COBB Tuning Blog

This year was COBB Tuning’s second time out at Wicked Big Meet, and we decided to show a larger presence to better support the Subaru community. Wicked Big Meet is the largest all-Subaru meet on the East Coast, so I knew it would be a ton of fun. We also planned to cruise the East Coast and visit as many of our dealers as possible to get a feel for how the right coast does it.

But just getting from Austin to NY can be a challenge, especially for a few small town boys visiting the Big Apple for the first time! An early morning flight out of Austin to Detroit to LaGuardia got Braden Berger, Lance Lucas and me into New York in the early afternoon. We very quickly learned about New York traffic as we were sitting in it for an hour or two on our way to our first stop: Vinny Ten Racing.

Vinny graciously welcomed us to his shop with hot Italian food (chicken parm) waiting for us. He has a great staff on hand in a well-kept facility. Braden spent the afternoon and early evening training tuners Vinny and Steve on MAZDASPEED while Lance and I mingled with the staff and got an idea of their work-flow and how they use our products. After a long day we decided to start the quest for New York pizza. After another hour or so in traffic, as well as leaving our car in a questionable “parking garage”, we made it to Lombardi’s for their famous pizza. The food was fantastic! After that we drove around and saw some of the sights New York had to offer: Central park, Twin Towers memorial site, Wall Street, and Times Square. Time didn’t permit us to spend a lot of time at any specific location, but it was an experience that left us all wanting to come back to New York just to see the city.

The second day we met with No Limit Motorsports and Dave at MSPT. Dave showed us around his new facility, including some great customer builds that were in progress. He is getting setup to do some great work for customers using the AccessPORT for tuning. After MSPT it was back to Vinny Ten to tune an EVO X. Lance spent the early evening with Vinny and Steve teaching tuning on EVO X while Braden and I chatted with the staff and customers that were arriving for a meet Vinny was holding that evening. We all stuck around for the Vinny Ten meet and met some very enthusiastic AccessPORT customers with both MAZDASPEEDs and GT-Rs. After the meet we met up with Dave at MSPT where he very graciously took us out for some amazing food which included awesome steak and “bacon slabs”. We were able to have some great conversations with Dave about the market and feedback on our products.

On the third day we were up bright and early to take a prop plane (the vomit master 2000) into Bradley airport. From there we met with Paul at ECS and got a tour of his great facility. Paul had a lot of very nice and very big builds ranging from Subaru, to GTR, to Ford Mustang. We spent the majority of the day there training GT-R software with Paul and I spent a good amount of time working with him on some software issues he had as well as a lot of great feedback. We had planned on a MAZDASPEED Demo but were short on time. We are scheduling a followup to get him trained on the MAZDASPEED platform as we speak. After that we headed over to see Chris at EFI Logics to check out the shop and go out for dinner.

There was some pretty incredible rain happening that caused a rollover on the freeway which resulted in more traffic. Four hours later we made it to EFI. EFI has a top notch crew and have built an amazing shop out of what started as a temporary location. They had a variety of customer builds they were working on while we were there that were all drool worthy. EFI showed us their east coast hospitality by having us out for dinner with their crew which was a great time. After that we were headed back to the hotel for our precious few hours of sleep.

An early morning saw us arriving to Wicked Big Meet at 7:30 and we had planned to set up right away, but we had to wait a bit for our gear to arrive. The event officially kicked off at 10am but we found our booth slammed starting at about 9am. From 9am to 4pm our booth had a line of anxious customers at it the entire time that kept us busy! We had a mix of people who had never heard of our product, people on the fence ready to purchase our product, and people with our products that wanted to stop by and say hi! It was a great experience to meet all of these enthusiasts at this great event.

We talked to so many people that were blown away by our products and service. We had a few customers name Ian and Chris Haag specifically as customer service advocates that have made them loyal customers. On top of the sales aspect we were able to meet with several customers and sit down to discuss technical questions and issues they were having as well as diagnosing and swapping out a bad OBD-II cable for one customer who left ecstatic. We had the good fortune to have some of our vendors come and meet with us at our booth (as we couldn’t find a way to escape our booth until after 4pm!) and spend time with us giving us great feedback and having some great discussions about our market and products. After 4pm me and Lance made some rounds visiting some other Vendors, while Braden bravely held down the fort.

Chris at EFI showed us a great time at an amazing burger restaurant where I met my true love…. the Fatty Melt. The Fatty Melt is a 1/2 burger put between two grilled cheese sandwiches that acted as buns! After dinner we headed back to the hotel to try to organize all of our stuff to return back to Austin. Three hours of sleep later we headed home, looking forward to returning to Wicked Big Meet next year!

1 Comment »

A couple months ago, some friends and I were talking about running at the CO ProSolo in Colorado Springs, CO. Since Colorado Springs is around 870 miles from Austin, TX it seemed unlikely that I would be able to bring my 2006 COBB STU STI to the CO ProSolo but I really wanted to run the event. As luck would have it, a good friend and long time customer of COBB Tuning, Kevin Schultz, was kind enough to offer me a ride in his STU-prepped 2006 Evolution MR. Who could turn down a ride with the Dark Side? So with my ride secured and a weekend of fast cone-dodging on the way, I hopped on a plane to Colorado.

I arrived at the event Friday afternoon to practice starts and launches, and immediately noticed the start was on a decently steep incline. Stock EVO clutches are known to be weak, so this did not bode well for a clutch with some miles on it. Neither Kevin nor I had launched an EVO at a ProSolo and we had some experimenting to do between keeping the car from rolling out of the staging lights and learning how to launch.

Kevin was up first trying to slip the clutch at 6,000 RPM while manually holding the emergency brake up. This did not work so well as the clutch slipped leaving a cloud of smoke. A few more launch attempts didn’t work out well ending in a bog or burning clutch. With a hot clutch we decided to let it cool before I took my first try at launching the EVO.

Incoming weather cut the cooling time shorter that we would have liked. Being an STI guy we launch them hard and fast to get wheel-spin. The strategy going in was to get the EVO spinning wheels with as little as possible clutch slip. On my one and only attempt to launch, the clutch slipped but held around 5,000 RPM before gripping, no wheel spin. Further attempts to launch the car were only going to hurt it so we decided to call it a day.

Saturday morning I was to be the first driver of our pair out not knowing how to launch the car. I had no idea if we were going to limp the launches or be able to go hard. The first launch out of the gate was hard and fast getting some wheel spin. We were pulling 1.8-1.9 60-foot times up hill which was fantastic. Kevin’s EVO felt great for the first two runs until the tires warmed up and then started to get loose. It seemed the car was picking up a rear wheel, then spinning that wheel when attempting to throttle up. Even with the wheel lift, the morning session went well and I was sitting on top of the class.

For the afternoon session, Kevin and I decided to loosen the rear sway bar from full stiff to full soft to try and improve the handling. The afternoon session came and went with no improvement for me. The car was feeling better while still being a bit too loose for my taste. However, Kevin hopped into the car and ran some great times boosting him into second place.

Sunday morning was time for a little “strategizing.” After a bit of talking with other competitors and a course walk with Kevin, we come up with a strategy. Our plan is to tighten our lines to keep in the “line”. Our strategy works like a champ. Kevin and I both drop another 7-8 tenths keeping our 1-2 class finish in STU and I’m the 7th qualifier in the Super Challenge.

Sadly, Kevin missed the cut off for the Super Challenge yet was gracious enough to let me run his car even though he had a 600-mile solo drive back to Salt Lake City, UT. The first round of the Super Challenge put me up against a well prepped CSP Miata on cold race rubber.

The course is split into two tracks, with each competitor running both to achieve an overall best time, these runs are made “head-to-head” so that both cars are attacking mirrored tracks at the same time. After the first “right side” run I was up 8-tenths of a second so I decided to take it easy on the left side to play it safe to staying off the cones. It turned out I took it a little too easy as we were staring at each other coming around one of the final turns. I decided I needed to go all out and I ended up taking the win by 3-tenths of a second.

Round two put me up against an STS CRX. After the first right side, he was able to break out by two tenths and was able to build a 4-tenth advantage on me. On the left-side I felt like I was going faster than I think I had all weekend; then I blow a tight turn around. At the finish I’m another two tenths behind and the CRX who has broken out again! Either way, I was eliminated after the second round in the Super Challenge.

Even though I didn’t take the Super Challenge the great courses good people made for a fantastic weekend. Kevin and I will be making a few more changes to the car coming back for the Colorado National Tour at the end of the month. Many thanks go to Kevin for his graciousness in letting me beat on his AWD monster.

No Comments »

Photo Courtesy of GotCone.com

It has been a long, cold, snow-filled winter for most of us and that means few opportunities for motorsports events. However, with the coming of spring means the big thaw and once again, petrol heads are filling parking lots full of cones. That’s right, autocross season is upon us! COBB Tuning hot-shoes Rob Irish (BMW and MINI ECU Guru) and Jon Pomrenke (Subaru ECU and Software Engineer) hit the course recently to clear the cobwebs out of their STU class STI along with long time friend and COBB Tuning customer, John Hale.  After nine months away from racing, Rob’s 2006 STI returned to the 2011 Mineral Wells ProSolo with a 1-2 finish! John Hale contested the event in his own car, a 2005 STU-prepared STI, and finished third behind Jon Pomrenke.

Winter is a time for racers to rebuild and refit. However, sometimes quick rebuilds take a bit longer than expected. The STI was torn down nine months ago for a suspension rebuild but the car was not completed until the Thursday before the Houston event! In that time, the turbo-back exhaust was replaced with a COBB Tuning turbo-back exhaust for better power, sound, and ground clearance. The intake was replaced with the stock airbox at a loss of top-end in exchange for cooler air. Suspension was replaced with all new remote reservoir coilovers to properly control the high spring rates.

Just one weekend prior, Jon and Rob contested the first round in the 2011 Houston National ProSolo Tour (2nd and 4th place finishes) in Jon’s S2000, so while they had a little bit of seat-time to get back into the groove, the STI was still in pieces waiting to be reassembled. With that event behind them, the team quickly completed the STI to make it ready for the Mineral Wells event just a week away. The suspension was installed Monday-Tuesday, alignment done Wednesday, tires mounted Thursday with the race on Saturday and Sunday.

With fresh, unscrubbed tires and untested suspension, both Jon and Rob came out strong Saturday morning to end in 1st and 2nd after the first session. More seat time and a faster course allowed the class to find more time in the afternoon session. Jon managed to hold 1st through afternoon runs, but Rob slipped to 3rd. With more rubber on the course and the cold morning temperatures, they headed out for the final session. The 1st place position was lost and regained repeatedly through the weekend, with the top three drivers all holding 1st place during the final runs of the weekend! Jon fought and held 1st until Rob’s last run, which catapulted Rob from 3rd to 1st.

Jon and Rob use the COBB Tuning AccessPORT to tune their ride. Not only this, but the pair use the map switching capabilities of the AccessPORT to quickly change from a pump gas calibration to a race gas map at the event. They drive to the track on as little pump fuel as possible. Then, they take off the fuel return line and drain the tank trackside. Then they fill up with race gas and switch maps for more horsepower! At the end of the day, they drain the race gas and switch back to pump fuel and the pump fuel map!

Jon and Rob will be looking to continue their winning ways this year with both local and national events being contested. Check out Cobb Tuning.com for more information on the parts they use to take their STI to the top of the class!

1st- Rob Irish
left: 43.669s, .544 R/T, 1.820 60′
right: 43.929s, .567 R/T, 1.873 60′
total: 87.598s

2nd- Jon Pomrenke
left: 43.930s, .534 R/T, 1.795 60′
right: 43.763s, 0.530 R/T, 1.814 60′
total: 87.693s (0.095 from 1st)

3rd- John Hale
left: 43.807s, .582 R/T, 1.811 60′
right: 43.877s, .646 R/T, 1.856 60′
total: 87.784s (0.091 from 2nd)

Rob’s Best Run

Jon’s Best Run

Comments Off

Check out COBB Tuning’s own Aaron “Biggie” Brown at the inaugural event of Ken Block’s Gymkhana drift during the burnout competition. Watch as Biggie runs over several innocent cones and comes very near to endangering the lives of the Monster Energy Drink girls during his this wild rubber-burning melee! Biggie and his 600hp EVO IX made quite the impression on the crowd as well as calling Travis Pastrana out for not competing! Look for Biggie at future Gymkhana events, that is, if they invite him back again.

No Comments »

Ride along with COBB Tuning engineer Jon Pomrenke takes you for a ride on-board his 2006 Subaru STI Auto-X prepped race car for one of his runs at a recent SCCA Solo2 San Antonio Region Autocross event. Jon is a seasoned autocrosser and competes in both local and national events in his STI. Jon’s car features several COBB Tuning products and is tuned with a COBB Tuning AccessPORT!

No Comments »

I’ve been known to shave tires for racing. I usually get some puzzled looks when I explain why I just cut off half the tread.

The RA-1 is one of the few tires where the manufacturer openly recommends shaving for better performance. For their next generation, the R-888, Toyo recommended customers go full-tread. I think this article does a good job of explaining the pros and cons: Buffing or shaving grooved tyres used for motor sport.

Photo courtesy of Toyo Tire

Usually it takes some phone calls or face time with the manufacturer’s motorsports guys. Some will say to shave them, others say not to; if you are lucky they may tell you why. Some tires have consistent grip from full-tread to chords, others increase grip as they wear, while others decrease. Tread blocks may add forgiveness to the tire where shaved tires may snap. For the low-horsepower guys, the decreased diameter or Lose Weight Exercise reduction can pay dividends. The high-horsepower guys might like the extra gearing.

With so many factors to consider, it is just another thing to test when trying to turn in a lower time than your competition.

No Comments »

While perhaps not as exciting to the reader, the 370Z was drama free and reliable the entire weekend at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. This allowed me to continue to focus on improving as a driver and getting more comfortable in the car. Having other experienced and talented drivers as part of the team is also an enormous benefit as I can always pick their brains on what areas I should focus on improving or suggestions on a faster racing line.

The weekend started as the others have, arriving to yet another track I’ve never driven and spending the first session or two just trying to figure out where the course goes. The Las Vegas Motorsport Park track we were on was quite different from the last track I drove in New Jersey. The lush green run off areas and flowing lines of sight had been replaced with desert tans and browns, everywhere blurring the line between what was track and what was gravel. One portion of the track, that was actually one of the higher speed sections, had gravel run off that concluded with an industrial park. Only a chain link fence served as the last ditch attempt to keep you from becoming someone’s lobby ornament should you choose to do something silly in that corner. Fortunately, the gravel trap proved to be very effective at stopping cars, as a few people found out first hand. Thankfully, I was not one of them.

Overall the LVMS course proved to be enjoyable for me. I cannot wax and wane about how technical it was because, let’s face it, I’m a complete novice. Every track thus far has been technical and challenging for me. However, this was the first weekend that I actually felt some degree of enjoyment, or perhaps a better word is calmness, while on track. I felt less like I was trying to catch up to what the car was doing, and more on placing the car at its limits and feeling comfortable knowing how it would react. Having a predictable car to drive is a great way to build driver confidence, and the AST coilovers and Whiteline/Robispec front sway bar has contributed enormously to doing just that. Power delivery was also consistent and extremely smooth all weekend long as the AccessPORT Stage 2 maps continue to be evaluated and refined before their eventual public release. And while I’m enjoying the added power and torque out of corners, the stock rear LSD is not sharing in the same enthusiasm. It’s continuing to struggle to evenly distribute drive to the rear wheels out of corners. Perhaps that’ll be something we look to address for the future, though most room for improvement on track is still in the driver.

On Sunday, the day of the actual Time Attack, I was able to further drop my times during practice. The previous afternoon I had reviewed video with Brian Lock, comparing it to some laps he took in the car the same day, to help me see where I might gain some time. I also discussed some additional improvements with Billy Brooks, who has been lending his years of driving and setup expertise. The net sum was knocking a couple of seconds off my prior times down into the 1:59.x range. By the time the actual competition rounds started, track temps had climbed a bit and in my first session, I was a bit sloppy. I was sliding through a few sections more than before, not able to drive off the corners as aggressively as in the morning, and so on. Basically, I felt like I was over-driving the car, which in part was likely true but ultimately I wasn’t able to repeat my best times from morning practice.

For the second and final session of the day, the wind had picked up and track temperatures dropped. I went out again trying to consciously not over-drive the car and staying as smooth as possible with my inputs. In practice I’d learned that while I was completely comfortable sliding the car around and making exciting on-board video, my times were slower when I did so. Smooth and clean was proving to be faster, so I focused on just hitting my lines, braking points and not being too aggressive with throttle out of corners. Lap by lap I was able to drive down my lap times and ended up with a 2:00.9 result; a full second off my time from earlier in the day, but enough to secure a 3rd place finish and my first podium.

1 Comment »

Follow Trey Cobb in the COBB Tuning Motorsports RWD Street Class 370Z as he races around the track! Trey was able to grab 7th place in the highly-competitive enthusiast class after a 4-year hiatus from the racetrack! Trey’s 370Z is running a complete COBB Tuning prototype cat-back exhaust system with high-flow cats, COBB Tuning prototype SF intake system with COBB Tuning prototype airboxes and tuned with an AccessPORT. The car also features a COBB Tuning custom oil-cooler to keep engine temps in check. The suspension features AST 5200 double adjustable coilovers, with a Whiteline front swaybar. The brakes were beefed up with Stoptech stainless brake lines and performance pads. Rolling stock is a set of Volk Progressive ME wheels measuring 19×9.5-inches in the front and 19×10.5-inches in the rear running street tires. Trey will be sorting this car as the season continues to be even more competitive!

No Comments »

At COBB Tuning, we take our cars very seriously. From our racing programs to our street cars, we work very hard to build cars that not only go fast, but perform flawlessly lap after lap. But sometimes, you just have to cut loose and burn some donuts.

Here is COBB Tuning’s Art Director, Aaron “Biggie” Brown, burning off a set of BFGoodrich R1s… because he can. His EVO IX MR is equipped with a Full-Race twin-scroll GT35R kit, a stroked 2.33 4G63 and is tuned with an AccessPORT. Sure, it can go fast in a straight line, it can even go fast around the corners, but it can also burn off lots of rubber for no reason what-so-ever, other than it’s fun!

No Comments »

At COBB Tuning we spend a lot of time working on our customer’s cars or building new parts for better performance. After working hours, we turn our considerable talents to our own cars. While snow covers most of the ground, it’s time to perform major surgery on our rides, like COBB Tuning Surgeline tuner, Lance Lucas’ 2004 WRX Wagon. With a built engine and larger turbo, Lance has transformed his grocery getter into a serious Hyper Wagon!

“I recently finished this rebuild on my personal car, a 2004 WRX Wagon I’ve owned for about 3.5 years,” said Lance. “The last setup was a 2.5-liter hybrid with an 18G and EWG (external waste gate) on E85 that I used, abused and eventually destroyed at the dragstrip. I refused to let a broken OEM piston slow me down and immediately began the rebuild. We made the active decision to build the car using commonly available, proven products as a good example of what can be acheived with a “budget” build by Surgeline, without our normal touches — no AN fittings, no V-Band flanges, no Tial exhaust housings, no rotated manifold, etc. Everything has turned out wonderfully and my car is a great example of the potential available using the good-ole K.I.S.S. principle.”

“These are the preliminary dyno tuning results, at both wastegate (16psi) and a couple days later at 22psi tapering to 19psi or so,” said Lance. “At a very rich .75 lambda I am out of injector at ~21psi, so I kept boost low on top for the time being. Timing curve is extremely soft as well. My long-term plan is to add a second Walbro in-tank and raise base fuel pressure slightly, then tune to 450whp on E85 for daily driving and hopefully an easy 500whp on C16 for drag strip fun!”

Join the conversation over on Lance’s Proven Power Bragging thread on Nasioc.

1 Comment »