The Mule spotted at Thunderhill this weekend

[camcojb]

I had the pleasure of going with Charley and Mark Stielow to Thunderhill this weekend. Initially took two Mustang track cars Charley owns as it was a Shelby meet. Charley was lucky enough to be the first guy kicked off the track for their new noise requirements; his cars both had open exhaust. Funny thing is Mark was driving the other car with open exhaust and had no problems.

Since he couldn't take the car back out on the track and fearing the second car would also be black-flagged we headed back to Charleys Saturday night to pick up the Mule and Charleys Mercedes SL65 V-12 twin turbo rocket.

On Sunday I got to ride in both cars with Mark Stielow for the sessions. For some reason Charley wouldn't ride with Mark! Let me tell you it was a thrill to ride with him, he is VERY good at what he does on the track. Absolutely an "E-ticket" ride!

Here's a few pics from today, and there are a few stories to be told in the future. Hopefully Charley will drop by and fill you in. Let me suffice to say both cars did GREAT! No breakage and they were fully used, trust me on this. Mark was picking off guys all day in both cars running street rubber; virtually everyone else was on race rubber of some type. Says a lot for his driving skills and a lot for the setup and ability of both cars. Charley was flying by the end of the day in the Mule, also blowing past several cars.

Here's a few pics from the day. We got some in-car and out of car video, but not sure how well it turned out.

[camcojb]

Let me add one thing. The Mule ships out in a month to go on it's fourth Power Tour. It takes guts to put the car on the track for 4-5 30 minute full throttle session this close to the Tour. Things break, etc. Thankfully it performed very well and came out unscathed. I applaude Charley for allowing the cars to be flogged and for proving he drives all his cars, they are not trailer queens.


Jody

[67Sally]

It sounds like you guys had a blast!
W.

[zbugger]

Ahhh, the things I miss being me......

[Damn True]

Dang guys, next time say something when you are going to run the cars. I would have loved to come up and see that thing run.

Thunderhill has a noise restriction now? What the hell for? There isn't anything around that track for miles. Did some dipwad build a house near a racetrack then complain about the noise?

[Sales@Dutchboys]

Sweet! i Bet that was a blast!

[XcYZ]

That first pic is great.

[Stuart Adams]

Very cool.

[trapin]

The Mule looks happy in that first pic.

[clill]

Apparently I woke up a cow. They have always had I think a 102 db limit but it was never enforced......Till me. There were other cars as loud as mine but both my exhaust pipes exit the right side of the car...straight at the noise meter I guess. I think I am the first car ever black flagged there for noise.
The Mule worked great. We turned the boost down to 8lbs and just drove the crap out of it. Just when I think I'm going fast thru a sweeping turn at 80 mph, Mark goes thru it at 100. I have to take back what I said about me being faster in the Thrasher. The Mule felt very balanced and easy to drive. As the tires heated up it was so cool to determine how far you were going to drift to the outside of the corner. You just knew where it was going to go. Mark did some data logging on both cars. I think he hit like 132mph on the front straight with the Mule and maybe 131 with the SL65. There was a guy with a GT3 Porsche that Mark walked away from with the SL65 and I'm sure the GT3 is a better track car. My biggest worry was getting into trouble with turbo boost but at 8 lbs it was fine. Could probably have managed more boost with no problems but I really do want to make Power Tour...With Gumballed tires.... The video is crap...the pic thru the windshield is nothing but glare.