucky to get a few laps in
Taken by a trackside photographer. Nearly lost control at this high speed corner in the section before the long straightaway.
First test session at our home track. Since this is to be a time attack car we had to make some unsightly modifications to be competitive. At this point the engine was in a mild state of tune as the first goal was to get the suspension sorted.
Having a bit of fun on a cool down lap.
We managed to get into a local time attack event, probably due to the rare nature of the RS200. The engine has seen some dyno tuning at this point, running just under 400 HP. Below is my favorite picture of the event.
Back at the shop, some more dyno tuning gave us a peak output of 426 HP. Soon after I registered the car in a race event at my home track of Deep Forest Raceway. We would be running against LM racing cars, so we had to be at the top of our game not to be a backmarker. There would be two races, and I was assured by the organizers that if we were too slow we would be kicked out of the second race.
We knew we were down on power, but the suspension was dialed in and the car light. Going with softer tires than our competitors might give us enough speed to compete, but we would have to run perfect laps to avoid destroying the more fragile tires.
Not to worry though, in the first race we placed second!
1st was an LM prepped RX-7, nothing to be ashamed of.
The second race was something else. In the first race, the RX had been stuck in traffic for a while, but once it broke out I didn't have a chance. We were running the same lap times, but the RX was far ahead because I had to fight my way through the pack much longer due to starting at the back. A quick attack to get to the front before anyone pulled away was necessary to even have a chance at victory. Here are some pictures of the second race.
Trailing the fifth place car, piloted by someone with more money than skill. Passing this NSX was effortless.
While the other guys were slow on the first lap because their harder tires weren't up to temp, the Racing Medium tires I had started gripping almost immediately, allowing me to pass 4 cars on the first lap. The final corner is a high speed sweeper that requires only a touch of the brakes, and the RS200 really shined here, using momentum, rather than power, to pass 3 cars on corner exit, leaving us in second place going into the second lap.
Still with lots of momentum from the final corner, I was able to get P1 on the straightaway. Only problem was that the massive power of the Ford GT had reeled the little RS back in, and as we braked into turn 1 he resumed his former position in front of me. Not to worry, the following tight technical section allowed me to dive inside under braking and take back the lead.
Smooth sailing from there, or so I thought. The gamble I had taken with softer tires hadn't been a problem in the first race, since I had focused on preserving them to run with the pack, without thinking I might have had a chance to win the race. This time I had really abused the tires while snaking through the pack. Even worse, Deep Forest is really hard on the right front tire. As the race went on, the battle of handling vs power began to favor the encroaching GT. Under pressure, I cracked and bungled a key corner, allowing the GT past. I was able to keep him close though, and on the final corner of lap 4 the awesome grip (and some ballsy driving, if I do say so myself) allowed me to go flying by the GT on the outside.
Not to be outdone, he once again passed me back on the straight. He forced me halfway off the road in the first corner. Sticking right on his tail let me pass him again under braking, and it was touch and go for the rest of the lap. The final corner proved critical. He was close enough to easily power by me before I crossed the finish. I needed to be tricky.
Applying the brake earlier but more lightly than usual, I got him to brake early as well. The RF tire still had enough life in it to fling me around the corner well in the lead.
Looks like some of the others had caught up as well, but no matter. The top of the podium was mine, in addition to 188 A-spec Points!
The Ford RS200 is the ideal car in my eyes - lightweight, turbocharged, AWD, and mid engined for supreme balance. It's got an excellent double wishbone suspension on all four corners. The whole thing was designed by F1 engineers, powered by Cosworth, and draped in a body by Ghia. The basics of the car are solid, but lets face it - the car is getting old. Engine management and suspension tuning has come a long way since the glory days of Group B, so no matter how well it was designed, it still is in need of updating. Upon finding a pristine example in Germany, I had a local contact pounce on it before the seller raised the price.
While we were out to pick it up, I made a bit of a side trip before putting it on a container ship bound for the States.
While checking in for a few laps at the 'Ring, my contact snapped the first picture of the car. Unfortunately the original wheels were long gone, replaced by some period black alloys with a polished lip. As you can see the clouds are a bit foreboding, we were lucky to get a few laps in
Taken by a trackside photographer. Nearly lost control at this high speed corner in the section before the long straightaway.
First test session at our home track. Since this is to be a time attack car we had to make some unsightly modifications to be competitive. At this point the engine was in a mild state of tune as the first goal was to get the suspension sorted.
Having a bit of fun on a cool down lap.
We managed to get into a local time attack event, probably due to the rare nature of the RS200. The engine has seen some dyno tuning at this point, running just under 400 HP. Below is my favorite picture of the event.
Back at the shop, some more dyno tuning gave us a peak output of 426 HP. Soon after I registered the car in a race event at my home track of Deep Forest Raceway. We would be running against LM racing cars, so we had to be at the top of our game not to be a backmarker. There would be two races, and I was assured by the organizers that if we were too slow we would be kicked out of the second race.
We knew we were down on power, but the suspension was dialed in and the car light. Going with softer tires than our competitors might give us enough speed to compete, but we would have to run perfect laps to avoid destroying the more fragile tires.Not to worry though, in the first race we placed second!
1st was an LM prepped RX-7, nothing to be ashamed of.The second race was something else. In the first race, the RX had been stuck in traffic for a while, but once it broke out I didn't have a chance. We were running the same lap times, but the RX was far ahead because I had to fight my way through the pack much longer due to starting at the back. A quick attack to get to the front before anyone pulled away was necessary to even have a chance at victory. Here are some pictures of the second race.
Trailing the fifth place car, piloted by someone with more money than skill. Passing this NSX was effortless.
While the other guys were slow on the first lap because their harder tires weren't up to temp, the Racing Medium tires I had started gripping almost immediately, allowing me to pass 4 cars on the first lap. The final corner is a high speed sweeper that requires only a touch of the brakes, and the RS200 really shined here, using momentum, rather than power, to pass 3 cars on corner exit, leaving us in second place going into the second lap.
Still with lots of momentum from the final corner, I was able to get P1 on the straightaway. Only problem was that the massive power of the Ford GT had reeled the little RS back in, and as we braked into turn 1 he resumed his former position in front of me. Not to worry, the following tight technical section allowed me to dive inside under braking and take back the lead.
Smooth sailing from there, or so I thought. The gamble I had taken with softer tires hadn't been a problem in the first race, since I had focused on preserving them to run with the pack, without thinking I might have had a chance to win the race. This time I had really abused the tires while snaking through the pack. Even worse, Deep Forest is really hard on the right front tire. As the race went on, the battle of handling vs power began to favor the encroaching GT. Under pressure, I cracked and bungled a key corner, allowing the GT past. I was able to keep him close though, and on the final corner of lap 4 the awesome grip (and some ballsy driving, if I do say so myself) allowed me to go flying by the GT on the outside.
Not to be outdone, he once again passed me back on the straight. He forced me halfway off the road in the first corner. Sticking right on his tail let me pass him again under braking, and it was touch and go for the rest of the lap. The final corner proved critical. He was close enough to easily power by me before I crossed the finish. I needed to be tricky.
Applying the brake earlier but more lightly than usual, I got him to brake early as well. The RF tire still had enough life in it to fling me around the corner well in the lead.
Looks like some of the others had caught up as well, but no matter. The top of the podium was mine, in addition to 188 A-spec Points!
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- 15,529
- Cairo, Egypt
- GTP_SEMS
Great Story and Pictures Respect to your tunning talents aswell
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