Archive for February, 2011

Adventures in Pro-Touring: Run to the Coast – Sunday

Sunday, February 27th, 2011

The last day of RTTC was everything California is famous for: warm, sunny and super fast!

Our morning started at the Speed Stop Challenge. If you are new to our blog, and unfamiliar with a Speed Stop, it’s basically a test of braking and car control. The driver accelerates from a dead stop and then hits the brakes with the goal of bringing the car to a halt within the coned-off box. The goal is to have the quickest time without flat-spotting tires or sliding through the stop zone.

Although the Spectre team had often helped out at Speed Stop challenges during other events, Brandy had never actually competed in one!  It was a little confusing at first, but after the first couple of runs everyone was starting to get the hang of it.

Autocross followed the Speed Stop and everyone was grateful for Saturday’s practice . The weather was perfect, the ground was dry and the Carbon Camaro was just excellent.

The track portion ended up being the most fun part of the day.  Brandy lined up right behind Camaro Performers’ Nick Licata, and was able to check out his racing line during the warm up.

We’ll let Brandy describe the experience:

“The first lap was warm-up as usual, but I started to gain more speed through the straight aways and developed a good line to follow through the turns.  Second lap was feeling good, third was even better carrying more speed through the corners and then came the fourth lap…. Towards the back end of the course the car started to get lose in the back and drifted a little to the left.  I tried to correct it, but couldn’t catch it in time and around the car went… yeah I know, I spun a car on rear 345 tires! Seriously though it was fantastic because it meant I was pushing it.  Though I had spun, it was good to see that I was finding the limits of the car.  Let’s just say I took the pink hat with pride that time!”

After Brandy’s adventure, Mike took the car out in the afternoon session.  The car was looking great and handling really well.  With a little bit of tweaking, this car should do great things this season.

The day came to an end too quickly.  The top speed challenge was a great success and very competitive.  Brian Finch, Kyle Tucker, Ryan Matthews and Steve Rupp were some of the top contestants in the Spectre top speed challenge, and the final top speeds surprised us at the end of the day.  Kyle Tucker finished with a top speed of 97mph and Steve Rupp followed closely with 96 mph.

For those of you who want the numbers, overall results are below.

Overall Road Course
1. Ryan Matthews 1:02.8 (Sun)
2. Blake Foster 1:03.0 (Sun)
3. Brian Hobough 1:04.0 (Sat)
4. Kyle Tucker 1:04.9 (Sun)
5. Brian Finch 1:06.2 (Sun)
6. David Pozzi 1.07.0 (Sun)
7. Kyle Newman 1:07.0 (Sun)
8. Todd Akes 1:08.1 (Sun)
9. Mark Gearhart 1:08.2 (Sun)
10. Sal Solorzano 1:08.3 (Sun)
11. Rick Klein 1:08.6 (Sat)
12. David Gordon 1:08.8 (Sun)
13. Tom Foglesong 1.09.0 (Sat)
14. Carl Cassanova 1:09.3 (Sun)
15. Chris McCrae 1:09.4 (Sun)
16. Mary Pozzi 1:09.5 (Sun)
17. Bruce Cambern 1.09.7 (Sat)
18. Brett Campbell 1:09.7 (Sun)
19. Brandy Morrow 1:10.3 (Sun)
20. James Shipka 1:10.6 (Sun)
21. Nick Licata 1:12.0 (Sun)
22. Doug Renner 1:12.4 (Sun)
23. Gerald Lum 1:12.4 (Sun)
24. John Barkley 1:12.8 (Sun)
25. Tom Ciancitto 1:13.3 (Sun)
26. Jon Rasmussen 1:13.4 (Sat)
27. Rob McGregor 1:13.5 (Sun)
28. Jeff Manka 1:13.7 (Sun)
29. Steven Rupp 1:13.8 (Sat)
30. Cory Condit 1:13.8 (Sun)
31. Casey Aldridge 1:13.9 (Sun)
32. Henry De Los Santos 1:14.1 (Sun)
33. Rob Chandler 1:14.2 (Sun)
34. Brett Habegger 1:14.2 (Sun)
35. Deanna Marengo 1:14.3 (Sun)
36. Ron Wheeler 1:14.5 (Sun)
37. Karl Stuber 1:14.7 (Sat)
38. Rob Philips 1:14.7 (Sun)
39. Deacon Markey 1:15.3 (Sun)
40. Michael Provencher 1:15.4 (Sun)
41. Chris Robinson 1:15.7 (Sun)
42. Chad Ryker 1:15.8 (Sun)
43. Don Chemello 1:15.9 (Sun)
44. Matt Alcala 1:16.2 (Sun)
45. Mike Wright 1:16.5 (Sun)
46. Don Swertfeger 1:17.6 (Sat)
47. Jon Upton 1:19.5 (Sun)
48. Steven Martinez 1:19.7 (Sat)
49. Dan Weishaar 1:20.5 (Sat) (ran 1:24.7 in Mustang on Sunday)
50. Erich Monteith 11:20.6 (Sat)
51. Jack Fields 1:20.6 (Sat)
52. Valerie Pichette 1:21.1 (Sun)
53. Paul Setter 1:21.2 (Sat)
54. Matthew Briggs 1:21.5 (Sat)
55. Christian Melchior 1:21.5 (Sat)
56. Jay Reynolds 1:21.7 (Sat)
57. Rodney Prouty 1:22.1 (Sun)
58. Bruce Steward 1:22.3 (Sun)
59. Bill Fowler 1:22.5 (Sat)
60. James Fields 1:23.1 (Sat)
61. Larry Callahan 1:23.8 (Sat)
62. Evan Daly 1:24.4 (Sat)
63. Chris Gonzalez 1:24.5 (Sun)
64. Nicholas Ruffley 1:25.8 (Sat)
65. Joe Huerta 1:33.2 (Sun)
66. Cris Gonzalez 1:33.9 (Sat)

Overall Autocross Results from both days:

1. Brian Hobaugh 37.000
2. Kyle Tucker 37.206
3. Mary Pozzi 37.679
4. Ryan Matthews 38.139
5. Blake Foster 38.210
6. Brian Finch 38.215
7. David Pozzi 38.313
8. Bruce Cambern 38.423
9. Kyle Newman 38.778
10. David Gordon 38.834
11. Brett Campbell 39.108
12. Chris McCrea 39.159
13. Deanna Marengo 39.283
14. Sal Solorzano 39.299
15. Nick Licata 39.366
16. Carl Cassanova 39.546
17. Gerald Lum 39.631
18. Steven Rupp 39.811
19. Rob McGregor 39.892
20. Todd Akes 39.954
21. Rob Chandler 40.115
22. Steven Rupp 40.187
23. James Shipka 40.232
24. Mark Gearhart 40.282
25. Jon Rasmussen 40.303
26. Mike Morrow 40.538
27. Jay Reynolds 40.568
28. Larry Callahan 40.732
29. Henry De Los Santos 40.83
30. Brett Habegger 41.326
31. Cory Condit 41.498
32. Casey Aldridge 41.534
33. Steven Martinez 41.599
34. Doug Renner 41.636
35. John Barkley 41.748
36. Tom Foglesong 41.752
37. Matt Alcala 41.873
38. Sean Haggai 41.907
39. Evan Daly 42.035
40. Michael Provencher 42.138
41. Don Chemello 42.223
42. Jeff Smith 42.414 (also ran 41.647 +1)
43. Chris Robinson 42.377
44. Chad Ryker 42.583
45. Mike Wright 42.721
46. Rick Klein 42.792
47. Valerie Pichette 42.928
48. James Fields 43.164
49. Michael Cavanah 43.269
50. Matthew Briggs 43.391
51. Deacon Markey 43.542
52. Jeff Manka 43.565
53. Rob Phillips 43.575
54. Tom Ciancitto 43.626
55. Al Melchior 43.774
56. Karl Stuber 43.789
57. Erich Monteith 43.906
58. Bruce Steward 43.932
59. Jon Upton 44.010
60. Paul Setter 44.027
61. Valerie Pichette 44.309
62. Ron Wheeler 44.457
63. Rodney Prouty 44.571
64. Joe Huerta 44.688
65. Nicholas Ruffley 45.173
66. Don Swertfeger 45.749
67. Sam Ashteokenyan 45.765
68. Dan Weishaar 46.282
69. Bill Fowler 46.411
70. Tom Cronkright 46.707
71. Cris Gonzalez 49.534
72. Joe Huerta – no time?
73. Christian Melchior – no time?
74. Jack Fields – no time?

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Posted in Autocross, Carbon Camaro, Events, Muscle Cars, Photography, Road Racing, Spectre Cars | No Comments »

Adventures in Pro-Touring: Run to the Coast – Saturday

Saturday, February 26th, 2011

The Spectre crew was on the road early Saturday morning, heading towards Irvine for the first day of RTTC competition. Bill Howell had promised the event would go on rain or shine, but as we watched the windshield wipers on the truck window,  we wondered how the forecasted heavy rain  would affect the event.

El Toro is a former Marine Base and is still dotted with airplane hangers and “Keep Out” signs. Registration for RTTC was in an empty airplane hanger, and we parked the Spectre rig just outside.

While Mike and Steve set up the awning, Brandy filled up the gas can, then took the Carbon Camaro through tech. A funny thing happened on her way back in to the base, but we’ll get to that in a minute.

The Driver meeting started around 9am.  The organizers divided everyone into three groups based on car number.  The Camaro was part of the second group which was scheduled to hit the road course first.

The other two groups would go to the autocross and the brake stop challenge respectively, and switch stations throughout the weekend.

Bill warned everyone about the wet track, the restricted areas of the base and the dreaded “Pink Hat”, a bedazzled cowboy hat the color of Pepto Bismol, which would be the punishment for spinning out or other poor track behavior.

Sadly the pink hat already had found a home before the race even started and it was on the head of our very own Brandy Morrow. Apparently Brandy had taken out a cone on her way in from the fuel run and RTTC organizer Yancy Johns happened to see her do it…and well…rules are rules.

Brandy was a good sport about her new accessory, and she didn’t have to wear it long. The rain had stopped but the road course was very wet and cold and there were soon multiple competitors with muddy fenders vying for the sequined hat.

Steve and Mike had adjusted the Camaro to the track settings that Brandy liked best after the Willow Springs track test and sent her out on the track with a warning to watch out for puddles and not to push the car past her comfort point.

The Carbon Camaro set-up is quite different than the rest of the Spectre cars, especially the Mustang and the El Camino, which Brandy campaigned in 2010. The black Camaro not only has power steering, but also power brakes, something which takes a little getting used to.

There was enough time in the first session for three laps on the track and one cool down lap.  Using the first lap as a warm-up, Brandy carefully worked her way through the puddles until she was nearly lapping the other car on the track!

After a quick break for lunch came the autocross section.  Participants were meant to alternate with the Speed Stop Challenge, but there was a timer issue so they let everyone run on the autocross or the track for the remainder of the day.  After running her three laps of autocross, Brandy handed the keys to Mike and so he could get in some track time as well.

Late that afternoon, Spectre customer, Brian Finch, let Yancy Johns drive his silver second gen Camaro.  Yancy took out the huge orange water barrel at the hairpin turn on the very first lap!  Luckily the car and Yancy were unharmed, but during the closing meeting Brandy gleefully presented the pink hat to Yancy. Revenge was sweet indeed.

As the sun went down, we packed up and grabbed some dinner with a few of the other drivers before heading home to prepare for more racing on Sunday.

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Posted in Autocross, Carbon Camaro, Events, Muscle Cars, Photography, Road Racing, Spectre Cars | No Comments »

Adventures in Pro-Touring: Run to the Coast – Friday

Friday, February 25th, 2011

If all the “pro-touring” events on the calendar this year are half as fun as Run to the Coast, we’re in for a great year.

Organized by Bill Howell and Yancy Johns, Run to the Coast is a three day event in Southern California which involves street driving, autocross, speedstop challenge and roadcourse and we participated in the Carbon Camaro along with more than 50 other vintage and modern muscle cars.

Run to the Coast actually kicked off early for Spectre when Mike Norris arrived at our shop on Thursday to tune Camaro Performers’ editors, Nick Licata and Steve Rupp’s “Black Betty” and “Bad Penny” Camaros.

We also worked on Bad Penny’s Intake, getting rid of the extremely heavy piping in the car and using our aluminum tubing to create a much lighter, true cold air intake.

We sent the magazine guys out in time to join the rest of the RTTC participants for the two hour cruise to the coast, through the mountains, past Lake Elsinore and back to the Spectre shop for snacks and dyno time.

Many participants stopped along the way to Lake Elsinore for pictures of their car and the lake at the view point station on Ortega Highway (highway 74) but we still had participants rolling in to the shop a little after noon.

We expected 10-15 cars, but by the end of Friday at least 40 cars had stopped by Spectre. Nearly 85 people ducked the rain and sat at the shop, watching the dyno runs and catching up with friends from around the country.

No event with the pro-touring crowd is complete without some friendly go-kart competition, so we hosted a karting event at the nearby Fast Lap Indoor Kart Racing. Karting was free for anyone who wanted to participate and the teams were divided into groups of 4-5 people. There were a total of 11 groups! Some of the people driving included: Kyle Tucker and Ryan Matthews from DSE, Steve Rupp, Mary Pozzi, Brian Finch, Dan Weishaar, our RTTC hosts Bill Howell and Yancy Johns and many, many more.

The Spectre team missed out on the Kart action since they stayed late at the shop to finish up an intake install on Carl Casanova’s 1968 Camaro. It started with a simple request for a heat shield, but turned into a complete cold air intake install by Guy Smith and Mike Morrow.

We met up again with the other racers at TCI for a BBQ Dinner. The food was fantastic and they even had tours around their facility.

Everyone headed home or to their hotels with windshield wipers on and fingers crossed in hopes that Saturday would offer some sunshine.

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Posted in Autocross, Carbon Camaro, Events, Muscle Cars, Photography, Product Install, Road Racing, Spectre Cars | No Comments »

Extreme Makeover: Toterhome Edition

Thursday, February 24th, 2011

By now, everyone knows that Spectre Performance loves to interact with customers at car shows. We must have one of the busiest show schedules of any aftermarket company around! The Spectre cars get a lot of attention once we get to an event, but we wouldn’t be able to do anything without our travel rigs. When we first started setting up at car shows, we’d head out in a truck with a booth and an easy-up. Then we got the Toterhome.

The Toterhome was our first real rig. We’ve been hauling around the country in it since 2008 and it was starting to look a little shabby.

Since our new truck and trailer was getting such rave reviews, we decided to give the Toterhome a full makeover. Originally we had it wrapped in black with the Speed by Spectre logo, but we wanted to feature our new 2011 company logo. We took the truck to Gator Wraps in nearby San Bernardino County and they freshened up the hauler. The trailer emphasizes our dedication to the Spectre Streamliner and Bonneville by displaying the popular 0-400 and beyond logo. A red needle was added to this logo after Sept 2010 when we finally broke 400mph.

Now that the Toterhome is show-ready, it’s designated to cover shows on the west coast and some in the Midwest while the new truck and trailer covers the east.

Having two trucks enables us to double the shows we attend. In the beginning we averaged about 20-28 shows, which progressively grew throughout the last three years to a total of about 60-65 shows and we’re still adding more!

The first event the newly wrapped Toter will attend is Run to the Coast. Then we’ll restock it and send it to Arizona for the Goodguys Scottsdale show.

Keep an eye out for the Toterhome on the road (you can’t miss it….)!

Posted in Events, Good Guys, Photography, Spectre Cars, Toterhome | 2 Comments »

Winter Warm-up: Spectre’s 1st 2011 Track Test

Wednesday, February 23rd, 2011

Good performance on the track is almost as much about driver seat time as it is about car prep. On Jan 31st we headed out to Willow Springs Raceway in Rosemond, Ca to work on both cars and drivers.

Our new track cars for the 2011 season include the Two JZ-GTE powered ’70 Maverick and the long awaited Carbon Camaro. Both cars are high horsepower pro-touring style builds and have been up north most of this year, the Camaro at Campbell Auto Restoration and the Maverick in the capable hands of Steve Schmalz and the Performance Fabrication crew.

The guys from both Campbell and Performance Fabrication came down with the cars to get some track time and test some of the recent upgrades. Steve from Performance Fab. started the morning in the Maverick on the Streets of Willow roadcourse, while Brandy, Mike and Mark set up a mini autocross on the skid pad and practiced running the Camaro through the cones.

The black Camaro looked pretty menacing carving around the practice course, with its one-off wheel flares and beefy 345/30ZR19 rear Kumhos. That vicious stance isn’t all show either; our newest 2nd gen has more horsepower, lots of traction, and a full modern suspension with customized adjustable rear sway bar. It’s also the first Spectre car in a long time to have power steering and power brakes, two additions which make a BIG difference on the tight turns of an autocross. Brandy finished up the practice session with a lot of enthusiasm about driving the car in upcoming events.

Steve came in off the road course a little less thrilled with the Maverick. Apparently the little blue Ford was acting up with twitchy steering and unpredictable handling. It looked very cool on the autocross though, even picking up a front wheel around the corners!

Everyone had better reviews once the Camaro hit the road course. There were a few clearance issues with the wide rear tires when the car was driven hard, but some minor adjustments in the pits soon cleared up any chafing. It was funny to see so many people under the cars, discussing possible solutions to both the Maverick’s handling tendencies and the Camaro’s tire rub problem. We really have an amazing group of people working with us.

Not only are there great people wrenching on the cars, but we are lucky enough to be working with some fantastic photographers too. Larry Chen and Linhbergh Nguyen from Speedhunters joined us at the track to take some photos and make a few laps of their own.

Larry brought his roommate, Yu-Chen in an Acura RSX, and they spent almost as much time on the track as we did. Larry rode with Yu-Chen and gave him some quick tips while the Spectre team was working on the cars. Yu-Chen picked up the racing line quickly and was noticeably faster by the time lunch arrived.

Why was he so quick?

“Video games,” he told us with a grin.

After lunch, Brandy and Mike took turns on track in the Camaro while Steve and Mark discussed options for improving the Maverick’s touchy handling characteristics.

By sunset, the team had a full eight hours of driving under their belts, and a solid plan for modifications and additions to both cars. We’ll find out the results soon, as our first competitive event, Run to the Coast is coming up this weekend!

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Posted in '70 Maverick, Autocross, Carbon Camaro, Events, Muscle Cars, Photography, Spectre Cars, new products | No Comments »

“Kustom Capital of the World” : The Sacramento Autorama

Tuesday, February 15th, 2011

Now in its 61st year, the Sacramento Autorama is “The Kustom Capital of the World” and boasts the title of one of longest running indoor car shows in the world. The Autorama is recognized as the custom car show on the West Coast. With over 450 of the finest custom cars, hot rods, classics, motorcycles, and specialty vehicles from around the county, there’s a good reason why people have been attending this show for over 60 years.

Of course, at Spectre, everything we do is an adventure, and as we packed up for the Autorama, the process of getting out of the Spectre parking lot and on our way to Sacramento was an adventure all by itself. It was like a reality TV Show; one thing after another just kept going wrong. How hard can it be to drive to a car show?

The plan was for the Toterhome to represent us in Sacramento. It had just been wrapped with our new logos, but was only partially finished. It looked good though, so we started to pack Wednesday with hopes to get out Thursday morning. When the toter pulled into the Spectre lot Wednesday morning, we had our first hurdle. Not only was the Jake brake not working, a taillight was out and then something went wrong with the alternator!

The toter went in to the shop to get repaired late Wednesday afternoon, but it would never be done in time for a 400 mile drive! Knowing that the show started Friday at noon, we reloaded our new truck as quickly as possible and got Steve out on the road.

Steve arrived in Sacramento around 8:30 on Thursday night and parked the truck, but our troubles weren’t over, because the space for the truck was just slightly smaller than our display.  After some creative maneuvering, Steve was able to park the truck although we had to move the Churro stand. Seriously, do these things happen to anyone else?

Despite the slow start, once the show started we had a blast. The attendance was great and the truck was filled with people.

Since the show is all indoors, it attracts a lot of amazing customs and builders. Trailer queens get a bad name, but some of these cars are really pieces of art!

Each section of building had a different display. We saw bicycles and children’s push cars, muscle cars, and even a boat hall. There were also tons of vintage racers, a Bonneville car, and rows of motorcycles. Outside the race car display was a tent that featured a whole rockabilly scene with cars of the 50’s and people dressed to match.

On Saturday Spectators lined the entrances waiting for 10am to come and the gates to open. The truck and trailer were consistently crowded throughout the day. People were even coming in at 7 and 8pm, just to have an hour of viewing time. There were about 100-150 participant cars outside in the car corral. There were several cars with Spectre intakes on them, which always makes us happy!

The show stayed busy all weekend and by Sunday afternoon, we were ready to pack up and head home. Even though we had a rough ride up, we think this show was a great sign for the coming months. People know who we are, they are interested in our products and it seems like the car hobby is going to have a good year.

The first Good Guys shows are in March. We can’t wait!

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Posted in Events, Muscle Cars, Photography, Spectre Cars, Toterhome, new products | No Comments »

The Year Begins: First Show of 2011, the Grand National Roadster Show

Monday, February 7th, 2011

After a long week in LA at the MPMC Trade Conference, we headed straight to the Pomona Fairplex for the first show of 2011, the Grand National Roadster (GNR) show.

The Roadster show was established 62 years ago and is the world’s longest running indoor car show. For the last eight years, it’s been just around the corner from Spectre in Pomona.

GNR always has a theme and this year it was Route 66, which was no problem for us, we’re plenty familiar with all the highways in America! Featured celebrities included Freddie from iCarly, Courtney Hansen from Powerblock TV, Lee Reherman from Battle of the Supercars, and Bryan Fuller from Two Guys Garage and Hot Rod TV.

We started set-up for the show while Brandy and Mike were still at the MPMC conference. Steve and Campbell Automotive got the truck, El Camino and Carbon Camaro to the show, and the SpeedLiner showed up as soon as the SORC party was over.

The show was like a high school reunion. Many of the manufacturers we hadn’t seen in a couple months were out at the show. Even the Goodguys team had a booth inside and practically brought out the whole office.

Many racers and fans from Bonneville, including some of the SCTA timing and tech, stopped by our booth to check out the streamliner and watch the videos. Kenny Hoover stayed all three days to sign posters, talk about the streamliner and reconnect with old friends. As always, Kenny and the streamliner got a lot of attention. We even let someone sit in the car for a photo.

One of our favorite parts of any show is checking out the cars which have been built using Spectre product. One display car we saw had a full Spectre custom intake, which definitely caught the attention of those passing by. We saw many other cars using Spectre intakes, headlight funnels, filters and valve covers. One of our favorites was the color changing ’69 Nova, owned by Ken Ramey from Lancaster, CA, which makes good use of a Spectre intake.

On Saturday Amir and his wife, Dusanka, came out to take a look around which was fun, since the show field had filled out and the booth was packed. Many people came to look at the streamliner, but the Carbon Camaro and El Camino got a lot of attention as well.

We spent part of the day on Saturday doing a custom install on a cool old Ford. We tried multiple plenums and airboxes and finally came to a decision on one the owner really liked. Once it was decided on, he was so thrilled and thought it was the coolest thing in the world! Hopefully we will be able to feature the car in the booth at upcoming local shows.

By Sunday, the weather turned ugly. About noon it started to rain lightly, so we had to load the streamliner early before the heavier rain came. We actually got more attention loading the streamliner than we did that whole day when the streamliner sat in front of the booth!

While we were loading the displays in the truck and trailer and trying not to get everything soaked, Barry Meguiar, his wife and another friend stopped by our booth to chit chat with Kenny. We’d like to thank everyone who stopped by to hang out with us, and also offer congratulations to our friend Jason from Street Trucks, who won first in his class. Nice job, Jason!

We will be headed up to Sacramento next weekend for the Sacramento Autorama, February 11th, 12th and 13th.

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Posted in Carbon Camaro, Events, Muscle Cars, Photography, Spectre Cars, new products | No Comments »

Media Kick-off: The 2011 MPMC Conference

Sunday, February 6th, 2011

At Spectre, we work closely with the Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA) as well as with the automotive media. We were able to catch up with both industry and editors at the 2011 MPMC Conference in El Segundo.

MPMC stands for Motorsports Parts Manufacturers Council, and they are an amazing group of people who work tirelessly to arrange time for manufacturers and journalists to meet and talk about project cars and new products without the distracting background of the SEMA show. We’ve attended the conference since 2007 and find it extremely valuable.

As always, our marketing genius, Brandy, transformed our hotel room into a complete showroom experience. The display featured some of the new 2011 Spectre parts, the Streamliner at Bonneville and photos from the Spectre 341 Challenge. Did you know an upside-down hotel couch makes an excellent product display when covered with black cloth?

During the conference, we sat in our decorated hotel suite and had meetings with automotive magazine editors, filmmakers, freelancers, TV shows, and websites. It’s fun to hear all about people’s project cars and trucks, and to tell them about our upcoming events and products.

The Spectre 341 Challenge was a popular topic during all of our meetings. Most people we spoke to either wanted to come out to the event themselves, or knew of someone they planned to invite. It’s going to be an amazing race this year.

Every year there is an afterparty mid-week. Last year we hosted at the Spectre facility but this year Source Interlink Publishing (SORC) held an open house at their new offices and workspace in El Segundo. It was a great night. Their workshop is very cool, and they had many of the legends of publishing and motorsports signing the latest SORC book, HOT ROD Magazine: All the Covers, with the profits going to charity.

SORC also invited us to display the SpeedLiner in the massive white photo bay. Amir came out and had such a good time he didn’t leave until early the next morning!

Overall, it was a very worthwhile week, and we are looking forward to getting all our magazine subscriptions this year. We know there are going to be some great stories.

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Posted in Bonneville, Events, Muscle Cars, Photography, new products | No Comments »

The Spectre SpeedLiner’s Winter Tour

Friday, February 4th, 2011

Like all celebrities, the Spectre SpeedLiner has no off-season. When the menacing black landspeed car isn’t on the salts of Bonneville, it is drawing attention at trade conference or providing a conversational focus point in a TV interview.

The SpeedLiner started off the year surrounded by a different kind of white groundcover, snow! The Spectre team set up at the Advance Managers Conference in Nashville in the middle of the worst snowstorm in years!

Despite the weather, many other manufacturers were present, including our friends at Peak and Mobil. The SpeedLiner got a lot of attention, and spirits were high, although attendance was down from previous years.

After the show, Mike packed up the parts and the car and headed for the TV studios of RTM Productions in  Franklin, about 30 minutes from Nashville. The crew dropped off the SpeedLiner in the garage at RTM to await Amir and Brandy’s arrival a week later.

If any of you are unfamiliar with RTM, it is a television production company specializing in automotive, outdoor, and entertainment programming. They shoot many of the automotive shows seen on Spike and Speed TV, and they asked Amir to come do an interview about landspeed racing.

We were worried the Speedliner wouldn’t fit in the studio, but amazingly it did, with just a little room to spare! More amazing yet is that Amir sat still for the make-up lady, although as the pictures show, he was less than thrilled about the leopard print bib.

The interview with RTM host, Courtney, is great. They talked about everything, including how Amir got involved with Bonneville, why he does it, what was it like to go over 400mph and how setting a landspeed record helps us make better airfilters for our customers.

Don’t miss the first airing of the Horsepower TV interview February 26th & 27th on the Spike TV Network!

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Posted in Amir, Bonneville, Events, Photography, Speedliner | 3 Comments »