Archive for April, 2010

The One Lap Camaro visits Spectre Performance

Friday, April 30th, 2010

Jim Shikpa’s One Lap Camaro is perhaps the most high tech and hardcore pro-touring Camaro on the racing scene today, so when he asked if we could set the car up with a ProFab Cold Air Intake, we were happy to oblige

Over the past few years, the Spectre team has travelled the country with our truck and muscle cars visiting a variety of car shows and autocross events. In our travels we come across a lot of cool cars and hundreds, if not thousands, of high-tech pro-touring Camaros. One of the slickest 1st Gen F-Bodies we have ever seen is James Shipka’s “One Lap” Camaro. The dark red ‘67 features a Racepack digital dash, custom racecar suspension, a built Katech powerplant, HRE Wheels, bodywork designed for maximum downforce and more. Jim built the car with racing champs David and Mary Pozzi to compete in the prestigious One Lap of America event, originally founded by Brock Yates as a successor to the Cannonball Run.

We were talking to Jim and the Pozzis a few weeks ago at Run to the Coast, and they commented that they felt the car was losing power because all it had for an intake system was a conical filter stuck on the end of the throttle body. We agreed to engineer a Cold Air Intake for the car based on our ProFab system, so they towed the car over to the shop.

The end result is actually closer in design to our 5th Gen Camaro Cold Air Intake then our 1st Gen Camaro model, since the car has a Gen IV small block and pretty exotic sheetmetal. A polished 4″ intake tube capped with a hpR filter draws cold air from around the radiator through a hole in the core support, as opposed to the old setup that sucked air from directly behind the radiator. Should be good for at least a little extra power. By the time you read this the team is likely participating in the opening of the race, and you can follow their progress at OneLapCamaro.com . Good luck!

Posted in Muscle Cars, Photography | No Comments »

Jeff Williams and the JW Racing / Spectre Performance F150 Win Third Consecutive Race

Friday, April 30th, 2010

Jeff Williams continues his dominating run in the South West Tour Truck series (SWTT) with a third consecutive pole position and win at Toyota Speedway in Irwindale, Calif.

The JW Racing team showed up at Toyota Speedway ready to race. With two wins in the bag, Williams was looking for his third straight victory. The hpR Filter equipped truck has been dialed in since the beginning of the season and after the first practice and a 20.2-second lap time, Williams felt no need to go out in the second practice.
Williams took the number 28 Pick Your Part, Spectre Performance, So Cal Racing Supply.com Ford F150 out for qualifying and laid down his third best lap of the season at a blistering 19.93-seconds! To make the race more exciting for the fans, the Toyota Speedway Officials inverted the entire field for the main event. Some of the rookie drivers opted to stay at the back of the pack, but this still placed Williams a good distance back from his qualifying position.

The 35-lap main event started, but the caution flag flew just before the first lap was complete. A single truck had spun out on the start and the race would start over from scratch. Williams had already worked his way up past many trucks and would have to do it all over again. On the second attempt at of the race, Williams passed many of the same trucks again in just one lap! Within a few laps Williams drove his 28 truck to first place and didn’t look back.

On lap 17 the officials threw the caution flags because someone thought they saw “smoke” coming from the 28. The track officials inspected Williams F-150 and found nothing to be wrong and he was allowed to go back into his #1 position for the restart. This restart eliminated the large lead Williams had earned on the rest of the field. He was determined to get it back. As the green flag flew Williams hammered the throttle and got back out to a comfortable lead and took the checkered flag. Congrats to Jeff and his crew for a fantastic start to another successful season.

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Ecotec Powered Datsun 1600 Roadster

Thursday, April 15th, 2010

Walking the GoodGuys shows we come across some pretty wild combos, but this one was certainly unique. A Datsun 1600 roadster powered by an Ecotec DOHC four cylinder backed by a 5-speed manual yanked from a wrecked Saturn Sky. The intake is a custom Spectre ProFab cold air system Paul built with off-the-shelf parts from his local auto parts store. Nice work Paul!

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Cold Air, Hot Days & Autocross Madness!

Wednesday, April 14th, 2010

We Carve The Cones at the 10th Annual GoodGuys Del Mar Nationals

In years past, the first big car show of the year was the GoodGuys Del Mar Nationals, held at a fairgrounds and horse track in a quiet little beach community just north of San Diego. This year our friends at GoodGuys decided to mix things up a bit and kick the season off in Scottsdale with a March show, then push the Del Mar show back to April. Calendar shuffling aside, it was a fantastic event graced with perfect So Cal weather (mid ’70s and Sunny on Friday and Saturday, a bit on the cloudy side on Sunday) and thousands of incredible cars.

The Street Challenge Autocross was in full swing on Friday and Saturday, and that despite the Del Mar show burying the course in the back of the fairgrounds where it’s out of sight from the car show area, it still pulled well over three dozen cars and hundreds of spectators. In fact, on Saturday the autocross grandstands and observation area were standing room only! Amir was driving the ‘70 El Camino from Campbell Auto Restoration in Northern California down to the show, but unfortunately got sidelined with a bad alternator that he had to change in a parking lot with borrowed tools – so he didn’t get the El Camino down to Del Mar until Friday night. With that in mind, we were represented in the Friday autocross by our friends Deanna Marengo in her ‘67 Chevelle SS and Mary Pozzi in her ‘73 Camaro RS. Both vehicles are equipped with Spectre ProFab Muscle Car cold air intakes. There was also a fantastic Subaru Legacy 2.0 Turbo powered ‘57 Volkswagen Beetle running the autocross with a cold air intake the owner built from a Spectre kit, as well as a super clean ‘65 El Camino running a ProFab intake and hpR filter.

Amir got to the show by Friday evening, so on Saturday we were able to run the El Camino and both Brandy and Mike Morrow made several passes. The LS7 powered pro-touring Elky is still getting sorted out, but it performed well with mid 30 second times every pass. Mary ran hard on Saturday, and ended up finishing second overall and first in the participant category. The only car that ran faster belonged to Meier Racing, a very slick little 1965 Mustang notchback with Meier’s sophisticated rocker arm style rear suspension with inboard mounted shocks.

The rest of the event was fantastic, including a wild assortment of street rods, hot rods, muscle cars and customs in the car show and a really diverse manufacturer’s midway filled with friends and allies in the pro-touring community. We’d like to thank everyone who showed up and made this event such a fun one, and a special thanks to Chad Reynolds for doing a bang-up job announcing the autocross all weekend. Look for the Spectre rig and our complete autocross team in about a month at GoodGuys Orange County Get Together May 15th and 16th!

Posted in Autocross, Events, Muscle Cars, Spectre Cars | No Comments »

Turbo Subaru Powered VW Bug in GG Autocross

Tuesday, April 13th, 2010

Talk about an unholy union! This 1957 VW Bug is running a turbocharged 2.0L Subaru engine with Porsche 911 brakes and Porsche 944 suspension at a GoodGuys muscle car autocross. The air intake is fabbed out of off-the-shelf Spectre parts including a hpR filter from the local auto parts store. Watch the video to see the little bug in action.

Posted in Autocross, Events, Videos | 3 Comments »

GoodGuys Del Mar Event Video

Tuesday, April 13th, 2010

We just got back from the 10th Annual GoodGuys Del Mar Nationals, and had a fantastic time with the Spectre El Camino in the autocross. We’ll kick off our event coverage with a recap video, but stay tuned for a full photo gallery, on-site interviews and more!

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Posted in Autocross, Events, Good Guys, Muscle Cars, Road Racing, Spectre Cars, Videos | No Comments »

EASTER CRUISIN’

Wednesday, April 7th, 2010

The final day of Run To The Coast included an Easter Sunday Cruise to Spectre HQ for BBQ and Bench Racing

Since Run Through The Hills in Tennessee always includes a car cruise through the mountains, it makes sense that the first Run to the Coast includes a caravan over some of southern California’s scenic highways. Bill Howell asked us to host the Sunday cruise, so we put together a relaxed family-oriented event, knowing it was Easter Sunday and that people would want to keep things low-key.

Wanting to take advantage of that rare time of year when the surrounding hills are actually green instead of brown, we wanted to incorporate something scenic and somewhat fun to drive (not a lot of options in the midst of the ever sprawling concrete jungle!) so we put together a short 80 mile jaunt through South Orange County’s Cleveland National Forest and the 2 lane roads of Ortega Highway.

The route started on the surface streets running from El Toro to Hwy 74. We then crossed over the mountain and dropped down into Lake Elsinore, where the route then runs parallel to the 15 freeway north along Temescal Canyon Road. Eventually we were forced to hop on the 15 freeway north and the journey ended at the Spectre Performance offices and shop.

Twelve cars participated in the cruise, and about 40 people showed up at the shop for a BBQ lunch. Jimi Day from FM3 brought out games for kids to play in the parking lot, and the Mexicali Earthquake a few hundred miles to our South right in the middle of lunch gave the non-Californians something to talk about. Overall we had a great time and were happy to hang out with good friends on a beautiful Sunday afternoon, and next year we promise to design a cruise route that actually runs past the coast!

Posted in Autocross, Events, Muscle Cars, Photography, Spectre Cars | No Comments »

RUN TO THE COAST!

Wednesday, April 7th, 2010

Pro-Touring Muscle Cars Take Over the El Toro Marine Airfield

What’s worse than not getting invited to prom? Showing up for the dance, then finding out you’re the only person there not wearing a tux. We had a great time on Saturday, April 3, at what is destined to be one of the hottest pro-touring events in the country – the 1st Annual Run to the Coast – but ended up not bringing a car due to some last-minute mechanical changes on nearly every vehicle in the Speed by Spectre fleet. It was hard watching all the Pro-Touring.com members flogging their rides around the autocross course and in the Baer speed-stop challenge without bringing our own ride to the party, but we still had a fantastic time chatting with friends from the aftermarket and the muscle car community.

A little background – About five years ago, Bill Howell and Steve Chryssos, two hardcore muscle car fans that have built their fair share of pro-touring cars, got together with Larry Callahan, owner of Pro-Touring.com, and decided to put on a true drivers’ event. Since Bill is from Tennessee and knew the area well, the original brainstorm evolved into Run Through the Hills (RTTH). The three day event starts with a cruise the hills around Pigeon Forge, Tenn., then Saturday is a track day with autocross and road racing, followed by drag racing and a car show on Sunday.

We’ve always wanted to attend RTTH, but were never able to make it due to scheduling issues. So… when we heard that Bill was putting on a California version of the event called Run to the Coast at the old abandoned El Toro Marine Airfield (where most of the magazines do their performance testing) on the runway, we jumped on the chance to sign up as a sponsor. Unfortunately, with the ‘70 Mustang out for transmission repairs, the ‘70 Camaro getting a suspension tune-up and the ‘70 El Camino getting some last-minute chassis tuning, none of our normal Speed by Spectre performance cars we available. Instead we came out to the event on Saturday to show off some of our latest ProFab Muscle Car Cold Air Intakes, talk shop with the pro-touring crew, and watch the action.

Overall it was a fantastic event, with competition laid in the following categories: a DSE sponsored road course (laid out with cones on the runway like Sebring), a Ride Tech sponsored autocross and a Baer Brakes Speed/Stop Challenge. At the end of the day, Brian Finch drove his yellow 2nd Gen Camaro to the overall event victory, winning a slot in the 2010 Optima Ultimate Street Car Shootout. Brian’s from Tennessee, so it hurts that a local didn’t win, but Brian deserved it with great performances in all categories. Look out next year, we’ll have at least one car in the running. Go to pro-touring.com for more info, photos and threads on Run to the Coast.

Posted in Autocross, Events, Muscle Cars, Photography, Spectre Cars | No Comments »

Pro-Touring Heroes hit the Kart Track!

Wednesday, April 7th, 2010

In advance of the Run to the Coast pro-touring track event, we organized an informal shootout at the Dromo One kart track in Orange County.

We’ll admit, we like going fast and having a good time – so it makes sense that every time we get together with a group of like-minded gearheads, kart racing usually follows. The tradition started with last year’s GoodGuys show in Costa Mesa, and as soon as our friend Bill Howell from Tennessee announced he was going to organize a pro-touring race event in Southern California, we knew two things – 1) we had to get involved and 2) we needed to organize a kart race.

So, as these things go Spectre VP of Sales and Marketing Mike Morrow made a call to Dromo One in Orange about putting on a little kart race. We posted it up on Pro-Touring.com and ended up getting about 15 people signed up. After some back and forth fender bashing (do karts have fenders?) between Mike and Jimi Day from FM3 Performance Marketing, all the smoke cleared and Donald Curtiss ended up at the top of the podium in first, with John Rasmussen in second and Mike Kepler from Optima in third.

It was a great night of fun and competition and the perfect way to kick off an all-motorsports weekend. Thanks to all who showed up!

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GoodGuys All American Get Together

Wednesday, April 7th, 2010

Sun, fun and lots of cruisin’ at GoodGuys 2nd Show of the Year in Pleasanton, California

Saturday, March 27th and Sunday the 28th we headed back up to our old stomping grounds in Northern California (Spectre used to be based in the Bay Area) for the 2nd GoodGuys show of the year, the 29th annual All American Get Together in scenic Pleasanton. The two day event was packed with fantastic cars, great cruising and a really cool mix of hot rods, muscle cars, customs and even a few late models. No autocross at this show, which is for the better since the Spectre 1970 Mustang is getting a new trans, the 1970 Camaro is getting a suspension upgrade and the 1970 El Camino is in for a little extra chassis tuning in preparation for the autocross season coming up. All three cars should be ready to hit the show circuit (and Power Tour!) by mid-April. We saw quite a few muscle cars running our new ProFab intakes or hpR filters, but mostly we just enjoyed the cool cars and thought we’d put a few in a gallery for you to view here. Enjoy, and look for the black Speed by Spectre big rig at a GoodGuys show near you this summer!

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The Hillclimb Record

Tuesday, April 6th, 2010

Here’s a video of Amir setting the world record at the last Virginia City Hillclimb in 2002 in the Spectre F40.

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Spectre 341 Challenge!

Tuesday, April 6th, 2010

When: June 25-26, 2010
Where: Nevada Highway 341, South of Virginia City, NV

Spectre Performance is proud to announce the return of road racing competition to one of the most infamous and challenging mountain roads in America – Nevada Highway 341 – for The 1st annual Speed by Spectre 341 Challenge. The race, scheduled for June 25-26, 2010, will pit the world’s fastest street cars against the clock in a full-throttle blast up a mountain road, which will be closed to the public for the event. The challenge will include Pro-Touring Street Machines, European Exotics, and Highly-Tuned Imports competing for a chance to be crowned King of the Hill.

The Speed by Spectre 341 Challenge is a rare opportunity to drive flat-out on some of the most aggressive and challenging mountain roads in the country, without the worry of oncoming traffic or law enforcement. The course is 5.2 miles long with 22+ turns, a 1,216-foot rise in elevation, steep drop offs and no guardrails! Vehicles must be street-legal and registered; no purpose-built kit or race cars will be allowed. Tires must be DOT legal with at least 3/32″ tread depth and a minimum 100 tread wear rating. Qualifying is scheduled for Friday, June 25th. Racing is set for Saturday the 26th.

“We are always looking for ways to go faster, to prove our parts at maximum velocity,” says Spectre Performance founder Amir Rosenbaum. “We autocross and road race our muscle cars and set a 330mph Land Speed Record at Bonneville last year; but to this day one of the most demanding and exhilarating events I’ve ever participated in was the Virginia City Hill Climb. The Speed by Spectre 341 Challenge will bring that excitement back, but with the addition of muscle, exotic and import cars competing against each other it will be an incredible event. We are also very lucky to have FM3 Marketing onboard to ensure everything runs smoothly.”

The original Virginia City Hill Climb was founded in 1972 and ran through 2002. Rosenbaum holds the all time record for the event, running the course in three minutes, ten seconds in a modified Ferrari F40. The Speed by Spectre 341 Challenge will also include a Media Shootout, pitting magazine editors against bloggers and forum members in a project car challenge. Invites will be issued soon and more information will be posted on the website in the coming weeks.

Posted in Events, Muscle Cars, Road Racing, Spectre 341 Challenge | No Comments »