Element Tuning

Philip Grabow won the TT-Unlimited class setting the fastest outright time in the Whelen USTTC at New Jersey. © www.dwphotoworks.com

Subaru has been added to the list of manufacturers to win the country’s newest national time-trial series, the Whelen USTTC.

Philip Grabow convincingly won both days of competition in the TT-Unlimited class at New Jersey Motorsports Park (Millville, NJ), which saw record entries in the Whelen US TimeTrial Championship.

His Element Tuning prepared 670 horsepower 2006 Subaru STi, running Hoosier Tires, set the overall fastest time Saturday and Sunday. Grabow’s times of 1:26.072 and 1:26.333 were a staggering three seconds clear of his nearest rival, Steve Katz (Viper ACR), in the TT-Unlimited class.

Philip Grabow proved once again you don't need a Viper to win in the Whelen USTTC. © www.dwphotoworks.com

Commenting on the win, Grabow said:

“I really enjoyed running with NARRA. It was really nice for a change to run against some really fast cars [such as Viper ACR-Xs]. We took our very different Subaru, [which] somewhat seemed out of place initially but once the lap times kind of settled out clearly it was a car that belonged there.

It didn’t go perfectly for us. We did win, but the goal was really to set the fastest time of the weekend, period. But we had some electrical issues so it didn’t look like we’d be able to touch some of those Viper Cup car times.

This was a really well run, well organized event. The [class] rating was fair, the competition was good. The whole package was a top-notch event. It felt good to be a part of something bigger.

I’m definitely looking forward to running the next event at VIR [Virginia International Raceway].”

George MacDonald (Viper Competition Coupe) and James Booth (Viper ACR) shared the wins in TT-1, while Tim Jelle (Viper GTS) won both days in TT-2, giving Dodge the top step of the podium in every class apart from TT-Unlimited.

George MacDonald finished on top in Saturday's TT-1 competition. © www.dwphotoworks.com

TT-Unlimited championship points leader Carl Kafarowski, who won the class at both Chuckwalla and Sebring, could only manage fourth fastest both days.

The Canadian suffered from brake issues throughout friday’s free practice, and by his own account felt he was a day behind the competition, which he conceded was the strongest he had faced in the Championship since the inaugural round at Road Atlanta.

Kafarowski set his fastest time on Saturday and couldn’t match his effort on Sunday. Both days he was trumped by Steve Katz and Michael Von Quilich (Viper ACR-X).

Von Quilich was on ‘double-duty’. The North American Road Racing sanctioned event also featured the Dodge Viper Cup presented by Pennzoil, in which Von Quilich was also driving, along with the US Performance Driver Education program and the US GT Championship.

The biggest field of cars was in the TT-1 class. On Saturday a close, ‘david and goliath’ styled, battle played out between championship points leader Doug Wind’s four cylinder SRT-4 and George MacDonald’s 10 cylinder Viper.

MacDonald and his green “Lolly Girl” Dodge Viper Competition Coupe managed to take the win by just over a tenth of second, setting a time of 1:33:543 to Wind’s 1:33.647.

John Weigel (Viper ACR-X) completed Saturday’s top three in TT-1.

On Sunday James Booth (Viper ACR) stepped up to take the TT-1 class win, while John Weigel stepped up to out pace the Modern Performance sponsored Dodge SRT-4 of Doug Wind, who finished third.

Doug Wind finished second in Saturday's TT-1 class. © www.dwphotoworks.com

Tim Jelle topped TT-2 timesheet both days. On Saturday Scott Barton was second fastest followed by Canadian Michel Prevost. Sunday saw Edward Werry take second place in TT-2.

Tim Jelle won both days in TT-2. © www.dwphotoworks.com

Winners in each category are eligible for contingency prizes from Hoosier Tire and Cool Shirt®.

All the Action from the Whelen US TimeTrial Championship at New Jersey was captured using GoPro cameras by the Internal Production Group and will be broadcast later this year on GoRacingTV.com, hosted by motorsport television personality Tom Hnatiw.

Event results, images and news can be found at facebook.com/NARRAonline .

The next rounds of the Whelen USTTC will take place next month at Virginia International Raceway, July 8-10.

Just as we started to get the new car and myself sorted out our season is over but the new STi is performing better than we could have ever imagined.

New graphics from Speedesign look great. We wanted to do something new and different but keep that mean look the car had in all black. We couldn’t finish completely as the vinyl wouldn’t stick to the unfinished bumpers so we need to get those painted before the whole look is put together.

Rota DPT from WheelDude.com in 18×10 Matte Black hold the Hoosier 285s on very nicely!

New Sparco Circuit Pro Seats, Belts, and Steering wheel from OG Racing and Sparco USA keeping me safe.

One of the single largest and most critical improvements on the car is the Fulcrum Aero wing. John went above and beyond building us a reinforced with with improved double lap joint mounts.

Notice the heim joints for reduced stress on the mounts. The wing is also very easy to adjust because of this mount.

The final race of the NASA Mid Atlantic Championships was this past weekend at Summit Point Raceway. We updated our Element Tuning custom BC ER Series Coilovers with new valving and Swift Springs to increase front roll stiffness on the car in attempt to settle the rear end down under acceleration. We tested this at VIR warming up and ran a 1:59 which would have been good enough for 4th in the UTTC race so things were looking good.

On day one we set FTD breaking the old TTU lap record of 1:16.07 with a 1:15.4 lap but the cold track made it tough to get the heat I needed in my Hoosiers. On day two we tweaked the Fulcrum rear wing for about +45 lbs more downforce with only a 6 hp penalty in drag, dropped tire pressure on the driver’s side, and we adjusted the front and rear clickers on the BC coilovers. With the track temp coming up we were able to set a new TTU track record at 1:14.439!

Enjoy the video, From a 148 MPH Crash To A New Track Record:

Thanks,
Phil Grabow

The 2006 STI owned by Element Tuning customer James “MULE” Mulherin Jr. has a short feature in the September 2010 issue of Maxx Tuning Magazine.  You can view the article by clicking on the image above, or by downloading the 9.1MB PDF here.  This is just a preview feature though, so stay tuned for the full feature with dyno numbers once his car is retuned by Phil!

I had tuned this really beautiful 07 STi once before but we ran out of fuel so this time around we upped the fuel injectors to 1600cc so we could really see what she had.

Numbers
Dyno: Dyno Dynamics @ Pina Motorsports, WA
Tuner: Phil Grabow Element Tuning
Wheel HP: 700whp UNCORRECTED
Wheel TQ: 566wtq UNCORRECTED
Target Boost: 31 Psi
Target AFR: 11.5
Fuel: Q16 with Hydramist
Ambient Temp: 50
Elevation: 0

For some reason all the dyno plots this time around had the chop during spoolup on every car I tuned so maybe next time we need to adjust the ramp rate.

Car Info
Year: 2007
Engine Management: Element Tuning Hydra EMS
Turbo: GT35R 1.06 Twin Scroll
Intercooler: APS DR750
Meth Kit: Hydramist 80/20 water/methanol
Injectors: RC 1600cc, Bosch 044 Fuel Pump
Engine: World One — Element Tuning Rods, CP Pistons, +1mm valves, BC STG4 cams, stock block and bore.
Intake Manifold: Cosworth
Headers: ?
Uppipe: World One
Downpipe: World One
CBE: Invidia G200
Other: Element Tuning Competition Catch Can

Like clockwork this time the car tuned easily and without issues. First up was the pump gas and Hydramist which netted us 604 whp which is pretty nuts for a daily driver! Next we ran the new 1600cc injectors with Q16 and the Hydramist running 80% water and 20% methanol. Slowly turned up the boost, dialed in the AFR and a really easy 700 whp.

Thanks,
Phil Grabow
Element Tuning

More information and discussion can be found here:

This is really impressive for a bolt on turbocharger running E85 and pump gas. On this tune the customer swapped out the header and it appears we lost some bottom end power over the old but peak power stayed about the same (on pump gas). All the dyno plots on this tuning session had the “blips” where the WG opens and I just noticed this time around the dyno was set to 150 instead of 120 so that could have something to do with it.

Numbers
Dyno: Dyno Dynamics @ Pina Motorsports, WA
Tuner: Phil Grabow Element Tuning
Wheel HP: 532whp UNCORRECTED
Wheel TQ: 513wtq UNCORRECTED
Target Boost: 26 psi
Target AFR: 11.5
Fuel: E85 and 92 Octane pump gas
Ambient Temp: 50
Elevation: 0

Initially I tuned the car with DW 1000cc injectors but for E85 we stepped up to RC 1600cc with the base fuel pressure set to 50 psi but the regulator diaphragm failed so we had to replace the regulator with an Aeromotive A1000 (don’t waste your money on anything else!). We also swapped in a TurboSmart BOV to better manage peak boost pressure and not blow open.

Car Info
Year: 2007
Engine Management: Element Tuning Hydra EMS
Turbo: Element GT65 Bolt On
Intercooler: APS
Meth Kit: None
Injectors: RC 1600cc, Bosch 044 Fuel Pump, A1000 regulator
Engine: Element Tuning Rods, CP Pistons, Cosworth cams, stock block and bore.
Intake/Inlet: Magnus, APS
Headers: AMR
Uppipe: AMR
Downpipe: ?
CBE: Invidia
Other:

The Element GT65 Bolt-on really shined on E85 fuel especially given the car didn’t have anything done to the heads but a set of cams.

Thanks,
Phil Grabow
Element Tuning

More information and discussion can be found here:  http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1988414

by Scott Lear From the April 2010 issue

When it comes to our no-holds-barred Ultimate Track Car Challenge, the more cylinders, the better. Out of the 55 track-prepared beasts that entered the most recent competition, the top five finishers all had big V8 power. The next two spots went to six-cylinder racers—one with a turbo, the other with lots of revs and an exceedingly low curb weight. Squarely in eighth place overall, however, was a comparatively diminutive 2.5-liter four-banger.

The boxer engine in the nose of Phil Grabow’s 2006 Subaru Impreza WRX STI had less than a third of the displacement of some of the other cars. However, that didn’t prevent the Subaru from running at the sharp end of the pack with a 2:00.197 fast lap around Virginia International Raceway. A big turbo certainly helped, but power isn’t the only answer in the search for a quick time on track. In fact, due to heat issues, Phil’s Subaru was running in limp mode when it beat every other four-cylinder turbo at the event—as well as two Dodge Vipers and a full-race Ferrari F430 Challenge.

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