This week's Ride of the Week was previously featured in episode two of Driving Line's Driver Battles. While he may have narrowly come in second, it doesn't take away from the beauty of the car. As it's owner Colin Frost will tell you, it has a ton of personality, and he's added even more himself, with copious modifications inside and out. Watch the video above to see exactly all he's done to the car, and admire a good donut or two.
Toyota Corolla versus Ferrari—sounds like a mismatch made in heaven, right? After all, the Corolla is one of the most basic, economical and affordable cars in the world. And a Ferrari? Well, it’s a Ferrari—what more needs to be said?
Not so fast, you’d be remiss to call this battle based on manufacturer alone. While David Westfall’s ’92 Ferrari 348 GTS is the type of car you may have had a poster of as a kid, it’s not going up against your aunt’s clapped-out Corolla here. We’re talking about Colin Frost’s heavily modified ’87 Corolla AE86, a car that’s been honed for doing stuff exactly like this. Let's take a closer look at them both...
It’s hard to call any Ferrari “affordable,” but a car like David’s ’92 348 might be as close as it gets, especially if you go back more than a decade to 2007 when he purchased it from a friend after making him a “lowball offer.”
David is far from the typical Ferrari owner that you might find hanging out at Cars & Coffee. In fact, the San Diego native is much more known for his Lexus SC300 drift car. Before that, he cut his teeth at the track in his engine-swapped Honda Civic.
While David’s ’Rari might not have the same face-ripping power as its modern supercar counterparts, the naturally aspirated 3.4L V8 is still impressive. With its gated manual transmission that has all but disappeared from modern supercars, the car is something any enthusiast would be happy to have in his or her garage.
As far as the specs go, David’s 348 is darn close to stock. Bumping power a bit are a Steve Maxwell exhaust and intake manifold beside an upgraded ECU. AP Racing brakes help slow the car down, and if you’re wondering where those wheels came from, David replaced the original ones with a set of 18s from a 360 Modena.
Orange County resident Colin Frost has an extensive background in the SoCal drift scene, and his résumé includes stints in Formula Drift and countless hours behind the wheel at regional drift events. Colin is especially fond of the legendary Toyota AE86 Corolla and purchased his first one for $500 back in 2003.
Colin acquired his current AE86 from a friend in 2011, though the car’s history goes back even further than that. Originally built in 2006 for light track use, the Corolla fell into a state of disrepair before Colin bought it, when he pulled it from a field where a group of goats had claimed the car as their own.
In the years since, Colin has rebuilt the Corolla into a dual-purpose drift and grip vehicle. Under the hood, it’s sporting a lightly upgraded AE111 20-valve 4A-GE swap.
Pair that with custom BC suspension and a Kaaz LSD out back for a rippin’ good time. Outside, the Bentley Green Toyota wears a Levin front-end conversion, wide front fenders, rear fender flares and a huge GT wing from Big Country Labs, a company Colin co-owns.
Our setting for this battle is the Streets of Willow just north of Los Angeles, and both cars are running fresh Nitto NT01 tires to keep things even. Will the power of the Ferrari win out over the nimble AE86?
In terms of performance potential, the LLY Duramax offers more of the same, but it also brings with it a few advancements that separate it from the LB7. First, its injectors use a different design and are externally accessible (not located under the valve covers). Second, a higher-flowing and variable geometry turbocharger—the Garrett GT3788VA—is used to feed the engine. The revised common-rail injectors eliminate what proved to be the Achilles Heel of the LB7 and the VVT turbo provides an improvement in drivability throughout the entire rpm range. However, as is the case with each generation Duramax, the LLY still has its quirks. Primarily due to airflow restrictions (and the fact that the LLY came with the smallest radiator of any Duramax-powered truck), the ’04.5-’05 GMs are notorious for overheating.
But don’t be discouraged! Most of the LLY’s excessive heat issues can be resolved fairly easily. Trust us, this engine can dish out just as much horsepower as any other Duramax. In the power recipes listed below, we’ll show you how to integrate affordable weak-link fixes into your performance game plan. Starting with a $2,000 budget and working our way up, the following hand-picked parts combinations are specifically designed to allow you to not only improve the power of your LLY, but enjoy the added power for the long haul.
Stay tuned. We’ll show you the best way to modify the highly-desired LBZ next.
Precise ECM tuning via EFI Live not only adds considerable power to these trucks, but finely-cultivated calibrations can also improve drivability, fuel efficiency and even reliability. However—and just as is the case with the LB7-powered GMs—while the common-rail injection system and stock turbocharger can support as much as 530rwhp with EFI Live tuning, the stock Allison transmission won’t last (especially the five-speed version used in ’01-’05 trucks). For this reason, most aftermarket tuners offer “stock transmission” calibrations, which produce less peak horsepower and torque than “built transmission” tuning files.
Most of the exhaust systems you’ll find for the LLY Duramax can also be used on the LB7 (’01-‘04), LBZ (’06-‘07) and even the LMM (’07.5-‘10). The 4-inch diameter, downpipe-back, aluminized exhaust system (shown) from Diamond Eye Performance is one such system. It will run you $250 to $270, depending on where you purchase it.
While installing analog gauges along the A-pillar will save you a few bucks (roughly $100), Edge Products’ Insight CTS2 monitor allows you to view every parameter the ECM keeps track of. This includes keeping tabs on key vitals such as rail pressure, boost and transmission, coolant and engine oil temperature. The price listed above includes Edge’s optional expandable EGT probe kit, which is highly recommended any time you’re running performance-oriented tuning.
From the factory, the LLY came with a highly restrictive turbo inlet manifold (also known as the turbo mouthpiece or air intake elbow), which in turn made the turbocharger work harder to build sufficient boost. Replacing the stock unit with S&B Filters’ high-flow turbo inlet manifold solves most of the LLY’s overheating problems.
Reinforcing the five-speed Allison 1000 is mandatory if you need your truck to send 500hp and 1,000 lb-ft or more to the pavement on a regular basis. Most Allison builds entail a triple-disc torque converter, upgraded clutches, improved clutch count in areas that require it, new frictions, steels, a performance-oriented valve body with fresh solenoids, a modified pump and all new bearings and seals. As for ZF-6-equipped (manual transmission) trucks, all you’ll need is a clutch upgrade such as the 650hp rated street dual disc from South Bend ($1,200).
Just like the LB7-powered trucks, the LLY-powered versions came without a lift pump. Instead, the CP3 injection pump relies on its internal suction valve to pull fuel from the tank. Beyond the stock power level, a lift pump is always a wise supporting modification to add. The all-inclusive, AirDog system pictured above flows 150 gph at 8 to 10 psi and supports up to 800rwhp.
With a built Allison bolted behind the LLY, your tuner has free reign to unleash another 50 to 80rwhp via custom EFI Live tuning. In addition to dialing in the ECM, make sure you opt for TCM (transmission control module) tuning. Not only does TCM tuning aid transmission longevity, but it also helps optimize the truck’s shift-strategy for utmost efficiency.
Replacing the restrictive factory downpipe is always good for freeing up a few ponies and cooling down EGT. It’s also a great mod to do while your transmission is removed. The 3-inch diameter, mandrel bent steel downpipe from aFe Power features a CNC machined V-band inlet and outlet and comes wrapped in high-temp thermal tape.
Now that you’ve improved exhaust flow courtesy of a 3-inch downpipe and 4-inch downpipe-back system, it’s time to open up the air side of the equation. The high quality systems from S&B Filters ease serviceability, match or exceed the factory filtration standard and offer an oiled air filter option that’s reusable.
Fleece Performance Engineering’s Cheetah turbocharger line is well established in the diesel aftermarket and its 63mm VNT version is a stock-appearing, direct drop-in charger that’s perfect for the enthusiast that both tows and competes. Key highlights include a forged milled wheel (FMW) compressor wheel with a 63mm inducer, 360-degree thrust bearing assembly and a high-flow turbine wheel. The 63mm VNT Cheetah provides stock-like spool up yet can support as much as 650rwhp.
Because the factory two-piece Y-bridge is known to be restrictive, leak and even blow apart under high boost pressure, upgrading to a larger, 3-inch diameter, single piece version is ideal—especially with a higher flowing turbo in the mix. The high-quality Y-bridge systems built by Wehrli Custom Fabrication are arguably the best in the industry and can add as much as 20 to 30rwhp to stock injector trucks.
Just as we recommended in our LB7 power recipes, opt for a set of flow-tested and balanced injectors with 30-percent larger nozzles. The stock CP3 injection pump won’t allow you to realize the full potential of these injectors, but with sound custom tuning and the combination of parts listed above, they can get you into the 610 to 640rwhp range. A set of 30-percent over injectors is the perfect upgrade for the LLY owner that doesn’t want to take a chance on bending a connecting rod—or that isn’t quite ready to build an engine.
If you plan to tow heavy with your modified LLY, you’ll want to make sure the cooling system has no chance of overheating. The best way to accomplish this is to add an external oil cooler. By adding extra cooling capacity to the oil side of things, engine oil won’t become super-heated, you won’t see a worrisome dive in oil pressure and catastrophic engine failures can wholly be avoided. The Cross Diesel Performance (CDP) External Oil Cooler system pictured is available from the Dmax Store, utilizes all -12 AN fittings, comes with heavy-duty ¾-inch hydraulic hoses and is known to drop operating temperatures by more than 20 degrees.
When it comes to recovery gear, you never want to skimp on quality. If you’ve followed our 2008 Toyota Tacoma build, you’ll likely remember when we upgraded the front end with a Premium Series winch front bumper from Fab Fours. At the time, we decided to use an old 8,000-pound winch we had left over from another project. This off-brand winch had worked OK, for a while, but it finally stopped pulling its weight (quite literally).
Since we’ll be using the Tacoma as our shuttle for the 52nd annual Easter Jeep Safari in Moab, Utah, we needed a reliable recovery tool. Our answer, a VR10-S winch from Warn. Part of the more value-oriented line, the VR is designed for recreational ‘wheelers who want the peace of mind of a quality recovery tool, but don’t need the speed and continual performance required of Warn’s top-tier winches. For us it’s perfect, as the compact design fits nicely in our Fab Fours bumper. Plus, given that we typically stick to more scenic overland adventures, we won’t likely find ourselves in a winch marathon on some black diamond trail.
While the video above offers insight into how it performs, we’ve diving even more into the details of the winch in the article below.
The Warn VR (Vehicle Recovery) series of winches are some of the most attractively priced in the Warn catalog. Despite the lost cost of entry, the only thing cheap about the winch is the price. We picked the VR10-S for its 10,000-pound pulling capacity. This is nearly perfect for our Tacoma when you factor in the suggested 1.5-times multiplier for getting the correct vehicle winch rating.
We opted for the S version as we wanted the ease and light packaging of Warn’s Spydura synthetic rope. Fit with 90 feet of 3/8-inch rope, we’ll have plenty of reach to pull ourselves or others up and out. There’s even an included sleeve that allows you to route the rope over more abrasive obstacles in situations where it may come in contact.
While you can see the entire bumper install here, we will say that taking it off at home will require a second set of hands. Another smart move is to place a few layers of tape along the bottom of the grille, headlights, and front fenders. This will be cheap insurance in case the bumper accidently grazes the front end on install or removal.
The VR10-S uses a common 10-inch, four-hole mounting spread. Since the winch already comes pre-wired from the factory, all we needed to do was route the power and ground to the Tacoma’s battery.
A standard hook and Hawse fairlead are included with the winch. The red Warn pull tab is there so you can safely free spool the winch from the vehicle without needing to grab the hook, which can get burrs over time.
It didn’t take us any time to put the winch to work as we came across a very stuck Range Rover on a recent beach outing. Thankfully, the winch had no trouble extracting the luxury SUV. We’re sure we’ll get even more toggle time behind the controller soon.
Another change astute readers may notice is the tires. With such a large amount of road miles on the horizon, and more diverse overlanding adventures, we opted to change out the mud terrains for a more refined set of Nitto Ridge Grapplers. Our 285/75R17 fit nicely under the truck and have proven to be excellent in the sand and on the tarmac so far. We’ll log nearly 5,000 miles in just a few weeks as we plan on driving the Tacoma from North Carolina to Moab, Utah, for the Easter Jeep Safari. That’s right, we’re bringing a Toyota to a Jeep party. It’s not the first time either.
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The 22nd annual Osaka Auto Messe rolled into Intex Osaka convention center during what felt like an exceptionally cold weekend. Fortunately, the cold didn't prevent us from seeing all of the hottest cars and trends in Japan.
Although a fraction of the size of its larger sibling, Osaka Auto Messe definitely holds its own when compared to Tokyo Auto Salon. Osaka has been known to display some hidden gems that only the unique people from Osaka can bring out. This is still a popular show for some of Japan's big hitters in the auto world.
This includes the top prize winner Toyota GR Super Sport Concept. It was clearly still a fan favorite and made a huge impact on the show. Although they did not bring the display without the body, it was still impressive to see it again in person.
There was still a significant amount of Toyota C-HRs and Lexus LC 500s from companies like Wald and T-Demand. The Kuhl Racing C-HR and the new Modellista C-HR concept were also on hand, proving to be headliners in showing off the popular C-HR with even more customizing options.
In our opinion, the heart of custom car culture in Japan is the Kansai region, especially Osaka. Known as a working town, the style of cars that dominate Osaka Auto Messe reflect that culture, with plenty of kei-trucks, vans and probably the best VIP style cars on the planet. Quintessential JDM style emanates from this area, so it only makes sense to go there to find out what trends are big now and will be soon.
All of the ideas and designs come out of some of the world's most famous tuning shops like TRA-Kyoto, Libert Walk and Wald. Not to be outdone, there are also plenty of smaller tuning shops around the region that have also made quite the names for themselves, like Five Mart and KRC Modified.
T-Demand continues to dominate the world of VIP style, as what seemed to be half of the hall featured their customers' cars. Big sedans on air ride may not be for everyone, but you can't argue the skill of execution with perfect wheel and tire fitments that accentuated the mere millimeters in ground clearance.
At the AP Garage, we spotted a familiar freshly finished Nissan Skyline Hakosuka, but what really caught out eye was their BMW 2002 sporting their new air suspension systems. This was just a tease for the area of the show dedicated to Euro cars, showing off some of the best builds, such as Porsche Boxters and Caymans.
Auto Messe also offered plenty of surprises like this awesome Volkswagen Golf GTI by Voomeran. The ultra-clean finish combined with its wheels and ride height definitely reflects the style in Japan. These days, Japan has its own growing "import scene," and it is great to see this style being applied to more than just Japanese cars.
Even though it's not as big as Tokyo Auto Salon, all of the biggest trends and hidden gems find their way to Osaka Auto Messe. We'll keep coming back for as long as we can, and we highly recommend giving Osaka Auto Messe a visit next time you're in Japan.
The Geneva International Motor Show kicks the automotive universe into life each year and 2018 was no exception to this rule. Everyone who is anyone in the motoring universe (and me) tries to be there, sending the already expensive cost of visiting the charming lakeside city into the stratosphere. Even in the rarefied atmosphere of industry giants and celebrities, the cars are the stars. We petrol-heads should be grateful for that.
So what was grabbing attention at the show this year? A lot and not much is the confusing answer. There were a number of strong underlying trends that show the directions that the motor industry is headed towards—more SUVs, more EVs, more SUVEVs and let’s get rid of the driver. On a personal level, the march towards bulky, heavy cars that carry even less luggage makes no sense, but the sales figures suggest otherwise. Someone is buying these juggernauts in numbers and even the high end of the market like Ferrari and Bentley are chasing the Range Rover segment.
Grabbing a line from one of my favorite movies, Kelly’s Heroes, “Always with the negative waves, Moriarty, always with the negative waves.” Perhaps I had better move on to the positive side of the show. There was plenty to admire and enjoy, and some to get quite excited about.
In some quarters it is quite fashionable to bash big business, and in the automotive industry, they don’t come any bigger than Toyota. Well, in contradiction of that movement, I would give Toyota five stars for their display. For a start, it had my Car of the Show—the GR Supra Racing Concept. With a front engine, rear-wheel-drive and two seats, it was positively analogue in this dynamic and exciting SUVEV world, reminding me of why I loved cars in the first place.
Developed by Toyota Gazoo Racing, it is said that this concept will be very close to the road-going production version due out next year. However, it was made clear to me at Geneva that there are no plans to race the Supra Concept in GT competition in either GTE or GT3 spec. Gamers will get to enjoy the virtual performance of this beast in the latest update of Gran Turismo Sport. This is clever marketing, getting all the kudos of a real sports car without the tiresome business of going racing.
The Supra destined for the street is being developed alongside the new BMW Z4, but Toyota were at pains to emphasize that the Supra will be very different from the German car. It will be lightweight and is said to have a turbocharged six-cylinder engine from BMW with more than 330bhp. Some folks may find themselves inclined to drift this car. The Supra is intended to build on the excellent reputation of the GT86, bringing more power to the table, and perhaps also a bigger smile.
"Fun to Drive" was the expression that Toyota were keen to associate with their display and with four other competition cars around, including their Le Mans challenger, it was clear that this was not just a marketing jingle. Toyota's commitment to exploring the exhilaration of motoring comes right from the top. Akio Toyoda, the President of Toyota, is a real car guy, who has raced in the Nürburgring 24 Hours in the Lexus LFA, another expression of ‘"Fun to Drive."
In contrast to the Toyota/Lexus celebration of "fun" and their acknowledgement of motor sport, the Volkswagen Group stands had virtually no mention of competition to be seen. This was most odd considering that Porsche, Audi, Bentley and Lamborghini all run high profile, factory supported motor sport programs around the globe. Porsche won the World Endurance Championship and the Le Mans 24 Hours in 2017 but not even a whisper of this success was to be found. There was this pretty Lamborghini, however.
Porsche managed to confound my SUVEV theories with this Porsche E Cross Turismo that was presented as a CUV or Cross Utility Vehicle, but logically this should be a CUVEV, I think. Based on the Panamera, this concoction may see the light of day soon, or not.
The other truly five-star stand was more surprising, at least at first glance. Aston Martin was struggling a few years ago, and there were whispers about its long-term future. Any doubts have been swept away. There was a confidence, almost amounting to a swagger, around Aston Martin at Geneva.
Well where to begin? We'll start with the relaunch of the sub-brand Lagonda with the futuristic Vision Concept. This is apparently aimed at the Rolls-Royce/Bentley luxury market segment, but instead of traditional design everything will be optimized for electrification. No need to worry about where the engine or transmission will go—the space will be used instead to revolutionize the interior.
Marek Reichmann, Chief Creative Officer, explained the strategy. "Lagonda has no need to occupy a huge amount of road space or make an ostentatious wealth statement. It is like comparing Concorde to the first class cabin of a conventional airliner. By ditching traditional architecture like Parthenon grilles and massive frontal areas, and by using electrical power, Lagonda design can still be distinctive and luxurious without being grandiose. It offers its customers a thoroughly modern, emission-free form of super-luxurious mobility."
Time will tell if this gets off the drawing board. Further evidence of the resurgence of Aston Martin was on hand in the form of the Valkyrie AMR Pro hypercar, a visible manifestation of the partnership with the Formula One team Red Bull, now known as Aston Martin Red Bull Racing. The track-only car is the work of legendary designer Adrian Newey, Chief Technical Officer of the team. Stories coming from the F1 world suggest that Red Bull wishes to build an engine of their own rather than continue to be a customer of Renault or Honda, which would be branded as Aston Martin. All of this makes perfect sense in light of the rumors that Aston Martin intends to launch an IPO in the near future.
There were a number of city concept cars at Geneva as the manufacturers wrestle with the question of how an individual's transportation requirements will be addressed in the coming years. This was Smart's answer to the quandary.
First seen in Frankfurt back in September, the Honda Urban EV Concept is now destined for production and orders will be accepted in early 2019.
A more radical approach to traffic comes from a Dutch outfit, with the PAL-V Liberty. This, according to their literature, is:
A CAR THAT FLIES
A PLANE THAT DRIVES
Inspired by nature, engineered by men and evolved over time, the PAL-V Liberty is a groundbreaking product that inaugurates the age of the flying car.
This is certainly a new kind of hybrid, straight out of a Bond movie circa 1968. No mention of needing two licences, nor of how long this will be allowed by the authorities once Amazon's drone delivery system gets going.
In a show like Geneva there has to be a lemon or two to offset the genuinely good stuff. The Mansory Bugatti Veyron Vivere Final Diamond Edition by Moti was a strong contender for this honor. While the panels on this £1.5 million Bugatti Veyron might look like the freshly-polished floors of a hotel lobby, it's actually carbon fibre, known as "Marble Collage."
The car made it on the the pages of the busiest newspaper website in the UK, and then social media got hold of the story with predictable results, with suggestions of the look being the work of a flock of seagulls or worse.
The diamond-encrusted Bugatti badges front and rear also garnered a lot of comments, as did the interior. There is no indication as to the cost of these "upgrades," but as the car starts life in the over $2 million bracket, it is likely to be eye-watering.
Geneva 2018 was full of interest, as it always is. It is also a good opportunity to meet up with those in your circle who share a passion for cars—both good and bad.
In 2018, tens of thousands of diesel owners know what a 500, 600 or 700rwhp truck feels like—but what’s life like with four-digit power on tap? Can you tame that kind of firepower enough to daily drive it? Mike Maas thinks so. The Minnesota native recently transformed his 300,000-mile, LB7 Duramax-powered ’03 Silverado 2500 HD into the ultimate daily: a 1,200rwhp terror on wheels. But just how exotic is the parts list that got him to this point? To make 1,200rwhp possible, it took big fuel and lots of air. To make the 2,200 lb-ft of torque that comes along with it survivable, a built engine and a stout transmission were mandatory. Finally, to make this kind of power streetable, it took precise control of key engine parameters by way of custom ECM and TCM tuning.
Despite an extensive list of engine, fuel system and transmission modifications, nothing in Mike’s build is what we would consider over-the-top. In fact, many diesel enthusiasts would even deem it a run-of-the-mill performance build for someone chasing big horsepower. For instance, his LB7 makes use of the stock crankshaft and camshaft, utilizes the same Carrillo connecting rods and cast-aluminum Mahle Motorsport pistons used in everything from 700 to 2,000hp applications and even runs standard ARP 425 head studs. A pair of BorgWarner turbochargers and non-ported Street Series cylinder heads from Wagler Competition Products handle airflow, while two stock displacement injection pumps feed a (fairly common) set of 150-percent over injectors on the fuel side. Again, it’s nothing wildly out of the norm—but it makes huge power.
The best part? When Mike’s truck isn’t melting down chassis dynos or smoking all four tires at the drag strip, it’s out making deliveries and picking up parts for his business, Dark Horse Diesel.
Buried beneath a beautiful compound turbo system fabricated by HSP Diesel, you’ll find an externally balanced LB7 Duramax sporting a factory crank, forged-steel Carrillo rods, stock bore, fly-cut 16.8:1 compression Mahle Motorsport pistons and a forged flex plate from BD Diesel. Mike’s local machine shop, Craig’s Machine & Dyno, handled all machine work. Up top, a set of cast-aluminum street series heads from Wagler Competition Products, fitted with 130 ppi valve springs, are anchored to the block via ARP 425 head studs.
A BorgWarner-based, S485 SX-E takes the biggest bite out of air in the compound arrangement. The T6 flanged, atmosphere turbo employs a billet compressor wheel with an 85mm inducer and combines with the valley charger to produce 90 psi of boost.
Speaking of the valley turbo, the popular S369 SX-E serves as the system’s high-pressure unit. Right out of the box, this forged milled wheel (FMW) equipped BorgWarner charger flows just under 100 lbs/min (or 1,400 cfm). Its standard 360-degree thrust bearing assembly also makes it the perfect candidate for standing up to the elevated boost and drive pressure seen in this compound setup.
With a set of 150-percent over, SAC style injectors from S&S Diesel Motorsport to feed, Mike calls on dual CP3s to get the job done. Based on PPE’s Dual Fueler system, the pumps consist of two used, stock displacement units from LBZ and LMM applications. His friends at Wold Fabrication came up with the belt driven CP3 pulley, which matches the truck’s 20x10 SOTA Offroad Novakanes. The CP3s see plenty of low-pressure fuel supply thanks to a 220 gph Titanium series FASS system, which pulls fuel from a Wold Fabrication sump in the factory tank.
You’re reading that correctly, the truck itself has accumulated 303,000 miles and change since rolling off the assembly line. With it being a shop truck and all, Mike tells us he’s already racked up 4,000 additional miles since we snapped this photo.
Every Duramax build is only as good as its tuning allows. In Mike’s case, he chose one of the best Duramax tuners in the industry: Mark Broviak of Danville Performance. Thanks to Mark’s tweaks via EFI Live software, the truck is incredibly well behaved for a setup that builds near-triple-digit boost and cranks out well north of 1,000hp. Mike navigates his Danville tunes via an Edge CTS2 monitor while also using it to watch rail pressure, lift pump fuel supply pressure, engine coolant and transmission temp.
A pair of Pro-Comp Ultra-Lite series gauges from Auto Meter keep tabs on boost pressure (the unit on the left providing the combined, overall measurement, which frequently tops 90 psi). The two toggles on the lower right control an Alli-Locker converter lockup switch from Dirty Hooker Diesel. The manual lockup switch allows Mike to couple the converter to the engine in any gear he chooses—thereby putting maximum power to the ground as soon as possible.
Even though traction can be hard to come by in a 3-ton truck turning out 2,200 lb-ft of torque, the 305/50R20Nitto 420Ss aboard Mike’s Silverado do an exceptional job grabbing ahold of pavement. But not only do the 420Ss keep the truck in a straight line at the track, their all-season design keeps it glued to the road in inclement weather. Rain or shine, it’s an errand truck, first and foremost.
While the classic body ¾-ton doesn’t exactly appear stock, the mud flaps and low profile toolbox certainly don’t suggest it’s packing 1,200-plus hp, either. To keep the Chevy’s front end alive, a set of PPE Stage 3 tie rods were installed, along with one of the company’s straight center links. To rule out the failure-prone GM Gov-Loc, Mike swapped it with a center section out of a Dodge AAM 1150. A set of traction bars from Wold Fabrication keeps the rear axle from wrapping under power. In this photo, Mike’s “nasty little surprise” of a Duramax takes a rest, having just cleared 1,244hp and 2,193 lb-ft on the Dynocom chassis dyno formerly owned by Dan’s Diesel Performance.
If ever there was a Holy Grail version of the Duramax, the LBZ would be it. This rendition of GM’s 6.6L V8 would mark its last production run without the hard-hitting emissions control measures that would follow, namely diesel particulate filters and regeneration. The LBZ would also come with a higher pressure version of the Bosch common-rail injection system, capable of producing 26,000 psi (versus 23,000 psi on LB7 and LLY mills) and was backed by a six-speed version of the Allison 1000. Furthermore, the LBZ engine’s ’06-’07 production run coincided with the final two years of GM’s revered classic body style being available on its HD trucks.
Highly beneficial to enthusiasts seeking to add power to an already-potent package, the LBZ came with a lower compression ratio than its LB7 and LLY predecessors (16.8:1 vs. 17.5:1). This meant the engine would see less peak cylinder pressure, which resulted in its connecting rods being subjected to less stress. While one weak link had been eliminated, another arose in that the LBZ’s pistons were vulnerable to cracking at power levels beyond 600rwhp. To keep your truck reliable—and because most Duramax enthusiasts draw the line at 650rwhp (if not before it)—our LBZ parts recipes conclude before you’re in “built engine” territory.
Own an ’07.5-’10 Chevy or GMC HD? Stay tuned. Our LMM power packages come your way next.
No different from the LB7 and LLY Duramax, the best method of extracting horsepower from the LBZ is through custom EFI Live tuning—and as much as 530rwhp can be made with the stock turbo and injectors. However, even though the six-speed Allison 1000 is capable of handling more power than the five-speed version in factory form, you’re still likely to shorten the life of the transmission if you abuse the hottest tune in your arsenal.
Nearly all of the exhaust systems available for the LBZ Duramax can also be used on the LB7 (’01-‘04), LLY (’04.5-‘05) and even the LMM (’07.5-‘10). Diamond Eye Performance’s 4-inch diameter, downpipe-back, aluminized exhaust system (shown) is one of these systems. Depending on where you shop, it will run you $250 to $270 online.
Edge Products’ Insight CTS2 monitor allows you to view every parameter the ECM keeps track of, which includes key vitals like rail pressure, boost and transmission temperature. The price listed above includes Edge’s optional expandable EGT probe kit, which is highly recommended any time you’re running performance-oriented tuning. Keep in mind that you can save roughly $100 by installing analog gauges along the A-pillar—but you’ll be stuck monitoring three fixed parameters.
Once again, the admission fee for making 500hp+ reliably requires you to put six large down on a built Allison transmission. In this price range, you can get a professionally built A1000 that’s good for anything between 500 to 750rwhp. The majority of performance-oriented Allison builds come with a triple disc torque converter, upgraded clutches, custom frictions and steels (Sun Coast’s GMax-6 pac is a commonly used rebuild kit), a properly set up valvebody with fresh solenoids, a modified pump and all new bearings and seals.
Being that the LBZ was void of a lift pump from the factory, it pays to install an aftermarket lift pump as soon as possible. Instead of relying on the CP3 injection pump to suction fuel from the tank, an AirDog pump will keep a constant 8 to 10 psi worth of fuel pressure on tap at all times. The complete system shown here features a pump that’s capable of flowing 150 gallons per hour and comes with a ½-inch diameter fuel hose, a mounting bracket, the appropriate wire harness and all the installation hardware.
After you’ve built the Allison transmission, your tuner will have the green light to go ahead and max out the performance potential of the stock injectors and turbocharger—which means an all-out performance tune capable of making up to 530rwhp. In conjunction with running custom ECM tuning, always opt for TCM tuning as well. A fine-tuned TCM will optimize your shift points, improve torque converter clutch engagement and minimize defueling.
Use the same style turbine housing outlet as the VVT turbo on the LLY, the same 3-inch diameter downpipe can be employed on the LBZ. For $130, the price of aFe Power’s ATLAS downpipe is tough to beat. Mandrel bent steel tubing offers an increase in flow, which both drops EGT and improves spool up. The aFe unit also comes wrapped in a high-temp thermal wrap.
A cold air intake system is always a worthwhile investment in terms of both serviceability and freeing up a few extra ponies. The high quality systems from S&B Filters ease access to the air filter, match or exceed the factory filtration standard and offer an oiled filter option that’s reusable.
For the ultimate in drivability, there is no beating a variable geometry turbo. Their direct bolt-in nature and affordability only add to their appeal for enthusiasts on tighter budgets. Most aftermarket VGTs for the Duramax fit all ’04.5-’10 GM trucks (LLY, LBZ and LMM, respectively) and come with a highly-engineered billet or forged milled wheel compressor wheel, 360 thrust bearings and a high-flow turbine wheel. Danville Performance, Fleece Performance Engineering (Cheetah turbos) and DuramaxTuner.com (Stealth turbos) are a few recognizable turbo builders in the industry.
Not only is the factory Y-bridge restrictive on the LBZ, but its two-piece construction is known to leak and can even blow out under high boost. Wehrli Custom Fabrication’s Y-bridge kit replaces the OEM Y-Bridge with a single fabricated piece and—when selected with the optional driver side intercooler pipe—upgrades all pre-turbo plumbing to larger, 3-inch diameter tubing.
As we recommended in our LB7 and LLY power recipes, when you combine a set of balanced, 30-percent larger injectors with a bigger variable geometry turbo, more than 600rwhp can be realized. With spot-on EFI Live tuning (namely less duration and timing, which in turn is easier on the engine), rail pressure can be maintained in performance tunes and as much as 630rwhp can be had without having to upgrade the stock CP3. The 30-percent over injector is ideal for the LBZ owner that wants to play but isn’t quite prepared to build his or her engine.
In the famous words of Ernest Hemingway, “There are only three sports: bullfighting, motor racing and mountaineering; the rest are merely games.” Bullfighting isn’t exactly in style these days, mountaineering requires the use of real mountains usually half a world away and motor racing is for rich guys, right? Wrong. At least about that last one.
Another old adage is true when it comes to motor racing: “If you want to make thousands, start with millions,” but if you just want to get out and have a good time driving fast with some friends, you might be surprised how affordable and accessible it can be. Enter eXtreme SPEED Track Events.
The team at eXtreme SPEED has been providing driving and racing enthusiasts safe, non-competitive (officially, at least) track-day experiences since 1999. The recipe is simple: Register online for one of their regular events at SoCal area race tracks, show up with your car in good mechanical order (and on a good set of tires!), bring a DOT-approved helmet and have some fun.
If you’re a newcomer to driving on a road course, track instructors will explain a few basic rules of conduct, like how to pass or be passed and what various flags mean. They’ll assess your speed and driving ability and place you into one of a variety of run groups, for beginner to advanced drivers and slow to very fast cars. Then you’ll be out, driving on a real race track at full tilt (or as close to it as you dare to go) and clocking your best-possible times. If you’re a vet, this is some of the lowest-cost seat time you’ll find out there.
We caught up with eXtreme SPEED during one of their recent two-day events at Willow Springs’ Streets of Willow circuit and found a diverse group of over 100 cars (and trucks) ranging from bone-stock to fully gutted and race-prepped Japanese, American and European makes.
Representing high-dollar involvement was a Porsche Cayman, a 911 Turbo, a tastefully modified Nissan GT-R, a nearly showroom-fresh Lexus RC-F and your usual assortment of BMW M3s and Mercedes CLKs.
In the modded department, Mike Burroughs’ vintage-themed ‘82 E28 BMW M5, an Evasive-prepped Mitsubishi EVO IX, Good-Win-Racing’s V6-swapped NA6 Mazda Miata and a curious first-gen AW11 Toyota MR2 most caught our eye.
But that’s not to say you needed something expensive or flashy to participate. There were plenty of drivers in low-buck and lightly modified older cars carving the asphalt just as hard.
Speaking of potentially low-buck fun, the second half of our eXtreme SPEED weekend dedicated certain run groups to Round 2 of the Roadster Cup, an eight-round competitive time-attack series for drivers of Mazda Miatas of all generations and levels of modification.
Are Honda roadsters (or any Honda model, for that matter) more your speed? eXtreme SPEED also hosts VTEC Club competition throughout the year, and you can learn more about it in our upcoming coverage of their first of six rounds in 2018.
So whether you’re itching to do some real driving in your daily, want to stretch the legs of your weekend project or sportscar or just have a blast in your $500 Civic or Miata missile with a bunch of like-minded friends, eXtreme SPEED has you covered. For more information and to get involved, visit: www.extremespeedtrackevents.com
These days there’s no shortage of speculation and rumors about new car models, and carmakers themselves don't often officially tease a bunch of new models they have in the works. But that’s exactly what Ford has done with an announcement of future technology and additional details on several new models it plans to introduce between now and 2020. While Ford’s press release included details for plans of electrification and driver assistance features, what we're most most excited about are the enthusiast-oriented Fords that were also teased.
First up is the new Bronco, which Ford had already confirmed it was working on. As you can see from the teaser, it very much has the shape of the popular first gen Bronco and we are quite excited to hear more about it.
In addition to the Bronco, Ford is also working a small off road utility vehicle that doesn’t yet have a name, but is teased in the rendering below. Perhaps we should expect a Jeep Renegade or Cherokee competitor?
Elsewhere in the SUV department, Ford also confirmed it is working on an ST-variant of the Explorer to go along with the recently announced Edge ST. The 3.5L EcoBoost-powered Explorer already performs quite well, and you can expect even better moves from the high-po ST model.
Last but not least is the Mustang lineup. We already know a ridiculously powerful 2019 Shelby GT500 is inbound, but in addition to that, Ford also mentioned a new hybrid Mustang that will include V8 levels of low end torque from its electric motor system.
Most people would agree that Ford already has one of the most impressive enthusiast lineups around, and with the addition of these new on and off road models, we only see that lineup getting better. We can’t wait to learn more.
Almost any engine will appreciate more air. It is, after all, among the four prerequisites any box of internal combustion needs in order to fire up and stay running. As it turns out, it’s also also on the short list of things you ought to care about when it comes to doing things like making more power and doing so more efficiently.
You and your 1.5L Civic hatchback learned a couple of decades ago that sticking some sort of high-capacity air filter onto the end of that D-series’ rubber intake tubing helped wake it out of its 70hp stupor. You also learned that once things like that engine’s fuel supply, ignition system and compression were also brought up to snuff, things like that wonky little air filter of yours all of a sudden started making more of an impact.
When it comes to Porsche’s 3.6L air-cooled engines native to 964 and 993 series 911s, according to Southern California Porsche tuning firm Bisimoto, they’re primed and ready for extra airflow.
Bisimoto doesn’t make blind assumptions, and you won’t hear about its lead engineer, Bisi Ezeriohia, finger tapping his way around some web forum looking for answers. Instead, he’s gone ahead and done things like integrate a couple of pressure sensors into the 3.6L engines’ intake tracts in order to make some deductions of his own. “Upon testing factory 964 and 993 engines with pressure sensors placed in [their] intakes,” he says, “observing significant vacuum after 2,700 rpm proved that the engines demand more air than the factory intake system can provide.” He goes on to point out that the engines’ MAF sensors also pose a restriction and that, frankly, the whole layout just looks outdated.
“This led to a quest to remove these restrictions to unleash reliable power while retaining the beauty of the air-cooled engine,” Ezeriohia says. “It combines the classic beauty of an air-cooled setup with the modern amenities [of] GT3 engines.”
The whole conversion starts with you getting rid of the engine’s obvious bits like its intake plenum, airbox and throttle body, as well as its not-so-obvious bits like its IAC valve, TPS, and MAF sensor.
If one throttle body’s good, then six of them ought to be better. Bisimoto’s intake conversion is based upon six 48mm Jenvey throttle bodies, each made to fit against the 3.6L engine’s cylinder heads by way of specially made, CNC-machined aluminum adapters. Individual throttle bodies are known for their ability to provide unparalleled throttle response but their most significant advantage is their ability to introduce equal amounts of air into each cylinder.
Unlike intake manifolds that distribute the air charge by way of a plenum and runners that, by design, don’t always introduce the same amount of air to each cylinder, individual throttle bodies eliminate all of that. Sticking a throttle plate just inches away from those intake valves and without any sort of plenum between them means that, for example, cylinders number one and number five will no longer be fighting over whatever air’s inside that intake manifold.
You think you’re finished after you’re done bolting up those Jenveys, and you couldn’t be more wrong. Rather than exposing those six throttle bodies to all sorts of debris that’s liable to get sucked inside, Bisimoto’s system incorporates a couple of plenums and a manifold of sorts, which is where all of that GT3 business comes from.
Here, specially designed rubber boots transition the throttle bodies toward the GT3’s cast-aluminum plenums that connect to either the 996 GT3’s rubber center housing or the 997 GT3’s cast-aluminum one—your choice. In either case, the throttle body that’d ultimately bolt up to either of those center housings and create all of those problems associated with conventional intake manifolds we just talked about is ditched because, well, nobody needs a throttle body in front of their throttle bodies. The whole shebang is finished off with Rothsport fuel rails and a set of Bosch fuel injectors.
Later 997-based GT3 manifolds are made entirely of cast aluminum, unlike 996-based systems that are made up of rubber center sections. Both work, and both feature resonance flaps that vary incoming air volume to spread torque across the entire powerband.
Right about now you’re wondering about that MAF sensor you tossed and how in the world that engine’s going to run without one. The answer lies with the AEM Infinity engine management system that Bisimoto says you’ll need. The pre-tuned, speed density-based computer relies an a MAP sensor instead, and gets its signal from the provided vacuum canister that also has provisions for a brake booster reference. All told, the special-order kit will set you back at least $8,500, according to Bisimoto, and goes up from there depending on engine management and wiring harness options.
All you care about is whether or not this whole conversion is worth it, though, and if you believe Bisimoto’s dyno data, you’ll see that it is.
According to Ezeriohia, it’s those specific intake runner lengths of the GT3 plenums that allow for all of this, or what he says makes for “ideal inertial supercharging, with emphasis on the 5,500 to 7,300 rpm range.” The whole package, he says—and that dyno data would tend to agree—lends itself well to the top-end sort of numbers you care about all while preserving the low-end torque you know you need.
It isn’t just about horsepower, either. Converting to something like AEM’s Infinity and modern Bosch fuel injectors means sequential fuel injection, improved fuel atomization and more immediate throttle response can now be expected out of something like a 30-year-old flat-six.
Celebrating 10 years is a big deal. Throughout those 10 years, Nostalgic2Days has continued to be one of the most popular car shows in Japan. The host, Nostalgic Magazine, calls Pacifico Yokohama convention center home for this unique car show.
Like previous years, if your pockets are deep enough, most cars are available to purchase, with many having a list price of "Ask." You know the old adage: If you have to ask, you probably can't afford it. However, unlike last year's event, it took up all the available halls, meaning there was that much more goodness on hand. On display were some of Japan's best restorations ranging from classic European models to some very rare Japanese models.
There were plenty of Skyline Hakosukas this year with the number of Prince Skylines down noticeably. Mixed in were, of course, plenty of Fairlady Zs, Hondas and several surprises. Take a look at some of our favorite picks from this year's Nostalgic2Days, along with a full gallery down below.
TRA Kyoto had social media abuzz with shots of their new Hakosuka Skyline fender and lip package. The design is subtle when compared to what TRA Kyoto has developed for other cars, which suits the style of the car just fine. The Hakosuka was built by Number7 and sat perfectly in the Watanabe wheels booth.
While Speed Forme's most famous car might be their orange Fairlady Z, they outdid themselves with this 240ZG "long nose." It was just in time too as they finished their build only a few days before the show. Mr. Kawauchi, Speed Forme owner, explained that the front features a five-piece bumper versus the standard two-piece.
The Kenmeri was designed when Japan was attempting to build their own "muscle cars" and borrowed a lot of design cues from American muscle cars. Arguably one of the most famous, the Kenmeri has a blend of Mustang design features combined with the Hakosuka's signature style. By the look of it, it definitely is a bit more rock and roll. The Spirit Garage Kenmeri was in beautiful condition, and the only complaint we have is that we didn't get a chance to hear its horn set up.
Rocky Auto has a well-deserved reputation for building some of the best classics in Japan. From their Toyota GT3000 kit car to their Fairlady Zs, everything turns out immaculate. The best thing is that nothing is off-limits for them. Take a look at their black Fairlady Z. On the exterior, it looks like a standard Rocky Auto affair, but pop the hood and you are met with a large turbo mounted to an RB26.
Depending on the path you took around the event, you may have started or ended your day with a big surprise. Coming across not one, but two legendary Dome Zeros made for the perfect end to our day. It was originally meant to be a street car, but after it failed to meet the standards of the day, they instead used it to race at Le Mans. Although the car didn't succeed, it didn't stop Dome from going on to design cars for F1 and Le Mans. We fondly remember the Dome from out time watching Transformers and playing Gran Turismo so it was great to see them in person. Those were just a handful of our favorites, so make sure to check out the gallery below!
A custom car show is so much more than a gathering of cool cars—that's what non-car people don’t understand. The second annual Caffeine and Octane at the Beach reminded us why we love cars. It was a beautiful combination of sights, sounds, people and machinery unlike anywhere else.
Held on Georgia’s Jekyll Island, the weekend featured sub-70 degree temps, blue skies and amazing sunsets. The sights of the cars facing the Atlantic ocean, sounds of V-8s and V-twins echoing off palm trees and the smell of food truck BBQ made the weekend a hot rodder’s dream.
Almost 5,000 attendees and over 350 cars, from rat rods to exotics, graced the park. We focused on the Forged Invitational, which featured 20 cars and 20 motorcycles hand-selected by Bryan and Paige Fuller. It’s a showcase of some of the best fabrication talent in the country.
“I don’t care about the numbers honestly, I’m just excited about the great group of people, and having them all together with cars and bikes,” said Fuller.
Builder Rob Ida took home two big awards from the Forged Invitational: Best in Show with his custom Tucker 48 and People’s Choice for his beautiful Willys straight-axle Gasser. The show also featured a celebrity roundtable, fabrication demonstrations and vendors.
“Other shows have celebrities sitting in booths and it’s awkward. Not only are they just having fun here, but it’s organic. They’re checking out the cars and talking to people,” said Fuller.
While Ida may have taken home the biggest awards, there were plenty of other gorgeous cars. Here are eight of our favorites.
Mike Finnegan drove his 1955 Chevy Gasser, nicknamed “BlaspHEMI,” on the YouTube series Roadkill. If you want to see the car in person, it's registered to run in this year’s HOT ROD Magazine Drag Week.
Gordon McGilton owns this black, 2-door 1955 Ford Ranch Wagon built by Greening Automotive. You may notice that there isn't a gas filler lid on the side. That's because Greening moved it to behind the driver's side taillight. When McGilton wants to fill up, he flips up the light and its custom housing. This is one of the most clever modifications we've seen!
Another Greening Automotive build is this red 1967 Chevy Nova belonging to Jimmy Shaw. With all it’s chrome and show-quality detail, it’s hard to believe this beautiful car was built to be autocrossed.
Bryan Fuller’s personal pick was this 1936 Ford Custom built by Jon Wright. “That thing’s bad,” said Fuller.
Lee Clayton and Tredwear’s 1939 Chevrolet Modified racecar, nicknamed Tarantula, was a crowd pleaser. The car was found as a rough and neglected open-wheel dirt track car, but now lives as a street-legal monster.
Keith Charvonia’s 1951 Kaiser sits on a late-model Caprice chassis. While he mostly built the car in his garage, it spent a fair amount of time in the famed hot rod builder Gene Winfield’s shop. Gene helped Keith do the body work and paint, taking 22 hours in the paint booth to finish.
This flame-throwing 1956 Cadillac, nicknamed FireMaker, was built by Murray Pfaff over the past 23 years. He found it way back in high school in 1986, and after three versions of the car, he's calling it done.
Built by the Roadster Shop, this stunning 1963 Corvette is powered by a 750hp LS3 that’s topped with an Edelbrock supercharger. The black Forgeline wheels compliment the black bumpers, pulling the whole look together.
We can’t leave anything alone. Even something as dialed-in as the Ford F-150 Raptor could use a little fine tuning. We’ve modified our 2012 Crew Cab Raptor over the years with things like our Addictive Desert Designs bumpers and King suspension. While we’ve been happy with just about everything with this truck, we were ready to change things up a bit more. Primarily, we wanted to adjust the suspension on the truck and freshen up the look.
To get you up to speed on how we’ve modified our Raptor, we put together the video above. Below, we’re expanding on a few more details for those of you looking to do similar with the first Gen Raptor.
Part of dialing in our front suspension was not only taking some of the pre-load off of the King front coil springs, but playing with the compression adjuster knob settings. The farther towards the firmer position you rotate the knob, the more fluid is diverted through the flow zones (low & mid speed, high speed and rebound). We keep ours around 4 clicks from the softest setting for most normal everyday driving. If we’re towing or want to go faster off-road, we will dial them up. Usually three clicks at a time gives us the most noticeable adjustments.
Our entire shock system was from King’s OEM Performance line, which is a direct bolt-on kit that’s application specific. Included with the system out back are a set of 3.0 bypass shocks. We currently have our secondary compression zone dialed softer by four turns and the primary compression zone dialed to zero, as we like the plush ride it provides. Our rebound is just as King sends it and does a great job of preventing any unwanted bounce from the rear of the truck.
We believe that a full replacement spring pack could up the performance potential of our Raptor. However, the stock springs fit the majority of our needs for this truck. We’re running a 1.5-inch lift block that shaves about 1.25 inches of lift from the back of the truck. While this means we’ve lost a little up travel, it has made ingress into the bed much easier.
After seeing a set of Center Line’s bronze and satin black RT4BZ wheels, we knew we wanted a set for our Raptor. Part of the off-road/truck series of RT wheels, the cast aluminum wheel set is designed to be lightweight and strong.
While 17-, 18-, and 20-inch sizes are available, we opted for the 17x9. This allowed us to transfer over our 35x12.50R17 Nitto Ridge Grapplers. Since the wheels comes with 5.71 inches of backspacing, they are also an ideal fit for the Raptor as they keep the majority of the tread tucked neatly under the fenderwells.
While we’ve had our Ridge Grapplers under the truck for well over 10,000 miles, when we swapped wheels, we opted to showcase the more aggressive sidewall on the outside this time. (The Ridge Grapplers, like most of the Grappler line, offer you two distinct sidewall options.) For a tire with such aggressive and deep lugs, we’re constantly amazed at how quiet they are. In the coastal southeast where we spend most of our time, the tires have also proven to work great in the sand and mud.
We have a few upgrades in store for our Raptor, some of which will help it on the camping and exploration front. It sort of makes us wonder. Can a Raptor be an overlanding rig, too?
People love to race. Whether in a straight line, up a mountain or around a circuit, it's all about who can go the fastest. On this day, it was all about who could go fastest around the 2 kilometers of pavement known as Tsukuba Circuit.
Tsukuba is the home of time attack, with events held as early as the 1980s. Officially however, the first time attack event was in May 1994. In 2007, Nobuteru Taniguchi set the record for the fastest lap around Tsukuba in his HKS Mitsubishi EVO, with a time of 53.589 seconds. That record was surpassed by Under Suzuki in his S15 with a blistering 52.649 second lap in 2012 and later improved to 51.127 in 2015.
The times are still dropping, and the most recent fastest lap saw HKS once again at the top with Taniguchi driving the Toyota GTS800 TRB-03 (Tsukuba Record Breaker 030), blasting through at 49.445 seconds. However, there is a bit of rumbling about that time since it was set using full racing slicks versus standard semi-slicks.
The day is broken up into several sessions, including Super Lap, free, ladies and sponsor. The Super Lap sessions open and close the event, serving as bookends for the day. All of the other sessions besides Super Lap allow groups of cars on the track at the same time and provide an interesting mix of cars. The only limit on these sessions is time.
The Super Lap sessions are for the fastest cars from the Turbo Class. There is a limit of two cars on the track at any given time, with the drivers given one warm up lap, two laps to get their best time and then one cool down lap. Blink and you may miss it as most of the cars that run in the Super Lap do not run at any other time during the day. That means that at most, they are out for eight laps.
The first class up is called Second Class. It contains a wide scope of cars, from mild tuning to full-on time attack spec. The class's fastest lap of the day came from Rasty's wild double winged JZA80 Supra with a time of 57.368 seconds, just outdoing the Bee-R R32. This was also the biggest field of cars with a total of 45 entrants.
The Ladies Class had 12 entrants, with the ZEST Mazda RX7 toping the class with a best time of 1:00.440—a 0.013 second improvement over the previous best time. We were especially fond of Yoko Kobo's RWB Porsche. She can often be seen at the track in either a Porsche or her AE86, which we saw at the most recent 86 Matsuri.
The Radial Class, consisting of 16 entrants, limits the cars to street tires. Even with this disadvantage, the Garage Work Honda Civic EG broke the one-minute barrier with an impressive 59.264 seconds. However, there were still more cars left to race, and the Civic's time was bested by the Autoworks K2 R35.
The NA Class is the all-motor class. It's typically filled with Hondas, so it was a bit of a surprise to see an NA Mazda RX7 sitting on top. The Full Stage RX7 beat its best time of 55.887 seconds by almost three-tenths, leaving the second fastest car, the ASLAN Honda Civic EG, in the rearview mirror by nearly a full second.
The Turbo Class is the fastest and comparable to the heavy-weight class in mixed martial arts or boxing. This is the class that broke the 50 second barrier, an unthinkable feat when time attack started at Tsukuba. Unfortunately, the legendary driver Under Suzuki did not race his S15 to see if he could contend for the new record. However, many new drivers came and brought huge time improvements across the board.
Our friend Mr. Kawato brought his TCP Magic RX7 for a shakedown run and clocked an impressive 56.620. To put that into perspective, it was slightly faster than veteran driver Mr. Ando and his Scoot RX7.
The most impressive time of the day went to the Escort Mitsubishi Evo 9, which beat its lap best of 53.170 with an incredible 51.893. That time is just a hair shy of Under Suzuki's record lap, so it will be interesting to see what happens going forward. We could see a fresh battle.
Tsukuba marked the second round of the 2018 Time Attack series, with the first round at Suzuka Circuit already completed. The remaining three rounds will visit Okayama and Tsukuba, before finishing at Tohoku. Visit the official Time Attack website for more information.
If you aren't able to make your way to Japan but want to experience Time Attack, check out what other organizers are putting on, including GridLife and World Time Attack.
While the ’07.5 HD Silverado and Sierra debuted a fresh body style, much of the powertrain was carried over from ’07 models. Internally, the LMM Duramax (’07.5-‘10) is virtually a mirror image of the LBZ (’06-‘07) that preceded it. It makes use of the same I-beam connecting rods and cast-aluminum pistons, features the same 16.8:1 compression ratio and uses a similar VVT turbocharger. The one area where the LMM differs subtly from the LBZ exists in the Bosch common-rail injection system. Although most of the fuel system is the exact same, the LMM’s injectors are fitted with with 6-hole nozzles, whereas the LBZs employed a 7-hole design.
Like the ’06-’07 GMs, the Duramax is backed by the six-speed version of the Allison 1000 automatic transmission. Unfortunately, just like the LBZ mills, the OEM pistons are a major chink in the LMM’s armor, namely when the factory horsepower rating has been doubled. Fortunately, there are ways of avoiding a cracked piston—and we’ll run down all of them in the budgets that follow. Below, you’ll find that custom tuning and a parts recipe that limits power below 650rwhp can keep the stock bottom end alive for tens of thousands of miles.
If you’re chomping at the bit to find out what your ’11-’16 HD is capable of, hang in there. Our LML Duramax power recommendations come your way next. As a bonus, we’ll include a glimpse of what the first power-adder for the all-new L5P Duramax is capable of.
Like the LB7, LLY, and LBZ engines that came before it, the best way to get refined, reliable power out of the LMM is through custom EFI Live tuning. The Bosch common-rail injection system and Garrett VVT turbocharger are capable of producing up to 530rwhp in a max-effort performance tune, but the factory Allison 1000 won’t permit it. For this reason, we recommend EFI Live tuning that’s designed around allowing the transmission to live—which means 425 to 450rwhp will be on the table instead of the full 530rwhp.
A free-flowing exhaust system is instrumental in getting the most performance possible out of your LMM. Keep in mind that the average aluminized system (priced and shown here) will last between 5-6 years in the rust belt, while a decade’s worth of use is usually feasible with a higher-priced, stainless steel exhaust.
Edge Products’ Insight CTS2 is the most frequently used monitor in the diesel industry. It offers you the ability to keep tabs on virtually every parameter the ECM monitors, which includes rail pressure, boost and transmission temperature, to name a few. The price listed here includes the optional expandable exhaust gas temperature (EGT) probe kit, which we highly recommended to anyone running performance-oriented tuning. While you can save roughly $100 by installing analog gauges along the A-pillar, you’ll be stuck monitoring three fixed parameters.
We know that 6K is a big investment, but building the Allison is the only way you’ll be able to unleash the full potential of the LMM’s stock injectors and turbo (i.e. 530rwhp). The good news is that most basic performance Allison builds are good for as much as 750rwhp—meaning you’ll have room to grow later, should you decide to add larger injectors and/or step up your turbo game. Most Allison builds come with a billet front cover, triple disc torque converter, upgraded clutches, custom frictions and steels, an upgraded valvebody with fresh solenoids, a modified pump and all new bearings and seals.
Any time you’re running max-effort tuning, it pays to make sure the CP3 injection pump is receiving a consistent supply of fuel pressure and volume. Like all the Duramax engines that came before it, the LMM is also void of a lift pump in stock form. The compact, all-inclusive, bolt-on fuel supply system from AirDog pictured here flows 150 gallons per hour at 8 to 10 psi, which easily supports 530rwhp (and as much as 800rwhp).
With a built Allison in the mix, getting the most out of the stock injectors, CP3 and turbo can be achieved through custom EFI Live tuning. But beyond simply tuning the ECM (engine), we highly recommend transmission control module (TCM) tuning as well. Sound TCM tuning will optimize the Allison’s shift schedule, improve torque converter clutch engagement and all but eliminate defueling.
Thanks to a similar outlet on the VVT turbocharger, the same 3-inch downpipe that fits the LLY and LBZ engines can be used on the LMM. For its high-flow, mandrel bent tubing, leak-free V-band flanges and very affordable price point, we recommend aFe Power’s ATLAS downpipe. Because the turbo and engine will see plenty of heat in a 530rwhp tune, a freer flowing downpipe provides a quicker exit path for those toasty exhaust gasses.
A cold air intake is a great way to pull additional oxygen into the compressor side of the turbo. On top of that, most systems can be had with a serviceable, oiled air filter option that can be reused. Such is the case with the cold air intake systems offered by S&B Filters.
Aftermarket variable geometry turbochargers offer the best of all worlds: tame street manners, great transient response at lower engine speeds and optimum flow at high rpm for making big power. Their direct, drop-in nature doesn’t hurt matters, either. Most aftermarket VGTs are treated to either a billet or forged milled wheel (FMW) compressor wheel, a higher flowing turbine wheel on the exhaust side and 360-degree thrust bearings for utmost longevity. Danville Performance, Fleece Performance Engineering (Cheetah turbos) and DuramaxTuner.com (Stealth turbos) are some of the biggest names in the aftermarket VGT segment.
Like the LBZ, much can be gained by upgrading the Y-bridge on the LMM. Not only does the factory Y-bridge choke down airflow, but its two-piece design lends itself to pesky boost leaks and it can even blow apart in extreme conditions. Wehrli Custom Fabrication’s Y-bridge kit replaces the OEM Y-Bridge with a fabricated, one-piece unit with a 3-inch diameter.
A set of balanced injectors upgraded with nozzles that measure 30-percent larger than stock can easily push an LMM beyond 600rwhp with a larger variable geometry turbo on board. With well-crafted EFI Live tuning (namely less injector duration and timing), the factory CP3 can maintain rail pressure in a performance tune and as much as 630rwhp can be made. The 30-percent over injector is excellent for the LMM owner that wants to be able to run down sports cars but isn’t quite ready to build his or her engine.
When we left off with our 2017 Volkswagen Golf GTI project car, we had just fitted a set of ST XTA adjustable coilovers and an ST rear sway bar to help tighten up the suspension, neutralize the car’s handling characteristics and give the car a more aggressive stance.
After the suspension upgrade, we confirmed our thoughts that a high quality adjustable coilover kit is one of the single best modifications you can do to do a car. The only other upgrade that can do the same from a both a performance and aesthetic standpoint is a set of proper wheels and tires.
This is extra true for our GTI as its factory-equipped 225/40R18 all-season tires left a lot to be desired in the performance department. After taking the car to both an autocross event and a track day, we found that the rubber was the limiting factor in both situations—and plans were soon made to get a proper high-performance summer tire underneath.
However, before the tires were fitted we needed to figure out the wheel situation. The GTI Sport’s 18x7.5 “Nogaro” alloys could have easily been fitted with a tire upgrade for the simplest path, but this would also be the perfect occasion to upgrade to a wider, lighter and yes, cooler looking, aftermarket wheel. The timing for the wheel upgrade couldn’t have been better. Just as we began our search for the perfect wheel we found out that Weds Wheels was getting ready to release a brand new wheel made specially for late model VW fitment—the WedsSport SA-10R.
WedsSport is one of Japan’s most respected racing wheel companies, and with its made-in-Japan quality, Advanced Metal Forming technology for weight savings and classic split five-spoke look, this wheel checked all of our boxes.
While the SA-10R itself has been a popular offering from the WedsSport catalog for a few years now, this is the first time it’s been been available in Volkswagen/Audi fitment. Sized at 18x8.5J with an offset of +45, it’s designed to fit the Mk7 Golf chassis perfectly.
The wheels are available in gunmetallic or TS bronze finishes, and while either would look great with the GTI’s Pure White paint, we opted for the bronze since we were able to get our hands on one of the first sets that arrived in the US from Japan. At the same time, we needed to choose a tire to mount on the new wheels. While the GTI is a daily driver, the California climate makes it easy to run a high performance summer tire all year long, and we opted for the proven Nitto NT05.
With its great balance of grip and response, while still being very road friendly, the NT05 seemed like the ideal choice for a daily driver that sees occasional track and autocross action. We opted for a 235/40R18, which is one size wider than the factory tires and perfectly suited to the new 18x8.5J wheels. As you can see, the GTI's cargo capacity came in quite handy while taking the four wheels and tires to get mounted.
Anyone who is at all familiar with performance cars should know about the importance of limiting unsprung weight, and one of best things about the SA-10R is that it’s lightweight—about 20.4 lbs per wheel. That means that even with the wider wheels and larger, wider tires there is no weight penalty when compared with the OEM combo.
With the fresh-from-Japan wheels in hand and the tires delivered promptly by Discount Tire Direct, it was time to get them on the car. With the wider wheels and tires, we had hunch the front ride height would need to come up just a bit, and the ST XTA coilovers made adjusting the height for different wheel and tire setups a breeze.
From there we mounted the wheels onto the GTI using the included hubcentric rings and a set of low profile wheel bolts from Gorilla Automotive. For a first impression, we couldn’t have been happier with how the setup looked.
While this is the flattest face design of the SA-10R line, it still has a nice amount of concavity to the spokes. The bronze color is sometimes hard to pick up in photos, but it’s very noticeable in person and contrasts perfectly with the white body and red GTI brake calipers.
The 235/40R18 tire size also looks great, with a healthy sidewall and the perfect amount of rubber to fill up the fenders without going over the top. For as good as it looks, the more important question was “how did it drive?”
While we haven’t yet had the chance to autocross or track the car with the new setup, the difference between the 235-width NT05s and the old 225-width all-seasons is readily apparent.
Where the old tires would be quick to surrender in any sort of aggressive cornering or acceleration, the new ones hang right on and deliver a ton more confidence to the driver.
While we weren’t surprised about the massive improvement in grip, you might be wondering how they do when wet. As you can see from the photos, it’s been raining for the better part of the last week here in California, and the NT05s have handled the wet commute with ease.
At the end of the month we’ll be returning to the local SCCA autocross to get some better impressions of the new setup, but it’s already clear that the car is no longer held back by its tires.
With this wheel and tire combination you get an excellent mix of form and function, and again the setup is still daily driver friendly. The unique touch of JDM wheels on a European hot hatch is a nice little bonus as well.
With the all-important suspension, wheel and tire upgrades now checked off the list, what comes next for the GTI? Naturally, we're planning to return the track for more seat time, and for the rest of the upgrade plans you’ll just have to stay tuned to find out.
When one of the diesel industry’s most recognizable racers delves into the practice of operating his own drag strip, it stands to reason that he’ll eventually invite all of his diesel friends to come play. Such was the case for Ryan Milliken, driver of the infamous, small-tire Cummins-powered ’66 Nova and owner of Hardway Performance in Mary Esther, Florida. Joining forces with the Diesel Thunder racing circuit, the Spring Break rendition of Diesel Thunder 2018 would attract diesel heads near and far to Holt, Florida’s Emerald Coast Dragway. Among them were the 8-second Cummins-powered Chevy Silverado of Industrial Injection, two-time runner-up UCC competitor Derek Rose, the relentlessly fast, Cummins-powered first-gen Lightning owned by Dustin Jackson and the wild, Duramax-propelled creation campaigned by Enrique Gonzalez.
Diesel Thunder Spring Break 2018 would also serve as a launching pad for a few brand-new Pro Street trucks, including Anarchy Diesel’s new vibrant red, Pro Street Ram and Redline Diesel Power’s second-gen Dodge. Highly-contested Sportsman (E.T. Bracket) and 7.70 Index classes would be run as well, along with 6.70 and 5.90 Index categories. In a surprising race, the Pro Mod class culminated in dramatic fashion. Although just one dragster made the trek to Florida, it was worth the trip for driver Wade Moody. His Flo-Pro-sponsored, Duramax-powered rail picked up right where it left off last season (and then some) clicking off a blazing 4.31-second pass at 164 mph—an ET and speed that converts to a 6.76 at more than 205 mph in the quarter.
For a full recap, check out all the eighth-mile action below.
The first time we met Emilio Blanco, he was running low 12s in a crew cab 6.4L Ford. Now, this! The Anarchy Diesel-built “daily driven drag truck” he was driving at Diesel Thunder was impressive to say the least. In what we believe was its inaugural event, the bright red Ram was good for 5.80s and the win in Pro Street. That’s a heckuva starting point for any Pro Street rig’s racing career.
More than two years in the making, Karl Mireiter of Redline Diesel Power showed up in Florida with his new Pro Street Dodge. It would go rounds all day and end up in the finals pitted against the aforementioned Emilio Blanco. Unfortunately, a turbo issue forced Mireiter into the Runner-Up position for the weekend. No stranger to competitive drag racing, Mireiter used to campaign one of the only 10-second VP44 Cummins trucks in the country. This new common-rail 6.4L? We have no doubts it’ll be good for mid-8s when it’s all said and done.
Dustin Jackson’s ’94 F-150 Lightning is one of the more consistent Pro Street rigs in the business and is almost always good for low 5s in the eighth. Unfortunately, the first race of the year was not meant to be for the triple-turbo Cummins under the hood. After Jackson earned the number one qualifier position, he lost his harmonic damper, sidelining him for the rest of the day.
In its first appearance of 2018, Stainless Diesel’s Pro Street Dodge, piloted by Johnny Gilbert, cut a neck-breaking 1.233-second 60-foot during testing. Two years ago, the triple-turbo, common-rail Cummins ran an 8.60 at 162 mph in the quarter. Last year, it was good for high 1.3-second 60-foots while turning in repeatable 5.3-second eighth-mile passes in the 138 mph range. Needless to say, if the truck’s 1.2-second 60-foot hits are its new normal, it should be good for 5.2s in the eighth and low 8s in the quarter this season.
Industrial Injection’s ’01 Silverado always puts on an awesome display of power. Graced with one of the company’s triple-turbo “Shredder” series Cummins engines, it plants somewhere in the neighborhood of 1,900hp to the ground. At the truck’s new sub-6,000-pound race weight, it’s looking like 5.3-second eighth-miles (at more than 150 mph) will be a regular occurrence, provided all four tires find traction. Just one week after Diesel Thunder, driver Jared Delekta would set a new NHRDA Pro Street record out in Arizona.
Once a service truck for Comcast and now running 5s in the eighth and eating GT-Rs on the street, Enrique Gonzalez’s wheels-up ‘06 Colorado is definitely one-of-a-kind. The LBZ-based Duramax he shoehorned into the engine bay makes use of Industrial Injection injectors and twin CP3s, while a 98mm Precision turbo supplies boost. The truck itself has been back-halfed and equipped with a 9-inch, but retains most of its original sheet metal and all of the OEM glass. Shifts come courtesy of a Sun Coast Turbo 400 with a lockup converter.
One year after its debut, Michael Dalton’s fourth-gen Ram has low 6s down pat. Competing in the Pro Mod category, Dalton’s single turbo’d, 5.9L-powered two wheel drive short bed edged out Susan Soga’s ’34 Chevy in the semifinal and nearly took the overall win against Ryan Milliken’s 4-second Nova.
When traction issues temporarily left Ryan Milliken’s 2,100hp Nova back at the starting line, it looked like Michael Dalton might pull off an upset in the final round of the Pro Mod class. However, Milliken’s Nova was eventually able to grab ahold of the track and run down the bright orange Ram. In what was the closest race of the day, Milliken took the win with a margin of just 0.0024 seconds—which works out to two inches. In case you’re wondering, yes, this is the same Cummins-powered Nova that’s been setting the X275 world on fire, once ran a low 5 with its parachute deployed and is the leaf sprung, 3,600-lb door car capable of trapping 163 mph in the ‘660.
Susan Soga’s ’34 Chevy is a regular on the Outlaw Diesel Super Series racing circuit and is always in the hunt for a win. At Diesel Thunder Spring Break 2018, she cleaned house in 6.70 and also made it to the semi-finals in the Pro Mod category. Her ultra lightweight rat rod tips the scales at a little more than 3,000 lbs and sports a VE-pump 5.9L Cummins with Industrial Injection injectors, an S300 from BD Diesel and a Powerglide transmission.
One of few competitors that actually pointed his tow rig northbound for the Diesel Thunder event was Jonathan Wayne Coblentz of Jon Wayne Automotive in Sarasota, Florida. With 250-percent over injectors, dual CP3s, a Sun Coast 48RE transmission and Hardway Performance tuning, his single turbo, stock bottom end 6.7L Cummins-powered Ram has been as quick as 10.69 seconds in the quarter-mile (roughly 6.80 in the eighth). At Diesel Thunder, he dialed back the tuning and feathered the brake just enough to squeak out the win in the 7.70 Index class.
Getting some practice in before UCC 2018, Derek Rose of DNR Customs signed up to compete in the 5.90 Index class. The Diesel Thunder event offered him a break from the long Michigan winter and the opportunity to test the new five-disc converter he’s running in the truck’s 48RE automatic. Look for Rose’s center-drive Ram to (once again) be a top contender for this year’s Ultimate Callout Challenge crown.
Photography courtesy of Amy Gilbert at Stainless Diesel
Once again, Team Nitto and the Trail Grappler dominated King of the Hammers, taking six of the top seven places in the main 4400 race, along with winning the Legends class of the Everyman Challenge. Congrats to all the drivers on a great race! This year included so many memorable moments. From the rocks to the desert, something exciting was always happening. Relive all of the epic action in the video above.
If you’d had been there to see it. If you were at the starting line at King of the Hammers 2018 watching this full-bodied, high-centered, black smoke spewing, Cummins-powered International Scout take off from the starting line on main race day… you would have had a lot of questions running through your mind. Who does Aaron Kaufman think he is? What is a Scout doing racing in the 4400 class? Why can’t I help myself from rooting for it?
By now you might have caught the opening episodes of Shifting Gears on Discovery, where Kaufman and his new team set out to build unique, purpose-driven vehicles, then put them to the test in epic adventures. This ’71 International Scout is their first project.
Last time we heard from Aaron, he was leaving Fast ‘N Loud’s Gas Monkey Garage and heading off to launch a company of his own, Arclight Fab, specializing in manufacturing parts for classic Ford F100 trucks. “Nowhere does a ’71 Scout fit into my business model,” explains Aaron. “It’s not an F100 and I’m not developing any parts for it.”
Just as he’s always been drawn to unique builds, when the powers-that-be urged Aaron to star in a show of his own, he saw an opportunity to build a unique show. “If I was going to do this TV thing… I was going to hijack this and go have experiences that perhaps people didn’t know they could have. Join in things that were happening that people didn’t know were happening. Along the way, I’d enrich my life a little bit and maybe even give people something else to be interested in.”
Before jumping into the hard details, let’s get one thing straight. “I wanted to build this truck, but originally my plans were different—this was never going to be a race car. Never, never, never, never going to be a race car,” explains Aaron. “I wanted to build a big-capability truck that I could drive every day.” Since this story began with a starting line, we already know Aaron’s initial plans went sideways. Way sideways. (Is this sounding like one of your own projects yet? We know it rings true for us.)
The crew Aaron has assembled for Arclight Fab gets to test out its working relationships during the filming the first season of Shifting Gears. Unlike many car shows we’ve become familiar with, Shifting Gears doesn’t fit an entire build into a single episode. They take three. This allows them not only to delve into more complex builds, but also get to point of the show—taking the car out and testing it. In the Scout’s case, that meant a group road trip to King of the Hammers (KOH) in Johnson Valley, California.
Jason Bowman is the all-around powertrain guy, who happens to love diesels possibly even more than Aaron. “When Aaron said ‘Cummins’ for the Scout, I said ‘Hell yeah!’” Jason was the one person on this team who had actually been to KOH before. Attending each of the past seven years as a spectator, this year would be different bringing a car and co-driving in it.
Jeremy Webster is all about fabrication, specializing in sheet metal work. He’ll have his work cut out for him when Arclight Fab begins its production of late-model F100 parts, but he’s also looking forward to the crazy projects Aaron is dreaming up for them on Shifting Gears. “I hope we get to build these vehicles that he’s got in his head. The biggest thing I enjoy is the challenge.”
Jon Rodriquez, J-Rod for short, is the electrical guy who ensures everything is powered and doesn’t catch fire! “I’m usually the last one who will work on a project… which sometimes means I’ve got the least amount of time,” laughs J-Rod. On this Scout project, where things were constantly shifting as understanding of the Ultra4 rulebook was gained, he really rolled with the punches.
Of course there are others who support the work done at Arclight Fab, like Jonathan Mansour, the behind-the-scenes guy who makes shit happen and Brooks Martin, the social guru in residence. “We’re building cars that challenge us and our range of experiences,” notes Aaron. Though working together for the first time, while filming a TV program, on such a difficult project as the Scout was a tall order, Aaron makes a good point. “Had we worked on 2-3 cars that were super easy, I think that the team wouldn’t have had to lean on each other as much. Everybody came together and figured out exactly where everyone stands.”
As if building a car from the chassis up in 100 days, while being filmed, wasn’t difficult enough—“None of us here have built an Ultra4 car before,” adds J-Rod. When asked what was most difficult about the process, Jason replied, “Let’s just shorten it up and say ‘The Truck.’” Starting off with a plan very different from a 4400 unlimited Ultra4 car, the shift in building alone required enormous adaptability. Add to it that this is a 1971 International Scout. It’s a car very similar to an old Bronco in platform style—requiring a full custom chassis, roll cage and suspension set-up, mocking an engine and all its components into place, and fitting everything within the intact sheet metal shell of a vintage truck.
“We essentially built everything,” says Jeremy. “If it wasn’t built by us, it doesn’t have our name on it.” As the sheet metal fabricator, Jeremy had his work cut out for him. “The fender flares are actually one piece, front and back are one piece.” Using a Baileigh power hammer, a new piece of equipment to them, “we came up with a solution to make that out of one piece and it was a task to get it done.” What they ended up with is a stock profile, with all the original character of a Scout, including changes to enable heavy off-roading. To allow proper wheel articulation, the wheel wells were bumped about 2.5” taller, 6” longer and 1.5” wider while keeping their original body contours. The roof has been extended 2”, though not entirely planned for. “We built a cage and then hit an ‘uh-oh’ moment when we went to put the roof back on.” It’s all part of the process of having shifting build specs with many moving pieces and a rulebook of regulations you suddenly must follow.
“I think the doors are the only thing that didn’t get touched on the truck. Everything else was a challenge,” laughs Jason. Under the hood a 4BT P-Pump Cummins provides the power paired with a compound turbo set-up.
“When we first started to build this thing, there was room for days under the hood. Then you start putting more components in and now you couldn’t fit a sheet a paper in there if you tried.” The same went for wiring. “It was like putting 10 lbs of stuff in a 5 lb bag,” notes J-Rod. They had just about 5 minutes of run time before loading it on the trailer and hitting the road for Hammers. Ultimately, engine performance, which affected fuel consumption, was the nail in the Scout’s coffin on race day.
Landing on the lakebed that becomes Hammertown during King of the Hammers is a surreal experience, even more so when you’re bringing a race car you’ve just worked on against the clock for the past 100 days. Jason was the only one on the crew who’d ever been. J-Rod had never even been in the desert when he arrived. Against the salty and seasoned long-time racers and off-roaders, the Arclight crew was green to say the least.
But that’s part of the point for doing Shifting Gears—they’re putting themselves into these new adventures where the point isn’t to win, but to put the car in a real-life test with real-life experts. “Initially I wanted to drive the truck to Moab,” notes Aaron. “I wanted everyone to see the vehicle that we built and be able to compare it to trails that everyone’s run—and compare our experience to the one they’d had so they would know exactly the kind of vehicle we built.”
What we all know by now is that Moab isn’t where the Scout landed. It was finished just in time to race KOH. “We pivoted and did what we could to make it work,” explains Aaron. “And we came out with a vehicle that techs for 4400.” Whether or not Ultra4’s most competitive, unlimited 4400 class was the one it ought to be in is beside the point—decisions they’d made earlier in the build destined it to race there. So the team showed up ready for an adventure and ready to race.
Race week is a blur—with tech, qualifying, testing and repairs all going on in a make-shift town that’s dusty with action from racers and off-roading spectators alike. Main race day is on a Friday, and the Arclight crew worked on the Scout all week long, tuning shocks and trying to solve issues in the drivetrain. “I woke up race day morning and felt like it was almost finally over,” recounts Jason. “I was ready to be in the car and get the race going.”
At the start line, the black-smoke spewing Scout was unlike any of the 102 race cars that took off that morning. You knew it wasn’t going to win, but man, you were cheering for it in that underdog sort of way—hoping against all odds that it might finish, something that only 28 cars ended up accomplishing in 2018. By Race Mile 2 they’d blown the front axle and by Race Mile 3 a looming obstacle appeared. “You want to talk about taking the wind out of your sails, it’s a stupid 100-yard sand hill at Race Mile 3 and this thing wouldn’t go up it,” tells Jason. “A John Deere tractor made more horsepower.” After pushing the Scout to its limits, checkers or wreckers being the driving moto, Aaron and Jason piloted the Scout past the sand hill, where “every race mile we saw was like we won the lottery.”
Race Mile 5 passed, then 12 and eventually the Scout made it to Cougar Butte, the first rocks section. As they tell it, going through Cougar Butte seemed like another awesome day on the trail. The Scout was performing splendidly through the rocks… until it wasn’t. What everyone knew in the back of their minds was that the Scout only had a 25-gallon fuel tank and they were getting 1.2 mpg. It doesn’t take a math whiz to know that with 199 miles, limited pit stops and no outside help on course, their chances of finishing were bleak. At Race Mile 26 the truck petered out and died. Not even hiking back to the pit and carrying fuel in would’ve gotten it to the next stop.
“We only got to Race Mile 26,” recounts Aaron, “but there was a string of 4400 cars we passed that didn’t even make it that far.”
While it may not be a perfect Hollywood ending, it’s a real-life ending that has its own successes. A crew of builders came together, having never built this sort of car, and on their first project together built a 4400 Ultra4race car in an extremely condensed timeline. It passed tech inspection and raced at King of the Hammers. “It’s an amazing thing to step back and actually see something that you spent so much time on, to see it work, to see it function and do its job correctly,” says Jeremy. “It makes all the hard work worth it.”
“Sometimes you don’t realize that something’s meant for you until you go do it,” tells Aaron. “It was a powerful experience. I plan on being back and finding out exactly what we can get done out there when we bring the proper tool.” While we’re sure there will be a handful of other builds and many more car adventures sandwiched between here and there, we’ll be anticipating seeing the Arclight crew back at Johnson Valley.
Until then, catch them in Shifting Gears on the Discovery network and look to see Arclight Fab manufacturing parts to support late-model Ford trucks when they’re not throttling down into their next adventure.
| BUILT BY: | Arclight Fabrication by Aaron Kaufman, Jason Bowman, Josh Freeman, Jon Rodriquez, Jeremy Webster and Jonathan Mansour |
| BUILD TIME: | 100 days |
| ENGINE: | 4BT P-Pump Cummins, machine work by Industrial Injection, Late Bowl pistons, Fire Ring head, Stage 2 cmshaft, Steed Speed exhaust manifold, Borg Warner compound turbo |
| DRIVELINE: | GM 6L80 by Monster Transmission built for 750 lb-ft with Kilduff Shifter, Atlas 2 transfer case, Currie front and rear diff with F9 housing and 3.5 tube, 35-spline axleshafts, ARB front and rear lockers, 4.56:1 gears, custom high-angle driveline shafts, Wilwood 14" rotors with 6-piston calipers |
| SUSPENSION: | 3-link; King coilover (2.0x14), bypass shocks (2.5x14 front, 2.5x16 rear), 2.0 bumps; 12" front travel, 18" rear travel; Currie Anti-Rock front and rear swaybars; AGR Steerco box and Ram Assist |
| WHEELS: | Fuel Beadlock Anza 17x9 cast aluminum |
| TIRES: | Nitto Trail Grappler 40x13.5R17 |
| BODY: | Arclight Fab custom fabricated chassis using 2x4 rectangle steel tubing, 108" wheelbase, 21.5" ground clearance, 6,210 lbs, stretched and re-radiused fenders; KC headlights and Pro-6 LED lights and rock lights, Bulldog winch |
| INTERIOR: | PRP Comp Elite seats, Arclight Fab custom interior components, RacePak dashes, Restomod A/C, VIAIR Corp on-board air |
| SPONSORS: | Nitto Tire, Industrial Injection, Monster Transmission, Advanced Adapters, Atlas 2, Fuel Wheels, Wilwood Brakes, Currie Enterprises, Ron Davis Radiator, FASS, RacePak, PRP Seats, Bulldog Winches, VIAIR Corp, Magnaflow |