Posts Tagged ‘el camino’
Foggy Mountain, No Breakdown: Bill Howell’s Run Through the Hills
Monday, September 26th, 2011Good Guys Speedway Nats
Monday, September 19th, 2011Holley LS Fest 2011: A Little Too Much Engine Excitement
Monday, September 12th, 2011Power Tour 2011 : Allow Me to Introduce Myself
Wednesday, June 8th, 2011We realize that in all the rush and excitement of setting up the truck and tearing it down and driving through the country and watching drag racing and eating at Cracker Barrel, we’ve forgotten our manners.
You are all probably wondering when we’ll get around to introducing the key players in this crazy adventure. You know, the main stars without whom, none of this would be possible. Well, we apologize for the wait. In no particular order, please meet…the Spectre Power Tour Cars:
The 70 Maverick – Many of you have seen this car on Speedhunters. com or at other Spectre events. The Maverick being on Power Tour has a special importance, as it was here that its original engine met a nitrous fueled demise, leading to a contest as to its rebuild.
The coolest submission was the suggestion to repower the little Ford with a 2JZ toyota supra engine, and that suggestion came from none other than Lance Peltier, who is currently piloting the car on this tour.
All the Spectre cars are fitted with Spectre air intakes, and the Maverick has custom aluminum door panels and spoilers as well as custom turbo fittings. It’s a really unusual car, and probably one of the most talked about in the Spectre fleet.
The Black ‘07 Shelby Mustang -One of the newer cars in the fleet, the Mustang is still basically stock but for a trial intake set-up. It’s being used for developing carbon fiber cold air intakes and front and rear spoilers. Keep an eye out for the quick pony at the Spectre 341 Challenge next weekend.
The Green Camaro - Our green 2nd gen is barely referred to as a ‘71 or any other description, it’s always the “Green Camaro”. One of the oldest active Spectre project cars, the Green Camaro was originally raced by Cam Douglas from Optima . He won silverstate in it and after Amir purchased it, it became one of the first cars to be campaigned at track events under the Spectre banner.
The ‘99 F250 – The only automatic in the whole Spectre stable, the Ford was purchased new as personal truck, because Amir was intrigued by the Supercharged V10. Rumor has it that this truck came in to the Rosenbaum’s family at the same time as Amir’s youngest son — and that Amir actually took a little time-out from being a labor coach to go pick it up.
The truck has been a great support and camera vehicle on this trip, as it hauls the luggage as well as just plain hauling …
The ‘05 GTO – When the GTO first became available, Amir thought it was cool, and looking at it now, it really was one of the first of the new options for modern muscle cars. Originally yellow, the Pontiac is now Spectre Signature black and the 6-liter V8 makes the perfect place to test the Spectre G8/GTO V2 intake. Other modifications include the accu-aire air bag suspension, and of course, those radical fender flares and spoilers.
The 70 1/2 Carbon Camaro -Unofficially known as “Brandy’s car” (but only by Brandy), the Carbon Camaro debuted at SEMA 2010 to extremely positive reviews. Amir wanted to the car to “look like a race car” and of course, at Spectre, we never fake it, so the car performs like a race car too. At the time of this writing, Brandy has just put the Camaro in the Good Guys winner’s circle in Colorado and she, Mike and Lisa are hoofing it across the country to meet us in Nashville . The Camaro features Anvil carbon fenders front clip and hood, an LS1 out of a 99 Trans-Am and its overall appearence is based on a mid 70’s IROC car. For more details on the Camaro check out the August 2011 issue of Hot Rod Magazine.
The ‘70 Mach 1 – Last year the blue Mustang was the primary race vehicle for Spectre events. Powered by a 351 Cleveland stroked to 408 and set up with all the Spectre aero, engine and interior products the car has a very personal importance to Amir as it was purchased from the original owner, and despite the radical Spectre modifications, it maintains some of that original feel.
The 2011 Cadillac CTSV wagon – The Caddy is the newest Spectre project. Those of you who have followed our Bonneville racing already know that Amir has a fondness for high powered Cadillac motors. You’ll also know that no new car is safe from improvement in the hands of the Spectre crew. The Cad has been deemed too chunky and is on a radical weight loss plan. To learn more about project FatCad, head over to BangShift.com.
The ‘70 El Camino – The El Camino is a mid-engine LS7 built by So Cal Speed Shop for a Hard Shine TV project. This is probably one of the most famous Spectre cars, and it certainly attracts a lot of attention going down the road and parked in front of our booth.
For more shots of the Spectre cars in action, scroll through the gallery below.
Hot Rod Power Tour 2011 – Valdosta, GA
Sunday, June 5th, 2011If there could be anything wrong with a week-long cruise across the country with daily car shows featuring thousands of muscle cars, hot rods, race cars, and custom builds, it would only be that there is too much good stuff to do and see.
This morning started with a dilemma. The first leg of Power Tour would take us from Cocoa Beach to Valdosta, Georgia. The big question was, “Do we go to the official kick-off and driver’s meeting at the Kennedy Space Center, followed by a chance to see the shuttle launch area, or do we take a detour and head for the Don Garlits Museum of Drag Racing in Ocala, FL?”
Big Daddy won and we all hopped in the cars and hit the road. The first scenic stop on our drive was a gas station, a stop which will be repeated many times before the week ends. Somehow, even a chore like stopping for gas is sort of fun when the whole gas station is wall to wall muscle cars.
The drive to the Garlits Museum was lovely and uneventful. We saw some fellow PT participants on the road, and just generally took the time to get used to caravanning and enjoy the feel of being on the road.
The Museum itself is so fantastic that it will need a post all its own, so stay tuned for a full gallery of photos from inside. This is a must see stop for any race fan.
We left the museum a little before lunch, and immedietely hit a snarl of traffic. Luckily, our good friend Lance was in the lead and he boldy piloted the Maverick on a successful detour and we all made it safely to our lunch stop.
Lunch went long and it was a mad dash the last 120 miles to South Georgia Motor Speedway. One great thing about Power Tour is if you become separated from your lead car, you can pretty much follow any muscle car on the road and end up in the right place.
We were greeted at the Speedway by the sounds of 1/4 mile passes as participants took their cars down the dragstrip for fun and glory. The track looked tempting, but so did the show car field and the vendor displays. Once again, just too much to choose from!
Tomorrow we take the back roads and end up in Montgomery, Alabama. Stay tuned, and tell what you’d like to see covered here, or on our Facebook page.
If you’d like to see more from Power Tour, check out the excellent coverage on the Hot Rod Magazine Blogs.
Media Kick-off: The 2011 MPMC Conference
Sunday, February 6th, 2011At Spectre, we work closely with the Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA) as well as with the automotive media. We were able to catch up with both industry and editors at the 2011 MPMC Conference in El Segundo.
MPMC stands for Motorsports Parts Manufacturers Council, and they are an amazing group of people who work tirelessly to arrange time for manufacturers and journalists to meet and talk about project cars and new products without the distracting background of the SEMA show. We’ve attended the conference since 2007 and find it extremely valuable.
As always, our marketing genius, Brandy, transformed our hotel room into a complete showroom experience. The display featured some of the new 2011 Spectre parts, the Streamliner at Bonneville and photos from the Spectre 341 Challenge. Did you know an upside-down hotel couch makes an excellent product display when covered with black cloth?
During the conference, we sat in our decorated hotel suite and had meetings with automotive magazine editors, filmmakers, freelancers, TV shows, and websites. It’s fun to hear all about people’s project cars and trucks, and to tell them about our upcoming events and products.
The Spectre 341 Challenge was a popular topic during all of our meetings. Most people we spoke to either wanted to come out to the event themselves, or knew of someone they planned to invite. It’s going to be an amazing race this year.
Every year there is an afterparty mid-week. Last year we hosted at the Spectre facility but this year Source Interlink Publishing (SORC) held an open house at their new offices and workspace in El Segundo. It was a great night. Their workshop is very cool, and they had many of the legends of publishing and motorsports signing the latest SORC book, HOT ROD Magazine: All the Covers, with the profits going to charity.
SORC also invited us to display the SpeedLiner in the massive white photo bay. Amir came out and had such a good time he didn’t leave until early the next morning!
Overall, it was a very worthwhile week, and we are looking forward to getting all our magazine subscriptions this year. We know there are going to be some great stories.
SEMA 2010 Booth Tour
Wednesday, November 17th, 2010We could tell you that this video features shots of the F40, the Speedliner, the Carbon Camaro and all our new products, but we’ll just let Amir take over:
HOLLEY LS FEST: Saturday – Gettin’ Serious
Tuesday, September 14th, 2010Saturday 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.
HOLLEY LS FEST: Friday – Hairpins and Puddles
Monday, September 13th, 2010The Inaugural Holley LS Fest in Bowling Green Kentucky should have been non-stop auto action. After all, this celebration of all LS powered vehicles has participants spending three days competing for the grand championship through a series of events including drag race, autocross, 0-60-0 speed stop challenge, show-n-shine and a scavenger hunt cruise. On Friday morning however, the only thing that was thundering on the track was the rain. It was pouring!
Everyone was sure the day would (literally) be a wash-out, but after RideTech tested the course and a couple changes were made, the autocross course was finally opened late in the afternoon. The course was soaked, with enormous puddles everywhere.
We were all surprised they were going to let us run the course since it was still sprinkling, and at first the action was nuts. Our fearless driver Brandy Morrow was in the El Camino and initial runs were on the wild side. She wasn’t the only one all over the course, drivers were spinning out, going sideways, it was quite a show.
Brandy’s first reports on the El Camino were concerns about how the rear kept coming loose. Even a small application of the gas pedal sent the car sideways. Never afraid of a challenge, and with the help of co-driver Mike Morrow, Brandy got used to the wet weather handling and started drifting the course, letting the back end come around on the tight corners.
Even dry, the course was one of the more challenging configurations we’ve come across this year. Many of the competitors struggled at first. There were a lot of DNF’s the first couple times (including Brandy). Rather than making a complete run through the course one way, this course required drivers to complete a 360 degree turn, only to go back the same way, retracing the route, and exiting through the finish line. It was a quick course, with times in the low minute range once the water dried up. The tight turns and the giant puddles made it popular with the photographers, if not with the drivers!
After toweling off, competitors jumped back in their cars for the cruise and scavenger hunt. Each participant had to drive around the town looking for items on their checklist and taking pictures of the items as they found them. The weather forecast looked promising for Sat so we crossed our fingers and looked forward to morning.
GoodGuys Del Mar Event Video
Tuesday, April 13th, 2010We just got back from the 10th Annual GoodGuys Del Mar Nationals, and had a fantastic time with the Spectre El Camino in the autocross. We’ll kick off our event coverage with a recap video, but stay tuned for a full photo gallery, on-site interviews and more!