FXMD Widebody Kit

[CurtisC]

What happened….

Mike from Autowave and I went through the car the weekend before the competition. We did a final tune, changed all the fluids and installed a new thermostat. Everything looked good, we made great power/torq and felt we were ready as we were ever going to be.

Everything was going great through the competition, we were doing very well. Nothing showed us there was any problems going on. The morning of the TA part of the event, we warmed the car up and everything looked good, even though in the braking test the day before, we all had to let someone else drive this part, the guy doing it locked up my brakes several times and put flat spots on my front tires, idiot.

Matt Andrews took the car out for some timed practice laps. I asked Matt to drive for me during the TA part of the event since all the other competitors had professional drivers driving their cars in the TA part of the event. Matt went out on the track and did 1 practice lap warming the car up, the lap time was 2 minutes flat not pushing the car. Then Matt started the 2nd lap and really pushing the car. After about ¾ of the lap we could see the car slowing down a lot and Matt came back into the hot pits and asked how hot I wanted to allow the car to get. I looked down at the gauges and the water temp was at 265, the oil temp was over 300 and the over flow coolant bottle was screaming like someone was killing it. I looked at Matt and told him it was a little late now to ask considering those temps were way to high already. I wish he had been paying closer attention to the gauges, if he had, all this probably could have been avoided.

We shut the car down and brought it back into the paddock area. The motor was so hot the paint on the valve covers was boiling and there was not a drop of fluid in the cooling system. We assumed that the thermostat might have gone south since we had just put it in and figured it may have been faulty. We started cooling everything down with water from a hose. Then we pulled the thermostat, cut the center of the thermostat out and put the gasket area back in. We filled the cooling system, and started the car. Surprising, the car started right up and was running smooth and still had good power. We bleed the system and let it sit and idle for 20 minutes. The water never got over 180 and the oil temp held steady at 186. We thought we were ok.

So Matt took the car back out for the last practice session, was about ½ a lap into it and next thing we saw was him driving across the infield back to the hot pits. The motor was screaming hot again.

We put the car up on stands and really started looking around trying to find what the problem was when we noticed the tunnel cover under the car was partially off. So we took it off completely and that’s when we found the problem. One of the tunnel rubber hoses blew apart and was dropped all the cooling fluid. (picture of the hose attached) We scrambled around like madmen and Fes from FXMD found a hose that would work. We put it on, filled the system up, bleed it and everything once again looked good. We never noticed the tunnel area was actually leaking water the first time around since there was water all over the place from trying to cool the motor down the first time around. Big mistake….

Now came the actual TA timed laps. Matt took the car out and started to push it and it over heated again ½ lap into it, it was too late, we had already lifted the heads from earlier, the damage was done and it was over of us.

There was a discussion between all the competitors and it was agreed on by all of us that we would be allowed to use the 2 minute flat lap time we did in practice as our official lap time in the competition. At first it was agreed on by Elliot from Sorce magazine was well. But as it turns out, that’s not what was allowed to happen. I can understand why, if you look at the times and points awarded for the TA part of the competition, the Honda S2000 ran right at 2 minutes flat and received 170 points for their time. If I was allowed to use my 2 minute practice time, this would have given us also 170 points. With this 170 points, we would have finished 2nd over all in the competition with 908 points, which really wouldn’t have looked good considering we never completed a official competition lap time in the TA part of the event. Had we run the lap time of under 1:56 we expected to do, we would have won.

It was heartbreaking to come so far and get so close and have it end the way it did.….

As for the motor….The motor was detonated. We cooked all the pistons and melted just about everything rubber or plastic on it. However, what was really amazing is the Rods, Crank, Heads, Cams, Block and pretty much everything else was in perfect shape. The actual Rod & Crank Bearings looked almost perfect. We attributed this to the fact we were running Mobile 1 motorcycle oil, which I am now a very firm believer in and will always run it in my car. It says a lot for any oil that can withstand 300+ degrees temp and not throw a piston through the block. Various pictures of the pieces attached.

Nick and I from Applied Motorsports are now rebuilding the motor. We are making several changes as well. I am going to E-85 for track use from now on. So many upgrades are in the process to the systems that will over all help protect the motor, make it run better and safer. The plan is to keep the car right at 600 rwhp and then turn our focus on suspension and handling from this point forward.

It’s all a learning experience, an expensive one at that…but we are pushing forward and will be a force to be reckoned with in the near future. I have also decided that from now on, no one drives my car anymore in any competitions. I will drive it myself…no matter how I do, I would rather finish last that to allow anyone to ever cook my motor again like this. Not that I might not have done the same thing, but at least I know my car, watch my gauges and know I would have backed out of it before it got the point it did. I’ve tracked my car enough to know what’s going on and what to look for when I am behind the wheel of it.

The car should be done in January sometime and then Nick and I will take it out to Spring Mountain for testing…then it’s on to 2011 and some more events to compete in.

Yes, I have SPA gauges that are mounted on the windshield pillar at eye level. Funny thing is, in the 40+ track days I have had the car on the track, I haven't had a problem keeping an eye on them and knowing where my temps are and knowing when to back off or shut it down. So in my opinion, that excuse is unacceptable. Specially when I have to foot the bill for the rebuild and look at the car sit for 6+ months because of someone else's failure to pay attention.

Jim,

I wanted to clear some things up here. I feel like you are being unfair to Matt as you are representing him to be an irresponsible reckless driver.

Let's recap.

You said the Car did a 2:00 warm up lap and then proceeded on to the 2nd lap (hot lap). Then after "3/4's" of a lap you noticed the car had slowed down a lot. At which point you noticed water temps had gotten to 265 by the time Matt pulled in.

There is something inherently wrong with the car if after 3/4's of a hot lap the water temp was at 265. There can be an argument made for negligence if he had stayed out in the car for multiple laps and did not pull in. The truth is, he was out getting a feel for the car for no more than 1:30 and then pulled in when he saw temps get that high after less than a full lap. Who expects a sorted track car to overheat on the first hot lap?

If you still want to put the entire blame on Matt, fine. Those are your thoughts. But I would reflect on why the car overheated under a full lap in the first place.

Furthermore, even after the damage was done, it was your decision to get the car back out on track to run a timed lap. I would have done the same. But I would of course assumed responsibility as well for any damage that may have occured. This was not Matt's decision or call to pull the car back out to do another Hot Lap. This was yours. Assume responsibility.

I won't even get into the email you sent Matt after this event. I don't think a forum is the place to discuss this, but seeing my good friends reputation misrepresented and to call his character into question is a shame.

For those of you that do not know me, I am the owner of the Supra at the competition. I don't mean any disrespect Jim, but I just don't see how you can blame Matt entirely for what had happened.

 

[Coz]

Curtis,

I don't blame Matt entirety for what happened. If you read my posts, you'll see that I also said had I replaced the tunnel hoses, it very well could have stopped this from happening at all, or, Had we found the problem with the tunnel hoses after the first over-heating, the problem might also been solved. There is no question this can be if'd to death...

However, any way you cut it, Matt wasn't keeping an eye on the gauges as much as I wish he would have been, plain and simple. he even told me that in one of his e-mails. I'm sure he had his hands full getting to know the car...and as you said, who would have expected this to all unfold so fast.

I've had this car on the track 40+ times, not to mention the many other cars I've taken out on the track in over 40 years and I have never run my temps up even close to 265 water and over 300 in oil temps, ever, whether it was the 1st lap or the 100th lap. However, no one could have seen this coming, the car ran great through everything else and I drove it to the track that morning. It was a series of events that was just plain bad luck at the worst possible moment.

The car never saw a hot lap sort of speak, never had a chance since it all happened the first time it went out on the track at which time Gary Sheehan told me he was behind my car when it was throwing out water & steam while it was under power screaming down the backside.

Yes, I have discussed this whole situation with Matt and I was pissed, you would be too if you just watched a 16 grand motor get cooked, and even he said he could have paid more attention to the temp gauges and when he did notice, it was too late. And really, who knows how fast it got that hot. I don't, I wasn't driving it when it happened. I can imagine it happened pretty quick all the same though.

I don't believe for a minute Matt did this on purpose, never have and never will, and if that's what it sounds like, then I apologize. It was a series of events that happened and is what it is.

Matt is a great driver and did his best for both of us. In case anyone doesn't know, Matt also drove Curtis's car in the TA part as well, which is the car that won the event.

The fact is, it happened and this motor took me a year and cost me 16 grand to build and it got cooked by being over heated to the point it did. Now it's down again for another 6-8 months and will still cost me more money than I can afford to rebuild it even with the help I'm getting.

Yea, it could have happened to me as well, but I doubt it would have since I would have been glancing at my gauges down every straight away and would have known to back out of it or completely shut it down long before 265 in water temps and over 300 in oil temps.

And that... is a fact Curtis....and yes, I have assumed final responsibility for it, the repairs, costs and time it's going to take to get it all done and back on the road. I don't know Matt all that well, but I do know you have known him all your life, so I understand how you feel.

With that being said, I can blame it on a lot of things, or even some of it on someone else, but ultimately, the final blame is on me since the car belongs to me and I could have done things different one way or the other.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing.

Again, Congratulations on winning the event. You did well and deserved the win.
How's your car running ?...Did you get the seal fixed ?

Jim,

I wanted to clear some things up here. I feel like you are being unfair to Matt as you are representing him to be an irresponsible reckless driver.

Let's recap.

 

[Coz]

Dave,

I can see that happening when your hands are full and trying to learn a new car in a track situation...still sucks all the same.

Just bad timing all the way around.

....the visibility, power, braking, handling, and keep an eye on the gauges. That's no excuse for what happened, just saying sometimes the gauges are the most neglected when you're put in a new vehicle.

 

[Matt Andrews]

Jim-

I don't have time to write now, but you are clearly leaving some facts out and have a strange view of the way things went down. You've done everything from accuse me of breaking your car on purpose to being careless. None of which are true. I'll post more when I get a chance, but I take character assasination very seriously. I have worked hard on a reputation of protecting peoples investments and being easy on equipment. The folks at FX referred you to me, and I have saved their car as well. I am sorry your car broke. But you are protraying information in a factually incorrect manner.

Regards,
Matt

 

[Coz]

Matt-

I know you did everything you could after it got that hot, I watched you drive across the infield the second time you went out, but as we both know, it was too little, too late.

Once again, shit happens and this was a case of bad luck and bad timing. Neither of us really know how fast the car got that hot and who knows once it happen if there would been enough time to react before the damage was done anyway.

Really, that's all there was to it.
It was a chain of events that continued to add up until it wasn't good for any of us or the motor.

From what I'm hearing today from other sources that have called me this morning regarding this, this whole situation couldn't have been avoided by anyone. I'm being told that the ARP Head studs that were used in the building of the motor, unknown at the time of the building, were over rated for their holding ability by ARP, were stretching and were causing several other motors to allow the heads to lift under boost. This has been verified by the builder of the motor as well...Not their fault either since they trusted ARP to give the right specs on the studs when in fact they were over rated.

So in this situation, nothing any of us did, or didn't do, would have kept this from happening. With the conversation I just had, I now know this was a situation just waiting to happen under the boost I was running, and no one, not you, me, or anyone else could have done anything about it or stop it from happening.

I know now of 4 other motors that have had the same thing happen. Fortunate for them, it was caught on the dyno and not on the track where we were putting the motor under a lot of stress.

Not your fault Matt. There is nothing any of us could have done to prevent it.

Unbelievable...My motor was doomed from the beginning. It was a time bomb just waiting to happen.
How frustrating...

 

[ChopsJazz]

Jim-

I don't have time to write now, but you are clearly leaving some facts out and have a strange view of the way things went down. You've done everything from accuse me of breaking your car on purpose to being careless. None of which are true. I'll post more when I get a chance, but I take character assasination very seriously. I have worked hard on a reputation of protecting peoples investments and being easy on equipment. The folks at FX referred you to me, and I have saved their car as well. I am sorry your car broke. But you are protraying information in a factually incorrect manner.

Regards,
Matt

This is none of my business, but Jim's posts sound very much to me like this is a case of C'est la vie. He has said many times in many different ways that it could have happened to anyone and he holds no one responsible.

 

[gixxer_drew]

Sorry this has to be my first post. My name is Andrew Brilliant. I am the engineer at FXMD.

One of the first things I do is make sure that the driver(s) knows some basic information, temp for pit in, temp for immediate shut down are one of them. Knowing those kind of things come from on track experience which unfortunately has costed engines with all sorts of drivers in the cars.

Matt has always been nothing short of exemplary in my car as well as the NSX in terms of being kind to the equipment. He always came in if there was a problem and a couple times my car was on the verge of overheating and he did park it at the temp I told him to. I would be in total disbelief to ever hear otherwise. I used gauges with a programmable flashing light and made sure they were close to drivers direct line of sight when they are focused ahead...

 

[Coz]

The gauges were there...They are on the windshield pillar just left of the line of site out of the windshield, and yes, they have programmable warning lights that were programed for yellow at 210 and red at 220 for water, 220 yellow and 230 red for oil. It's my fault for not going over with Matt the Pit In Temp or the Shut Down Temp, I know them because I drive the car all the time.....Told him where the gauges were located and which ones were which and off we went. That is my fault for not being more thorough in the paddock with Matt.

With my understanding now on what really happened in this chain of events, the heads lifting, I believe Matt, me or anyone else for that matter could not have stopped it from happening or reacted quick enough. From what I can tell, it was pretty much an instantaneous melt down.

This situation with the motor had been playing itself out for sometime, it just took some hard pushing to make it happen, which is what Matt was suppose to be doing and I wanted him to do, we didn't go out there to just cruise the car.

Sorry this has to be my first post. My name is Andrew Brilliant. I am the engineer at FXMD.

One of the first things I do is make sure that the driver(s) knows some basic information, temp for pit in, temp for immediate shut down are one of them. Knowing those kind of things come from on track experience which unfortunately has costed engines with all sorts of drivers in the cars.

Matt has always been nothing short of exemplary in my car as well as the NSX in terms of being kind to the equipment. He always came in if there was a problem and a couple times my car was on the verge of overheating and he did park it at the temp I told him to. I would be in total disbelief to ever hear otherwise. I used gauges with a programmable flashing light and made sure they were close to drivers direct line of sight when they are focused ahead...

 

[CurtisC]

This is none of my business, but Jim's posts sound very much to me like this is a case of C'est la vie. He has said many times in many different ways that it could have happened to anyone and he holds no one responsible.

these quotes were what didn't set well with me.

". I wish he had been paying closer attention to the gauges, if he had, all this probably could have been avoided."

"Funny thing is, in the 40+ track days I have had the car on the track, I haven't had a problem keeping an eye on them and knowing where my temps are and knowing when to back off or shut it down. So in my opinion, that excuse is unacceptable. Specially when I have to foot the bill for the rebuild and look at the car sit for 6+ months because of someone else's failure to pay attention."

I'm not hear to gang up on Jim or flame anyone. But things need to be set straight and the facts heard.

I'm glad you found the root of your cause Jim, and it seems like now you're able to accept the fact that it wasn't so much driver error as it was a faulty product / mechanical faliure. Head lifted, blown head gasket, coolant pipe burst, etc whatever the cause, this was not Matt's fault.

 

[gixxer_drew]

I dont know if the colors were meant to be inferred or you outlined them specifically to the driver, but you'll easily hear a driver saying there were a bunch of lights and have no idea what they are. I remember once on a pro race team, with drivers that drive the same car every weekend we had a photo of the dash switches/lights panel taped to the table on the pit stand for no other reason than to walk a driver through what they were when needed. Its not that drivers are dumb or inattentive, they are doing a job that to perform at that level, requires intense focus. I only count on them to check the gauges, etc at one or two places in a single lap. Usually the straight. And you can get a description like "theres a bunch of crap flashing here, what does it mean?" from drivers at the highest levels.

The gauges were there...They are on the windshield pillar just left of the line of site out of the windshield, and yes, they have programmable warning lights that were programed for yellow at 210 and red at 220 for water, 220 yellow and 230 red for oil. It's my fault for not going over with Matt the Pit In Temp or the Shut Down Temp, I know them because I drive the car all the time.....Told him where the gauges were located and which ones were which and off we went. That is my fault for not being more thorough in the paddock with Matt.

With my understanding now on what really happened in this chain of events, the heads lifting, I believe Matt, me or anyone else for that matter could not have stopped it from happening or reacted quick enough. From what I can tell, it was pretty much an instantaneous melt down.

This situation with the motor had been playing itself out for sometime, it just took some hard pushing to make it happen, which is what Matt was suppose to be doing and I wanted him to do, we didn't go out there to just cruise the car.

 

[Coz]

I know Curtis...Up until I could finally really talk about any of this in the open which finally got some feedback from others that had the same problems, it was all speculation on what happen, why it happen and how it could have been avoided. When in fact, the only way to avoid what was about to happen was to not run the car.

I've been blaming myself a lot on what happened, second guessed what should have been done, what could have been done differently and what I would have done if I had been behind the wheel at the time. But the fact is, I wasn't the one driving the car at the time so I all I could do is second guess, which wasn't cool to Matt.

So with that...EVERYBODY....This wasn't Matt s fault. Matt is a great driver, an honorable and good man. I would trust Matt to drive my car again because of who he is and the kind of person he really is....but from now on, I am going to drive it myself, which is why I built it in the first place, something I've seem to lose track of since building it and winning became more important than just having fun and enjoying my car.

PEACE !

I'm glad you found the root of your cause Jim, and it seems like now you're able to accept the fact that it wasn't so much driver error as it was a faulty product / mechanical faliure. Head lifted, blown head gasket, coolant pipe burst, etc whatever the cause, this was not Matt's fault.

 

[Coz]

Matt and I never discussed the lights....which was my fault.

I took a lot of things for granted I guess because I'm used to driving the car and know what to look for and where to look...

What I didn't give much thought to was a total stranger to the car driving it for the first time.

Another lesson learned.

I dont know if the colors were meant to be inferred or you outlined them specifically to the driver,

 

[spyman NSX]

Will that rear bumper become available for sale????????

 

[FXMDKen]

Yes, you can buy that rear bumper separately. email me at [email protected] for details. Thanks!

 

[Coz]

Exedy is using the NSX for their next series of magazine ads.

 

[Sandro]

Nice to hear(car looks so good).

 

[Coz]

E-85 Tuning by Mitch Peterson

 

[Mac Attack]

:biggrin:

 

[FXMDKen]

Congrats on the Exedy hit Jim! Car looks great!

 

[HIJACKER]

E-85 Tuning by Mitch Peterson

Too bad that blue sign is halfway coming off the wall and that guy is in the photo. Otherwise, it would be A+

 

[Coz]

Thank you Sir.

Congrats on the Exedy hit Jim! Car looks great!

 

[Quix-Draw]

Proud of you buddy... t.

 

[iApex]

Too bad that blue sign is halfway coming off the wall and that guy is in the photo. Otherwise, it would be A+

Nothing a little Photoshop can't fix!

 

[iApex]

Thanks to one of the guys on S2Ki (I have no photoshop skills lol).

 

[Track Addict]

I can't believe that you already have her back up and making numbers again! Great to see you back on your feet! in for full size picture to make desktop background. pm me