Justin: What's going on everybody? Justin here with americanmuscle.com, and welcome
to a special ready to rock edition version of Hot Lap. That's right, because the man
himself, Vaughn Gittin, Jr. is in the building. What's going on, sir?
Vaughn: Man, just enjoying it. Always enjoyed coming out and hanging out with you guys and
the American Muscle crew, and looking forward to having some fun.
Justin: Absolutely, man. We're actually here. You brought by some of your brand new RTR
Tactical Performance suspension stuff. We're going to be checking that out here of course
today. First, a while back, we actually caught up with you for the development of some of
these parts, and we had a lot of fun at Summit Point. It was a good day testing, wasn't it?
Vaughn: Yeah, man, always is. I love developing and trying our plans that we put on paper,
putting them in the real world and beating it up, making sure it's going to handle it.
Justin: He certainly beat it up, believe me guys. Check this out.
All right. We're out here at Summit Point Motorsports Park in beautiful West Virginia
amongst the mountains and trees. I understand we're doing some R&D out here today on some
RTR suspension parts that you guys will be able to find here at americanmuscle.com. All
right so, Vaughn, explain to everybody at home what kind of testing goes into these
parts that you're developing right now.
Vaughn: We're looking at the springs, the shocks, and the sway bars. Basically going
through a full sweep of each component and understanding where the balance of the car
ends up. The other goal is to test optimum setup or suggested setup.
Justin: All right. We're out in the RTR Spec 2. What are we doing, man?
Vaughn: Yeah. Basically, we're going to go hit this slalom first, just feeling the balance
of the car when it transfers weight fully left and fully right.
Justin: Right on.
Vaughn: One for performance, the other for safety.
Justin: Let's do it.
Vaughn: We're going to hit this at about 70. These are staggered about 100 feet, so I'm
going to keep a steady state right now and run through here. See the car's very smooth,
so I'm going to brake and go into this right hander and just make sure the car's not wanting
to come loose at all. Still feels pretty neutral. I can feel a little bit of oversteer, but
the biggest thing is that oversteer, understeer, and neutral balance are really good. You just
don't want it to all of a sudden snap.
Justin: Right.
Vaughn: You don't want it to all of a sudden go into understeer or all of a sudden go into
oversteer. You want to be able to feel it coming, and you can compensate with throttle
or the wheel. Definitely this setup right now, the rear bar's on full stiff.
Justin: Okay.
Vaughn: This is where we are in our sweep. You can feel the bar doing what it's doing.
It's definitely taken grip out of the rear. I'm really pumped. You know, everything that
my engineers and I dreamed up on paper has now been proven on the track. I was able to
achieve understeer, a neutral balance, and my favorite - some oversteer.
Justin: I can attest. This thing is nasty. The parts are definitely doing work. Vaughn,
great job. We're happy to bring you guys some behind the scenes R&D work here at the track.
You guys can catch all these new RTR parts on americanmuscle.com. Vaughn, thank you again.
Appreciate it, brother.
Vaughn: Have fun.
Justin: Oh yeah.
Stephanie: Hey guys. You just saw Vaughn on the track himself testing out the RTR Tactical
Performance lineup. Who better to talk about the Tactical Performance lineup than the man
himself. Why don't you walk us through your Tactical Performance suspension lineup.
Vaughn: First, we have our adjustable struts and shocks. These have a RTR specific valving.
They're adjustable so that you can dial in whatever ride quality you're looking for on
the street but also on the track. The adjustment ranges will work with just about any spring
out there, however we did develop them to work with our RTR lowering springs, a one
and a half inch drop.
Stephanie: Okay.
Vaughn: They are progressive springs.
Stephanie: Okay. Lastly, we do have the sway bars with some adjustable end links, right?
Vaughn: Yes. We have four way adjustable bars. These bars are relatively large. We believe
larger bars softer springs give you a lot better ride on the street but also give the
adjustability that when the car rolls over on the springs, the heavier bars hold the
car up and give you that significant cornering stability. These also allow you to dial in
a understeer balance, a neutral balance for the track, or an oversteer balance for drifting
or having the kind of fun that I love to have. We also, like you mentioned, have the adjustable
end links. Everything's super high quality aluminum. Also, our axle mount for the rear
sway bar is built aluminum that's anodized black. Super strong stuff and ready for anything
you can throw at it.
Stephanie: All right, guys. If you want to find out more information about the RTR Tactical
Performance lineup, you can always head back to americanmuscle.com.
Justin: All right. Continuing with our special edition of Hot Lap, we have Vaughn Gittin,
Jr. in here for a little Q&A session. Vaughn, let's jump right into it, man. The 2015 Mustang,
absolutely blowing up. Talk about your experience with the car after about a year now.
Vaughn: Yeah. First of all, it's amazing. It's better than any of the previous gens
in my opinion. The EcoBoost is what I'm most mindblown about. I have a EcoDaily.
Justin: You said you might have something up your sleeve for the EcoBoost in the near
future, right?
Vaughn: Yeah. We're working on some things. I'm really excited about the platform. You'll
be one of the first to see it. How about that?
Justin: That's what I like to hear. Let's switch gears a little bit. Let's talk about
Formula Drift. Let's talk about your experience so far with the season.
Vaughn: For me, my approach this year is show up with my team ready to rock and attack all
competitors. I'm always chasing down the championship and always trying to be one of the top guys.
My biggest thing this year is just having fun and put on a good show for my fans and
challenging myself.
Justin: The question I get a lot for you, as a matter of fact, do you have plans to
make the switch to the S550.
Vaughn: Yeah. We will be switching to the new S550 next year.
Justin: Okay.
Vaughn: In fact, I think this is the first time I've ever told anyone that officially,
so there you go.
Justin: There you go. Mustang News living up to its news. Again, man, thanks so much.
It's always a pleasure chatting with you, brother.
Vaughn: Yeah, man, really appreciate that.
Justin: Any time, man.
Vaughn: Thank you all. Appreciate it.
Justin: Well, guys, that's going to wrap up this special ready to rock version of Hot
Lap featuring Vaughn Gittin, Jr. Vaughn, thanks so much for hanging out, brother.
Vaughn: Man, thanks for having me. Always a good time.
Justin: Hey, man, any time. It was our pleasure. Guys, be sure to check out the brand new RTR
Tactical Performance parts for your S197 right here at americanmuscle.com. Vaughn, I'm sure
we can look forward to seeing you at our show August 15th, right?
Vaughn: I will absolutely be there. I had a blast last year.
Justin: He's bringing some toys. Of course, Chip Foose will be there giving away the MMD
by Foose Mustang GT. You don't want to miss that.
We cannot forget this show is benefiting Make-A-Wish. We're doing something really cool this year,
guys. Jonathan's getting his wish made at our show. We're making over his New Edge Mustang.
We're tweaking this thing out. Man, he's going to love it.
Vaughn: Yeah, that's amazing, you guys.
Justin: I think so too, man. It's going to be pretty rad. We're going to unveil that
thing at our show. We're going to have 10,000 people, 3,000 Mustangs. Sounds like a party,
right?
Vaughn: Sounds like a serious party. I know last year was awesome. I'm sure it'll be better
this year, so I look forward to seeing everybody out there.
Justin: There you go, bigger and better, man. That's going to do it for us. We're out of
here, guys. For all things Mustang and RTR, keep it right here at americanmuscle.com.