New Website / Blog:

www.SG-Motorsport.com

Looking back to the last blog post it seems the last thing I’ve spoken about was our ICAR race in the Canadian Touring Car series. That was the second weekend, races 3 and 4 of the championship. We’re now at races 9 and 10. I’m sure you can imagine some crazy ass shit has happened since ICAR. You are correct! The luck that I’ve had this year has been incredibly horrible. It’s hard to understand how so many stupid, weird, unpredictable things can keep going wrong.

Photo Credit: RacingInFocus.com

Let me summarize:

Weekend #3 @ Mosport – We were out with the Nascar Canadian Tire boys, and DJ Kennington went out and won the Nascar race right before our second race (he had an amazing race and just won right at the end after battling forever with a few other dudes). He told me to make it 2 for Castrol. That was my intention, until the wastegate seized and the arm broke inside the turbo. On the first lap. Talk about shitty luck. I did get 3rd in the first race, which wasn’t horrible, and Bob did pretty well throughout the weekend, finishing 7th and then 5th.

It's Marvelous

Weekend #4 @ Toronto Indy – I was really hoping to dominate this weekend. It’s obviously one of the biggest weekends of the year, and it’s a track we usually do well at since the brakes on the Genesis work pretty damn well. Everything would have gone awesome if the headgasket didn’t go on the motor (during Qualifying). But it did. I set a new track record in Qualifying of a 1:19 something, but because we (and half the field) left our pit box too early to line up for qualifying, I lost my 2 fastest laps. It’s as if the lap never happened. I finished 2nd in the first race after our new replacement motor was slightly down on power, just couldn’t catch Boake in the Subaru. In the 2nd race we experienced some ignition breakup (which actually turned out to be two broken injector wires), which caused me to lose a few positions – I would finish 4th. It was cool, but I wanted to win.

Photo Credit: RacingInFocus.com

CSCS at Mosport DDT – after having ignition breakup issues at Toronto, as well as realizing the rear brakes weren’t working AT ALL, I thought it would be a wise decision to go test the thing before our next race. Conveniently there happened to be a CSCS event that weekend and I thought what better time to see if our car is working correctly? New gearbox, fixed rear brakes (the pads would not bed in, had to run the car on the hoist in 5th gear while holding the brakes to bed the rear pads!), and some more ducting to try and get the car to stop running so hot. We got the lap record for all the classes with the Genesis on old Conti tires. Cool that we were able to do that with such a heavy, long, RWD car on such a tight, tight track.

Go Fast, Smash Curbs

Some of the SG crew had their cars out as well, and I’m proud to report that Andrew wheeled his nearly stock RX-8 (just coilovers and SG alignment) to a podium position in street RWD, and Marco would have done well if he didn’t lose his composure and throw dirt everywhere!

That brings us more or less up to date. The disasters that were to ensue at Mosport last week happened only after complete awesomeness. Saturday night after our first race I told myself no matter what happens, there’s no way I can be pissed. The weekend had just been too awesome! I would end up being somewhat wrong. Let me tell the whole story:

Friday comes along, cars are ready and at the track. We would have only one session on Friday – in the evening, for practice. This is the day after the super ridiculously hot heat wave. It was still like 35 degrees during the day, and hadn’t cooled off much. We went out for practice with a fresh alignment, new sticker tires and the car running pretty well. I took it really easy on my warm up laps and tried to slowly bring the new tires to life and warming up the brakes, just getting a gap with other cars etc. First flying lap, 1:29.174. BAM!!!! WHAT! Over a second faster than we’ve ever run there before, and almost 2 seconds faster than everyone else in that session. When I saw the dash I was like LOL what the fuck? How can this even be possible? It was a clean lap but hot damn there was no way it felt that fast. It was also a series lap record by roughly half a second. After turning a lap like that I figured the track had to be magic fast. Or someone put a really good set of matched tires on the car.

Photo Credit: RacingInFocus.com

Either way, a defining moment in the weekend was about to happen. It pains me to think back on this kind of stupidity. I was running side by side with Boake, who happened to be leading a new driver around the track (I didn’t know this at the time), trying to get him to run with me. I wanted a little pre-race racing. If you know what I mean. Anyways, in the silliness of looking over at him and waving at him to try to go, we must have moved over a full car width or more to the left. In fact Boake went into the dirt! If that’s not enough, we got close and banged wheels on each other. Oh how silly. It wasn’t just a rub either. Because of the wheel design (and we’re both running the same wheels) they locked into each other like gears and popped the cars off of each other like a fucking explosion. It ruined my alignment and the Subaru’s, while at the same time destroying all 4 wheels. All of this for no reason, in practice. Because I was more or less bored. We quickly threw a new front wheel on the car and I went out, the fastest laps I was able to do after the damaged was a 1:30.100. Nearly a full second off because of the damaged alignment/damaged ego!

And then there was qualifying. Nothing exciting, I went out there, banged out a few laps (none of which were very fast compared to practice), and we were done. Still got Pole!

Ok, now let’s get on to race 1. As you can imagine from my previous hints, it went well. Yes. It did. Led from the first lap and never looked back. Car was working decently after we re-aligned it at the track, but there were still a few tenths on the table at least. So stupid. Anyways, no real mistakes, we got the win. Awesome! Until.. after the race it turned out one of the side skirts was dragging off the car for some reason. Must have been from rubbing curbing because I never went off? Well it got taped it up before impound which is a big no-no! As a penalty we lost all of our points for the race.

Photo Credit: RacingInFocus.com

Other than that though, things were looking good for Sunday. Didn’t need to do a whole bunch of work on the car, and the crew were pretty tired (We only had 2 sessions on Saturday but they were the FIRST and LAST of the day – it was almost a 15 hour day just at the track!!!) , so we left after the first race and decided to come in early to finish prep before our sunday race. Bad idea. We got to the track in the morning and one of the guys spotted a disaster. The sway bar bracket on the strut had broken right off. And was totally mangle fucked. Perfect. So we decided that no front sway bar was going to be the only solution.

Turbos.

On the warm up laps admittedly the car didn’t feel too bad without a front bar. It was REALLY loose but had the potential to be fast. We would never find out.

During the warm up lap I was listening to In For The Kill by Le Roux (the gangster remixed version thanks to Dan Cyr), and right before the green dropped I swear I had never been so in the zone. As far as I was concerned, there weren’t any other cars on the track.

I had a fairly awesome start and came out of corner 1 pretty ripping, up on the curbing and then through two at full qualifying speed. The car felt fast despite the looseness.

Sadly though, that’s where the fun would end. Exiting two the car twitched, set it up for braking into 3 and there was no steering. I would later find out the ball joint had failed. I went straight into the tire wall, with an impact of approximately 15G’s. It felt nice!

Impending Doom

So I would watch the remainder of the race from the outside of corner 3. So shit. Not that we’ve had the fortune to be in this for the championship this year, but the entire weekend we didn’t get a single point. That’s actually impressive.

We are now trying to figure out why the ball joint failed, and how we can make sure nothing like this ever happens again. At Mosport when you have a suspension failure, it can be pretty dangerous.

I’ll get the video up soon of the start and wreck, it’s pretty wild!

Not to forget about the day to day activities at SG, we’ve had a ton of neat cars through the doors as of late. I just tuned my second rotary, and it didn’t blow up which was nice. We had a gorgeous old school 963 Porsche 911 in that was owned by a cool German dude that just came to Canada (couldn’t speak much English so it was fun figuring out what he wanted for camber and toe) for a corner balance and alignment, it was pretty funny, and the car was really awesome.  We’ve had some SR20 fun going on lately, with a Haltech tuned car doing a healthy 360whp at only 12psi on a 3076, a new motor for Jordan’s S14 with Apex HG and HKS cams, Zach’s S14 is almost finished, we got the shortened shaft from driveshaft shop for the HKS dog box and the car running on the Sport 1000, so dyno should be possible this week! The dyno has been busy lately, with supercharged G35 tuning (HKS super with a slightly smaller pulley making an easy 360whp – awesome setup for a Z/G if you don’t want to build your motor), S2K AEM tune that runs like a stock car, and more cars that I can’t remember right now. We even found some time to get little bits done on the SG Roadster – hopefully we’ll get that thing out sliding around soon. More SG Updates soon.

The weekend started off pretty shitty for myself. After arriving late Thursday night and realizing we had missed a full test day, I walked the track trying to learn all of the new sections that were added since last year. The track looked ridiculously bumpy. Almost reminiscent of Sebring, just without the long straights or history. I was excited to rip it but on the first lap of practice our power steering rack grendaded itself. This is the 3rd time this has happened and we’ve yet to figure out exactly why it is happening. Just days ago we had replaced the rack, the pump and inspected pretty much the entire system. Luckily we anticipated the problem and brought a spare rack. We made a make fix restrictor for the pressure line that consisted of 2 washers and an M6 nut, also we loctited the power steering lines, but tightened them very soft – as the more pressure you put on the fitting the more liable it is to crack and explode. We then wrapped the lines in hose to help add mass and reduce vibration of the hardline. Whatever we did – it worked.

This meant however, that I had to go out for Qualifying with ZERO sense for the track. Shitty.

The first couple laps in qualifying I SHOULD have just run smooth and figured the line. Instead I was being an asshole and driving 110% and sliding off the track left right and center. Wrong gears, locking tires, bouncing curbing. It wasn’t fast. I came in to make some shock adjustments and went back out and took it a little easier and turned a time just one tenth faster than Bob, enough for 3rd place. Bob was 4th. Some of our best qualifying results ever!

That was all for Friday, we had a nice dinner, got some rest and prepared for our race. Come morning we didn’t have any issues and everyone was in really good spirits. We were happy the power steering was staying together and if we could just finish the race at this point I think we all would have been happy. The two cars that qualified infront of us were the GT Racing Pontiac Solstice’s of Borgeat and Fayer. Both really good drivers that know the track well. The solstice is a smaller car with a shorter wheelbase, so naturally it does really well at a tight track like ICAR. That being said, P1 was only something like 3 tenths ahead of me and I KNEW I had more in the car.

I had a horrible start. Protecting the inside first corner I ran a really tight line and bogged really hard coming off the corner. I should have gone into 2nd gear but really didn’t think I was going so slow. I got passed by 4 or 5 cars including Bob, moving to 7th or 8th. By the end of the lap I had made up a few positions and after a few laps I re-passed Bob for 3rd. A few laps beyond that I was really hustling and started to pressure Borgeat for 2nd.

Taking up his mirrors, sticking my nose in in braking, and just being a general asshole I was able to make him make a few mistakes and setup a nice pass. I think it was into a hairpin but I don’t even remember. The next car to catch was Fayer. He was really on it and even though I was closing on him a little bit, I was too far behind from the bad start and fighting with Borgeat to ever catch him. 2nd was good and I would have been happy if the race ended at that point.

Now if you compare my luck to a hurricane, I would say at that very point in time we reached the eye of the storm. Suddenly, with only a few laps to go, Fayer goes into the pits! Without any effort on my part I was now running 1st, and Bob right behind me in 2nd. This was to be our best ever finish for the team, and in only our second race of 2011 after ENTIRELLY revamping the cars and switching to 2L engines, different wiring harnesses, ECUs, suspension systems, I mean EVERYTHING! Forget the fact that Bob’s car was just a shell only a couple moths ago, built entirely by SG minus the cage.

The race finished. I was so happy. I mean I got lucky, and I felt bad for Fayer, who was driving GREAT. But for Bob and I to be 1-2? So early in the season? A brand new car doing that well out of the box? It felt great. We were ecstatic.

But things were not meant to last. The eye of the storm passed.  As soon as the green flag dropped for the second race on Sunday, shit was about to hit the fan. I had an OK start. Not a great one, but not a bad one either. I was entering the first corner as per last time, braking hard and down to 2nd gear for the corner so I wouldn’t bog on the exit. With 30 maniacs behind me still at full throttle. It’s a great feeling. Racing into a near stop for the first corner of a race.

One bump. No big deal, car is still ok.

SMASH

Oh dear.

At this point the car is sideways, pretty much at full lock but with way too much rotation for any hope of saving it.

SMASH

That was number two, surely my car is fucked.

As I’m spinning I see the entire field drive by narrowly avoiding my car, luckily no one else hit me. I don’t even know where Bob is, or how he was running. I just know that I’m in dead last, and my suspension is certainly mangled. I turn around and try to continue. To my surprise, the car feels somewhat OK. The steering wheel is just a little off center. I go through ONE corner, and that’s enough for me to say fuck it, car feels fine.

At this point, I am in full adrenaline pumping, don’t give a shit about anyone, I’m going to fuck you up and rip like a maniac mode. The same mode that propelled me to chases and all sorts of trouble in my youthful days. It feels good to know the old me is still hiding in there.

I tell you this – it was some of the best driving I’d ever done. Not the fastest, just the best. The most awesome you could say. Smashing curbing, passing people where it wouldn’t even make sense to pass. Dive bombing cars from 5 car lengths behind. Driving off the track to pass multiple cars. Passing cars that were passing each other. And the best part is, I only smashed one. And he was able to continue and still finish 3rd in class! So I was having a great time. Infact, I realized after talking to my crew on the radio that I had moved all the way up into 3rd.

Unfortunately, in all of my insane driving that included no shortage of smashing into curbs and ruts (there’s even a nice big deep sewer on the racetrack) I damaged a toe link. Either that or it was already damaged from the wreck. The car started wobbling down the straights, shifting from side to side on turn in and direction changes, and thinking back on it now – it was getting worse each time I hit a hard bump or touched the steering. At some points it felt like the car was trying to spin itself out. With only 10 minutes to go a full course yellow came out as another car bit the dust (guys were smashing into each other and damaging their cars left right and center). The car was really bad at this point – and both Solistice’s had caught me up from behind. Bob was in 1st, Nick Wittmer 2nd. I just knew in my heart, that if this thing went green I wouldn’t be able to hold off the Solstices. And unfortunately, it did go green.

At the time, I thought Nick was the one that had hit me at the start of the race. So naturally during one of the caution laps I smashed into his rear bumper. It made me smile. When the race went green I tried to make a stupid pass on Nick and ended up hitting my inside left wheel REALLY hard on the inside of a curb, and that’s when it was over for me. The car wouldn’t even turn at what felt like half of it’s racing speed. In less than a lap I went to last place, with the back of the car wiggling and shaking down the straights, going ape shit in braking, and under steering unable to turn. It was sad. Keeping 3rd would have been so awesome. To go from 1st to last to 3rd.

But I will have my chance again. Instead, I slowed down on the last lap. Let everyone that was may have been behind me (which was no one) pass me. I stopped right after the start finish line. I selected 1st gear. I put my right foot all the way down. I dropped the clutch. I watched and listened to the wonderful noises. I packed 2nd. I watched and listened to the wonderful noises. Donuts and tire smoke made me feel better. I straightened her out and got back into the pits. Some people were excited – including myself. I knew I was going to get in shit.

In the end, the burnout cost me $1000 and I’m now on probation for the remainder of 2011. I am accepting donations.

Bob won, it was his first win and he couldn’t have been happier. I was very happy for him as well. I later found out it was Arek in the Yellow BMW that accidently spun me. I really like the guy so I wasn’t even mad -  I had an awesome race and my only regret was the suspension link. It’s possible it would have come loose in the race even without the accident. So I can’t be upset.

Wait for the video, you must see it.

*UPDATE* Here is a quick video from the weekend:

I must take this opportunity to thank our sponsors. Without them this fun wouldn’t be possible. We’re very fortunate to work with some of the best in the industry, and I think it obviously shows with the performance of our cars.

Haltech ECU’s have controlled the engines flawlessly, and every time I check the data looking for something to be even the tiniest bit off they are spot on. With just a simple sensor set I have consistent fueling at all times. The integration to the AIM MXL dash over CAN BUS is the fastest, lightest and easiest solution out there that was previously available only to very expensive motorsport ECUs.

Vibrant performance supplies us with fabrication materials to build our charge piping, exhaust systems and miscellaneous other systems. Even after being rear ended this weekend there are no cracks to be found in the exhaust, even in the one place where the exhaust kinked from the hit. The aluminum charge pipes weld beautifully, but boy can they take a hit. Their intercooler cores had our air temps never a touch over 100 degrees F, and this is on a sunny 80 degree day, where the track temp was almost 100 degrees itself.

Our SPEC clutches and flywheels work flawlessly, and the car shifts gears almost as fast as a smaller diameter race clutch – even with an OE diameter pressure plate and flywheel.

Injector Dynamics have become a huge hit in the industry in the last few years – with every big name switching to them. I was sold on them at PRI after hearing the Motec / ID talk on injectors and figured there were very few in the industry that sold injectors to the aftermarket with that kind of knowledge. Without fail ID came on board and their injectors have not only run the engines consistently, but both cars use almost identical engine maps – which says a lot about the consistency of ID injectors.

APR Performance has been a great help as their front lips produce real downforce and conform to the front bumper beautifully. They meet our series’ splitter rules almost to the tee, and as a result save us from having to produce very expensive splitters – which you can see often get damaged in touring car racing!

Continental Tire has come on strong lately with all sorts of new support in racing, and these tires we race on sure are exciting. They offer tons of grip, and smoke beautifully They are ultra consistent over the course of an entire race, and allow smooth careful drivers to excel.

Castrol has been the most supportive and best company to work with ever, giving us great swag to give away to fans, providing us with the best lubricants in the industry and all the support we could ask for. There aren’t many companies that make a street oil so good you can race on it- and race on it with a turbo car none the less.

Well, that post never happened because between all of us at SG we were putting in roughly 60 hours a DAY to get the car done. Frankly, there wasn’t even enough time to get the camera out and take some pictures – but I did manage a few blurry ones on one occasion as it would have been a shame not to capture ANY of that excitement.

As you’ve figured it out I am writing this post after our test day. Second test for the #14 car, first ever outing for the #86 car. And let me remind everyone by saying – I HATE testing cars for the first time at Mosport. I especially hate it when it’s a 100% brand new build. Remember, this car was a bare shell only 2 months ago. The good news is, the car did not fall apart. Infact it ran REALLY well and the only issues we’re having, we are having with both cars! It seems the wastegate cannot divert any more air around the turbo and above 6000rpm it continues to build boost until ultimately hitting the ECU programmed limit, which shuts the engine down to protect the motor.  To solve the issue yesterday we just ran the engines to 6000rpm, but when we shift gears the thing totally falls out of it’s power band

Every year it feels great to get back to Mosport. Esspecially when you compare it to a slower track like Cayuga or Shannonville. Every year going down corner 4 at over 200km/h for the first time just makes the heart so happy. The car’s were handling really well with the new penske/anze front dampers. There wasn’t the same floaty feeling the car had last year, and you could trust the car a bit more. That being said, it was very understeery as we were running with the rear sway bar disconnected and the wing at medium angle for some added safety.

At the end of the day, both cars had run a high 1:31, and were 2 tenths off of each other. Pole from last year was a 1:31.00 so we are pretty damn close, especially considering our low RPM limit! So, three’s a charm and we’ll see you in 2 weeks at Mosport!

Although this post is arriving a week late, it doesn’t change the fact that we had a great test at Shannonville. Our new 2L engines were working perfectly. With one exception. We were using some 3″ orange “SCAT” duct hose for the intake. Which sounded like it would be a perfect product for the application – and we’ve seen it used on many other turbo inlets before. I guess the condition is that you need to have a blow off valve. The surging blew the pipe apart and some of the metal inner liner met the compressor wheel at speed. So a new compressor is on the way – at my personal expense!

So let me cover the good news. Mechanically everything was great, the only issues we had were some boost spiking from an overly excited boost controller, that will be tuned out for the next test session with the Haltech. The flat shifting also caused boost spike and resulted in hitting the boost cut, so we’ll need to solve that before using the flat shift feature. But it is quite fun to shift without lifting off of the throttle!

It was wet all day, which meant we didn’t get a time on ourselves in the dry, but the car was really flying in the wet on the new Continental rain tires. I couldn’t believe how amazing they were. I’ve actually never driven in the rain and enjoyed it before, but the car was making OVER 1G (1.1G approx) in the soaking wet. It was putting power down in 2nd gear no problem. What a great feeling that was!! It was also nice to know that our new electronics were holding up to the rain without issue. It was a stressful day though, with making sure so many new parts were working properly, on a tight time schedule, and being generally exhausted from working non stop for the past few weeks!

Unfortunately, it didn’t give us an idea of what our water or oil temps were going to be, but we have plans to open up more airflow to the radiator if it is required by modifying the upper grille. We’re thinking about going to a larger intercooler as well, as the air temp rise is a bit too high for my liking

Needless to say, we couldn’t have done it without the help of our crew and sponsors. While it’s just the first bit of 2011, it’s nice to know it’s off to a good start. Knowing that we will have a fighting chance in the rain means a hell of a lot too

Video to come!

Photo Courtesy Auto Moto Foto

The car has a lot of REALLY nice parts, including battle version links, aftermarket lower control arms both front and rear, a genuine Tomei Genesis engine, a Full Race 3076 turbo kit, including manifold, Tial gate, turbo and intercooler. Since the car was built off of a full street car, there were a ton of “unneccessaries” still hanging out in the chassis. Once we got it down to a bare shell we painted everything flat black for Zach, to go with his flat black interior / flat white exterior plan.

Next we started to re-do some of the systems on the car, such as re-locating and re-plumbing the fuel system, including the RIPS racing swirl pot. We wanted to get as much out of the rear trunk area as possible, incase of impact. We used a west coast batteries PC680 battery, and welded nuts to the chassis for easy assembly / disassembly.

After the trunk area was completed we bent up and riveted on a bulkhead for the rear seat area, as the fuel system has to be isolated from the drivers compartment. We also installed a Driftworks roof scoop to aid in driver cooling, a dual 3″ hose duct off of the factory HVAC inlet for the same reason

Prep on the engine wasn’t that intensive, all we did was check the valve lash was still in spec, and removed the exhaust manifold, re-did the water and oil lines for the turbo so that they had plenty of room from the manifold, and used stainless hardware and safety wired the turbo to the manifold. We simplified the coolant and air systems under the intake manifold as well.

Once the engine was back in the chassis it was time to look at re-plumbing the coolers for the vehicle. We re-did the power steering cooler with a setrab core and luckily we were able to retain the factory power steering reservoir which is making for a very clean install.

The oil system was cleaned up, it had a redundant oil filter in line the oil cooler take off plate (not installed by Zach!), so we removed that and cleaned up the lines, along with a new line to the relocated accusump in the rear seat area.

We also ran a new -8 aluminum fuel hardline from the high pressure fuel pump, which came out gorgeous, teeing off to dual -6 inlets on the fuel rail. The return uses the factory fuel line, which is more than adequate for low pressure fuel, and is much lighter than aftermarket plumbing.

Next up was the suspension. Naturally we sent the knuckles down to Brian at MA-Motorsports to modify them for super angle, these worked great on Briggs’ car and are a must for a drift car. The rest of the suspension has for the most part remained, but a full setup and alignment is soon to come. We did have to machine the front lower control arm pins, as the taper that was machined into them originally was not correct for the S14 upright.

Now we’ve just mounted up some body work, have a front bash bar to fabricate and are going to start on the electrical system for the car. It should turn out great when it’s all done – hopefully in just a few weeks.

This post is actually getting so long that I’m going to split it up into two seperate parts. Racecars first!

As you know we’ve got three of these Genesiisesss (I don’t think plural exists for that word) to build. The #87 car is going to be #14 for 2011, my lucky number, and the #88 car will remain and the new white chassis will be #86. I am assuming. Or maybe #87, but that would be confusing.

We’ve got a lot of fun prep done on these cars so far. For the past two weeks we’ve been working on the #86 car (we’ll just call it that for simplicities sake) and we finally have the chassis 90% done. So we sent it to get painted. Yeah there’s stuff we’re forgetting, but we’re on such a tight time line with this car that we’re just going to have to get some well matched spray bomb cans and add little brackets and touch up as required. The pedal box, steering column and seat is all done, the frame is notched for the rear upper control arms, the factory spring perches are cut off, the firewall is all sealed up minus the holes we are going to be using, the cage is complete so we should be good. Hopefully.

86 Bareee

Steering Column Supports

Cage Built In The South

On the #14 car we’re using that for a mock up for the intercooler and other coolers / duct work / splitter supports etc. It’s going to get really busy at the front of the cars this year as we’re going to have four 3″ ducts for brake cooling, an intercooler with piping, a 4″ duct to ram air to the intake of the turbo, as well as a power steering cooler. In between all of that you need to find space to run 4 vertical supports for the splitter. N/A is so much easier than turbo. I also love how as soon as we hit anything we’ll lose all the boost because the intercooler will be mangled. Gonna need lots of spares!

The wiring is coming along nicely as well, the switchbox’s are coming along well – our new 3 in 1 machine is doing the job for us to shear/ break everything. The box was all designed on the computer first, to get all the angles correct and then we just laid it out on the aluminum and hoped for the best. It was really close. I won’t lie – I messed up one angle! We’re using nut plates and baller hardware from an aircraft supply house to make stuff look like a Boeing 747. My plans are also to have the switch box totally isolated from the chassis on rubbers to help with the vibration for one, and also in the unfortunate incident where a switch or breaker terminal were to touch the housing, it wouldn’t do anything as the housing will be not only powder-coated but also isolated from ground. So good!

Switchbox with Mil-Spec Breakers and Switches

Wire side

These Haltech ECU's have got to be the BEST bang for your buck in the industry. The software is also arguably the best PERIOD.

On the mechanical side of things, the cooling system is totally done. All of the factory cooling shit has been removed, and we’ve cleaned the engine up pretty nicely if I do say so myself. All of the factory metal hard lines that normally serve the heater core / cross-over flow etc have been removed, and we’ve simply welded two -6 bungs on a suction and pressure side for the turbo’s water cooling. We’ve then gutted the thermostat because we’re hard like that, and then welded on -16 bungs to the lower radiator outlet and to the factory upper radiator inlet. We’ll actually be able to re-use some of our coolant hoses from last year which is a bonus! Our entire rad setup will work as well which is great.

Factory steel coolant outlet with -16 bung, Block air-bleed modified for -6 startlite

Modified lower coolant inlet

The oil system is also pretty much all done. We’re removing the OE oil filter and just putting one of Mocal’s low profile spin on adapters to run the flow to the same setup we had last year of an oil filter and cooler. The only problem is the housing has BSPT instead of NPT ports, so we’ll have to find some BSPT to -3/-4 adapters for the turbo and oil pressure sensor feeds.

The fuel systems are also almost done, Injector Dynamics has come on-board with their Injectors which is AWESOME. Can’t say enough about those guys after hearing the knowledge at PRI, they work with the factory fuel rail which is great, and we are just modifying the inlet to become a -6 bung. Unfortunately from stock a fuel pressure damper was part of the inlet, so I’m hoping removing that won’t cause any issues. I’d imagine it was more for low fuel load stuff more than anything. I hope. Not sure where to sample fuel pressure from yet, but a few shops make an insert for the end of the rail to run a return fuel line. I may make a custom plug that accepts 1/8″ NPT or whatever to thread a pressure sender right in there. Would be gangster.

For the drivetrain, we’re going to be using the factory gearboxes and maybe even driveshafts (we can’t move the engine back due to the fact that Hyundai thought it would be a good idea to mount the steering rack infront of the front sub-frame. So unless we go back like a foot and a half, we can’t go anywhere. Dry sump? Anyways – SPEC just announced that they will be sponsoring our team for 2011, which is awesome news! They’re supplying us with flywheels and clutches to eliminate the dual mass crap the factory cars have, I’m assuming for vibration and maybe even emissions issues. Stupid noise/vibration/harness. That’s all racecars are – NOISE, VIBRATION and HARSHNESS! These clutches from SPEC should drop a ton of inertia and I’ve been told because we’re using such a small clutch disk the gear shifts should be incredibly quick and easy on the synchros. I hope the factory gearbox is up for the abuse. I figure if we’re not banging gears or driving too recklessly, they should hold up.

Spec Stage 3 Clutch

So, as you can see, we’ve got a lot to do. Keep in mind that everything we do for the Gen Coupes needs to be done 3 times over! It’s like racecar assembly line work. We’ve already got a lot of 3x modified parts, 3x ecus, 3x injectors, 3x clutch/flywheels, 3x engines, 3x wiring harnesses, switchboxes. I want to put it all in an organized pile on the floor and take a picture, because I think it would be quite the sight. It certainly does reduce the amount of time as you obviously spend a HUGE amount of time planning and figuring for the first one and the subsequent units are relatively easy.

The main concern right now is getting these three racecars ready for a test in the first week of April, which is realistically only like 6 weeks away. I feel like weeks are going by like days, and there are never enough hours to get things done. And I refuse to burn the midnight oil, as that will not only get me sleeping on the couch, but that’s also when all of the problems start to arrise, isn’t it! And of course we can’t forget about getting our customer’s cars ready for battle this spring as well, maybe it’s time to hire more staff?

Hope all is well with everyone and you’re all settling in after the holidays. It’s been a hectic few weeks around here since returning from vacation, and I am glad to report that we’ve got quite a few of our longterm projects finished or nearly!

Here are a few pictures of Steve’s STi, finally finished in all it’s glory. We had it outside in the sun with a snow covered background for some great shots not once but TWICE last week, and I didn’t get outside with the camera. FAIL. So you’ll just have to settle for this shitty in-shop pictures until the spring, as the car has now left to it’s extremely excited owner!

One really cool fact about this car is that not only does it have a GEMS custom mappable center diff controller, but we’ve wired it’s 0-5v output (originally intended to communicate with the factory Subaru diff controller) into the Racepak dash, so we can now log center diff lock %, and compare it against all of the other parameters like speed, throttle position, rpm, boost etc. Gangster? We also built a splitter for it out of Alumalite. On the cheap but it turned out gorgeous none the less!

We’ve gotten some great progress on Bob’s Datsun as well, the Fuel system is complete, we’ve fabricated custom aluminum hardlines, as well as soft lines to the GReddy rail, Aeromotive regulator and fuel filter. You have to see it, nothing quite like baller racecar plumbing.

We’re currently working feverishly on the Genesis racecar program, we currently have 3 2.0t engines sitting in the shop and are awaiting one more. Haltech’s are in and the custom engine and chassis wiring harnesses are transforming from just a drawing into reality. Still waiting on a lot of electrical supplies but they should be here soon to have these things finished up. Injector Dynamics just supplied us with their 725cc injectors which are basically the best injectors on the market. Did I mention we are now an Injector Dynamics dealer? So if you need some, just let us know. The rest of the systems for the Gen coupes are pretty much sorted out, the only things we’ve yet to decide on are Clutches and Flywheels, and turbo.

This S13 got some SG love, with the help of Jim Wolf Technology and Gord Bush. JWT C1 cams, an APEXi head gasket, and a Gord Bush valve job and head cleanup, and with supporting modifications, controlled by a Haltech ECU, the car is producing 367whp at – just look at the dyno, less than 15 pounds of boost! You’ve got to be effing kidding me. I was saying that must be a record of some kind for this turbo, and no one has disputed my claims yet. The turbo is a 2871 0.64 A/R. Fully spooled at 3800rpm, the boost controller was just a little lazy coming on for this pull. The mix of the cams, intake manifold and exhaust manifold have moved the peak torque way up the RPM band, and have made it into an amazing honda-like powertrain. I would imagine the thing would be happy to rev right out to 8000rpm, and would likely still have over 340whp by the time it got there. Cool!

The Canadian Motorsports Expo is this weekend, we will have the #87 Hyundai Genesis Coupe on display, so please come see what’s happening in Canadian Motorsport and come support the industry! Not to mention see all the cool racecars! The show is still fairly new and growing, so while it isn’t nearly as big as PRI or SEMA, it’s Canadian and growing! Hope to see you there. You can find more details about the show here. (CanadianMotorsportsExpo.com)

2006 Nissan 350z Roadster

Engine:
SG-Motorsport custom 3″ Exhaust
Nismo knock-off Y-pipe (2.5″ to 3″)
SG-Motorsport longtube headers
SG-Motorsport custom upper intake plenum, throttle body and intake
Haltech Platinum Pro 350z ECU

Drivetrain:
Totally stock, stock clutch, flywheel, welded diff

Without our intake and with tuning via an UpRev we were seeing around 280-284whp consistently. The addition of our intake and the Haltech, which just allowed easier tuning of the cam control tables, yielded 299whp! I am also confident that now knowing the ideal target fuel, ignition and cam control tables that the UpRev could make about the same power. Clearly at high RPM the stock intake is quite restrictive, and the revup engine is a ton more responsive to modifications than the non-revup was. The only difference that would explain this phenomenon would be the larger cams, and addition of exhaust cam timing adjustment.

From only an intake and cat-back exhaust, to now. Worth every penny?

Intake Manifold/TB and Haltech tuning gains over just headers, exhaust and intake.

This compares our setup to a similarly modified G35 with all the "best" currently available aftermarket bolt ons. Shame!

There are still some issues to be dealt with regarding the throttle body, so some development is required before it would be useable for customer vehicles. But we are looking at potentially producing this product, as it clearly compliments our headers fantastically and makes that dream 300whp that everyone has been trying to achieve since 2003! The non-revup engine will be more difficult, and would likely require the use of a large cam such as the JWT C8 or Tomei 272. Additionally, small parts like an under-driven crank pulley or a lightweight clutch/flywheel will help make even more power – things that this test car does not have! Contact me if you’re interested in the intake, the price with throttle body would be in the $1000-1500 range, and this kit would be best offered with our longtube headers, as the parts compliment each other and are the ticket to 300whp. As we don’t expect everyone to have the same success our roadster has had, adding a set of cams on top of this package would really make a great difference and 300whp would be a joke.

We’ll be back January 4th, so have a great Christmas and New Years and be safe! Dream about headers, intakes and SG tuning and make it come true for 2011! Have a good one kids,

Sasha Anis

Outside the show

Hey guys. We had a great time at PRI these past few days and as it was my first time going to both SEMA and PRI this year, I think I can supply some valuable insight comparing the two shows. SEMA is geared more towards people that are interested in doing show car type modifications, and stuff primarily for street cars. The performance end of things are setup mostly for the general public, and many companies are more interested in being first to market with a product than they are interested in perfecting the performance or design.

Huge appreciation for the circle track stuff.

PRI on the other hand, is for the hardcore racers, engine builders, team owners etc. The people at this show all run very niche, usually small companies that specializes with incredible knowledge in VERY focused disciplines.

Motec for example, who are known for racing ECUs, held a few seminars that basically blew my mind this weekend. I’m still looking for parts of my brain because the explosion launched them all over the show floor. It’s amazing there is even a market for things so specialized, but the kind of knowledge these guys acquire is also used by people outside of motorsport. The military and OE manufacturers cannot pay people enough to acquire the knowledge these guys have, so they have to consult with them when they are dealing with leading edge technologies. It’s the passion that drives these companies to develop and test parts at the very limit that makes them so valuable.

Motec ECUs on display. So gorgeous.

These guys seem more interested in answering their own questions, than they are in making money! It’s the same kind of mindset I’ve always had, and I think that’s why we fit in so well at PRI rather than SEMA. Answering questions and doing development because it’s awesome and learning new things is the best. Not doing it just to get rich. Although of course, that would be nice.

And the things you see are mind boggling. We got a glimpse of Honda’s pro racing engines (ALMS LMP, IndyCar), and it’s just fucked. All of the drilled ports are plugged with machined aluminum plugs with circlips to retain them. The electronics are all integrated into the engine so you don’t see any wiring. The flywheel diameter is like four inches. The alternator and water pump are driven internally and everything is so compact and tiny, it’s a sight to be seen for anyone with attention to detail.

That's the flywheel!

Look at that airbox!

ALMS Honda engine. Twin turbo, look at the machined parts. The front cover is amazing!

Dailey engineering has a dry sump oil pan for the VQ35 that just shows how awesome something can be if you have experience and knowledge and stop at nothing to produce a perfect product. Most dry sump systems require a ton of hoses and external pumps and filters and air oil separators. The Dailey pan has all of the scavenging ports built in, and routed directly to the pump – which looks at first glance to be one solid unit to the pan. The oil filter is even offered mounted directly on the pump, hows that for awesome?

Dailey Engineering VQ35 Pan

Some circle track stuff is incredible – make fun of it if you want, but these guys have some really smart ideas. Things like vacuum pumps, tiny alternators, lots of chassis and tube frame technology has all been largely thanks to them, and the huge volume that these companies do in the circle track business means that we can now get some really gorgeous equipment for next to no money.

Beautiful dual pass radiator

But what blew my mind the most, was the tiny glimpse of Formula 1 technology I got to see. ZF Sachs was there showcasing some of their F1 equipment, and the clutchs these things use are honest to god smaller than the palm of your hand. I don’t think they are more than 4 inches in diameter.

ZF Sachs F1 Clutch - the picture doesn't show nearly how tiny this thing is.

All in all, PRI was just like a candy land for nerdy racecar guys. Getting to learn from people that are so incredibly knowledgable about their specific niche was great, and I hope I can keep getting bites of information from these guys for the next few years.

If you’re passionate about the technical side of things then PRI is the show for you. We have so many cool ideas to try now, it’s not even funny. I’ll be sure to keep you all updated as things progress.

As for now, we’re at the airport, where our flight that was supposed to depart at 9.30pm is 5 hours delayed. We’re tired and just want to get home, but the show was so worth it. We’ll see all you kids soon.

Grand-Am Rolex RX-8

Hewland 6spd Sequential Gearbox, Just $25,000!

Moton suspension booth