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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
There are good things and bad things about car people, and when we brag about being car people, we have to come clean about our flaws as well…
We have too many projects, and some are neglected.
We’d feel worse about it if we didn’t know that many of you suffer from the same issue. Hopefully you’ll have some sympathy as we introduce one of our long-ignored favorites, the Spectre Dodge Dart.
Write in and tell us if any of the following sounds familiar.
We purchased the ‘69 Swinger on Ebay in June of 2006 from a guy in AZ. Why a Dart? Why Ebay? Nobody can remember. It seemed like a good idea at the time.
As is so often the case, the Dart came to us as an all-stock running car, but nothing stays that way in the Spectre shop for long. We sent the car off to Fast Eddie’s to get a full cage in preparation for a proposed drag car project.
Over at Eddie’s the little Dodge went from stock to stripped and caged, but then we got busy with other projects and the Dart has lived like a bat in the rafters for the past five years.
Happily, the Dart has made its way back to the shop floor. Does this mean that 2012 will feature a second blue Spectre Mopar project? We may just get into drag racing…or should we build a corner carver?
Head over to our Flickr account for more Dart and other project photos.
We are loving the growing trend of building show cars that can perform on the track, so when Curt and Fritz contacted us to see if we’d like to be a part of the RPM Hot Rod’s ‘62 Chevy II build, we were happy to say yes…well, once we stopped laughing at the build’s nickname. “The Runt”? Poor lil’ Chevy. It’s hard being a compact car.
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.
We get a lot of questions from Mopar fans asking us why our project stable doesn’t currently have any active Pentastar projects (We do have a Dart in the rafters, stay tuned for a closer look at that lil’ guy in an upcoming post.)
The main reason is, who wants to compete with Dan “the man” Weishaar? Seriously, look at this thing. Can we do better than that?
It’s a real 383-powered ‘68 Roadrunner and it barely weighs more than our Dart. At 3556 pounds, the blue bird seems remarkably nimble skirting the cones at a Good Guys Autocross and Dan doesn’t limit his driving adventures to nice, rubbery cone barriers.
In the last year, we’ve seen Weishaar at Optima events, at SEMA, on local cruise days and, perhaps most impressively, braving the hill at our own Speed by Spectre 341 Challenge. Perhaps our favorite thing about the Weishaar Plymouth is that Dan is never afraid to jump in and wrench on the thing, and he often includes his whole family. We approve of family automotive time.
If you want to build your own road warrior B-body, you’ll have to talk to Dan at one of the 2012 events. Luckily, his sweet cowl airbox is available from us, so at least you can make your engine bay look the part.
For more specs on Dan’s car, check out some of the following links.
As we look back over the past year, it gives us time to think about all the amazing cars we had the pleasure to see, race against, and even wrench on. In the driver’s seat of every sweet ride though, is a person, and we’d like to take some time to spotlight some of Spectre’s biggest supporters and close friends (don’t worry though, we’ll still give you car photos).
One person that is guaranteed to cheer you up no matter how bad the race weekend, Albert Melchior.
Albert comes down from Canada, where he owns Carbon Kustoms, a couple times a year to participate, and often sponsor, many of the Pro-Touring races.
It’s always a pleasure to see Albert. He has an enthusiastic attitude and it’s reflected in the cars he builds and races. We first worked with Carbon Kustoms when Albert called us with a project in mind and wanted to know what tubes he should use. We sent him a couple things and like magic a Spectre custom intake was created.
Albert spends so much time under the hood, that he’s got some help behind the wheel. Kevin Miller, co-builder of Albert’s Firebird is a young and very talented driver. He has grown up around cars with the influential help of his father and has a ‘69 Camaro of his own that he built himself. Kevin has already participated in a handful of events throughout this year and did an excellent job piloting Albert’s ‘70 Firebird. We look forward to seeing more of Albert, Kevin and the Firebird in 2012!
We spend a lot of time on the track, whether autocrossing at Good Guys shows, skidding to a perfect brake stop or tempting fate on the wicked turns of HWY 341. Basically, we’re constantly surrounded by hot shoe drivers, from our own Brandy Morrow to friends like Brian Finch , John Hotchkis, Kyle and Stacy Tucker, Mary Pozzi or 341 double champion, Lou Gigliotti.
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.
