Posts Tagged ‘Autocross’
Wednesday, October 26th, 2011
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.
Tags: Autocross, Chevelles, Good Guys, Sam Farrington, SPI
Posted in Autocross, Carbon Camaro, Customer Profile, Good Guys, Muscle Cars | No Comments »
Monday, September 26th, 2011
Tags: Autocross, BBQ, Bill Howell, drag racing, el camino, Pigeon Forge, racing, Run Through the Hills
Posted in Autocross, El Camino, Events, Muscle Cars, Photography | No Comments »
Monday, September 12th, 2011
Tags: 5th gen, Autocross, Brandy, Camaro, Dragracing, el camino, Filters, GM, Holley, LS FEST
Posted in Autocross, Carbon Camaro, Events, Muscle Cars, Product Install, new products | 2 Comments »
Monday, September 5th, 2011
Tags: 48 Hour Camaro, Autocross, Brandy, Carbon Camaro, DSE, Midwest Musclecar Challenge
Posted in Autocross, Carbon Camaro, Events, Muscle Cars, Road Racing | No Comments »
Tuesday, August 16th, 2011
As the summer winds down, the racing heats up at the Good Guys shows. Spectre’s skilled hot shoe, Brandy Morrow has been on a winning streak, and we decided to let her relive the drama of her victory at Good Guys Chicagoland Nationals:
“Ryan Matthews from DSE brought intense competition to the table while driving the DSE 1963 Nova Friday and Saturday. He and I played a game of cat and mouse for two straight days. As I pulled ahead a tenth of a second, Ryan would catch up and bump me down to second place. Next round I would come back and knock him down pulling ahead another tenth of a second. This game went on for multiples laps- finally resulting in Trent from Goodguys (the coordinator of the autocross) refusing to update the score board until the end of the day for Ryan and my scores.
Phil Gerber from the Roadster Shop was a close third while driving Chris and Linda’s 1966 Chevelle. The chevelle has given everyone quite a run for their money including myself. Chris, who took first in the Street Machine class, is one phenomenal driver and is only getting better each time he comes out to an autocross event. It was also nice to see his wife Linda who was racing her Chevelle out there improving on her own times and having fun.
Saturday afternoon called for big storms. I was able to stay in first throughout the day, though Ryan ran his fastest run Saturday falling just 9/100’s of a second behind my quickest time. We would like to thank Ryan and all of DSE team for all their support for the Spectre team. If Ryan had beaten me it would have been a well deserved win, but luckily I was able to stay ahead of him by that nine-hundredths of a second. Ryan and I both agreed that the next autocross is always a new day with new competition. He is a fantastic role model to watch and learn from. Ryan has been great help throughout the year offering advice and making sure I am doing all right throughout the day. In a way it’s like having a big brother out there. He wants to help me but also wants to kick my butt! Haha.”
Congrats on holding the victory, Brandy! We’re proud of you!
Tags: Autocross, Brandy, Good Guys, Winning
Posted in Autocross, Carbon Camaro, Events, Good Guys, Muscle Cars | No Comments »
Sunday, August 14th, 2011
Brandy has been a killer on the autocross track this summer, taking win after win in the Spectre “Carbon Camaro”.
Spectre may have a “take no prisoners” attitude on the track, but we’re still going to shows to make friends, and Joliet, IL was no exception. Despite a dire weather forecast, we met up with some old friends and made some new ones at the Chicagoland Nationals.
Our show weekend started out with the now traditional Good Guys vendor karting challenge Thursday night before the show. We’d like to congratulate Keith Mac Donald from Detroit Speed for winning the Vendor Karting race Thursday night. This time, Keith took first with Ed Capen from Goodguys taking a close second. Nice Job Keith!!!
Since Joliet is hometown to many vendors including Roadster Shop and Peak Performance, the autocross track was packed. Vendors including RideTech, DSE, Gateway Classic Mustangs, RPM, Roadster Shop, Heidt’s, and many more all showing and competing. Brandy certainly had her work cut out for her on the track!
Keeping the Carbon Camaro company on the autocross course this weekend was RPM’s “Runt,” which is a 1962 Chevy Nova custom build. RPM built the car for Gerry Kerna. Curt and his crew had done some testing with “The Runt” before coming to Chicagoland Speedway, but this would be the car’s first official full weekend on a Goodguys’ autocross track. Curt ran the car Friday and Saturday, working out all the kinks and seeing how it would handle around the tight corners of the autocross. Gerry ran the car Sunday for her first official Goodguys autocross. Gerry was an autocross newbie, but she had a great line on the course and did very well. Gerry will be some great competition in the very near future.
On Sunday, Goodguys opened the car show to all American cars. We had several Camaros, a couple of Mustangs and an 1993 Nissan 240sz with an LS swap and slicks. It was good to see all years allowed into the show.
In the Spectre booth we had one of our customers, Rich Bryant, with his ’65 Chevelle featuring a Spectre Make/ Model Specific Bolt on cold air intake. The car a great addition to our booth and it received a lot of attention. Big thanks to Rich for displaying in the Spectre Booth.
At the end of the weekend came awards. Throughout the weekend Curt Ukasik, owner of RPM Hot Rods, had his daughter out at the show. Ashley rode as passenger while Curt drove the Runt around the autocross track. She also made a great motivational coach, cheering her dad and Gerry on along with all the other autocross competitors. At the end of the weekend, Brandy asked Ashley if she would help present awards. Ashley did a fantastic job, helping carry awards to the participants and even presenting Brandy with the 1st place Vendor at the Autocross. Ashley is a fantastic kid who we all hope to see behind the wheel alongside the rest of us someday. She has 8 more years before she gets her driver’s license and then she has to convince her father to build her a car. The second one shouldn’t be too hard, right?
Tags: Autocross, Chevelles, Filters, Good Guys, Hot Rods, Winning
Posted in Autocross, Carbon Camaro, Customer Appreciation, Events, Good Guys, Muscle Cars, Photography | No Comments »
Monday, July 11th, 2011
Spectre Performance won twice at the Goodgduys Rod & Custom Nationals in Columbus, Ohio, on July 9th. The first victory came when Spectre marketing team member and company hot shoe Brandy Morrow drove the 1970 Carbon Camaro to a 1st place finish in the Street Challenge Autocross Vendor class, her second event win and first victory at the nationals.
The large black Speed by Spectre big rig with an x-ray image of the 400+mph Spectre SpeedLiner is a common site at Goodguys shows around the country, where team members show off the latest in high-performance air filters and cold air intake systems, as well as testing new products in a variety of Spectre project cars. The latest is the Carbon Camaro, a 1970 model with IMSA-style fender flares and massive Forgeline wheels. The car made its debut at the 2010 SEMA Show and has since been flogged mercilessly at autocross and road race events around the country. Morrow’s first victory in the car came at the Goodguys Colorado Nationals in early June.
Competition in the Vendor class at the Nationals was fierce, as drivers readied themselves for the sponsor shootout the following day. Morrow competed against Detroit Speed & Engineering’s brutally fast 1970 Camaro, the Optima 1967 “One Lap” Camaro, Ride Tech’s “48 Hour” 1st Gen Camaro and Mary Pozzi’s freshly rebuilt 1972 RS Camaro – all of which also run Spectre cold air intakes.
Wet weather on Friday cut in to practice time and many competitors were struggling on the big rough-asphalt course, but Brandy took the wide-body Camaro on a flawless run, netting a 32.622 and cinching 1st place in Saturday’s eliminations. This was a big win for Morrow and for the Spectre intake-equipped “Carbon Camaro” as the competition was close all weekend long.
Speed by Spectre’s winning weekend didn’t end with Brandy’s Autocross victory. The company was also honored to receive the coveted Good Guys “New Product of the Year” award for their new aluminum Cowl Air Box setup. Spectre would like to congratulate Brandy and all of the Good Guys awards winners in Columbus and the whole team is looking forward to the rest of the show season and additional competition.
Tags: air filter, Autocross, Brandy, car show, Filters, Good Guys, goodguys, intake, Muscle Cars, new products, racing, winner, Winning
Posted in Autocross, Carbon Camaro, Events, Good Guys, Muscle Cars, new products | No Comments »
Friday, March 25th, 2011
Everyone knows that Texas is bigger than life. We arrived in Ft. Worth with big expectations for the show. We set up on Thursday while fighting some Texas-sized windstorms. If it wasn’t for our friends over at the Hotchkis Sport Suspension who rushed over to help Brandy and Lisa with the awning, we might still be searching for them out in the Texas landscape.
Luckily, we got all set up without losing anyone and had a quick glance at the autocross, which was unlike the usual peanut shaped course. This course would be on average a high 30 second to one- minute course depending on the driver, but had a couple more turns including a quick 90 degree lefthander that came right after a fast speed right sweeper. Little did the competitors know that the quick 90 degree lefthander would ruin many a fast lap because of the speed they would be carrying into that turn after the big sweeper, but we didn’t have that fun until Friday.
We were greeted on Friday by some familiar, but unexpected, faces. Not only did Brian Finch and Albert bring their cars out (after attending the El Toro Run To The Coast Event only weeks before), but Rob Macgregor brought out his no limits truck and John Hotchkis and Rob Phillips came out with the ’69 Chevy C10 to run in Vendor class for team Hotchkis.
The booth traffic was light, so Brandy and Steve headed over to the autocross course where Jason from Gateway Mustangs, both DSE cars, and Rob Phillips’ C-10 were all parked and waiting to run. After some tire pressure and suspension adjustment, with help from John Hotchkis, Brandy was surprised to find herself right at the top, running neck and neck with the other vendors. By the end of the day, the Spectre Carbon Camaro was in the top three! Could Brandy keep it there? We’d find out on Saturday.
Saturday came quickly, probably because we were all so excited about Brandy’s excellent autocross performance. The morning went well and Brandy was in the running for 2nd place while back at the booth, Guy Smith was building custom intakes and answering tech questions.
On the last run of the day, fellow enthusiast, Brian Finch hopped in the car with Brandy and coached her through the run to claim 2nd place, an amazing finish against some really tough competitors!
With no autocross on Sunday, the Spectre team caught up with some of their favorite customers. There were tons of Spectre equipped cars in the crowd, from Carson Collvins ‘41 Chevy Ratrod to Ted Parrish in his ‘56 Safari . Spectre friends Ed & Sue Cullen with their ‘40 Ford DLX and Tim Chesney with his ‘65 Mustang Fastback brought their cars out just to park in the Spectre Booth for the whole weekend. They were very kind and definitely helped promote our product with their Spectre Intakes.
Guy finished up the installs, including one on Jerry Watson’s ‘69 Nova . We did an install in October on one of Jerry’s other cars and he was so impressed he came back with the Nova to get another Spectre Intake installed.
We’ll offer some more detailed looks at some of the customer cars in our “New Products” blog, so make sure you check that out!
Tags: Autocross, Brandy, Good Guys, Texas, Winning
Posted in Autocross, Carbon Camaro, Events, Good Guys, Muscle Cars | No Comments »
Monday, March 14th, 2011
Although the folks in the East might disagree, for us on the west coast, winter has flown by, and we couldn’t believe it when we realized it was time for the Good Guys Season opener in Scottsdale, AZ.
Scottsdale always brings some unique cars that we don’t see anywhere else. Some of our favorites this year were Volkswagens and included a custom VW Bug made to look like a toy car, and a group of VW buses that all park together every year. Is it 1968?
The weather for the show was perfect all weekend long, and Friday was busy, with hot rods, street rods, muscle cars and classics all lined outside the entrance eager to claim their spot before heading to the vendor midway and check out the autocross. It was great to see such a big car count at what is a relatively new show on the Good Guys circuit.
We were set up in our usual spot near the back of the vendor midway next to PPG, Baer Brakes and Peak. We had a very special booth car for our demo install, Tim Kelly’s ‘67 El 442. No, that’s not a typo, it really is an El Camino/442. Definitely a one of one set up! Needless to say, the El 442 saw a lot of attention.
We love all the Good Guys events, but Brandy especially likes the stops which involve autocross, and the Arizona show started the autocross bright and early on Friday morning. Spectre’s Carbon Camaro was one of three official vendor cars, but there were lots of good friends running Spectre parts in other classes.
Despite vendor “competition” we’ve actually found the autocross to be a great place to work closely with other manufacturers. In Scottsdale, John Hotchkis, head of pro-touring suspension company, Hotchkis Performance teamed up with Brandy to work out the suspension tuning on the black Camaro.
This isn’t to say there was no competitive feeling in the crowd, Brandy was pretty thrilled to be just 8/10 of a second behind Brett Voelkel in the Ride Tech entry for a second place finish!
On Saturday, Brandy gave rides to lots of show goers, including Nicole Shumate, whose father Bill was running one of the most unusual entries in the autocross!
Nicole and her dad are building a Camaro, and she was really interested in learning about autocross. Nicole hopes to have her car done by next year so she can come out and start running the autocross. We certainly support that, and can’t wait to see Nicole and her friends on the track.
Sunday came quick and it was time to pack up. Brandy helped hand out awards and then it was off to Fort Worth, Texas. Will it be a TEXAS sized show?
Tags: air filter, Autocross, booth, car show, Good Guys, goodguys, Hot Rod, intake, Muscle Cars, new products, racing, Spectre Performance, winner
Posted in Autocross, Carbon Camaro, Customer Appreciation, Events, Good Guys, Muscle Cars, Product Install | No Comments »
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.
Tags: Autocross, cone killers, Muscle Cars, racing, Run to the Coast
Posted in Autocross, Carbon Camaro, Events, Muscle Cars, Photography, Road Racing, Spectre Cars | No Comments »
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!
Tags: air filter, Autocross, car show, do-it yourself, Dukes of Hazzard, Hot Rod, install, intake, Muscle Cars, new products, racing, Spectre 341 Challenge, Spectre Performance
Posted in '70 Maverick, Autocross, Carbon Camaro, Events, Muscle Cars, Photography, Spectre Cars, new products | No Comments »
Monday, November 29th, 2010
As we’ve mentioned before, the best thing about traveling the country exhibiting at car shows isn’t the scenery, or the road food, or even the racing, it’s getting to meet up with Spectre customers and see the project cars they build with our products.
At LS Fest in Bowling Green this past Spetember, we ran in to Jaime Kook and his wife, who came down from Canada with their olive green ’68 Chevelle.
We met Jaime on Power Tour 2009 while installing an intake on his car. Since then we’ve kept in touch and when he comes out to shows we are attending, we are honored that he parks his car in the Spectre booth.
Jaime’s original intake was quite a project. Spectre tech Guy Smith mocked up the intake without the car, hoping it would clear his hood. After playing around with a couple of different degree bends, Guy completed the kit with two Spectre inline filters and it fit perfectly!
Since the install, Jaime had the intake powder coated flat black and the car repainted (originally it was silver- now it’s a hip flat green). The Kooks next project is a car for Jaime’s wife so she can have her own wheels for Power Tour 2011!
Tags: air filter, Autocross, car show, do-it yourself, install, intake, Muscle Cars
Posted in Autocross, Customer Appreciation, Customer Profile, Muscle Cars, Photography, Product Install | 2 Comments »
Wednesday, November 17th, 2010
As we’ve mentioned before, Pleasanton, CA is close to home for many of the Spectre team, including our fearless leader, Amir Rosenbaum.
The Autumn Get Together was very well attended, partially because it is one of the few Good Guys events which allows late model American cars as well as classics.
We had our hands full at the booth fielding questions from diverse groups of truck, Lowrider and modern muscle car owners.
The plan was to run the Maverick in the weekend autocross, but the busy booth meant that the Spectre autocross team spent most of Saturday answering tech rather than running through the cones. It was probably for the best, as Thursday’s test runs had brought up a couple of tire rub issues.
Happily, we were well represented on the course by Mary Pozzi, Deanna Marengo and other skilled Spectre friends.
Brandy did get to run the track on Sunday in a “borrowed” 2010 Dodge Charger. It was a bit different from the normal Spectre rides, but it made a lot of noise and gave Brandy an appreciation for her well-sorted race car!
As always, we saw some great builds done using Spectre products, and did several installs in the booth. We were happy to host the Spectre winner of the Motorator.com Crew Chief Challenge during the show. As a runner up in the Motorator online tech contest, we gave Alex and his family passes to the show as well as a Spectre CAI for his ‘68 Mercury Cougar.
Amir and his family came out to join us in the booth and it quickly became clear that the young Rosenbaums take after their parents. After a quick morning introduction, 11-year old Adam Rosenbaum was talking to customers, explaining product details and selling parts. We’re going to have to bring him on the road with us!
The Pleasanton show was bitter-sweet, as it is one of the last shows of the year, but we won’t mope for long. 2011 looks to be our busiest show year yet! We can’t wait.
Tags: air filter, Amir, Autocross, booth, car show, Good Guys, goodguys, install, intake, Muscle Cars, new products, racing
Posted in Autocross, Events, Good Guys, Muscle Cars, Photography, Product Install, new products | No Comments »
Wednesday, September 15th, 2010
Sunday at LS Fest was a hot-rodders dream day. The weather was perfect, the sun was shining, it was warm and there was Autocross, Speed Stop Challenge, Top Speed Challenge and drag racing!
The booth was busy all day with spectators and customers. Brandy turned the driving duties over to Mike so she could talk filters and take photos.
There was a lot of action to photograph. There was a drift exhibition and tons of cool drag cars. Participants in the Speed Stop Challenge and Top Speed Challenge were starting to get pretty serious too. On Saturday, a lot of people stopped short; not knowing where the stop box started and when they needed to brake. The few that had competed in this event before started going the other way, getting a little too confident! Brian Finch proved that in his second gen yellow Camaro as he came up too quick on the stop box, went sideways and continued through the box only to complete a 180 deg spin and drive the remainder of the drag strip backwards.
By Sunday it was a whole different story. Everyone had caught up to speed and competition was fierce. Although Jeff Schwartz was unable to attend the event, he sent some of his guys out with two of their cars. Mike was really pushing Schwartz’s 1965 Pontiac Tempest on the Brake Stop Challenge. Even Holley had their truck on the course competing.
A lot of the participants were running Spectre components. Bret Voelkel of RideTech and Greg Schneider used a couple of Spectre tubes, a Spectre shield and a Spectre filter to create a custom true cold air intake on their ’66 Chevelle after completing an LS swap in the car. The filter shield was added to the filter to help block the mud and debris that was getting kicked up from the tire since the filter sits right in front of the passenger front tire.
Another Spectre customer had come to our booth and wanted to see if one of us could come to his car and see what he had done with our product. He was not racing, but had come for the car show portion of LS Fest. Unfortunately, we did not get his name, hopefully we’ll see him at another show. His custom intake was pretty innovative!
Awards came at the end of the day. Mark Stielow won the Spectre Top Speed Award with a top speed of 87 MPH. Brian Finch came in second. Mark Steilow also walked away as the overall winner. Since Mark had to leave early, Yancy Johns accepted both his awards. We can’t wait to see what the competition is like next year!
Major props to Holley and FM3 Marketing for organizing and promoting the event. We were all really impressed with the magazine and television coverage. Next year will probably be bigger with ten times more participants. We are really looking forward to next year, hopefully we’ll be featuring our rebuilt LS powered 2nd gen “Carbon Camaro”.
Tags: Autocross, car show, Muscle Cars, racing
Posted in Autocross, Events, Muscle Cars, Photography, Product Install | No Comments »
Tuesday, September 14th, 2010
Saturday started out perfectly. There were scattered showers on the forecast, but the morning was dry and competition on the autocross was serious. There were way more competitors than the day before, lined up and ready to run. The SCCA Autocross chapter that helped run the autocross was extremely helpful. The main instructor, and course designer, was busy the entire day jumping in and out of cars, giving people tips. He had good advice, after his lessons, drivers were improving by a second or more! He even joined Brandy in the El Camino for one round to give some pointers on some of the decreasing radius turns on the course.
Brandy drove all morning, but it isn’t all racing and fun for the Spectre crew. We were there to work, and it was time for the Spectre Top Speed Challenge. This was the first event where we decided to tie in the Top Speed challenge with Baer Brakes SpeedStop Challenge and it went really well. although it did mean that we had no time to send a driver out to participate in the drag racing, or to watch the Engine Swap contest, which we heard was very cool!
Maybe it’s a good thing we weren’t able to make it on to the drag strip, Nick Licata, editor of Camaro Performers, broke his driveshaft while on the track mid afternoon! Everyone pulled together to get the car off the track safely. Some people might have called it a day, but Nick is a racer, and he had one goal, get back on the track! Nick was about to have a driveshaft shipped next day from California, but the car gods were friendly and he and fellow writer, Steve Rupp, found one locally.
One of the engineering/ mechanic schools that had competed in the Engine Swap contest offered to help Nick replace the driveshaft that night and everyone signed the broken driveshaft the next day as a little memory of the event.
One of the coolest things about LS Fest is how focused the participants are on racing, yet everyone pitched in and helped each other out. As we are becoming a familiar sight at so many events, the Spectre booth ends up being a hang-out for journalists and other racers. We opened the lounge in the truck for our media pals to store their equipment, parked cars under our awning, and sat around joking with everyone, telling stories and building memories.
It’s great to see folks like Bret and Greg from RideTech, Stacy from DSE, the crew from Holley, our own team and so many old friends. Some of the usual participants like Brian Finch and Yancy Johns came out with their cars as well. Brian Finch debuted his version two Spectre Cold air intake at the LS Fest. Brian already had a couple of our parts on the yellow Camaro, but was adding on to the kit to make it a true cold air intake. This was Yancy’s first event driving his 2010 camaro that he just got back from Steve Rupp and Camaro Performers. We hope to install an intake within the next month or so or do a custom kit on his car.
We had time to chat, because around 3pm the rain came back. It came down in buckets, but luckily only lasted a short time. By Sat evening the racing was back on, and we were able to see the
Prostock cars run for the first time. Very cool.
Tags: air filter, Autocross, car show, el camino, Muscle Cars, racing, Spectre Performance
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