CaseB

Well, these guys went to Road Atlanta.. and WON! Awesome job to you team! Woooo Hoooo!

Mgloznao

Any updates on the steering wheel hub? Also when placing the aftermarket seat did you have to remove any hardware other than the original seat?

Knightmare69

Bump for info on the steering hub and aftermarket seats.

andieve

Sub'd.

I have an '09 6 Speed and have started shopping with FCP Euro because of this build and helping to support a company focused on the performance with this platform.

Hopefully imitation is the sincerest form of flattery as I will be mimicking many of your modifications as OEM+ is the best.

Thank you, good luck, and be safe out there!

FCPEuro

In regards to the hub we machined it ourselves. There was no off the shelf piece available so we had to have to have it made.

Thank you. Even though that was 3 months ago it feels like it was just yesterday.

It's awesome to hear you have been inspired by the build. Imitation is always the most sincere form of flattery. If you have any questions please don't hesitate to reach out. The best part about the entire build is most of it is off the shelf. We've made a lot of changes to the car since Atlanta and actually made some durability improvements at Watkins Glen last month that will eventually trickle down to some of the products we sell.

FCPEuro

I wanted to pop back in this thread and give everyone an update on the C300 and where everything currently stands. Things got kind of busy and the schedule is pretty packed so I apologize for neglecting this thread (didn't forget about it though).

Our last race was at Watkins Glen International on 4/22 and 4/23. It was an interesting weekend in terms of weather and with a large field (80+ cars) it was also pretty crowded on the track. There were a lot of accidents and because of the accidents there were a lot of full course cautions and a black flag. Our strategy was not as good as it needed to be and we finished 4th in class on the Saturday race. On Sunday we were a little more on top of things and had a much better strategy for stops. Ultimately, we came in 2nd in class on Sunday finishing 10th overall for the weekend out of all classes. Currently, for the season we are sitting in 2nd place in overall points for all classes. There are still 5 races left this year with our 3rd race coming up this weekend (5/20 and 5/21) at New Jersey Motorsports Park.

We were able to test and validate our custom rotors for racing and they definitely passed the test. We're going to be running them again in New jersey and if they pass the second round of tests we will be very close to offering replacement rotor rings for P30 package W211 and W204 AMG models.

Here are some photos from the Watkins Glen Race:
















We took some photos of the car post race. We did have a slight run in with another car on Sunday and there was a decent amount of cosmetic damage done. However, the car outside of a busted headlight, damaged hood, and damaged bumper support damage was minimal:













Here is our recap video from Watkins Glen as well for your viewing pleasure:

cyoungk

Looks amazing...
love that 6speed manual!!!

Knightmare69

Any closer pics and are you guys willing to machine them for customers?

FCPEuro

Thank you. First thing someone asks when they look at the car and never seen it before is "did you put a manual in it". When we tell them it came like that they then ask if we imported it from Europe. We then tell them we drove it back to Milford from Manhattan.

I can definitely ask for sure. We had a local machinist make it so I can't see it being an issue. I'll ask and get back to you as soon as possible.

Just204

Are you guys going to go to any races in the NY area? like to meet you guys and see the car.

FCPEuro

Happy Monday all,

This past weekend we had our third race of the season with the W204 C300 at New Jersey Motorsports Park (Thunderbolt Raceway) for Round 2 of the 2017 American Endurance Racing Series. It was another successful weekend for the team and we were able to further validate the work that has been done to the car so far. We left on Thursday morning and on our way down to Millville, NJ from Milford, CT we stopped at two of our major partners facilities to visit and show them the car. For many of them, this was the first time they have seen it in person. We first stopped at ROWE and then we stopped at CRP Industries (Rein). Everyone was really excited to see the car in person:







Shortly after the stopovers we then arrived to NJMP around 7PM. It was unbearably hot with temperatures in the mid 90's and humidity also very high. We unloaded our equipment, worked on a few things here and there, and set up shop for the busy day on Friday which would involve practice in the morning and qualifying in the afternoon:










Friday morning came and we got to the track early. It was another scorcher with temps getting into the upper 90's and track temperatures. Tire wear became an almost immediate problem due to the temps and the surface of the track. During practice we pretty much went through a set of tires. We kept running them through qualifying but it became obvious by the end of the day we would have to put a second set on which we ended up doing. There was also an issue with a vibration from the front left. We thought we had a failing wheel bearing but the notchiness we felt tearing down the front left seemed to go away as the car cooled down. It was an odd experience but the car didn't need anything major. We put the front left back together, a new set of tires, and went back out on the track for the last half hour of the day to determine pit lane delta and scrub in the set of tires we would use for the race on Saturday. We ended up qualifying for class 3 and gridded 4th in the class. In the evening after qualifying we went through the car, swapped out front rotors and pads, bled the brakes, topped off fluids, and gave the car a good once over.

Temperatures came down over the weekend which was nice in terms of wear and tear on the car as well as for the drivers and crews in the entire field. Despite temperatures coming down significantly tire wear was still an issue we had to be aware of.











We ended up changing the front left tire about 5 hours into the race as it was on it's way to letting go. This created a 5 minute plus pit stop due to AER rules with tire changes. Despite the time lost in the stop this tire change allowed us to get to the end of the race. We were edged out by Team ACP with an S52 swapped E30 as our front right tire was in very bad shape in the last half hour of the race. Regardless, they ran a good race and had the faster car for the conditions of the day. We came in 2nd in class and finished 13th overall out of 58 cars. Below are a few photos of the tire wear and how severe it was during the 9 hour race on Saturday:









The very worn tire is the front right we limped home on. It had about 15PSI in it after we crossed the finish line. The tire was very close to debeeding or simply exploding on us. This was an eye opener and would play a critical role in the race on Sunday.







After the race on Saturday we went through the motions and got the car prepped for the race on Sunday. It's usually the same process with a nice shake down of all the suspension parts, brake pad check, fluid checks and top offs, as well as cleaning the car down. We put a new set of RE71R's on and strategized for hot to pull off a tire change on Sunday.


Here is the front facing livestream footage from Saturdays race:

Here is the rear facing livestream footage from Saturdays race:

Sunday's race had similar temperatures to Saturday's race but the primary difference is we were running fresh tires and had a strategy on how to improve tire life while maintaining times around the track. We also had a tire change strategy to change upwards of three tires at once if need be without losing too much time in the process. We started much further back in the grid on Sunday in class and had to work very hard at the beginning to get towards the top. The reason why we moved back in the grid on Sunday is slower cars from the class above us had been bumped down into class 3. Essentially everyone is gridded based on how they crossed the line from Saturday. We eventually worked out way up to P1 in class and about 7th overall near 1PM. We did this primarily by using our efficient pit stops and team work to get the car in and out as needed.



















We did our tire change pretty late in the afternoon around 3:30 to ensure we would make it to the end of the race. It was a good idea because even with the fresh tires that went on in the morning we were not going to be able to push at the end which is most likely what cost us P1 on Saturday. We brought the car into the paddock, did a tire change and driver change, sent it back down pit lane for fuel and got it out in just under 5 minutes. While this is 2 minutes longer than what a normal stop would be it was critical to make it to the end of the race. It ended up being a good call as it allowed us to come out on top and take P1 with the car strong until the very end with close to a 1 lap lead over P2. The P1 finish in Sunday's race gave us P1 for the entire weekend. We're currently sitting 2nd in points for the reason out of 90 teams.










Here is the forward facing livestream from Sunday's Race:

Here is the rearward facing livestream from Sunday's Race:

All in all, a very good weekend and further validation that the W204 is a solid platform. On a side note, we have yet to add any oil to the engine over the course of the weekend for the race. We have two Blackstone lab analysis reports which I will share in a separate post.

Mgloznao

Please bump on hub. Hopefully it will be able to accommodate DD cars!

Just204

Are u guys in CT?

FCPEuro

We had to sacrifice the stock steering wheel in order to make the hub. That's the only catch to this.

Yes, we're in Milford, CT.

Mgloznao

[QUOTE=FCPEuro;7157436]We had to sacrifice the stock steering wheel in order to make the hub. That's the only catch to this.

Was there also the removal of the blinker stock and cruise for the hub to fit?

Just204

That's cool, not too far from me then. Maybe some time soon I'd like to come up and meet u guys if I could.

Just204

THis just hit me on your tire issue. Did you guys heat cycle them first??

FCPEuro

No need to remove it. We actually still have the steering column control switches still mounted. I'll take an up close photo and show you what it looks like in more detail.

Absolutely. We're going to be doing cars and coffee style events throughout the summer so there will be plenty of opportunity.

The tires we ran on Saturday did have a heat cycle on them (maybe 30 minutes of track time) and that was on the hottest day of the weekend. Track temps were well above 100 degrees. We have a pyrometer where we checked temperature on the tires to ensure an even contact patch and we also adjusted the toe a bit as well. Despite those changes, the track just decimated tires all weekend. Part of this was due to the roughness off the track surface, rubber being washed away with rain the week before, and most of the high speed turns have little to no banking so you really push hard on the front tires in the corners.

The tires we ran on Sunday were fresh with no heat cycles. We also changed our strategy on some of the corners and held off the throttle to preserve the front tires as much as possible. Ultimately, we changed tires on Sunday as a precautionary and to make sure we could push the car to the end whereas on Saturday we limped it home losing 5-6 seconds a lap.

For the 13 hour night race coming up in August at Autobahn we will definitely be changing all 4 just because of the run times.

Just204

If I remember right you probably can get more life out of the tires because you might be missing a tire prep step for their use. I did a lot of research on tires and found for the best longevity you need to do an initial heat cycle different from what you said. Basically, for a brand new race/track tire you do an initial break in by doing a heat cycle(not aggressive), then you put the tires aside in storage for at least a week if not 2 at 1/2 tire PSI. What this does is break the compound down/make malleable (like what a heat is supposed to do) but letting the tire sit allows the tire compounds to bond much better then if you just ran them new. This is said to give the tire much better life to a degree.

I would recommend doing/trying this, if you buy from tire rack they offer a controlled heat cycle service that I'd recommend. Those tires don't have a long tread life in general and this could make a difference to help you. If you research this you will see what Im talking about.

And I would like to come up and visit on one of your meets, just need to know then .

catmandoob

Just want to say it's been a great read through this thread and some very interesting things learned. Thanks for taking the time to do follow ups and include some great info. as well as doing a fine job indeed on the car.

Congrats on the runs so far and hope you all keep getting it done!! Good luck out there.

FCPEuro

Here is the coverage from Saturday and Sundays race

Knightmare69

That's fine, those of us looking for a hub weren't looking to use the stock steering wheel anyways. I assume yours is a removable steering wheel?

FCPEuro

Absolutely. We just needed to sacrifice a piece from a stock steering wheel since nothing was commercially available. We use a removable steering wheel with a quick disconnect. The hub looks like this installed:








We're still using the steering angle sensor and column switch housing as would be included from the factory in this setup.

Racecru

Super excited to see what you are doing.
I am also interested in your seats and door cards if you still have them.

rjpeaks

cool stuff!