Takata Tow Straps

Now available: Takata Racing tow straps in black or green. Will support a 4000 lbs vehicle.

$53 shipped in all 50 states. Contact us to order click here

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A Warning to All Ankles

Watch out when in pit lane!

(pic courtesy of Voltex Japan

General Zeod

Rough title, so what…

No, this video isn’t brand new. But for those who don’t have the time to stay up to date on all things Nissan, this is their entry for the 2014 LeMans race. All sorts of genuine JDM goodness in this car. This is the stuff to watch, because in 10 years, your Z car will probably have some of it’s DNA.

The List

It’s coming 🙂 Soon it will be June

Loving their new logo this year too

List courtesy of Crash.net. As always, who’s not on it is always just as interesting, perhaps more-so, than who is on it.

LM P1

Audi Sport Team Joest Audi R18 e-TRON Quattro Hybrid Lucas di Grassi
Audi Sport Team Joest Audi R18 e-TRON Quattro Hybrid Marce Fassler
Audi Sport Team Joest Audi R18 e-TRON Quattro Hybrid Filipe Albuquerque
Toyota Racing Toyota TS 040 Hybrid Alexander Wurz
Toyota Racing Toyota TS 040 Hybrid Anthony Davidson
Porsche Team Porsche 919 Hybrid Romain Dumas
Porsche Team Porsche 919 Hybrid Timo Bernhard
Lotus Lotus T129 AER Christijan Albers
Rebellion Racing Rebellion-Toyota R-One Nicolas Prost
Rebellion Racing Rebellion-Toyota R-One Mathias Beche

LM P2

Strakka Racing Dome Strakka S103 Nissan Nick Leventis
Millennium Racing Oreca 03 Nissan Fabien Giroix
Millennium Racing Oreca 03 Nissan Stefan Johansson
Sebastien Loeb Racing Oreca 03 Nissan Rene Rast
G Drive Racing Morgan Nissan Roman Rusinov
SMP Racing Oreca 03 Nissan Kirill Ladygin
OAK Racing – Team Asia Ligier JS P2 HPD David Cheng
Race Performance Oreca 03 Judd Michel Frey
OAK Racing Morgan Nissan Alex Brundle
Signatech Alpine Alpine A450 Nissan Paul-Loup Chatin
SMP Racing Oreca 03 Nissan Serge Zlobin
Jota Sport Zytek Z11SN Nissan Simon Dolan
Greaves Motorsport Zytek Z11SN Nissan Thomas Kimber-Smith
Newblood by Morand Racing Morgan Judd Christian Klien
Thiriet by TDS Racing Ligier JP S2 Pierre Thiriet
KCMG Oreca 03 Nissan Matthew Howson
Murphy Prototypes Oreca 03 Nissan Greg Murphy

LM GTE Pro

AF Corse Ferrari 458 Italia Gianmaria Bruni
RAM racing Ferrari 458 Italia Matt Griffin
AF Corse Ferrari 458 Italia Davide Rigon
Corvette Racing Chevrolet Corvette C7 Jan Magnussen
Corvette Racing Chevrolet Corvette C7 Oliver Gavin
Aston Martin Racing Aston Martin Vantage Bruno Senna
Porsche Team Manthey Porsche 911 RSR Patrick Pilet
Porsche Team Manthey Porsche 911 RSR Marco Holzer
SRT Motorsports Viper GTS-R Rob Bell
SRT Motorsports Viper GTS-R Jeroen Bleekemolen
Aston Martin Racing Aston Martin Vantage Darren Turner
Aston Martin Racing Aston Martin Vantage Stefan Mucke

LM GTE Am

Ram Racing Ferrari 458 Italia Johnny Mowlem
Team Sofrev ASP Ferrari 458 Italia Fabien Barthez
AF Corse Ferrari 458 Italia Peter Ashley Mann
AF Corse Ferrari 458 Italia Luis Perez Companc
AF Corse Ferrari 458 Italia Yannick Mallegol
IMSA Performance Matmut Porsche 911 GT3 RSR Erik Maris
SMP Racing Ferrari 458 Italia Andrea Bertolini
Prospeed Competition Porsche 911 GT3 RSR Francois Perrodo
Dempsey Racing Porsche 911 GT3 RSR Patrick Dempsey
AF Corse Ferrari 458 Italia Stephen Wyatt
Craft Racing Aston Martin Vantage Frank Yu
Proton Competition Porsche 911 GT3 RSR Christian Ried
8 Star Motorsports Ferrari 458 Italia Vicente Potolicchio
Aston Martin Racing Aston Martin Vantage Kristian Poulsen
Aston Martin Racing Aston Martin Vantage Richie Stanaway
Aston Martin Racing Aston Martin Vantage Paul Dalla Lana

Stance Will Make Her Dance

The song is ratchet and cheesy as hell, the car is anything but. The amazing Z belonging to a close friend and customer down south, basking in the final moments of sunlight at Barber Motorsport Park. Even though her heart is aching right now, she may live to race another day before going under the knife for surgery. Stay tuned

Red Bull Hopes to Turn the Heat Down

Testing time in Jerez didn’t go too well for Red Bull. For all the design genius of Adrian Newey, the team broke out the drills a few weeks ago just to scallop out the body work in hopes the car would just cool down. Temperatures were at an average high of 58F degrees, and an average low of 43F – hardly hot. But the heat was on in the Red Bull kitchen as everyone packed up and left early, with hardly any laps completed. You know Newey has been burning the midnight oil these past few weeks, figuring out a way to either 1. somehow get a Ferrari engine in the back of his otherwise stellar creation, or 2. figure out how the heck to get this engine to stay within temperature limits this time around. Temperatures predicted in Bahrain over the next few days will average a very spring like 69-70 ish F, and a low not much lower. Beautiful weather over there this time of year.

Of course, there is one more test session scheduled in Bahrain, at the end of the month. That’s it, over and done with. Then the first race is mid March in Australia – where temperatures will likely be similar to what it is in Bahrain. So who’s running hotter right now? The Red Bull engine, or Newey himself? No doubt he’s under a tremendous amount of pressure. Afterall, their star drivers can’t do much if the car isn’t fully functional. With that said, there is no doubt that Newey is perhaps the greatest F1 engineer in the series history. He has a knack for applying his Hawking-esque brain to the world of racing. While I’m a Tifosi a heart, I’m rooting for Newey, and I think he will figure it out. We all know the season is long, and literally everything can happen. Particularly with the new engines, not to mention all the new rules for this year.

White Snake

A dry sumped, 8.3 liter, pushrod’d overhead cam’d V10 behemoth, that doesn’t “even” have variable timing on the exhaust side. Yet still pumps out 680 hp and 640 ft lbs of naturally bad-ass-pirated goodness. Oh, and she weighs 2855 lbs, so she’s svelte given her size and power. She also has some of the sexiest lines ever penned on a race car. For the slammed-happy among us, she is properly “stanced” – but in a useful and effective way. And she revs as loudly as a woman scorned.

As far as I can tell, only 1 of these will be run at LeMans this year. Corvette will have a pair of the new C7.R. It will be interesting to see the 2 heavyweights duke it out, though disappointing that more American teams aren’t represented.

Click the first pic for an awesome HD desktop shot.

F1 Uncut

Saw this on several other blogs, but worthy of posting…it will make you laugh if you’re aware of what this season has in store

AP Racing Radi-Cal Big Brake Kits

We are now offering the full Radi-Cal big brake kit setups from AP Racing. This caliper design has raced successfully the world over, and is now optimized so that even a street car can take advantage of them. Some features that separate these setups from others, Firstly, these use a forged caliper, which are both lighter and stiffer than a typical cast caliper used in other big brake kits. One of the neatest aspects of these kits are they were designed to be user friendly. Not only are they a total bolt on, but from a servicing standpoint, they offer very quick and easy pad changes with the removable forged “H” brace at the top of the caliper. The caliper stays mounted to the car, and pads are quickly able to be swapped out.

The pistons are staggered hard anodized aluminum for equalized pad pressure, which in turn promotes better bite, more consistent brake torque, and the best pad wear possible. Dust seals are incorporated to ensure long life and minimal running costs.

The kits are all designed around OEM ABS and traction control systems as well, so no guesswork involved from a chassis setup standpoint. While many nowadays fit a big brake kit simple for their aesthetic value, AP has gone a long way to ensure these are both beautiful as well as the most durable calipers out there – they are both anodized and high temp painted, not just one or the other.

The disks used in these kits are directionally curve vane vented for maximum air flow through the disc. AP Racing’s unique curve vaned discs are Dyno and race proven as the best designed rotors for optimized cooling. The curve vane rotor acts an air pump pulling air into the center of the rotor and blowing it through the veins and out of the top of the rotor. This act allows the rotor to be self-cooling and work extremely efficiently.

AP Racing’s Wide Disc Technology (WDT) is used for the most efficient way to transfer heat to from the disc. Designs using wider discs with larger air gaps increase air flow rates within the discs as proven by AP Racing’s FEA, CFD and TSA testing. This goal was achieved while not increasing disc weight or disc stress and decreasing disc temperatures by up to 300 degrees F.

The disks are of course a 2 piece design, with anodized 6061 T-6 hats. That in and of itself isn’t necessarily “news”, but what is interesting is how they mount. These hats use 12 point mounting vs the 10 point that is more typically found. What’s more, these use floating hardware for the hat to disk which allows both components axial and radial movement. This allows each to cool quicker and more efficiently, while simultaneously allowing the disk to remain centered relative to the caliper. That feature then pays the user big dividends by significantly limiting pad knockback.

The disks also feature the J Hook slot design which increases frictional surface area across the rotor face but without being prone to cracking, like in a cross drilled rotor under extreme temperature swings. We can also offer the kits with a combination slotted/drilled rotor for those that prefer such a configuration.

The pads supplied are true dual purpose

The last piece to the puzzle is of course the brake lines. These can often be a weak link with other offshore kits, but not so with AP. They are made by Goodridge and feature fully extruded PTFE inner sections wrapped in a high strength stainless braid that is both corrosion and fire resistant. This is then all wrapped with a clear outer sleeve as well.

These kits are being offered initially for a wide range of vehicles including the Audi A4/S4 and A5/S5, BMW 3 series, Z4, M3 and M5, Cadillac CTS-V models, Camaro, C5-C7 Corvette, the various SRT-8 models, Mustang, Infiniti G (G25, G35, G37), FX (FX35, FX45, FX50 and M models (M35 and M45), Jeep, and the 350Z/370Z, with additional models to appear. We will be offering free shipping through March 31, 2014, as well as free brake fluid as well (from several choices, depending on your individual needs).

For all retail and wholesale inquiries, contact us at z1sales@z1auto.com

It’s Gotta Be The Shoes…….

Nothing new about GC10G’s, a simple wheel that in the right sizes, seems to compliment nearly any sports car. Nothing particularly new about the NSX either, except that fact that 23 years after it’s introduction, and 8 years after the last ones rolled off the assembly line, it’s still one of the best expressions of how the Japanese “get” sports cars, and can integrate aesthetic beauty with mechanical precision. Despite it’s age, it’s a car that is still racing all over the world, still being developed, still being made better by firms like Esprit. Pushing the envelope of performance and reliability, vs dumping their efforts and jumping on the “new and now” bandwagon. Nothing new about (or from, for that matter) L.O.T.U.G. But they incorporated that iconic line and integrated it into what would become a seminal song within it’s genre. How’s that for a Venn Diagram! Picture courtesy of http://worldtimeattack.com

Errrr……Spotted?

From awhile ago just never posted

New McLaren?

Not quite

A New Lightweight, Affordable Mesh Wheel

Konig unveiled the Integram wheel at SEMA and in the coming weeks, they will be arriving stateside. These are their newest flowform design, a manufacturing process that’s been around for about a decade, and produces a wheel that is both lightweight and incredibly strong, but affordable, since it’s not a forging process.

The Integram continues the naming trend Konig started a few years ago with the Kilogram and Milligram. The best part is, there are some terrific sizes available. How about 17×9 +42, or 18×9 +45 in a 5-100, or 18×10 +25 in a 5×114. Overall diameters are 17-19 with a variation of widths, offsets, and bol patters. Colors are matte black and matte graphite. Contact us for price and availability. These are new, so no weights or caliper clearance answers just yet, but as get ’em, we will post up.

Gauntlet Is Thrown

Varis is one of the few JDM firms left that are still turning out exciting designs. For 2014, they have their widebody kit for the Subaru Impreza WRX STi. 35mm wider than stock up front, 38mm wider out back with a range of carbon or FRP options. Pieces can thoughtfully be purchased as a full kit or individually. Varis items are all hand made, not mass produced, and fit and finish is absolutely first rate. As such, they are not inexpensive to produce, but that also means you won’t find replicas, and you won’t find 100 cars with them installed.

Stunning Silouette

One of these most beautiful race cars ever, and one of the cleanest, most identifiable liveries ever created.

Race cars today may be faster, and more reliable, and certainly safer….but they seem to lack the character the older cars had. Then again, as we get older, all we seemingly want is to see the things we remember from our youth, with the benefit of the the perspective only age can bring. Anyway, enjoy.

We’ll return to JDM content too, but with Porsche returning the LeMans this year, there is so much history to cover, it’s worthy of attention.