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Steeda
#20
Up From The Ashes
Steeda's resurrected 20 car brings home victory in its second outing.
It was all smiles in the Steeda pits when the latest incarnation of the world-famous number 20 race car brought home another road race win November 18.
Steeda's race team suffered a devastating set-back earlier this year when the 20 car rolled during the last few minutes of qualifying at Lime Rock for a Speedvision World Challenge race. The car was all but destroyed and but has since been rebuilt from the ground up with an entirely new body.
Now Steeda's race team is back on track. Although they were sidelined for the remainder of the season, the Steeda team is still excited about the regional SCCA-sanctioned races they'll be participating in.The second of which was an East Coast Racing Championship series 1.5 hour endurance race at Homestead Raceway.
Steeda's car qualified second overall in a mixed field of 78 cars and finished first in the SPO class. The only car that was faster around the 2.25 mile road coarse was a brand new Porsche 996 Motorola Cup car that cost almost five-times as much as the production-based 20 car.
Steeda Autosports President Dario Orlando was in the car for the first 50 minutes of the race. Although it had been about a year since Dario had been in the driver's seat he had no troubles mixing it up with several Camaros while keeping the 20 car out of trouble and out in front of pack.
The field was a varied and interesting one with everything from twin-turbo Supras to tube-frame Goody's dash cars. With almost 80 cars on the track you would expect a number of altercations, but the race was
surprisingly smooth with only two full course yellow-flag cautions. The first of which came on the first lap when an ITB VW Golf blew its engine.
"During the race you try to get into a rhythm to be consistent and not overdrive the car." Dario said.
Out on the track the new 5-Link rear suspension worked well to cure wheel hop when accelerating hard out of the corners, a problem that had showed up on the track before.
At the mandatory five minute pit stop Steeda Controller Glen Vitale took over driving duties during the second half of the race. Dario had tried to take it easy through the first half of the race so there was still plenty of car left for Glen.
"I made sure to give Glen a good car with some brakes and tires left," Dario said.
A five minute pit stop may seem like a long time, but the rules say the driver can't be in the car while it is fueling. Fueling the car takes about three minutes, so you have about 2 minutes to get the new driver in, belts adjusted and ready to go. Because of the crew's preparation and practice sessions the stop went really smooth with no loss of position.
Glen has a lot of race experience driving his Formula Vee car, but had never been in a 3000 pound race-ready Mustang with 430 rear-wheel horsepower. Luckily number 20 was very forgiving on the track. Glen was used to taking some of the corners at Homestead flat out in his Vee, but was in for a big surprise when he slipped in to the Mustang.
On one of the first few laps he found himself going into a corner way too fast, but the car excused Glen's initial mistakes and he never lost control.
"I made a lot of mistakes at first in braking and turn in, but luckily the car was very forgiving," Glen said. "I just tried to turn consistent lap times and keep the car on the track"
Glen was amazed at the similarities in behavior of the racecar and his street-driven Steeda Mustang.
"The turn is was a lot like my street car," Glen said.
During the last 15 minutes of the race Glen was completely blinded by the setting Sun on the front straightaway. Glen couldn't even see turn 1 until he was almost on top of it! Steeda Crew Chief Steve Chichisola put some tape on the
windshield to act a make-shift sun visor, but it only worked for about 10 minutes as the fiery Florida Sun dipped into the horizon. By the end of the race Glen was having so much trouble he had to radio in to ask if the flag he saw waving in the starter's hand was the checkered flag.
Afterwards Steve was glad to report the car had performed flawlessly through the endurance race. Steve had some concerns about the engine but was confident it would last though the enduro because the amount of dyno time on the motor and the tweaked engine management system.
Under the hood of the 20 car sits a 2-valve 4.6 liter modular engine with heavy modifications. The unique powerplant's foundation is an aluminum Cobra block. It's filled with a Cobra steel crank and topped with stock Ford Racing two-valve heads. Custom pistons slug it out in the bores and a Ford SVO high-flow intake with its Cobra style dual throttle bodies handles the induction. Fuel is fed by Steeda billet high-flow fuel rails. The icing on the cake is a T-trim Vortech supercharger making 9psi of boost. The combination makes about 430hp right now, but the race team thinks there's a lot of untapped modular power available.
Steve was astounded with the lack of wear in the 20 car's Brembo brake system. The front setup consist of 13 inch Cobra rotors with Brembo 4-piston calipers. Because of the durability of the brakes, the 20 car used the same rotors for 5 hours of racing with no problems.
"The longevity of the Rotors is amazing," Steve said.
One reason for that longevity is the HTH compound pads. These pads are softer than an endurance pad, yet still provide the necessary bite to effectively brake.
Other parts of the bullet-proof 20 car include a Tremec 3550 transmission, Steeda Tri-Ax billet shifter and a Detroit Locker rear.
With this fresh taste of success the Steeda race team is anxious to get back to the track to rack up more victories. They plan to use races this year as an extended testing session to tune and tweak the car in anticipation of next year's the Speedvision World Challenge.
Steeda's race team is gearing up for the first race of the series at Texas Motor Speedway in Ft. Worth on March 2-4. Make sure to check your local listing for the race on Speedvision and check out Steeda's website at
www.steeda.com
for all the latest Steeda Race Team information.
Submitted by Steeda.
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