2011 In Review

[Nizmo]

Simply awesome. Makes me miss the Pennsylvania winters I grew up in.

[Blacktruckowner]

looks like a blast, great pics and vid.

[Concours.John]

Great pictures and video as always! Looks like a blast! The first time i was in WI was the 09 FCA nationals. I knew there was some fun to be had when seeing snowmobile x-ing signs on main roads.

[CH.Detailing]

Thanks for the compliments guys! I only wish it would stay cold around here so we can get some thick ice out on the lakes sometime soon! I wanna race, damnit!


We had an early thaw this year, so the ice racing season only lasted about 6 weeks which was a real bummer. With no immediate racing to be I started to look forward to the beginning of autocross season. The last time I raced was in 2009 and finished out the season leading my class on points. For the 2010 season I decided I wanted to build the car into more a street car, buying plenty of parts that would have made my car very poorly classed for competition. Minty fresh new engine build, turbo setup, fuel system, and fully tunable EMS.



My street car idea never really panned out as I got hit with a dose of reality (thankfully), so I sold off my mountain of parts and bought my current Subaru for a daily driver. That brings us up to the spring of 2011, where my friend was parting out his car to fund a new project. You can take a peek at my friend`s project at the link below,

Project Nissan 200SX

Up til this point I had been using his car`s suspension setup as a template for my own modifications, so when he told me he was tearing it down I was at first very sad, but then I got smart. I bought nearly every piece of his cars suspension, barely used, at a sharp discount from new and without the hassle of making one-off parts or hunting down the rare out of production pieces. Jackpot!

I made off with a pair of meaty sway bars, some very solid strut tower braces, a lower control arm brace, a hard to come by rear beam assembly that has been bent to a zero toe setting (not easy to do!), a pair of solid and slim rear suspension mounts, some top mount front suspension plates with camber and caster adjustability, a set of custom valved Koni shocks with adjustable collars mated with some Eibach shelf springs, a bumpsteer eliminator setup that lowers the tie rod end, tons of poly bushings, a full set of extended wheel studs, and a complete Mocal oil cooler setup with custom ducting. All in all, an awesome setup, and I couldn`t be happier with what I paid for it.

My new competition spec suspension package sat around for a few months before it finally warmed up enough to do some driveway wrenching.







I also had to backdate my intake manifold to one of a slimmer design, in order to fit on the front strut bar. No flimsy end links on this bar, it bolts right into the top mount plates!





Once everything was said and done the car sat lower while actually gaining an inch of travel, rode smoother (surprisingly), and feels much more neutral and planted. It previously showed understeer on hard entry with some off throttle oversteer, making it a bit finicky to drive at the limit.







I never did get that car out to an event in 2011, although I did do a few with my Subaru. For 2012 the Nissan will see a new 5-speed transmission with limited slip, lightweight flywheel, and sticky clutch, as well as new brakes all around, some new wheels, and the widest and stickiest street rubber I can fit. The AC will be thrown in the trash, as well as the EGR system, the sunroof, the air bags, and anything else that remains of the interior.

[CH.Detailing]

2011 was also filled with many successful Cars and Coffee gatherings, although we started off the year with a rainy April morning indoors at 2Shores Classic Cars.















We have a pretty good group of regulars, so although this first gathering was pretty sparse, it was still plenty of fun for those who did attend.

[CH.Detailing]

Thankfully the weather didn`t wait too long before warming up, and we were blessed with high turn out numbers for the rest of the year.







Porsches are always very plentiful at these gatherings, but this is the only GT2 RS I`ve come across so far! And a daily driven one at that. Dry carbon has never looked better!





This Shelby Comp Coupe was also an unexpected attendee, I`ve seen a few Cobra`s before, most of them replicas, so this was pretty unreal to see!



There are also the inevitable (yet subjective) ugly duckling in attendance, and this S2000 stands out most fondly in my memory.



Thankfully there were plenty of gorgeous ones to balance out the show.











This `55 Chevy is also fairly extraordinary. Tube framed, tubbed fenders, with a blown and sprayed big block making just short of 4 digit power figures. Impressive to say the least!

[CH.Detailing]

That`s it for now, I`ll continue my retrospective tomorrow.

[CH.Detailing]

I`ve been battling a cold for the past few days (still am), so please pardon my lateness in continuing this thread.

Towards the end of April my Dad called me up asking if I was interested in going to a hot rod show in Iowa, I hesitantly agreed. I`m not too big on hot rods or muscle cars, I`m not knocking them and don`t have anything against them, but I can`t say I would go out of my way to see a bunch of them.

After a two and a half hour drive we rolled into Maquoketa, Iowa. I tried quizzing my Dad during the drive on what exactly this event was about, but he was hazy on the details and could only tell me it was called Vintage Torque Fest. I didn`t know what exactly to expect as we pulled into the parking area, and my expectations weren`t all that high, what with Maquoketa being a middle-of-nowhere sort of midwest town. I was very pleasantly surprised.


Ruthless.




You think your race car is gutted? No. THIS is gutted! Floor pans are for the weak.




Sure, four piston brakes aren`t all that remarkable, but these calipers are as big as your head!




Your 375`s are nothing compared to this. Nothing!







The owner of this monstrosity lives in DuBuque, and claims he drives it to work nearly every day during the summer! That is some serious dedication and pride! This is the result of some serious homegrown ingenuity, and is the spawn of a Model A Tudor Deluxe and a straight six, turbo diesel school bus from the 70`s, laid down nicely on some air bags. Both cars had been rotting to death in a field until they were "rescued", cobbled together, and given new life, very similar to Dr. Frankenstein`s monster. This fantastic abomination is a definite head turner, hopefully the townspeople give chase due to curiosity and leave the torches at home.




We stumbled upon the "Franken-rod" in the parking area, among several other cast outs, that weren`t allowed into the show itself because they were too modern!


This behemoth of an International was another of the cast outs.




Everything is better with a turbo!




Super classy Impala wagon laying on bags, with an LSx under the hood!




The ever present and awkward Edsel. I want to say it`s a shame that they didn`t sell more of these... but it`s not.




Cadillac Fleetwood, laying low.






These guys literally build a car from whatever scraps they can drag out the field, or haul home from the junkyard. It simply doesn`t get any more grassroots than this!




I`m no expert, but I believe this is a GM LT1. A relatively modern drivetrain for such an old car!




Boom! HVAC ducting for a weather proof intake. Home brewed ingenuity at its finest.

[CH.Detailing]

This is taking a lot longer than I had anticipated. Heading down to Chicago for a few days to actually do some detailing, at this rate I`ll have my year in review done in a few weeks!

[rzatch]

Looks like you had an eventful year for sure. That ice racing is crazy.

[CT3]

You opened my eyes to a different type of racing. For now I`ll stick to the Tahoe and 4WD!

Do you do any other type of racing?

[CH.Detailing]

Besides autocross and ice racing, no. Although I`d like to do a couple track days this year.

[CT3]

Besides autocross and ice racing, no. Although I`d like to do a couple track days this year.

I`d like to get out to the track too, once I get something built that is worthy of it.

[CH.Detailing]

Back at it! Took a break from school/work to make more progress on this thread, before too long and I`ll be doing a `2012 In Review` thread.

One of my favorite shops in the area is run by Kelly Moss Motorsports in conjunction with Level 5 Motorsports. They are a full service race car and street car shop that runs in the Intercontinental LeMans Cup, the American LeMans Series, the Ferrari Challenge, Grand-Am, and IMSA GT3 Cup. These guys do it all, no project is too big or small.

Early on in the year the Madison Sports Car Club (the autocross body that I run with) help a season opener event and dyno day at the Kelly Moss facility and it was really a treat to be given free roam over the shop during the off-hours. The overwhelming feature of the shop is the shelves packed full of race cars, classic cars, and dominating street machines.




As you can see there were plenty of projects in various stages of completion laying about on the shop floor. Everything from a custom frame for a Chevelle to an entirely carbon 996 Porsche body was being worked on.

This is the aptly named "Flaming Woody", every piece of sheet metal on the body has been replaced with carbon fiber, all the work was done entirely in-house. Pretty impressive!






Even the dashboard was custom molded from carbon!




For such a light weight car, the brakes were still absolutely massive! The rotors themselves were easily larger than the wheels I run on my Sentra.




Given that they run in the GT3 Cup it wasn`t all that surprising to see several racers scattered about the shop. Not only do they prep their own cars, but also prepare several others teams cars, as well as offer transport and track side coaching and assistance. Like I said, these guys do it all!








All of the GT3 Cup cars are required to run the same spec BBS wheel, so I expected to see quite a few, but there was a side room that had literally dozens upon dozens of sets of wheels with fresh race rubber at the ready! These guys don`t show up unprepared.




As you would expect the interiors of the cars are very stripped down and spartan, you won`t find anything but the bare essentials. The weights you see in the driver`s seat is to help the team get the proper corner weights dialed in, the weight is to simulate the driver without requiring him to sit there for the entire process!




The Level 5 team was working on a couple of their Ferrari Challenge cars as well.




It`s not everyday that you can get so up close and personal with these sorts of cars, so it was taking every bit of my will not to hop behind the wheel and go "Vrooooom vrooooom!!"








Over in the prototypes and development wing of the facility we came across one of Level 5`s Lola Spyders that they run in ALMS. The car was sitting naked, which offered an interesting look at all the ins and outs of the race car. The body is made entirely out of carbon and light weight composites, with only a simple metal skeleton structure for the suspension to attach to.

EDIT: Now that I think about it, I`m not sure if I should post these pictures given that the car was in the `prototypes and development` wing. Oh well, the 2011 season is over anyways, I`m sure they won`t mind!




Even the brake ducts were formed from carbon! Take a look at those rotors, super thick and designed for long stints on track. The rotor venting design seemed a bit odd to me, but I suppose it increases the rigidity of the rotor and makes it hold up better to the extreme heat and abuse it gets subjected to.




Super trick inboard double wishbone suspension and a MIL-spec electrical harness, this thing means business!




At the back end you`ll find this twin-turbo Honda V6, similar to what you might find under the hood of an Odyssey mini-van. Similar, in the sense that your child`s plastic toy hammer is similar to a heavy duty pneumatic jackhammer. This engine has received the full race car treatment and now belts out an impressive 450 whp! Let`s see your mothers mini-van do that!




There was a good amount of street monsters lounging about as well, such as this Audi S4. The car was making 600awhp on pump gas at the time, but was back in the shop to be retuned to run on E85 as well as get a methanol injection setup installed. Remember, it`s a street car.

[CH.Detailing]

There was also a stunning 993 Turbo hiding off to the side of the shop. The maroon body and charcoal wheels really did well to understand the menace this car has.






There was a minty white classic 911 sitting on the bottom row of the rack, I really dig the yellow headlamps! (I`m absolutely awful at pinning down model years for early 911s, so I won`t even try.)




Sitting front and center was a very nice 356 soft top.






Judging by the interior, this car definitely sees plenty of road use!




Another older 911 was up on the lift having some engine work done. Can you tell they work on a lot of Porsches!?






My absolute favorite car of the evening was this blue 993 Turbo track weapon. I spent a solid 20 minutes just staring at it, trying to figure out how I could get it out of the shop without anybody noticing. Thankfully (unfortunately?) I couldn`t come up with anything feasible.

The car has a huge amount of presence and is very aggressive looking while also being highly functional, I was very much in awe.






It was rolling on some 2-piece BBS`s wrapped in some sticky Hoosier rubber.




Judging by the massive aftermarket intercooler the car makes some healthy power numbers and assuredly makes good usage of those insanely wide tires!




The front reveals some extra chassis bracing and some inboard mounted Moton ($$$$) external reservoirs for the dampers. The carbon topped box at the front is I believe a reservoir for water/meth injection, but could also be a battery box I suppose. Either way, it`s cool!






The inside of the car is just as serious as the outside. The car features a complete welded in cage, Momo wheel, TraqMate data acquisition, carbon dashboard, a few extra warning gauges, and some enveloping seats similar to what you`d find in a Lotus Exige. The interior also revealed an electronic boost controller and a wideband display, giving a few subtle hints at the added power this thing must put out. Just the thought makes me giddy.











As far as the actual dyno night itself was concerned there weren`t many exceptional cars on display. Given that it was a local non-SCCA autocross club there was a good amount of beaters that risked their lives just to make a single dyno run. A couple of the highlights was an `02 WRX that put down 380awhp, an `06 Subaru Forester that put down 420awhp, and a Cobalt SS that put down 240whp. The highlight of the night was a 2010 Nissan GTR that decided to give the rollers a spin. The car was completely stock and put down an astonishing number to the wheels, given that the offical number at the crank is 478. Apparently Nissan developed a pretty efficient all wheel drive system, or they just lied.








[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7BoOv9JSgXc&feature=BFa&list=UUctcCAwuLhKi VhbQzpejrnA&lf=plcp]2010 GTR - 460 - YouTube[/ame]