Cruising through the web, I stumbled upon the Surge 02 Power Chip for only $99.99. Here are some of the features. Check out the image of the high tech kit below too.

• Improves engine output by as much as 10 %.
• Enhance throttle response, acceleration and low end torque.
• Preserves smog certification.
• Pushes up acceleration and dynamism by upto 15 %.
• Results higher top speed.
• Lifetime Warranty
• Easy installation in 30 minutes.
• Switch can be connected in line for on/off
• Reduces flat spots or delay time when you mash down the throttle.

Reading these features, you already know its all bullshit. How can anything attaching to the factory 02 sensor do all of these things? Beats the shit out of me. Read the product description. You have got to be absolutely gullible to even remotely think about buying this product.  But wait, let’s take a look at the Surge Performance Chip for even more power gains.

The Surge Performance Chip has got to be the latest and greatest, high tech item on the market. At least after reading the feature list, you would think so. Here is an image of the future of tuning:

Yes, with the addition of this high tech “chip”, you can have all of these features for only $89.99:

• Add up to 35 Horse Power - usually 7-10% power gain
• Add up to 20+ Ft LBS of Torque
• Fully adjustable for either Horsepower or Gas Mileage via Knob
• More low end torque
• More power to tow or race
• 1-4 MPG Savings
• Faster 0-60 MPH times
• Faster 1/4 and 1/8th mile track times
• Faster Acceleration at all RPM
• Up to 20% quicker throttle response time
• Smoother shifting (Automatics only)

Who needs a programmable standalone ECU, camshafts, turbos, etc.? You can install the Surge Performance Chip and the Surge 02 Power Chip and have all the power and torque you need for only $189.98. Something for almost nothing, huh? Well if you do your shopping at “yourhotcar.com”, that can become a reality apparently.

Of course there is the original con: the Tornado. Originally marketed to increase horsepower before the days where there was a chassis dyno around every corner, it seems to be marketed toward increasing fuel mileage now. Of course fuel mileage is something that most people don’t check and/or don’t know how to calculate. It’s all just another con.  What is the hell is going on in this world? Why do people and companies even exist? Look on the frontpage of the Tornado website and see how the guy links to a page showing John 3:16. Does the guy think that he will not burn in hell because he linked a passage from the bible?  Cheap imitations, China copies, Vietnam fiberglass copies of JDM parts, everybody copying everybody, poor quality, XS Power, etc. Cons like the ones above and the general condition of the tuning industry leads me to think: What is the tuning industry coming to? Screw it I guess. You can’t worry about everything all the time. I guess you gotta keep on truckin’ and hope for the best if you like it.

While the Miata is cool fun little car, it doesn’t measure too high on the manliness scale when you compare it to other Japanese cars that are commonly modified. The stock bumper has that look like its smiling and it is pretty small overall. Then in the US, you have many women who own Miatas and of course gay dudes. You’re shielded from my criticizm if you’re a normal dude and own a Miata, but chances are you’re not a normal dude if you’re reading this blog. To avoid gayness, look no more: AWR Racing has wide body kits that look pretty clean.  None of the cars on the AWR website are very complete, but you get the idea. With some finishing and detail to aligning, these fenders could make the little Miata pretty buff looking. I gotta give props to AWR for doing a great job on the overall look of the Miata with their widebody fenders. It reminds me of the old Tri-Point FC widebody.

Now that is a fender. You will jack up your scrub radius (I learned the hard way), but it looks good. The fender or hood (not sure which) doesn’t line up for shit, but it can be fixed.

British Racing Green is sweet; especially with big ass flares.

Not bad at all. The fenders and flare are cheap too: $450. If you take a look at the pictures on the AWR site, you can see that it does take A LOT of labor to straighten out the lines and make everything fit right though. But I wouldn’t mind rolling a Miata like this with a 400whp 13B in it. A normally aspirated B6/BP matches the stock Miata though: they’re both gay.

This is the NC that is featured in this month’s Sport Compact Car Magazine. The flares make the car look about hmmm…I’m not too sure…maybe 5000x better? Now I would definitely roll a car like this. The MZR 2.0 engine has way more balls than the B6/BP too.  Perhaps I should get one and drop in a 300hp Cosworth Formula Atlantic engine. Or better yet, a stroked 2.3L MZR with the Cosworth BVD (big valve duratec) head with Atlantic camshafts and a Cosworth Supercharger. The torque curve would be the top half of a big giant square. All credit I would loose driving a Miata would be made up with tire smoke out of every turn.

We have a 2008 STi at Cosworth that has been internally dubbed the Red Dragon. We have been using the car for product development so it hasn’t progressed much although it is supposed to be SEMA ready in less than 3 months now. The goal is a kick ass track car that you can drive home: a gentleman’s STi. There are guys who have the cash and go out and buy a Viper or 911 to track, but after running the car two or three times they discover: 1)the cars are NOT easy to control, 2)the cars eat tires for lunch, 3)the cars eat brakes for lunch, 4)they are afraid to put them into the wall and sometimes do (wallet outweighs the balls), 5)they are extremely expensive to set up properly for tracking, and 6)they are expensive as hell to track in general (gas, tires, brakes, alignment, etc.). Well this will be the STi for these kind of folk. Anyhow, the Red Dragon is getting a dry sump put in at the moment and Lew has done a super clean job so far as usual. He fabricated a tank mount and the aluminum tubes that run to the front so far. I like how the tank is mounted for a true low profile. The rest of us are lagging on the engine side of the project since we are busy with other projects, but the test suspension pieces and turbo are on the way from the UK.

Now you see it.

Now you don’t.

How many places do you know that would install a dry sump system as the car’s first modification? It doesn’t even have an exhaust yet. To be honest we just want to get some mileage on the dry sump system. It looks like Tyler and I will have to get down and dirty to get the car complete in 3 months. It should be fun…maybe.

A couple weeks ago, Nick, Yaya, Saya and I headed out to Arizona because our friends Danny & Marilyn got married. Other than being really, really, really hot in Arizona (hell on Earth), it was a great time. I got a chance to hang out and celebrate with a bunch of friends I haven’t seen in a while, relax, binge eat and binge drink. I met Marilyn about 8 years ago through a friend who I used to work with at Apex. Danny is Jensen’s brother. Jensen used to work with me when I was at Apex, but when Danny moved to the mainland from Hawaii, he worked for me at XS fabricating and installing stuff. After XS, Danny went to work with the infamous Stephan Papidakis at AEM on the drift team, but got all serious with Marilyn and moved to Arizona. Small world, huh? Jensen is a little bitch (no comment section here, sucka!) and couldn’t hack it on the mainland so he moved back to Hawaii and is now working on boats. But I don’t blame him since Hawaii is literally a paradise.

Danny and Marilyn cutting the cake.

L to R: me, Buda, Jensen, Marilyn, Danny, Lanny, Alan, and Kyoung. Marilyn, Alan, and I are the only ones not from Hawaii. Alan went to school in Hawaii so he’s virtually from Hawaii (he can bust pidgin, bra).

We were chillin on the lawn (huge backyards in AZ) drinking. Here’s Jensen looking dumb trying to figure out how a camera works, Danny and Alan sippin on some syzurp.

Here was the dining table on night one minus the beer. I think D&M could have bought a car with the recycling money from all the aluminum beer cans and bottles from the weekend.

Buda busted out 3 bottles of the Crown Royal Cask No. 16 which I have got to say is pretty damn good (thanks Buda). The Guiness, Baileys, and Black Bush (yes, imagine the jokes) are the components of an Irish Car Bomb. Half whiskey (Black Bush in this case) and half Baileys dropped into a cup of Guiness and you down it in one shot (choke foam, bra). Jensen apparently is the master of the Irish Car Bomb and has been using it to pimp the hoes in Hawaii. The Baileys makes it easier for the chicks to drink.

Here’s me after 3 Irish Car Bombs. I suffer from the Chinese drinking sydrome and turn red.

Night two (three for some) and we’re still going strong. There’s the multi-talented Buda throwing the peace. We would all be drinking and then all of a sudden Buda would break out the vegetables and start chopping them for some of Marilyn’s special recipe salsa. Then he would turn around and bake some shit or make some other kind of kick ass food. Buda is funny as hell too and you want him at your parties. I left at 3:30am and Alan jumped in to the pool. Why not? Its still like 90°F (32.3°C) at 3:30am in AZ.

Alan drove his super slammed E46 M3 out from LA. Alan’s cars are always clean. If you see this car in person, you would say, “Fuuuck, thats low dude.”

Here’s the front of Nick’s 4Runner. Driving at night to AZ will result in a fucked bumper.

Anyhow, congrats to Danny and Marilyn. I wish them the best. I went to visit with them so when I finally settle down and invite them out to LA, they better show up!

Go out and buy the current issue of 0-60 magazine. It has an in depth article written by Richard Chang, the successful Primedia graduate, on Motorex and the convoluted demise of Skyline GT-Rs in the USA. The story is well written and covers the bulk of the Motorex/Hiro/GT-R story. I think there was some parts of the story left out either because the interviewees (myself one of them) left the information out or since the court case is still pending was left out on purpose. Myself, Sean the GTR nerd, Ken Takahashi (awesome pic btw) the Formula D judge, and others were interviewed by Richard to get the details of the nitty gritty Motorex story. As an outsider seeing things closely inside Motorex, I think the story is pretty accurate as far as the public needs to know. There are some details even I left out because some things are better left unsaid. In the end though, I thought Motorex was a great place to hang out. Back in the day, there was nowhere else you could go in the USA and see plenty of BNR32, BCNR33, and BNR34s all in one place. Some days I would stop by the McDonalds and pick up some lunch, cruise over to Motorex and wait for Hiro to get in. That is if he decided to come in at all. While waiting, I would hear the rants about Hiro from Motorex employees. It was like clockwork.

I used to hang out a lot with Hiro too. In the end, I lost a a pretty damn good party friend. Hiro is the one who schooled me in the ways of the Japanese hostess bar and was always down to party. I mean always down. How many friends do you have like that? So we would hit the various hostess bars about 3-5 times a week. Sometimes Ken, Sean, Noto, or Yasu would come along and sometimes Toshi (remember him?) or my roommate at the time Jeff the Tokyo pimp came along. Man were those fun times. Anyhow, when the shit started to hit the fan, Hiro distanced himself from Toshi and I and eventually we lost contact with him. Then the arrests came and I haven’t heard from Hiro since. That’s too bad since I hold absolutely nothing against him. Friends will come and go throughout life I suppose.

Sam put up the entire story up here, but 0-60 is a dope magazine so you should go out and buy one. Hell, subscribe to it. 0-60 is a bit different from the usual industry mags as its targeted toward the slightly older crowd and serious car enthusiasts. Good stuff.

Football, or soccer as its known here in the US, is the most popular sport around the world outside of the US. For some reason Soccer has never gained any steam over here. In Europe, football is crazy popular. I don’t know jack about European football except about what I read in the news a few years back about crazy ass fans starting riots and killing each other. Oh and also the few scenes in the movie Eurotrip. Who would have thought to MIX formula racing and football though? Superleague Formula is a high level open wheel racing series where the cars are painted in the scheme of football (soccer) teams. I guess the idea is to get the crazy ass football fans in to racing. What a trip.

You get the general idea. The car is painted to match the team’s uniform. I have got to say that is an absolute trip. It would never work here in the US, but Europe is different I suppose. 4.2L V12’s propel the cars beyond 300km/h. No doubt the engines will sound really nice. High rpm V12s usually sound pretty damn good.

My buddy Roland at Pi in the UK also sent me a picture of the steering wheel/dash unit. It is friggin sweet. It costs around $16K with the Pi Sigma dash electronics all built in. It is constructed of carbon fiber so you know its light as hell too. I wish I could install one in my GT-R. Then I could roll like I was Micheal Knight in Knight Rider…

Yesterday I went to the Redline Time Attack! at California Speedway in Fontana, California. I love this track because it’s a NASCAR track with proper garages, indoor toilets, real grandstands, etc. It’s a nice track overall. Fontucky, as it is known to us LA boys, is hotter than hell in the summer usually, but we lucked out with the temperatures in the high 80’s. There were more people than ever this year so it appears that time attack is growing in both spectators and entries. There was also a vendor row and even a car show for the show fags. You gotta have a place for the Supras to compete since drag racing is virtually dead right? There were plenty of people and EVEN GIRLS. I never thought there would be the day where you could go to a road racing event and stare at ass, but the day has come.

I went to hang out with the Design Craft, C-West, and BC guys and their S2000. Gary who runs Design Craft does all of the car prep, C-West supplied the car, and BC supplies the engine parts. The S2k has winning and setting records on the time attack circuit pretty much non stop this year. Until this past weekend at least. I have known Gary for a long ass time and it when it comes to cage and chassis fabrication, I take all of my cars (and XS cars) to Design Craft. He is one smart Filipino, but you just have to make sure you bring him the Heineken to get him to work. Anyhow, I figured I would go and hang out and help if necessary. Most people at time attacks are really cool and it’s good to see them and shoot the shit too. Basically everybody at a time attack is a serious car nut and its one of the few times you can chat without taking time out of your normal everyday schedule.

This year Redline ran the full course configuration that utilizes nearly 1/2 of the oval portion of the track. This increases speeds significantly. I think the M-Workz 350Z hit close to 180mph. Billy Johnson, who was driving the car on Sunday, was flat out on the throttle the whole way around the oval exit flat out. It was fucking cool listening to the Cosworth VQ35 pegging 8500rpm on the banked oval. I think Steve needs to make that exhaust even BIGGER. One of these days XS will bring out the BNR32 and let the world hear how fucking pissed off a 850whp RB26 sounds like at 9500rpm on the banked oval. Damn that would sound good…I’m getting excited just writing about it. Everybody was asking me, “Where’s the XS R32? You guys would have fucked everybody up on the oval!!” The front suspension is currently in 40 pieces is why the car wasn’t there. We figured out why the front suspension geometry is jacked so XS is redoing it all at the moment. Anyhow, the S2k was pitting in the paddocks right next to the other unlimited cars like the GST GC8 Impreza, the Crawford new type STi, and M-Workz 350z so I was knee deep in unlimitedness. Sorry man, but the modified and street classes don’t excite me so I didn’t pay attention to the times. There was some drama with Hankook and some of the cars going way faster at the last session, but all I need to report are the final lap times because in the end it’s all that matters at a time attack.

Place: Car, Driver, Tire, Horsepower & Engine, laptime
1st: GST GC8 Impreza, Gary Sheehan, Hankook Z214X C91, 540whp Cosworth EJ257 2.6L, 1:38.395
2nd: C-west/BC/Design Craft S2000, Tyler McQuarrie, Hankook Z214X C91, 300whp BC F20C 2.5L, 1:41.621
3rd: M-Workz 350Z, Billy Johnson, Hankook Z214X C91, 470whp Cosworth VQ35DE 3.5L, 1:42:321
4th: Crawford GR Impreza, Tanner Foust, Hankook Z214X C91, 550whp Crawford EJ257 2.8L, 1:42.327

What do you see in common here? Yes, the tire to use is the Hankook Z214X C91. This tire is rocking the shit out of the BFGoodrich R1, but nobody was running Hoosiers to get a true A/B comparison. The XS GT-R runs the Hoosier A compound, but Hankook doesn’t have a size big enough for the GT-R. The biggest size Hankook currently makes is a 275. My buddy Paul at Hankook says larger should be available very soon though.

The S2k was a little down on power due to tuning complications, but I think it would have given the GST Impreza a good run if it had the planned horsepower (450whp). On the other hand, the boys at GST had their shit together and deserved the win. Good job and congrats to GST. Gary should have drank more Heineken, but I’m sure the Design Craft/C-West/BC S2k will be back with at least another 100whp for another battle, another day.

Underhood of the Design Craft/C-West/BC S2k.It’s not even close to a bolt on S2000 kit, but it uses a Greddy T618Z turbo.

Better believe that the Hankook Z214X C91 is the tire to use at the moment.

Tanner said the car was suffering from brake bias issues, but is pretty damn fast regardless.

Carbon everywhere. I wish I had an autoclave to make my own dry carbon parts.

The Cobb R35 is nearly stock with approximately +70whp and still uses the stock shocks. On Toyo Proxes R888 tires, the car was running 1:50.xx which is impressive for a nearly stock 3800lb. car. It smoked the previous post mentioned yellow BNR34 in the Live Sockets battle.

The S2000’s Endless brakes weren’t so endless after all. While Tyler said the pads work great (so would anything else on a 2300lb. car), they wear like a motherfucker and cracked the rotors. It is a race car that sees extreme conditions though.

The S2k seemed to brake later and power out earlier than everybody that day. Life is wonderful when the car weighs only 2300lbs. (Tracksyde Photography)

The M-Workz 350z went about 5 seconds faster on the Hankooks. Tires are important! (Tracksyde Photography)

Cosworth power is in the house. The winner of the day and new time attack (on the big track) record holder is GST. The XS BNR32 and Tarzan holds the track record for the infield track by over 1.3 seconds. No big bad $400k Porsche 997 GT3 cup car could even come close. Speaking of which, the GMG guys were lurking around the S2k this past weekend. Maybe they are planning to bring out another overpriced 997 to try to compete with cars somewhere between 1/4 to 1/8 the price again.

Here’s Mike from D-Sport interviewing Tyler with his Hankook umbrella girls.

From the back.

From the back again. (Tracksyde Photography)

From the back one more time. (Tracksyde Photography). Told ya there was ass.

I’ve been noticing an increasing amount of the wheels with the colored stripe around the circumference. You know, the “Time Attack” style of stripe. Volk probably started the trend first a couple years back and created the look for modified street cars. You know which wheels I’m talking about: the matte black TE37, CE28N, etc. wheels with the red stripe around the lip. Everybody got all up on the Volk wheels with the red stripe and started to buy the shit out of them. Of course the damn Chinamen/Filipino knock off wheel companies started doing their favorite thing: copying. So Rota, Raze, TenzoR, Axis, etc. have now brought the “Time Attack” look to the masses. Jesus, I can’t even count how many G35 coupes there are with the striped wheel look. Now you even have the ballers with the Benzes and Porsches buying into the same look. You know, the ballers who buy a brand new CLS500, paint it flat black, and then go buy some matte black wheels with the red stripe? Why do they do it? Because it looks pretty good I suppose. I ain’t gonna knock it. While it is probably considered an original JDM trend, it is in fact, FAR from a JDM original.

Here’s a Volk TE37 on top and a TenzoR fakie. If you didn’t know the Tenzo was made in China or the Filipines, you would think that it’s not a bad looking wheel.

The “look” isn’t limited to matte black wheels only. It is spreading to other colors too. This is a white CE28. Not for me, but whatever floats your boat.

But where does the Time Attack look really come from? It comes from NASCAR. The furthest thing from JDM.

“Time Attack” or “JDM” my fucking ass. Its the NASCAR look that you be rolling on your EVO, 350Z, G35, STi, Benz, Porsche, etc.

This hasn’t really changed my opinion on the “Time Attack” look at all, but I always hear people talking shit about NASCAR whether it be “redneck racing” or “boring” or whatever. Just remember that if you bought some “Time Attack” wheels then you got jacked. In reality, you just got yourself some NASCAR wheels. That dope ass flat black CLS500 you saw yesterday? Yes, he’s really rolling the NASCAR look. That dope yellow 997TT with the sick ass matte black wheels and the yellow stripe? Yep, he’s rockin NASCAR styling as well. And of course, your super JDM EVO with every single Voltex JDM body part on it and Volk TE37 “Time Attack” wheels? Yes, you too: your wheels are NASCAR style. There’s nothing wrong with NASCAR. I dig the last 20 laps of any NASCAR race. While JDM stuff is definitely cool, it isn’t always original. Don’t forget that we Americans are usually the innovators.

The boys at XS are turbocharging a Lotus Elise and asked me to help out on the intercooler design. To investigate the possibilities, we removed the nose to check out some potential locations for heat exchangers and plumbing. It was an absolute bitch to remove the nose. After removing the nose, you could see that the designers designed the chassis, suspension, cooling components and ducts, and then everything else afterwards. In other words everything else was an afterthought. The sucks for maintenance and service, but it is awesome for a production car. What this means is that the car is 100% purpose built for performance. It’s not like some dumb ass would buy the Elise as their only car anyway. The car is designed for ballers with multiple cars and with the Elise likely being a track or very occasional car. The car is so damn impractical that two men sitting in the cockpit would have to be close friends to sit together for more than 5 minutes because you’re rubbing shoulders already.

The nose of the car consists primarily of ducting for the horizontally mounted radiator and two side mounted oil coolers (note the two hoses running the length of the nose compartment on the sides). The nose panels were surprisingly heavy for such a light car, but it probably didn’t hurt that Lotus wanted add some front weight bias. Behind the radiator is one big giant pile of afterthought:

Here you have a brake booster and master cylinder that looks like it is the same one as a 1977 Lotus Esprit, various control units, looms, fresh air ducts for these control units, and an ABS system that is crammed into place. Whoever is servicing this car or replacing parts is FUCKED. Sucks to be him.

Inside the radiator duct: Do those two fans look familiar? Yeah, you can probably buy them at Pep Boys. Is that a rusted tow hook bracket up front? Yeah, Lotus probably doesn’t have an anti-corrosion warranty on this puppy. This car has less than 10,000 miles on it. Remember: performance first, everything else is thought about afterwards.

The rest of the Elise is pretty cool too. The chassis is riveted and bonded aluminum extrusions with no bullshit double A arm suspension both front and rear. I thought the flat bottom was pretty damn cool too. More pics on the rest of the car later; I ran out of time. The shitty part about the Elise? The soulless Toyota 2ZZ-GE engine designed by the modern regime at Toyota that obviously lacks any passion. While Toyota is the largest vehicle manufacturer in the world, their products today truly lack any passion. Don’t even begin to tell me that your buddies new Scion xB is dope. It’s a heavy metal fucking box with a big engine (2.4L) and a soulless commuter car well marketed to the masses. The last fun car Toyota made was probably the MR-2 Spyder (MR-S) and before that the Supra Turbo (JZA80). The 2ZZ-GE was smoked to living hell by the Honda K20A. Shit, the Honda B16A designed 12 years earlier already rocked the 2ZZ. Why does the Elise, a car that is 100% soul, have such a soulless engine you ask? Rumor has it that Honda wouldn’t supply Lotus engines. I think a properly tuned, reliable, wide power band turbo 2ZZ-GE could definitely squeeze out what very little soul the 2ZZ has in it. And make the Elise a whole lot more fun and much faster than an Exige for less money. More to come soon. Stay tuned.

I was looking for something in the build shop at Cosworth and found a workstation with some drawers underneath. I opened it up and I think I hit a jackpot of Garrett Champ Car turbos and parts. The entire cabinet was full of turbo components and assemblies. The turbos are capable of supporting up to 850hp and seemed to be sized pretty close to their GT40ish street car cousins. The turbine wheel sizing and A/R don’t seem too ridiculous for road race use either. They are sleeve and thrust bearing turbos; no fancy ball bearing stuff. These turbos were originally designed for the Cosworth XFE 2.65L V-8 engine and run about 40 in/Hg of boost (or 19.64psi) up to 12,000rpm in endurance trim (hence the XFE). I think one of these would work great on my Nissan RB26 2.8L inline 6 at 30psi and 9,000rpm. Maybe one of these days if my buddy Brett stops lagging and has his guys finish my exhaust manifold at Full Race, I might be able to actually try one of these turbos.

Here’s a look at the turbos from an old post: Champ Car Turbocharger.