MW3 Motorsports » Jim

2011 TTA Season Part 1

Jim — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 20:17:37 +0000

2011 has been a fun season so far in the MW3 Evo IX. With a rough start to the season by cutting a tire at the first event and barely mustering 2nd place, it seems to have picked up and we have started to put down some good laps. Jim and the Evo have made a home in TTA class with NASA Rocky Mountain and the class is really starting to grow. A-class tends to have a wide variety of cars from highly modified E36s to the baddest of American V8 muscle. Although the Evo is down 4 cylinders to most of these beasts, the power to weight ratio remains consistent in the class to keep it even. With the help of Tobz tuning in Denver (and a set of 272 Cosworth cams), the Evo can almost make the same power as a lot of its V8 counterparts with some skilled tuning.

Other new additions this year are external GPS units made by Qstarz, and a fancy Android app which logs valuable lap data and in-car laptimes that really help improve the car and driver. If you have an Android, be sure to check out the Trackmaster app by Trackaroo, you can save quite a bit of money going this route and get a good amount of data for the price.

Thus far this season the MW3 Evo has set 2 lap records, three 1st place finishes, a 2nd place finish and sits in the points lead going into the last two events. With some stiff competition beginning to mount in A-class, the second half of the season should shape up to be a great one. Hopefully with some good luck and some consistent driving the MW3 Evo can continue to get quicker this season, notch another record and possibly the TTA championship.

As we mentioned in the last post, come join MW3 at High Plains Raceway on August 5th for an open lapping day!

Stay tuned for more updates, results and product reviews this season.

New Sponsor – Titan Specialty Metals

Jim — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 03:51:57 +0000

Titan Specialty Metals began helping MW3 several months back and has done an impeccable job working on the E36. Jeff is tall and has some unique requirements to adhere to NASA’s safety rules. Micah (Titan’s owner) has been great to work with and has customized his work to accommodate Jeff’s needs. The cage is in, and absolutely surpassed all of our anticipation. We’re excited to see the custom dash that will be installed after paint is complete.

We’ll be sure to keep you updated on the build and Titan’s contributions – THANKS Micah!!!

New Sponsor – Michael’s Auto Body

Jim — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 03:46:04 +0000

We would like to welcome MW3′s newest sponsor to the team – Michael’s Auto Body in Aurora, CO (and their newest store in Castle Rock, CO). The E36 was dropped off and within hours they started the painstaking task of stripping the chassis for paint – in 35 minutes they have the entire rear end stripped! Not only is this crew diligent in their approach, they were all super cool and supportive of our sport. We are happy to have them join and will keep you updated as Michael’s continues the with the MW3 E36 paint job.

MW3 Evo is prepping for NASA Nationals

Jim — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 20:23:44 +0000

September 16th – 19th marks the 4th annual NASA National championships @ Miller Motorsports Park in Salt Lake City. MW3 will hopefully have one entry in the event if the stars align and we can get sponsors to partner for this venture. Our Mitsubishi Evo IX is being prepped for what is sure to be stiff competition in Time Trials. We are optimizing the Evo for A class this year which is a very quick class and our car is well suited for this weight-to-power ratio.

E36 M3 Build

Jim — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 22:39:41 +0000

As promised, MW3 is continuing the E36 build and thought we should update you on the recent progress. First, we started to form a good relationship with PEAK Eurosport in Denver, CO www.peakeurosport.com. We’ve been looking for a shop who knows the scene, to coach and to give us good advice so that we stay on the right track. Jeff’s been working with PEAK for a couple months now and has sincerely been impressed!

UUC Corsa Exhaust

The recent upgrades all started with Jeff getting a bug after the DE event in Pueblo and ripping out the entire interior. Then, with the assistance of PEAK, we’ve added the UUC Corsa exhaust from the header back. Without any cat it surely makes the E36 sound like a full-on track car, without the interior it’s music to the ears in the cab.

The next thing is the roll cage. After some discussion, PEAK and Jeff landed on a design that meets all SCCA and NASA regs. The work has begun with the main hoop pocket being welded in. The Race Tech RT1000 seat and Schroth Profi II-6 harness also arrived this week . The work is under way and we should have the car back right before Christmas…nice Christmas gift, Jeff!

Race Tech RT1000 seat

Stay tuned for more pics of the cage being built, it’s underway as we speak…

MW3 Paint Schemes

Jim — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 07:07:48 +0000

Ok guys, using the Forza Motorsports 3 rendering engine we were able to build the MW3 Mitsubishi Evo as we would like if money was no object. Along with the best racing physics available, Forza also features an awesome paint and decal shop where you can create your own paint schemes from scratch. You are only limited by your creativity. Check back for the E36 and the E90 paint schemes.

New Paint on the Brembos

Jim — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 03:55:48 +0000

If anyone out there who drives an Evo has done a track day or five, then you might have noticed that your pretty red brembo calipers have started to turn maroon. The MW3 Evo IX was no exception. I tried to put up with it as long as possible, tried to convince myself it was a badge of honor, but the brownish maroon calipers finally pushed me too far. So I decided to pick a color that would match the car and would not turn brown.

I did some research on paint and found a caliper paint made by VHT paints. The VHT caliper paint is designed for the custom detailing of brake components. According to VHT, it is heat resistant to 900°F (482°C), which should be good enough for track use. If this paint doesn’t withstand to the heat of track duty, they make another coating good to 2,000°F.

Before attempting this 4 hour adventure, I decided to see how much info I could get out of the manufacturer. According to an anonymous source at Brembo, the best way to re-coat their calipers is to leave the calipers on the car, scuff the clear coat with a 320 or higher grit paper, and paint right over the existing paint. The anonymous source said that the brembo factory coating makes a great primer for re-painting. They re-inforced not taking apart the caliper and re-painting as it can damage some of the internal components. As with any paint job the prep work is the most important. The bulk of the time is spent taping and masking.

After the prep is done, all you need is three coats of paint and two or so of clear. In between the third coat of paint and the clear, our decal master Jeff stuck on hi-temp vinyl brembo decals. So blah blah, instead of going through this step-by-step, check out the photos below.

New brakes for our E36

Jim — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 03:54:06 +0000

MW3 added a new brake setup for our E36 this week. We started with Zimmermann drilled rotors, drilled rotors do a better job of dissipating heat and gasses than solid rotors. Next step was Hawk HP Plus brake pads. HP Plus pads utilize a unique Ferro-Carbon, high-tech friction material that was developed and manufactured for autocross and track applications. Finish up with Motul RBF 600 brake fluid and you have a great brake setup ready and waiting for a beating.

High Plains Raceway

Jim — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 04:54:33 +0000

MW3 will be out at High Plains Raceway on September 18th doing some testing and lapping. HPR is located 60 miles east of Denver, CO. This will be the inaguraul run for our new E36. Come on out and join us.

Wheels for the Evo

Jim — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 00:33:22 +0000

MW3 added a new tire and wheel setup for the Mitsubishi Evo this weekend. MW3 recieved a sponsorship from wheeldude.com and got some Rota DPT 17×9 wheels to run on the Evo for this season. These are not the lightest wheel on the market, but they are not heavy by any means. They weigh in at 18lbs. each. We will be running Kumho Ecsta V700 rubber on the Evo for this season and hope to get good traction and wear out of these tires.

We are running 245/40/17s on the evo to start with the possibility of going up to 275s depending how the 245s work. The stock tire size for an Evo IX is 235/45/17. The stock wheel size is 17×8 +35 offset.