2024 is a bit of a strange season for us in regards to scheduling because Lucky Dog normally runs more races in the Pacific Northwest. Because Sonoma was repaving our normal February race got bumped to June this year, which cancelled our typical June race at Pacific Raceways in Kent, WA. Because of this, our first PNW race before going to Sonoma is at the Ridge in April.
Since we decided to build a new car it was imperative to get the car to the April Ridge race for a shakedown race. We didn’t want to haul the car all the way to Sonoma for its first race and risk having to chase gremlins all weekend. It was a good thing we decided to thrash and bring the car as the new-car issues can now all be fixed.
We got the car strapped to the dyno at Service Pro in Nooksack, WA and Allain worked his magic. It’s impressive to see a professional work his craft. He got us dialed in with 180 hp and 177 lb/ft of torque with an extremely flat torque curve. We started the dyno pulls at 2000 rpm and the engine made over 160 lb/ft of torque the entire pull. He ultimately decided to pull 2 degrees of timing back out of the engine for safety and we ended up at 175 wheel hp and 172 lb/ft torque. Very impressive for a used stock longblock 4 cylinder engine!
As soon as we got the car out on track it was evident that we had a quick car. Ed could easily run 2:01 lap times without really pushing the car hard. Unfortunately, the car started to go into limp mode when we pushed it hard. The problem was with the safety settings on the oil pressure circuit. The lower threshold was set a little too high and the Haltech was trying to protect the engine. It’s a nice feature, but we had to lower the settings.
The next gremlin that showed up was the drive-by-wire (DBW) system. Since its inception, DBW systems have always had two separate sensors on the accelerator pedal and the throttle body for safety purposes. The redundant sensors have to be within a certain percentage of each other or the car goes into limp mode. Our throttle body kept going outside of its safety range and causing issues.
Allain was on standby the entire weekend helping us out; reading datalogs, adjusting the tune, and even calling Haltech support to get to the bottom of our problem. We eventually narrowed the issue down to the connector on the throttle body. With the car idling we could wiggle the connector and the engine RPM would change. We tried de-pinning the connector, squeezing the female pins tighter, re-pinning the connector, and ultimately wrapping gorilla tape around the connector to hold everything as tight as possible. It enabled us to get the car out on track and everyone got some good seat time but the issue would continue to plague us throughout the weekend from time to time.
Gremlins aside, when the car was on the track and running properly it was a little rocket. The handling was almost perfect right off the bat. We have been working with Anthony from Silvers coilovers on getting the right spring rates on the car and we have it very close. We’re running 10k springs up front with no sway bar and the only rear spring available with a 25mm sway bar. I’m considering dropping to a 9k spring in the front but won’t make that decision until we get adjustable rear control arms and have more adjustability in the rear suspension. The car currently has too much rear toe-in and we can’t adjust it properly.
The brakes were phenomenal. We have Focus SVT front brakes with Power Stop Z23 pads and a rear disc brake kit from Massive Speed that uses SVT rotors and 2013 Focus calipers. We could drive very deep into the braking zones with full confidence the brakes would do their job.
For the last driving stint on Sunday we decided to really throw some abuse at the car to see what it could take. I overshot corner entry multiple times to see how well the mfactory limited slip differential could pull the car out of trouble. It definitely worked well, but was extremely hard on the car. With 20 minutes left in the race, we snapped the passenger side CV axle and had to be towed in.
We are currently running a 15 gallon Pyrotect fuel cell in the car. We were hoping that would provide enough fuel for 2 hour driving stints. It looks like we’re only getting about 1:45 of racing in before we run out of gas so we will have to upgrade to a larger cell to be competitive.
All in all, it was a successful shakedown for the car. We found lot of areas we want to make improvements on. Everyone got some seat time in the car, including Louis getting his first wheel-to-wheel racing experience. Three of our drivers were able to running 1:59 lap times, which is very impressive. A few years ago running under 2:00 was considered a front-running A-class car and we broke that on our shakedown run. With some modest aero improvements I have no doubt this car will be a B-class contender for many seasons to come.
Huge thanks to 808 Performance Specialties for SO MUCH HELP, Pyrotect for all of our fuel and safety equipment, Sampson Communications for our radio system, Silvers NA for our coilovers, Phil’s Tire Service for finding us the only 15” wheels that will clear our brakes, and the Lucky Dog Racing League for sponsoring our Veteran drivers. Without all of your support we wouldn’t be able to make this happen.