COBB Tuning Blog

HB Speed’s AccessPORT-tuned EVOX once again took to the track at the third West Coast Redline Time Attack! event at Spring Mountain Motorsports Ranch. It was a grueling test of the car’s suspension, aerodynamics, power and driver skill. On Saturday HB Speed sent driver and tuner, Jon Drenas, out onto the 3.1-mile 18-turn late-apex track for the first time. After realizing that the car was so loose that it looked like a Formula D, car Jon came back in for some aerodynamic adjustments. The second session was not much better, after adding a lot of rear wing into the car, it plowed badly. The third session, however, was completely different! “After getting the wing set where it needed to be, the car felt great and we dropped 6-seconds off our lap times,” said Jon.

After a successful test and tune day on Saturday, the HB Speed team was ready to attack Spring Mountain again on Sunday. Jon went out for the first practice session and ran a 2:41.6 fast lap time. Jon felt that there was a bit more in the car so he loaded the 27psi “race” map to the car via the COBB Tuning AccessPORT and went out for the first timed session. Unfortunately, the session was black flagged on the third lap and was ended early. Jon was still able to post his fastest lap yet with a 2:38.712, good enough for 3rd place at the time. The time held strong until the second timed session when the team was bumped to 4th by a much faster and lighter car.

Overall this was a great event for Jon and the HB Speed team in sorting out the car’s strengths and weaknesses. The power provided by the Forced Performance EVO X Red, E85, Deatschwerks 1000cc injectors and The HB Speed-tuned Cobb AccessPORT, was incredible. The car’s 451 wheel horsepower was used over and over and never needed any adjustments the whole day. The car also drove to and from the event, seeing that it is after all, a Street car! HB Speed

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N1 Racing – Dealer
66, Jalan PJS11/7 Bandar Sunway
46150 Subang Jaya
Selangor, Malaysia
www.n1racing.net

Patriot Automobile Repair Workshop – Dealer
Industrial Area of Mussafah M-10
Abu Dhabi, U.A.E PO BOX 70461
Mobile:050-8161477, 050-8089460
Telephone: 00971-25544452
patriot_csp@hotmail.com

Performance Plus Automotive Imports – Dealer
38-4600 Kimbermount Ave.
Mississauga, ON L5M 6Z5
Canada
Phone: 905-820-5789

ST Wangan/EDO Malaysia – GT-R AccessTUNER
39 & 41, Jalan PJS 11/7
Bandar Sunway
46150 PJ, Selangor D.E.
Malaysia

Forged Performance – Now Supporting EVO and Nissan/Infiniti AccessTUNER Pro Tools!

3SX Performance in North Carolina – Now Supporting Subaru and MazdaSpeed AccessTUNER Pro Tools!

Altered Atmosphere – Now Supporting EVOX AccessTUNER Pro Tools!

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The StopTech EVO X continues to take the Street AWD Class by storm, this despite a few teething problems. However, these issues show just how fast and well-sorted this amazing machine is. They started the weekend hoping to prove that they had the durability they needed from the internal waste gate on the latest version of their Garret direct bolt on turbo, which had proved to be such a problem at the Willow Springs event. They were also testing for the first time their new Cosworth head and cams installed by Mike Keegan. The StopTech EVO X uses a COBB Tuning AccessPORT and the team tunes the car themselves using AccessTUNER Race tuning software in order to get all of the performance modifications working together at their best. Stephen Ruiz, the driver of the EVO X and tuner at GMG/ITG said, “Every change tried on the engine is tested and then tuned using the Cobb Tuning tools.”

Unfortunately, as soon as the car was up to speed they encountered what turned out to be a slipping clutch. With a slipping clutch, the team went into survival mode for the rest of the weekend then only able to make about three laps each time out before the clutch slipping would be a problem. The team went through the whole weekend only running 3-4 laps of practice but it was enough to make the small changes needed to dial-in the car’s handling. On the morning of the race, the EVO was lapping the course fast enough to be in the lead Street class group and “qualified” fourth. The way that the timed segments are run, that would be the team’s starting spot for both sessions and being back in the pack would hurt when it really counted. In the first session, the EVO was second fastest in AWD class and third overall. To conserve the clutch, the team skipped more practice which was cut short anyway due to time running out with a lot of cars having to be retrieved from on-course. Finally, in the last session, the team pushed as hard as they could. While the EVO was much faster and in fact passed two cars that “out qualified” it on the second lap, the StopTech Team scored second in AWD Street class and second overall with a 2:34.868. In the end, first place was lost to having to pass slower traffic and, of course, the clutch started to slip again on the third and fourth laps.

Since the event, the engine and clutch have been removed for repair and inspection. The driven disc and surfaces of the pressure plate and flywheel looked almost new. When the clutch cover was tested, which was the same since the clutch was upgraded to an ACT unit, the clamping force was found to be about 10% low, but the bottom line was that the new puck style driven disc was not broken-in properly before the problem was noticed. It was later discovered that had the they driven harder on the slipping clutch, it would have broken-in properly and worked the way it was supposed to.

That is always a challenge – to break parts in quickly on a car that sees use only on the track. They needed a fast break-in procedure for a new solid disc clutch type. The Stoptech EVO X team has now installed a blueprinted version of the clutch cover with higher clamp forces and a different solid disc design. Initial testing shows it to be working correctly after some controlled break-in “slip” cycles and the team can’t wait to get out to the next event at California Speedway on November 14 and 15.

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They said it could never been tuned, that the GTR was perfect right out of the box, that it could not be modified. COBB Tuning has shown the world otherwise! To find out why the United States is the epicenter for GT-R tuning, Top Gear magazine invited the top GT-R tuners in the country to head out to Spring Mountain Motorsports Country Club in Pahrump, NV to show the world just how we crank out the ponies.

Top Gear editor Pat Devereux, Our Man in L.A., was on hand to see how so many tuners here in the “States” are doing what Nissan said, could not be done. And at the heart of all this big power is the COBB Tuning AccessPORT.

The COBB Tuning AccessPORT is the only-hand held, plug-and-play reflash product available for the GT-R that offers push-button tuning. With the COBB Tuning AccessPORT, COBB Tuning has been able to crack the secrets of Nissan’s Supercar and exploit it’s massive potential for more horsepower using the stock ECU. Our own R&D cars have shown that it is possible to take a bone-stock GTR with just tune, tires and some suspension work, and turn the GT-R into an epic giant-killer at both the circuit and the drag strip. An otherwise stock GT-R with a AccessPORT is capable of completing the 1/4-mile run in just over 11-seconds.

With our plug and play engine management solution, COBB Tuning took the forefront at the Top Gear event and you will be able to read more about our remarkable achievements in a future issue of the magazine. Also, look for the time attack GT-R from Fontana Nissan next year, they installed an AccessPORT at the track and were blown away by how much power the AccessPORT was able to unleash track-side with just the push of a button! Additionally, GOTO Racing will be heading to the track with a highly-modified Time Attack GT-R in the coming weeks. This is a completely gutted and race-prepped machine with larger turbos, giant rubber and extra aerodynamics, tuned on a COBB Tuning AccessPORT. The GOTO GT-R will be at SEMA this year and will be competing in the SuperLap Battle at Buttonwillow Raceway on November 11th and in the Redline Time Attack Finale at Auto Club Speedway on November 15th in the Unlimited AWD class.

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Subiefest is an all-Subaru Car Show and Time Attack that is arguably the biggest all-Subaru event in the United States. The main event is undoubtedly the Time Attack where enthusiasts from all over the country converge to see just who has the fastest Subaru. Shops and individual owners alike show up to take a turn at the track and prove their mettle. So when we heard that the 4th annual Subiefest all-Subaru Time Attack would be taking place at Willow Springs in Rosamond, Ca, we loaded one of the the race cars we support into the transporter and headed for Southern California. While COBB Tuning is the preeminent tuning solution for many import tuning applications, tuning Subarus started it all, making Subiefest is a must.

With a successful season in SCCA IT-E under his belt, hot shoe Cameron Benner decided to fly the COBB Tuning banner in the very competitive Subiefest Unlimited Time Attack Class. This is basically a run-what-you-brung all-out slug-fest, with the top Time Attack competitors spending big money for ultimate bragging rights. Cameron’s car had been fully sorted from a season of racing and he was confident that he would be able to make a good showing. Unfortunately, just one week before Subiefest, Benner’s victory at the Oregon Region IT-E Finals took its toll on his 2006 STI racer. Transmission and turbo damage were evident and would need to be repaired.

Third gear was no longer working and there was not enough time to pull the transmission, disassemble, fix and reassemble. Tim Bailey, the Top Tuner at COBB Tuning Surgeline, decided to donate the drivetrain from his 2004 STI in order to speed up the rehabilitation. Big power is required for Unlimited Time Attack, especially at Willow Springs, and the COBB Tuning Surgeline team decided to replace the ailing Blouch Dominator 3 with a GT35R rotated system. Once all the parts were acquired the swapping and wrenching began in earnest. The drivetrain transplant went without a hitch while the uppipe and downpipe were meticulously heat-wrapped and the turbo kit was installed.

The COBB Tuning Surgeline crew had the car together and on the dyno the day before it needed to be on the trailer heading south. With VP 110 in the tank, the car was able to put down a solid 460hp and 370lb/ft of torque. The power was limited because the car still has a mostly standard fuel system with larger injectors and a single fuel pump. For really big power, a dual Walbro setup with a surge tank and an inline fuel pump would be ideal to really flow the go-juice, but there was no time left in the schedule. With the car prepped, tuned and on the truck, COBB Tuning Surgeline was ready to do battle with the fastest Subarus in the country.

Subiefest has always drawn an interesting mix of cars, from lightly-modified street cars to full-blown race cars. It is always a bit tough to judge the competition. In addition, the classes are a little ill-defined, so often times street cars with too large a turbo to be in the street or modified classes get mixed in with highly tuned racing machines. Cameron’s car fell somewhere in the middle of all this. While it is a stripped out, bare bones race car, it is made for putting together fast laps over 30 to 45 minutes of racing. Longevity and consistency are a big part of this car’s breeding. Many of the other Time Attack cars were purpose built for maximum speed and cornering ability for the traditional 3 timed laps before they overheat or the tires go away.

Once on track it quickly became apparent that Cameron had brought a knife to a gunfight. The LIC motorsports car driven by Russ Warr and the Harman Motive car driven by last year’s winner JC Meynet were both running bigger tires, more aero enhancements and bigger power. Subiefest 3, which was held at the same track the previous year, had a top time of 1:28. Early practice times were already well below last years record lap!

Cameron had a steep learning curve to deal with. Willow Springs is a very fast, technical and high-risk track. Cameron was thrown into the deep end of the pool by needing to learn this difficult track in just a few short sessions prior to the Time Attack sessions. Furthermore, Time Attack is significantly different than traditional circuit racing. There is little warm-up time and furiously fast laps need to be pulled out on command. Undaunted, Cameron went out and layed down the fastest laps he could, pushing hard and looping his STI a few times in the pursuit of ever faster lap times. While he was unable to match the incredible speed of JC and Russ, he was able to lay down a low 1:29 lap time which secured his third place finish. This year’s winner, Russ Warr, pulled at fastest lap of just over 1:22, fully six seconds faster than the winning time from just one year before!

The COBB Tuning crew was also on hand in the booth promoting products and answering technical questions for the throng of Subaru enthusiasts on the ever present quest for more power. Dan Brumett, a COBB Customer Service Tech from COBB Tuning HQ in Salt Lake City, had the opportunity to install a brand-new AccessPORT, that was purchased at the event, on a 2009 STI. 10 minutes later the proud new owner had noticeably more power on tap and smoother power delivery!

Cameron is already in the planning stages for his visit to Subiefest 2010 and venturing more heavily into the Time Attack world for next season. More power, bigger tires and a completely reworked suspension are part of the future development. In addition, expect to see the COBB Tuning “Clock Car” to make a return to Street Class competition soon. For more information on race car preparation, tuning and other services, contact www.cobbtuningsurgeline.com.

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Over 1,200 drivers competed in the 37th Annual SCCA Solo National Championships, including many using COBB Tuning performance products. This cool video captures some of the moments in this tightly contested competition. Keep an eye out for the cars sporting COBB flair.

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Racing wouldn’t be racing without a certain amount of drama and the final round of the Oregon Region IT-E race was no exception. Leading up to the final race, COBB Tuning Surgeline-Sponsored driver Cameron Bennar had won the last four races putting him solidly into the points lead. His closest rival, John Houdack in the yellow, wide-body NSX trailed with a wide margin with his only win coming at the begining of the season.

However, a peculiarity of the rules allows drivers to bring points from out of region into your home region points race. This allowed Houdack to bring points from a single win at Pacific Raceways from the Washington region, into the Oregon region series. This gave the yellow NSX the point lead going into the final weekend.

Each weekend is comprised of practice, qualifying, a sprint race and a feature race. While only the Spring and the Feature are worth points, the qualifying session determines the grid for both races. In prevsious races, Cameron had been able to put a solid 3 seconds per lap on the NSX, however, it was discovered during practice that 3rd gear in Cameron’s STI had gone bad leaving him without a critical gear for turns 7 and 12, two of the more crucial corners at PIR as this is the entrance to the back straight and the high-speed transition from the back to front straights respectively. However, the yellow NSX had mechanical issues of it’s own, precluding it from qualifying, which put Cameron on the pole.

During qualifying it was discovered that 3rd gear would work sometimes, the decision was then made to save 3rd, slow the pace and bit and see if a win was still feasible without 3rd. It was. Cameron was able to fight off the yellow NSX for a win in the sprint. This put the point standings with Cameron down by a single point going into the final race.

Another issue that had been discovered in previous race was the Subaru’s ravenous thirst. In a 30 minute race, cameron would be stretching the limits of his fuel load. It was decided that a fuel conserving strategy would be employed. Instead of charging out of the gate and putting a massive lead on the NSX, Cameron would let Houdack by and cruise in his slipstream. Then, with 5 minutes left in the race, would make his move, dash past the NSX and take the win.

However, an error in the pits would make this strategy redundant. Just under ten laps into the race, the NSX pulled off the racing line and parked. It seems that his pit crew neglected to tighten his lug nuts. With the NSX effectively out of the race, Cameron’s championship was secured and the COBB Tuning Surgeline STI cruised to a well-deserved victory without the aid of sneaky rule bending.

The NSX was able to rejoin the race several laps down and finishing in 3rd behind the 2nd place Porsche.

Cameron’s next stop will be Subiefest scheduled for October 10th at Willow Springs Raceway in Rosamond, Calif., where he will battle it out for the title of the fastest Subaru in the land agains’t the country’s top Subaru tuners. Stay tuned!

Cameron’s championship-winning STI was assembled at COBB Tuning Surgline and tuned by lead calibrator Tim Bailey with the COBB Tuning AccessPORT and AccessTUNER Pro.

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Tune it and they will win. With so many cars and drivers standing on the podium at the 2009 SCCA Solo Nationals that were tuned with the COBB Tuning AccessPORT, it’s not hard to understand just how powerful the AccessPORT is.

Currently, the Subaru WRX and STI are the weapon of choice in the Street Touring (ST) classes, most predominantly in Street Touring Ultra (STU) and Street Touring Xtreme (STX).

In addition to the AccessPORT, drivers are choosing to enhance the handling of their cars with COBB Tuning swaybars. Also very popular is the COBB Tuning downpipe for the Subaru WRX and STI.

Our best finishers in the ProSolo Finale were Corey Ridgik, who took 2nd in STU, Max Hayter, 3rd in STU, and Karl Coleman, who also took a second, in STX.

While some of the drivers were running Off The Shelf maps, most competitors run custom tunes by Tim Bailey, at COBB Tuning Surgeline, or Calvin Dotson, at COBB Tuning Plano. Beyond the tuning capabilities exposed by the AccessPORT, competitors choose the device to quickly change maps from their streetable maps to higher-octane, class-compliant maps. At top-level competition, every tenth counts when the top spots are separated by milliseconds.

Back in STU, Max Hayter was able to capture third in his Surgeline-tuned WRX and Mark Berry from COBB Tuning Plano came in 3rd in FP (F Prepared).

With so many drivers standing on the podium, its easy to see why COBB Tuning products are sought out by the top drivers in the nation.

ProSolo Finale

2nd place STX Karl Coleman – COBB Tuning Surgeline

5th place EV1 Ron Bauer – COBB Tuning Surgeline

2nd place STU Corey Ridgick – COBB Tuning
3rd place STU Max Hayter – COBB Tuning Surgeline
5th place STU Jon Pomrenke – COBB Tuning
6th place STU Robert Irish – COBB Tuning
10th place STU Abe Potter – COBB Tuning Surgeline

We had AccessPORTs in the top 6 places in STU.

Nationals Results

(highest placing Subarus in STX)
5th place STX Ron Bauer – COBB Tuning Surgeline
7th place STX Jon Pomrenke – COBB Tuning
8th place STX Karl Coleman – COBB Tuning Surgeline

2nd place STXL Amy Coleman – COBB Tuning Surgeline

7th place STU Corey Ridgick – COBB Tuning
8th place STU Max Hayter – COBB Tuning Surgeline
12th place STU Annie Bauer – COBB Tuning Surgeline
19th place STU Robert Irish – COBB Tuning
24th place STU Guy Roberts – COBB Tuning
25th place STU John Scheier – COBB Tuning Plano
26th place STU Terry Fair – COBB Tuning Plano

2nd place STUL Amy Fair – COBB Tuning Plano

3rd place FP Mark Berry – COBB Tuning Plano

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With so many tuning options on the market, it is hard to know what the right choice is. You can read all the rhetoric and advertising you want and still be confused as to what choice is right for you. Sometimes, it’s best to ask the man who has tried it all and find out what he uses.

Jay “Mucter” is a regular contributor on both the COBB Tuning forums and 8thcivic.com. Jay has used different tuning products in the past, but uses the COBB Tuning AccessPORT and AccessTUNER Race to tune his Civic Si. Here he tells us why he chose the AccessPORT and AccessTUNER over other tuning platforms.

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