By Mike Kojima
My race in the inaugural MPTCC race ended with a bang in the practice before qualifying as my SR20VE decided not to cooperate in a big way. Tearing down my engine afterward I found that one of the exhaust valves had lost its head. Fortunately the valve head did not bounce around in the combustion chamber and cause more damage, probably because I had shut the engine off and pushed in the clutch the second I felt the power fall off.
Project EJ Honda Civic
By Chuck Johnson
You're probably wondering what this busted ass Honda Civic is doing on the virtual pages of MotoIQ. I mean, it's far from the flawless presentation of MotoIQ's usual project cars and lacks the engineering luster to be excusable like Coleman's innovative crap cans. Instead, this Civic's clear coat is peeling off and almost every panel has some kind of battle wound on it… but every gear head has a story about the car that was their first love.
Project Hyper-Miler Part 1: Introduction
By Steve Rockwood
Let's face it: the days of cheap fuel are over. Whether you want to blame Wall Street, the government, democratic demonstrations in the Middle East, OPEC, hippies, China, or the soccer mom next door; the fact remains that if your buddy tosses you a five spot for gas money, you're more likely to punch him in the face than thank him. And everyone understands a punch in the face.
Ask Sarah: Hi-po Eclectic Pistons
By Sarah Forst
I was at a car meet and overheard someone talking about hi-po eclectic pistons or something like that. I didn't want to ask him about them because everyone else seemed to understand what he meant. Are these high performance pistons? How are they different from regular pistons? - Jassen
Got a difficult tech question? Email Sarah at asksarah@motoiq.com
Turbo Tech: Compressor Efficiency and More
By Khiem Dinh
Compressor efficiency is a term thrown around whenever people mention forced induction, but what does it really mean? How does it affect an engine's performance? And what role does air temperature play in all of this?
There has been a lot of controversy burning up the forums about the issue of V8 swaps, particularly the GM LSX series of engines in drifting. Digging through some data, we thought it might be cool to show you the differences between these engines. Here is the dyno results from Matt Powers' Turbo KA24DE, Dai Yoshihara's Turbo VQ35DE and Matt Powers' GM LS7.
We last left Matt Powers in the middle of retrofitting his car for the 2011 Formula D season. We dropped back in on Matt earlier this week to see how he was doing and were pleased to observe a bunch of progress being made.
Our orignal article is back! Team Falken's Dai Yoshihara will once again be driving his Chevy LS powered Nissan S13 in the 2011 Formula D season. The car has been undergoing a complete rebuild at SPD Metalworks, a rebuild so intensive that it is basically going to be an all new car. A lot of the rebuild was needed to bring the car up to 2011 Formula D specs.
Fastbrakes is an Arizona company whose claim to fame is making affordable brake upgrade kits for many cars and having applications for niche models like the Nissan Sentra SE-R. Since some of us race SE-Rs as they are a cheap and sturdy platform, we have a lot of experience with Fastbrakes' upgrade kits for the car.
In the 2010 Formula D season, GSR Autosport/Nitto Tires driver Mike Essa grabbed plenty of Media attention with his shrieking V10 M5 powered E92 BMW. The BMW was probably the best sounding car in Formula D and looked pretty killer as well. The car's baller profile, killer looks and glorious sounds made Mike a darling of the media. Now Mike is building a potent Z4 for the 2011 season.
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