Playing in Pueblo

["Lawson, Dave" <dlawson@ball.com>]

On very short notice I was invited to join another ur-q owner and
a quad-cam ford mustang cobra for an open track day at peublo
motorsport park. It sounded like a great mental health day and a
good reason to burn up some old R1's. The 2 ur-q's were loaded
into the trailer and we headed south.

It was a gorgeous fall day with the temperature about 85 F. 
We were the only ones there, 3 cars, 4 drivers, and a 2.2 mile 
10 turn road coarse. The mustang was setup for SCCA T2 
competition, the ur-q's were street/daily drivers and setup 
as follows, 1983 models, single knock MC engines, K26 turbos. I
was running about 12psi boost and the red ur-q was running 15 psi
boost. The red ur-q has a 2 piece EM which has been ceramic
coated inside and out, down pipe coated too. My ur-q has 
eibach/bilstein/delrin bushings and the 3.89 final drive, 
the red ur-q has h&r/bilstein and stock bushings and 
4.11 final drive. Both had G60 brakes, I was running stock sway
bars and the red ur-q has a larger rear bar. I was running old
BFG R1's on the 15x8 wheels and the red ur-q had R1's on 16x8
S4 wheels.

Neither myself or my friend had driven this track before. The 
mustang driver has raced there in SCCA and PCA events. Our
instructor/mentor for the day has logged lots of track time here
over the past 10 years. He is a quattro fanatic, has a 91 200 TQ 
Avant and is building a new SCCA ITB coupe GT. He used to 
run pro rally back in the late 70's and early 80's. I hadn't been 
on a pavement track in a few years but it all started to come back 
after a few laps. My friend in the ur-q and I worked our times 
down to 2:02 and the mustang was running about 1:53. The ur-q's
were very evenly matched, even with the difference in gearing.
I was seeing 105 at the end of the front straight and the G60's 
did a good job of hauling the car down to ~65 for turn 1. The
ur-q's performed great even though the temps were on the high 
side. I was seeing the coolant close to 250F, the oil temp on
the LED bargraph was 140-150C and my EGT was 1400F. 
After a few sessions I down loaded the ECU codes and I got
a 2141, I left my diagnostic notes at home and couldn't remember
what it was and made a few phone calls. Turns out it is an error
for max retard of timing due to knock. I swapped in another ECU
with a chip with less aggressive (stock) timing and went out again.
I still got a 2141. I ran the rest of the day with a lighter foot and
somewhat short shifting. My ur-q ended the day by blowing off
the vacuum line from some sort of damper for the fuel system.
I shoved it back on so the car would idle and we loaded it back 
into the trailer for the drive home.

Some observations. My car had very neutral handling at the limit
with just a hint of understeer. I have been tracking my ur-q on and
off for the past 8 years and I have never experienced any handling
traits like Dave E mentions for cars with the "old" style suspension.
I will keep looking. The G60 brakes worked great with, dare I admit,
stock Audi pads and crossdrilled rotors. 5 year old hardened track 
tires are way better than any street tire, the car had tons of grip
and not a peep from the tires. Driver experience plays a big role.
I feel I was doing fine, but our guide went out in an ur-q and I was 
chasing him, he lost me after 3/4 of a lap. I wasn't willing to commit
that much to keep up with him. He was running close to the 
mustang times with a 100 hp deficit. I need to follow through with
my plans for installing a larger oil cooler and radiator. The red ur-q
has more body roll than my ur-q. The ceramic coatings on the red
ur-q lower underhood temps.

Now it's time to get the ur-q ready for steamboat, we're expecting 
snow tomorrow, off with the track tires and on with the haka nrw's.
-
Dave Lawson