[s-cars] Finally back home, trip report (long)

[Mihnea Cotet]

Hi y'all,


So I finally made it back home this morning after 34 days spent in the US 
of A. As some of you have heard already, the trip went well and tuning went 
well too, which I'm happy and very proud of.

Huge thanks to: Scott Schultz, Dean Bredenbeck, Brian Link, Mike Pederson, 
Matt Litteral, Chris Myers, Brian Bilotti, Trevor Frank and last but not 
least Paul Krasusky for their help, hospitality, beers, vodkas and great 
food. I owe you guys big time. Also huge thanks all those who have trusted 
me and have participated to the tuning sessions.

Now I'm going to take a few days off to get rid of jet lag and I'll be back 
on the list as soon as I get some rest. The last 2 weeks of tuning have 
been exhausting, especially with some days were I've worked almost 24-7 
(Trevor knows what I'm talking about).

I got a great deal of experience over these 34 days, and I got to meet a 
whole bunch of great people!!!
A few bottom lines are: "FMIC is da shit", "tuning rules, soldering sucks", 
"CA 91 R+M/2 craptane sucks", and there might be a couple more that I 
forgot now.

Interesting datapoints: the stock S4 fuel pump was ok on Trevor Frank's 
monster running 29 psi of boost on his lovely T04E 50 trim and 57lb/hr 
injectors (rated at 43.5 psi, we've ran them at 60 psi). We've ran the car 
at 9:1 AFR @ 7000 RPM just for shits and giggles and 9:1 means that no fuel 
starvation could be observed. This is food for thought for those who think 
a motorsport fuel pump IS needed beyond RS2 spec. It might be for peace of 
mind, but it is definitely not a "must do" item, not unless your stock fuel 
pump is giving you grief (Dave Forgie and a couple other people).

Another one: 2 cars with exactly the same RS2 setup running the same boost, 
one of them was FMIC'ed, the other had the stock IC. The difference on the 
very weird Mustang dyno was 20 HP ATW in identical conditions, peak intake 
temp difference was as big as 24 degrees C at WOT. For all of you 
considering a FMIC, stop thinking and save your money, IT IS WELL WORTH THE 
EXPENSE!!!!!!!!!

I have dozens of emails awaiting a reply, please don't be mad at me if I 
can't get back to all of you guys in the next couple of days, I'd rather 
not get back to you if I can't think properly and wait a couple of days so 
my brain can work properly again. I can only do as much as I can.


Cheers and thanks again to all those who were involved in these tuning 
sessions all across the US in the last month. I'm looking forward to 
meeting you guys again sometime soon.

Mihnea.