GN Wins at SCCA Autocross!

[scot w.]

I just wanted to thank our customer Mike Mahalik (buickmike231) for winning the E Street prepared class at the recent SCCA autocross event. This is his first win ever! Congrats on your Win Mike!

Mike has our DSE 2" drop coil springs & DSE gas replacement shocks on his Grand National along with the new BFG Rival tires and that is It!

Mike says the second place car (05 Mustang) finished 4.3 seconds behind him! That's one hell of a lead Mike good job!

Mike has also beat some pretty nice cars on the autocross with his GN, like a new CTS-V and a 2011 SS Camaro with Mast engine work and Detroit Speed suspension parts. Way to represent the Buick!

I am sure Mike will chime in and hopefully post up some pictures for us...

 

[flamed86gn]

Mike is a good friend of mine and a dang good driver I must say I love how he gets the most out of his car he drives to our local drag strip puts on slicks runs 105 mph 1/4 mile with very stock car and drives home might I say an hour drive to any track from mikes place and he kicks but at autocross too that's getting the most out of car enjoyment ! Way to go brotha mike


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[bishir]

We want a video!

 

[Bescurred]

We want a video!

In for video!!

 

[flamed86gn]

There is one older vid do a search Gn autocross his name buickmike231


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[Turbo6inKY]

There is one older vid do a search Gn autocross his name buickmike231


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I just did that search and the first four results were me and Scot. No sign of buickmike231.

 

[flamed86gn]

It's titled video of good guys run autocross


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[BuickMike231]

Thanks Scot and Brian for the kind words! I do enjoy my car to the fullest and drive it as much as possible! Here is a link to the last Good Guys autocross, but this isn't the SCCA event that I won at that Scot mentioned. I also do not have the BFG Rivals on at this event either.

I will be going to another SCCA event the 19th and my buddies coming so I can get some good pics and video as well!

 

[BuickMike231]

Here are the Rivals on some 84-85 T Type wheels.

Here's the car with the full set of Rival and T wheels on the car, it's super low since these are a bit smaller than I would have liked but all I could get for the 15s. The DSE spring/shock combo drops the car 2" and these tires are actually another 1.5" shorter than what I normally run on the stock wheels, so I'm sitting 3.5" lower for my autocross set up! It handles absolutely amazing, to the point where after one event I ordered a four point harness because the car now turns so hard I can't stay centered in the seat!

 

[BuickMike231]

Here's the only (bad cell phone) pic of the car from the SCCA event that I won. I've got the Rivals on as well as my class letters and numbers and my DSE decals as well! I've also added some nice GNS stickers to the quarter windows (thanks Scot!). This is how the car looks when ready to rock at the SCCA events. I will get some better pics and hopefully some new videos from that event as well!

 

[SGRIM]

Cool!

 

[scot w.]

View attachment 189367
Here are the Rivals on some 84-85 T Type wheels.

View attachment 189368
Here's the car with the full set of Rival and T wheels on the car, it's super low since these are a bit smaller than I would have liked but all I could get for the 15s. The DSE spring/shock combo drops the car 2" and these tires are actually another 1.5" shorter than what I normally run on the stock wheels, so I'm sitting 3.5" lower for my autocross set up! It handles absolutely amazing, to the point where after one event I ordered a four point harness because the car now turns so hard I can't stay centered in the seat!

And now you really need to be thinking about a custom baffled oil pan before you toast your bearings. That oil is going all over the place in that pan!

 

[BuickMike231]

I hear ya Scot! That is something I will be checking into for sure!

 

[bishir]

Curious, would it be bad to just run an extra quart of oil?

 

[Turbo6inKY]

Curious, would it be bad to just run an extra quart of oil?

Somebody that knows about how much clearance there is before the crank contacts the surface of the oil in the pan needs to chime in on this. Overfilling can help up until a point, but once the crank starts digging into the oil, it cavitates and you end up with a crankcase full of foam.

There are other problems, too. Under sustained high RPMs, a lot of oil gets pumped up to the valvetrain and pools under the valve covers. If your driving like a nut, it doesn't drain back to the pan as quickly because it's being driven away from the drain holes.

 

[BuickMike231]

Hey guys, just wanted to give an update after Sunday's autocross event. I ran the E Street Prepared class again and ended up taking 2nd place out of four in the ESP class. The Mustang from last month came in 4th, while a 2000-ish LS1 Camaro took 3rd and 1st since there were two guys co-driving. Now the interesting thing about this Camaro is the fact that it had a full 6 point cage, gutted interior, and full Hoosier autocross slicks on it!! The one guy who finished 3rd never had a better run than me all day, and I actually lead the class for the entire event until the 1st place guy's last run. That last run he got past me and beat me by a little over 1 second. Most people who autocross pretty hardcore say that full slicks are good on average for 3-4 seconds over street tires, and I was on the BFG Rivals which are a 200 treadwear street tire and was only a bit over 1 second behind this guy.

I have some pictures I will put up below and I do have video but my main computer is down right now and I can't pull the video off my camera, I will get that up here as soon as I can. I have video of a few runs along with these pictures!

 

[bishir]

Getting it done with T-Tops! It looks like your dump pipe is almost dragging the ground with those rims/tires... Thanks for the pics!

 

[BuickMike231]

It is pretty low with these wheels/tires but there is plenty of clearance....I just wouldn't trust driving those wheels on the highway or something like that. Around town or for the autocross they are perfect though. And of course, gotta represent the T Top crew!

 

[xtremexnyc]

Hats off to you. Looks like fun.

 

[nickrov]

Hello, I am new to the site and have been in search of a GN or t with t tops but all the guys around here say they are a nightmare and want me to get a hard top. Has your car cracked anywhere or have you had any issues because of the t tops you wouldn't have had w a hard top? I will mainly just be driving it on nice days but i would like to do exactly what your doing, track once or twice a year and autocross a few times for fun . Any tips or suggestions ?