HPA brings a trio of Twin-Turbo DSG VW’s to the Texas Mile, March 2010
APRIL 2, 2010
WOW….what a crazy trip and terrific weekend down in Texas. After the terrific experiences we had last October, we selected the March running of the Texas Mile as the venue to publicly unveil our freshly built Scirocco FT565. We also chose the mile as a proving ground for the shake down runs of our newly built 3.6 powertrain and to show off the freshly converted MK4 DSG twin turbo R32 belonging to Houston local, “Skela”.
As a special bonus, our long term CVP level 2 Naturally Aspirated test car made the 2000mile drive down from the North East to run and test our final software settings.
With two cars snuggled in the trailer and one on its wheels, we rolled down the I5 into Los Angeles to catch some media testing on the new Scirocco before venturing East to Texas.
Weaving the canyons of Southern California, across the Arizona desert and through the torrential downpours in New Mexico, we arrived into Goliad TX Thursday morning; allowing us the time needed to tech all three cars and get set up track side for Friday morning’s early start.
This was a huge bonus as we West Coast guys struggle with the early hours!
The wildflowers were blooming and the weather was a perfect mid 70F and not a cloud in the sky; this was shaping up to be a great day...
After making the 2700 mile drive down, both Melanie and I were beat and it was a welcome break to arrive Friday morning to the track with the only task being to drive fast!
The engine packages on both the Scirocco and Skela’s MK4 R32 share the twin GT28RS configurations. The difference is that the Golf features our first twin turbo Air-to-Water charge cooler and a super long gear box (135mph in 4th) whereas the Scirocco, due to hood constraints, is running our known Gen 1 intake manifold and dual side mount Air-to-Air intercoolers along with an OEM R32 ring and pinion (105mph 4th). The Decathlon was outfit with the identical gearbox as the Scirocco but features the new twin GT30-blown 3.6L V6.
The Texas Mile would offer us the perfect arena in which to evaluate these three similar, yet different, configurations. We also used the event to study and update our Stage 3 DSG software to hold the high Torque requirements of the aero forces encountered above 270km/h (Stage 3-Special) along with testing 3 distinctly different DSG clutch upgrade kits.
Scirocco FT565:
With the new owner track side looking on, we rolled this unique car to the starting grid. The Scirocco is so much quieter than Skela’s R32, it took me a bit to register just how hard I was coming off the line. I turned a first run of 166pmh, then a 167.6. After a quick study of our performance logs, I put hot-shoe John Kiewicz (formerly of MotorTrend magazine) behind the wheel, and with a few shifting tips from me, he landed the perfect 170.00 mph!! Needless to say, the owner was over the top happy! Sunday, the owner took the keys for the first time and drove from our paddock to the starting grid. His first ever driving experience with his new car had him launching hard out of the hole in Goliad and turning a 168.5mph run. Not bad for his first ever test drive!
Skela’s R32:
Friday morning we were able to run passes with Skela himself behind the wheel. Set @ 17psi, he turned a respectable 158mph. Hearing it form the side line, I new right away that to take advantage of his Uber long gears, a change in the shift pattern would be needed to access his motor’s power profile. Later, on Sunday, I jumped behind the wheel and, with a hard launch and a quick shift on the DSG, we pulled a 169.6mph. Straight after my run, we put John behind the wheel and he ran a convincing 172.8mph. The CVP and air to water cooler were a key in these quick back to back runs as we were able to swap out the hot water for ice water just before the runs!
Decathlon:
This particular car simply scares me. It is so violent off the line that I have to keep a cool head every time I strap in. We offloaded this car from the trailer in New Mexico to allow us to get 1000kms on the new engine and DSG clutches prior to running it wide open in Texas. Averaging 19mpg on pump fuel and with the 3.6 running code free, we were all a bit more relaxed. Installed behind the 3.6L was a specially prepared gearbox based off the OEM R32 final drive. We new this would limit our top speed, but we needed the Texas event to run in the upper RPM’s to study fuel maps and DSG performance.
Day one, the car was running 169.1mph at the mile, the problem being that it hit that speed at the ¾ mile mark. We stretched the RPM to 7400rpm, I made some short shifts and puttered down the fist half mile to crank it up for the last half. This allowed me to tap out the gear box at the lights to capture the 172.5mph ticket.
We can say that this new clutch and engine package will work and will test the car as it is at our local ¼ mile track before preparing it to chase the 185-190mph mark in October.
CVP level 2 MK4 :
After a number of runs on 93 octane, then race fuel, we swapped in a new test file and logged its data with back to back runs. This impressive set-up started the weekend with mid to high 130’s and ended Sunday with a 144+ mph run. We will take all the data collected from this event, and coordinate with a local R owner so we can upload a car onto our Superflow Dyno and close off this program’s development allowing us to officially release it. We are very proud of how this car ran and the efforts invested by Chris to get to the event and to log and test all the various data points.
Melanie and I handed off the keys to the truck and trailer to Nik and Tony who flew in as valuable support crew for the weekend, and caught a leisurely flight back to Vancouver, reflecting on the event as a whole.
Once again, the people of Texas left an enormous impression on our team. We had a great time with Skela, Chris, and our entire HPA owners/fans group. Thank you to everyone that helped out with the various tasks and needs at the event; these small efforts go a long way!
The remarkable variety of cars performing at this event continues to impress us and the camaraderie amongst the drivers and crews is incredibly welcoming. Our little corral of VW’s felt right at home surrounded by the numerous Ford GT’s, Porsches, Lambo’s that stretched up and down the mile.
Participating at the Texas Mile has offered us real time data as correlation to our chassis dyno work that was performed on the three FT cars prior to our departure. We also collected critical data for many prototype bits that we will now release into production.
Back at the workshop, our entire team is sharing in the victory of our hat-trick of inductions into the 170+ MPH club and is already planning how to break into the next barrier come October.
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