With our two ringers at the ready, we headed off to one miserable, frozen racetrack. Seriously, there were ice ponds at the edge of the paddock. But those weren't nearly as worrying as the black STI sitting in the middle of it. It was every bit as built as our cars.
The Monster graphics seemed like an understatement on the flared-out WRC body panels. With its low-down Tein Super Racing suspension, the 285/35/18 BFG R-comps looked huge. Just like the others, the car was skinned in composites-Crawford taking things up a notch with its carbon roof (claimed to weigh only four pounds) and $12,000 WRC rear wing.
The motor was also as potent as its rivals. Crawford replaced the turbo system with its own kit (including a Garrett GT30R turbo and front-mount intercooler). Aside from the stock cams, all the internals were swapped for Crawford parts. This included a billet crank and longer rods, which-when combined with recessed-pin forged pistons-maintain stock stroke and displacement. Between the improved rod/stroke ratio and lighter mass, the engine revs considerably higher and faster (according to the Chris Escamilla at Crawford). When asked why it didn't go with one of its stroker kits, the company explained that it didn't want to give Block too much low-end torque. The car has a lot of meat on the ground and while the axles have been upgraded, the diffs have not.
Before long, Block rolled in. He was so friendly that I started to feel bad for setting him up in this competition. Then he mentioned that he had never been on the track before and I felt downright guilty. I honestly thought he had practiced here for some reason. We took two laps in Project WRX V.08 so I could show him which configuration we were running (our usual long configuration, not the slightly shortened course from the '07 USCC).
I did my best to show him the line, but he seemed more interested in the unpaved sections. He pointed to the outside of the Bowl Turn: "Don't want to go off here." He was right, of course. Getting spit off that corner guarantees a lot of air and if you're not going straight ahead or back, the odds of landing on your feet are slim. I found it mildly insulting that he wasn't paying attention to what mattered, the racing line. But later I realized our conversation was probably similar to what he and his navigator discuss on their reconnaissance runs. In rally racing, noting the hazardous corners must be at least as important as knowing the line. When I thought about it that way, it seemed kind of cool, and I felt bad again.
After half an hour or so of practice, the line had pretty much thawed, so we got the competition going. Normally, Mitchell brings a pro to drive his Z in competitions. But the young hotshoe Billy Johnson had a final exam and the old Tarzan Yamada had a hairstyling appointment or something. This left the seat open for me to turn a few laps in the car.
The plan was to take it easy. With Block being unfamiliar with the blind corners of the track, going flat out would only run up the score and make us look like assholes. But the car was begging for it. It handled so well and had so much power. This was easily the fastest car we've ever tested at The Streets of Willow. Like Kobe Bryant letting loose in his record-setting game, I wanted to see what I could do. Besides, it would be unfair to M-Works to leave anything on the table. The car ran a high 1:22, eight seconds faster than it did a year earlier during the USCC. That would have blown away the winning NSX by five seconds. It was even faster than the entire '07 USCC field, which was running on a shorter course.