Four men enter, one podcast leaves! Welcome back to the CAMcast ladies, gentlemen, and 1997 Ford Tauruses. Mike and Dave are joined by Rick Conk and Michael “Pumpkin” Nielsen from RallySport Direct! The gang go off on many tangents, and hit a few agenda items, including:
Joest joining up with Mazda to revamp their DPi program
Formula Drift went to Canada
Formula One went to England
NASA Utah happened over the weekend
Electric and hybrid vehicles
Creating the most unlimited form of motorsport
Why you should never drive distracted
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It’s that magical time of year: the weather is toying with our emotions, everyone is itching to get out and go to things, and people want to host said things. Thankfully the weather held out, and the kind folks at Rally Sport Direct hosted their annual Eat, Greet and Car Meet! meet. There was a pretty big turn out at RSD HQ in West Valley. There was way too much to fit into one post, but here are some highlights:
What started as a humble swap meet, hosted by a humble online retailer, has grown into a sizable meet at the physical home of a porperly big online retailer. Thankfully, RallySport Direct maintains the feel of a shop run by a bunch of your friends and they have dropped the whole swap thing from their annual meet.
And thankfully their neighbors are ok with having the meet attendees borrow their parking lots. I wound up in one of these parking lots, and after receiving some puzzled looks from some mark 4 Supra owners (I’ll have some thoughts on that in a later column), I grabbed my friends Bobby and Brad and we wandered through the meet.
One of the first cars we came across was Alex Prasop’s Honda Del Sol. He’s had this car forever, and he’s put hours and hours of work into this. Some people may look down their nose at a humble little Honda, but a lot of those people are the kind of folk who will create a scenario to show off their friends’ high dollar cars and act offended when people call them a WASPy a**hole.
While most people are content with bolting on overfenders or flares, Alex was not. He made his own fenders, along with doing his own engine swap and shaving and wire tucking his engine bay. If I were given the choice between this, a well worn Honda built by an owner who is very passionate about his car or a new AMG Merc built by someone with more money than taste, who only cares that his car is cost prohibitive to most enthusiasts, I’d take the Honda.
That said, I wouldn’t say no to a 911 or a Gallardo. A classic 911 or a loud, brash Lamborghini are always head turners, and seeing them come out to a meet and them being driven by cool people (especially the 911, thanks for holding up for some pictures!) makes them even better.
RallySport made their name slinging Subaru parts, and if you’re in need of some I recommend pointing your internet their way. That being said, most people lower their Subarus and do their best to keep them clean. Not these guys. They’ve lifted them, put on massive offroad tires, added offroad lights, and the Legacy even added a snorkel. These cars aren’t parking lot queens, or track day terrors. They’re ready to get dirty, and stay dirty.
The Subarus weren’t the only ones in the dirt game. They were accompanied by this 4WD Civic Wagovan! Underneath all that glorious mud was some red paint, but it didn’t look bad covered in Earth tones.
In the same lot as the dirt crew was this bagged Mustang GT. Not something you see everyday, especially around here, but a lot of the new muscle cars look great when they’re on the ground. Bagging these big pony cars is something that needs to be done more, and this guy needs to drop us a line because I want to know more.
Over in the feature lot, or at least the lot closest to RallySport Direct itself, was this 4 door R32 Skyline sitting on a staggered set of Super Advans. If you look closely, you’ll see that there isn’t an RB under the hood. Nope! It’s an SR20! Too many doors, not enough cylinders, and all sorts of awesome! Sign me up, I’ll take two.
Next to my new favorite Skyline (sorry Brody), was another SR20 powered oddity: JR Crosby’s Lotus Super7. I’ve seen theis car a few times over the years, and I still can’t get over the looks of the Ur-kit car.
As long as I’ve been aware of the car it’s always been orange, and it’s always had that SR. The Shelby wheels are new, as are the Nankang tires (which is obvious just looking at them). Despite being insanely easy to look into the cockpit, I’ve never done so. So, I did. The well worn Start button tells you that this car has seen its fair share of road time. The gauges are laid out in a very sensible fashion, the tachometer and speedometer are right above the steering column, with oil pressure and temperature, water temperature in a row to the right of them. Below that trio is the wideband and the boost gauge. It’s sparse, but utilitarian, probably something Colin Chapman would approve of.
Lyfe Motorsports brought out pretty much everything except the GTR they’re prepping for World Time Attack; which, if you follow them on Instagram or Facebook, is a bare shell that doesn’t have a roof.
They did bring out their other GTR, the one that has been dominating Global Time Attack and will be racing to the clouds at Pike’s Peak later this month. This 1000+ horsepower beast is all business, and, as you can clearly see, they associate with only the best of companies.
And then there’s this yahoo…
The Brett King Design livery looks good on his still full interior TT1 car. Yeah, full interior. Headliner and all. He drives this thing to work in Wyoming, because why not?
While people were fawning over the turbocharged V6 in the Lyfe GTR, the old guard of turbo V6s rolled through. A pair of Buick Grand Nationals came through and turned all the heads. Seeing one at an event like this (something import heavy) is awesome, a pair is mind blowing.
This is always a great event, it’s well run and they bring out a lot of representatives of the part manufacturers they sell, and they give away a lot of awesome stuff too. We’re looking forward to next year, as we always are.
Nothing lasts forever. Memories fade, seasons change, and projects run their course. Such is the case with La Flama Blanca, Dallion Felton’s Evo X street car/RallySport Direct’s project car. After two years and 80,000 miles, it was time to say goodbye. So I made Dallin, and his little doge Hiroshi, drive to an office park so I could say goodbye to the car. And also to play with his dog, but mostly to say goodbye to the car.
The car looks mostly the same, sans all the vinyl decals.
It still has the APR splitter, vortex generators and GTC 300 wing. It sits on the same red 18×10.5 Volk TE37RTs, and it still has the Ohlins coilovers. To be honest, this thing is pretty much the exact same as it was back in February. That’s not a bad thing at all. Back then it put down a healthy 293 horsepower and 289 lb/ft of torque, which is pretty good considering what power adders were installed.
Fairly simple straight forward things: Tomei Titanium cat-back, test pipe, Big Mouth downpipe, and upper intercooler pipe. A Mishimoto intercooler, oil cooler, and radiator are things you would find on a lot of street driven Evo Xs, as are the AEM intake and TurboSmart blow off valve. The biggest changes are ones you can’t see.
Those big changes? A set of 1300cc fuel injectors from Injector Dynamics, a Cosworth high volume fuel rail, a TurboSmart fuel pressure regulator, and an AEM E85 capable 320lph fuel pump cradled in a Cobb Tuning fuel pump holder. Oh, and a Cavalli Stage 2 Turbo. The ball bearing, single scroll turbo has a 58mm inducer and 56mm exducer, and fits like the OEM turbo. Despite fitting like the stock turbo, it makes more power than the stock turbo. How much more? With a fresh tune on 91 octane the car put down 330 horsepower and 277 lb/ft of torque. On a tune optimized for E70 (ethanol, corn fuel, stuff you can’t get at a pump in Salt Lake County as far as I know) it made 408 horsepower and 345 lb/ft of torque!
Those are respectable numbers for a street car! And there’s more room for the next owner to turn up the heat. The turbo can move enough air for 600 horsepower. And yes, I said next owner. By now the car, and many of its parts have found new homes with other Evo Xs. Fear not, Dallin is on to bigger and better things.
If you’re familiar with RallySport Direct, then you’ve undoubtedly seen this car. If you think that this is the company’s car and I had to twist a bunch of arms to be able to take pictures of it, then you’d be wrong. All I had to do was ask Dallin Felton, because he’s the guy who drives it and has been molding it into what you see here.
Dallin is a regular guy, just like any of us. The biggest difference is that he happens to work for RallySport Direct, whereas we do not. That, and he has a history of building some awesome cars. He had a Daytona Violet M3 and a Voltex Evo VIII, so having him take the reigns of the Evo X project wasn’t that huge of a stretch or risk.
White is the color of choice for the Evo, as it is for the rest of the RSD fleet; however, this one is accented not with blue, gray and pink like the rest of the cars. It’s strictly white and red, aside from the windshield banner of course. For everyday use the car rolls on a set of 18×10.5 Volk Racing TE37RTs, covered by a set of Bridgestone Potenza RE760’s. The Potenza’s measure in at a healthy 275/35. Behind the red Volks you see the factory red Brembo brake calipers and the Stoptech slotted rotors they clamp down on. The slotted rotors are part of Stoptech’s Sport Kit which comprises of the slotted rotors (front and rear), stainless steel brake lines and their Street Performance brake pads.
The car has an aggressive stance, but not crazy like a Bond villain. The Ohlins Road and Track coilovers allow for the height adjustment, while a lengthy list of Whiteline components (ball socket end links, 27mm sway bars, control arm bushings and rear control arms, and roll kit) round out the rest of the suspension set up. Why the high dollar coilovers and half the Whiteline catalog? Because La Flama Blanca goes and gets it on the autocross course in the Street Mod class. That’s also why there’s a set of 18×10 Advan RZ’s with Hoosier A6s sitting in the garage.
There is a healthy amount of APR Performance products on the car. From the front splitter to the big GTC-300 wing.
Even the Vortex Generator is an APR piece! The short antennae is from Cusco, and calling it short is very generous.
There’s no massive diffuser, or uber rare bumper on the back of the car. It’s almost entirely factory save for the APR spoiler, a La Flama Blanca decal, and the tip of a Tomei Titanium cat-back exhaust. Ahead of that is a Tomei test pipe and Big Mouth down pipe. There’s also a Tomei upper intercooler pipe made of Titanium. Aside from the shiny pipe and the TurboSmart Dual Port blow off valve, there’s nothing screaming performance about the car. The AMS front lower motor mount and shifter bushings are hidden down under the motor, and the Exedy twin plate clutch is a piece that never sees the light of day. Even the interior is deceivingly pedestrian, save for the AEM UEGO, AccessPORT V3, Fat Perrin shift knob.
All of that go fast stuff you don’t see, or don’t notice because you’re used to seeing EVERY Evo X with parts like that, adds up. The numbers they add to are 293 horsepower to the wheels and 289 lb/ft of torque. That ain’t bad, but it’s also subject to change. If you owned a company that sells parts for a living, wouldn’t you want to throw a bigger intercooler or turbo or cams or whatever else suits your fancy at your shop car? Stick around.
Words and photos by Michael Chandler
*Article and Photos are copyright of CAMautoMag.Com and their respective owners.
Smith-Burke Racing setting their second record of the day!
Paul McGarvey in his second run group and second Miata
Many TT drivers had moved up to the road racing classes, and several had not completed their off season builds yet. Absent was everyone’s favorite Wyoming local, TT1 Champion Shawn Murphy, but he came down to visit and show his support and supply NASA Utah’s own Matt Guiver with a well deserved malty beverage. Smith-Burke racing ran fast laps in both the racing group and the time trial group. Paul McGarvey joined the Vette with his V8 powered Miata, but Paul was one man splitting time between two different classes, while J.R. Smith and James Burke could split seat time. Hard work paid off and the Vette managed to break Danny Popp’s four year old TT1 track record with a 1:58.09.
Greg Valdez
Scott Corsetti chasing down Josh Miller
In TT2 Greg Valdez picked up right where he left off at Nationals last year. His 2:04.356 was more than enough to take the win over Scott Corsetti’s 911 turbo. Greg repeated his victory on Sunday. Both TT2 drivers were good sports and spent a great deal of their day instructing new drivers in the HPDE program.
Trip Hunter
Corry Perkins
John Carver
TT3 saw new and old Porches battle a Corvette and a WRX wagon. Rookie time trial driver Trip Hunter took the class win in his Martini Liveried Porsche 911 Carrera 4 GTS, posting a 2:11.793, 2.8 seconds ahead of Corry Perkins’s 911. Rounding out the podium was John Carver, who put his black and silver Corvette in third with a 2:15.329. Josh Miller drove his WRX wagon to a fourth place finish (2:16.879), and James Pasquier posted a best time of 2:18.657 in his yellow 993 chassis 911, the oldest, but perhaps classiest, car in the field.
Kyle Schick
Reigning TTU Champion Kyle Schick was learning how the RaceCo/OS Giken/Ohlins Racing/VP Fuels/AMS GTR handled in rear wheel drive configuration. 2:04.185 was his best time during Saturday’s sessions.
Will we see Shawn Murphy next round? Will Trent Smith get all four wheels of the GTR spinning together? Can there possibly be more Porsches on track? Find out all of this and more next month! The next race weekend is April 25-27 on the West track. Registration is open and we look forward to seeing everyone return for Round 2 of the NASA Utah racing series
Words by Michael Chandler and Matt Guiver. Photos by Michael Chandler
*Article and Photos are copyright of CAMAutoMag.Com and their respective owners.
