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More Track Day Shots

This time, an Evo customer of ours from Italy. Actually Cosimo has been a customer for many years now, first with his 350Z, and now more recently with his latest acquisition, an Evo VII. He’s been steadily building it since last year and it’s shaping up nicely! The last batch of stuff we shipped included some track day tires and a Bride Gias seat.

AMS Carbon/Kevlar For Your GTR

AMS has done it again, this time with 2 awesome parts for the R35 GTR.

Their Carbon Kevlar roof is 9 lbs lighter than stock. Lowering the car’s center of gravity this much pays big time dividends! But it does so with class, and still accepts the factory headliner.

The Carbon Kevlar trunk continues the trend by shedding 14 lbs vs the factory trunk setup. Fit and finish is spot on, as you would expect.

Both components are offered in your choice of matte or glossy finish.

Click here to order the roof

Click here to order the trunk

For a combo deal, just drop us a line!

Stuck on You

Some quick snaps of a venerable combo – RPF1’s + Toyo R888. This particular combo now resides on a track going 350Z we’ll be assisting with (parts wise) this year.

350Z Race Car for Sale

Rich (the car’s owner) has been extremely helpful to me in recent weeks (your beer is coming!), so if you or someone you know is looking at getting yourself into a fully prepped turnkey Z33 track car, this is your chance.

For sale: Nissan 350Z built to current Grand Am Koni Challenge GS specifications
TIG welded full roll cage, stripped, seam welded and car prep done by Impact Engineering
3.5 liter V6 race motor, Tilton flywheel and clutch
Custom long tube header, and titanium/stainless steel exhaust Coast Fabrication mufflers
Bosch MS 4.3 ECU and Grand Am approved wiring harness
Bosch C4 data acquisition
Chassis harness has connectors for 3 way accelerometer, YAW sensor, shock potentiometers, steering angle
Deutsch Autosport connectors throughout the vehicle
AIM lap trigger
Bosch DDU4 fully customizable display.
Removable steering wheel has controls for 6 driver selectable pages, display brightness control, radio button, pit speed limiter and fuel reset.
Carbon/Kevlar NISMO V3 body kit as approved by Grand Am
Carbon fiber headlight replacements (headlights available for night races)
Functioning wiper and highbeams
Dual dry break fuel tank with rollover and discriminator valves
Carbon driveshaft
Primary and secondary fuel pumps, car can run down to ½ gallon before starvation
StopTech front brake calipers and rotors. Brembo rear calipers.
3” brake ducts to front rotors
Tevis stand alone ABS system, with brake bias bar
3” thick C&R large capacity radiator with built in engine oil heat exchanger
Koni double adjustable shocks
350evo sway bars
350evo front upper A-Arms, camber adjustable
Cobra seat and 6 point harnesses
Custom ultra-low seat mount on slider for taller drivers
Switches are all Otto aircraft switches, circuit breakers are Klixon
Wired for Grand Am Delphi transponder
Hard wired for Motorola Radio
AMB transponder with driver ID, hardwired
Accusump
Electrical fire extinguisher
Jongbloed wheels with Hoosier tires
APR wheel studs
Driver accessible electrical cut off
Iso-Torque rear differential with cooling radiator and fan
Gold heat shield in engine bay and transmission tunnel to reduce cabin temperature
NISMO power steering cooler
All support software: Bosch MODAS Team Software, ABS Diagnostics/brake bleeding, DDU4 customization software,
All wiring diagrams included. All relays and fuses are labeled for clear understanding of function.

This car is track ready. Just a corner weight and ride height adjustment is all that’s needed.

Weighs 2900 lbs.

Never crashed. Never wrecked. Paint is in showroom condition. Spares available as well.

Serious inquires only. Please contact rich@nohotwireracing.com

944 + (2/3)944 = ?

Interesting choice for a camper/tire trailer…

Historic Automobile Festival in Japan

I found some pretty cool photos of this track day event that occurred this past weekend in Japan. I don’t know this exact location where this took place but I wish I were there. A bunch of exotics mixing it up on a track, honestly who wouldn’t want to be there to enjoy this?

Ferrari F50

Ferrari F50

Ferrari Enzo

Ferrari Enzo

Ferrari 288GTO

Ferrari 288GTO

Ferrari F430

Ferrari F430

Ferrari F430

Ferrari F430

Ferrari F430

Ferrari F430 and Ferrari 360 Challenge

Ferrari F430

Ferrari F430

Ferrari F430 Scuderia

Porsche 908K

Porsche 908K

Porsche 908K

Porsche 997 GT3 RS vs. Lotus Exige

Porsche 997

Lotus 101

Lotus Exige

Ferrari 360 Challenge

Corvette C6Z06 Vs. ?

Corvette C6 Z06

Pagani Zonda

Koenigsegg CCR

Ferrari Enzo

Ferrari F50

Porsche Carrera GT

Lamborgini Gallardo (New Coupe and Older Roadster)

Audi R8

Running with the Big Boys

Got a message from a customer of ours down in North Carolina today telling me what an awesome experience he had at a track day this past weekend at V.I.R. .  Beau was in need of some inexpensive shocks since his were toast, and I sent him the old ones from my Z, since they were just sitting here collecting dust anyway.  Not only did he have an awesome time, he did incredibly well, considering his car is nearly stock!  Check it out:

“Thanks for the shocks!

Cliffs Notes: My fastest lap time was a 2:27!!!! Full factory suspension, only power mod is a catback exhaust for a whopping 2-5hp or so. Factory NON BREMBO BRAKES!!!! I used Hawk HP+ pads. And my 275/35/18 Kumho Ecsta XS tires. Absolutely nothing else modified on the car. See below for the average track times.

http://www.trackpedia.com/wiki/index…al_Lap_T imes

I was faster than every Lotus in my run group (the only two were in my run group, 1 was an Exige S and the other was a last generation Exige something or other), most Corvettes, most Porsche’s, every WRX/STi/Evo, every FWD car, all but 1 Mustang (on slicks with a big brake kit).

Cars that were faster than me: Z06, Corvette, Turbo Toyota Corolla AE86, heavily modified 12:1 compression 80’s(I think) Celica, my friends Mustang with slicks and race pads on 13 inch brakes, modified (huge turbo) Porsche 944. I think that’s it.

The bad: I wore out my rear brake pads down to the backing plate. I didn’t realize my increased pace would wear out my pads faster than ever! So I didn’t check. I’m hearing a popping noise from the front occassionally so I think a ball joint may be on it’s last legs. I overheated my front pads once. That is WAY better than after every 4-5 laps like before. So my brand new rotors are either disipating heat better or I’m easier on my brakes by braking later than I used to.

The good: 2:27 baby!!!! I’m braking later than ever, trail braking more, my heal/toe is excellent now, and I’m only 10-15 seconds off of race car pace with a near factory 350Z!!!! Even though some of the cars were faster than me I DID catch up to many of them in the corners! But, they pulled away on the straights.

I’m pretty sure I’m nearly to the point that I need suspension upgrades to go faster. Absolutely need brake upgrades. More power would be nice, but my biggest gains will probably be in brakes and suspension.”

Beau was good enough to take some pics from the event!

And since I’m on a Lotus kick lately, the silver Exige really caught my eye – looks very heavily modded, with a K series swap (ps, Beau was still faster!).  Very, very cool looking car!

This looks like one fun G35…

I jacked these pictures from Shaun’s photo album a minute ago and I felt like posting them up today. Shaun was the one who took these pictures as far as I know, but that is about all the information I have on this G35. I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves. This thing looks serious business!

Chuckin the deuce…

Adam sent me this video last week and all I could think about is how disgustingly quick the GTR is on the straight aways. I know it would be much faster in the turns too but the driver obviously isn’t pushing it, neither is the driver of the STi which is in pursuit.

The GTR driver might as well have thrown up the deuce as he was outtie 5000 on that STI.

Simply put, just a sick photo!

My current wallpaper…

“Super Potential”

One of my favorite things about being in an online business is being able to meet and talk to people from all over the world.  I met Jason about a month or so ago when he purchased some Cusco camber plates from us for his Starion – all the way from Australia.  I can tell Jason has “the sickness” and lives, eats and breathes cars like we do!  He was good enough to send me some pictures of a race prepped Starion owned by his friend Ron Masing the other day.  Jason is building his Starion for track use as well and we can’t wait to see how it turns out.  Onto the pics – this thing is awesome!

I have a fondness for the Starion, as Mike, one of the founders of the company, had one when I first met him in the early 90’s.  While it wasn’t blessed with a real sports car engine out of the box, it did have a wonderful chassis IMHO.  A very neutral car that with some well planned mods, turned it into a screamer.  It was Mitsubishi’s answer to the 944.  In the late 80’s the car really started to look the part with the giant fender flares, and low front lip spoiler.  It’s rare to see a clean one today but man, what a neat car they are.  Dodge also jumped on the bandwagon in the late 80’s and came out with their version, the Conquest.  I don’t know the technical differences, if any, except for colors.  I remember seeing bright blue Starions (looked similar to the WR Blue of the Subaru), and a nice yellow, that reminds me of the hue later found on 300ZX Twin Turbos.  I’ll see if I can dig up any other differences though.  These collaborations eventually lead to the 3000GT/Stealth, Mirage/Colt, Montero/Raider, and a bunch of others.  We’ll have to get our resident Mitsubishi expert Mike Ko to chime in with more.  He is a encylopedia of all things Mitsubishi!

I did a little searching and found this awesome old school Japanese commerical for the Starion.  I love these old car commercials…they are so cheesy, but it’s history, so it’s cool in my book!  And of course the tagline “Super Potential” is just genius.

Jason – not sure if you’ve seen this, but this video is for you! Plus it’s got a neat Rammstein song, and while I don’t understand a single word, and it almost makes me think a German invasion is near, it’s great music to drive to (or toture small furry animals to – whatever your scene is)

BMW M3 ALMS Race Car…

Adam and I saw this car in person at the New York International Auto Show back in April of this year. This car isn’t groundbreaking news to most car enthusiasts but its still dope none the less.

Check the stats:

Engine: 4.0 litre V8
Aspiration: Naturally aspirated
Maximum Power: 485 hp (362 kW)
Maximum Torque: 368 lb-ft (498 Nm)
Transmission: Six-speed sequential racing transmission
Drivetrain: Rear-wheel drive

Weight: 2,535 lbs

The reason why I am bringing it up on our blog is because today I peeped this video of the car with some action footage and I thought I would share.

Track Dayz

I had an entirely different post written up for my first post, but it started getting a little too angry and a little too long, so I’ll save this post for later.

When you read any car related forum, you’re going to overwhelmed by the posts by people looking for best go-fast goodies for their cars; whether it be turbo kits, light weight/uber durable racing wheels, or big brakes kits with more pistons that I have fingers and toes.

The sad part is, only a small fraction of people are getting any real benefit from all of these go fast parts.  I can’t comprehend why anybody would spend all of that time and money to make their car faster, stop shorter, and handle better …. to drive around in stop and go traffic to and from work.  Why not take your car to the one place where you can take advantage of all of that time and money you spent … the race track. 

My first HPDE in a quite a long time was this past May at Homestead, and I forgot ALOT of shit.  So in preparation for my next event, I decided it would be a good idea to make a check list to go through before heading out.  Walking around the paddock area looking to bum tools and brake fluid is not fun.

This may not be everything you need, but I figured this would be a great starting place for the track day virgin looking to test out all of those go-fast parts for the first time.  Please leave comments if you think there are some important items I left off of my list.

Your basic track side needs: helmet, registration paperwork, tech inspection paperwork, a cooler filled with ice/snacks/water/gatorade, tire gauge, air pump, wrench/socket set, torque wrench, jack/jack stands, spare quart or two of oil, extra brake fluid, speed bleeder, glass cleaner, quick detailer (gotta keep the whip looking good for the track side photographers), race pads, spare set of rotors, track wheels/tires, extra set of lugs nuts, folding chair, portable fan, and finally zip ties and duct tape incase something breaks.

Here is a word file with these items.  It makes it easy to go down and check off what you’ve already packed TRACK CHECK LIST.

And just to jazz up the post a little – a picture of my track car as it sits now.  There are going to be some major changes coming up in the next few weeks that will be chronicled here – new aero, a full color change, a new dedicated set of track wheels, new brakes, a full roll cage, the list goes on.  I’m hoping for the car to make it’s new debut at Sebring in October. 

All Around the ‘Ring

Here’s a neat thing one of our UK customers linked me to – a live cam at the Nurburgring!  Open in a new page and Click F5 to keep refreshing (or just let it be and it will refresh every minute on its own according to the site)

http://www.nuerburgring.de/fileadmin/webcam/webcam.jpg

Cool thing to check out randomly when you’re bored at work – you never know what you’ll see!

This was earlier today!