PRI Show - Orlando, Florida

I'm in Florida at the moment for the PRI show. This show is pretty cool and there's plenty to check out if you're hardcore. There's very little to no pussy bullshit faggot parts here. It's all hardcore racing parts and cars including, but not limited to NASCAR, midgets, sprint cars, karts, unibody, open wheel, 5.0's, F-bodies, etc. Check out the show here: PRI SHOW

There are no cameras allowed inside because they don't want it to be like SEMA where a bus load of Chinamen can come, take pictures, and COPY COPY COPY your parts. Anyhow, from the "tuning" side of the automotive aftermarket, there are...

Cosworth CK V-10 F1 Engines

If you're going to do an engine swap, why not an F1 engine? Or at least a previous generation F1 engine. It only weighs 95kgs! 835bhp at only 209 pounds is pretty damn sick. That would be lighter than any Nissan RB26 by about 300 pounds. These were used in F1 from 1999-2005 and revved to "only" 18,300rpm. At 3000cc, that's 278hp/liter - screw VTEC. They are being sold by some racing engine company in the UK and are going for "only" $100,000 used or $130,000 new. For more details, you can click here.

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Nuts

In my research for developing head studs for the performance street car engines at Cosworth, I came across some F1 nuts. They belong to a certain Cosworth F1 engine that is still currently homologated. I thought they were pretty cool since the nuts that keep the cylinder heads in place are SILVER plated. Why are they silver plated? I'm sure the engineers will explain it to me, but I jus...

Hyundai???

A couple weeks ago at the LA Auto Show, I was checking out the Hyundai Genesis concept coupe. You might ask, why the hell is Eric writing about a Hyundai? I too never thought there would a time where I might remotely give a shit about a Hyundai, but maybe, just maybe, it might be time. I ran into my buddy Simon Kim who works at Hyundai earlier this year at the annual Stillen open house thingy they have. I knew Simon when he used to work at Dynamic Autosports back in 1996 or so. He was telling me about a rear wheel drive Hyundai prototype coupe that he's been working on. Catching up with Simon was cool, but what really caught me off guard was that he said it would share the same p...

MG Turbo

We're always up to new and exciting things at Cosworth.

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SEMA 2007 - Pro-Motion Party at Risque

The 500 whp XS built Arizona BNR34 Skyline GT-R owner's club Brett and Jimmy and Troy and I went to the Pro-Motion Distributing party at Risque at the Paris Hotel in Las Vegas this past SEMA. As usual it was a fag party since automotive related industries are dominated by males. Since SEMA is a trade show, you can't expect it to be any different. It's not like a shoe, clothing, or porn trade show where the industry is dominated by females. So anyway, my buddy Jimmy had more than a couple of run & cokes and proceeded to go ape shit with my camera. Here are the results - gogo dancers are fun to watch when you drink.

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R35 GT-R - Chiat Day

Yesterday in Marina Del Rey was a up close and personal with the R35 day hosted by the guys at Edmunds. It was a good turn out with many socal GT-R owners present. There were also many GT-R worshipers (Evo, STi, and all other Japanese car owners) present which is good. 2 new R35 GT-Rs, a bunch of previous GT-Rs, free T-shirts, free pizza, and good conversation with other GTR enthusiasts were the order of the day. Mike Kojima, Steve Mitchell, Sean Morris, Dave Coleman, and a couple of other guys who care and do this shit for a living were also present. Even the infamous Kim Johnson showed up with his BNR34 on DOT legal Hankook road racing semi-slicks. You know why we all showed u...

R35 GT-R - LA Auto Show 2007

Yesterday I went to the press day for the LA Auto Show with the VP and my manager at Cosworth. It was nice because there were very few people and there's free coffee, drinks, and food from most of the manufacturers. The new GT-R was there and it was getting raped by people because you could sit in it. I didn't get a chance to sit in it. I sat in some of the Ferraris though. Ferrari's are the shit! Anyhow, here are some pics:

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XS GT-R Time Attack - Super Lap Battle 2007 @ Buttonwillow

Last week on November 7th was the Super Street Super Lap Battle. Otherwise known as Time Attack, but they had to get all JDM on the name. So for a couple weeks before SEMA and the days following SEMA, I spent a good part of my time preparing the XS BNR32 GT-R for the event after work. While I was at SEMA, Koji and Peter at XS took over and put the car together. As usual, Koji and Pete did an excellent job as the car was mechanically 100% reliable. There was a lot to do to get the car running, but we did it. We didn't quite do as well as we wanted though. I think we finished 4th in class and like 6th or 7th overall. In fact, the car went over second slower than last year. If w...

SEMA 2007 Las Vegas

SEMA this year was more of the same. I noticed that while there were more new companies attempting to enter the performance parts market, there were less new wheel companies this year. For the last 5 years it seemed like wheel companies were growing on trees. Most of them were of course the fake/shitty/heavy cast wheel companies copying everything from the Work, SSR, and Volk brands. There aren't too many people as hard working and successful as James Chen (Axis Wheel) in the world so I think that some of the smaller crappy wheel companies have gone away. As for the performance parts market, there were probably another 10 companies attempting to make shit in China and grow the brand...