Royz Pikes Peak EVO 8 – Hoonigan Build Biology
The Hoonigans just did a Build Biology video feature on Roy Narvaez’s EVO 8 that we built for him back in 2015 for Pikes Peak.
We built the car for Roy out of James Singer’s old street car that got rear ended by a girl in a Jeep putting on her makeup in the morning commute. Even though the damage in the rear was just the rear body panels and rear part of the floor, the car was declared a total loss by an idiot insurance adjuster that didn’t know the difference between a Lancer and an EVO. Roy bought the shell and RRE took it from there.
Roy raced the car in 2015 but that year the course got shortened due to weather. He came back in 2016 for some satisfaction to complete the full course. But that year the mountain got him instead. He was driving in practice up in the W’s section and the straight road just moved and made a curve out of nowhere. You can see it in the crash video. You can watch the in car video and the road moving out of no where just stuns poor Roy and side of the road just wrecks into the car. Weirdest thing to watch it is. He was done for that year’s attempt.
Back in LA Roy took it to a body shop to fix but they tole him the car was wrecked so it was unrepairable. Yes, the body shop said because the car was crashed they couldn’t fix it. The frame was bent. Silly us we thought that was what body shops did, fix crashed cars. The car had too much work in it to throw it away. So Mike got out his big hammer and with some 1950’s frame pulling technology he straightened the core shell and floor and replaced the frame rail and radiator support. Some new APR bod panels and suspension and it was ready to race again for the 2017 Pikes Peak Hill Climb.
Check out the video for a closeup look at the car and some stories from Robert Garcia about the build.
997 GT3R at California Festival of Speed
Road Race Engineering with driver Alexander Radu racing his 997 Porsche GT3R at the Porsche Club of America, San Diego Region California Festival of Speed at Auto Club Speedway. Helping out with track support and expertise was Bob Faieta and Caden Loftus from Competition Motorsports
This is the 2nd sprint race of the CFOS weekend on Sunday. Dr Alex had a strong start and was running in first place in the GTA class and 2nd place overall to the GT1 Class 996 turbo of Dwain Dement from Vision Motorsports. A late race pass by Daniel Davis in a Turbo Cup Car in the GT1 class dropped Dr Alex to 3rd overall.
The final result was 3rd overall and first place in the GTA class. His best lap time of 1:39.03 in the race was his fastest lap for the three day weekend.
The car is a 2013 spec 997 GT3R from Manthey Racing in Germany. It was built to campaign at Nurburgring and endurance races. This was the first race in the United States for the GT3R. Dr Alex is familiar to our Mitsubishi customers normally driving the RRE widebody EVO 6.
Factory Five Racing GTM Tuned by Sam @ RRE
Here is a Factory Five GTM on the Road Race Engineering Chassis Dyno being tuned by Sam “icantunafish” C. using HP Tuners software. The car is is built primarily for the NASA 25 Hours of Thunderhill race but also runs in other NASA events and some west coast endurance races as the schedule allows. It is essentially a stock LS3 small block with an open exhaust.
Video is the car on track at Buttonwillow running with NASA driven by Carl Rydquist.
Team: Prototype Development Group
Car: #4 Factory Five Racing GTM
Driver: Carl Rydquist
Track: Buttonwillow CW13
The Factory Five Racing GTM is owned by Yvonne and Richard Migliori, powered by a GMPP LS3 tuned by Road Race Engineering.
Pikes Peak 2016 – Jeff Denmeade EVO 8 Race Wrapup
Pikes Peak 2016 Time Attack 2 Class EVO 8 driven by Australian rally driver Jeff Denmeade of Meadsports with prep and crew support by Road Race Engineering. Tuning by David Hinde of Merlin Tuning.
Jeff’s recap of race day:
After seeing that we had a small chance to take the number 2 Viper, we knew 4th place was ours to loose, a finish was more important than a fantasy. The mountain was yet to play all it’s cards, it had 10 hours left to teach some lessons.
With an amazing amount of red flags that left us bewildered, with a huge amount of cars being turned around and sent back down the hill for restarts the day dragged on.
Finally the gates opened for us and we were let into the start zone area, safety checked, and given the clear order, we were now under starter orders. Revs raised, launch control enabled. Great start! The best all weekend. A good start, even on a rally usually, seemingly, sets the atmosphere for the mood for the run.
Concentrating on accuracy first for the lower section, quickly in 4th gear hitting all the high speed apexes, all in 4th gear. This sets the mind up for the run, accuracy first, speed second.
In all the run was effortless, even faultless, but at some point it felt like the car simply ran out of air, not pulling as strong as it did in practice, no real time to fight it, just had to keep getting it to the apexes. Suddenly cars were stopped all over the course, hoods up and steam coming out, in large places there was little grip on the pavement due to heat, brake zones were harder to read with over run forcing diving into the apexes.
Data later showed that the car ran out of air, due to a zone on the mountain where there was simply no humidity to cool the air going into the airbox, or radiator. The car became a barometer meter itself. The car spiked from 97 degrees Celsius, to a whopping 113 in this odd ‘dead-zone’. But the old dog hung in there.
Running the same specification we ran in 2010 when we won the Time attack class, even the same turbo, the old EVO proved it can run reliably, with simple ecu updates and reflashes running constant all week.
Typical of Pikes, we were entertained with a ice storm, then a hail storm at the top, leaving all of us to tip toe down a few miles on the ice with race rubber, when we were rounded up let loose to come down under a safety car. How we all made it down without someone sliding off is beyond me.
Only one car didn’t make up due to the storm, when the Ecoboost Mustang simply couldn’t go up the hills on the ice, at some point sliding backwards down the road, deciding to park it for safety sake.
End result, 4th, which was expected, and achieved, and not wasted. We drive the car up into the trailer on it’s own power, lock it down, and have a post race drink in the spa.
In reflection, it was an amazing year, and the team was simply the best to have around me. Mike and Matt and Bryce from Road Race Engineering in California, and our tuner David Hinde (aka Merlin) from Sydney kept the car at it’s peak, and were always ahead of the curve on anything that may have happened. We’ll be back.
Cheers to all.
Jeff
Final results for Time Attack 2 Production were:
1st Place Nick Robinson 2017 Acura NSX Hybrid – 10:28
2nd Place Kevin Wesley 2016 Viper ACR – 10:39
3rd Place Stephanie Reaves 2016 Viper ACR – 10:56
4th Place Jeff Denmeade 2003 EVO 8 – 11:32
5th Place Fumio Nutahara 2015 GT86 12:36
DNF Kash Singh 2016 Ford Mustang
Pikes Peak 2016 – Jeff Denmeade – Middle Section Practice
Friday is the last of 4 days of practice on the mountain. For us, this was the middle section. This starts at Glen Cove just past the ski area and goes up past the tree line and through the “W”s and stops at Devils Playground. All the go up a couple minutes apart. Once all the cars go up, they clear the road and send everyone back down. The cars do any prep or changes and go back up again. We hope to get 4 or sometimes 5 runs on a short section like this. The drivers don’t get to connect the entire course until race day.
The car had been running fine all week. We were looking to see how the additional ducting that we had made the day before had changed. In the practice sessions we run from daybreak until 9 am. The weather is very cool. But come race day our start time wont be until about noon. And instead of running a short 4-5 mile section, we’ll be running the entire 15 mile course flat out. We wanted to compare coolant temps here with the higher to[ section that we ran earlier in the week.
We were also able to track the tire pressure at the altitude went higher to best set a start pressure. The run group that we are in has some wild cars. A good Pikes Peak car always looks like it was drawn by an 8 year old. Because of the thin air up this high, the aero is always exaggerated. You end up seeing crazy open wheel cars with giant double wings in the front and rear. Tunnels and diffusers, canards out a foot in each direction. We see the open class electric cars of Rhys Millen and “Monster” Tajima, stock cars, Mike Ryan’s Freightliner semi-truck, every concept of an open wheel car you can imagine…
Here is a video of the middle section practice run. One run, three different camera angles back to back.
Pikes Peak 2016 – Jeff Denmeade EVO 8 – Practice and Qualifying
As day two arrived, it was a 2:45 am wake up call to get ready to head up the mountain. It takes about a half hour to get through the gate and to the pits. Then set up, get the car and driver warmed up and be ready for the session to start as soon as it is light enough to drive without headlights. We have the Pikes Peak Highway available for practice and qualifying runs until 9 am each day. The competitors are divided into two groups of cars and one group of motorcycles and quads. Each group runs a different section of the 15 mile 152 turn course. The start line is at 9,000 feet with the finish just above 14,000 feet. The air is thin at the top!
It often works out that you get only 2 or 3 runs on the longer bottom section. On the two upper sections you can get as many as 5 runs if everyone behaves. Today will be our day for qualifying on the bottom section. It was the other race car group’s qualifying yesterday and will be the motorcycles for qualifying tomorrow. Early on there were some offs and mechanical break downs with the other competitors and it became clear that we would only get 2 runs. We chose to concentrate on data logging for boost and to monitor temperatures.
Our MeadeSports/Road Race EVO 8, which was taken back to stock configuration for this year’s event put in a good effort to qualify just 1.6 seconds behind the Electric Class Tesla running in Ludicrous Mode. We had been running 3rd in our class all week during practice. Running a bit behind the 2017 Hybrid Acura NSX and the faster of the two 2016 Viper ACRs. The second 650 hp Viper ACR finally found its mountain footing this morning and we were bumped. Our qualifying time of 4:48 put us 4th in class.
In all, the team was satisfied with the running and as the times got quicker. Jeff was actually faster than he had run in qualifying in 2012 in the Australian built carbon fiber Skelta sports car.
“We take these qualifying times as an indication, but race day is so very different than practice and qualifying as we run in the heat of the day on race day, whereas qualifying is done in the cooler early morning. We have half the power of the top 3 cars now ahead of us, but the mountain saves its joker cards until race day” Jeff said. “We’re getting closer to the business end of the week of work, I’m exhausted, but excited”, Jeff went onto say.
Pikes Peak 2016 Meade Sports/RRE EVO 8 – Practice and Day 1
Tuesday the MeadeSports Road/Race Engineering team took use of the optional practice day to run on the bottom section to start data gathering and sighting the twisty tarmac that is this section of the spectacular Pikes Peak road. This day isn’t a mandatory day; mandatory practice starts Wednesday the 22nd.
Dr Alex EVO 6 at Willow Springs – Porsche Owners Club Cup Race
Dr Alex and his Varis Widebody EVO 6 ran with the Porsche Owner’s Club at Willow Springs on the big track. Running in the GT-1 class in the Cup Race Alex qualified 11th in the Cup Race and finished 11th overall.
Alex also ran one session in the Time Attack and his 1:28 stood for the fastest time for the weekend.
The EVO 6 is powered by a RRE 2.3 with a Garrett GT3582R turbo. It runs on E85 and is tuned using an AEM Infinity ECU.
Dr Alex EVO 6 at Willow Springs PCA Time Trial
Back to the track this weekend with Dr Alex and the EVO 6 Running with the PCA killing off some old tires, dialing in the new Ohlins TTX 3 way adjustable suspension and looking towards the POC Tribute to Le Mans Cup Race in May.
In the morning we went over the game plan for running the EVO 6 at the PCA Event. I explained to Dr Alex that since we were guests at this Porsche Club event, wouldn’t it be polite to stay off the boost button and not run away with things too much. “I’m a Porsche owner!” he says as he lays down the fastest time of all the TT run groups. So much for detante.
After setting fast time we spent the rest of the day smashing bugs on the front of the car. It rained on and off all day but at about 3 pm it came down pretty good. When it cleared up the rainbow came out i just the right place.
Pirelli World Challenge Round 1 and 2 at COTA with Carl Rydquist
The Pirelli World Challenge race weekend was 4 days in Texas at the Circuit of the Americas, but it seems like it went this fast :-P
RRE went along to help service for Carl Rydquist and the CA Sport Nissan Team at Circuit of the Americas in Austin Texas with the #34 CA Sport Champion Spark Plugs Team Nissan 370Z Nismo ready to rock and hoping for a podium finish. Austin offered perfect weather conditions and large crowds of fans came out to enjoy the Pirelli World Challenge season opener.
After the dust had settled, Carl Rydquist came home with a 3rd place podium from a truly nail-biting race 1 and a pole position for race 2.
“I almost can’t believe it” says Carl. “I wanted and waited so long to get a shot to race in the Pirelli World Challenge and thanks to the amazing CA Sport Team Nissan and my crew guys from Road Race Engineering I found myself in a fierce three car battle for the Touring Car win. I ended up 2 seconds behind CA Sport regular driver Vesko Kozarov who ended up winning after 40 minutes of hard racing in the other team car [#3], and given this is my first race with the team and at the spectacular Circuit of the Americas that 3rd place pretty much feels like a win!”
Carl Rydquist set the fastest laptime of all drivers in race 1 which qualified him for the pole position for race 2. He set off in the lead from a standing start in front of Vesko Kozarov and second place finisher from race 1, Toby Grahovec, however after 11 laps of nail-biting action among the front-running cars he was forced to retire the car with a power steering fluid leak. Vesko Kozarov went onto claim 3rd behind Toby Grahovec and Nick Wittmer, adding to the tally of trophies for CA Sport Team Nissan.
Carl Says about Saturday:
On Saturday I started from pole position and did my first standing start with the #34 CA Sport Nissan 370Z Nismo.
This video shows the start and the first few laps from Saturday’s race. It went pretty well until an unexpected oil leak forced me to retire the car just before halfway into the race. You may notice that the Touring Car class is pretty evenly matched, but it all varies a bit during the different stages of these 40 minute races depending on how hard you push and when you push, how your car is setup and if you run clear or if you are involved in constant battles. Also differences in engine power curves and gearing between the different cars have an impact in different areas of a track.
All in all this was a great last minute race deal that came together. It became a valuable learning experience to get to know Circuit of the Americas, the Pirelli World Challenge, the strengths and weaknesses of the Nismo 370Z and the competition, and most of all how these 40 minute races develop and how the Pirelli racing tires need to be run in order to be in the battle for a win at the end.
“The second race began really well” adds Carl. “Toby and Nick’s cars eventually showed a lot more pace than in race 1 though but another podium seemed to be within reach pretty far in to the race and it is a bummer to miss out on championship points so early in the season, but in total there were too many positives to be anything but grateful. I am really happy for the CA Sport Team Nissan to get such a great start of the season and I am excited for the future!”
CBS Sports will air the races on TV on Thu March 17 at 8PM ET, with re-air March 17 9PM ET and March 19 12.30 ET.
The livestream from the races is available for encore viewing at MotorTrend OnDemand.
Next up on the Pirelli World Challenge Touring Car competition schedule is Canadian Tire Motorsports Park in Bowmanville, ON co-headlining with the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series as part of the Victoria Day Speedfest, on May 19-22, 2016.
One lap qualifying ride along with Carl:
Carl Rydquist’s next event on the competition schedule is a 3-hour twilight endurance race with the Prototype Development Groups’ Factory Five Racing GTM at Willow Springs International Raceway, CA, on Friday night March 11th, 2016.
Car: CA Sport Nissan 370Z
Race: Pirelli World Challenge at Circuit of the Americas 2016 Round 1 and 2
Driver: Carl Rydquist
Team & Sponsors: CA Sport / Road Race Engineering / Champion Spark Plugs, Pettit Kohn Ingrassia & Lutz / APR Performance, OS Giken / Stance / ADVAN GT / MOTUL
Hankook Tire to Sponsor Team Road Race Engineering
We are excited to be partnering with Hankook Tire for our four team cars covering four different racing series this year. With the right team and sponsors now in place, we’re looking for major successes across the board.
Hankook has graciously agreed to sponsor the following cars as part of our team lineup:
Canaan O’Connell pilots the Road Race Engineering Mitsubishi Evo 7 as an active part of the Road Race Engineering/Jet Black/JEM FX Motorsports Racing team. The car is currently running NASA, and will be at Global Time Attack events, as well as Pikes Peak this year. The left hand drive Evo 7 is running on Hankook F200 280/650/R18 tires, which will keep him planted on the track.
The Road Race Engineering Mitsubishi Evo 6, driven by Dr. Alex Marmureanu will run on Hankook F200 280/650/R18. Dr. Alex’s Evo 6 has been built and tuned Road Race Engineering, has been a part of the RRE race team for years, and has been featured at the SEMA Show as part of the team. Dr Alex runs with the Porsche Club of America and the Porsche Owner’s Club in both the Time Trial events and also wheel to wheel road racing.
The Road Race Engineering Mitsubishi Evo 8 is run by Roy Narvaez and will be competing at Pikes Peak this year. The Narvaez Racing Evo was built and tuned by RRE. This ex James Singer car is running a proven setup of an RRE 2.3 and Garrett GT3582R turbo with an AEM Infinity ECU, and will undoubtedly do well this year on the mountain. After running Pikes Peak, Roy is looking towards getting his road racing license with NASA and running wheel to wheel road race events. Updated livery is currently in the works.
Professional BMX Rider Francisco “Coco” Zurita owns and drives the Road Race Engineering GT-R. The Nissan GT-R will be a part of the Gumball 3000 rally, Global Time Attack, and SEMA Show marketing efforts. Tire specs are undecided, but with consultation from the Hankook team, will be an improvement for the team’s racing efforts.
RRE and driver Carl Rydquist first partnered with Hankook for the 2013 Formula Drift season, and the successful partnership led to the continued relationship between the two companies. Road Race Engineering is grateful for Hankook’s continued support, and is looking forward to representing the tire brand this season.
For more information on Hankook, visit their website.
Bryce at Willow Springs Kart Track
“Dad, when do I get to go to the track to race?” OK, your turn buddy.
Bryce went to the actual Willow Springs Kart Track for the first time this weekend. Over the last year he has done lots of, well “free form” driving in parking lots, the shop cul de sac, playing on the ovals at Willow Springs and up on the Balcony when we’d go testing with the various drift cars. But this is the first time he’s been on a real defined Go Kart track with left and right turns.
I picked up a full size kart with a 100cc Rotax motor to chase him around and show him some lines. We both figured out pretty quick that you can’t turn and brake at the same time on a kart :-P He drove and drove until he ran out of gas. He pushed it to the pits, filled up and just kept going until at 4:00 we could hardly stand up in the Willow Springs afternoon wind.
Jet Black Racing – RRE – JemFX EVO 7 Fast Laps with Canaan O’Connell at Willow Springs
Here is some pure in car video of the Jet Black Racing RRE EVO 7 running with NASA at Willow Springs on the Big Track. Canaan worked through the weekend to get the lap times down to 1:25. That was good for First Place in the Open Class Time Trial class.
Video shot and edited by Electric Federal
Carl Rydquist 2014 Formula D Season Wrap Up
COMING TOGETHER IS A BEGINNING.
KEEPING TOGETHER IS PROGRESS. WORKING TOGETHER IS SUCCESS. IN 2014 WE WON OUR FIRST PROFESSIONAL DRIFTING PODIUM IN FORMULA DRIFT PRO2.
HERE’S TO RACING FOR MORE TROPHIES IN 2015!!
Mean Machine. Pre-Season testing with the new Garrett GTX 4088R installed as well as the new C&R Racing NASCAR dogbox, at Willow Springs Oval.
Giving tribute to my friend Paul Walker by supporting his charity organization Reach Out World Wide, I ran the ROWW crest on the hood all season, and #ROWW on the quarter panels of my 350Z V8 Turbo.
Long Beach was one of the best times of the season. Full of fans and friends, and I was excited that the car had become really quick compared to 2013. We also gave a lot of interviews and created a great video from the event.
MORE:
Carl Rydquist – RRE LS 350Z – Formula D Round 4 – Wall, NJ
Wall Speedway New Jersey… the 4th round of the Formula D Championship. For the RRE Turbo LS Powered 350Z FD Team featuring Carl Rydquist as the driver… well the team went into the wall so to speak :-P
First Carl’s mentor and inspiration Bryan from Berk Technologies decided he was off the team. He still sent his tent though. Sam was mean to him or something. So the weekend started with Carl out of sorts. Then Sam’s woman wouldn’t let him go so we were two men down. John Vick came to help out.
[youtube]http://youtu.be/gP9WJGCbspU[/youtube]
Problems with the sway bar clearance did not allow the car to run with the sway bar that they needed for the bank transitions so that put the car at a disadvantage. Add in that the video guy was a tooth off and the team was in for major disappointment.
So we just made this cool video and took some cool pics with the fans that didn’t know any better. Rossy called a team meeting and regulated so better luck next event in Washington!
Carl Rydquist – RRE LS 350Z – Formula D Round 3 Miami Florida
Before this event we mentioned that we were ready to battle, and battle we did! Piloting the Road Race Engineering Berk Technology Nissan 350Z powered by Champion Spark Plugs through both the PRO and PRO2 categories at Formula Drift’s newest venue Homestead-Miami Speedway, our driver Carl Rydquist started off with winning 1st qualifying spot in PRO2, followed by a 23rd qualifying result in PRO, then Carl went onto win 3rd place in the PRO2 tandem competition on Friday night and finally capped off the weekend with a Top 16 finish in PRO.
Rossy Welch, team manager Road Race Engineering
Carl’s FormulaD Pro2 podium finish under the sunshine of Miami has made one of my biggest dreams come true in my favorite racing series. It feels wonderful to work with such a talented, young and passionate team. I’m so proud to be part of it and thankful for the opportunity. We can feel the love from our fans and with the support from our sponsors, that is what keeps us working harder.
Carl Rydquist, driver RRE 350Z V8 Turbo powered by Champion Spark Plugs
What an amazing weekend! The team behind this car consists of Road Race Engineering, Berk Technology and S-Empire, Carl explains, and it’s a strong combo that combines tons of experience with brains and competence to find solutions to the challenges we come up against and to execute the jobs that are needed. I am equally impressed, fascinated and thankful and I’m extremely happy to have won my first Formula Drift trophy!
Formula Drift PRO Rd4 in New Jersey takes place on June 20-21 and our preparations have already begun. The Z chassis, then powered by a V6 engine boosted by a Garrett GT3582R turbocharger ran well there last season so we have a great baseline and Carl did well in qualifying at that track, but still with today’s level of development speed in Formula Drift we have to work tirelessly on sharpening the competitive edge to climb further up the standings where we are currently sitting in 29th place in the PRO series and 3rd in the PRO2 standings.
Carl Rydquist – RRE LS 350Z – Formula D – Round 2 Road Atlanta, Georgia
We have amassed great momentum during the start of the 2014 season by excellent working relationships with our technical partners and with great support from fans around the globe, however we did suffer a no-points weekend in the second round of the 2014 Formula Drift PRO Championship by taking 34th spot out of 60 cars at Road Atlanta. Now how do you handle a gut punch like that? Answer: Like a Champion.
Carl Rydquist – RRE LS 350Z at the Formula D Opener in Long Beach
Road Race Engineering’s 2014 Formula D Season debut happened in front of a sold-out crowd of more than 20,000 drift fanatics in Long Beach California last weekend. Our practice session ran trouble free and our driver Carl Rydquist qualified the Road Race Engineering Berk Technology 350Z into 24th spot among 64 professional drivers. This was Carl’s best result since his Formula D comeback (best previous FD qualifying position to date: 7th, 2009).
During the Top 32 tandem practice sessions it was clear that the car was significantly quicker now than last season. The tight turns and close walls of the Long Beach Grand Prix circuit isnt necessarily known as one of the higher speed drift events. But it was obvious that Carl was able to chase down several other big power cars.
In the battle for a spot in the Top 16 bracket, Carl was able to pull out a gap in his lead run thanks to the Garrett GTX4088R turbo powered LS2 V8 and our sticky Hankook Ventus R-S3 tires, however being fast also turned out to be a challenge in the follow run behind opponent Forrest Wang.
Carl comes from a road racing back ground and said: “I am used to being in front and racing hard to leave the competition behind so that part went as planned. While I was following Forrest, I started out too close too soon and simply bogged down behind him and he was able to maintain great angle and line at a relatively low speed.
The Road Race Engineering Berk Technology 350Z, (Carl calls the car “Animal”) ran flawlessly. The 830hp turbocharged LS V8 motor didn’t miss a beat all weekend, so this one’s totally on me. It was frankly one of my worst tandem follow runs I can remember. Nothing that I can do about it now, but something to draw experience from. The good news is that the car is quick and controllable, I can charge close and battle for tandem wins this year.”
Thanks to the qualifying result Carl and the team are moving onto Round 2 at Road Atlanta in 19th place, tied in points with among other drivers former champions Daigo Saito (2012) and Daijiro Yoshihara (2011).
Rossy Welch our Team Manager said: “I could see that Carl didn’t want to damage the car at this event, which is good, but you also have to go for it 100% to win. We’ll focus and push harder at Atlanta next month. But this is a really good start for us, we made important points and we met so many fans that love the car that this awesome team has built and we feel very blessed and happy for the support from all of our sponsors. This is already becoming a really exciting year!“
See you at Road Atlanta on May 9-10 or on the FD Livestream!
Bryce 50cc Kid Kart
5 year old Bryce’s first day on a track. Before he was the parking lot king on his little kart. We went testing with Carl Rydquist’s FD 350Z and Bryce was able to get on the oval at Willow Springs to pick up his speed some finally.
Carl Rydquist Formula D 350Z Test Day
We have the rebuilt refreshed respiffyfied repowered 350Z up and running after the off season rebuild and overhaul. Time to go testing at Willow Springs Raceway.
Last season Carl’s 350Z ate it’s VQ turbo motor half way through the season. He made the decision to simplify things and go LS2 V8 power. With some higher flowing cylinder heads and a little Nawz it was running high ~400 whp to the wheels. Enough to drift on but not enough to make mad smoke on demand and put the car sideways at will.
So in the off season Art (S Empire) and Sam added a Garrett GTX 4088R turbo to the mix. With Sam’s tune using the AEM EMS Seris 2 ECU we now had all the power we needed and then some. Time to make some smoke and dial in the suspension for the new power.
Carl Says:
This thing’s getting quicker now. First time out with the Road Race Engineering (official) 350Z with this mad S-Empire turbo V8 setup. Turned out to run solidly so far in the SoCal sunshine (knock on wood!), so I started to play around with it. Small but crucial chassis setup adjustments by Berk Technology ended up giving me a really good car. Great feeling in the car, very solid feeling and completely different sound with turbo and straight cut gears. Love it. Going to have a lot of fun taking this to the Streets of Long Beach.
Dr Alex’s EVO 6 – Brake Test Day at ACS
We took the Dr Alex EVO 6 with the new Varis widebody to a Speed Ventures track day at Auto Club Speedway this last weekend to dial in the Stoptech Trophy Brakes a bit. This is the first full run with the car with the Muellerized Ohlins, 18×11 Volk SSL wheels and Hankook tires. The car has the OBP Motorsports pedal box with tandem master cylinders and cockpit adjustable front to rear brake bias.
John Mueller (Muellerized…) was just minding his own business under orders doing some shake down runs and a beautiful Porsche Cup Car was right there in front of him. Go for a lap with John on the low boost setting. In the video all you hear is the Porsche revving and shifting. I wish EVOs would sound that good going just as fast :-)
RRE EVO 6 Varis Widebody at SEMA 2013
Here is a nice video about the details of Dr Alex’s EVO 6 Varis Wide Body SEMA project that we had in the Zeitronix display at SEMA 2013 in Las Vegas. Next up for the car is some track shakedown over the winter months.
Video and editing by Drew @ www.thirstyfilm.com
2000 Mitsubishi Evolution 6 GSR
Exterior
• Carbon Wide Body, Hood, Trunk Lid and Wing by Varis Japan
• Volk Racing Wheels TE-37 Super Lap 18X11+22
• Hankook Ventus C71 Racing Slicks
Interior
• Cobra Sebring and Suzuka Race Seats
• Schroth Race Belts
• OMP Steering Wheel
• Stack Race Dash
• Zeitronix ZT-2 Wideband
• Zeitronix ZR-1 AFR — Boost Display
• Zeitronix ECA-2 Ethanol Content Analyzer
• Zeitronix Ethanol Content Gauge
• Zeitronix Flex Fuel Sensor
• Safety Devices 10 Point Roll Cage
Engine
Mitsubishi 4G63 600 whp/500 ftlbs Tq @ 25 psi
• Road Race Engineering 2.3 Stroker
• Turbo by Garret GT3582-R
• Tial 44 MM Waste Gate
• Road Race Engineering Front Mount Intercooler and Piping
• Road Race Engineering 4′ Intake
• AEM Infinity ECU – Full Flex Fuel – Tune by Sam @ RRE
• ACT Xtreme Single Disc Clutch
Brakes and Suspension
• Muellerized… Öhlins Road and Track Coil Over Suspension
• Stoptech 6 Piston Front — 4 Piston Rear Trophy Big Brake Kit
Coco – Live Fast Video
We’ve been helping out Chilean BMX racer/freestylist and X Games star Coco Zurita for a couple years now since we found him with some melted brake pads at California Speedway with his EVO X. He and his car have been steadily getting faster and faster over the last couple years since them. Coco’s good friend JC Pieri shot some cool video blending his two passions. His EVO and his bike riding into a movie short. This was shot over two days here at RRE, Downtown LA and at Woodward West where Coco mentors and trains. Enjoy!
Matt Dennison – Track Shakedown
Little recap from this past Saturday at Willow Springs Big Track during Global Time Attack
This event was mainly to showcase all the new parts installed and gain beneficial data for this up coming Super Lab Battle. Times weren’t nearly as important compared to how the motor, aero, suspension and other testing parts performed.
The weather was perfect and the attendance of cars impressed. For this event GTA teamed up with Shift-S3ctor which is known for there airstrip racing and the high dollar cars they bring in… With a few notables as a gnarly Porsche Cup car and a track prepped Benz C63, a corvette ZR1 and several decently modded GT-R’s… and then of course all the rag tag GTA track cars we have all come to love…
If you haven’t been to a GTA event, then you you’ve been missing out. As the camaraderie and the friendships you gain are unforgettable. Let alone some of the cars that come out are the fastest in the business of time attack.
As for me, it was an eventful day. This was the first outing with the new Jacks Transmission 2.3 motor and trans, the newly added aero, Robi’s suspension bits, testing unreleased brake components and a slew of other newly added parts. With all I knew I was going into the day with problems sure to come up…
The first problem to arise was the catch can setup, as the current setup as a simple one which proved inoperable. As oil spewed all over the the left side of the engine bay and flowed underneath the chassis. I did over fill the crankcase slightly, so that could have been a leading cause. But once I rigged up (2) separate catches it resolved the excessive blow by.
The second problem was with the undertray not having enough support in the center of it. That resulted in a gaping rub-hole in the center of the undertray.
The next was suspension needs a little more fine tuning, as the RobiSpec hard bearing kit proved to work as designed or I just need to man up and steer the car right…
All in the the car stayed cool all day long with both the water and oil staying below 220 degrees.
The RRE Scot Gray tune performed flawlessly, with no hint of knock or missing a beat.
The test brakes never boiled fluid as I tried my hardest to.
The Jacks Transmission 2.3 motor and trans showed there track worthiness…
To end, I know what needs to be done and hope to complete it all in time for November
God Bless,
-Matt
