Ice Racing Jeep Shows Diversity Of Racing Machines

All forms of racing demand specialized vehicles which conform to the racing environment and the class rules. This is what makes the world of motorsport so diverse and interesting.

Our build feature shows an ice racing jeep that uses interesting details to be highly competitive in its class. Built by the owner of Edgewater Jeep in Colorado, this ice racer was fabricated around a heavily modified Jeep DJ3 frame. As with any racer, a rollcage has been built and attached to the frame to both provide protection in crashes and chassis stiffening. Suspension is an upper link/lower wishbone combination front and rear, which is damped by adjustable Koni coilover shocks and Hypercoil springs. Disc brakes front and rear handle the stopping duties and depending on the class that the Jeep is entered in, tires used vary from grooved or studded with 1.5 inch spikes.

Power is provided by a highly modified, carb-fed 400-ci V8 Chevy that provides 500 horsepower at 7,400 rpm. A dry-sump system is used for circulating the engine oil and A 3-speed TH350 automatic is used to transfer the power to Dana 44 axles front and rear with 4.27 ratios.

Since a stock DJ3 weights about 998 kg, it would be safe to assume this racer weighing in at 900 kilos or less. Performance calculations for this four-wheel drive hotrod place 0-60 at 2.6 seconds with a potential top speed of 130 mph. In a vehicle as light and open as this, that is scary performance. But it should be a lot of fun, as the below video suggests.

Source article here.

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Italian Tuner Performs Radical Transformation On Fiat 500

The normal route when a tuner lays his hands on a car is to add more power by modifying the engine and reducing weight to improve the power-to-weight ratio. Motore Centrale did both and more, much more, by converting the lowly Fiat 500, which is a 135 horsepower front-wheel drive car into a mid-engined 230 horsepower pocket rocket.

Installing a bigger turbo and intercooler with some revised engine internals produced this 95 hp gain, which is controlled by an electronic limited-slip differential. Other modifications include 4-pot brake calipers, Bilstein adjustable suspension, 17-inch tires and a 50 kg weight reduction. But the most radical transformation has been to transfer the engine from the front to the middle of the car and making it a rear drive vehicle. An entire subframe has been designed to accommodate the engine, as well as a new wishbone suspension for the rear. A clue to the car’s nature is the additional ducting on the rear fenders.

All these mods produce performance that is unheard of in small cars like these. 0-60 mph is now 4.7 seconds from the original 7 plus seconds and top speed is now 245 km/h. For the true nutheads, Motore Centrale is also producing a track version that further lightens the car and boosts horsepower to 280.

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Mines R34 Is Almost Too Much Of A Good Thing

Until the Western media discovered one of Japan's supercars, a skyline was what you saw  looking over an urban cityscape. Now Skylines are recognized all over the world and are much respected due to their on-track and accessible performance. One of the best known tuned Skylines is the R34 built by Mines. Typical of its builds, the Mines R34 does not have outrageous wings or flared fenders, instead relying on subtle graphics to announce its presence.

What lies beneath the skin, however, is a level of performance that should impress even Nissan's engineers. This is because the power of the engine has been doubled, using in-house intake, exhaust and camshaft mods. The original turbos were ditched for a pair of HKS GT2530 turbos and the management electronics were revamped to allow the engine to hit its 630hp at 7200 rpm limit effortlessly.

Mines suspension components are installed, including 3-way adjustable dampers and sway bar. 18-inch Mines magnesium wheels hide uprated brake rotors and calipers. For the body mods, subtle carbon fiber pieces subtly give the Mines R34 Skyline a different look without making it look trashy. Our performance calculations estimate 0-60 mph in 3.3 seconds and the quarter-mile in the mid-11s. Nowadays, there are more powerful Skylines out there, but Mines' tuning philosophy has always been balance, and in this aspect, the tuner has succeeded brilliantly.

During testing, even jaded race driver Keichi Tsuchiya was heard to say, 'it's so fast that even a dead man will scream.' Mere performance numbers are not enough to describe what the car can do. The video belows shows how it compares to a modded Supra.

Source article here.

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"57 Sleeper" Chevy Bel Air A Prime Example Of Hotrodding Art

One of the most iconic and widely modified American cars is the 1957 Chevy Bel Air. So many have been modified to the extremes that it is difficult nowadays to find one that will really stand out from the crowd. This show car example, which is driven regularly, is one that does. Owned by Red Line Oil’s Tim Kerrigan, this car has been lavished with the best of what is available in the hotrodding scene, and the results speak for themselves.

Starting with a custom Art Morrison chassis, commissioned builder Dominator Street Rods installed a custom twin-turbo big block that produces 1590 horsepower and over 1500 lb-ft. of torque. A 4-speed custom automatic transfers power to the wheels via a custom driveline that includes Strange Engineering axles. These axles are used widely in pro drag race cars for their unbreakable reputation, which is what 1500 pounds foot of torque will do to lesser components. In fact, the engine was reportedly de-tuned to make it more streetable and even at 70 mph, digging into the throttle will still smoke the tires. The rest of the build includes Wilwood brakes and rotors with 6-pot calipers, 3-inch custom exhaust, electronic traction control, a bladder-type fuel tank and custom leather interior.

The original Chevy Bel Air weighed from 3,200 to 3,400 pounds. Assuming a weight of 3,500 pounds, performance calculations for this car put 0-60 mph in something like 2.6 seconds. The quarter mile would be done in less than 8.5 seconds, which is not bad for a street-driven show car. Many critics have scoffed that this car can’t do corners, and compared with today’s hot hatches, it would probably have a difficult time of it. But as the saying goes, “different horses for different courses”, so in the area of performance that the builders and owner of this car had in mind, this car is a standout example.

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King Sling A Different Kind Of Truck In Design And Purpose

The build featured here, while looking like a monster is apparently known more correctly as a digger truck.  But leaving specifics aside for the hardcore aficionados, what's interesting about this truck is how it's built to suit a specific purpose.

Starting with a a tube frame chassis with an integrated rollcage, the builders then fitted a cab and fabricated a custom rear section for the chassis, which would serve as a cover for the engine, mount in the middle of the chassis. This is already a departure from the typical monster truck build, which normally have their engines in front. The engine is a 540-inch big-block with a 10% overdriven supercharger. This gives it a horsepower rating of 1,800-1,900 horsepower, although a peak of 2,500 is reportedly possible with the setup.

To handle that power and enable this rig, named King Sling, to jump the high berms that please spectators, the truck is equipped with a 4-link suspension, nitrogen-charged bypass shocks, and, of course, 4 wheel drive. The coilover shocks have 16 inches of travel at the front and 20 inches in the rear.

A difference from monster trucks one will observe will be the tires. The tires are narrower and a bit smaller, although the lugs on the tires are custom-cut. As an indicator of the amount of custom work performed on the truck, the cutting of the tread takes 6 hours per tire. Finishing off the King Sling is a paint job that uses spray-on chrome as a base before being finished in its lime color that was overlaid with custom graphics.

With no definite weight available for the King Sling, we can't do proper performance calculations to get some performance figures for the truck. However, it's generally acknowledged that this truck weighs half that of monster trucks, so with almost 2000 horsepower on tap, acceleration and powering through obstacles should not be a problem at all.

Source article here.

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935-007 Moby Dick A 20-year Labor of Love

Like wine, some car builds need time, 20 years worth in this case, to be built to proper specification, specially when what you are building is one of the most famous racing cars ever built.

The Porsche 935/78 was built for the Group 5 regulations of the period, where Porsche's Norbert Singer used a standard 930 chassis (the basis for the 911 Turbo). By removing the front and rear sections and grafting aluminum subframes, the designers were able to attach the racing suspension and install an exclusive twin-turbo flat six with 4-valve water-cooled heads, making 845 horsepower. A low-drag body featuring a long nose and tail were used, which made it look like a whale, hence the moniker Moby Dick. Only one was ever built in that period, although Porsche apparently had another chassis in storage.

It is this chassis, 935-007, that was the basis for the recently completed build started by an American Porsche collector and restorer 20 years ago. Because of his desire to build the car to original specifications, the parts needed were very rare, to the point that he gave up the project because of his inability to purchase the special 935/71 engine. Passing the project on to Fresinger Porsche who were able to acquire the rare engine, the car was finally completed recently and went out on its maiden outing at the Spa Classic in May of 2011. This car is built to the correct 1978 spec and can thus be recognized as the only 935/78 in private hands.

Specs for the factory car are 2.6 seconds to 100 km/h with a top speed of 365 kilometers per hour. Performance calculations show that this car has a power-to-weigh ratio of 837 bhp per ton, with the quarter mile time estimated in 10.1 seconds. It’s nice to see that this car was driven at the Spa Classic instead of being kept hidden away for just a few people to see. Iconic racing cars like Porsche’s Moby Dick are extremely rare and it had not been seen at a racetrack for 30 years until last May.

Source article here.

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