Posts Tagged ‘goodguys’
Goodguys Pleasanton – Nov 2011
Monday, November 14th, 2011SPECTRE PERFORMANCE WINS GOODGUYS NATS
Monday, July 11th, 2011Spectre 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.
Spring in the Desert: Good Guys Spring Nationals in Scottsdale
Monday, March 14th, 2011Although 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?
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.
Pleasant Days in Pleasanton
Wednesday, November 17th, 2010As 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.
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!