Modified Tuner Shootout
As I look back at TX Mile 2012 I couldn’t be any happier. The car performed flawlessly. But acceleration is only one part of the equation makes up the 311RS. #00 needed to be pushed harder. The next test for the car was Modified Tuner Shootout – The annual gathering of the USA’s best tuned cars hand-picked by editors at Modified Magazine. This year, they chose to focus on Street cars whereas in the past it’s been primarily competition car-based. Being built as a street car, the 311RS was a prefect candidate.
Modified Tuner Shootout puts it’s challengers through a wide range of tests: Dyno, Smog, dB testing, 1/4 mile, Autocross, and Time Attack. Each event is scored separately on a performance-based curve with a combined final score determining a winner. Being a tuner challenge, most of the cars were heavily modified, some of them making more than 700whp. The 311RS was designed with a focus on balance, so we were all curious to see how well that balance would stack up against the competition.
Turns out balance is really important.. The 311RS performed flawlessly throughout the Modified Tuner Shootout. It was consistently near the top of each event (save for the dyno, where 359whp wasn’t much compared to the competition). Not surprisingly, the car shined on track. We were 1.5sec faster per lap during the time attack, with 2nd place going to a 700whp NSX. Autocross was much the same – cleared the field by more than 1sec. The real surprise was the 1/4 event. I only made one pass, a 12.5 @ 112mph, but that was almost good enough for the win! On its last pass, the NSX posted an awesome 11sec run to take the win. It was a very clean run, props to the driver!
The 311RS finished a (tough to swallow) 2nd Place Overall, while taking 1st Place Overall in the AWD division. I didn’t enter the Modified Tuner Shootout with the intention of losing, but we did the best we could. It’s tough … making 50% the power of some of the competitors is difficult to overcome with the amount of points that are allotted to Dyno and 1/4 mile. Congrats to all that competed! We’ll be back next year…with a dyno-specific tune.
