Finally got our body panels back from paint and reinstalled. The new satin black looks great and really changes the look of the RZR I think. While the panels were off getting painted I installed a set of 6000k HIDs too, bringing the current list of modifications to the following:

-Aerocharger Turbo kit (single vaiable turbo w/ intercooler)

-EPI clutch kit with custom Helix

-Exit long travel suspension w/ external reservoir adjustable coilovers

-ITP’s newest 15″ wheels w/ 26″ tires

-6000K HID’s

-Lock & Ride box

+A few odds and ends

Yet to be installed: data-logging equipment, rev-limiter control box, Donaldson air intake system

For more info on our RZR turbo kit or our Variable, self-contained turbos visit:

www.AEROCHARGER.com

Sometimes the best drifters are the ones that do it on a budget. Which seems to be the philosophy behind the Metcalf Coyotes, a local drift crew here in Kansas City. It’s harder to find a Coyote that isn’t running a nearly stock KA24, than it is to find a Coyote that hasn’t proven his talent in the corners. But give any of them enough time and a bit of money and they’ll build a drift car worth, um, blogging about.

Derrick Fintel, the originator of the Kansas City Drift Association (KCDA-online.com) is doing exactly that. He’s been slowly and meticulously building his other S13 coupe “Whitey” for some time now and I finally got to lend a hand in the build. After getting the suspension done and the built SR20 installed the car was towed over to our shop to get some welding done. We ended up building a downpipe-back exhaust, intercooler mounts & pipes, and an intake pipe for the turbo.

Derrick has a pretty unique intercooler setup, utilizing a bolt-in replacement intercooler for another car (see if you can figure it out) the cooler fits perfectly in front of the radiator with a bit of modification to the core support. All and all the pipes turned out very nice and routing was simple. On the exhaust side of things we made it all one-piece, stainless-steel, with no muffler and just a dump tucked up under the bumper at the end. We made it a point to make the exhaust as straight as possible and will at some point in time be adding a flange at the rear axel to allow different muffler and tip options that can be easily swapped out for events.

After a couple long nights and lots of beer we finished up the fabrication work. As it sits right now that is only waiting on a few loose ends before it’s track worthy. One of which is a huge side-mount Audi oil cooler about the size of some aftermarket Z32 side mount intercoolers. The fittings that Audi used on these coolers weren’t ideal so it will take some figuring on the best may to attach new fittings to the cooler. In the end I think we will end up removing the Audi ends and tapping the tanks for the desired fitting. I’ll be sure to post some photos of the car when it’s all said and done. Can’t wait to see this car in action at the next local Drift Event on June 5th.

Our Turbo RZR is finally growing up. For a long time it was nothing but fast, but now it can handle too. We recently installed a full EXIT long travel kit from Zbroz Racing, complete with external reservoir coilovers. Install was fairly straightforward and the difference is night and day. We also installed a set of 15″ IPD wheels with 26″ tires at the same time we did the suspension.

Here’s a pic of stock wheels & tires and stock suspension for comparison:

Right after we got the suspension and wheels on we tore the RZR apart again. This time all the plastics are getting painted satin black. we also now have a set of 4″ fender flares that we will install once the body panels are finished. I’ll be sure to post the finished product.

The Saker GT. I almost forgot about these cars until I came across a picture of one today. Developed in New Zealand to be a kit you assemble yourself for lower budget race teams. It’s a simple fiberglass bodied tube chassis with an STi EJ257 motor mounted midship that weighs about 1700lbs race ready. 

The thing that interests me about the Saker GT is the idea of building one for the street. There is already a huge aftermarket for the EJ257 engine, and those big side scoops would be ideal for a side mounted intercooler.

Here are some pictures of the one I worked on a few years back. The owner brought it in complaining about a power loss issue, which ended up being due to the turbo ingesting something which caused a significant damage to the compressor wheel and shaft.

The car I worked with did not have the cool full leather interior available for the street cars. The interior was simply a sheet metal dash and some bucket seats. 

More info at:

http://www.sakereurope.com/

 http://www.sakercars.com.au/

We have been making quite a bit of progress on “Stage-2″ of our Twin-Aerocharged G8. Fabrication is complete and with a bit of sanding/smoothing everything will be off to get powdercoated. This has been a great project so far. This motor is running completely stock internals and transmission just a pair of our variable-vane turbos, a cat-back exhaust, and an EFI-live tune it managed to make 605hp and run 11.09-second quarter-mile @ 130mph.

Here’s a pic of how the charge-tube/engine bay looked in “stage-1″ trim:

I can’t wait to see what kind of power it makes with the new parts we made. We made a completely new, more voluminous main charge pipe with more gradual bends, re-routed charge tubes, one-piece stainless manifold-to-turbo pipes, and added some additional engine management and data-logging equipment as well. Once this car is complete we can move onto some new projects for this summer such as the ’09 Camaro SS twin-turbo kit, Cam-Am Spyder turbo kit, Arctic-Cat Prowler turbo kit, and a few others…

Having spent the past few years working on Porsches, and my entire life addicted to JDM cars it makes a lot of sense why I would be drawn to the RWB cars. RAUH Welt is a tuner based out of Japan, building street and tack Porsches, among a few other projects. RWB is the vision of Nakai-san, the driver of the flat-black car seen here. His use of the flat-black paint scheme is derived from the American rat-rod scene, which he is a big fan of. 

I’ve worked on many 930′s in my day, but none compare to the style and presence the RWB cars seem to have. I would jump at any opportunity to check out any RWB cars in person, if not to see the craftsmanship of their conversions, but to see what performance parts they are using!

For more about RAUH Welt or these cars check out Speedhunters.com or Auto-Otaku.com

I came across this guy’s work in the Sept. issue of Top Gear mag and was very impressed. Cosmic Motors is the work of Daniel Simon, who has a very interesting perspective on future cars to say the least. Concept car renders can sometimes lack the fine details so seeing cars with this amount of detail and style really blew my mind. I particularly like the integrated taillights in the exhaust tips and the hidden luggage compartments in the door sills in the car above.

This car was very interesting too. Sort of reminds me of the game Wipeout only this thing has wheels. The whole wheel/tire/suspension design is very cool.

This one kind of looks like Tetsuo’s bike:

Check more Cosmic Motors creations at:

 http://www.danielsimon.net/

I was playing around with an F-16 in photoshop and the idea of a delta-wing design came to mind. Not like the NASA deigned F-16XL but more along the line of  a SAAB Gripen or a Eurofighter Typhoon. Both of which are about on par with one another in performance as far as modern fighters go. Both would have no trouble out maneuvering an F-16. While the centralized main wing design with large rear control surfaces has been the basis for so many fighters in the past, modern fighter aircraft designs seem to be leaving that style behind. It seems nearly half of the 5th generation fighters have gone to a delta wing design with the rear control surfaces moved in front of the main wing sections. By doing so the fighter can pull up much easier. By pointing the front control surfaces (canards) up the rest of the aircraft follows easily. Where as with the conventional design when you pull up the rear control surfaces point down, forcing the rear of the aircraft downward. This, when coupled with thrust, pulls the fighter upward. Slightly less effective, which is why modern fighters, such as the F-22, have thrust vectoring nozzles to eliminate this issue and gain mobility.

The Gripen is a relatively small fighter with a single F/A-18 derived engine if I remember right. Delta-wing & canard design. 

The Typhoon really isn’t a very large fighter either, but it is twin engined,  fast and very maneuverable. Delta-wing & canard design as well.

So obviously in the photoshops all I’ve done is moved the F-16′s wings around. So it’s not really a true “delta” wing design it’s more like the delta wing’s slightly retarded cousin. But it does have larger front control surfaces compared to the others. Who knows if it would even fly but it would be cool to see the F-16 get a major overhaul since the F-35 has proven to be too expensive for mass production. A delta wing and forward canard configuration would be just what the F-16 needs to gain more mobility in the air. That or perhaps just the addition of front canards like the F-15 Active or the Su-37 would be enough for the F-16?