Saturday, November 19, 2011
Saturday, October 15, 2011
VIR Oktoberfast NASA Mid Atlantic
Here are some pics from the little bit of track time we had before the transmission synchros went bad, new transmission coming soon so for the downtime enjoy these awesome photos!
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
Z Nationals Track Day @ Atlanta Motor Speedway
The Z Nationals 2011 Car Show and Track day hosted by Z1 Motorsports in Atlanta, GA was the first time the whole team with both the Z and G where out together since the G35 has been finished and with the cars cleaned up and ready to race we headed down 85 to Atlanta dark and early Saturday morning. We arrived in Atlanta right on time and dropped of the SOHO EvoX at Competition Clutch for some new goodies, but thats a whole other story. When we got to Z1 we were immediatly taken back by how many Z/G cars there where and as soon as we parked we got plenty of attention. Every single car there was impressive in there own respect and it was a very well done show and dyno day, hats off to the guys from Z1 for putting on such an awesome event for all of us to see some friends and meet some new ones. As great as the car show was on Saturday the real fun began on Sunday at Atlanta Motor Speedway. The track day used the full infiield and part of the oval and had a top speed of over 170 in our G35 on the embankment and well over 120 a few other times making it a very quick 2.5 miles. With our first time out after testing we had a great outing and where absolutely flying. Our driver, Kevin Parlett, was driving the wheels off of the car with our buddys from Momentum Performance right behind in their track 350Z and Mule car. The G35 was fast right out of the gate once we learned the course and did a few suspension adjustments to the SOHO G35 and Momentum 350Z, both cars where blistering fast bumper to bumper around the track definetly demonstrating how well built both cars are. We had an absolute blast at the 2011 Z Nationals, it is by far one of the best Z/G gathering in the country and we look forward to 2012. In the meantime enjoy the photos and video from the weekend and for more event coverage check out http://kparlettracing.blogspot.com/
Sunday, August 21, 2011
Brake Failure at Carolina Motorsports Park
If you go wide open through the kink at the top of 5th gear about 140mph at Carolina Motorsports Park then you better be able to stop... well I couldnt, as you can see from the video above. The first time out with real track duty on the car started out amazing at the Turn One Track event. It was my first time out going full speed on a road course with the car since the build was completed. The classroom and instruction TurnOne supplied was absolutely awesome and before I knew it my slow laps in the morning turned into blistering laps in the afternoon. The car handled absolutely amazing and was on rails all day, it would do literally anything and everything I asked of it and never had me wanting more out of the car, and we are still on low boost for now and the power will be increased largely in the next coming weeks. With the car handling perfect I was able to hold the throttle wide open in spot that most either had to lift or brake at so by the time I was getting the line down better and better by the 40th lap of the day I was hitting 140mph going into the switchback of turn 11. But on the final session and on by far my fastest lap of the day the brakes pads exceeded there maximum operating temperature (wrong compound... oops) and they disintegrated instantly when the 6 piston Wilwoods applied pressure and the nice stiff brake pedal hit the floor and stayed there as the metal on metal tried to stop with no success. Realizing the brakes had gone and I had no means of stopping from the top of 5th gear i downshifted and held on for dear life and slowly turned it into the sandpit and was going so fast the car came to a stop at the completely opposite side of the pit and within a few feet of the tire barrier. Whew got lucky on that one! Getting new race compound pads and front rotors and back to CMP again on Friday the 2nd for some more seat time, and faster laps! Check out the wild video of the the brake failure!
The car nice and clean before the sandtrap. |
The G35 with my instructors Z06 |
Metal on metal |
Just sand, nothing too bad |
Walking past a few Porsches on the straight |
Monday, August 8, 2011
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Z Con 2011 at Savannah, GA
The week of ZCon 2011 in Savannah, GA was the hottest week the eastern seaboard of the US has seen in a very long time, so as any racing enthusiast it was only right to take the car we just finished building and put it through its paces by taking a little road trip. After packing the G's trunk full Christina and I embarked on the 4 hour 130+ degree non AC race car from Charlotte to beautiful Savannah, and no surprise to us it was hot as humanly possible but the car didnt even have a single problem whatsoever. After enjoying the downtown Savannah scenery and the Z car shows that seemed to be upset we brought a gun (G35) to a knife fight (350Z), with all of the car show and everything else out of the way it was time to race and I was excited to try out the new tune. Once again it was an autox and hot as can be but the car handle perfectly and with a sway bar adjustment in the second session I pulled away with the fastest time. The week in Savannah was a true test of endurance for the freshly built G and it passed with flying colors... Now enough of this autox stuff its time to go road racing!!!
Dont forget there are always more photos on the KPR Facebook!
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
Carolina Motorsports Park SCCA AutoX 1st Shakedown
The day finally came! After months and months of blood, sweat, tears, grease and money the SOHO Motorsports Time Attack G35 got to see its first track session at the SCCA Central / South Carolina Region AutoX at Carolina Motorsports Park in Kershaw, SC. This was an autox setup on the second half of the CMP course and lik most autocrosses we didnt get out of second gear in the course but we still got plenty of seat time and I got to feel the car and how it handles for the first time. After running through a few glitches here and there and the car being really tight we came into the pits and reflashed the ECU and loosened up the rear sway bar and the car responded beautifully giving us a pretty darn fast time our first time out. Here are some pics from our maiden voyage. Next up is an endurance test I like to call ZCon so be on the lookout.
Dont forget there are always more photos on the KPR Facebook!
Sunday, July 10, 2011
ISO/SWD Drift & Car Show... and Dyno Day!
Now that the car is finally assembled with all of the body work done its nice to be able to drive it around and show it off to everyone who's been following the build locally. After last weekend's show was at CMS this weekend was at ZMax Dragstrip. Insane Stance & Offset and StreetWise Drift put on a dual drift and car show that was easily one of the best meets of the year with some of the best and most bad ass drift cars on the east coast and some of the cleanest show cars on earth. Everywhere the eye could see were beautiful cars, NOS Energy drinks and V8 swapped cars destroying tires and sending smoke signals on the drift course. This was the first time the SOHO 350Z and the G35 were out together and the second we pulled in a crowd formed around the car. The response was great and we met a lot of great fans who have supported me and the shop through this whole process, and met great guys from local shops like Phantasm and Driven. We probably wont get out to too many shows in the future but after the warm reception we got from everyone we may have to find some time and come out to more. Here are some pics of the car show but it doesnt end there, after the show we went to the dyno...
After having a great showing at the ISO/SWD event, Nik and I along with the guys from Driven grabbed a late lunch and headed to the dyno at CES Motorsport to start putting a final tune on the Time Attack G. After a few hours and lots of mad scientist number crunching by Nik the car was putting down a pretty high number for the moderate tune on 8psi. Now before you ask, which most of you already have.... no numbers till final numbers ;) you all got spoiled being able to see every step of this awesome build process, a little suspense wont hurt ya haha. In the meantime here are some pictures of the dyno night.
Dont forget there are always more photos on the KPR Facebook!
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)