Rubber bushed suspension arms? In an Aston Martin race car? Really? Yeah, that's what I thought.  After a deep conversation with the AstonMan, which literally lasted all of about 2 minutes, we put an order in for all new suspension arms fitted with 'rose joints' to replace those mushy rubber bushings.

A fun photo shoot at Road Atlanta the morning of our first race.  The place is a roller coaster, such a sick track!

Check out the video posted below for a 3 minute time-lapse face melting view of a race weekend with AutoTechnic... well... maybe not quite a face melter, but I think it's pretty sick. Let me know if you're into it.

The paddock set-up comes together pretty quickly and is instantly transformed into a mobile work area. Usually we have a huge awning to veg under but coming from the north, we wanted to take advantage of the sunshine the best we could... Needless to say we went home sunburnt and it was WELL worth it. 

This weekend went almost too smoothly, the car was dialed and with only a few minor bump settings on the rear dampers, we had the Astonman up to speed..Wait...Astonman? Who is that you ask? Follow us on our journey of supporting the only Aston Martin GT4 competing in the SCCA Majors series.  All media will be covered by Car Guy Nation here---> http://www.carguynation.com/astonman. Click the link and follow us! 

      We finished off the weekend placing 2nd in BOTH SCCA Majors races without having any mechanical failures.  The only problem we faced was being too loud (the car that is) and consuming far too many cylindrical food items (gross).

     With the quicksilver "silencers" fitted this baby was screaming at 104dB, just a hair over the limit... stay tuned for some new exciting updates coming within the next few days.  Chao! 

Thursday evening we delivered the car to the vinyl shop, I needed the car back no later than Saturday afternoon to allow myself some time before our Tuesday afternoon departure to get the fit and finish work done.  Not to mention this car now had new dampers all around and the initial setup isn't just a walk in the park, I needed time.  

There was some issues wrapping these complex body lines so I didn't get the car back until late sunday afternoon (leaving me two days to get it sorted).  No worries though, theres no motivation like the last minute, time to get cranking.  I set my base ride height, scaled the car and then aligned it finally buttoning her up around 3:30pm, Tuesday afternoon. We then loaded it on the trailer in the pouring rain, off to Road Atlanta with wet socks. 935 miles later we step out of the truck doors to a windy and cold, but sunny, Road Atlanta... 

After a long, cold, uneventful winter, dyno day had finally arrived!  The day’s subject?  A BMW 3 series ITR car fitted with a built M52 engine.  As this tightly built powerhouse was revved to 7000 rpm on two massive steel rollers, sounds of its valve train and injectors triggering echoed off the grimy cinder block walls.  Merely thinking about it, much less experiencing it, gives me chills. All of the work and attention-to-detail put into the assembly of these race motors, finally pays off. This is the true test, a test that insures perfection.  The first dyno pull is always bit stressful, while nearly pinging this screaming moster off the rev limiter, my heart-rate rises, if something was to go wrong, it could be catastrophic. 


The ambient temperature was cold, only 35 degrees Fahrenheit, and our first pull was not promising.  We were down on power from last year’s numbers, the car was running a bit too lean for my liking, and these issues had to be resolved that day.  After numerous pulls, a few tweaks of ignition timing and some fine adjustments to the volumetric efficiency table, we had five percent more torque than last year, with cooler timing and a "safer" air-to-fuel ratio.  Success is the only word that comes to mind! Check out the short video below! My GoPro battery died so I wasn't able to get anymore footage then you see below!  Next time.

Today, I tackled the rear suspension.  During the crash the left rear was stuffed pretty hard... SO, just to be safe we saw it fit to replace all the suspension components on that side. While doing so it made sense to toss these Nitron remote reservoir shocks in there.  These shocks have rebound and compression adjustments which the previous set-up didn't offer (Bilsteins)... We're totally anxious to play around with these bad boys during our test day in Atlanta.

I wasn't kidding when I said we.. replaced.. everything!.  Perfect time to do a little detailing as well... A clean race car = A happy mechanic! 

Magic. Reassembled with new parts.... Ready to be hammered on.  

Today, was a fun day... I mean, the opportunity to cut holes in an Aston Martin hood does't come around to often.  Installing the Aero Catches was on the priority list for today... the hood needs to be properly aligned in order to fit the LF wing (fender).  

Here is the front bumper fitted with the secondary carbon fiber air ducts... A 365mm brake disc needs a MASSIVE amount of air to keep cool... these should do the trick!  The wire mesh is adding protection to the oil-cooler that lies beneath.

A photo of the old right side door after the crash... straight can-openered if you ask me.

Today, we finally got the car back from the body shop... Last June (2012) we had an unfortunate day at Watkins Glen and the poor Aston suffered some extensive damage during a "racing incident."


Now it's crunch-time, with only 10 days until the car needs to be ready and loaded on the trailer for our first race at Road Atlanta. This year we will be campaigning this monster in SCCA's Majors series. "The U.S. Majors Tour is the pinnacle of championship racing in North America."  


For more info on the new series click the link -------------------> http://www.scca.com/events/index.cfm?eid=5364

Follow me for a daily look into what it takes to transform this once race damaged GT4 into a race winning machine. ( Ill post up some "before" pictures... don't get nervous.)

When the car came back to us, it was a skeleton; lacking bumpers, sills, doors, front "wings", etc.  Today I began to fit the new right side sill, front bumper, fenders, and headlights.  All this work needs to be done very carefully to assure all body lines come together to meet in harmony... 
 

New style rear bumper...  Carbon fiber heaven? I think so.  This will accent the new Areo Kit we'll be slapping on this year quite nicely... Unfortunately things in England have been a bit backed up (too many tea breaks) and we will not have the sick wing to show off in Hotlanta.  

Hey everyone,
Today I'm trying something different and exciting! Ive always wanted to do some cool time-lapse photography; so today I started assembling a race motor with my GoPro taking photos every 10 seconds. Hopefully it comes out cool, stay tuned for the video! Cheers,
Jared.