MotorWerks Magazine Volume 11, Issue 2 by MotorWerks Media

THE ULTIMATE READING EXPERIENCE VOLUME 11 ISSUE 2 Published by Tree Free Publishing a Division of Webtronic Enterprises

In This Issue

Brad Angevaare, Chris Boersma, Gary Rogers Motorsport, Jonathon Vo, Bradley Gravett, Mike Puglisi, Composites by Self, Garrett Mealing. All Action, All The Time from MotorWerks Magazine

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Ed i t or - i n - Chi e f / Pub l i s h e r Ian Rae EDI T ORIA L We s t C o a s t US A Ed i t o r No r ma n Ne l s o n Mi d We s t US A Ed i t o r Da v i d L e w i s E a s t C o a s t Ed i t o r Cr a i g Ne l s o n S o c i a l Me d i a D i r e c t o r Je s s e Ne l s o n S c o t t i s h Ra c e Ed i t o r G l e n n A l c o c k S c o t t i s h Hi l l c l i m b Ed i t o r Pe t e r L o c k e Eu r o p e a n Ed i t o r Ma x Ro n c h e t t o E a s t Au s t r a l i a Ed i t o r Mar k C o l l i n g w o o d T i m e A t t a c k Ed i t o r Enr i q u e McL e g g o n C o l u m n i s t Ja me s Ho u g h t o n C o l u m n i s t Br a d l e y Gr a v e t t

PHO T O GR A PH Y Photographer Photographer Photographer Photographer Photographer Photographer Photographer Photographer Photographer Photographer Photographer

Ma x Ro n c h e t t o No r ma n Ne l s o n Mar k C a mp b e l l Cr a i g Ne l s o n Ke v i n Ehr l i c h Jo h n S c r o e d e r A l i c y n Dr e w Di t o Mi l i a n To m Ma x w e l l Ja n i s Ra e S a m Mo o r e

HO W T O RE ACH US P h o n e:(905) 467-5148 i a n r a e @m o t o r w e r k s m a g.c o m

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FEATURES

28 Civic Unrest - Chris Boersma 44 Touring Car Legend - Tarquini retires 48 No Worries mate - Garry Rogers Motorsport 54 The Kiwi Flyer - GRM pick for stardom 82 The Hills are Alive - Garrett Mealings Talon 98 Zoom-Zoom Brad’s LS Powered Miata

KOUNTERSTEER PROFILES

74 Jonathan Vo - K-Powered Lotus 110 always Evolving - Mike Puglisi’s EVO MR

TECHNICAL

38 Never Rains But it Pours - Project 3ThirtyFive 94 Data is Power - The Racepak CL2 118 Cooper RSR - Looking good 122 Composites by Self - The Basics 131 Budget Race Fuel, Not for Budget Engines

COLUMNS

18 Playing The Name Game - Bradley Gravett

REGULARS

6 New Products 10 On The Grid 134 Contact Point - See our advertisers

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NEWProducts Harrop Meets Godzilla!

PE Racing releases Mounting Clamps

Harrop Engineering is pleased to welcome our little Ford Godzilla to the family, displacing 445ci or 7.3L we’re excited to see the potential of this all new,

PE Racing is proud to announce the launching of their new PE Mounting clamps. This new product range provides an easier, faster and stronger solution to mounting panels, cables or objects securely to common tubes sizes and roll cages on and off road. The line of clamps includes an array of styles and sizes to best suit your needs. The main purpose of the mounting clamps is to eliminate the need for welding brackets to tubular safety cages and structures. As welding has to tendency to deform, place additional stress and in most cases weaken tubular structural members. Welding across the tube is usually seen as the worst thing you can do, so people suggest to weld along the tube. However, in this case the weld has the tendency to shrink thus curving and/or bending the tube. In addition to this, you need to undertake surface preparation and a final coating. It is this problem that we have repeatedly experienced and therefore have designed and offered a solution. The line of PE Clamps simply provides an advantage over welding mounts due to creating a non-permanent joint without the need of fabrication. It makes it easy to replace and adjust the position by simply unscrewing the clamp. Essentially, if you change your mind, it’s an

small block, cam in iron block push rod V8, when we add boost with our new TVS Supercharger. The narrow cam in block design will make this motor a favorite of those making engine swaps where lots of room is required. Check out our video reviewing the performance potential of our all new TVS2650 Supercharger with renowned engine builder and drag racer, Frank Marchese from Dandy Engines.

easy and affordable fix that sustains the material’s strength, unlike welding. 6

The line of PE clamps includes - Steering Wheel/Helmet Hooks - Tube to Panel Mounting Bracket - Tube Clamp Mounting Brackets - Fuel Pump/Filter Mounting Brackets When we design and develop new products, safety is a huge factor. These clamps, like our Pedal Assemblies are made from high-strength aircraft material with a hard anodized finished. This is to ensure stiffness and resistance to highly corrosive environments. Not only does it provide safety, but it’s designed to last. For items up to 5kg a single clamp can be used, for larger heavier items, we recommend using multiple clamps. Our specialised Fuel Pump/Filter Mounting Bracket’s are designed to secure Bosch and Mahle products securely and safely with a rubber lining to eliminate vibrating effects. The Steering Wheel/Helmet Hooks is another one of our specialties, designed to mount on the inside of a roll cage providing the driver with a holder for their steering wheel and/or helmet. The Tube Clamps and Tube to Panel clamps make customisation easy, as you can add your own products to the PE Clamps. We designed the clamps with motorsport in mind. However, with a little creativity, the possibilities are endless. The line of PE Mounting Clamps are now available for purchase on PE Racing’s online store. Simply visit www.peracing.com.au or contact info@peracing. com.au for more information.

Trans Am Announces New Forgeline and Pirelli Wheel/Tire Package Forgeline and Trans Am are excited to usher in a new era of TA1-class wheel and tire technology, thanks to a revised 18-inch wheel and tire package provided by Trans Am Series partners Pirelli and Forgeline Motorsports. This new setup has been track-tested to deliver significantly improved lap times. “We are very excited to welcome Forgeline as a valued Trans Am partner,” said John Clagett, Trans Am Race Company president. “With the new updates, the Trans Am class cars will pick up speed, and also improve driveability and reduce heat to the wheel, tire and brakes. Once the cars have been tuned to the new tire, the class will become the fastest GT class in the world, while continuing to have the least amount of driver aids.” Forgeline Motorsports developed the new TA3R wheel specifically for Trans Am TA1-class racing applications. Forgeline was chosen, in part, thanks to our extensive 27 year history of motorsport wheel development at the highest levels of automotive racing. Forgeline’s TA3R wheel for the Trans Am series

is manufactured in the USA, at our Dayton, Ohio manufacturing and engineering center. The TA3R is a custom made-to-order three piece wheel consisting of a wheel center that is precisionmachined from a 6061-T6 aerospace forging, mated to modular 6061-T6 spun-aluminum outer barrels, and assembled with high-tech titanium fasteners. All Action, All The Time from MotorWerks Magazine

Each wheel is finished by hand and custom powder coated, prior to assembly, in virtually any possible combination of unique team-specified custom colors. The TA3R is the latest evolution of Forgeline’s GT wheel development program that has previously given birth to a long line of race-winning road course racing wheels. Though the TA3R was engineered through hours of Finite Element Analysis (FEA) specific to the geometry and cornering load demands of the Trans Am TA1-class race cars. “Manufacturing wheels for the next generation of Trans Am racing is literally the realization of my childhood dreams, because Dave and I have always been racing fans, and we grew up watching Trans Am racing in the 1980s,” says Forgeline founder and global sales manager Steve Schardt. “We couldn’t be more excited about this opportunity to help Trans Am competitors move their performance threshold to the next level!” Forgeline’s TA3R wheel is available to order immediately and will take the green flag at the beginning of the 2022 Trans Am racing season.

C17 Armour Launches C17media started over 10 years ago as a commercial print shop serving the businessto-business community in the Greater Toronto Area. Over the years, the business has grown to serve diverse clientele in the automotive, food and cosmetics industries. With a passion for motorsports at the core of the business, it was only natural to transition into the automotive space and leverage experience from large-format printing and installation. For years, C17 has been trusted to bring the creative visions to life by motorsportsorganizations in and around the Greater Toronto Area including PFAFF Motorsports, AWA Racing, and Paragon Competition, with one of their most iconic projects being the “Plaid Livery” Porsche GT3R complete for the PFAFF Motorsports team. 8

In order to better meet the needs of automotive clientele and create a clear segment between automotive and print offerings, C17Auto Armour officially launched on May 11th, 2021. Under the C17Auto Armour brand, the company will continue to employ its in-house capabilities from design through to installation and operate as a one-stop shop for vehicle paint protection film, windshield protection film, race liveries and colour-change vinyl wraps. What this means for clients is a continuous commitment to quality work by experienced installers, premier customer service from passionate account managers, and timely project completion as a result of centralized processes. More information about C17Auto Armour and their service offerings can be found at www. c17autoarmour.com or by calling 905-597-2178.

DriViNG PASSiON

MOD. 27 CUT

SPECIFICALLY DESIGNED FOR ENDURANCE GT RACING, THE MOD 30 HAS A 320MM DIAMETER WITH ANATOMIC GRIP TO ENHANCE CAR CONTROL. THE FLAT BOTTOM DESIGN IS IDEAL FOR QUICK DRIVER CHANGES IN ENDURANCE RACING. THE MOD 30 IS AVAILABLE IN SUEDE WITH OR WITHOUT THE THUMB HORN BUTTONS.

A GREAT ACCESSORY FOR A WIDE RANGE OF MOMO RACING STEERING WHEELS ALLOWING A PERSONALIZED POSITIONING OF ADDITIONAL TOGGLE SWITCHES AND BUTTONS. 100% CARBON. 2.5mm THICKNESS, THE CARBON PLATE IS PREDRILLED FOR EASY INSTALLATION SANDWICHED BETWEEN THE HUB AND STEERING WHEEL.

POPULAR FOR ITS DSHAPE, THE MOD 27 PROVIDES EXTRA LEG CLEARANCE GIVING ADDITIONAL COMFORT WHILE RACING. ITS ANATOMIC GRIP WHEEL SECTION AND ITS TWO DIAMETER OPTIONS  270mm AND 290mm  CONTRIBUTES TO OPTIMUM COMFORT ENHANCING DRIVING PERFORMANCE. THE MOD 27 IS ALSO AVAILABLE WITH A TOP CUT VERSION FOR ECU/LCD DASH INSTALLATION.

To find out more about MOMO Tuning and Racing products visit our website

www.momousa.com contact us at: Toll Free: 1 (800) 749 - MOMO - info@momousa.com

MOMOMOTORSPORT

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OnTheGrid Holley Acquires Substantially All Assets of AEM Performance Electronics to Expand Its Product Offerings for Enthusiasts of Import and Other Sport Compact Cars ADDS TO HOLLEY’S EXPERTISE IN ELECTRONIC CONTROL AND MONITORING SOLUTIONS FOR AUTOMOTIVE ENTHUSIASTS April 15, 2021 07:00 AM Eastern Daylight Time BOWLING GREEN, Ky.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Holley, the largest and fastest growing platform for performance automotive enthusiasts (“Holley”), today announced it has acquired substantially all of the assets of Advanced Engine Management, Inc. dba AEM Performance Electronics (“AEM”). AEM is a leading developer and supplier of electronic control and monitoring systems for performance automotive applications and is particularly well known and highly regarded by enthusiasts of import and other sport compact cars. AEM has also recently launched an electronic control system that supports the conversion of vehicles originally equipped with internal combustion engines to electric power (“EV Conversions”). Holley acquired AEM for $52 million and expects AEM to contribute 2021 pro forma sales of $26 million.

“We’re especially charged-up about leveraging our combined expertise in electronics to more rapidly deploy the AEM EV line of electronic control solutions for enthusiasts of EV Conversions.” “The acquisition of AEM is strategic and accretive and we’re excited to welcome even more aficionados of import and other sport compact cars 10

into our growing community of gearheads. We’re also very excited about the work AEM is doing to bring cost effective and easy to use electronic control systems to enthusiasts that are passionate about EV Conversions,” said Tom Tomlinson, President and CEO of Holley. “The AEM brand is iconic in its space and represents a great addition to our already large family of legendary brands that resonate deeply with our customers.” “We’re excited to have joined the Holley team and believe that the resources Holley brings to bear will allow us to accelerate development of the innovative products our customers love,” stated AEM President Greg Neuwirth. “We’re especially charged-up about leveraging our combined expertise in electronics to more rapidly deploy the AEM EV line of electronic control solutions for enthusiasts of EV Conversions.” Holley previously announced an agreement to become a public company through a business combination with Empower Ltd. (NYSE; EMPW, EMPW-UN, EMPW-WT), a publicly traded special purpose acquisition company. Holley’s majority shareholder is Sentinel Capital Partners, L.L.C., one of the nation’s leading midmarket private equity firms.

LM Performance is a family owned concern headed by former BTCC Champion Robb Gravett and they are happy to provide full technical assistance in conjunction with Liqui Moly from their state-of-theart laboratories in Germany.

LM Performance is proud to ammounce they are the authorised distributor of Liqui Moly products in the UK, supplying the motorsports, vehicle tuning, classic car, marine sports and high-performance vehicle sectors with the extensive range of oils, additives and workshop chemicals made in Germany. The company is arranging exclusive opportunities for motorsport engine builders, vehicles preparers, competitors, organisers and championship providers to promote the use of Liqui Moly oils and additives in the most extreme and competitive conditions.

After laying idle for the past few years, noted MINI/ Mini podcast Miniology is rebooting and returning to the airwaves with Mini News, Events, Tech Tips, Interviews, and Motorsports. We have new (and old) faces, new voices, new equipment, new technology, and new energy! Our theme remains “All things Mini”. We will begin our Podcasts in September 2021. So, stay tuned and get ready for some entertainment,

We wish all of our family of customers great success in all forms of motorsport. We hope you enjoy our products and service offering as much we enjoy using the products ourselves. If you have any questions, comments or concerns please feel free to get in contact with our friendly customer service team who will be delighted to assist you. Our website is www.lmpuk.com/ Robb Gravett - CEO

knowledge and fun! If you are a Mini enthusiast, club member, or vendor to the Mini community, please contact us with any news, events with dates and locations, open houses, product or service specials. We would like to share your good news. You can reach us primarily on Miniology.com, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube.

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Auberlen Turns 63, Wins that is! Bill Auberlen shared his all-time record 63rd IMSA victory with Robby Foley, and the Turner Motorsport team at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, the co-drivers racing the No. 96 Turner Motorsport BMW M6 GT3 to the GTD class win in the two-hourand-forty-minute Acura Sports Car Challenge race. Defeating the 13-car field, that represented eight different manufacturers, the win was the first for the BMW drivers this season and a record fifth GT class victory for 52-year-old Auberlen at the classic 2.258mile, 13-turn natural terrain road course.

The victory also marks the 22nd consecutive year with at least one win for Turner Motorsport. The GTD victory sees Auberlen and Foley move to the top of GTD driver points (unofficially) with a seven point advantage. “Today the Turner Motorsport team and the BMW M6 GT3 was the best in class,” said Will Turner. “I am delighted to give our friends at LIQI-MOLY another win and be a part of one more Bill Auberlen IMSA victory.” “The BMW M6 GT3 is back where it belongs; in the Winner’s Circle,” stated Auberlen. “We had some bad luck in the last race at Sebring with an alternator failure, but Robby and I are back in the points and we’re moving forward.”

Lime Rock Park & FCP Euro Announce A 10Year Strategic Partnership Connecticut-based European auto parts retailer, FCP Euro, enters into a long-term strategic partnership with Lime Rock Park Lime Rock Park has entered into a long-term partnership with European car parts online retailer, FCP Euro. The partnership will create in-person and digital opportunities for both organizations to increase brand awareness and customer reach. As the “Official Auto Parts Supplier” of Lime Rock Park, the partnership will also include two new facility additions supported by FCP Euro to the park’s 400acre motorsports and entertainment campus in Lakeville, CT. “FCP Euro Proving Grounds,” a recently expanded and repaved autocross and skid-pad facility, will be the first of the park’s upgrades in preparation for the 2021 motorsport season. Opening immediately after Memorial Day Weekend, this autocross track sets a new standard for design and high-performance driver education and is over half a mile long in its maximum configuration. Additionally, set to open in 2022 will be the development of a brand new FCP Euro experience and hospitality center adjacent to the “Proving Grounds,” overlooking Lime Rock Park’s Left-Hander onto No-Name Straight. The 10-year agreement is the first strategic initiative to be announced by Lime Rock Park’s new ownership group, led by General Partners Charles Mallory, Dicky Riegel, and Bill Rueckert along with a group of private investors. The group has recently assumed control and stewardship of Lime Rock Park from longtime owner Skip Barber, who continues as a significant investor and is playing a key role in preserving Lime Rock Park’s legacy. Established in 1986 as a family-owned brickand-mortar auto parts store, FCP Euro (fcpeuro. com) has grown to a global online supplier of

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replacement parts for European cars, surpassing $100 million in revenues for 2020 and on pace for $500 million in revenues by 2025. FCP Euro has also directly participated in motorsports since 2016, winning the TC America TCR Championship in 2019, and launched an IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge program in 2021 with a top 10 finish in their debut race at Mid Ohio. The “FCP Euro Proving Grounds” offers a full-redesign and rebuild of Lime Rock Park’s infield autocross course and skidpad facility, providing enthusiasts an opportunity to develop their driving skills in a safe and controlled environment, preparing them for the bigger racing track. It also extends FCP Euro’s online website from a digital to an in-person experience. The design for the state-of-the-art 5,000 square-foot experience and event center overlooking the Left-Hander is underway, with construction slated to commence by the end of the 2021 racing season. It will complement FCP Euro’s current experience center at their headquarters in Milford, CT, where they routinely host car shows, local car clubs, and events to their customers and community. “All of us at Lime Rock Park are thrilled to announce this partnership with this world-class, Connecticut-based company,” said Lime Rock Park CEO Dicky Riegel. “Not only is FCP Euro an outstanding brand like Lime Rock Park, we share the same values of creating the very best experience for our consumers. Lime Rock Park will become a home away from home for FCP Euro for years to come and we are delighted to welcome their brand partners and customers to the Park,” said Dicky Riegel, President & CEO of Lime Rock Park.” “To say that I am excited about this partnership is an understatement,” stated Nick Bauer, FCP Euro’s President and Founder. “Every enthusiast within our company has their own cherished memory of their first Lime Rock Park experience, and thanks to Skip Barber’s long-term ownership and curation, the track has a preserved 14

culture and environment unlike any other.” Scott Drozd, CEO of FCP Euro added, “We are excited for the strategic partnership between FCP Euro and Lime Rock Park, two strong brands that have deep roots in the state of Connecticut. This partnership will help facilitate the growth over the next decade while enhancing and further developing the automotive communities surrounding both organizations.” About Lime Rock Park: Opened in 1957, Lime Rock Park is a historic automotive and entertainment venue located in scenic Litchfield County, CT. Along with hosting several televised spectator races and its legendary Historics Weekend, Lime Rock is home to numerous special events, racing schools, driving schools, and the exclusive Lime Rock Drivers Club. Visit www. limerock.com or @limerockpark on social media for more information. About FCP Euro Located in Milford, CT, FCP Euro is an online retailer of Genuine, OE, and OEM European auto parts specializing in BMW, Volvo, Audi, VW, Mercedes, and Porsche. Since 1986, FCP Euro has become widely recognized by enthusiasts in the community as their preferred source for parts. With a Lifetime Replacement Guarantee, Hassle-Free Returns, and Free Shipping, FCP Euro has continuously challenged and advanced the standards of quality, service, and technology in the automotive aftermarket. Visit www.fcpeuro.com or @fcpeuro on social media for more information.

‘Home to the most powerful Mini Cooper every built’

Custom Tune Gen 1

MINI..........FIAT ABARTH..........PORSCHE

Custom tune for first Generation Mini Cooper.

OUR MISSION

A DimSport flash tool has

To supply the best high performance parts available for MINI, FIAT ABARTH and PORSCHE. You can be sure that every one of our parts has been personally tested on race tracks across the U.S.A. and Canada and has seen rigourous testing to ensure our components will survive in your local auto cross as well as excelling at the highest levels of Pro Racing. THE PROOF Seven National championships, multiple podiums. Four Grand Am Sports Car Championships Track records at Buttonwillow, Willow Springs, Thunder Hill, Sebring, Road Atlanta, VIR, Homestead, Miller Motorsports Park and many others. THE PRODUCTS THAT MAKE US DIFFERENT The only engine builder/designer to have 1800cc and 2000cc kits available for the MINI

to be purchased to allow remote tuning of your car. Custom tune MINI R50, R52, R53 $350.00

LINK G4+ ECU for Gen 1 MINI The Link G4+ MiniLink #MINI+ Plug-in fits the Mini Cooper R53. The ECU is a direct fit in the factory location, making it the ultimate stand alone engine management for your Mini Cooper. Installation is a breeze with no alteration of the factory wiring loom required. A built-in connector (or pins in some models) provides additional inputs and outputs such as oil pressure inputs or anti-lag/logging switches. Factory features are supported. Link PNP ECU for Gen 1 MINI $1685.00

Billet Crankshafts Our 1600cc, 1800cc & 2000cc billet Crankshafts are built to the same exacting standards as all of our race team’s crankshaft are. Machined from Timken’s proven 4340 forgings, these crankshafts will provide years of trouble free service. All priced at

$2195.00

The first producer of a TVS 900 supercharger kit with FMIC. Now with TMIC or FMIC options available, call us for details. Installs available in California only at present. Properly engineered Turbo and Rotrex kits are available for the R53, call and talk to us. Jan Brueggemann revolutionmini@live.com Tel. (949) 464- 7691 All Action, All The Time from MotorWerks Magazine

Audi Sport open sales for the new RS 3 LMS TCR The second generation Audi RS 3 LMS TCR is ready for customers and teams can place their orders. The brand sold a total of 180 units of the predecessor between 2016 and 2021 in North and South America, Europe, Asia and Australia. Audi Sport customer racing has not produced any other race car in such a high number within one model generation. “This market launch has been long awaited by many customers,” said Chris Reinke, Head of Audi Sport customer racing. “Our customers have clinched more than 300 race victories with the first generation model to date. In the process, we have received valuable experience and wishes as feedback. Our new car is the sum of these feedbacks and the creativity of our engineers.” At a price of 137,500 euros (plus VAT), the teams will receive the car in race-ready condition. As standard, Audi Sport supplies the RS 3 LMS in Daytona gray the distinctive signature colour pattern. The cockpit is designed to be even more ergonomic, with all the important elements grouped in a steering wheel control panel and a keypad to the right of the seat. In terms of safety, Audi Sport is setting standards above and beyond the regulations: the brand’s own Protection Seat with six-point fixation, a roof hatch to facilitate recovery and the pedal box that can be adjusted for different statures all stand for safety 16

and comfort. Audi Sport offers further options at extra cost: a kit for endurance races includes wiring for auxiliary headlights, anti-lock braking system and a device for external refuelling. Front and rear windows made of polycarbonate as well as triangular safety nets to the right and left of the seat round off the range of options. Deliveries of the second-generation Audi RS 3 LMS will start in the fourth quarter of 2021. The compact sedan race car has already been homologated by WSC and is eligible for worldwide use. Picture: Audi Sport

MotorWerks Media Unveils New Publications MotorWerks Media a branch of Oakville, ON based Webtronic Enterprises is pleased to announce that in addition to their MotorWerks Magazine publication they are bringing two new digital magazines to the World Wide Web. As of the 1st of September, Miniology Magazine and Profiles Magazine have been available on the MotorWerks Bookstore at www.issuu.com/ motorwerksmagazine/. MotorWerks Editor Ian Rae

explained, “It was time to add something new to our repertoire and after discussions with Norm Nelson and Enrique McLeggan these are the two magazines we came up with.” Rae continued, “One of the challenges I have is that I am pretty well putting the magazine together myself. In some cases I get the articles and they need very little editing but in others I am taking data in point for and creating the article. I then place it in the magazine using InDesign and take care of the images in Lightroom and Photoshop. That is why it takes a bunch of time between issues being published. I wanted our readers to have something to read between MotorWerks issues to keep their interest up.” He had been noticing Social Media posts from Enrique McLeggan of Kountersteer Media on many of the pages dedicated to Time Attack racing. “Unfortunately they were just posted on the page wall” he said. “Enrique put a lot of hard work into gathering all the data but Facebook and other Social Media don’t really provide space to showcase it properly and that is sad considering the work he puts into it and it does not really give the subject of

McLeggan agreed, “The format Ian uses is very professional and really showcases the subjects of the articles well. Every one who has see the magazine loves how it looks” Rae praised McLeggan, “He is a young guy working hard and we are pleased to give him more exposure. With mentoring from some of the experienced people here at MotorWerks he has a bright future ahead og him” Nelson has long been associated with MotorWerks in his capacity as West Coast Editor and sometime photographer and writer. His wife Jesse is the Social Media director for MotorWerks and adds the same job dealing with Miniology Magazine. Nelson added to Rae’s previous comments, “Ian and I have been working with Chris Calhoun and a few others on bringing back the Miniology Podcast that was so popular a few years ago and we got around to talking about a way to get more MINI/ Mini content for MotorWerks. Ian explained what he was doing with Enrique and Kountersteer as far as the JIT publishing and we thought something similar might work with a Mini magazine. It also gets us back to our roots as MotorWerks was originally a MINI/Mini/BMW when he started it 10 years ago.” Rae summed everything up by noting, “The JIT publishing may be something we consider doing for MotorWerks Magazine. It would be great to get some reader’s input on this.

the article the exposure they deserve”. That is when Rae approached McLeggan and suggested working together and using a Just In Time publishing model where instead of waiting for the schedule publishing date, we would update the magazine as we recieved content. This is very similar to the way traditional e-zines work but Rae wanted to continue using Issuu and the flipbook model that looks like a traditional printed magazine. “I really don’t like scrolling and scrolling” he explained, “The other thing I like is being able directly to an article or a page and that is very easy to do on Issuu” All Action, All The Time from MotorWerks Magazine

Words by Bradley Gravett, Images by Jakob Ebery / Gary Hawkins

BRADLEY GRAVETT 18

Playing The Name Game?

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Being the son of a multiple British Touring Car champion definitely comes with its perks, but... Well, unfortunately, there’s no ‘but’... apart from the ‘but’ I hope the title grabbed your attention, so you’ll now read my first ever article for MotorWerks Magazine, how exciting! Hello, my name is Bradley Gravett; I’m a 27-year-old British born, racing driver based just outside of London, England. And, as you already know from my introduction, I’m the son of the multiple British Touring Car Champion, Robb Gravett. My father was fortunate enough to win the British Touring Car Championship (BTCC) two times, once in 1990 in a Ford Serria RS500 and again in 1997 in a Honda Accord, during the famous Super Touring years. Among the two wins, the 1990 win is by far the most well-known and was for sure the ‘thing’ that put the Gravett name on the map. At that time, the British Touring Car scene was very much being dominated by Andy Rouse, who was, up until recently, the most decorated and successful

Touring Car driver of all time with 60 wins. Andy who had worked with Ford tuning colossus Broadspeed had access to the best equipment, skill, engineers, financial support and the car to dominate, or so he thought until Robb Gravett and Trakstar Motorsport came along to beat him in 1990. Fueled by a whole host of monotonous motorsport politics, that I’m not going to delve into in this article, Robb and his then teammate, BBC TV personality Mike Smith, decided in 1989 to form Trakstar, the team that in 1990, against all odds, and I mean all of them, beat Andy Rouse fair and square. Trakstar in 1989 lost to Andy by just a tiny fraction in their Dick Johnson built, Australian imported, tired RS500s. In 1990, Robb and Mike both decided that if they were going to beat Andy, they’d need a new car. So in 1990, Mike decided to step away from a driving position into a team manager position to allow the underfunded Trakstar team the ability to find the budget to build and focus their attention on one brand new, in-house built Ford Sierra RS500. The famous, white, unsponsored RS500 that became one of the most iconic RS500s of all time,

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and the only ever RS500 to get an outright BTC championship win and beat Andy at his own game, it was a very special moment for Gravett and Smith. Built from a new chassis it retained the running gear from the previous year’s Dick Johnson car, together with all the ‘trick bits’ including Eggenberger suspension, a Getrag 5-speed dog box and a topspec Mountune RS500 engine, producing 500bhp. The result was a record-breaking season with nine wins, eight pole positions and eight fastest laps. 25 years later, Robb and his son, me, Bradley, decided it would be a great idea it have a go at what dad did so well! Having spent a lifetime growing Gravett and Smith up around motorsport, I don’t really remember too much of my childhood away from the track. I mean, it was pretty cool; my dad was a racing driver, but for me, that was just the norm. Born in 1993, I never got to see the big 1990 win, but I was there for the 1997 win, and I remember it well, albeit just 5 years of age. That time in the BTCC was extraordinary; the TV viewings were huge, the fans flocked in the 10s of thousands, and the money was massive. This was the Super Touring years, and we’re talking colossal manufacture support; it was the biggest the British Touring Cars had ever been, and most likely will ever be, and that’s how I remember it. One of my most prominent memories is just rows of people all trying to get an autograph from Dad during the pitlane walkabout, with some even asking me to sign. I mean, I was only just learning to write my name at school at the time, let alone sign an autograph; I have to say, it was awesome! So in 2007, at 13 years of age, I decided it would be a good idea to start racing in karts, which 22

I did; I kept nagging dad to have a test in one. Eventually, he caved in and called an old pal, the late, great super kart world champion, Martin Hines. Martin at that time owned and ran the Zip Kart Young Guns team. And, after a relatively short meeting in their Essex-based workshop, I was signed up as a Zip Young Gun factory driver, whatever that meant?

2007 was a challenging year for me, as I was very much thrown right into the deep end. I ended up doing two back-to-back British championships, Super 1 and Stars of Tomorrow, driving in the Junior Rotax class on Zips premier chassis, which I believe they called the Evo; I wonder where they got the inspiration for that name from! It was tough; I was

racing against some very fast drivers, albeit many of them younger than me; most had been racing from around 6 or 7 years of age, so at that time, half their life. My first year of kart racing was definitely my learning year, spending the vast majority of it getting to grips with the racing lines, racecraft and just generally what I should and shouldn’t be doing on the track. Then, towards the end of 2007, I actually started to go quite quickly, which looking back, was a fabulous achievement, considering many of my competitors from back then have gone on to do some quite exciting things with their racing careers; Formula 1, IndyCar, Formula E and even the BTCC to name a few. At the beginning of 2008, we decided it was prudent to follow the natural progression of the sport and take a step up in class, and to be fair, it was quite the step; we went from Junior Rotax into

the KF3 class. KF basically was another ‘type’ of kart engine to Rotax, but it had a clearer stepping stone system at that time into the Global Karting scene and was the replacement to the highly popular JICA engine that already had its roots very much embedded into global karting. In 2008 we moved away from Zip Kart

into an independent kart team called Millennium Motorsport, owned and run by another ex British karting champion. We also switched away from the Zip Evo chassis and onto the hugely popular Tony Kart equivalent, which in comparison to the Zip, was just so much more compliant and faster. With my learning year of 2007 out the way, our focus for 2008 was to start to go quickly and consistently, which towards the second half of the season is exactly what we did. The final race weekend of the year was definitely the one I remember best; I remembered mainly because of my qualifying pace as I managed to qualify 3rd on the grid in very tricky drying conditions. Unfortunately, the race following qualifying didn’t go so well as we had to retire the kart with engine issues, but it put us in good stead for the following year, 2009, or so we thought. Us Gravett’s very much like to work with long term 3-year plans, and we had one of those in karts. Our plan looked a little like this; year 1 learn, year 2 go quickly, and year 3 start getting some serious results so we can begin to raise budgets for car racing. However, unfortunately, with the falling over of the global financial system in late 2008, our budget for 2009 was quite seriously hindered, sorry did I say ‘hindered’, I meant pulled entirely, and that was the end of that; no more serious racing until 2019! The only positive to the premature end of my karting career in 2008 was that I was young, and I had time on my side to sort it out; it took me 10 years, but eventually, I managed to get myself back out racing and wow was it a journey. To cut an incredibly long story short, in the 10 years I wasn’t racing, I went off to study business and started businesses so I’d fully understand what’s required to make a sponsorship deal commercially viable to a company or person who gets involved with my racing. At the end of the day, any form of investment into motorsport is ultimately marketing, and it’s up to the driver to make that investment All Action, All The Time from MotorWerks Magazine

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work for that individual; that’s the challenge. During my 10 year hiatus, having an ex BTCC champion as a father did mean that I was generally pretty close to the sport, and yeah, various opportunities did arise from time to time. The most significant being an opportunity to race in the BARC Formula Renault 2.0 single-seater championship. I got to test the car with the full intention to race it in the 2012 season, but we just couldn’t complete on budget as our sponsorship deal at that time fell through. I then dabbled in a bit of historic racing in 2015, but nothing serious came from that. Spooling forward to 2019, Dad had a call from the EnduroKA series’s event organisers asking if he’d like to drive in a 4 driver 8-hour endurance race in a Ford KA at Brands Hatch for charity, and of course, he answered yes on the proviso that I could be one of the 3 other drivers. So we went down to Brands Hatch a couple of weeks before the race to test the car; Dad drove it in the morning, and I drove it in the afternoon. Of course, being an ex BTCC champion, his lap time was very much the benchmark time for me to beat. So after lunch, the team did a seat fit for me, and I jumped in. Yeah, was I proper in the deep end here, I’d never driven Brands Hatch, and I hadn’t driven a racing car for a very long time, but within three laps, I went two and a half tenths of a second faster than his time; I even impressed myself.

The rest really is history; after that KA race, Graves Motorsport, the team who ran the KA, invested in a MINI Challenge UK Cooper class car, and a few months later, I found myself sitting on the grid at the first round of the series at Oulton Park. The championship of 2020 in the Cooper Class MINI went very well, albeit I didn’t manage to get myself on the podium; I did manage to run and race right at the sharp end of the series all year. Once again, following the natural progression of the sport, this year in 2021, I’ve taken another step up forward, and I’m now racing in the premier MINI Challenge series, the JCW class supporting the British Touring Car Championship in my Liqui Moly liveried F56 MINI JCW. I am incredibly fortunate to be where I am today, it has and will continue to be an exciting journey for my team, my partners and myself, and we’re now only just one step away from the BTCC. Keep your eyes peeled for the Liqui Moly MINI; we’re coming for it! And best of all I get to tell you all about it in my new MotorWerks Magazine column ‘Playing The Name Game’ Stay up to date with all the cool stuff @bradleygravett / @bradleygravettracing

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Bradley Gravett Age: 27 Lives: Berkshire, UK Occupation: Racing Driver, Commercial Director at LM Performance

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You might think that ‘Civic Unrest’ is an odd title for an article about Chris Boersma’s race car but we are going to tell you the story of how Chris inherited the love of racing from his father Mike and started drag racing. The Unrest part of the title refers to Chris’s modus operandi of never standing still and always moving forward. “You stand still in this game,” he said, “and you will be swallowed up by your fellow competitors. Time Attack is very like Heads Up drag racing where you ‘Run What Ya Brung and hope you Brung enough”

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“I’ve owned this car since 2000 and it’s gone through many different iterations. I took my wife to prom in this car, did deliveries for my mom’s courier business, drove myself to university and raced it on weekends at the drag strip. The car was an all motor drag car for quite some time before our move over to Time Attack, where it quickly got turbocharged in our very first season of competition.

Since then it’s basically gotten a little crazier every year as we continued on our quest for more speed.” Chris elaborated, “I’ve been competing in Time Attack since 2008, the first year that CSCS introduced the concept to our local racing community. Previously I had drag raced and was

looking for a change and Time Attack looked like a promising new form of motorsport that combined road racing with less rules and more opportunity for creativity. My dad and I started together and the first couple of years we really had no idea what we were doing, but over time we started to figure things out and started to compete for podiums and eventually wins and records. Many people 30

As Used By Gridlife Unlimited Champion Global Time Attack Overall Champion - - - James Houghton - - Ultimate Track Challenge Production AWD Winner - - - John Freund - - Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge ST Winners, Daytona & Watkins Glen - - - LAP Motorsport - - Global Time Attack Street FWD Winner - - - Chris Hofmann - - -

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helped us along the way, Time Attack really is a team sport and without everyone’s help we probably still would be trying to figure things out, lol.” Thirt-nine year old Chris finds competing in Time Attack actually acts as a stress relevier from his job as a software engineer and he recalls some of the memories from travelling outside of Canada to race. “The time we decided to drive across the country to the Super Lap Battle in 2013 when I’d never even raced outside of Ontario. We got into a few the shenanigans doing that, but that is not for publication. Our first Gridlife MidWest Festival where all the cars ran perfectly, we didn’t have to turn a wrench all weekend and we had one of our most enjoyable, chill racing weekends of our career. There’s also the time we rented a Charger Hellcat in LA to drive to SLB and had the time of our life roasting tires for two hours. We also had to take that Charger to drive all the way from the track to pick up a clutch and we nearly ran out of gas in the middle of the desert. And rather than chance that again got got MotorWerk’s Ian Rae and his rental BMW X3 take us to the only parts store close to us in California that had the other bits we needed to complete the job. There are honestly just so many good memories to talk about.” When everythings running good the memories are normally great, “One of the funny racing memories was from Road America in 2019, I got on the radio to tell Eric that everything felt really good before heading back to the pits. When I got back into the pits he told me that the car sounded insane coming up the front straight and asked me if I saw the speed on the dash. I said I hadn’t but I remembered the lights coming on the dash so I must have been towards the top of 5th gear. I told him it felt like I was accelerating forever but that the car felt really stable and it was kind of boring, but I knew I was going fast into the braking zone. He pulled the log, turned to me and said “You hit 172mph on your first lap!” I still can’t believe an econobox Honda Civic did that.” 32

Top: The Lavigne Motorsports built B18C1 motor makes 711 whp and 454 Ft/Lbs TQ. Middle: A LINK G4+ Thunder ECU controls all the engine functions. Bottom: One of Antigravity’s ReStart batteries always ensures the Civic has electrical power.

Take the hassle out of aftermarket engine management with a Link PlugIn ECU for Mini, Nissan, Toyota, Volkswagen and much more. All Action, All The Time from MotorWerks Magazine

Above: It’s always fun when Mike Boersma and his friend Sparkie are at the track!

It’s hard to say what the future holds for the car. 2019 was one of our hardest racing years to date. We competed in a full season of GridLife, GTA and CSCS and we struggled. It was a super stressful year and everyone suffered and then I put the car in the wall at the end of the season at Speed Ring which put the icing on the cake for a terrible year. We 34

expected to come back out hard in 2020 and COVID hit and we weren’t able to cross the border. Now we’ve just been waiting, itching for a chance to run the car we built for the 2020 season. Time Attack has moved forward in our absence and honestly I’m just happy to get back out on track with our friends in 2022. I’d like to see what our package is capable

of and then iterate on it from there. It’s hard to really predict how good or bad your car is going to be before really getting it onto the track. After 2019 I realized that one of the things I loved most about racing wasn’t the records, the wins, though those are really nice, it was the time I got to spend with my Dad and my friends at the track. A lot of the

memories that I have aren’t of the records or the wins but the crazy times we’ve had as a family at the track. So I’m really just looking forward to that in 2022 and we’ll see how everything else shakes out. I’m not going to lie, I’d really like to collect a few FWD TrackMod records if we can as well. All Action, All The Time from MotorWerks Magazine

The Build List 1999 Honda Civic SiR Owned and driven by Chris Boersma FWD TrackMod class or CSCS Super Street Engine: - Lavigne Motorsports Built B18C1 - JBRE Sleeved B18C1 with stock crank - 83MM Bore with 10.1:1 compression CP racing pistons and BC Racing ProH625+ Rods - B18C5 Head ported by Lavigne Motorsports - Cometic MLX Headgasket - Cometic Engine Gaskets - Skunk2 Pro1 Cams - Skunk2 Ultra Intake Manifold - Bosch 82mm DBW throttle body - Supertech Valvesprings, Valves, Retainers, Guides and Seals - Unit2 Fabrication Drysump Oiling System with Peterson Oil Pump - Unit2 Turbo Manifold - Headershield heat management system on turbo manifold, exhaust housing, downpipe - Garrett G30-900 Turbo - Garrett Intercooler core - Tial MVR 44MM wastegate - Tial Q 50mm BOV - K-Series COP - VP Racing Oil - VP Racing MS109 Fuel Suspension/Brakes/Wheels: - K-Tuned K2 Pro Circuit Coilovers with swift springs - K-Tuned Upper Camber Arms - K-Tuned Rear Camber Arms - Eibach 25mm Front Sway bar - EG/DC2 subframe with Kingpin Spherical

Bearings - K-Tuned Rear lower control arms with spherical bearings - ASR Rear Sway bar and support - Stoptech STR65 Brakes with 355MM rotors on front - Integra Type R Rear Brakes - Hawk DTC70/DTC30 Brake Pads - Hawk HP600 Brake Fluid - Konig Hypergram 18x11 and 18x9.5” wheels - Yokohama A052 315/30/18 and 255/35/18 tires Aero: - - - - - - - - - -

Spage Sport Front Splitter APR GT1000 Rear Wing JASE Ultra Fiberglass Front End Seibon Carbon Fiber Doors Seibon Carbon Fiber Hood with Boersma Racing Custom Hood Duct Profesional Awesome Hood Vents Boersma Racing Carbon Fiber Roof Spage Sport Carbon Fiber Fender Vents Spage Sport End Plates Lavigne Motorsports Splitter Support System

Safety: - Lavigne Motorsports Rollcage - Racetech HT4009HR Halo Seat - OMP Fire Suppression System - Momo Steering Wheel - Schroth 6 Point Harness

Fuel System: - ID 1700 Injectors - Radium Engineering Fuel Surge Tank - Dual Bosch 044 Fuel Pumps - K-Tuned AN Lines/Fittings - Aeromotive Fuel Pressure Regulator

Oil System: - SAENZ TT-3 model 6-speed sequential transmission w/ close ratio straight cut gears - 4Lb aluminum flywheel - Tilton 5.5-inch diameter triple disc clutch - KAAZ 1.5-way Super Q differential w/ factory Mazda 4.10 ratio final drive

Drivetrain: - Exedy Twin Disk Clutch - Liberty Billet Transmission Case - Albins 1-5 Dogbox - Assembled by TeamRip Engineering - OS Giken Differential - TeamRip OS Giken Differential Cover - Drive Shaft Shop Axles Electronics: - Link G4+ Thunder ECU - T1 Cam Trigger - Subaru STI DBW Pedal Assembly - Rywire Custom Wireharness - AIM MXG Dash - AIM Smarty Camera System - Antigravity ReStart Lithium Battery - Tons of sensors

Chris did mention in the body of the article how racing for him is basically a family affair with support from great people, he would like to thank Eric Lavigne, who really is a Crew Chief Extraordinaire, his father Mike Boersma, who really is the rock the team is founded on, Mitch Hemmen of Unit 2, fellow race James Houghton and crew Josh Bannon and Russ Bursey. And when it comes to the race car he notes he has some amazing companies supporting his program. Huge thanks goes out to Lavigne Motorsports, Unit2 Fabrications, K-Tuned, Link ECU, Konig Wheels, Exedy USA, Stoptech, Supertech, Brian Crower, Headershield, Cometic Gaskets, Antigravity Battery, JP Powdercoating, Team Rip Engineering, TialSport, Turbo Parts Canada, AIM Sports Data, APR Performance, Spage Sport, CSM Performance, VP Racing Fuels, Hawk Performance.

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I am sure many of you have heard the phrase it never rains but it pours? That phrase was never truer than a few months ago when as tail end Charlie I went to get my new Continental ExtremeSport tires fitted to my Forgeline GA1R monoblock wheels on Project 3ThirtyFive halfway through the summer. It was something I was looking forward to as this would be the first time that I would have run the new Contintental ExtremeContact Sport Having previously run two sets of the previous model, the ExtremeContact DW and was super happy with them in both dry and wet conditions. I chose to go to the newly opened tire shop in Oakville, Adrena Garage having known the owners from their previous place of employment. Everything went well and the car looked well on its new rubber. Now this is where funny things started happening. The next weekend I was heading out to deliver 38

some Racepak datalogging equipment to a customer when a previously unheard noise appeared upon braking at the first intersection. And what was that: a puff of smoke and smell of rubber? Nah, I must have imagined it. Not so, the noise, the smoke and the smell appeared the next time I came to a full stop. At that point I decided that a 3-hour trip one

Continental Extreme DW tires on Forgeline GA1R wheels with Alloygator rim protection

was not on the cards with this unknown problem, so it was turn around and head back the short distance to MotorWerks HQ. Not having a lot of spare time because of my appointment it was a case of quickly walking around the car and giving it a quick check over. The smell of burning rubber as I got out of the car was not overpowering but sure did get my attention but there was nothing obvious to be seen. Because of other commitments the BMW was left sitting in the driveway and not touched. When I finally got around to looking at it seemed as if the gap between the new tires and the quarter panel on the passenger side was a lot less than previous and definitely less than the drivers-side. So just in case the problem was the new tires were built slightly bigger than the older version, I threw on the OEM 17” rims and tires. Well, that sorted it, no more smoke, the problem was gone, all I had to do was figure out how the new tire combination was so different from the previous two sets of tires. So, with renewed confidence I decided to go for a two-day jaunt to Calabogie Motorsport Park for the Canadian Sport Compact Series event. On the way I stopped off to tweak a datalogger dash for a customer living an hour East of Oakville. Just before I left, he said the car looks good lowered and for sure it did with the front fender sitting down over the wheel and tire. The problem was the front of Project 3ThirtyFive had yet to be lowered. After driving to Gormley with no issues I continued to Calabogie and before long some issues returned. There was no smoke but at certain speeds and when turning at low speeds weird noises were common place. There was no choice but to continue the trip, enjoy the CSCS event and head home as see what the problem was. Unfortunately the problem when I got home was lack of time again. Maybe because I had my Ford F350 dually available it was too easy to ignore the BMW for a bit. That is until I had no other

choice. The guys at Adrena Garage had offered to check out the issue but as a stubborn Scotsman I decided to find the problem myself and if I did not get my ass in gear I would be working in the driveway in the snow as the weeks were flying by. Why not the garage you ask? That’s because CooperRSR is in there and it cannot be moved around. So before I did anything else I measured from the fender lip to the ground and the passengers side was 45mm lower. Well that’s not right, it accounted

The damage to the new Continental ExtremeSport tire caused by the broken spring

The broken spring! The light rust on the broken section tells me it has not been broken for long

for the lowered look of the car but what was the issue? Off came the OEM 17” rim and I broke out an inspection light for a closer lookey see. And there it was, a broken spring and that would indeed account for the the lowered ride height and the tire smoke. Weirdly the 17” tires were untouched but on closer inpection of the new 19” Contis I found the All Action, All The Time from MotorWerks Magazine

Zimmerman replacement rotors I had got from FCP Euro who have an amazing warranty on the parts they sell called their Lifetime Replacement

inside of the tire had indeed been rubbed away by interference with the broken spring. No problem I said, I had a set of Bilstein B8 Sport series struts and Eibach springs at home that really should have been fitted before now. But there was more damaged than just the spring. Because there was nothing to support the weight of the car the constant pounding had bent the anti-roll bar link and it would need to be replaced also. And while I was at it I decided to install the

Guarantee. And the really interesting thing is that parts used in racing are also included in this warranty which is great considering I have just recieved a bunch of suspension parts from them for our project MINI Cooper RSR. Now we get to the bit where it never rains but it pours! Going by the first two YouTube videos I watched about upgrading the struts to Bilsteins I would have to detach the control arm, tension strut and tie rods. No problem you say and normally I

USE IT.

REPLACE IT.

You must have a valid purchase through FCP Euro to participate. Under no circumstance will we take back parts that are not ours. We inspect all parts upon arrival. If we receive a part that is not ours, we will charge you to ship it back or discard it.

We’re proud to offer some of the highest quality parts and reputable brands in the industry. Regardless of whether our parts are installed on a daily driver or a track car, we guarantee to stand by our promise.

When you need a replacement, you must purchase the new replacement part first. Once you receive your replacement part, you can send the initial item you purchased from FCP Euro back and upon receipt of the part, we will issue you the refund against your replacement order. We do not cover the cost of brand upgrades.

BUY A PART.

would agree, I’ve been detaching ball joints since I was sixteen. Only I find out BMW does not use ball joints that are interference fits like most other

manufacturers, okay so what does that mean? I could see that undoing the nut on the ball joint would be a problem, especially if the car had gone through thirteen Canadian winters like 3ThirtyFive had. Yes, the dreaded rust had attacked the threads on the ball joint that protruded thru the nut. That in itself is nothing new, normally a thorough soaking overnight with something like PB B’laster Rust Penetrant and/or a bit of heat along with a severe attack with a wire brush on the exposed threads normally fixes the problem and the nut comes off. Normally I said, but with the ball joint shaft not being retained by the interference fit the shaft wants to rotate as soon as a there is no tension to stop it rotating. Now BMW has provided a way to hold the shaft but that is where I made a huge mistake. There is a pocket for a Torx 40 to be inserted into the shaft to help stop it rotating. With the copious quantities of rust it was not easily identified as a Torx, I assummed it was an Allen as that is

what is on the strut itself. Thinking everything was going well, the nut was coming loose when the Allen socket popped out rounding out the Torx pocket and giving me no way of retaining the shaft as I tried to undo the nut over the end of the threads. So how did I find out it was a Torx? I had looked at a few Youtube.com videos but I have no idea where they get these cars without rust on all these bolts but it isn’t from Canada. They seemed to be able to remove the nuts without using the Torx. It was just about that time I saw a Facebook link to a FCP Euro instructional video about some other issue. And before long I had scooted over to their website and searched e90 on their DIY Blog. And there was plenty to check out on the e90 listed there althought they did not have one about strut replacement. In fact I came across a mod I had not even heard about, TRW does a kit that allows you to fit e90 M3 front suspension to any standard BMW 3 series. The modified geometry it provides will be a huge asset to anyone tracking or aggressivevly driving. Definately something to think about when ordering the parts I need. Gareth Foley Of FCP Euro does a great job in all the DIY videos he does and in addition to showing the tools required, they list them in the video link shown below, which is where I found out it was a Torx not an Allen. So the moral of this bit

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of the story is to never assume anything. Cars have changed over the last fifty years and just because manufacturers used to do something a certain way never assume it is still so. With the nut stuck on the rusted tip of the ball joint shaft there is only one answer to removing the control arm and that is to cut the nut off. Luckily I have plenty of cordless DeWalt tools that this was an easy procedure. Now that is not strictly true as I found lots of comments online about using a jack to put pressure on the bottom of the ball joint and holding it against the weight of the car forcing the shaft into the knuckle and causing a slight interference fit. This only worked with one of the six ball joints for me.

So what started out as a fairly straight forward strut and spring replacement along up a brake rotor upgrade has turned into a bunch of work because of the rust on 3ThirtyFive. This little project has also taught me another thing, like many other things on the Internet you cannot take everything you see as being the truth; as being the only way to do things. The 42

methodology I saw in those first couple of videos where the strut and knuckle are released from the ball joints sounded right to me as when we tried to change the struts on Cooper RSR, leaving the control arms attached and pulling the strut out through the wheel opening, it turned out to be a nightmare. It was only after I was researching the parts required to assemble the Bilstein struts I came across videos where the struts were being changed with the control arms attached and there seemed to be no extreme effort and cursing and swearing during the process. The interesting thing was that neither video explained how important it was to fit the strut mount washer. By all accounts is it is installed upside down or in the wrong place the strut has an issue rotating and you will be heading an annoying popping noise. I already had a pait of strut top mounts sitting waiting to go on the Bilsteins but on further investigation I should just have ordered FCP Euro’s strut top kit. This would have allowed me to have complete strut assemblies ready to install instead of waiting to reuse some of the parts coming off 100k mile struts. You will read in the next issue how we chose to overcome these problems and in the meantime we are going to look at ways of coating threads so the new components we fit will not present the same problems in the future. We will also have alink to our new MotorWerks Garage YouTube channel showing how to properly assemble the Bilstein struts. Project 3ThirtyFive is a 2009 e90 335i that was purchased new from Budds’ BMW in Oakville, ON by our Editor Ian Rae and it currently has 171473 kilometers (107170 miles) on it. We appreciate FCP Euro for allowing us to link to video on their DIY Blog. https://blog.fcpeuro.com

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Touring Car legend Gabriele Tarquini announces his retirement! Tarquini, arguably one of the most successful and respected Touring Car drivers of all time, has today announced his retirement from motorsport. The Italian driver will bring to an end his incomparable career after the two final events of the WTCR, at Adria this week and at Sochi on the last weekend of November. Tarquini’s racing career began at the age of 10, when he debuted in the 125cc regional karting championship. After being crowned Italian champion three times, European champion once and having won the Class C World Championship in 1984, he switched from karting to car racing. He went quickly 44

through F3 and F3000 before landing in F1 where he took part in 78 events over seven seasons. His outstanding Touring Car career began in the 1987 World Championship with an Alfa Romeo 75 Turbo and continued until today, totalling nearly 700 races at the wheel of BMW, Alfa Romeo, Honda, SEAT, LADA and Hyundai cars. The peaks of this amazing adventure were the titles in the 1994 British Touring Car Championship and the 2003 FIA European Touring Car Championship with Alfa Romeo and those in the 2009 FIA World Touring Car Championship for SEAT and in the 2018 FIA World Touring Car Cup for Hyundai. Tarquini became World Champion at the

age of 47, World Cup winner at the age of 56 and claimed his most recent victory this year at Aragón in WTCR at the age of 59, setting a series of records as the oldest champion and race winner in FIA history.

Exclusive interview “Nothing lasts forever, not even my career!” After announcing his retirement, a relaxed Tarquini tells us about his feelings: “A couple of days ago I shook down Michelisz’s car and mine for this weekend, which is something I have regularly done over the last few years. And yet, it was a strange feeling. I savoured those drives in a different way, because I knew that was the one of the last shakedowns of my career. These are the things I will miss, but sooner or later I had to stop. Nothing lasts forever, not even my career! And I can’t regret anything. I have to say: I stopped too early, maybe I could do one more year. You can always do one more year, but I was lucky enough because I had a very long career that was very rewarding, even in the later years. The two World titles in 2009 and 2018 arrived at a time when most of the drivers of my generation had already retired. Which is why I savoured them so much. More than when I was younger and still focusing on the future and the next goals. I thought my 2009 WTCC title would have been the last one, instead I won WTCR nine years later and I’m still able to win races now... I have really enjoyed those last few years, as I was more relaxed and had no ambitions to build a career, like the younger people have.” What are the expectations for these few last races? Obviously, I will try to finish on a high, with a victory at Adria or Sochi, but I’m aware that the priority is to support Jean-Karl Vernay in his effort to fight for the championship. And I will put this before the personal ambitions during these last four races, just like I have done in the past.” Is this the end of Tarquini’s involvement in motorsport? “For the time being I have no plans,

and I will take some time to wait and see what happens around me. I took this decision after my victory at Aragón in July and immediately informed Hyundai to give them the possibility to plan the future. We are currently talking to see if there is an opportunity to keep on working together in some ways. I would like to stay in motorsport, and I am confident that I won’t be short of opportunities. In all those years I have made a lot of friends and built a solid reputation, as a driver, but also as a person. I can see that there are many people who trust me, and this makes a big difference.” Best wishes for the future from everyone at MotorWerks Magazine Gabriele!

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in s e v ri th rt o p rs to o M rs e Garry Rog

TCR

Words by Ian Rae, Images by Daniel Kalisz.

Garry Rogers has had a checkered motorsport career, first of all as a driver then a team owner. The former Nissan dealer from suburban Melbourne started racing in 1963 and steadily progressed through the Australian racing scene to Super Touring in 1995 where he ran Steven Richards in an Alfa Romeo 155. It 1995 the Alfa was replaced by a Honda Accord and Richards drove the wheels of it to win the Privateer’s Cup and if that was not enough the only cars ahead of him in the All Action, All The Time from MotorWerks Magazine

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overall championship were two works BMW drivers and two Audi factory drivers.

Bargwanna, Dylan O’Keeffe and Aaron Cameron have a wealth of experience to fall back on both with their co-drivers and the team members Garry congratulates Jordan Cox themselves. As seen by their move into TCR series and building the S5000 single seater cars pounced on an opportunity earlier in 2021 and Australian motor racing champion Marcos Ambrose has joined Garry Rogers Motorsport in a new role providing direction to the team’s expansive racing program. Ambrose, the Australian Touring Car Champion of 2004-05 and a six-time race winner in the NASCAR Cup Series, will perform the role of Competition Director as the team fields several entries in three of Australia’s leading racing categories. Additionaly GRM has launched a new driver In 1996 Rogers and Richards moved to the evaluation and training program, to be led by Australian Touring Car Championship whi h would Ambrose. Intended to take place in late 2021, the morph into the Supercars series as we now know it. GRM Combine – Driven by Marcos Ambrose will Running one Holden for the first two years Rogers offer young and emerging drivers four days of expanded to two cars with Jason Bargwanna in track time at Tasmania’s Symmons Plains Raceway 1998. Richards success saw him head overseas and Baskerville Raceway, where participants will leaving an empty seat for the upcoming season and gain seat time in GRM’s TCR, Trans Am and S5000 1997 FF Champion Garth Tander had caught Garry’s racecars. eye and was slotted into the driving seat. In addition to on-track running, participants Rogers has long been considered one of will receive coaching from Ambrose, GRM’s TCR Australia’s top spotters of motorsport talent and drivers James Moffat and Dylan O’Keeffe, and S5000 many of these drivers have to thank the GRM pilots James Golding and Nathan Herne. GRM’s team for getting their feet on the first step of professional drivers will also set benchmark laps for the professional Antipodean motorsport ladder. participants of the Combine. These include the likes of Steven Richards, Jason The initiative is the brainchild of two-time Bargwanna, Garth Tander, Jamie Whincup, Lee Supercars champion and NASCAR race winner Holdsworth and the 2021 Indycar rookie and Ambrose, who witnessed similar ‘Combine’ programs Supercar standout Scott McLaughlin. These names during his time competing in the USA. The Combine will be familiar as future champions and Bathurst aims to build the skill sets of young drivers with 1000 winners. track time in different types of racing car in a The 2021 TCR GRM teams have been put controlled environment, while benefiting from expert together with a perfect blend of experience in the tuition and guidance. form of Jason Bargwanna, Michael Caruso and Participants of the Combine will receive the James Moffat all who have spent with the team in opportunity to drive GRM’s TCR cars as raced in other categories. The young guns, Jordan Cox, Ben the Supercheap Auto TCR Australia Series. Laps in All Action, All The Time from MotorWerks Magazine

the turbocharged, four-cylinder TCR machines will be preceded by a familiarisation session in a frontwheel drive Hyundai Excel racecar. Participants will also experience rear-wheel drive, V8 power in the form of a 525-horsepower Trans Am car as raced in the National Trans Am Series. Drivers of sufficient experience or who demonstrate the requisite capability and attitude will then step up to the high-powered Rogers AF01/ V8 S5000 open wheel racecar, with preliminary laps in a Mygale Formula Ford open wheeler. Skid pan sessions and passenger laps with GRM’s professional drivers in TCR cars will also form part of the program. A week of work experience at GRM’s race facility in Dandenong South, Victoria is an optional addendum to the Combine, allowing participants to follow in the footsteps of many GRM race drivers 52

who have developed their motorsport and mechanical understanding by working as part of the GRM team. Ambrose explained what the Combine is all about, “The GRM Combine is a chance for young drivers to sample a variety of high-level racecars – from front-wheel drive to rear-wheel drive V8 and open wheel – and see where they are at with the coaching and benchmarking of GRM’s pro drivers. Our intent is to assist drivers and their families with identifying that next step. “The other element we are passionate about is educating young race drivers, which ultimately creates better drivers and improves the quality of racing. With what I have learnt in my career, and with the knowledge of GRM’s current drivers, we can distil our experiences for the benefit of participants in the Combine.”

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This fresh faced Scott McLaughlan was one Garry picked for stardom and he proved his worth by winning his first Supercars race in 2013 driving one of the team’s Holden Monaros. In 2014 he re-signed with the Melbourne based team when they made the switch to the Volvo brand aligning with Volvo Polestar Racing. It did not take long for the team to find success as McLaughlin made it to the podium on the car’s debut at the Clipsal 500 in Adelaide. He would go on to pick up four wins on the way to fifth place in the Championship. He left the team in 2017 for DJR Team Penske Anyone who has watched the Supercars will know how spectacular they are. You can see from these photos that McLaughlan had a huge dislike to actually driving with four wheels on the ground. And by the way he is laughing in this conversation with the boss man Gary Rogers it is obvious that the elder Rogers has no problem with the way he is driving. Now driving in Indycar as part of Roger Penske’s team I am sure Garry sits back watching TV saying, “That’s my boy” All Action, All The Time from MotorWerks Magazine

Barry Branches Out! Carrying the Rogers name meant only one thing for Garry’s son Barry. He was destined to be involved with both automobiles and motorsport. As his father faded from being the up-front face of GRM Barry took the helm of the team. In 2019 the decision to leave Supercars was forced upon him when his principal sponsor did not like how the Supercar rules regarding spec parts was being implimented. With little time to secure another primary sponsor and Supercars not wanting to

extend their deadline for entries GRM had no option but to pull the plug and decided to go over to the Australian Racing Group and run with the TCR series In late 2020 Barry decided to have more influence over his destiny when he become a major shareholder in the Australian Racing Group. The Group runs a growing range of motorsport categories and events and with GRM being involved in two of them it made sense to be more involved. Barry’s company, Motorsport Events Pty. Ltd

acquired a 47.5% stake of Australian Racing Group Holdings Pty which makes him the largest shareholder. As well as the TCR program which runs seven cars in four distinct teams GRM was chosen to fabricate components and assemble the S5000 single seater for the new ARG reincarnation of Formula 5000 running in the VHT S5000 Australian Drivers Championship. The chassis is built by Onroak-Ligier and is fitted with a 5.2 litre normally aspirated Ford Coyote V8 making around 560 hp.

“Being in the motorsport business, we are always actively looking for work, preferably in the motorsport business,” GRM director Barry Rogers said. “We saw the opportunity with S5000 to utilise the workforce that normally have been building Supercars chassis and have them produce a lot of the components that go into each car. In the mid 70s, I remember going to Calder Park with Dad and I remember the 5000s roar back then. Car racing is all about the senses, noise and flames and there’ll be no better car than a S5000 to satisfy all of those senses.” In a fitting manner the series announced on 21 April that following a consultation with key stakeholders, it was decided that effective immediately the S5000 race cars will be designated as a ‘Rogers AF01/V8’. It was indeed a nice tribute to the team who had put so much into the development of the car and series. Also running under the ARG sanction is the fan favorite Touring Car masters series, the national Trans Am series, the Australian V8 Touring Cars Series and the recently announced joint venture with the SRO Motorsports Group, the Fanatec GT World Challenge Australia Powered by AWS. ARG also run a couple of great events at Bathurst, the 6-Hour event in April and Bathurst. The Rogers AF01/V8

More information on ARG its categories and events can be found on their website at www. australianracinggroup.com All Action, All The Time from MotorWerks Magazine

JORDAN COX

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AARON CAMERON

Age: 21 Born: Ferntree Gully Started karting wiinning various titles in 2014 Career: 3rd Australian Formula Ford Australian GT Trophy Champion 2018 Australian KZ2 Kart Champion 3rd Australian TCR 2019

AARON CAMERON

TCR Class: Peugeot 308 Team Valvoline Racing

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JASON BARGWAN

JASON BARGWANNA

Age: 49 Born: Sydney Started racing in the late ‘80s in Formula Vee. Career: 2nd Australian Formula Ford 2nd Australian Formula Holden 2000 Bathurst 1000 winner 2013 NZ V8 TLX Champion

TCR Class: Peugeot 308 Burson Auto Parts Racing

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JAMES MOFFAT

Age: 36 Born: Melbourne Started racing at club level, moved to Lotus series in 2004 Career: 2nd Lotus Elise series 2004 3rd Australian FF 2003 2007 3rd Porsche Carrera Cup 2008 2nd Fujitsu V8 Supercar 2009/10

TCR Class: Renault Megane R.S. LMCT+ Racing

JAMES MOFFAT

Age: 37 Born: Melbourne Started racing in onemake Lotus Elise series Career: 3rd Australian Formul a Ford Australian V8 Utes 3rd Porsche Carrera Cup 2nd Fujitsu V8 Supe rcars Auastralian v8 Superc ars

TCR Class: Renault Megane LMCT+ Racing

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DYLAN O’KEEFFE

Born: Melbourne Age: 23 Started racing karts before heading to the Porsche 944 Challenge in 2014

Career: 2nd Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge in 2015 3rd Porsche Carrera Cup 2018 TCR Class: Renault Megane R.S. Lowbake Racing

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BEN BARGWANNA

Age: 20

Born: Gippsland

Started racing 2016 in Hydundai Excels. Career: Australian Formula Ford 2nd Bathurst 6 Hour Australian TCR Series

TCR Class: Peugeot 308 Burson Auto Parts Racing

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MICHAEL CARUSO

Age: 37 Born: Sydney Started racing karts at 12, moved to FF in 2001 Career: North American Junior Intercontinental Kart Champion 1997 Australian F3 Champion 2003 Challenge in 2015 2nd Fujitsu V8 Supercar Series

MICHAEL CARUSO

TCR Class: Alfa Romeo Giulietta Veloce Valvoline Racing

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Profile o Jonathan V

Words by Enrique McLeggon, Images by Martin Buendia This profile is a bit different and isn’t really in-line with what I normally do here at KounterSteer Media but sometimes things don’t go how you’d expect them to, and you just have to go along for the ride and see what happens.

grew older he got a job at a shop that specialized in Lotus cars, the famed British manufacturer now owned by Geely (the Chinese multinational corporation which has Etika Automotive as an equity partner).

I had initially contacted Tom Tang to feature him in one of our KounterSteer Media profiles and he had agreed to participate, but later told me that he thought that it would be an even better idea if I covered his friend’s motorsport story instead-- and that’s what led to me featuring Jonathan Vo and his really cool Lotus.

Before he began working at this particular Lotus shop Jon knew nothing about the Lotus brand, but as time went by he started to understand and appreciate these unique vehicles for what they are - a race inspired road car. It was not long before Jon got promoted to Lead Technician because of his strong work ethic and expertise. The great thing about working at that shop was it also allowed for Jon to help build multiple customer cars which competed in the Lotus Cup USA race series. He even crewed for the drivers at various racetracks around the country, further broadening his experience in motorsport.

Jon, as he is more commonly known, lives in Fremont, CA and is 35 years old. In 2021, we will see him compete in his very first Time Attack event and he’s excited about the prospect of doing so. He grew up building Hondas in his parents’ garage with input from both his father and step-father. As he 76

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customer that was involved in a crash at the famed Laguna Seca racetrack. Jon rebuilt the car and it wasn’t long before he decided he wanted to race it in NASA’s Super Touring 4 (ST4) class at places like Sonoma Raceway, Thunderhill Raceway, and Buttonwillow Raceway. In order to be more competitive, he soon swapped out the factory Toyota 2ZZ engine for a Honda K24 engine. He felt that putting a Honda engine in the Lotus would be a great way to bring together two of his all-time favorite manufacturers.

In 2014, Jon decided to become a master of his own destiny by opening up his own performance shop (Trackspec Autosports) in Fremont, CA. The decision quickly proved to be the right one, as many of the Lotus owners that he had formed relationships with followed him over because they know, value, and trust his work.

“Opening up a shop has always been a dream of mine and there’s nothing else I could see myself doing. The part I like best about working in this industry is that there are so many things that I can learn about to keep my interests going. Aside from wrenching on cars, I’ve been able to dabble in metal fabrication, composite fabrication, building wire harnesses, 3D design/printing, and the list goes on. My team is passionate about what they do and I think that plays a huge part in our day-to-day routine, as well as how we look to improve ourselves and the shop in the future.” With so many Lotus customers, it made sense for Jon to eventually own one himself. In 2019, Jon bought the Exige that he now competes with from a 78

“The Lotus philosophy is about ‘simplifying and adding lightness,’ which is what any person who loves to drive has thought about at some point or another. The Exige has all the traits of some of the highest performing vehicles-- it’s lightweight, has a flat underbody, and is mid-engine in layout. Honda engines are reliable, make great power, and have a ton of aftermarket support behind them. There’s a good reason they are so popular within the tuner community. It’s the perfect combination.” The car was never originally built with Time Attack in mind, but Jon thought it would be a fun place to compete at and to show people how capable the Lotus with a K-series really is; even if it is heavily outgunned in its class (the car will be in Limited because of its 3-way dampers, a class that normally sees cars with forced induction engine setups making well over 600whp). During the pandemic, Trackspec has become swamped with customers wanting the same swap for their Lotuses. In order to meet this demand, Jon doesn’t plan to do much racing himself this season.

“Next year, I plan to continue to improve the shop for the benefit of my employees and my customers. I also want to start developing parts for doing these K swaps. Most importantly, I hope to spend more

and adding lightness

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‘

Lotus philosophy ‘ The is about simplifying

time on the racetrack with my friends and with the Lotus community. I know we will continue to develop and improve the platform together; there’s just so much potential there.” We are definitely excited to see what Jon is able to do with it at this year’s 2021 Global Time Attack & Super Lap Battle Finals. For more info on Jon and Trackspec Auto www.facebook.com/trackspecautosports www.trackspecauto.com

Many thanks to our partners and supporters:

JRZ Suspension (FYI, Trackspec is the exclusive dealer and authorized installer for all JRZ Lotus products in the United States) Skepple Designs SFG Wraps Unit2 Fabrication OnGrid Tom Tang and Graham Downey for helping to develop the car

The Build List About the car: 2008 Lotus Exige S 240 Engine: - Honda K24A2 - Unit2 Fab Elite oil pan (Lotus K swap specific) - Canton Racing Accusump - K20 oil pump conversion - 50 degree VTC gear To be installed before SLB: - 4Piston TSX CNC head w/ RR3 cams - Supertech Valvetrain - RBC intake manifold w/ ZDX throttle body - RDX 410cc injectors Cooling: - Pro Alloy aluminum radiator Suspension: - JRZ RS PRO3 coilovers with remote canisters - Spherical control arm bearings – All upper and lower control arms - Upgraded stronger rear toe links

Brakes: - AP Radical 4-piston front calipers with 288mm rotors - Factory 2-piston front calipers moved to the rear to replace the stock sliding calipers - GLOC R12 brake pads - Stainless steel brake lines

Exterior/Aero: - Trackspec Autosports custom front splitter - Difflow 5 Element Railer rear diffuser - Voltex Type 2 GT Wing (1600mm) Misc.: - Tillett B6 Screamer XL seat - Safecraft fire suppression system - Custom cage – Built by Jon himself - AiM MXP dash - CoolShirt body and helmet system - SRC radio for driver/crew communication - Pro Alloy 60L high capacity baffled aluminum fuel tank - Schroth window net and 6 point harness - Safecraft center net All Action, All The Time from MotorWerks Magazine

Words by G arrett Meali ng, Ian Ra e Images by Shawn Bishop, Bre nt Martin, Garrett Me aling

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Thirty-six year old Penticton, B.C. native Garrett Mealing started autocrossing under his father’s watchful eye in 2002 when Garrett got a Corvette. His good friend Roger Sieber started Sim Racing with Mealing and as soon as they could afford to race away from their computers, they raced everything they could get their hands on. Pretty well anything with wheels was fair game, Side-by-Sides, ice racers, go-karts, rally cars and even their street cars at their local tracks; Stratotech Park as well as Castrol Motorsports Park both in Edmonton. After that he moved on to co-driving for Sieber in the Canadian Rally Championship in 2014. In fact he still goes rallying when time allows. The last one was in March 2019 when they travelled to Cochrane, AB but unfortunately the Covid 19 epidemic has stopped and further outings. He bought the 1995 Eagle Talon TSI AWD that he now races in 2005 bone stock form. It was originally driven as a street-car with just a

few simple modifications like turbo and exhaust upgrades. In 2008 he upgraded to forged pistons and rods which coincidentally are the same ones that are still in the car and a Forced Performance 3065 Turbo. Around the same time the suspension was upgraded to Koni yellows and coils. Mealing continued to drive it on the street for a while before parking it in 2009 for a few years before feeling the need for speed again and started building it into a race car in 2014. He added a self-built roll cage and gutted the interior in 2015 but basically left the rest as is, minus putting some Hankook DOT slicks on the car. It even retained the complete steel body as it came from the factory but due to the level of preparation on the engine and chassis we always ran in the GT-M class. His intention was to build the car as a dedicated hillclimb car as the famed Leavitt Machinery Knox Mountain Hill Climb is located less than an hour from him in Kelowna, BC. When asked about the decision to stay AWD Mealing told us, “If it was strictly a track car I probably would go

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the RWD route but hillclimbing and 30 kph hairpins along with 570 whp getting out of the corners could be a challenge so I decided to continue with AWD and as long as breakages are not a problem I’m happy running the way we are.” He ran up Knox Mountain for first time in 2015 and has ran there every year up to 2019, winning GT-M class three times. Moving away from hillclimbing he ran his first endurance race at Castrol Raceway (now Rad Torque Raceway) in an FC RX7 in Aug. 2019, where he and the team finished 6th. He continues to run in endurance events. The most recent being back to back 8 hour enduros on July 31st and Aug. 1. It was an interesting event with polar opposite result for the team that consisted of Mathew Murphy the car owner, Mark Dunbar and Pierre-Benoit Lemire. “The Saturday was a bit of a disaster” said Mealing, before explaining, “The 2 rotor motor we use let go after one hour of the event which was disappointing but it was all hands on deck as we collected everything up, headed over to a friends shop and rebuilt the motor. Then it was back to the car, install the motor and got it on the grid for the second 8 hour of the weekend. All the hard was worth it as we not only ran well with little trouble in the race but we won it! “ In 2019 Garrett ventured over the border with the Talon and ran the Maryhill Loops Hill Climb in Goldendale, Washington and set the GT-M record(2:05.683) at that venue. Setting that record was interesting as the US hillclimb series have stopped using the same rule sets as run in Canada. As the Talon was specifically set up for the GT-M class they allowed him to run as the only car in the class to try and break the previous record. Once he returns to the Maryhill Loops course after Covid Mealing would be required to run in the Hillclimb Prototype class. The Talon went 1:59.878 at Knox Mountain on the cars debut in 2015. Since then it has been slowly developed, starting with a small wing and splitter and then went to a GT1000 rear wing/larger 86

Andrew Brilliant history with the Talon was perfectly suited to putting together the AMB Aero package that Carbonetics turned into reality.

Four Function Autosport of Kelowna, BC are responsible for dyno tuning the Talon and also support Mealing at the Knox Hillclimb

The Build List Engine: 2.0Litre Mitsubishi 4G63T Manley pistons and rods FP3582HTA turbo BC280 Cams JMF Drag intake manifold 3 inch stainless exhaust Mishimoto X Line triple core radiator Fuel System: Radium Fuel surge tank Walbro 450 high pressure pump AEM 340 lift pump in tank 1250cc FIC injectors Ethanol fuel Teflon fuel lines Chassis: AMB Aero Body APR GT-1000 wing .750 inch plywood splitter and front diffusers Self built roll cage

Wheels/Tires: 18x11 cosmis racing wheels 285-30-r18 BFG Gforce R1S tires Brakes: Wilwood Forged superlight fronts, 13”x1.25” rotors Standard rear Pads - Wilwood polymatrix H front and Hawk hp plus rear Suspension: KW V3 Suspension Custom tubular front sub frames Transmission: John Shepherd Stage 3 transmission Welded center diff, Stock axles and front and rear diffs Interior: Corbeau Forza Sport Seats G-Force 5 point FIA belts 2$ Fire extinguisher Car weighs 2875lbs wet

The Talon got nicknamed Sir Wingston Uphill by one of Garrett’s friends kids. All Action, All The Time from MotorWerks Magazine

splitter and fender flares. Mealing worked with noted aerodynamicist Andrew Brilliant of AMB Aero in 2016 and had Carbonetics build his 2G DSM version 2 aero body. It took two years to get it all designed and built. Then on his first run up Knox in 2018 with the new body he crashed the car. Despondent but determined to compete, the team worked on the car until late into the evening on Saturday and straightened it/fixed the bumper/built a new splitter and he went on to win his class on Sunday. The following year he bought the old ROBI SPEC custom valved KW V3 Suspension from Andrew Brilliant’s original 2G DSM Time Attack car which were a huge upgrade from the Koni yellows! Since then, he has just been picking away at reliability issues and most recently the car was painted and wrapped in a new livery. With Covid affecting motorsports like it has the events at Knox Mountain have been hit hard with both the 2020/21 events being cancelled. Mealing sees that as two lost opportunities as he still has not reached his goal of setting the GT-M 88

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class record. He knows the Talon has the potential as the previous record holder at Maryhill Loops is Josh Vanderkerkhove and his AWD VW Rabbit. Vanderkerkhove is the current GT-M record holder at Knox Mountain with a 1:54.661, Mealing is less than a second behind with a best of 1:55.505 but he is confident that the car updates will put him right in the ball park.

He mentioned above the accident at Knox Mountain in 2018 but never elaborated how they straightened the car. “We fixed it by chaining it to my brothers welding truck and pulling the front straight again. A lot of duct tape went into putting the front bumper back together and trip to the local hardware store provided what was needed to build a new plywood splitter.

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It was quite an effort but coming back to win the class made it all worthwhile.” When asked about the future plans for the Talon, Mealing said, “I would really like to get a dog box transmission with better gear ratios. I have a second block waiting to be built into a 2.3 litre stroker to help pull the car out

of the very low speed corners seen on many hill climbs. Obviously, weight is always a concern and a composite splitter to shave some weight off the front of the car would be nice as would composite doors/ hatch and Lexan glass. As with many teams Garrett could not compete at this level on his own. The JGVNR (Just

Givenr’) Rally team got me into the hill climb scene (I co-drive for Roger Sieber owner of the rally car) My brother Breton Mealing helps me with all my welding needs, My dad Greg Mealing is the “Pit Boss” at all of our Rally/time attack/hill climb events and helps keep me focused! Four Function Autosport in Kelowna, BC is my main sponsor and

has been a huge help on and off the track for the past two years.

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! r e w o P Data Is Racepak has been in the datalogging business almost 40 years. What started off as a personal project to record data on Ron Armstrong’s Unlimited Hydroplane was developed into a state of the art datalogging system that is pretty well used by most drag racers. While road racers and tractor pullers had been covered off by the G2X and G2X Pro units there was never anything that the man on the street saw affordable for use on a road course. That is until now! Racepak has developed a whole new line with a totally different architecture. The CL1 and CL2 use either an iPhone or Android phone as the screen, therefore saving money and it is also cloud based. Now when I heard about it I have to admit to being sceptical. But the more I use it and showcase it to potential customers the more I see there being a place for it. #1 bonus is that it is hugely affordable coming in around $290 US or $400 inc tax here in Ontario, Canada. And where is that place? With the huge increase in track days and HPDE events it is good to be able to quantify if one lap is better than the other and why that was the case. BUT make sure the event to are at allows you to have one on board 94

in an operational state. Some HPDE events simply do not allow them as it is a comparison against time and their insurance does not allow that. So what do I like about it? The cloud based D3 app allows you to save your data in Racepak’s cloud server for $99 USD a year. That means you can call up a run when you are anywhere in the World and show it to somebody on your phone, tablet or touch based device. Even better is the fact that all team members that are listed on your subscription get texted when the unit is in use and you start running on the track. They than can watch you in real-time on the track map that was generated from Google Earth. Now bear in mind, running wide or missing your apex is now seen by your team-members and you can no longer deny the fact. But as the title of the article says, ‘Data Is Power’ and the more you use the CL Vantage the more you will learn. We will run a series of articles on the Vantage dataloggers to give you the basics of datalogging. There are products out there now that people rave about but I see them as driver coaches not dataloggers. To go further in this sport you need to be able to understand and read graphs. The Racepak Vantage CL1 and CL2 allows you to do that.

A log taken from Grant Galloway’s Honda road car at the Grand Bend Motorplex. When opened all three sections of the log open up by default. Top left, RPM, GPS Speed and Throttle position. Bottom left, the lateral and accel G-forces and Right, the track map.

Each channel is color coded and shown at the right above the track map. At the left of the graphs you can see the upper and lower numbers recorded by each channel and on the graphs themselves the color coded triangles show where in the lap those numbers were recorded. Now to me, this is graph showing too much data to anylize so the next step is to choose what we see. Removing the map does not do a lot for us but it can be easily put back in place by hitting the Map button at the right. If you want to remove channels click on the button with four lines in each of the graphs.

So what can you tell from the graph above? The D3 app automaticaly pulls the fastest lap out of your session. Lap 3 that was the fastest at a 1:36.81 as shown at the upper right. It also shows I have chosen the GPS Speed and RPM channels to display. I placed the cursor and the little blip on the graph where the rpm and speed are climbing. At the top of the cursor line are the values seen by the CL1 for the two selected channels, so Grant was changing gear at 6547 rpm. Was this where he intended to? The shift point was 6500, so pretty good.

Now reduced to two channels, the graph is easier to read. By only looking at these chanels the graph is now stretched into the area the track map previously used and allowing us to see more detail. By pressing the button at the lower right you can quickly bring up the track map to see where you were. If you look closely at the background you will see bands of black and gray colors. The gray are the corners as you can see by the slower speeds.

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These two graphs displayed some interesting data that I not previously know. In the top one I set the cursor at the beginning of the black band on the background. The lower one I positioned it at the peak GPS Speed. By also displaying the track map I could see that the Grand Bend Motorplex was running their Track Night in reverse around the track. With the G-Forces graph shown below I could also see the speed decrease coincided with the Accel G starting to go negative, in other words braking had started.

When the track map is displayed with the graphs like above, you can see the corners are color coded for left and right as well as being marked on the graphs .

Now this is an interesting feature that comes with the D3 app. By sliding your finger along the up arrow at the right the track map becomes 3D, the higher the track the faster you were going. The color coding on the map equates to the colored legend for mph at the upper left of the screen. Notice on the two long straights how far from the corner the higher speed yellow section returns to green. Placing the cursor aound there will allow you to see the transistion from accelleration to braking. 96

Probably the feature I am most impressed with is the ability that the D3 app has when using the optional Racepak cloud subscription. I was returning from the Gridlife Festival at Gingerman in 2019 when I received a text telling me Grant had pulled onto the track. I was able to watch in real time as he ran his session. I could see his placement of the Honda in the corners was spot on. The weird thing was I could see that the throttle position was never reaching 100%, instead the maximum was only 88%. Why? We will tell you in the next issue.

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I have always had an interest in cars because my father, Rob Angevaare, has always been a huge part of the automobile world. He started out working for his father, Bert Angevaare, at Angevaare Mercedes Benz in Peterborough and worked his way up until he owned his own dealership, Angevaare Mazda with his brothers. Being the longest 98

running family-owned Mazda dealership as well as one of the original car dealers in the Peterborough area, the name Angevaare has always been synonymous with autos. Growing up I had always been a huge fan of the Mazda brand. My parents were always driving new models and I got a taste of

Brad Angevaare

’s LS1 swap Miat

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what they all had to offer but it wasn’t until I had driver’s license that I got to find out exactly how amazing of a car they were. As the TV adverts frequently said, it was Zoom-Zoom and they sure did live up to that moniker. While working part-time at the Mazda dealership when I was in high school, I had the opportunity to get up close with all models and although I had always dreamed of owning an RX-7, I had grown very fond of the early models of the Miata. In the 100

summer of 2014 right before leaving for university, my Dad bought a completely original silver 2001 Miata for my Mom. It was originally supposed to be a fun little summer car for the two of them to boot around in with the top down and have some fun. Shortly after buying the car, we put a nice set of black wheels on it with a cold air intake and a Magnaflow exhaust just to make it a little more exciting. It wasn’t long until I convinced my Mom to let me take it to the track for open lapping. That’s where

The Build List Drivetrain: - - - - -

- -

5.7L LS1, 402whp 380wtq LS6 heads Holley mid rise intake manifold with custom intake Stage 2 Brian Tooley Racing Cam Kooks long tube headers 6speed T56 transmission Getrag rear differential.

Chassis: - - - - - - - - -

V8 Roadsters front subframe V8 Roadsters axle and driveshafts Fully custom 5bolt hub swap with 17x10 RPF1 wheels Fully custom Wilwood Brake setup APR Carbon Spoiler Custom front splitter and modified bumper Custom radiator setup Custom intake and exhaust Custom Sideskirts

I caught the bug for racing and it was all downhill for my Mom’s little Miata from there. That’s my the explanation for the “Sorry Mom” decal on the spoiler, I really felt bad about commandeering her pride and joy and doing all sorts of crazy things to it. (well not really). The first iteration of the car was the culmination of individual upgrades that were all a learning curve for my Dad and I. It started with a low boost supercharger setup which let me understand how to to handle more power. That lead to some better tires and brake components which then allowed for All Action, All The Time from MotorWerks Magazine

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more power and so on, it really can be an evil circle. Then it was on to the next upgrade that resulted in a custom supercharger setup that ran 221whp and 200wtq out of the factory 1.8L motor. The suspension was tweaked with HSD coilovers, an off the shelf Wilwood brake kit, 15x9 wheels and a carbon APR spoiler. That setup lasted two years running in CSCS Time Attack Street RWD class but in August of 2018 the supercharger failed from me pushing it past its limits and that’s when the V8 swap idea was bandied about and by the start of the 2019 season the V8 swap had been completed and we were ready for another season of CSCS Time Attack. All work on the car has been done in-house by my dad and I, some of it has been challenging, some relatively easy but it really is a great way of father – son bonding.

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HeadsUpRacer.com has been Racepak’s premier Canadian dealer for MANY years. We have customers nationwide in all forms of motorsport. ‘Drag Racing, Time Attack, Circuit Racing, Tractor Pulling, Jet Boats’ We sell and more importantly support the systems we sell and when we design a system we do not up-sell you, if you do not need all the bells and whistles we will not push to to buy them. We are now able to remote program your datalogger and dash from our location outside of Toronto. We can provide support at the track or by phone.

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A DECADE OF INNOVATION IN BRUSHLESS FUEL PUMP TECHNOLOGY BOTH GAS AND DIESEL NEW FOR 2021! FUELAB announces their all-new Pro Series line, developed for high-horsepower, high flow applications where fuels such as methanol or E85 are used. At the center of the new series is their 40501 Pro Series Spur Gear pump, engineered with unmatched experience in brushless fuel pump technology. This variable speed pump is built to handle over 2500hp, with extremely low current draw, and compatible with gasoline, diesel, ethanol, and methanol. Built to compliment the all-new Spur Gear Pump are the 868xx Pro Series In-Line Fuel Filters. Built for maximum flow and minimal pressure drop, FUELAB’s new Pro Series Extreme Flow In-Line Fuel Filters are tough to beat. Machined from billet aluminum and finished in matte black anodize, you get the best in filter features, in a scaled up design. With a 10 GPM flow rating, these fuel filters offer huge flow capacity under extreme conditions. And lastly, FUELAB’s 565 Series Fuel Pressure regulator, with it’s all new look, rounds out the impressive and very capable FUELAB Pro Series line. 565 Series Fuel Pressure Regulators have all of the same great features as our 515/525 Series except for extreme capacity. Utilizing a massive ½” return orifice and -10AN ports, this regulator holds no bounds. With a bypass capability over 5 GPM at 5 PSI, this regulator can handle blow through carbureted applications well over 1800 HP and for EFI applications using belt driven fuel pumps, even further (with a flattened regulation slope). Regulator comes in four different pressure ranges covering applications between 4 and 80 PSI.

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Another 110

Profile i Mike Puglis

Words by Enrique McLeggon, Images by Ian Rae All Action, All The Time from MotorWerks Magazine

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For as long as 40 year-old Mid-West Time Attack racer Michael can remember, he has been taking apart anything he could get his hands on. He enjoyed figuring how things were put together, how they worked mechanically and learning to put them back together again. In high school, Michael studied Auto Diagnostics for the full three years because he loved learning about cars and how to work on them. Before he was old enough to drive, he got into Radio Controlled cars and wanted to compete with them. However, traveling at the age of fourteen wasn’t possible and so he never got to do it in the way he wanted. As soon as he became 16, he got his driver’s license and badly wanted his own car. He had started working from the age of 15 just so he could save and eventually buy his first car. That first job was working for McDonalds and now he works in Technology which makes playing with race cars a bit easier. In 2001, he purchased his first “race car” which was a 1998 Mitsubishi Eclipse GSX. He started off his racing career like many others, racing on the streets and he eventually moved on to drag racing. He then tried road racing in the 2010 and fell on love with it. But let’s back track a bit… From the beginning, he started reading books and researching on how to make his car faster and more efficient. Racing didn’t just become a hobby, it turned into a true passion of his. Some may even argue that it has become somewhat of an obsession. When he initially bought this 2006 Evo MR, he told himself that the car would only be his daily driver, with a few bolt-ons but as we all know, that didn’t last long. It was at this point the Eclipse GSX got placed on the back burner and was parted out. One day, his good friend Dan Lewis wanted to get into road racing and asked Michael if he would be interested in competing with him. In 2010, they competed in 112

their first road race event at Three Ball Racing and in 2011, Nilesh Patel, Dan and Michael started up with the Honda guys at WMHM Western Michigan Honda Meet (WMHM) In 2016, Dan, Nilesh and Michael were excited to start competing in Gridlife, which led to them forming the team DMN Racing (well, now you know what the DMN means). DMN Racing is a race group that is driven by the passion for motorsports

and competition at the grassroots level. Collectively, they have been in motorsports for over 30 years. More important than their history in motorsports together, they’ve all been close friends for almost 20 years. They started off by racing at smaller HPDE events and later progressed into the time attack style of racing which sparked the team’s creation. Pushing each of their cars

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1420 Victoria St N, Kitchener, ON N2B 3E2 Tel: 1 519-589-7156

Race Car and Component Fabrication

The Unit 2 Fabrication K-Series Elite oil pans have been flying off the shelves! Developed with James Houghton and the one of a kind Time Attack Integra Type R our new Elite aluminum pan is data proven to reduce the oil surge that can kill an expensive race motor. Also available as a steel pan.

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to their limits allowed them to gain a lot of educational experiences, if you will. From that point on, one thing lead to another and the rest is history. His “daily driver” has now become a full-blown race car. When Gridlife started, he immediately gravitated towards its Track Battle Time Attack series. Time Attack focuses on being a driver and a builder at the same time in Mike’s case. After a few years of finishing 3rd overall, everything came together in 2018 and he had finished 1st overall in Track Mod that season. All the hard work and long hours had finally paid off. Michael takes pride in being able to showcase his build and drive his own car to its limits. I have amazing partnerships with some of the best companies in the industry; I also do take pride in being the Builder, Mechanic, Engineer, and Driver of my own racing program. When I win or break a records, it’s a huge self accomplishment. “ Michael realized something about Time Attack early on when he started; people in drag racing were more secretive about their cars while in Time Attack, everyone is almost like an open book where they’re more willing to share information, and they also enjoy hanging out with each other during the weekend. He somewhat gravitated to that aspect of Time Attack. He likes the competition side of things but could never compete in a wheel to wheel environment because it would devastate him if he never got into contact with someone and damaged the car as he had poured his heart and soul into building the car into what it is today. He compared Time Attack and drag racing and stated that they are similar and that Time Attack has a few elements of drag racing in it as everyone builds their car to a particular set of rules governing a class and race it.

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The biggest challenge he faced when he got started was that it was difficult for him to make the car fast on track. Whether it was driving or tuning, there’s a lot more involved than drag racing. Between the aero, tire and suspension, being able to adjust everything yourself and understanding what each setting does out there on track. There are definitely more things involved in making a fast time attack car than just making more power. During his very first event, he didn’t really know what to expect but he knew it would be fun. He actually ran into Dan from Professional Awesome for the first time at the event. Neither of them had the knowledge about EVOs that they do have now and that was around the time that they started competing in Redline Time Attack. Michael is currently working on improving his car and will continue to do so for the rest of the year, preparing it for next season since Covid messed with his plans. He wants to ensure that the car is dialed in so that he can be competitive. 116

Michael used to work for a company that specialized in repairing and restoring crashed EVOs. This particular car came back because the person who bought it wasn’t happy with it after the repair. Michael had always liked EVOs and the guy gave him the keys and Michael drove it around for about a week. At that moment he knew he wanted to own it. He didn’t want to modify it, he just wanted to drive it around and have fun with the car. Later on, he added an aftermarket turbo kit to the car and it all snowballed from there. He also drag raced the car for a bit. The biggest issue he came across with the car was the head gasket. He thinks even Professional Awesome struggles with that issue as well. What he has right now is a dry sleeved engine that seems to be doing better. Also, the Evo understeers pretty badly from the factory, so correcting a lot of those things has helped the car perform better. Other than that, he didn’t really need to do much as the EVO is a

great platform.

I’d like to thanks my sponsors for all the help over the years. Bao House Racing - All the overnight parts. Team Rip Engineering - Everything drive train related. Wiseco - Help with the custom pistons and K1 cranks

Magnus Motorsports - Dry sump oiling system. Mike Spec - Wizard behind our tuning Reinhart USA - Compliant suspension and control TF Works - Race alignment prep. Essex AP Racing - Big brake kits and braking knowledge SSB design - light weight suspension geometry correction

The Build List

Engine: - 4G64 Block - Darton sleeves - K1 94mm Crank - Manley 162mm Rods - Custom Spec Wiseco HD Pistons - 4Piston racing CNC Head - GSC S3 Camshafts - Garrett GTX3076R Gen II turbocharger - Magnus Dry sump oil system - Koyo Radiator and Oil cooler Drivetrain: - TRE Prepped X Shift 6 speed Transmission - TRE Race ACD Transfer Case - TRE 12-Plate Max Lock Rear Differential - Quarter Master 8-Leg Race Clutch/ Flywheel - AWD Motorsports 2-Piece Aluminum Drive Shaft Suspension: - Reinharte R3 Custom Valved Coilovers - Custom Spherical Bushing Kit - SSB Designs Billet Frint Uprights and Lower Control Arms

Brakes: - Essex Racing / AP Racing 6 pot Front BBK 372mm rotors - Ferodo Dsuno / Ferodo DS1.11 Brake Pads Interior: - Sparco Circuit Racing seat - Self built NASA spec roll cage Electronics: - Haltech nexus R5 - Haltech 12 button CAN Pad - Customer made Wiring harness - English Racing ACD RaceTune - AIM Sport MGX Dash Exterior: - Custom Chassis Mount Front Splitter - Custom Rear Diffuser - Kognition Chassis Mount Wing - Custom Lexan Windows

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One of the things that really is important to us in our Cooper RSR build is having the car look good. These days there are lots of different ways of doing that. In the last issue we talked about hooking up with the great people at Rice Rocket Poweder Coating in Etobicoke, ON. Since we announced that, we have been dropping some components off to get coated and the results are outstanding. We had the brackets that support the engine coated in a fluorecent red; once finished the under bonnet area is really going to pop!

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All the rest of the suspension is going to be coated the same color and when you see the car finished I guarantee you will be impressed by the work that comes out of this family owned shop. They strive to produce a product that is second to none and their aim of pleasing their customers is made so much easier because of that. You can see the front control arm below coated with the same color, contact surfaces for the ball joints ahve been left bare and uncoated. These are brand new arms that I sourced from FCP Euro. Because of the price of the new items it made no sense to use the ones we took off the car, after all they would require sandblasting before coating and who knows what sort of abuse thay have endured in the fifteen years the car has been on the road.

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In addition to the the parts mentioned on a previous page you can see the Planted Technology seat brackets we also got coated.

When you take into account that FCP’s Lifetime Replacement Gaurantee also includes use at the racetrack it makes sense you source as much as you can from the Milford, CT based company. I remember having a conversation with noted MINI racer Alain Lauziere and somehow the conversation got around to the knuckles that the front struts are located in. When you lift one you could never saw that they are light. Produced in cast iron and then machined to accept the strut and ball joints Alain has seen these components bend and alter the front end geometry. Because of this and the fact that one of my original knuckles was drilled out in the pinch bolt area I decided to invest in a new pair of knuckles. These were sent over to Rice-Rocket for

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coating but we decided that they would look good if we color-coded them purple to match our MINI Challenge coilovers from KW suspensions.

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Over the years we all have seen the advance of composites in motorsport. It is nothing new, but it has got to a stage where even carbon fiber parts are being regularly fabricated by racers at home for their projects. Many people think the term composites refers to the more exotic materials like carbon fiber and Kevlar but it also includes fiberglass which has a history going back to the 1930s. In fact, the first composite boat was recorded as being built in 1937. My personal composite fabrication goes back around fifty years to my days in the Boys Scouts where the various troops in town got together to build fiberglass kayaks. My biggest memory was the smell and how difficult it was to bond the two halves of the kayaks together with GRP strips all around the inside of the boats. Which brings us to the disclaimer part of this article. A competent person can perform miracles in DIY composite fabrication BUT there are risks involved. To your health because of the chemicals used in the manufacture of the individual materials required to make a composite panel firstly but there are some things an amateur should just not tackle building. Imagine the severe loss in downforce you could experience if a self-built wing or splitter failed. You are not just risking your car but your life. It is best to leave that sort of thing to the experts like our friends at Klaus Composites and Nine Lives Racing. The Clan Crusader Modsports car I built with my friend Henry Sinclair was a fiberglass monocoque and it required fiberglass work but we were not fabricating anything, it was more a case of bonding things like a plywood floor and the rollcage into place. Now I have gone the full 360 degrees and it is time to get my hands (or gloves) dirty again working with composites.

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Com

f l e S y b mposiTthees Basics

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Glass-reinforced plastic (GRP) is the common term for fiberglass or fibreglass depending on where you live and it has long been used for lightweight body panels on race cars. Companies around the World have set up shop to cater to those who need composite products and most sell everything required to fabricate your own parts, from material, resin and the tools to produce them. Composites Canada is one of those companies and JP one of their composite specialists has stepped up to provide me with some of the answers I needed. There are many YouTube channels dedicated to composite manufacturing but many are by amateurs just like us. It is better if you start your composites journey doing things the right way, it can cut down your learning curve and cut down on parts you may have to throw away. That is why we reached out to the experts at Composites Canada. While carbon is sexy and light one of my questions was why carbon over fiberglass? JP had the answer on hand, as he had previous experience working on a 2017 Civic SI Time Attack car. “The factory steel roof I believe weighed around 27lbs and we designed up a composite one (carbon and Kevlar ) and that version and it came in at 8.7lbs.” So that is one third of the weight of the OEM part and as we all know taking weight off the top of the car has lots of advantages. Now, what would that number be if it had been fabricated out of fiberglass? JP answered, “On a typical part if you have a certain weight and

strength characteristic that works with fiberglass you can usually take out at least 1/3 of the weight by switching over to a Carbon fiber part” So theoretically the GRP version should be somewhere around 13lbs. Two and a bit bags of sugar in other words. I know you would not want to carry that around all day but for the everyman on the street we have to look at the full picture and that comes down to what the premium would be for using carbon or Carbon/Kevlar for the part. Typically carbon is 4-5 times more expensive than fiberglass, Kevlar is on average 3 times the cost of fiberglass, although not as stiff as a general fiberglass laminate it provides higher impact resistance.

One of the most common things racers want to do is either fill in a sunroof hole with a blank or make a cap that will cover the complete roof and then cut away most of the metal out from under it. In most cases where the finished product is going All Action, All The Time from MotorWerks Magazine

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to be a one off there is no mold produced to make the part and the upper surface of the moldless roof will become the finished surface and will have to be finished for paint or to allow a wrap to adhere to it. JP gave us this input, “There are many ways that this can be done, from simply attaching a smooth surface material (formica/counter top material) on the inside of the roof and building up the fiberglass (and typically a foam core to get thickness quickly without weight) with more fiberglass on top. To making a mold of the sunroof area and fabricating a part in the mold to fit the section perfectly. Both will work, it just depends how advanced you want to be and the budget you have to spend.”

The roof project for Cooper RSR our project MINI needs the hole where we removed the sunroof cassette filled in. The sunroof on the MINI is huge, it weighs in the region of 55 lbs which is a lot of weight to be up high in a race car. Now a composite roof is going to add weight back in there and JP may be able to tell us roughly what sort of weight would be added back in if we had a GRP or Carbon roof. Now here is a tip for anyone putting a cage into a late model car and then replacing the roof with a composite version. The road race purists don’t like it but when we did the cage in Cooper RSR at RJ ProFab we cut the roof off the car. It is no big deal as the cage is going to make the chassis rigid again and it is something that happens when building 126

drag cars regularly. The advantage other that giving you clear access to welds was that when we flipped the roof over we could see all the internal sheet metal that is attached to the roof. It is now easy to get in there with a combination of a plasma cutter and disc grinder to cut away the many layers and reduce the weight even more. I cut away material from the front and about two thirds of the way along the sides, leaving the rear portion untouched as I wanted to retain the strength around the rear hatch. So how much weight did we remove? Sorry we never weighed it but it took three of us to lift the roof off the car and two of us easily put it back on. So, my plan for the Cooper RSR roof is to make a GRP cap that fits right over the outer skin of the roof and finish it so it would accept paint or a wrap without looking crappy. Luckily a friend of mine had a non-sunroof MINI that he had cut the roof off and we were going to use it as the base for our composite roof or to take a mold off. Depending on how that turns out I may have to build a mold to allow fabrication of a roof with a better finish. Most racers seem to want to use carbon on the roof but I thought GRP cloth would be a good alternative and would give an easily sandable top layer and would work for me without being too heavy. It would obviously much cheaper than either building a mold or using carbon fiber material. I wondered how much heavier would it be compared to Carbon fiber CFRP. As expected, JP had the answer, “In general Carbon is 4-5 times more expensive than fiberglass. On a typical part if you have a certain weight and strength characteristic that works with fiberglass you can usually take out at least 1/3 of the weight by switching over to a CFRP part. By strategically placing certain unidirectional or stitched carbon fabrics on the correct axis in carbon parts you can get even

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more weight reduction.” This book I have on motorsports composites by Simon McBeath called Competition Car Composites who is a well-known British hillclimber himself and it explained that there was even a couple of options for fiberglass, E glass and S glass. My question to JP was where you would use each of them in a motorsport application? His reply was “This is a bit of a tricky one. S-glass is basically what you get when you take ALL of the impurities out of a standard E-glass. What this does is gives you a much stronger part less prone to breakage and a much higher impact resistance closer to that of Kevlar. In almost all Automotive applications S-glass is rarely a preferred option over E-glass simply because of the added cost incurred (double the price on average) bulking up with an e-glass fabric can be somewhat less expensive and give you similar impact resistance, but more layers are required of the E-glass over the S-glass for the same strength.” That led me into another question, Where/ what benefits are there to using GRP mat or cloth. “Chopped strand matt (CSM) is a simple and very inexpensive way of creating a composite part over woven fabrics/cloth. The downfall to CSM is that it is very heavy (and uses MUCH more resin) in comparison, which many people get confused when they see that standard CSM would be say 1.5oz vs a woven fabric that is say 4oz. The area of confusion is CSM is ALWAYS measured in oz/ sqft where as, woven fabrics are measured in oz/ sqyd. So, in the example above the chopped strand 128

matt is actually 13.5oz/sqyd and the 4oz is 4oz/ sqyd. CSM is for quick bulking and cheap parts that are generally more heavy and less impact resistant than a part made with woven fabrics. Albeit much less expensive and easier to replace (on the pocket book) fabrics made with woven materials will be less weight and more flexible to break point over CSM parts.” Now that we have covered the material to be used the question is where to use polyester or epoxy resin? And does carbon or Kevlar have to use epoxy? JP replied, “This one usually boils down to the budget of the builder. The only fabric that is not suited for Epoxy (in general) is CSM. CSM has a styrene soluble binder that if used with Epoxy (which does not have styrene) will not allow the Epoxy to penetrate the fibers properly leaving a dry Fabric embedded in a cured Epoxy. This Dry fiber makes for a very weak part and also can allow water migration into the part if there is any fiber that is broken through the surface or if there is even a small pinhole in the Epoxy. Now that being said there are CSM’s that ARE compatible with Epoxy. These are called Stitched CSM. They use a stitching in place of the styrene soluable binder to allow the Epoxy to penetrate the fabric and give you a more structural (and waterproof) part. So, again it comes down the budget of builder and the characteristics they are after on the part.” He went on, “Carbon and Kevlar can be used with virtually any resin system OTHER than Polyester. The reason being Carbon and Kevlar fabrics generally have a finish put on the surface to allow the resins to bond properly. This finish (or sizing as it is referred to as well) makes the fabrics compatible with certain resin systems. There are very few finishes available for Carbons and Kevlar that will make it Epoxy and polyester compatible. Vinylesters (being a derivative of Epoxies) are far more closely related to Epoxy then they are to Polyester by their chemical make up, so in general if Epoxy will work Vinylester will also work.”

I then asked about the resins and their smell. Having been chased out of a friend’s garage attached to his house when we were building the Clan I knew that resin fumes could not only be harmful but could permeate right thru a house without any trouble. Is there any resin that is okay to work with that does not have that lingering smell? “In General epoxies do not have much of an odour, but the old saying says “sometimes things you cannot smell are far worse for you than ones you can” some people will build epoxy parts in their house. This is not recommended. Epoxy allergies are fairly common these days and it is something that can develop over time or you are born with. Allergies can range from hives to full on anaphylactic shock. Either way you don’t want to find out your loved ones are allergic and it is not known. When working with any of the resin systems it is always a safe idea to work in a well ventilated area with a properly rated chemical respirator and nitrile or latex gloves.” Another thing that was new to me was the term PVA which is Poly Vinyl Alcohol which is a water/alcohol release agent that can be washed off the part after it is released from the mold. Do you have to use PVA or just multiple layers of good wax? JP replied, “PVA is not a necessity. BUT can be a very handy safety factor when it comes to building parts and/or molds. The biggest benefit on using PVA is when used for the initial mold and very first part, it allows the gelcoat on the first mold or first part to cure more thoroughly and allows for a longer lasting part and/or mold. PVA should only be used in conjunction with a properly waxed part, not as a stand-alone product. Improper application of PVA (which is VERY common) on an unwaxed part will typically be catastrophic on the part and/or mold, usually both. In general, 10 coats of wax is sufficient for a part to release correctly. That is usually on the first part. Subsequent parts should only need 1-2 coats.” Simon McBeath states a silicone free wax

should be used? “Silicone free is always a safe option. Silicone based products are great for an automotive polishing application but can be catastrophic for composite materials. Silicone can prevent any of the general use resins (polyester, vinylester or epoxy) to cure at all.” Is this an absolute necessity? “Not a necessity of working with silicone molds, otherwise a very good practice not to use silicone based waxes.” Paste waxes are getting harder to find in automotive stores, there was only one Mothers Carnauba wax product I could find on the shelves at my local store but it did the job on the test instrument panel I pulled from the casserole dish I used as a mold. “Most automotive waxes are not formulated the same as a proper mold release wax.” So there you have it. That is the first part of our Composites by Self articles complete. Hopefully we managed to enlighten you on what to consider when you are going to build a specific composite part. Watch out for our next issue whe we finally get our gloves dirty and create a part for Cooper RSR.

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E85, BUDGET RACE FUEL BUT NOT FOR BUDGET ENGINES by The last 25 years have seen some huge increases in engine output, but the biggest change is what can be achieved by the average street car. Modern engine management, efficient engine designs and affordable high-octane fuel has brought high power to average punters. When our Calibration Engineer Joel started tuning 25 years ago, he was using a water brake dyno, no electronics, mechanical dials, and a switch to double the scale from 200 to 400 rear wheel HP, and in those days, you didn’t often have to flick the switch. Everybody had a 400 engine HP small block something, though truly not many were. As time went on and EFI took over from carburettors, engines became more efficient and turbos became commonplace, a bigger dyno was required to accommodate the increasing outputs. One of the biggest limitations to making HP is fuel quality, in the past race fuels like C16 were not just too expensive for daily but at $20 a litre, it was even too costly to race with. Having said that, those that could afford it knew the difficulties that came with keeping an engine together, high octane fuel allows an engine to run optimal ignition timing and this is where the power is. Lower octane rating fuel will knock or ping at optimal timing so lesser ignition timing must be run preventing optimal power and torque. Come 2007-2010 and the introduction of E85 at the pump, affordable high-octane fuel, prior to E85 pump fuels were not capable of supporting

high compressions or high boost HP due to the octane rating. In a nutshell, to make power we need to push the piston down as hard and for as long as we can, this creates the maximum torque and torque makes power but also the harder we push the piston down the harder we try to force the cylinder head off and the harder we try to push the cylinder walls out. Newton said for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction, this has never been truer than in the combustion chamber of an engine. The potential of any high-octane fuel is realised as the engine is able to achieve MBT (maximum brake torque) due to being able to run optimal ignition timing without knock, the more retarded the timing is from MBT due to knock the lower the engine output will be as is the case with lower octane fuel. The higher the cylinder pressure due to high compression or high boost the further away from MBT timing low octane fuels will be due to having to run retarded ignition timing to prevent the occurrence of knock so it goes to follow the greater the gain from high octane fuel when timing is advanced closest to where MBT is achieved. Therefore, the reverse is true, a low compression engine with low cylinder pressure that can achieve MBT on low octane or regular pump fuels is likely to show little or no improvement on high octane fuel. In some instances, small gains are achieved with E85 due to reduced inlet charge temperatures All Action, All The Time from MotorWerks Magazine

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as a higher volume of ethanol fuel is required which offers some intake charge cooling however the majority of the torque improvement comes from being able to run optimal timing without knock. Building an engine to fully utilise E85 can be more difficult than one would expect especially with production parts, making 1000HP from an engine designed to make 400HP can involve a lot more than just fitting forged pistons and rods. As mentioned peviously, the head is being lifted off by the cylinder pressure, usually, the weakest link in an engine is the joint between the block and the head. Modern engines often run MLS (multi-layer steel) head gaskets with embossed compression rings around the combustion chamber, these modern gaskets are more able to deal with the higher pressures than traditional composite gaskets as they are designed to take up some movement between the head and deck face. Quite often the issue with production parts is the amount of material in the faces that mate, the head face and the deck face. OE manufacturers make engines to be lightweight, to heat up fast, to be efficient and economical. With significantly increased cylinder pressure the OE production parts have insufficient material to remain straight and flat around the bores, the deck and head face will deform beyond what the gasket can conform to and cylinder pressure will be forced past. In the world of aftermarket components, there are blocks and heads made with significantly thicker decks, stronger materials and with increased size or number of head securing bolts. The same applies to cylinder bores which are thicker and better supported to withstand the extreme pressure exerted by the combustion force. Building any significantly high output engine comes at the expense of engine life but increasingly more so where OE components are used. Over the years there have been a multitude of methods used to increase the rigidity and reliability in high output scenarios of OE engine components, if there is no heavy-duty aftermarket option many of the following 132

Above: GM Performance LSX Iron Block Below: the OE LS Alloy Block both for use with 6 bolt heads.

methods have and can be used to keep a highly strained engine together, these items resist twist and deformity. Closing decks, grout filling, studs, girdles ‘O rings’ all can help improve the overall strength of an engine but are generally no comparison to a specific aftermarket component.

Now in our 11th year of publication, MotorWerks Magazine is expanding and more importantly changing its format. Where we previously assembled the whole magazine and then published it, we are changing to what we are calling a Just In Time (JIT) format. This format was tested on our new digital publications, Profiles and Miniology. The response we have had since publishing the initial issues have been impressive, everyone has loved being able to see new content in a timely fashion instead of having to wait months for a new issue. So sign up here to be updated every time new content is published! All Action, All The Time from MotorWerks Magazine

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MotorWerks Magazine Volume 11, Issue 2

Articles from MotorWerks Magazine Volume 11, Issue 2