Matt is getting ready for the last events of this year here in So Cal. He just went through a full rebuild (2.3 motor, trans) and is putting the final touches on his setup. More info on Matt and his car here: TimeattackUSA
Video and Editing by Drew @ Thirstyfilm
Mitch Pederson from MP Tuning was here on the RRE Dynapack dyno tuning on our friend’s Rydquist Racing-Berk Technology Formula D 350z with it’s fresh LS swap. Fun stuff!
AEM Series 2 standalone ECU
Champion Spark Plugs
ACT clutch system
Fiveo Injectors
One of the pulls the factory LS water neck fitting popped out making a bit if a geyser :-P Go General Motors! Sealed back up and cleaned up the mess and back to tuning in 15 minutes. Now we know they randomly do that.
From Brian Berk:
The OEM GM steel water neck is “press fit” and worked its way out of the water pump in spectacular fashion. The neck is probably 3-4 thou smaller than the orifice and is only held in by a 50-60 thou wide bead of thread locker. I welded on an aluminum neck after this little mishap.
They went out testing and the car is currently running great. Getting ready for Round 6 of the Formula D championship at Texas Motor Speedway September 13-14.
www.mptuning.com – carlrydquist.com – berktechnologies.com
Video by Drew @ Thirstyfilm
Joon Maeng’s LS-13 got a nice feature article in PAS Magazine this month. Nice story and background on the car with all the tech specs. Read the full article here: Like Car, Like Driver
WRITTEN BY AND PHOTOGRAPHY BY ANDREW JENNINGS | PAS Mag August 2013
There’s two sides of every coin for a reason
Joon “Gentle” Maeng may look like just another young driver on the Formula Drift circuit, but don’t let his appearance fool you. He has been through many ups and downs, and a number of cars too. This year brings a new beginning and a fresh start for the South Korean. His personal Lucas Oil / Mav TV sponsorships were renewed, and he is now joined by Nexen Tires to take on the competition, managing his own program with the help of Road Race Engineering. Reliability is key to success in the unforgiving world of drifting, and his latest Nissan S13 chassis has been conceived from the ground up with that in mind.
To play with the big boys, a basic four-cylinder engine wouldn’t cut it. Maeng’s team knew this and went a different direction, swapping a Brodix 8.2-liter LSX V8 into the front of the sport coupe and tuning it to put out a whopping 800 horsepower and 750 lb-ft of torque. The power is managed through a dog box transmission and ACT clutch and flywheel, transferring into a brand new Weir Performance rear end.
Read the Full Article Here on pasmag.com
Round 5 of the Formula Drift Championship took place at Evergreen Speedway located just outside of Seattle Washington.
Thursday practice gave Joon a feel of the track with the s13, Joon was “Balls Out” this weekend in so many ways!
Friday qualifying was very crucial Joon laid down a 73.5 in his first run, which would get him in the top 32 , Joon was aggressive in run 2 with an 85 point run under his belt, Joon qualified 21st which would put him against Conrad Grunewald who drives the Hankook tire Camaro ss
In Joon”s chase run, he would keep good proximity on the bank but straighten in the “Power Alley” due to e-brake issues, giving Conrad Grunewald a huge advantage
Joon’s lead run was clean and aggressive. Conrad had multiple mistakes but it was not enough to give Joon the win, Conrad would move on to the top 16.
The crew had fun however.
Here are some pics of the work that we are getting started on here. Varis carbon wide body kit, Stoptech Trophy Brakes need some bigger wheels so that means we’ll need a wider body and chassis clearance. The interior will get new seats and a full detailing. The car already hit the dyno for a retune after the motor was all broken in.
Before Pic (remember this skinny little plain EVO 6 so you can compare it to the finished monster)
All stripped down.
Initial fitting of the body work, Here it is on 9.5″ Volk RE-30s. The eventual wheels will be Volk TE-37 Super Lap 18″ x 11″
little stock brakes and the Rally Ohlins will be replaced later with Stoptech Trophy big brake kit and Muellerized Ohlins Road and Track coil overs.
Full Photo Gallery:
Justin Pawlak had an Eclipse back in the day and we have always watched his rise through the ranks in Formula D to the top. He now has a full ride with team Falken driving the signature teal/blue Falken Mustang. John Mueller of Muellerized.com is now his spotter and is in charge of his suspension program too.
Justin just got his personal turbo FC RX7 together and stopped by RRE to tune it on the dyno. AMDrift.com’s Dave Karey came by to shoot it and do a little write up on the day. Check it out here.
We took Dr Alex’s EVO 6 to Auto Club Speedway for some shake down runs now that it is tuned with the AEM Infinity ECU and running on E-85. There was a Porsche Club Festival of Speed that he had some friends running at so we chose that weekend. Dr Alex was also able to make some runs with his 997 Turbo. By the end of the day we had the EVO running faster lap times than the 997.
Here is a quick video from Andrew @ ThirstyFilm
To run full 30-40 sessions at higher hp on E-85 we upped the fuel cell from a 12 gallon cell to a Aeromotive 20 gallon aluminum cell with their built in pump and pick up box assy. New -8 fuel lines front to rear, AEM fuel rail and RC Engineering 1600 cc injectors finished out the fuel system for big power and consistent fuel supply.
Next on the schedule is to tear apart the body to install the Varis Widebody kit. Then wider wheels with Hoosier race slicks and Stoptech Trophy brakes. We’ll most likely change out the Ohlins rally suspension for Ohlins track suspension.
The EVO 6, being an ex-rally car came with an Autronic SM2 ECU. While excellent for rally car engine management, we needed more for an all out track car running E-85. The car currently runs an RRE 2.3 with a Garrett GT35R turbo. The Infinity ECU allows up to 12 maps, virtually unlimited logging and incredible ease of tuning. Using the Zeitronix ECA Ethanol Content Analyzer the Infinity ECU also allows for full flex fuel operation.
Sam and Gus wired up a plug in ECU adapter harness starting with a Boomslang patch harness. With the Infinity ECU initial startup is easy. You just enter the vehicle crank sensor type and injector type and it fires right up.
Setup for some easy track shake down runs, the car made 420 whp running wastegate boost with full torque and boost hitting at 4,100 rpm. With the boost set higher to 23-20 psi the motor hits 450 torque and 480 whp. More than enough power for now to rip loose the Hoosier R6s anywhere he wants.
Our summer project. Dr. Alex’s EVO 6
+ Varis Wide body Kit
+ AEM’s new Infinity ECU
= Win
It started with a quest for bigger brakes. Bigger brakes need bigger wheels. Bigger wheels need a wider body. Then of course with all the brakes, tire and aero he’ll need more power! This stuff is all a slippery slope to going broke :-) What a country we live in! We’ll keep updated with pics throughout the project.
We previously went over the EVO x’s 4B11 timing chain stretch woes here. On a good day when everything is working correctly the ECU uses the cam position sensors along with the crank angle sensors to calculate the stretch of the timing chain. When it all works like it’s supposed to, the dash warning system shows a big triangle warning sign so you can get things checked out.
All too often this system fails the owner. We have had cars with the timing chain well within spec get various timing chain and Read the rest of this page »
