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.

Want more photos? Flickr is the place to go.

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.

BTW… the awards were awesome for this event:

For more photos, head over to Flickr.

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.

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.

RPM built the car for one of their longtime customers, Gerry Kerna, who was interested in competing in the autocross, as well as adding to her show car collection.

The Runt may have a funny name, but the car is no joke! With custom fabricated chassis, LS7, Tremec 6-Speed and all kinds of custom body modifications, this cherry beast will definitely have the last laugh at anyone who dares to challenge Kerna on the track.

The Runt not only won Goodguys Muscle Machine of the Year award for 2011, but it also was invited to join the elite at OUSCI this year.

Anyone who takes the time to  peek under the hood of the Runt will definitely appreciate the quality and hard work that went into building this car.  Of course, we’re especially delighted by the  awesome custom Spectre intake.  Not only did RPM add their own unique coating to the aluminum tubes, they utilized the inline filter option we have, making a lot of people question where the filter went. Ooh, a mystery!

We will be working closely with RPM in the future and hope they will continue to use Spectre’s parts to build custom intakes for their one off cars.  We also will have a special surprise that we are working with RPM which will debut mid March.  Stay tuned for sneak peeks.

Recently though, we started thinking about all the great rookies we meet. When we go to shows, we meet whole families building cars together, and we really think it’s cool to talk with kids who are just getting their driving permits about their car interests and driving goals. We guess you could call them “new shoe” drivers, but we think of them as SPIs…Spectre People of Interest.

We decided that our new shoe drivers deserve as much attention as the hot shoes, so with no further ado, we’d like to introduce Sam Farrington, our very first “SPI” highlight.

Name: Sam Farrington
Age: 15 1/2

We first met Sam at the Good Guys Nashville show in May, 2011. Sam had been working his way through the passenger seat of all the vendor cars and when he ended up next to Brandy in the Carbon Camaro, she had a chance to chat with him while they prepared to run.

Sam was a pro at these Goodguys Shows. He and his family have been attending car shows and pro-touring races longer than many of us have been in the industry!

Sam’s parents Tom and Debbie are active car people. Tom has a ’66 Chevelle he races and Debbie has a ’64 Chevelle Wagon. Sam told us that both his parents encouraged him to get involved in building and working on the cars. If something on one of the cars needs to be checked, Sam is there alongside his dad looking under the hood of the car.

We ran in to Sam and his family at many more events this summer, including Run to Music City, Midwest Musclecar Challenge and Goodguys Indy. Sam was known as the “professional passenger.” He had more seat time as a passenger at the Goodguys Nashville Show than any one person did as a driver; and Brian Finch drove a lot of cars that weekend!

We spoke with Sam’s parents about his car adventures. They had been working with him on basic skills such as parking and even some autocrossing. Sam had also spent some time one summer with Detroit Speed. Kyle and Stacy had taken him in and he helped them around the shop.

Give or take a year… this kid will be kicking everyone’s butt and by the time he is 18 and allowed on a Goodguys track, all of us old timers won’t be able to keep up with Sam.

Sam impressed us because he quickly saw that you do not need a car to learn to drive and be competitive. Sam already has the experience years beyond his age. His seat time as a passenger has already helped him become a better driver. Even more so, his seat time with multiple drivers has taught him several different driving styles that he can apply to his own when he finally gets to switch seats and get behind the wheel. He’s already giving his mom and dad pointers when they take out their Chevelles. We know he’s eager to challenge his sister Kaytlin on the autocross and the skills that both Farrington kids learn on the race track will make them safer drivers on the street as well.

Keep an eye out for Spectre parts on the Farrington’s wagon and hopefully a custom install on Sam’s car when it is ready.