After I tuned Wen's car to 900+whp (HKS T51RSPL turbo) on the XS Engineering dyno, it was time for practice. Wen was using too much clutch and eventually fried the clutch the next day at the IDRC GT-R Challenge. Although Wen has run a best of a 10.6 second 1/4 mile before with less power and no two-step (Palmdale 2600 ft. elevation), he actually only ran a low 11 the following day at Fontana which is close to sea level. Going in right now is a PPG straight cut dog box and a new Exedy triple. Now Wen will have no more excuses. Wen's car is one of the cleanest, high powered, GT-Rs in existence with a lot of attention to detail. But if you think Wen drives like a bitch, be sure to leave a comment. Wen works at DSPORT magazine so you can give the office a call and let him know there too.

Wen's R33 GT-R Launch Practice

After I tuned Wen's car to 900+whp (HKS T51RSPL turbo) on the XS Engineering dyno, it was time for practice. Wen was using too much clutch and eventually fried the clutch the next day at the IDRC GT-R Challenge. Although Wen has run a best of a 10.6 second 1/4 mile before with less power and no two-step (Palmdale 2600 ft. elevation), he actually only ran a low 11 the following day at Fontana which is close to sea level. Going in right now is a PPG straight cut dog box and a new Exedy triple. Now Wen will have no more excuses. Wen's car is one of the cleanest, high powered, GT-Rs in existence with a lot of atten...

Garrett EVO X Bolt On Turbos

FINALLY releasing this week are the Garrett EVO X bolt-on turbos based on the GT3071 and GT3076 CHRAs. Khiem and the engineers at Garrett spent A LOT of time on designing this turbo for precise OEM quality fitment and maximum performance. These turbos are not a generic Garretts made to bolt into place of the Mitsubishi TD05. A lot of time was spent perfecting gas flow with bespoke compressor and turbine housings. The results are a whole new volute shape for the divided turbine housing and a slightly tweaked volute shape of the legendary high flowing T04S compressor housing...

Lincoln Continental With Wings

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EVO X Twin Plate Clutch

The guys over at ARK Design sent me a press release on their new twin plate clutch for the Mitsubishi CZ4A EVO X. They just released their G700 twin plate clutch for the EVO X. I've heard that EVO 8 and EVO 9 clutches are the same as EVO X, but I'm kind of out of it (aka I mostly play with engines these days). If that is the case, then the ARK G700 will work with EVO 8, 9, and X (maybe EVO 7?). My EVO X MR has the twin clutch trans so I haven't paid attention either.

The ARK G700 twin plate clutch is available in two models: standard and lightweight. Some features of the clutch:

• The flywheel is made of heat treated, billet steel so it qualifies as an SFI legal drag...

Prodrive WRC Impreza (GD) Rebuild

Ben and I were emailing about his newly acquired ECR33 and he sent me a link to the UK GTR forum (GTROC) that shows an early (circa 2002) Prodrive WRC GD Impreza being rebuilt. I think it's somewhere in Trinidad or Barbados if I were to guess. The thread has a lot of cool pictures. Here's some of them:

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VQ35 on the Engine Dyno

Several months ago when we had the VQ on the engine dyno at Cosworth, I snapped a couple of pics. Since I never got to work on engine dynos very much in the past, I thought it was way cool to see a street car engine that we [the mostly unibody car crowd] commonly build/tune/whatever on a professional grade engine dyno. The ease of working on the engine is nice: there are no cut arms, burnt hands, busted knuckles, and emanating under hood heat blasting you in the face like on a chassis dyno. The amount of data we can collect is ridiculous too.

In the US, we do not have transient dynos. I think Cosworth has 7 transient dynos in the UK, but that is the SUPER big dollar equipment for ...

Redline Time Attack! Buttonwillow 3/29/09

It was a nice day today at Buttonwillow with the exception of some wind and dust here and there. I think I got a hardcore farmer's tan too. There were the most people (participants and spectators) I've seen at Buttonwillow to date so I believe the Time Attack sport is definitely growing. The standard time attack track configuration was used: clockwise #13. The American built unlimited class cars are definitely getting quicker with the Factor X NSX and Billy Johnson busting out a 1:45.5. They broke a turbo so were not able to run the last session. Second fastest for the day was the C-West S2000 and Tyler McQuarrie with a 1:46.7 (Khiem I didn't see the other S2k that was supposed to rock t...

Crazy Week and Time Killers

This week is CRAZY busy. Daytime is Cosworth and we're cranking at 125% right now trying to finish up the multitude of projects that we have going on. In the evenings it is time attack help. Lucky for me I am not actively campaigning a time attack car so I am not ultimately responsible for entire cars. I get to play free agent so I can finish my work and gtfo. I remember the days of trying to run a shop and then having to get a race car ready: IT SUCKED.

Anyhow last night I ended up having dinner with Tarzan and Mr. Omoto who owns C-West. Tarzan is here to drive the Crawford STi and Omoto-san is here on vacation with his fami...

Specialty Z 1009whp Z32 300ZX TT

I'd love to have a Z32 one of these days. I still have fond memories of the Z32 even though I haven't driven one in a long while. Back in the day when I was 20 (circa 1993), Jeff the Tokyo Pimp and I did several Z32 NA and TTs with 150 shots of direct port nitrous. Those were my first experiences with involuntary lane changes and smoking tires at 80mph. While I probably didn't have the driving skills back then, I was too dumb to lift either. Youth and ignorance are awesome. Those were the days...I'll have to dig up those pictures. Even with all the fond memories, I still wouldn't build a Z32 myself (no time or patience). I'll j...