Keep Racing Fun, a Fake Blog Road Trip Adventure

Keep Racing Fun, a Fake Blog Road Trip Adventure

By Mike Kojima and Jeff Naeyaert

Warning!  We are not hipsters, we don't wear cool clothes, girl pants, expensive cheap sneakers, fancy hats or carry vintage cameras around (read about real hipsters doing cool things here).  We are kinda boring so this story might not be too interesting, but if you still want to read on, have fun!  We have been working really hard at the palatial MotoIQ corporate headquarters.  We have been out covering events and working on project cars nearly every day.  Too much work and no play makes for even duller nerds so we decided to hit the road to enter Redline Time Attack's round 3 in Las Vegas.  The trouble is that we didn't have a suitable time attack car.  The only car that was currently suitable for track use in the MotoIQ garage was the Dog II, (read about it here) a NASA road race car that was built to run in Prepared Touring D or C.

We managed to get some more life out of our old tires by creative rotation of the wheels!  Starting your race prep a few hours before you are supposed to leave is lame.

Hawk's DTC 60 brakes pads worked really well, we replaced the worn out Hawk Blue pads that were on the car.  We noticed a badly worn rotor at this time  but didn't have a new one.  We also caught a bunch of loose bolts.  Our neighbor's son had been driving the car at track days while doing no maintenance so we were paying for it now!  I think Mike needs Rogain.  Please send donations to get mike more hair to jeff@motoiq.com

Since LVMS's outside course is low speed with tight turns, we decided to set the car up loose.  We stiffened the rear anti sway bar and fiddled with the shocks.  These settings ended up being spot on, thank you very much.  This silver thingy is the rear bar adjuster.

PT class is a limited preparation racing class and running in class D or C usually means a very moderately powered car.  The Dog II packs a 200 whp naturally aspirated SR20VE engine, a rev happy but rather narrow powerbanded  powerplant which is pretty good in small bore racing classes.  When perusing the Redline Time Attack rules, we confirmed that we would have to run in FWD unlimited class due to the fact that the Dog II is a fully prepared racing car with lexan windows and a minimalistic interior with a carbon dash.  This means we would be running up against some awesome cars such as Chris Rado's 1300 HP funny car Scion TC and Tri Point Engineering's World Challenge championship winning Mazda 6.

At MotoIQ we do not do blatant commercial endorsements like recommending this awesome Motul RBF 660 brake fluid.  Wardrobe provided by Password JDM.

Nor do we suggest that Motul's highly effective Moto Wash is a superior cleaner.  Shoes by DC.

Here Mike uses Meguiar's Ultra Quick Wax to do some last minute shining.  Glasses by Prada...

Then there was the problem of the car.  The Dog II has not really run since 2006 and was in pretty sad shape.  It sat on oxidized 4 year old Toyo RA-1 tires that were semi dry rotted and has only had minimal maintenance since 2007.  Since we work 24-7 here at MotoIQ, we alloted only a few hours on a Friday afternoon to whip the Dog II into shape.  This ended up taking more time than we alloted.  Worse yet our new tires ended up being backordered and we were going to have to run the event on nearly bald heat cycled and hardened tires.  Well that was just great!  This was quickly turning from a competition to a fun run.

The Dog II is ready to load, its 5pm, we are ready to roll right at rush hour and 4 hours late:(

Thanks to Motul for providing us with RBF 660 brake fluid and 300V racing oil and Hawk for providing us with DTC 60 pads to help our prep!

We hook up to Project Tundra and away we go except we forgot to gas up:(  The Tundra is the most awsome tow vehicle, super stable and plenty of power.

 We are not hero's, not fast guys, not pro's, just out to have fun.  Follow us if you want!