We’ve been adjusting to our slightly downsized show schedule this year, but one race that we absolutely could not miss was the first Goodguys Show for the year and though our Spectre Rig was not able to be present, we still were determined to get the Spectre Carbon Camaro back on the autocross track for the Del Mar event.
The best thing about the Del Mar Goodguys Show was that it was three days of intense autocross. The west coast is always fun because it brings some big names to the game including Mike Maier of Maier Racing, Mary Pozzi, Kyle and Stacy Tucker from DSE, Bret Voelkel from Ride Tech, Aaron Ogawa from Hotchkis and many many more.
The showdown in the Street Machine Class was finally determined with a shootout between Aaron Ogawa driving the Hotchkis E-Max Challenge and Mary Pozzi in her Second Gen Camaro. It finally came down to Pozzi finishing with a 7/1000 lead over Aaron, a very close and intense race. Rob Phillips took home the Truck class with his first Goodguys Autocross win ever and Mike Maier went home with the Pro Class award in his ’66 Mustang.
Kyle Newman and Newman Car Creations put on quite a show in the ’55 and the Wagon. The Wagon was a blast because of the mock spoiler and groceries in the back. At one point he even got the Cheerios box to fall out of the wagon and onto the track, and announcer Chad Reynolds swooped it up for a quick snack between runs.
Spectre Intakes also were overwhelmingly present at the Goodguys Car Show. Not only could they be spotted on the Autocross Course, but walking around the show we saw several Spectre Filters and Intakes were being used on cars.
We recently attended the So Cal Challenge out at Adam’s Karting track in Riverside, CA. Since it was right in our backyard, we couldn’t resist.
We had gone out to watch the Tuesday night racing at Adam’s before, but had never competed in an event with one of the Spectre R&D cars. This event seemed like too much fun to miss, so Brandy took the wheel of the Carbon Camaro and headed on-track.
Because it is primarily a go-kart track, the turns at Adams are slightly tighter and the track is slick compared to a car or motorcycle course like Willow Springs. Overall, the Spectre Carbon Camaro did very well.
In the bracket race Brandy did very well and won her first two rounds, but Jon Rasmussen and his ’72 Nova triumphed in in the final race. We can’t be mad, Jon has been getting better and better in the Nova and it showed as he took out the Spectre Camaro in the third bracket race. Mary Pozzi went on to take first overall, Mike Hickman took first in the truck class and Don Chemello won the street rod class. Not a bad showing for Spectre-filtered cars and trucks!
By the end of the day everyone was exhausted and ready to head out to get some rest for the Goodguys Car Show/ Autocross the next day. We all had a great time and can’t wait till we can go back to Adam’s and compete with everyone again.
Race-Mart, Inc. President and Founder, Paul Fink, drove the company’s dragster to a Quick Rod Runner Up finish during the IHRA Pro-Am race on Sunday March 25th at Bradenton Motorsports Park in Bradenton, Florida. Fink lost the final round red lighting at the start by .001 seconds to Steve Muller. This was Race-Mart’s first final round appearance of the year and was hard fought including close wins over IHRA Quick Rod standouts Gary Marshall, Otis Henry and Patrick Keene.
“This was one of the most talented fields of drivers I’ve ever raced with. Everyone was running dead on their number and all of the racers were right on perfect reaction times all weekend. We are seriously hoping there are more finals to come this year as we head to some of the largest bracket races in the country and some NHRA National events.”, Fink commented.
Fink explained, “In order to be successful in the automotive aftermarket parts business, it’s absolutely essential that we race what we sell and test some products that we want to sell. Our customers need to know that we do what they do and that we fully understand the products as well as the trials and tribulations that racers experience. We are also very thankful to our strategic marketing partners including Hedman Hedders, Spectre Performance, Titan Motorsports, Fragola Performance and Alan Pope Performance Transmissions”.
About Race-Mart, Inc
Race-Mart® is an automotive performance aftermarket e-commerce distributor that sells racing products, street performance products, products for show vehicles, off road truck-jeep parts and truck accessories all through their website www.race-mart.com. With administrative offices in Tampa, Florida Race-Mart® ships product from sixteen strategically located distribution centers around the country.
One of our fellow musclecar aftermarket vendors in SoCal is the crew at Hotchkis Sport Suspension. Like Spectre, Hotchkis spends a lot of time at the track for R&D, and they often invite along some customer cars to join them. We were delighted to be invited to play with the Hotchkis H-Team at Willow Springs Raceway this month.
We ran a condensed version of the Streets of Willow counterclockwise which threw many of us off. It’s amazing how different a familiar racetrack becomes when you run it in the opposite direction.
It was a great test-bed though for right and left hand turns, and it was quite helpful for making sure the car was dialed in along not to mention the fun of hitting some pretty intense speeds down the hill on the straightaway!
Not only were the usual H-Team members out –including several with Spectre intakes and filters on their rides– but along with Dan Weishaar, Mike Hickman, Carl Casanova, Aaron Ogawa and Rob Phillips, Matt D’Andria from Motorator and comedian Chris Titus came out to play as well.
At the end of the day, everyone was exhausted with all the laps we got in and a lot was accomplished. We would like to thank John Hotchkis for inviting us! Hopefully we will be able to attend more of those in the future. It’s really nice to see our products in use by so many awesome drivers!
We were glad to see all our racing buddies from last year in Southern California for Run to the Coast.
There were two full days of intense racing that consisted of three events: Autocross, Road Racing and the Brake Stop Squared Challenge –which was sort of like what you’d get if drag racing and slalom had a baby, really fun!
This was the Spectre Carbon Camaro’s first official race event for the new year. This was our chance to get the Camaro dialed again with the new set of bigger Baer brakes in the rear and though we had a couple of obstacles, including a frayed throttle cable, it was still an excellent chance to work out the details and get back in the swing of things.
By the end of the weekend, the front tires were toast and needed to be replaced, but that was definitely a sign that we went all out. Brian Finch helped get the car dialed in on Saturday as he took the car for a couple laps and offered his advice. Finch has always been very supportive to the Spectre Team and we consider him family. He’s always been very helpful to Brandy as she gets more and more comfortable in the driver’s seat.
For results on this event visit: http://americanstreetcarseries.com/?p=867
For more photos, head over to the Spectre Flickr stream.
We’re happy to say that you can buy Spectre products almost anywhere where automotive accessories are sold, and we enjoy learning more about our dealers and distributors.
We are pleased to be working with Race-Mart in Tampa, Fl, because they not only support the Speed by Spectre products, their whole site and company is run by racers!
Race-Mart is an e-commerce performance aftermarket automotive and truck parts supplier. With over 400,000 items on their website and a huge selection of products that help your vehicle go fast or look good, the crew at Race-Mart can get you parts for drag racing, circle track racing, road racing, off road racing, street/strip, show vehicles, strictly street vehicles, trucks & SUVS, general repair and maintenance. Whew, what else could you ask for?
The Race-Mart team has been racing NHRA Super Comp and bracket racing for 30 years. The car has run an elapsed time 5.11 seconds at over 134 mph in the 1/8th mile and has run 1.13 seconds in the first 60 feet. We’re really proud to see the Spectre decals on their car and trailer, and we wish the team best of luck in the NHRA Super Comp Class this year.
Do you race with Spectre products? Tell us about it and maybe you’ll see your name on the Spectre blog!
The Spectre Carbon Camaro had a great year in 2011 which ended abruptly with a big bang (literally) at the Goodguys Autumn Get Together. Following that slow speed meeting with an unfortunately concrete piece of, well, concrete, the car went immediately to Campbell Automotive and Restoration to start the repairs. Though the damage seemed minor, there were a lot of bolt-on parts which needed to be replaced. After contacting Matt from Anvil for the carbon fiber and Classic Industries for the radiator support and a few other parts, the rebuild of the Carbon Camaro was underway, and it required everything from new paint to a full car inspection in order to get it ready for the 2012 show and race season.
At the end of February, the car made the 400 mile journey south to Spectre headquarters on the back of an open trailer attached to our Dodge Truck. Once again it was a great feeling to be on the road with the car out for the public to see. The fun thing about an open trailer is getting all the thumbs up as other drivers passed us on the road, honking their horns to show their approval slowing down beside us to take pictures of the car. If you or someone you know has a photo of any Spectre vehicle on the road, send it our way or share it on our Facebook page!
It was good to see that the Carbon Camaro still has the power to turn heads and we’re glad to have it running the Spectre name once again in 2012.
With the Camaro back at home, we did not waste any time getting it to the track. We headed to Willow Springs for a test day. Mark and Bobbi Fraizer from CAR met us at the track to help tune the car and get the new Baer brakes dialed in and ready to go for upcoming autocross and track events. We mainly focused on autocross set-ups, dialing in the car under different circumstances and testing out different brake, sway bar and tire settings. We set up mock autocross courses on the skid pad, including a figure 8, the “peanut,” a Chicane, a drag strip and various other configurations.
Most experienced racers you ask will tell you that track improvement is all about seat time. We fully agree with that. We would take the Camaro out for 8-10 laps, then back into the paddock, let the car cool, then change one setting and do it again. We spent from 10am to 5pm doing this over and over. Our yellow note pad was filled with notes about track temp, weather conditions, track surface conditions and much more; all required information in order for us to understand more about our current settings and change them on the fly when necessary. We finished up the day with a much better understanding of the Carbon Camaro, a whole lot of seat time and a yellow note pad filled with different settings that we will work with over the course of the next couple race events.
So where can you see the Carbon Camaro in action this year? Well, Brandy and the Carbon Camaro will be participating in a variety of race events and shows over the next couple months including:
Run To The Coast March 9-10, 2012 El Toro, Irvine, CA,
NASA Practice Day March 3-4, 2012 CA Speedway
Solo2 Autocross Practice/ Race March 17-18, 2012 El Toro, Irvine, CA
Goodguys 30th All American Get-Together March 24-25, 2012 Pleasanton, Ca
So Cal Challenge March 29, 2011 Adam’s Motorsports Park Riverside, CA
Goodguys 12th Meguiar’s Del Mar Nationals March 30- April 1, 2012 Del Mar, Ca
The month of March is going to be a busy one for the Spectre Team! Make sure to keep an eye out for the Carbon Camaro and come by and say hi to the Spectre crew.
We always like to see high profile builders using Spectre product, so we were stoked to see the Gateway Classic Mustang’s Coyote motor-powered ‘69 in Mustang Monthly. Nice Spectre Intake in that engine bay!
Finally, fans of our Spectre Double Dually won’t want to miss the May issue of Car Craft Magazine. Hot Caddy Centerfold!
Visitors to our SEMA booth last fall might remember Cass Brantley’s Rubicon descending a mountain of Spectre Filters and showing off the Speed by Spectre Jeep Intake kit.
Well, we were pleased to see that the Jeep continues to be in the middle of adventures. Jeep Guru Tom Morr sent us this photo:
Tom says “- Just another Jeep adventure in Houston…”
Well, Cass must have been breathing hard, but with a Spectre intake, his Jeep was cool and collected.
What adventures do you have with your Spectre-equipped vehicles?
Since we never miss an opportunity to look at racecars, we took a quick tour through the NHRA Motorsports Museum while we were at the Grand National Roadster Show in Pomona.
We found Brandy’s driving instructor, Karen Salvaggio’s Factory Five race car, displayed right in the middle of the museum. That made Miss Morrow feel quite famous!
As landspeed fans, we were excited to see the Mooneyes Streamliner on display, but the two things that really caught our attention on this trip were the yellow race tractor (just in case we ever get into making filters for tractors and tractor racing) as well as the vintage Bobby Grim Helmet on display.
We’re lucky to have a collection this cool right nearby, and if you are in the area, it’s well worth the admission.
Once known as the Oakland Roadster Show, the Grand National Roadster Show has been held in Pomona for the last nine years. Last year our Spectre Speedliner was on display, and this year we decided to just enjoy the show as spectators. Well, that didn’t go as planned. We couldn’t make it halfway down an aisle before someone stopped us to ask where the 400mph racecar was! There were a lot of our fellow land speed racers there, and it definitely gave us salt fever. We promise, next year…we’ll bring it back out.
Every year there’s a theme to the show and this year’s show theme was “Futuristic” and one car which really seemed to fit that theme was the in-progress second gen Camaro in the Pure Visions booth. At first you would have thought it was the Spectre Carbon Camaro, but the car didn’t quite have the flares ours does. We may be partial to those cars, but we thought Strope’s build was one of the most exciting things at the show. We can’t wait till the build is done and we see it out as one final piece. Hopefully we’ll be able to help out with the air intake. After all, we sure know 2nd gen Camaros!
As always, we were excited to see some Spectre Intakes on cars, and this show always has so much potential for product awareness and growth. Gearhead Garage featured a first gen Camaro with our intake tubing and we also saw our friends Tony and Debra’s ’55 Chevy Nomad out of Sebastopal, CA. Eventually, we would like to start seeing more Spectre intakes on the Lowrider and Street Truck Community.
We plan to be back out with our truck and trailer next year so keep an eye out for us.
One of the best parts about the MPMC Conference is the Wednesday night party at the Source Interlink (SORC) Headquarters. SORC is the publisher of most of the popular automotive magazines on the newsstands, and their shop in El Segundo is like an amusement park for gearheads. The facility has lifts, photo coves, archives and a theme bar!
The party is always a car show extravaganza, and we really like seeing the magazine project cars in various stages of being built. It makes us feel better about our own projects!
Our friends over at RPM Hot Rods are involved with the small but growing World of Wheels show in Pittsburgh, PA.
We weren’t able to make it to the show, but were well represented by Gerry Kerna’s “Runt” 1967 Nova, which makes great use of Spectre products, and won an award at the show! Go Gerry!
Every January starts off with the speed dating event of the aftermarket industry, the MPMC conference in El Segundo, CA. Unlike SEMA which is all glitz and glamor, MPMC is a no-nonsense three days of meetings between manufacturers and media. We like it because it gives us a chance to catch up with friends from the magazines and other high performance companies.
Though we said we were going to keep our hotel room makeover simple this year, we still ended up with several luggage cart loads of display in our room. How does that keep happening? We blame Brandy’s layout technology.
This year we had a couple big ticket items to feature including our Cowl Airbox tray, the Over the Top Sheet Metal Plenum, the complete new line of late model intakes with filter color options: red, blue, white, and black and much more.
Some of the little features were our new custom cut-to-fit flex boots, our LS blade style adapter, and new line of throttle body spacers.
We were pleased to see that many of the other companies, and even the media outlets are finally catching on to social media. Everyone had a Facebook page, an iPhone app or a website they were promoting. This was just what we wanted to hear because our social media marketing strategies have been increasing every month. Now there are more online sources we can work with to keep our friends and customers up to date on our new products, customer spotlights and events that we attend and feature.
The days were long, but well worth it. We’re looking forward to seeing many of the projects we discussed get built over the next few months!
We met JF Launier at a Goodguys Show and he proposed a couple projects that we might be interested in. JF works out of a shop in Osooyos, BC Canada and we were impressed with the JF Kustoms project cars.
The one that interested us the most was a ‘57 Chevy that was not only going to SEMA but also participating in the 2011 OUSCI. Nicknamed “Redline”, the blue bowtie featured all the best in hot rod options, a huge 572, Bowler 4l80e, Ridetech suspension, Flowmaster exhaust, BASF paint in a georgeous cobalt shade, Curtis Speed wheels, and a Lee Baxters hot rod interior. All it needed was a good looking air intake to top it all off. Luckily, we knew where to find that!
JF chose one of our Quikits for the ‘57 Chevy and it fit perfectly, and looks great under the hood.
“Redline” had a very respectable first showing at Optima, in a class of some of the finest muscle cars on earth. We’re proud to work with JF and builders like him.
