Flatirons Syndicate Motorsports Podcast

For Episode 205 of the Flatirons Syndicate Podcast:Dewey just locked up his 3rd championship in Gridlife Street Mod class out at Watkins Glenn last weekend competing in Gridlife Summer Apex. We start out talking about all that went into making that happen.Art is just back from Subie Fest California where he was in the Overtake booth, but also got to ride in a couple of very cool Subarus as well.From there, we talk about the State of Subaru Enthusiasm. What are people excited about, and how well is Subaru connecting with us as Enthusiasts?Thanks for watching and Stay Tuned!

Cobb Tuning has been at the center of Subaru Performance basically since it was founded in 1999. When they released the first version of the AccesPort in 2004, they completely changed the way that Tuning worked, and established the foundation for what the future of Subaru Performance would be for decades to come.

In this episode, Jon and Dan (Mach V Motorsports) sit down with Tadd Crayton (President of Cobb Tuning) and Billy Brooks (Chief Technical and Compliance Officer) to get a clear picture of where Cobb is now, and what they are working on for the future.

We start out the conversation talking about the Green Speed initiative which was the point where Cobb set a new standard for CARB compliance for all of their Performance Parts.

We then talk about the changes that are happening at Cobb this year as they re-structure to work with some of the brands that their Parent Company (Engineered Performance Technologies) has added to their group, specifically Grimmspeed, PRL, and Hondata.

From there, we talk about some of the things that Cobb has been working on for the future, specifically a CARB approved Down Pipe (which still has a little development to go, but is getting close) and the possibility of a CARB approved Flex-Fuel kit in the future.

Thanks for watching and Stay Tuned!

The path of the Automotive Enthusiast is one that is full of fun and excitement, but there are many traps and challenges that await you along the road. Those of us that have been building, tracking, or racing cars for years will tell you that those traps and challenges are how you learn and that finding your way through these trials is as much a part of being an enthusiast as having a perfect trouble-free day at the track.
There is an argument out there that the less you know about what could go wrong, or how challenging a task may be, the easier it is to get excited about it, and the more likely you are to jump in head first to the challenge.

Ignorance is Bliss as they say…

I was having a conversation with Dewey about some of the recent issues that we ran into with our Pikes Peak car, specifically about how a very simple and cheap part caused a somewhat significant issue on our run up the mountain this year, and how frustrating it can be to work through these problems.

He said that there has to be something like the Dunning-Kruger Effect that applies to Race Cars that related to what we were working through now, and which is something that most all of us who have frequently tracked our cars, or worked on or around a race team have run into.

It was immediately clear that this was a broader conversation that we needed to have, and we decided to bring in Tony from Turn in Concepts to help us work through all of this, and hopefully gain a clearer perspective on why we push through all of this.

I think that there is likely something in this conversation for anyone from a true novice that is just starting to think of taking their car to the track for the first time, through to someone like us that has been working around race cars for a while now, with full knowledge of what it takes to properly prep a car, and all that could go wrong when you are pushing a car at speed.

I hope that you enjoy the conversation and Stay Tuned!

On this episode of the Podcast, we talk to Matt and Austin from North American Motorsports Research, better known as NAMR.They have developed and released the Subaru Tuning software - Atlas which is a free software that lets you get access to the ECU of yourFA20DIT or FA24DIT Subaru WRX and see what the ECU is going, make changes, tune your car, Datalog, etc.It has been a long time since a new Tuning software come out for a Subaru, so when we heard about this, we had to reach out to the folks at NAMR to learn more.If you want to learn more, here is a link to the NAMR site:https://motorsportsresearch.org/Thanks for watching and Stay Tuned!

Mike Kojima is someone that needs no introduction because of the notoriety that he has from his roll at Sport Compact Car magazine, and more recently MotoIQ.Mike was at Pikes Peak this year with the Evasive Motorsports Ioniq 5 N and our paths crossed and I was able to get him to come on and have a chat on the Podcast!In this episode, we talk about what it was like working with the Hyundai Ioniq 5 N, and how it compared to some of the earlier cars that he helped get ready to run up Pikes Peak.We also talk about Subaru, what he likes about the EJ and FA engines, and what needs attention.We also talk about how the STI stacks up compared to an EVO, and what might be coming out from Subaru in the not too distant future.I hope you enjoy the conversation and Stay Tuned!We mention a couple of videos that Mike has made about Subaru on his MotoIQ channel, and here are links to them:EJ vs FA engines:https://youtu.be/AU9U9JCCwqo?si=1uGLY7Z01_6tR3CrHow to build a Subaru that won't blow up:https://youtu.be/cRr2pc9ctgE?si=EVkG7V7y772-c7N0Why Subaru engines blow up:https://youtu.be/ZrnHrNla17o?si=6dU4Aat3FcGb4lcw