According to Barry their resident software guru and co driver for winning One Lap America M3, he says the stage 1.5 with Methanol Alcohol/water injection sytem for intercooler cooling is ideal for the track. Linear development of power and never overheats like their stage 2 can do when pushed hard.
I had a 55degree C thermostat and a stronger sport fan clutch installed as well.

The car is back at AA for additional tuning. It was thought more improvement could be made in the lower RPMS.
Peak figure was OK at 417 Mustang dyno which is about 430 Dynojet. Torque is low at 288 and lower RPMS showed little improvement over stock. Even when properly tuned the low RPMS dont get that much boost with a stage 1.5 kit.

The addition of 109 unleaded race gas really woke the car up and it runs great all around as long as the AC is off which it would be in a track situation. I have half of a Nitrous system installed. NOT a direct port internal spray but rather an EXTENERAL spray BAR, an "S" shaped snake that covers the width of my inter cooler. Dozens of tiny holes allow a nice COOLING fog to cool off a hot intercooler before during or after running the car. It could be rigged to come on in all sorts of ways triggered by various things or strickly manual. its not plumbed yet.

A few seconds NOS spray here and there will keep things much COOLER especially in the summer when heat soak really kills super chargers...worse than turbos!

At 60 degrees ambient temperature which we rarely see, the car picks up significant performance, BTW.

I am hoping with the super tune and the later addition of the spray bar to get a much more tractable car in the lower RPMs that isnt struggling to stay in the sweet zone, the TINY sweet zone of 5.5-7.5K

The gain on the top end might be fun too. It is unfortunate that my type of Supercharger does not really see much boost down low, but like i said the race gas really DID help in that regard. It was a whole other car. On pump gas it was pretty much the same except for the top end. Too bad NOS and MS 109 isnt very cheap. But nothing is. The turbos I was looking at that DO give BIG low RPM increases were well over twice as much as I paid.

it is said that a 3.91 or a 4.10 is just incredible for what it can do to our cars, boosted or not. I hate to loose my cruising and long trip capabilities, but a 3.91 is very likely if i can find the right deal.

I ran into Carlos at Redline and he took the car for a spin. He shifted the SMG like a real pro. As good or even better than me. And he NEVER uses the SMG. They take most people a lot of practice. I was really impressed! I am pretty sure he liked the power boost.
And he did get to use it with race gas with the top down as God intended.

next are custom set of ceramic RACE pads that will fit my 6 pot Brembos that heat up fast enough to use in the street. I have Hawk low dust ceramic and they are over taxed now for the job at hand. Flat Six is helping me with the pads.
FOR SALE are my Cobalt Friction race only pads for the Brembo GT BBK. UNREAL stopping power DIRT CHEAP. new 750. fronts used ONCE rears NEVER used...350 usd plus any shipping.

Great write up Dave! That's a whole lot of upgrades to an awesome car. When are we going to see it in action? Remember: best upgrade to get faster on the track is seat time

Hi Dave!! When will we see you and your monster again? Come out to the night event at Homestead on the 24th. We'd love to see you. If you come Ill bring some sandwiches for you. :-) Hope you are doing well.

According to Barry their resident software guru and co driver for winning One Lap America M3, he says the stage 1.5 with Methanol Alcohol/water injection sytem for intercooler cooling is ideal for the track. Linear development of power and never overheats like their stage 2 can do when pushed hard.
I had a 55degree C thermostat and a stronger sport fan clutch installed as well.

The car is back at AA for additional tuning. It was thought more improvement could be made in the lower RPMS.
Peak figure was OK at 417 Mustang dyno which is about 430 Dynojet. Torque is low at 288 and lower RPMS showed little improvement over stock. Even when properly tuned the low RPMS dont get that much boost with a stage 1.5 kit.

The addition of 109 unleaded race gas really woke the car up and it runs great all around as long as the AC is off which it would be in a track situation. I have half of a Nitrous system installed. NOT a direct port internal spray but rather an EXTENERAL spray BAR, an "S" shaped snake that covers the width of my inter cooler. Dozens of tiny holes allow a nice COOLING fog to cool off a hot intercooler before during or after running the car. It could be rigged to come on in all sorts of ways triggered by various things or strickly manual. its not plumbed yet.

A few seconds NOS spray here and there will keep things much COOLER especially in the summer when heat soak really kills super chargers...worse than turbos!

At 60 degrees ambient temperature which we rarely see, the car picks up significant performance, BTW.

I am hoping with the super tune and the later addition of the spray bar to get a much more tractable car in the lower RPMs that isnt struggling to stay in the sweet zone, the TINY sweet zone of 5.5-7.5K

The gain on the top end might be fun too. It is unfortunate that my type of Supercharger does not really see much boost down low, but like i said the race gas really DID help in that regard. It was a whole other car. On pump gas it was pretty much the same except for the top end. Too bad NOS and MS 109 isnt very cheap. But nothing is. The turbos I was looking at that DO give BIG low RPM increases were well over twice as much as I paid.

it is said that a 3.91 or a 4.10 is just incredible for what it can do to our cars, boosted or not. I hate to loose my cruising and long trip capabilities, but a 3.91 is very likely if i can find the right deal.

I ran into Carlos at Redline and he took the car for a spin. He shifted the SMG like a real pro. As good or even better than me. And he NEVER uses the SMG. They take most people a lot of practice. I was really impressed! I am pretty sure he liked the power boost.
And he did get to use it with race gas with the top down as God intended.

next are custom set of ceramic RACE pads that will fit my 6 pot Brembos that heat up fast enough to use in the street. I have Hawk low dust ceramic and they are over taxed now for the job at hand. Flat Six is helping me with the pads.
FOR SALE are my Cobalt Friction race only pads for the Brembo GT BBK. UNREAL stopping power DIRT CHEAP. new 750. fronts used ONCE rears NEVER used...350 usd plus any shipping.

Well, soon. I am not a big fan of Homestead track. I like Sebring so much. My car's power increases would do so much better at Sebring. I would love to try WPB which I have not done yet.

My car is back at AA for additional tuning and looking into some hot running issues. I need a new clutch and a 3.91 differential to complement my Super charger and get the most out of it. The 3.91 will take care of the lack of low end torque. The new diff and some race gas might be all I will ever need. I may end up never upgrading to a full Stage 2 kit/.

But you had me at "sandwiches". :)

Oh, crap! I have NO car now for over a week. AA can NOT fix the overheating problem, They have been working overtime and just cant fix it, The car was perfect before. But Redline worked on the cooling system by installing a 55 degree thermostat. My coolant was not 50/50 and overfilled. Those items were corrected. There did not seem to be any issues with the thermostat install like goop blocking flow.

The car only has 27k miles on it with never ever any issues of running even a TINY bit hot on the track in the most brutal heat. It is overheating at idle mostly. AA had installed a brand new heavy duty fan clutch too. SO many things it COULD be. They are methodically, checking everything like air in system, defective fan clutch, defective thermostat.

I am beyond being upset. I am extremely concerned that they wont ever be able to fix it and i will have to go back to NA. I suggested a bigger radiator but they insist on fixing a PROBLEM first. The car should NEVER overheat at idle with their kit, so there is an issue that could be bad even if it is masked by a larger radiator.

Grrrr!

FIXED! FINALLY! Its been over a week now. I will get it back late Thursday. they still have to tune and Dyno.

Edit: AA REALLY fixed the overheating extremely well. The car runs COOLER than when it was NA due to the thermostat and fan clutch and supporting software.

BUT and this is a HUGE BUT!!! the POWER is not all that impressive. Hardly noticeable on PUMP gas with the AC on. I have to put gazzillion dollar race gas in it and have the AC off ALL the time for the car to feel real peppy. \\

I am more than upset for the amount of money I spent. It feels like almost the same car on pump.

AA blames the heat in South Florida. Hey, its HOT ALL THE TIME down here if nobody noticed.

There is something wrong with the kit or the car itself or both. AA pretty much wants me to go away is the impression I am getting. I spent way way to much money to not ask for a better tune or trouble shoot.

I am still slower than a bone stock coupe. (I am a heavier convertible with SMG) Fortunatley I dont care a whit about power on the track. I really dont at my level. I pass PLENTY of very very fast cars becasue i spent so much tme and effort improving an ALREADY great handling platform.

I CAN NOT complain about handling. I am so happy with that part.

But on the street, the car is still boring as heck to drive and that is not the case for a properly boosted car. I have been in VERY exciting mildy boosted M3's. Just in better performing vehicles than mine.

I dont know if its my motor, ignisiton, exhaust or an AA kit problem. i really dont know.

Did AA explain what the problem was. To me and just a thought it sounds like AA reduced the boost to lower the operating temps. What does the final dyno number look like? Also, did AA do a base dyno run so you or AA can compare the difference?

I requested a base run before they touched my car.

Forgive my lack of experience with this particular supercharger setup, but if I were troubleshooting performance, the engineer in me would want to compare inlet (inlet of the throttle body, that is) temperature and pressure to stock inlet temperature and pressure to EXPECTED inlet temp and pressure (ie, what others are running with this charger).

I have a feeling those numbers will give you a good starting point to determine if the charger is underperforming or if its somewhere in the tuning phase.

I had a baseline from them and the after with the super charger did not show much or any improvement down low. I complained for weeks and AA blew me off pretty much. Until my S/C belt started to self destruct. It turns out that NAPA had supplied belts .5 inches longer than labeled. I dont know how many people were affected by this. I know I was one of them. It blew out my hood insulation too in one area.

New belt and much better. No dyno but MUCH MUCH better. Power down low now. Lots.
I then had a miss at 6500RPM that was severe. That took two weeks to find and fix. It turned out to be a loose crank sensor wire. No charge for any of this but i had to miss events and go long periods with out my daily driver.

The car STILL didn't turn good quarter mile times which is an indication of overall health.

I wont get in to specifics, but i got everything fixed. My SMG clutch was ALL out of whack, misaligned and had air. YES! WHEN YOU WORK ON BRAKE SYSTEM AND GET AIR IN BRAKES YOU GET AIR IN THE CLSUTHC TOO! NO ONE KNOWS THIS! This was all done on a lap top including BLEEDING and clutch alignment and gear alignment. You could hear the car clicking thru its gears. It was quite something.

Current dyno power is classified. Most likely MUCh faster than you. Its off the hook now. It was a real struggle and a lot of perseverance. It was worth every head ache. Its a beast. So smoooth too! The blow off valve now sounds like a whooshing one from a big turbo.

NOT as fast as the TURBOS like AMG ETR. They are in totally different plane of the universe. But for S/C cars I am hanging in there. Level of tune and tranny are better than ever! Mind you, my vert is much heavier than a coupe. Plus my sway bars, Brembo calipers and other stuff ADD weight. I am always seekig more power. I am still less than 4000 lbs and refuse to strip the car to get "free" horsepower/ That is a FEE I dont wish to pay, thank you. A VENTED hood and trunk from CF might help a bit. On the list....

Fun factor is VERY HIGH right now.

The car's initial overheating was blamed on running near 100% coolant instead of 50/50. I have NEVER heard of this. But my car will NOT overheat in the worse stop and go traffic now, with the A/C full blast.
It would not hesitate to drive this anywhere at this point.

i REALLY want to drive this at SEBRING. I am saving up for one of the upcoming SEBRING Events!!!
I can see this doing some serious good times/fun at that venue.

I am now running my COBALT FRICTION RACE PADS in the STREET now. I need racing pads, trust me. They come up to temperature instantly. Only issue is squealing under light pressure sometimes. Minor issue for the benefits. These pads with 20 pistons of my Brembos stop RIGHT NOW!

Next to come: Set of gauge pods on A Pillar. New performance clutch, rods, pistons for a "built" low compression engine. Larger blower, fuel pump,,injectors to run with the turbos boys. Over sized radiator and large custom fit for M3 AA OIL cooler would be in order. LOTS of spare tires.

My last ones shredded down to the steel. Changed from Bridgestone RE-11 to Hankook Ventus.
The Hankooks have MUCH softer side wall. MUCH more comfortable.
I need to mount their matching fronts to critique the handling. I still have the RE-01's up front. My FRONT tires last forever. Rears not so good....

AA Supercharger sold and HPF stage 2.75 installed (almost). 71mm turbo....with very fast spool...fine for track work. I was never happy with the AA install.
Also added are OS Giken differential, TS Kline coil overs to repalce my KW's, Reacros, APR rear wing and front splitter, Brooks Dive Planes, 1000hp axles, solid differnetial mounts, AKG sub frame bushings to replace Powerflex which ripped.
Big roll bar planned, looking at Hans Device. SMG software custom worked over....mucvh faster shifts now, Stage 2 Feramic clutch good to 900HP.
Fuel cell with its own pump and plumbing for race gas, UUC transmission mounts with limiter cups(not solid mounts).
EGT gauge, boost and AFR guage in custom A pillar pod. Schroth 5 point Harnesses. more...