Flatirons Syndicate Motorsports Podcast

If you have been following with our Podcast, you know that a lot has been changing in the Automotive Aftermarket in the last couple of years.

In the wake of the Cobb Tuning EPA settlement, one question that was on the top of our minds lately is how building a car has changed in the last 5 years.

Is it better or easier to build a car now compared to 5 years ago?

In this episode, Jon, Tasso of OTC Racing and Jeremy of Money Shift Rally sit down to try and answer this question.

Can we still build a Project Car in 2024?

Thanks for watching and Stay Tuned!

On September 16th, news broke that Cobb Tuning had settled with the EPA and was fined $2.9 million for violating the Clean Air Act.

With Cobb Tuning being so involved with the Subaru community, this definitely caught a lot of our attention. Jon and Harvey from The Boostcreep talk about the implications of Cobb's EPA settlement, and what it could mean for the Tuning industry going forward.

If you would like to take a look at the the Cobb Tuning EPA Settlement, or the other cases mentioned in the podcast, here are links to them:

Cobb Tuning

https://www.epa.gov/enforcement/cobb-tuning-products-llc-clean-air-act-settlement

https://www.epa.gov/system/files/documents/2024-09/cobbtuningproductsllc-cp.pdf

Cummins Diesel

https://www.epa.gov/enforcement/2024-cummins-inc-vehicle-emission-control-violations-settlement

Rudy's Performance Parts

https://www.epa.gov/enforcement/rudys-performance-parts-inc-and-aaron-rudolf-clean-air-act-settlement-information-sheet

Thanks for watching and Stay Tuned!

It seems like every year EV's are getting a bit better, and this year, a couple of them have made a big jump forward.

As I have hinted at in a few earlier videos, I am now driving a 2024 Tesla Model 3 Performance, and when Mike Pettiford of Go 4 it Services heard this, he was initially couldn't believe it.

Mike brought down his 2023 Golf R and we both took a drive in the others car to get a sense of how they were to drive, then we sat down to discuss how close EV's were starting to get to something like a classic Sport Compact car to drive.

Was the Tesla fun to drive? Could it handle anything like the Golf R?

We talk about it all on this episode of the Flatirons Syndicate Podcast.

If you would like to stay up on what Mike is up to at Go 4 it Racing, make sure to follow him here:

https://www.instagram.com/go4itracingteam/

https://www.facebook.com/go4itservices

Thanks for watching and Stay Tuned!

You all had a lot of good questions about Rally Suspension, and for Episode #154 of the Flatirons Syndicate podcast, we are going to answer them.

Subaru has a long history of competing in Rally with the Impreza, WRX, and STI. If you want to take your Subaru out to run a Rally-X event, Hill Climb, or Stage Rally on dirt, suspension is going to be a key component for success.

There are a lot of options out there, and we go through your questions in this episode to hopefully give you a better idea of what to look for as your are building up your Rally Car suspension, and some other key details as well.

Thanks for watching and Stay Tuned!

If you have been following our Podcast, or the oiling issues that have come to light with the FA24 BRZ/GT86, then you may be familiar with the testing that Brian aka. 900BRZ has been doing with his BRZ and the work that Verus Engineering has been doing to develop an oil pan to solve the issue.

Both 900BRZ and Verus have put out a couple of videos recently detailing their results with their higher volume pan for the BRZ, so I reached out to them to have a discussion about how the testing is going, and how close we are to a solution.

We talk about the testing that they have been doing, the current results, and how close they think the pan is to a final solution.

Thanks for watching and Stay Tuned!

Here is a link to 900BRZ's video talking about testing the Verus Pan:

https://youtu.be/Pvgg7dl-I5I?si=_uAi4uyZ4PY6zSPH

And here are links to the recent videos that Verus Engineering has put out about their pan:

https://youtu.be/DIMl-jgNzZM?si=1SgZlaiKYwzD_uBF

https://youtu.be/kVEpMu6YHeo?si=_ZxprMwecS6SLG-d

https://youtu.be/eBHT5b3sf9o?si=0O7uc7Eq4JrOstAp

On this episode of the Flatirons Syndicate Podcast, we go through your questions about our Pikes Peak WRX STI!

We collected your questions from a post on our Youtube channel last week about our car, the issues that we have had, and some of the details about running up Pikes Peak.

The topics covered in this episode include talking about our current and past engine failures, chassis stiffening, running a turbo at high elevation, oil pressure and oil starvation, and the over all results that we have seen running the STI Type RA block.

Thanks for your questions and thanks for watching!

Stay Tuned!

In this Episode:

00:00 - Introduction

00:23 - Your Youtube questions about our Pikes Peak WRX STI

01:08 - Thoughts on chassis stiffening, and difference in approach between a caged and non-caged car

08:52 - How does the suspension and tires react to the change in elevation as we run up Pikes Peak?

12:21 - What caused the original failure of our STI Type-RA engine?

15:08 - What caused our current engine failure? What did we do to address the risk of another failure? What head studs did we use and are we still using the same turbo?

17:23 - How do you deal with the turbo getting less air at the top of Pikes Peak?

22:43 - The car set a record time with a stock EJ block; are there any plans to upgrade the internals, etc.?

23:57 - How do we deal with the issues of oil sloshing and moving through the PCV system with the high incline and g-loads?

27:35 - What caused the decrease in oil pressure on our race run up Pikes Peak?

32:20 - Final thoughts

If you have been following along with our 2024 run up Pikes Peak, you know that we had an engine failure during qualifying. You might also have heard us mention that we most likely hurt the new engine in our Pikes Peak WRX STI on race day.

Now that we have a Haltech Nexcess standalone ECU installed in our race car, we finally have the ability to go through the data to see what happened to our car.

In this episode of the podcast, we sit down with Harvey Epstein of The Boostcreep to go through all the date, and diagnose what happened to both engines running on Pikes Peak.

We have to give Harvey a big Thank You for all his help with tuning the car, and supporting us through race week, as well as helping us to go through all of the data!

Thanks for watching and Stay Tuned!

If you want to follow Harvey and see what he is up to, you can find his Youtube page here:

https://www.youtube.com/@UC5-7rQ5hNTmiR9RAZnmsjsQ

And his Instagram here:

https://www.instagram.com/the_boost_creep/

In this episode, we talk with Karen Bailey-Chapman, the Senior VP of Public and Government Affairs for SEMA about the effect that the Chevron Deference ruling from the Supreme Court could have on the Automotive Aftermarket.

After our conversation with Lance and Billy from Cobb Tuning about their NextGen Flex Fuel system (Episode #145) a few of you commented that a decision had just come through the Supreme Court that could have an impact on the standards that the Automotive Aftermarket has to meet.

But because this was a legal matter, we needed to reach out to find someone that was familiar with and we were fortunate to connect with Karen who works for SEMA where this area is her specialty.

In this episode, we cover what Supreme Court overturning the Chevron Deference means, how it could impact the Automotive Aftermarket, and we talk about actions that have already been sent in motion in just the few weeks since this decision came down.

If you would like to find our more about what SEMA does and the issues that they are working on, here are links to their page, as well as the SEMA Garage and the SEMA Action Network:

https://www.sema.org/

https://www.semasan.com/

https://www.semagarage.com/

Thanks for watching and Stay Tuned!

This episode of the Podcast is a little different.

We have a Modena differential in the shop, and we are going to be taking a close look at it so I put up a picture in our Community section to see what you all would want to know about it.

In response I got a number of great questions about differentials in general. And rather than answering them each in the comments, I decided to answer them in the form of a Podcast!

The idea here is that this should be more helpful, and make the information easier for others to find and use.

Let me know what you think about this format and if this goes well, I think that this is something that I will try to do more in the future.

Thanks for watching and Stay Tuned!

In this Episode:

00:00 Intro

00:29 Trying something different with this episode

01:17 Subaru differential Pros and Cons Aftermarket Vs OEM

12:05 Which diffs work on a WRX when doing a 6-speed swap?

13:28 What about Wavetrac Differentials?

22:00 1-way,1.5-way, or 2-way? What specs are best for Rally, Street, or Track?

29:21 When should you Upgrade the diffs in a Daily Driver/Track car from stock?

31:00 What makes aftermarket differentials better for track use?

36:00 What about Quaiffe?

38:28 Do you like this format of the Podcast?

40:35 Are 5-Speed and 6-Speed differentials interchangeable? Do they all have options?

43:50 Closing thoughts

Roncar aka. Ron Zaras was a core member of Hoonigan going back to nearly the beginning. He has now gone out on his own, and as of a couple of weeks ago, he has now raced up Pikes Peak.

For the 2024 Pikes Peak Hill Climb, Ron drove a Hyundai Ioniq 5 N up pikes peak alongside Dani Sordo, Paul Dallenbach, and Randy Pobst.

In this Episode, we talk to him about his path from Hoonigan to racing, and how he connected with Hyundai to compete in the Pikes Peak Hill Climb this year.

We find out about all the work that went into his 10:49 run, and what it was like racing an Ioniq 5 N up Pikes Peak!

Hyundai USA has put together a video series detailing their run up Pikes Peak this year, and you can find those videos here:

https://www.youtube.com/@UCx_eAZKDceT1yaY4bRo636A

And if you want to follow Ron to see what he is up to, follow him on Instagram here:

https://www.instagram.com/roncar/

And keep an eye out on Vin's Youtube channel here:

https://www.youtube.com/@UCwd7pERggUt7qrBY_keAr_g

Thanks for watching and Stay Tuned!