Hill Climb events have been around for some time, but the Mount Washington Climb to the Clouds hill climb does it on dirt. Similar to the famed Pikes Peak Hill Climb, the Mount Washington hill climb starts at the base of a mountain and climbs until visibility is nil. An AST customer, HAR RACING took their 2008 Mitsubishi Evo into the clouds at this year’s event in June.

Rob and Zsanett are a husband and wife rally duo. Rob drives and Zsanett keeps him from stopping for directions from the passenger seat. Their team name is HAR RACING. HAR is an acronym for Hill Climb and Rally racing. They compete in their 2008 Mitsubishi Evolution X in the All wheel drive (AWD) Open class. This is THE big class with the fastest cars.

Rob and Zsanett rolled up to Mt. Washington in New Hampshire with a grand total of 1 autocross on the car. They would have liked to had more time to shake down the car at a track day or rallycross to test the new engine, pedalbox, brake pads, AST dampers and spring setup, but at least they were at the event with a complete, mechanically sound car.

Day 1 – Friday Practice
On Friday, each of the 75 invitation only teams were able to test their cars on the lower portion of the mountain. HAR RACING finished in 30th place for the day. Rob was happy because the car seemed to run well and handled as expected. It was a confidence building day. In racing, confidence is a MUST before you can start pushing a car on a track…or the side of a winding mountain dirt road.

Day 2 – Saturday Practice
Saturday is usually the day competitors are allowed to practice on the top half of the mountain, but torrential rain kept the course closed. Each time had to count on their 15 mph reconnaissance drive on the course earlier in the week. The teams were allowed to run the lower part of the mountain for a second day. Even in the rain, the added seat time was of great value to Rob and Zsanett. They were able to better their time and move up in the practice results to 2nd in class and 3rd overall!

Day 3 – Sunday Race Day
Sitting at the start line, waiting to start, Rob said he felt really good about how the car was set up and the new confidence and speed they found on Saturday.  The crew also helped by tweaking the suspension setup slightly in preparation for the dry conditions.  REV, REV, REV BOOM!  The EVO launches and tears up the mountain.  Check the video below, you’ll see some nice right 6s, left 5s, right 4s into tight 3s (rally speak for how fast and/or tight the next turn is – also note the 7.21 mark – FOG!). Things were going great on the bottom of the mountain, but as the Evo climbed in elevation, they reached the clouds.  At one point, the fog was so thick, the course notes were rendered useless and they had to drop down to 2nd and 3rd gear speeds and drive by sight.  They finished their first run in 1st place in the AWD Rally-1 class!

Their second run lengthened their lead when they cut approximately 25 seconds off their time to clinch the AWD Rally-1 class WIN!

AST Suspension Setup
The HAR RACING team sported some AST 5300 rally spec dampers.  These coilovers are similar to the road race offering, but offer a more robust construction to handle the abuse of rally.

More information on HAR RACING

AST Suspension continues its dominance by sweeping the podium for the third straight GRAND AM Continential Tire Challenge race at the Road America 200. The Stevenson Motorsports No. 9 Chevrolet Camaro RS.R driven by John Edward, rocketed to the point position and eventually slid past Billy Johnson is his No. 61 Roush Performance Mustang Boss 302R before a full course caution and a heavily damaged a retaining wall caused the race to end under yellow flag conditions. Johnson and Edwards traded the lead 4 times in the final 20 laps. Many times throughout the race, the two were running side-by-side and Edwards’ winning pass was made with a daring power slide through Turn 1. The final podium position was taken by the Rum Bum Racing team in their No. 13 BMW M3.

In addition to sweeping the top 3 finishing positions, 9 teams running AST Suspension finished in the top 12. AST Suspension currently holds 8 of the top 9 positions in the 2011 season team standings for the Grand Sport class. Brian Hanchey, General Manager of AST Suspension – USA said, “We’ve worked really hard to create a quality damper package that is attractive to more and more of the teams. It is clear that many of the most successful teams on track have at least one thing in common, AST dampers.”

Check out the GRAND-AM Highlight Video

GRAND-AM Continental Tire Challenge teams utilizing AST dampers include: Turner Motorsport, Roush Performance, Stevenson Motorsports, Fall-Line Motorsports, BimmerWorld Racing, Rum Bum Racing, DeMan Motorsport, CKS Autosport, Subaru Road Racing Team, Finlay Motorsports, A.M. Performance, i-MOTO, Trade Manage Racing, BGB Motorsports, Doran Racing and Compass 360 Racing.

Round 8 of the Continental Tire Challenge will take place at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca in Salinas, CA on July 9th.

We recently had a conversation with Aaron over at the Winning Formula.  He mentioned Nathan’s Evo and the on track success it has had in 2011.

Nathan owns a Mitsubishi Evolution IX (Evo) that has been competing in the National Auto Sport Association’s (NASA) Time Trial A class (TTA) and other Time Attack events throughout the Midwest.  Nathan begin tracking his Evo shortly after he purchased it in 2006.  After a couple of years of non-timed open track events and driving schools, the urge to buy a transponder and the thrill of competition took over.

For those of you not familiar with NASA’s time trial system, TTA is the second to fastest class with TTU (the “U” is for Unlimited and we do me UNlimited).  Now that you know this, you also need to know that Nathan’s Evo is hardly “stock”.  In fact, he’s made lots of upgrades to the engine, engine management, drivetrain, wheels/tires, brakes and suspension – he has our AST 4100 damper package.  If you’d like to see a full list of upgrades, check out the 2011 setup Nathan’s blog.

Let’s Talk Suspension

Over the winter, Aaron at the Winning Formula and Nathan had several conversations.   Nathan said he’s had 4 other suspension setups and each one left him feeling like there was more speed in his Evo with the right setup.  Nathan said, “I have constantly been on the lookout for new affordable options for my car to really take it to another level.”  Aaron and Nathan talked extensively about his options and finally settled on an AST 4100 series damper package.  The reason for this choice was because the NASA TT rules don’t favor remote reservoirs or more than 2 way adjustable shocks and Nathan did not want to get bumped into the unlimited class.  Nathan said, “I thought the price was very reasonable for a quality inverted single-adjustable shock.”  Aaron helped Nathan pick out the right spring rates and the Winning Formula installed and set up a baseline for testing the new setup once the midwest’s snow melted.  The Winning Formula performed the installation, alignment, corner balanced and set the ride height just before the first track day.

On Track Action

Nathan’s first track day with his new AST setup was brrrr COLD – 36 degrees!  He ran street tires in favor of his grippy, but heat loving Hoosier R6s.  He had several new items on the car in addition to the new AST dampers, so he took it easy, hoping the temperatures would rise.  Even with the cold temperatures, street tires and low boost, he was immediately comfortable with how the car handled and was able to push the car to within 2.5 seconds of his personal best!  He said, “The new setup was very compliant and predictable from day #1.”

Nathan started off the year with 4 wins in his first 4 events and 2 track records!  Since then, he’s gone on to break more track records throughout the Midwest.  If you’d like to follow his journey, check out his blog.

If you like videos (who doesn’t), check this out:

Nathan’s immediate goal is to continue development of the car and make a run at the NASA TTA National Championship at Mid Ohio Sports Car Course in September. He would also like to compete in the Grassroots Motorsports Ultimate Track Car Challenge in July. To vote for him, create or login to your Cardomain account and give him a 5 star vote. His profile can be found here

Good luck Nathan!

For more information on AST Suspension, visit www.ast-usa.com

For more information on the Winning Formula, an AST Suspension – USA authorized dealer, call 502.499.7459.

When you think of Porsche as a brand, speed is one word that comes to mind.  But, 234.6 MPH, that is CRAZY speed!  The more amazing feat is that this isn’t a gutted “race car”, instead, this is a full interior, street legal 997.1 with a lot of help from a Twin Turbo system, built and raced by AST Suspension – USA dealer, Evolution Motorsports.

Our friends over at Evolution Motorsports specialize in neck breaking speed for late model Porsche owners looking for more speed, elegance or balance.  We chatted with the guys a while back when they told us about “MAYHEM”, the 997 pictured.  They told us that the car was capable of hitting well over 200 miles per hour and needed a suspension that would help the Porsche stay glued at speed, a LOT of speed!

For those not familiar with the Texas Mile event, it is a Top Speed event where participants travel 1 mile from a standing stop.  They then have a half mile to shut it down and get back to normal human speeds.  The latest Texas Mile event was where this unnatural Porsche came closer than any Porsche street car to the speed of light.  Congrats on the killer run!

By the way, when is the last time you’ve seen a Porsche with a parachute?  A-W-E-S-O-M-E

Vehicle Specs:

MAYHEM, or the EVT1500, began life as a twin turbo Porsche 997 in 2007. It was acquired by Todd Zuccone of Evolution MotorSports with 6 miles on the odometer for the sole purpose of Extreme Testing. When the car had been in the EVOMS shop for less than 24 hours it began its transformation with a simple ECU performance flash. Since that day, it lives as a Research and Development platform for John Bray and the other EVOMS engineers.

The EVT1500 Performance System features an EVOMS built 4.0-liter twin turbo engine with horsepower of 1485 and Torque of 1320. This upgrade also includes all of the needed safety components, suspension upgrades, transmission modifications and all other needed aspects of the car to match the performance of the engine. The cars post a 2.5 second time in 0-60 and runs the ¼ mile in excess of 160 MPH. The complete car weighs approximately 3200-3600 pounds depending on options.

How does it handle?

MAYHEM utilizes at set of AST 5320s.  These 3-way adjustable dampers with 45mm inverted front struts and custom low and high speed compression were built with super high speeds in mind.  The crew at AST-USA knew that with speeds over 200 MPH, the shocks were of paramount importance because it gives the driver the confidence to keep their right foot planted.  We realize that much of this record is due to Evolution’s ability to pump out nearly 1500 hp, but we still feel like a big part of the record by giving the driver the confidence to keep the right foot planted (see video below from 1:06 to the end – THAT is keeping it planted!).  See what John Bray, senior engine builder for EVOMS had to say regarding their AST Suspension.

“Our EVT1500 Porsche 997.1TT had great stability at high speed, especially above 200MPH. Additionally, due to the full adjust-ability we were able to tweak the suspension at the track on the weekend. We are looking forward to hitting 240+ next time out, and AST will be there!”

So what does 234.6 MPH look like?

More Photos: http://bit.ly/la1AgE

We appreciate Evolution Motorsports for sharing their story.  Evolution MotorSports also features performance upgrades for Ferrari, Lamborghini, Mercedes, VW, Audi as well as a full line of upgrades for all late model Porsches including the new 2012 Panamera turbo.  For more information, View the company websites at www.EVOMS.com and www.EVOMSit.com

Earlier this year we talked with Edmunds.com about an interesting concept. Can you make an Evo X still streetable yet fast enough to beat a Nissan GTR on the track? Since one of our test cars is an Evo X that drives to AST every day AND we race it in NASA Time Trial, we thought we had the right combination.

Edmunds.com has had the suspension on their Evo X GSR for almost a year now. The final installment was this test at Streets of Willow. Check out the video!

We get many questions about shock dynos so we shot this video to show some of the basics.  As we get time we’ll expand this to show more information about what you are actually looking at on a dyno plot.

The 2009 SCCA Solo2 Nationals was the breakout event for AST Suspension. If this independent YouTube video is any indication of the popularity gaining with ASTs, I’m not sure what is. Pay attention to the large number of AST stickers on various makes and models. . Nationals video.