CAR, TEAM/BUILDER, ENGINE, TIRE, HORSEPOWER (approximate), Driver, Lap Time

1st: Subaru GD Impreza STi, Cusco/Tomei, Tomei, Hankook C91, 450bhp, Eiji “Tarzan” Yamada, 1:44:372
2nd: Honda S-2000, C-West/Design Craft, Brian Crower, Hankook C91, 390whp, Tyler Mcquarrie, 1:46.893
3rd: Subaru GRB Impreza STi, Crawford, Crawford, Hankook C91, 600whp, Tanner Foust, 1:47.052
4th: Porsche 993 Turbo, JIC/Hankook, JIC, Hankook C91, a lot, Paul Brown, 1:47.868
5th: Honda NSX, Factor X, Factor X, Yokohama A-048 G/S, a lot, Billy Johnson, 1:47.965
6th: Subaru GC Impreza, GST, Cosworth, BFG R1?, 550whp, Gary Sheehan, 1:48.038
7th: Nissan 350Z, M-Workz, Cosworth, used Hankook C-91, 470whp, Billy Johnson, 1:48.471

After 7th, everybody else was 1:50 and slower. It looks like the FR cars were dicing it up with the AWD cars pretty good. The Cusco/Tomei STi was about 1.1 seconds away from the HKS EVOs lap record of 1:43.5. Pretty damn good considering the budget for this car was minimal when compared to the HKS EVO. The car was retired before the last session due to a broken transmission. The C-West S2000 was probably making less power than 390whp. It had severe gouges in the cylinder walls. How do I know that? Because Monday night at about 11:30pm I was inside the car listening for detonation on XS Engineering’s dyno when it dropped a valve. Gary (the procrastinating Filipino) pretty much pulled the head, pulled the pistons, honed the block, dropped in new pistons and a new head. The car made it to Buttonwillow Wednesday morning to take 2nd place overall and fastest American built Time Attack car in USA. The M-Workz 350z made its best showing to date with the car’s fastest time ever. I wonder how fast it would have gone with NEW Hankooks and more boost? The GST Motorsports GC Impreza looked pretty damn mean with its new widebody and flat black look. Same deal though: how fast would it have gone if it had brand new Hankooks? I think the GST Impreza could have went 1:45 or so. I guess we’ll never know, but next year should be an exciting year for time attack.

The front is a little wack looking with the triple gaynards if you ask me. Maybe they work, but they’re Wack with a capital W. I dig the profile view above though. Another caption says 30 cars will be built and maybe 300 cars for the retail market? My Japanese sucks ass…

Source: The Motor Report Australia

Mine’s had a booth in the Electronics hall. They were displaying their R35 GT-R and their parts for the car. While I am not always down with JDM style tuning, Niikura-san definitely knows GT-Rs and refinement. His cars are clean, simple, and fast. I have no doubt Niikura-san will be building an R35 with less parts, horsepower, and aero than some American tuner and still execute some smokage at some upcoming event. The funny thing is Jason, his man in the US, is a friend of mine’s from my high school years. Niikura-san and Jason came by the Cosworth booth to say hi to me which was cool of them.

The titanium muffler system is pretty nice. I would have gone with larger tube sizes myself, but I’m sure Niikura-san has a reason. Regardless, the titanium will no doubt drop some weight from the overweight pig of a whale we know as the GT-R.

Here we have the Cosworth 4B11T camshafts, fuel rail, and H-11 head studs for the EVO X. The fuel rail is a direct replacement for the stock rail with more flow capacity through the rail and can also be used when an external fuel pressure regulator needs to be plumbed in. The H-11 head studs are much stronger than the industry standard ARP 8740 head studs and are similar to the ARP L19 studs. L19 = fancy name for H11. Anyhow, the Cosworth studs have a proper dog tooth at the bottom (seats on cylinder block) to preload the fastener unlike the ARP L19 studs. Cosworth H-11 studs are available for SR20, 4G63, EJ20/25 engines.

Here we have the 2.23L 4B11T EVO X stroker kit complete with crankshaft, rods, and pistons. The crank retains the ability to bolt on the factory crank trigger wheel, rods are 4340 chrome moly, and the pistons are a brand new forging specifically for the 4B11T and machined with typical Cosworth precision. The pistons also feature the Xylan green skirt coatings, polished decks, and are completely deburred out of the box too.

Here we have the VQ35DE 3.8L Stroker kit as featured in the Castrol Top Shop Challenge. While we finished 6th place overall due to questionable rules (more on this later), the engine made 438bhp normally aspirated with virtually off the shelf parts. Same deal here: 4340 rods and crank and propietary Cosworth VQ35 piston forgings. On top are the VQ35 fuel rails too.

Here is the ARK Design EVO X sitting in their booth. The first time I saw the body kit, I thought it was a bit too much. In person it actually looks pretty good and the wheels are perfect with the car too. The wheels are available in 3 colors: silvery chromish, subaru gold, and a gunmetal type color. The wheels on this car are 19×9.5 +22 with 265/35/19 Hankooks for a zero rub fitment. The ARK booth looked pretty good too and they had all their new parts on display. The 6 piston 380mm front brakes and 4 piston 355mm rear brakes were the show stoppers for me. I can’t wait to test them out. They are 100% made in Australia and designed by an ex-Brembo engineer so no cheap ass China crap here. They have other fitments too like the R32/33/34 Skyline GT-R so I’m waiting for Andy to send me a set although he doesn’t know it yet.

Here’s the Cusco/Tomei GD Impreza which is supposed to be mighty fast. I guess we’ll find out at the Super Lap Battle next week. Tarzan will be piloting the car and he says although it doesn’t have massive power, the car is refined and fast. Looking under the car, I can see that it is one of the few JDM cars to sport proper suspension geometry at a glance. I would hope so since it is essentially a JGTC/Super GT GT300 suspension. It has hand fabricated front uprights and magnesium uprights in the rear! They look pretty race carish. Apparently this car was developed by Cusco’s Super GT team. Aero is by Voltex, suspension by Cusco, Hankook C91 tires, engine by Tomei, and fast ass driving by Tarzan. This is the car to watch.

I almost forgot this one. The Cosworth 4B11T EVO X cylinder head is coming probably in the first quarter of 2009. This head flows like a mother_ucker and will no doubt bring big power to the EVO X. The factory EVO X cylinder head is already very good, but the guys at Cosworth kicked up another 3 notches. The head will be complete with CNC ported ports, cc’d chambers, dual valve springs, titanium retainers, and all the other goodies. It will be available as a head assembly or complete with cams already shimmed with tappet buckets.

What is SEMA without parties? Although these days I am older and can’t hang with going to every party every night, I did make it out to the Pro-Motion party at Planet Hollywood. I was floating between two tables: Ark Design upstairs and the D-Sport table downstairs. If you add it up, there were 4 bottles of Grey Goose and 2 Bottles of Patron. Needless to say, everybody was pretty smashed. This year’s party was at a new venue and unfortunately they did not have any go go stands so Jimmy couldn’t get the kick ass go go pics like last year. Even without go go girls in your face, it was still a good time.

Top Row = Mike and Mitsuko from D-Sport, Roland from Pi UK, Troy from ARK Design, then its me (drinking a Rock Star and Grey Goose) and Saya on the bottom row. I’m not sure if Roland was used to pounding shots, but he was handling it pretty good. In the background behind Troy is Kitazawa-san from ARK Design Japan. He is the man responsible for several generations of earlier HKS EVCs, several generations of Apexi Power FCs, AVC-Rs, S-AFCs, V-AFCs, etc. Now he’s the brain behind ARK Design’s electronics and other goodies.

Here’s three overweight asian dudes (me, Daiji from C-West, Andy from ARK) and Tarzan. Usually in the US, Tarzan rocks the Dragon Ball Z style spiked hair and in other countries he rolls the more conservative hair style. This was the first time that I can remember in the US he was rocking the flat hair. We’ll see what he does with his hair at the SLB.

One other product that I didn’t get a chance to take a picture of was the Garrett EVO X bolt-on turbo. It is a direct bolt-on to replace the factory turbo. I did run into Kheim at Garrett (the designer), but I was about to do a video shoot and didn’t get to chat too long. The turbo looks good and I want to try one too. Since we’ll have an engine going on the engine dyno very soon at Cosworth, it looks like I’ll have the ideal opportunity to do this with no bullshit chassis dyno variables. It will be available in two trims: GT3071R and GT3076R and with two turbine A/Rs: 0.73 and 0.94. I just jacked this pic from Edmunds.

There you have the bulk of SEMA from my eyes. There are way more images on the 8gb SD card, but I just have to go through them. Maybe more later…

Today was the first day at SEMA 2008. I am tired and my feet are sore, but I’m glad all the last minute prep crap is totally over. The Red Dragon is sitting in the D-Sport booth and I got to check out Ms. Kentucky. This year’s SEMA is the R35 GTR show. There are so many R35s, you would think the entire tuning industry is banking on the success of the R35. Does the tuning industry think the R35 purchaser will treat it like an EVO or STi? It sure seems like it with the wide selection of shit quality carbon, non FIA approved made in China seats, and more crap. I think I was in the bathroom when they were passing the bong around because I can’t see how a 2500 car production car can bring a ton of money into a hurting industry. Only the few successful people who use quality parts will suceed with the R35: Mine’s, Cobb, Bulletproof, etc.

There were many of the big booths missing this year: Michelin, BFGoodrich, Holley, HKS, and Greddy to name a few. What did SEMA replace them with? Cheap ass Chinese copy companies of course. I was a bit disappointed in that considering SEMA supports and sponsors product development education programs at local schools. Isn’t that a bit ironic? Look for a feature on this very soon. Who needs product develoment training and education when you a have plenty of Chinese companies moving in with fake and copied turbos, blow off valves, downpipes, etc.?

I didn’t get a chance to walk around much, but glancing around I thought the coolest shit at SEMA was at the Cosworth booth. I’m sure there was some cool hot rod and American V8 stuff, but I didn’t really pay attention to those parts. I’m talking Japanese car performance only.

The redesign of the Cosworth 4G63 EVO 4-9 crankshaft/stroker kit is the bomb. It is 4 pounds lighter than the old version, has a longer and deeper heat treat, and is now isotropic superfinished like many F1 engine components are. It’s “look” is made to match that of Cosworth racing engine crankshafts. In fact it looks like the Formula Atlantic crankshaft.

The Cosworth EJ257 intake manifold is here. It makes +15hp at 6500rpm, but horsepower is still increasing beyond 6500rpm. More results later, but the plenum volume is 200% that of the factory unit and the runners have a tuned length with a tapered runners. Just go ahead and forget everybody else’s plenums because this one’s the bomb. Of course the front mount intercooler kit and dry sump kit are just as leading edge too.

The new Cosworth by Pectel EC Pro ECU is here to dominate all other engine controllers. Pectel is a division of Pi Research which is a sister company of Cosworth. We are all owned by the ultimate super ballers, Mr. Kalkhoven and Mr. Forsythe. Anyhow, the EC Pro is a true motorsports grade ECU and it TRULY plugs and plays. I’m sure the DIY guys are asking: can I program it myself? The answer is probably yes, but they will have limited access and internal datalogging capability. Authorized Cosworth tuning shops will have full access. Trust me, it’s better this way. 90% of the DIY tuners have no business playing with the power the EC Pro has. It’s like giving a quad core PC to a kindergartner.

Cosworth by Pectel
Cosworth ECPro Features
2008+ Subaru STI
A higher performance solution for engine management is available from the Cosworth ECPro professional motorsport ECU. Engineered in conjunction with Pectel Control Systems for the 2008 and newer Subaru STI, the Cosworth ECPro features an OEM compatible harness connector and a full base calibration allowing you to go straight to the dyno without the workload of full ECU and vehicle configuration.

Designed for full OEM harness and system integration:Plug and Perform. Base calibration supplied to run engine. Ready to dyno tune for your engine specifications. No need for replacement of OEM wiring harness or sensors. Makes use of OEM dash and diff controller.

56Mhz processor: Higher performance timing accuracy and control
Ethernet comms: Fast data offload and high quality data viewing on PC
Internal logging memory pre configured: Logging essential channels at correct rates for performance analysis by your dealer
Internal logging for user: Additional logging for monitoring & development
Knock monitoring: OEM MIL lamp indication of Detonation levels (with user defined levels based on RPM and Boost)
Calibration select (e.g. Fuel save, Test, Race): Use of the OEM “SI Drive” switch for selection of 3 alternate
calibrations (calibration selectable for boost, fuelling, ignition, rev limit, ALS setting, VCAM target, Fly-By-Wire pedal mapping, and overrun fuelling cut-off individually selectable for Intelligent, Sports, and Sports-Sharp).
Pectel ALS (Anti lag system):OEM switch used for ALS mode select
Standard Motorsport design: Machined Aluminum case and professional motorsport specification electronics.
External wideband supported :Compatible with most popular brands
Internal wideband supported:WBL kit - Requires Cosworth by Pectel NTK sensor, requires 3 extra populations and 2 pin relocating
Thermocouple support :TC Kit – can be fitted for monitoring or control strategy e.g. exhaust over temp enrichment, auto ALS disable. Requires two blank pins on OEM harness populating.
Variable CAM : Pre-configured full quad camshaft support
External Comms support: Optional Motorsport dash
Designed for Racing - No OBDII Motorsport use

There’s Roland from Pi UK schooling the brain himself, Mike Kojima on the EC Pro software.

There’s other cool shit at the Cosworth booth, but I didn’t get the pics. I’ll take some more tomorrow.

For independent test results, see here. For those of you too lazy to click with your finger, here it is below. Yes, you read it right: +40whp peak to peak and +30 lb-ft. torque with a big improvement in power band width (these are slightly inflated Dynapack numbers though…). Jesus, I’m wondering what the MX2 grinds will do. We’ll be finding out shortly with our own testing on the engine dyno. Maybe this way, there won’t be any leakage on the damn forums.

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Ecutek are pleased to, once again, announce a world first.

1st December sees the release of our programming and editing suite for the stunning Nissan GTR R35.

We are currently working through the 400+ 2D maps and over 100, 3D maps in this ECU to give you a full understanding of functionality of this powerful ECU.

Programming time for the ECU is currently 17 seconds enabling fast mapping and testing.

Models supported at date of release will be the Japanese domestic market models as well as all US specification cars. As models are released into other world markets we will be
supporting these within days of their release .

Our development car is being used for testing of the software and to generate example data for you.

For those customers with current FlashCAN hardware this will be a feature update.

We are finalising the cost of this and will be mailing out order forms prior to release, however if you are interested in this latest EcuTeK product perhaps you could reply to this email.

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EcuTeK
7 Union Buildings
Wallingford Road
Uxbridge
UB8 2FR
ENGLAND

Tel: (+44) 01895 811200
Fax: (+44) 01895 811611
sales@ecutek.com
www.ecutek.com
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END

Anyhow, today I bring you the latest in Chinaman robbery: Autobox. You read it right: AUTOBOX. Not the Japlish named AUTOBACS automotive superstore with billions of dollars of capital in Japan, but a cheap ass Chinaman owned imitation called Autobox. You might say, “Eric, you can’t just assume that the store is owned by a Chinese guy.” Normally you would be correct, but this store is in downtown LA and IN CHINATOWN. Tyler was telling me at lunch today about how he was cruising through downtown and found today’s treasure. I thought I should take 5 minutes and let the world know how damn unoriginal a Chinaman can be. Even in the USA. Anyhow, perhaps Autobacs will put a stop it all before everybody assumes that Autobacs has a third low budget store in downtown LA.

Andy from Cosworth UK sent me this link. Notice how well sorted the car’s suspension is. Even when the driver goes off the track, the car keeps nearly perfect composure. I dig the sequential transmission and how the car lays down four black tracks coming out of a turn. The best part is this car makes 850bhp before the nitrous! Check more details about the Gobstopper at the RCM website. Is this the best Subaru EVER? Someone should start an international Time Attack event with Japan vs. UK vs. USA. That would be cool.