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.
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 have just over one month before the second annual running of the Spectre 341 Challenge. We’ve posted here before about how the best thing about the event is not the ghost town feel of Virginia City’s wild west setting, nor even the 5.2 miles of thrilling, twisting road, but rather the people who participate.
One of the very first people to sign up for the inaugural race last year was Car Craft Magazine editor, Jeff Smith. Now, Jeff spends every day talking about cars, test driving cars, working on cars and writing about cars, so we wouldn’t blame him if he got a bit blasé, but nothing could be further from the truth.
Jeff showed up with his famed blue 1965 Chevelle in 2010 and cheerfully tackled the hill, enthusiastically bench racing with other participants and even swapping in a new alternator mid race in order to make another run.
Jeff is a great story teller, so we’ll let him take over and tell you what it’s like to run Hwy 341 and why everyone should have four or more Chevelles.
What do you do (day job)?
I am the Senior Technical Editor for Car Craft Magazine
Have you always liked cars, or did you get in to cars because of a friend or family member?
I have been into cars about as long as I can remember. When I was ten years old, I started hanging out at my grandfather’s Skelly gas station in Boone, Iowa and he put me to work pumping gas. That was the real start of my love with cars. I graduated high school in 1972 right at the end of the muscle car era so I was around them all the time. It was a great time to be a kid – just young enough to miss Vietnam and just old enough to really enjoy all those muscle cars. My first car was a ‘66 GTO with a 389 and 4-speed, but my favorite car that I still own is my ‘66 SS396 Chevelle 360hp car that is slowly being restored — with an emphasis on slowly…
What’s your dream car?
That’s really a moving target, but strangely I’d really like to own an early CTS-V Cadillac! I never thought I’d hear myself say that, but that car really does something for me. And there’s room for all my big friends, which is a plus.
How long have you had the Chevelle?
I traded a V6-powererd Vega for my ’65 Chevelle somewhere around the early ’90s. It has competed in or participated in an amazing list of different events and competitions. I’ve bracket raced it, it has done the Power Tour twice in the early days (when I was with Hot Rod), I’ve raced it twice in the Pony Express 100 (hitting a top speed of 167+mph), it competed in the Optima Ultimate Street Car Invitational in 2010, two of the west coast Pro Touring Run to the Coast events, and an uncounted number of cruises and car shows. I also want to run it in the Muroc Mile standing mile event sometime. I think it will do 140+ mph if I work on the aero a little. It’s kind of a brick. But when you say “the Chevelle” we have to be specific as to the ’65, because I have three other ’66 Chevelles plus a ’65 El Camino. It’s a sickness for which there is no cure.
What are some of the modifications from stock?
The short version is an absolutely ancient Lingenfelter-built 420ci small-block Chevy with a Accel Gen VII EFI system, AFR heads, a Bow Tie block, and a Crower rotating assembly. It only has a Richmond 4-speed behind it along with a 3.31:1 geared 12-bolt. The biggest change, and what we continue to work on is the suspension. It’s a rolling billboard for Global West Suspension with a complete tubular upper and lower control arms and a coil-over front conversion. The rear also has a Global coil-over shock conversion using a set of verrry nice set of Penske double-adjustable shocks on all four corners that have really made a huge difference in the handling. Tires are BFG 27535R18 KDWs mounted on 18 x 9.5-inch wheels with six inches of back spacing. Most Chevelle guys don’t believe you can get that much tire under a stock wheelwell but you can if you pay attention to the backspacing.
What was the first competitive driving you ever did?
It was a class race after I graduated from my first driving school at the Jim Russell British School of Motor Racing at Riverside around 1980! We were driving Van Diemen Formula Fords with Cortina four-cylinder engines and a Hewland gearbox that was really hard to shift correctly. It was way too much fun and cemented my feeling that turning corners was more challenging than going straight on the drag strip.
What other racing events do you participate in?
Pony Express 100 in the 140 and 150 mph classes in two different years with my Chevelle. I’m most proud of the fact that I finished both of those races. It’s a lot harder than you think. I also rode shotgun with John Lingenfelter in 1990 at the Silver State Classic where we went 206 mph in his red ‘86 Corvette. That was cool.
I also participated in something called the Triathlon of Motor Sports in Las Vegas – two passes on a drag strip, two laps on a 3/8-mile paved oval, and four laps on a 1.6mile road course that has since been replaced by the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. That was a fun event – I was competing in the A-Production class against Corvettes and finished second in two events to a Lingenfelter ‘Vette. I’ve also done a bunch of track days at Willow Springs, Buttonwillow and Fontana. I also raced with a buddy Dan Livezey with a Street Prepared 5 Camaro in Pro Solo where we did well.
How does competitive driving differ from street driving?
Mainly you can concentrate on your line and not worry about cross traffic or what some idiot in the next lane is going to do, or not do. You just cannot let it all out on the street – it’s just too dangerous. That’s why I do so many track days since I use them to tune my car.
How does driving a muscle car differ from competing in a new car?
New cars are great, but they lack personality. Racing with an older muscle car adds personality, but also grief (which is the real cost of owning these cars) since they break all the time and at the most inopportune moment (usually when the most people are watching). This is what happened to me at last year’s 341 race with a dead alternator. Subsequent electrical problems sidelined me at later events until I finally put a whole new wiring harness in the car. Can you imagine? A 36 year-old wire harness that failed! New cars present far less grief unless you start modifying them – then they’re just like older cars, just more expensive.
How did you find out about the 341 Challenge?
I’ve spent too much time around Amir lately and his boundless enthusiasm easily rubs on me. If I’m not careful, I’ll be volunteering to help run the streamliner car and getting sucked into that deal. It would be very easy…
(Ed. Note: Done, you’re on the team, Jeff….)
What did you think about the event last year?
I didn’t come adequately prepared for as many laps as we ended up running. The main thing was I forgot that we were at 7,000 feet. I probably didn’t need nearly as much octane as I thought to run my normally aspirated engine. I need more experience with tuning my engine for altitude to know how much octane I can get away with.
Why do you want to return to 341 this year?
It’s like any other competitive event, I want to improve on last year’s lap time.
Do you have any recommendations for the newbies this year?
Have fun and don’t be intimidated by the mountain.
Is there anything else you’d like to share about yourself, your car, or racing in general?
There are many aspects of the Spectre 341 Challenge which make it an unusual race. Everything from the surrounding town (which seems straight out of a spaghetti western) to the race course itself (which seems to have been cut right out of Germany’s Nürburgring) makes a run at 341 different from the normal track event.
The most amazing thing about 341 though isn’t the wooden sidewalks or the off-camber turns, but rather the fact that every participant has an equal chance at glory, because this isn’t a racetrack you can memorize, it’s a real road, and the landmarks and surface change every year.
No one better demonstrates the egalitarian nature of racing 341 than 2010 driver, Jeremy Kappus. A Reno native in a self-tuned ‘06 Mitsubishi EvoIX RS, Jeremy shocked everyone on the first day of racing by turning a faster time than any other racers on the grid, including big names like Millen, Gigliotti and Gillies. While the high horsepower cars eventually claimed the top three spots, Kappus stayed close by and finished with amazingly consistent results in the mid 3:25 range. Pretty impressive!
Jeremy is coming back for 2011, and we caught up with him to get his thoughts on race cars vs. street cars, why driving is the best way to tune a car and what new 341 drivers should expect from the Virginia City hill.
What do you do (day job)? For the last 3-4 years, I’ve been working on cars, specializing in mainly Evos, doing everything from regular maintenance to track prepping and performance part installs (clutchs,cams,turbos etc). Along with mechanical work, I also tune Evos, Subarus, Nissans and the occasional unusual project. I’m currently helping (fellow 341 participant) Adam Auerbach tune his GMC Syclone to run on E85. I specialize in tuning stock ECUs.
Have you always liked cars? I’ve been working on cars since I was a teenager. I originally was in to stereo systems and lowriders, but it wasn’t terribly fulfilling, and the first time I saw Rally racing on Speed TV, I knew that was a direction I wanted to go in. Seeing those 4-wheel drive 4-cylinder Turbo cars was exciting, those cars are insane!
How long have you had the Evo? I bought the Evo new in 06 after getting frustrated with my previous project. I had learned a lot about tuning on a pretty extreme Subaru build, which, like many projects, had gotten way out of hand. It had a full turbo kit and a programmable ECU and at that time in Reno, you couldn’t just throw it on the dyno at a local shop and get a good tune. I had to teach myself, and mostly by ear. Try something, drive it, if it rattles, back it down…it wasn’t the best way to build a car and it was especially difficult to get all those aftermarket parts to work together properly. I got tired of blowing it up and rebuilding it, and I had read that the 2006 Evo offered a fully programmable stock ECU, which I found intriguing.
What are some of the modifications from stock? The Evo is such a good, solid platform that you can do great things just by refining and blueprinting the stock package. I felt like people rarely drove or tuned these cars to their potential. The motor has never even been out of my car. It has upgraded Alcon brakes and KW coilover suspension and I did change the cams and springs but the turbo is stock, and on these cars, the turbo is really the powerplant. I wanted to see how far I could take it with the stock turbo. It’s actually pretty amazing, even in mostly stock trim, the car is fast enough to scare me.
I did change the seats to racing seats, trying to stay in the seat during a turn by holding on to the steering wheel isn’t how you want to race!
What was the first competitive driving you ever did? I’ve only been driving on a track for maybe four or five years. I started out by going to the drag strip with guys to help tune their cars, and then a friend took me to Reno Fernley Raceway. There I was, on the track in the Evo, hanging with trailered Porsches and I knew that I wanted to keep doing that kind of driving.
Driving on a track is so different from driving on the street. Even the most aggressive street driving is only maybe 75% of what you can do on a track. On the street, in the back of your mind, there’s always the concern of cross traffic, of speed limits…on the street you always have to think, “How am I going to save it?” And the thing is, you can’t.
Racing a closed course allows you to clear your head of normal thoughts and 341 is even more fun than a racetrack.
Why did you run the 341 Challenge in 2010? I believe that it’s really important for people in the car community to support racetracks and race events, so when I saw on the forums that someone was doing another race on Hwy 341, I wanted to make sure I did my part to support it. Also, the entry fee is incredibly cheap for that much track time.
What did you think about the event last year? I ran the Ferrari club hill climb early in 2010 and it was really fun. Racing the Spectre 341 was interesting because it was a first time race and because of the other participants. Racing with Lou (Gigliotti) and Steve Millen was cool. You can’t bench race it. You can’t practice. Driving up at 45 mph in one lane is totally different than driving the same road at speed. I genuinely had no idea how I’d do against those guys, and really, neither did they. It was the first time for them too.
Why do you want to return to 341 this year? This kind of racing is the best ever. After a few runs, you blank out the cliffs and it’s all about the actual road and corners. Each corner flows, compared to the race tracks I’ve been on. There’s no slow corners, no bumps.
From what I’ve heard, racing Hwy 341 was almost a cult in the old days and that makes sense, it’s really really fun, it lets you test your memory, your driving skill, your tuning skills. It’s just a perfect test of driver and machinery.
Do you have any recommendations for the new entrants this year? Make sure your car is fully functional and reliable before you get to the hill. It could ruin your day if you waste your runs due to mechanical problems. If it isn’t mechanically sound, you can’t tune it, and if it isn’t tuned, you can’t drive it.
Go to have fun, let go of all your expectations and just see what it’s all about. Don’t go to compete with anyone else. It’s all about you and your car. Look at yourself, see how you can better your own driving. The cars are all too different to compete with. Don’t let someone else push you off the cliff!
Any last thoughts for readers? This is what I like doing. I just want to see what my car can do. Racing shows you where you’ve cut corners in the build, and I want to do things right. Road racing makes you a consistent driver, and it reminds you to keep all the fasteners tight. My advice to new racers: Use a torque wrench.
What’s the best way to tell which street car is the fastest?
You can subject it to the very basic metrics of 0 – 60, 1/4 mile and drive it in a big circle. But all that gets you is a car that goes 0 – 60 quickly, runs the 1/4 mile swiftly and goes fast in a circle. Who drives their car like that every day? On the street?
The next step is to put it on a track and get a lap time. Maybe compare it to other cars and see which gets the fastest lap time. The thing is, a track is designed to be a safe place to drive fast. There are drive-off areas, specially designed guardrails, track camber angled to help the car through the turn and it’s usually level. Some tracks have a little hill and boy does that feature make them special.
Inevitably, when you see or read these tests they always include a road section – if it’s a magazine test, the editors usually find some nice twisty back road near the track, and they drive the cars there.
Then, when the results come out, the “winner” is often times not the car with the fastest 0 – 60, 1/4 mile, lateral -g or even lap time. Then angry letters from readers ensue. They all want to know one thing:
Why?
Why didn’t the fastest car win? Usually the editors not so diplomatically reply along the lines of: “Because it’s a piece of crap. It didn’t make us feel good when driving it – there was a lack of confidence….” and so on. And so far, that hasn’t satisfied anyone.
So then, how can you determine a way to find out what the fastest street car is?
The Europeans have a solution. It’s called The Nürburgring.
It’s where car companies test their cars. It’s a road with a timing system. It involves sections where the driver has to feel fully confident in the capabilities of the car, and how it communicates with the driver, how it responds to driver input, because………. well……………there’s no other way to say it – you could die. They lose about one a week at the ‘Ring.
And that is why the car companies test there, even the manufacturers from the USA and Japan. That’s a long way to go to drive a car – but, it’s been the only place where you could test for the intangibles. Until now!
Introdücing The Nürburgring of Nüvada: The Spectre 341 Challenge. This is the place you find out how fast your street car really is. Not how fast it does 0 – 60 or the 1/4 mile – for that you could go to a Wednesday night test and tune session at you local drag strip, or you could sign up for one of many lapping sessions at the road course nearest you but all that will tell you is how fast your car is at a track, not on the street.
The Spectre 341 Challenge is for all intents and purposes, legal street racing with a timing system.
This is where you test your car for things there are no metrics for: The intangibles. Those ethereal and spectral flavors and traits of a car that can make it special……. or a piece of crap.
Hey, given enough time and money anyone can build a car to go fast on a track. So what? Real roads don’t look or drive like race tracks. This is a real road. This place has real consequences. The Spectre 341 Challenge answers the question: What is the fastest street car? Is it yours?
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?
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.
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.
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!
Vegas native Dean Smith gives Spectre Performance the run down on his 1952 Desoto. This is Dean’s rookie appearance at the Spectre 341 Challenge, however he is a veteran road racer, having driven in the La Carrera Panamericana six times. Enjoy the little tour around this gorgeous 1952 Desoto.
It’s been a crazy month here at Spectre Performance. We just wrapped up the Spectre 341 Challenge hill climb in Nevada two weeks ago, now we’re heading to Columbus for the GoodGuys Rod & Custom Nationals in Columbus this weekend! In the meantime we have one more video from the Midwest Muscle Car Challenge in Illinois and Indiana, so enjoy!
It has been a very busy summer so far for the Spectre team. A few weeks ago we attended the Midwest Muscle Car Challenge in both Indiana and Illinois, and had a blast flogging our green ‘70 Camaro on the autocross and road course. Then we did the Long Haul on the Hot Rod Power Tour, with company President Amir Rosenbaum driving our ‘70 El Camino with four more Spectre project vehicles in tow. Now we’re prepping for the 1st Spectre 341 Challenge hillclimb in Virginia City, Nevada, next weekend.
While we’re putting the final touches on our own Midwest Muscle Car Challenge video, the crew at Ride Tech did a fantastic job on their own video, so we thought we’d share it here. Nice work guys, and thanks for the great shots of our own Brandy Morrow in the Camaro!
We take our recently revamped 1970 Camaro to Indiana and Illinois for Autocross, Road Race and Speed Stop Challenge action.
You can tell car show season is in full swing – we just got back from an action packed weekend of muscle car racing in the midwest, and we leave again tomorrow for the 2010 Hot Rod Power Tour!
We spent Memorial Day Weekend at the Midwest Muscle Car Challenge, where we sponsored the Speed by Spectre Top Speed Challenge and competed with our 1970 Camaro SS. The first stop on our trip was to pick up the Camaro from our friends at RideTech in Jasper, Indiana on Friday and give it a little tune-up. We recently had Hotchkis Performance install its latest Total Vehicle System, then we had our own crew install a new set of Baer brakes, new lightweight forged Weld Wheels and most importantly a new set of Yokohama Advan Neova 180-treadware high performance tires. We had to patch up a few little issues on the rack, so our friend Greg Schneider was on site to help by fixing a hole in the exhaust with some custom welding.
After leaving RideTech, we caravanned to our hotel where we enjoyed a beautiful Indiana evening checking out cars and barbecuing with a few of the event sponsors and competitors in the parking lot of the Holiday Inn.
The first leg of the race on Saturday was held at beautiful Putnam Park Road Course in Greencastle, Indiana. Not only is the infield at Putnam nothing but rolling green hills as far as the eye can see, but the track staff was on top of their game making sure everything ran smoothly.
The Spectre team was involved in keeping track of fastest racers down the front straightaway as part of the Spectre Top Speed Challenge. The winner of Top Speed Challenge was Brian Finch in his amazing yellow 1970 Camaro with a top speed of 125 mph that he set on the second to last lap of the day. Brian has been destroying the competition in every event he enters lately, winning both the Run to the Coast and the Optima Faceoff leading up to this race.
After a day at the track we made our way with the rest of the participants on a 99 mile cruise to a park in Vincennes, Indiana to enjoy a rib feast in the park sponsored by Flowmaster. It was a great opportunity to chat with other event sponsors and get to know the diehard racers and pro-touring fans.
After a barbecue induced food coma, we woke up Sunday morning to head down the road to the RideTech Street Challenge autocross and the Baer Brakes Speed Stop Challenge at the Mid-American Air Center in Lawrenceville, Illinois. The autocross course was set up on an old WWII airfield and if you closed your eyes you could almost imagine that the rumbling V8s were warplanes instead of muscle cars.
There was quite a selection of cars on site with everything from Chevelles, Camaros, Tempests and even Greg in the Ride Tech C-10 Pickup. Competitors put the pedal to the metal at the Speed Stop Challenge and used every piston of those calipers to make their big muscle machines stop within the box.
The overall winner of the entire event was – you guessed it – Brian Finch, who took home the overall trophy and a certificate for a Spectre ProFab Intake. Our own Camaro ran really well, and our friend Robert McGaffin – who shoots photos for magazines like Popular Hot Rodding and Camaro Performers – spent a lot of time in the car doing hot laps and having a great time learning how to throttle-induce oversteer to power the green 2nd gen around the course. Overall, the race was a success and everyone had a blast pushing their vehicles to the limit.
We’ll have video from the race soon. In the meantime, look for the new Spectre rig on Power Tour 2010! You can get the directions here.
