MotoIQ Garage Fabrication: Introduction to Fab 
(and how to mess with your friends)

By Steve Rockwood

There comes a time in every car nut's life where no one sells that much-needed part and it must be fabricated from raw materials.  Taking it to a local machine or fabrication shop is an obvious choice, and can definitely yield excellent results.  However, many times the scheduling doesn't pan out, the work is unsatisfactory, or the fabricator is extremely proud of his work with pricing to match.  Most of us, to one extent or another, begin to realize that making parts at home makes sense from an economic standpoint. Unfortunately, in many cases our first attempts at "fabrication" are met with booger welds, frustration, pain and unwanted fires.  Enter MotoIQ's Garage Fabrication Tips: helping you make probably safe parts at home.

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TESTED: Achilles Tire R1-X

By Steve Rockwood

I've driven on a lot of tires, some of them horrible, some of them great. All of them have been DOT legal. Until now. When we were approached by Achilles Tire to try out their new R1-X racing slick on Project G20 Racecar, we predictably jumped at the opportunity.

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TESTED: Toyo Proxes RA1

By Steve Rockwood

It seems the RA1 has been around since before time began. Ask an "old timer" (well, relatively) and they'll tell you that the RA1 was the holy grail of DOT competition tires. A decade ago, a walk through the hot pits of any track event would net you rows and rows of RA1-shod cars. Times have changed, but have they passed the RA1 by? We installed a set on Project G20 Racecar to find out.

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Project MKVI Golf TDI: Handling Upgrades Part Deux

By Steve Rockwood

Here's the thing: the nutjobs that make up MotoIQ are never happy.  Give us an improvement, and we'll look at improving the improvement.  Put a pea under a thousand race buckets and we'll still feel it.  Such was the case with our Project MKVI Golf TDI: we were definitely impressed with our first round of suspension mods by ST and Whiteline, we also felt the handling improvement package wasn't complete.  That pea started feeling like a boulder.

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Project Infiniti G20 Racecar: Transmission Upgrades

By Steve Rockwood

It seems that every time we try to do something to make Project G20 faster, we find a faster way to break something.  This time around, we were certain that while the stock Nissan RS5F32V transmission in our G20 was made of sugar glass, that our modest turbo power levels, stock clutch, and not-so-abusive driving habits should make it last through a season.  After three race laps, we were greeted with the all too familiar sound of a fork in a garbage disposal coming from the transmission.  Someday, we'll learn a lesson the easy way.

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TESTED: HANS Adjustable and Sparco Harness

By Steve Rockwood

Racing is hazardous to your health.  With a helmet on, one of the most immediate dangers to your continued existence on this planet is a basilar skull fracture. I, like most out there, prefer my neck to stay unbroken, so I went in search of an SFI 38.1 compliant device and harness built specifically for it.  Luckily, HANS and Sparco had something available that had higher expectations than me.

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TESTED:  2013 Scion FR-S

By Jeff Naeyaert and Steve Rockwood

Nearly every mass-produced car we come across today is governed, designed, regulated, or otherwise manipulated by a committee.  As a result, nearly all of them stink.  When Toyota and Subaru set out to design the FR-S in 2007, the first thing they did was throw out the committees.  Finally, after hearing about this car for seemingly a decade, MotoIQ gets a chance behind the wheel on the track and on the road.

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Sneak Peak: COBB Tuning's 2012 Ford Focus - Part 1

By Steve Rockwood

The new Focus has finally brought Ford the sport compact they had been looking for since the introduction of the Focus over a decade ago.  Eager to get a head start on the platform, COBB Tuning partnered with Ford to build up a Focus SE to turn some hot laps as a Modified class time attack car.  Take a look with us inside the COBB Tuning Focus.

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Project Hypermiler: Handling Upgrades

By Steve Rockwood

The door handles and mirrors on Project Hypermiler came painted, and swapping out the sad excuse for shocks and springs on this car was absolutely necessary to keep them that way.  On top of that, the stock wheels and tires left the car looking like a grizzly bear riding a skateboard, making it an unfathomable proposition to retain these pizza-cutters after going through the trouble of upgrading the suspension.  Luckily, Suspension Techniques, Whiteline, Enkei, and Nitto had off the shelf solutions to help Project Hypermiler actually turn a corner at ludicrous speed while keeping its mirrors and door handles painted.

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Project Infiniti G20 Racecar: Even More Power

By Steve Rockwood

In kid's soccer, everyone gets a trophy, regardless of finishing order.  No winners, no losers.  Motorsports, on the other hand, is completely defined by whether you're winning or losing.  Unfortunately, our normally aspirated SR20 was not so mighty when compared to the other MPTCC cars, so we forced some air down its throat in the hopes of finally getting some hardware. 

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