Archive for September, 2010

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0-415 MPH IN 11 MONTHS: Spectre Speedliner Shatters 400 MPH Barrier

Wednesday, September 29th, 2010

Wow. We did it. It took 11 months of hammering, welding, worrying and sunburns but we can finally see 400mph in our rear-view mirror ( well, we could if the streamliner had a rear view mirror…or a rear window for that matter.)

Here are the official details:

Less than 30 days after making six record setting runs on the Bonneville Salt Flats in western Utah, the Spectre SpeedLiner has done it again. At Mike Cook’s Top Speed Shootout regulated by the Federation Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) – the international sanctioning organization for motorsport and world speed records, Spectre Performance founder Amir Rosenbaum drove the SpeedLiner through the “flying mile” at an average speed of 408mph and an exit speed of 415mph, becoming only the 12th person in history to eclipse 400mph in a wheeled vehicle and earning the team a place in history as the fastest gasoline fueled, wheel-driven car in history.

“What really makes this special is how quickly we were able to accomplish the goal,” said Rosenbaum. “The car debuted 11 months ago at the SCTA World Finals, where we set a record. We came back in August 2010 and set three more. Now we’ve broken 400mph on gasoline! All of this was accomplished with a stock Cadillac engine using off-the-shelf aftermarket speed parts, some serious engineering from Performance Fabrication and The Cad Company, and standard Spectre hpR Air Filters. That’s what blows everyone away – this car has no exotic parts or custom engine pieces, they’re all obtainable and available to the average gearhead.”

Even though the short time frame made the team’s achievement look effortless, the results didn’t come easy for the Spectre SpeedLiner, nicknamed “The Infidel”. The first run was cut short by an electrical fire, and the second by a glitch in the intercooler system on the Cadillac powered streamliner’s turbocharger system. On Wednesday the 8.8L Cadillac engine broke when it lost a valve and wiped out a turbocharger in the process, shutting down what would have been a fast run. After an all-night engine change on the salt, the team installed its backup 8.1L engine and a used turbocharger and on Thursday, Sept 23rd, Rosenbaum squeezed into the cockpit, and drove the matte black racecar down the 12-mile course through the “flying mile” with an average speed of 408mph, exiting the course at over 415mph.

According to FIA rules, the average of a pair of runs set within 60 minutes of each other and going in opposite directions must eclipse an existing record by at least 1% to count, making SpeedLiner’s 408mph average just short of the 410mph average needed to beat the existing 406mph record set in 2002 by racing veteran Al Teague.

“The car made its public debut less than one year ago at the World Finals in Bonneville, where we set a record with Kenny Hoover at the wheel,” Rosenbaum explains. “We learned a lot from that experience, came back in August for SpeedWeek and set three more records. Then with less than a month’s notice we came out here for Mike Cook’s FIA Top Speed Shootout and ran over 400 three times on used motors. We’re not done – we fell short of breaking the world record by the tiniest of margins, and we did it on our smaller motor with mismatched turbos after an all-night thrash on the salt. We’re coming back next year, with more power, and we’re going to go  FASTER!”

Posted in Amir, Bonneville, Bonneville 2010, Photography, Speedliner | 8 Comments »

Hoppy Times are Here Again: Spectre checks out the Street Rods at the Evansville Frog Follies

Wednesday, September 29th, 2010

Normally at a car show, if something is green, bumpy and hops, it’s either a low-rider or it needs paint and suspension! At the Evansville Frog Follies, there wasn’t a show car in sight that didn’t get in the spirit of the amphibian-themed event.

2010 was our first time attending the Frog Follies, a Street Rod and Custom show that dates back to 1975 and is held every August at the Vanderburgh County 4-H Center in Evansville Indiana. Started by the E’ville Iron StreetRod Club the event became known as the Frog Follies after participants held a bull frog race at the first event. We’ve done all kinds of racing, but frogger-cross was a new one for us!

We were delighted by the incredible turn-out. Besides the frog theme on cars, stuffed animals, shirts, statues and signs, there must have been 4000 street rods in attendance, and we couldn’t even guess at the amount of folks
who came just to look.

The Frog Follies had a large vendor area, and we saw several trailers with Spectre Cold Air Kits available for purchase. There were so many parts for sale that a person could almost build a street rod right there on the
showgrounds!

Spectre R&D manager Dave Johnston had a good time talking to customers about new product development. Getting feedback on our new and planned products is invaluable in designing and producing products that really help auto enthusiasts build their dream rides.

Another nice aspect of the Frog Follies is that the proceeds generated by the event go to numerous charities and student scholarships which help local Indiana students get into the automotive and tech industry. It’d just a
great, friendly event all around, and we can’t wait to go back for next year.

Posted in Events, Photography, new products | No Comments »

FATBURGER AND A SPECTRE TOUR : Spectre Hosts Lunch For The Motor Press Guild

Sunday, September 26th, 2010

The Spectre shop is becoming the venue for luncheons and afterparties. Pretty soon we’ll be holding weddings and Bar Mitzvahs in-between our project cars! Last week’s fete was the MPG track day lunch presented by Suzuki.

The MPG track event is put on by the Motor Press Guild at the Auto Club Speedway in Fontana and gives automotive journalists a chance to drive or ride in more than one hundred different cars and SUVs. More than 30 different companies participated and guests had a chance to drive everything from a Ford Fiesta to a gullwing Mercedes SLS.

All that driving makes a motor journalist hungry, and the participants caravanned from the track to the Spectre Performance facility on Tuesday where they ate Fatburger while watching Bonneville and 341 Challenge videos and discussing the vehicles they had driven that morning.

The Spectre crew was kept busy answering questions about the Speedliner and Virginia City, as well as about our CAI line and filters. Most of our project cars are on the race circuit right now, but the green Camaro  sat in a place of honor on the dyno, and as always, the cars in the rafters were a big hit. At the end of lunch we pulled a name from our raffle and the lucky winner will get a Spectre Cold Air Intake of his choice. Congratulations to Jim Powell of the Antelope Valley Press!

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Posted in Amir, Events, Muscle Cars, Photography, Road Racing, Spectre Cars | No Comments »

Update from the Salt: Mike Cook’s Bonneville Shootout

Thursday, September 23rd, 2010

Yes, you read that right, we’re back on the salt. Less than a month ago we were at Bonneville for Speed Week, where we set three records and reached a max velocity of 366mph. Salt flat and racing Guru Mike Cook came by the pits at the end of Speed Week, accompanied by George Poteet from the Speed Demon team, and invited us to the very exclusive, FIA regulated Top Speed Shootout a month later.

We had to think about it, see if it was in the cards, and decided to go for it. Courtney and the Cad Company crew did their best to freshen both the AA and the spare A Cadillac engines, and the Performance Fab crew cleaned up the car and prepped for another shot at top speed glory. The good folks at Stable Imaging also sent us three of their new RePlay XD video cameras to mount on the car – and they’re fantastic.

So now we’re back… we made a run on Monday and two runs Tuesday, which culminated in a 398mph pass. Then yesterday the big AA motor let go with a bang and hurt a turbo in the process. The crew pulled an all-nighter, at by 12:30 we had the smaller A motor in the car with two new turbos.

Today’s first run the car sounded good, but some gearing issues with the smaller engine meant the car only ran 385mph. We’re working on getting that tuned up now and will make another pass shortly. In the meantime we are surrounded by some of the fastest hardware on the planet, including Speed Demon, the Royal Purple car campaigned by the Nish family, a jet powered bike and the Top1 streamliner. Charles Nearburg already ran his Spirit of Rett streamliner and broke a four decade old record running over 420 mph. The Nearburg guys have already gone home.

So here we are. The crew is hustling, and as of now we’ve already gone faster than 368mph, the documented fastest speed for a gasoline powered, wheel driven vehicle. We’d like to break 400mph, and we’re still working towards that goal. We’ll keep you posted.

In the meantime, we made a good friend named Murph, who is camped near our pit and is on a fantastic motorcycle adventure around the country and beyond. He sat vigil all night with us during the swap, and documented the entire ordeal on his great travel blog. You can check it out here along with great photography: Where the Hell is Murph?

Posted in Bonneville, Bonneville 2010, Events, Photography, Spectre Cars, Speedliner | 2 Comments »

Spectre Performance Cold Air Intake Install on an off-road Jeep

Wednesday, September 22nd, 2010

Spectre customers are awesome. Our guest blogger today is Michael Diaz from Helendale. Mike recently posted on jeeping forum, HighDesertOverlanders.com, about his experiences installing a Spectre Cold Air Intake on his off-roading jeep.

“The product is great and the feedback I am getting from the jeep guys is that they really like it.” Mike tells us. “It’s cool how it removes the stock intake box so Jeep guys have more room for their on-board air compressor where the stock intake use to be. The total install time was one hour, and very easy.”

Here’s Mike’s step by step install in his own words and pictures:

“So I got the intake in the mail yesterday and was pretty excited about the install. After reading through instructions I decided I was ready to go.

Since I already had a shorty intake I unbolted the one bolt holding the intake steady and then the clamp off the throttle body and everything was cleared out of the way.

The directions say to unbolt your battery ground and bolt it onto the motor ground over near the master cylinder. The reason is where the bolt is for the ground is where the hole you will be cutting will eventually be. I also unclipped my wiring harness from the bracket just so that I can have a little more room to play with.

I then slipped the throttle body adapter ring into the 3 inch coupler and clamped it on the throttle body. Once on, I slipped the assembled intake onto the throttle body. I messed around a little with the intake lining it up to the back of the firewall until I found the spot I wanted to use for the intake entrance.

Once I found the spot where I thought would be perfect I marked it, then just eyeballed the center and began cutting. Once I got the hole cut I cleaned it up a little with a dremmel and slipped the plastic duct into the firewall, marked my holes for my screws and drilled the holes. Once holes were drilled I slipped on the aluminum duct and then bolted them both down.

I assembled the intake fitting it into the duct and tightened it all up. I then installed the 5/8 breather hose and all was done.

Total install time was 1 hour and except for me climbing into the engine compartment to cut my hole, it was pretty easy. I went on my test drive and the motor sounded like I had a turbo installed, it was great. I stepped on it and it just seemed like the motor was flowing with straight power. Very hard to explain but the little 4.0 sounded like a 5.0 muscle car which was cool. It sounds better than it ever sounded with my stock or previous custom intake.

It’s a very clean and excellently made product and I am extremely happy with it. When you open the hood it’s great to see the intake there. It looks awesome. When I step on it, it moves out and puts a grin on my face. I haven’t dumped it on a highway yet only local roads so I can’t tell you the high end difference but on the local roads I am impressed. Lastly, the look just gives the Jeep some pop. I never thought I would say that I want my Jeep motor to look like race car but that’s the look it gives it and I like it a lot.”

Thanks Mike! Happy Jeeping!

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Posted in Photography, Product Install | 6 Comments »

HOLLEY LS FEST: Sunday – Sunshine and Top Speed

Wednesday, September 15th, 2010

Sunday at LS Fest was a hot-rodders dream day. The weather was perfect, the sun was shining, it was warm and there was Autocross, Speed Stop Challenge, Top Speed Challenge and drag racing!

The booth was busy all day with spectators and customers. Brandy turned the driving duties over to Mike so she could talk filters and take photos.

There was a lot of action to photograph. There was a drift exhibition and tons of cool drag cars. Participants in the Speed Stop Challenge and Top Speed Challenge were starting to get pretty serious too. On Saturday, a lot of people stopped short; not knowing where the stop box started and when they needed to brake. The few that had competed in this event before started going the other way, getting a little too confident! Brian Finch proved that in his second gen yellow Camaro as he came up too quick on the stop box, went sideways and continued through the box only to complete a 180 deg spin and drive the remainder of the drag strip backwards.

By Sunday it was a whole different story. Everyone had caught up to speed and competition was fierce. Although Jeff Schwartz was unable to attend the event, he sent some of his guys out with two of their cars. Mike was really pushing Schwartz’s 1965 Pontiac Tempest on the Brake Stop Challenge. Even Holley had their truck on the course competing.

A lot of the participants were running Spectre components. Bret Voelkel of RideTech and Greg Schneider used a couple of Spectre tubes, a Spectre shield and a Spectre filter to create a custom true cold air intake on their ’66 Chevelle after completing an LS swap in the car. The filter shield was added to the filter to help block the mud and debris that was getting kicked up from the tire since the filter sits right in front of the passenger front tire.

Another Spectre customer had come to our booth and wanted to see if one of us could come to his car and see what he had done with our product. He was not racing, but had come for the car show portion of LS Fest. Unfortunately, we did not get his name, hopefully we’ll see him at another show. His custom intake was pretty innovative!

Awards came at the end of the day. Mark Stielow won the Spectre Top Speed Award with a top speed of 87 MPH. Brian Finch came in second. Mark Steilow also walked away as the overall winner. Since Mark had to leave early, Yancy Johns accepted both his awards. We can’t wait to see what the competition is like next year!

Major props to Holley and FM3 Marketing for organizing and promoting the event. We were all really impressed with the magazine and television coverage. Next year will probably be bigger with ten times more participants. We are really looking forward to next year, hopefully we’ll be featuring our rebuilt LS powered 2nd gen “Carbon Camaro”.

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

HOLLEY LS FEST: Saturday – Gettin’ Serious

Tuesday, September 14th, 2010

Saturday started out perfectly. There were scattered showers on the forecast, but the morning was dry and competition on the autocross was serious. There were way more competitors than the day before, lined up and ready to run. The SCCA Autocross chapter that helped run the autocross was extremely helpful. The main instructor, and course designer, was busy the entire day jumping in and out of cars, giving people tips. He had good advice, after his lessons, drivers were improving by a second or more! He even joined Brandy in the El Camino for one round to give some pointers on some of the decreasing radius turns on the course.

Brandy drove all morning, but it isn’t all racing and fun for the Spectre crew. We were there to work, and it was time for the Spectre Top Speed Challenge. This was the first event where we decided to tie in the Top Speed challenge with Baer Brakes SpeedStop Challenge and it went really well. although it did mean that we had no time to send a driver out to participate in the drag racing, or to watch the Engine Swap contest, which we heard was very cool!

Maybe it’s a good thing we weren’t able to make it on to the drag strip, Nick Licata, editor of Camaro Performers, broke his driveshaft while on the track mid afternoon! Everyone pulled together to get the car off the track safely. Some people might have called it a day, but Nick is a racer, and he had one goal, get back on the track! Nick was about to have a driveshaft shipped next day from California, but the car gods were friendly and he and fellow writer, Steve Rupp, found one locally.

One of the engineering/ mechanic schools that had competed in the Engine Swap contest offered to help Nick replace the driveshaft that night and everyone signed the broken driveshaft the next day as a little memory of the event.

One of the coolest things about LS Fest is how focused the participants are on racing, yet everyone pitched in and helped each other out. As we are becoming a familiar sight at so many events, the Spectre booth ends up being a hang-out for journalists and other racers. We opened the lounge in the truck for our media pals to store their equipment, parked cars under our awning, and sat around joking with everyone, telling stories and building memories.

It’s great to see folks like Bret and Greg from RideTech, Stacy from DSE, the crew from Holley, our own team and so many old friends. Some of the usual participants like Brian Finch and Yancy Johns came out with their cars as well. Brian Finch debuted his version two Spectre Cold air intake at the LS Fest. Brian already had a couple of our parts on the yellow Camaro, but was adding on to the kit to make it a true cold air intake. This was Yancy’s first event driving his 2010 camaro that he just got back from Steve Rupp and Camaro Performers. We hope to install an intake within the next month or so or do a custom kit on his car.

We had time to chat, because around 3pm the rain came back. It came down in buckets, but luckily only lasted a short time. By Sat evening the racing was back on, and we were able to see the
Prostock cars run for the first time. Very cool.

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

HOLLEY LS FEST: Friday – Hairpins and Puddles

Monday, September 13th, 2010

The Inaugural Holley LS Fest in Bowling Green Kentucky should have been non-stop auto action. After all, this celebration of all LS powered vehicles has participants spending three days competing for the grand championship through a series of events including drag race, autocross, 0-60-0 speed stop challenge, show-n-shine and a scavenger hunt cruise. On Friday morning however, the only thing that was thundering on the track was the rain. It was pouring!

Everyone was sure the day would (literally) be a wash-out, but after RideTech tested the course and a couple changes were made, the autocross course was finally opened late in the afternoon. The course was soaked, with enormous puddles everywhere.

We were all surprised they were going to let us run the course since it was still sprinkling, and at first the action was nuts. Our fearless driver Brandy Morrow was in the El Camino and initial runs were on the wild side. She wasn’t the only one all over the course, drivers were spinning out, going sideways, it was quite a show.

Brandy’s first reports on the El Camino were concerns about how the rear kept coming loose. Even a small application of the gas pedal sent the car sideways. Never afraid of a challenge, and with the help of co-driver Mike Morrow, Brandy got used to the wet weather handling and started drifting the course, letting the back end come around on the tight corners.

Even dry, the course was one of the more challenging configurations we’ve come across this year. Many of the competitors struggled at first. There were a lot of DNF’s the first couple times (including Brandy). Rather than making a complete run through the course one way, this course required drivers to complete a 360 degree turn, only to go back the same way, retracing the route, and exiting through the finish line. It was a quick course, with times in the low minute range once the water dried up. The tight turns and the giant puddles made it popular with the photographers, if not with the drivers!

After toweling off, competitors jumped back in their cars for the cruise and scavenger hunt. Each participant had to drive around the town looking for items on their checklist and taking pictures of the items as they found them. The weather forecast looked promising for Sat so we crossed our fingers and looked forward to morning.

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

Spectre Customer Profile: Bob Bell

Friday, September 10th, 2010

At a recent Good Guys show, Bob Bell, owner of a beautiful ’56 Chevy Pick-up Truck came to us looking for a true cold air intake.  We helped him install a Spectre intake and we were all pleased with the results.

Bob used a low profile 120 degree airbox with a 4 inch to 3 inch reducer.  He then ran 3 inch tubing directly to his radiator support, where he already had a hole cut on each side.  He used the mounting brackets and connected the tubing to the holes, drawing in true cold air.

The Kansas event was Bob’s first time attending a Good Guys event and he had some heavy competition in the truck class.  He parked his car in the Truck Corral in the hopes of winning an award, but as anyone who’s attended a Good Guys show knows, there are some very impressive cars and trucks on display.

Bob didn’t go home empty handed though, on Friday evening he attended a local show in the Kansas City are and he won best overall show car at the event! Go Bob!

We hope Bob had a good time and would love for him to come out again next year with his truck and display in the Spectre booth.  The ‘56 was a great addition to our display and we really enjoyed his company.

Posted in Customer Appreciation, Customer Profile, Good Guys, Product Install | No Comments »

A Thank You from the Northwest

Thursday, September 9th, 2010

In our recap from the Goodguys Puyallup Nats, we mentioned our guest booth car, the ‘32 Ford owned by Roger and Nina Phillips.

As it turns out, the Phillips have quite a collection of customs and rods, and all of them with Spectre Cold Air Intakes.

Roger sent us and thank you note and these photos of his cherry ‘57.
Thank you, Roger!

“Thank you for your hospitality in letting our ‘32 Ford share your display at the Good Guys Nationals in Puyallup, Washington. Nina and I enjoyed talking with you and your staff. Here are pictures of the ‘57 Chevy Bel Air for your website.
Thanks again.
Roger & Nina Phillips”

Posted in Customer Appreciation, Good Guys, Photography | No Comments »

Hot Rod Summer

Wednesday, September 8th, 2010

Spectators, Parties and Guest Booth Cars, Syracuse and Pacific Northwest Nats make for a summer of Hot Rods and Customs.

Summer shows are always the most well attended, and some of the most fun! Spectre had a full-on summer roadtrip in July, starting on the east coast at the Dupont Syracuse Nationals and ending up at the Goodguys Pacific Northwest Nats in Puyallup, WA.

The Syracuse show was one of the best we’ve had all year. Besides all the great cars, (and there were some beauties), this show had an unbelievable amount of spectators, including many of our Northern neighbors. We were happy to get to a chance to talk to Canadian enthusiasts as well as New Yorkers. More spectators mean more chances for us to interact and we had tons of interesting conversations about filters, intakes and other Spectre products.

One of the highlights of the show included a manufacturer’s party where all the exhibitors got to hang out and talk about the show over food and games. There was lots to talk about, from Rat Rods to a diamond covered Cadillac. Really! All the emblems were encrusted with precious gems! It was a funny contrast with the Rat Rod awards, which were made from scrap metal parts and looked like something you’d find in a junkyard.

From the heat of the east we headed for the cool air of Puyallup, WA. The Goodguys Pacific Northwest Nationals is one of the few big car shows in the area, so the crowds were unbelievable! Where the Syracuse show had lots of spectators, the Puyallup Nats was almost all participants.

We saw some very unique cars and several builds done with Spectre intakes and filters. A customer who had made his own Spectre intake using some of our universal kit components came out and parked in our booth for the weekend. He had been parked around the corner from us and Mike and Guy had spotted the car. After chatting a bit, we invited Roger Phillips and his wife Nina to join us for the remainder of the weekend. There’s no better advertising than all these enthusiasts with Spectre products on their cars!
We’ll have updates from August events coming up and then it’s back to the track for some serious autocrossing this Fall. The next six Goodguys shows are at Super Speedways and there should be some great competition!

Posted in Events, Good Guys, Muscle Cars | No Comments »

Spectre Customer Profile: Karl Kozad

Monday, September 6th, 2010

We first met Karl on the 2008 power tour and he continues to impress us with the quality of his projects and his company. Karl is the proud owner of both a 1966 Corvair and a 1954 Chevy and he has joined us at numerous Good Guys shows and cruises.

Karl has been a great addition to our team and continues to meet up with us every year on Power Tour, helping answer customer questions, assisting with installs, and keeping our staff entertained.  He and his wife Janet recently stopped by at the Midwestern Nats in Kansas to see about building an intake for the Corvair.

Since Karl really wanted to put a clean looking custom intake on the car, we gave him the pieces and the tools and  he spent most of the day designing and installing his own intake. Karl used a single low profile plenum with a 6 inch straight tube and put one of our P5 blue cone air filters on the end to match his car.

He was so happy with the performance that he entered the Autocross, his first ever! Seeing the Corvair taking the cones with our intake on board made us very proud. We can’t wait to see Karl and Janet again. Who knows what he’ll bring out next time!

Posted in Customer Appreciation, Customer Profile, Good Guys, Photography, Product Install | No Comments »

Midwestern Nats: Good Guys Show and Autocross in Kansas City

Sunday, September 5th, 2010

With two days of Autocross, there were cones flying at the Kansas Speedway and when we weren’t on the course, we were installing intakes and presenting trophies. It was a busy weekend in the heartland of America!

The Kansas City show was a little smaller this year, but many of the attendees were first timers, and they all seemed to have a great time. That’s a good sign for next year!

Our booth was crowded all weekend with people asking questions, showing off their custom intakes and installing new intakes right there at the show!

Bob Bell, owner of a beautiful ’56 Chevy Pick-up Truck came to us looking for a true cold air intake.  We helped him install a Spectre intake and he was very pleased with the results.

Another customer, Karl Kozad, owner of both a 1966 Corvair and a ’54 Chevy hung out with us at the booth all weekend. Karl spent most of the first day designing and installing his own intake for the Corvair.  (This is why we love Karl… so self sufficient!)  He was so happy with the performance that he brought the car back on Saturday and joined us in the Autocross. This was his first Autocross with Goodguys and he put on  a pretty good show!

The Autocross was some pretty intense competition, and not just from Karl. Ryan Matthews from DSE (Detroit Speed and Engineering) came in first, running his fastest lap time in the mid 27 sec range. DSE owner, Kyle Tucker came in just a fraction of a second behind Ryan to claim second. 27 second laps are pretty impressive, considering the average was 28-31.

Mike and Brandy Morrow swapped off driving duties in the Spectre Mach 1 Mustang. Both Morrows ran in the 30 sec range, losing a bit of time to overly worn tires.  Our tire sponsor, Yokohama, was also exhibiting and rep Greg gave us some suggestions for replacement tires, and rode a few runs with Brandy.

This will be the last event the Mach 1 will be attending for the remaining of the year and possibly for good.  We are thinking about retiring the car from the show circuit with hopes of featuring two new vehicles next year. Our 1970 mid engine LS7 powered El Camino is on a transporter to met us after the show, replacing the Mach 1 and running in the Autocross for the next four weeks. Yes, there will be Autocross all four weeks!!! How exciting! Watch out orange cones, here we come!

Posted in Autocross, Events, Good Guys, Muscle Cars, Product Install | No Comments »

Appreciation: We aren’t the only folks bitten by the salt bug

Friday, September 3rd, 2010

A few weeks before we loaded up the Spectre Speedliner for SpeedWeek, we spent some time working on a very different sort of Landspeed vehicle.

David Bloomberg is well known in Studebaker and Landspeed racing circles as “The Avanti Kid”. Dave entrusted us with the installation of a ram air kit on his 1963 Studebaker Avanti. We’ll let Dave describe the process and plans for the quick Studebaker.

” These photos show my Avanti with the new ram air intake system installed at Spectre Performance R & D shop in Ontario, CA. They really upgraded the system to ensure good clean ram air going into the mechanical fuel injection system.

I met Amir at Bonneville in 2006 when he raced his F40 Ferrari to a speed of 220mph. We helped him with the F40 because we had experience with my brother’s Pantera.

We’ll be racing ourselves in September, and this was the biggest item we needed to get done for Bonneville. We also need to add 150 lbs of ballast. I can’t wait to September to see our driver Mike Benbennick set a record and get into the Bonneville 200MPH Club!!!

I really appreciate what Amir and his staff did for my race car to ensure more hp from our engine.”

We’re happy to work with Dave and his super fast Avanti and we look forward to seeing the car run in September.

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Posted in Bonneville, Customer Appreciation, Customer Profile, Photography | No Comments »

The Scary Run

Wednesday, September 1st, 2010

The last few days of our Bonneville Speed Week experience were marred with intermittent storms and rain, so on our last day at the salt we were racing both the weather and the clock in an effort to inch closer to the 400mph mark. After strapping into the car, Amir got up to speed, made a good run and pulled the chutes. Then things went sideways – literally. A problem with a parachute caused the car to go airborne and jump sideways. Amir got it straightened out and slowed down, and the team is hard at work getting the chute system redesigned for our next run in a few weeks.

Posted in Amir, Bonneville, Bonneville 2010, Spectre Cars, Speedliner, Videos | No Comments »

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