Tested & Proven Brake Bias

Proper brake bias is often over looked by most track-day participants. The truth is, professional race teams spend massive amounts of time and money dialling in the perfect brake balance. Whether you prefer braking hard in a straight line before the turn or trail braking (braking as you're entering the turn), keeping the car balanced under braking is absolutely essential for good lap times.

You don't need a million dollar race car with brake bias controls or a team of chassis engineers to get the perfect brake bias either. Properly selected brake pad compounds are just as effective at giving you proper brake bias and performance. Pontiac Solstice driver Don Knowles' SCCA Championship winning team and Hawk Performance have already done all the hard work - with some special assistance from GM. The two Hawk brake pad compounds they selected gave Don Knowles' Solstice perfect brake balance. The DTC70 front brake pads & DTC60 rear brake pads were the compounds that helped Don Knowles' team win the SCCA Stock Runoffs B Championship.

These race-compound pads are THE track-day pads of choice for the Solstice and Sky. If you track your Kappa roadster, we highly recommend this setup. You can't go wrong with a championship winning combination!

We are good friends with the former GM Ride & Handling Engineer who helped dial these brakes in. Dave will be our special guest at an upcoming Technical Seminar at our Shop this Fall. He will describe the work he conducted on the Solstice to help get it set up on the Nurburgring as well as for the SCCA run offs. We will be announcing the date shortly.

reBAR fitted with SOLO GXP Street Race exhaust

Yesterday, a local customer, Al, stopped by our shop to have our reBAR installed on his GXP. We wanted to see if the reBAR would fit with his current exhaust set up.

We dry fitted the reBAR initially and discovered the SOLO exhaust sat too low and didn't allow the reBAR to be bolted in. It took some adjustments, but, we were able to install our reBAR on a Al's GXP Solstice with his SOLO GXP Street Race exhaust.

Here are the steps we took to make this set up work:

• We loosened the three clamps attaching the Solo exhaust.
  
• After loosing up the clamps we pushed the reBAR up against the exhaust and hand tighten it in place.
  
• Now that the reBAR was in place, we lined the exhaust up and re-tightened the clamps so the exhaust was secured at its highest position.
  

NOTE: There was minimal clearance between the exhaust and reBAR. The customer was aware of the potential rattle but really wanted this solution and decided to go ahead with it. Its also a good idea to recheck all the bolts and clamps after the test drive to make sure they remained secured.

When the install was completed, I took it out for a test drive to make sure there were no issues and that everything remained in place. There was no rattle detectable and everything felt extremely solid.

For you GXP owners with the SOLO exhaust system, our reBAR has been confirmed to fit on your car! Feel free to give us a call with any questions or concerns. We'd be happy to help you with this process.

BTW: Al has a very fast car! Thanks for letting us work on it.

Run with the West Coast Mini's Club!

I attended my first MINI run this past Saturday with the West Coast Mini Club of Southern California. The run took us through various hills and twisties of San Diego County.

The run itself was a BLAST! I really had a chance to put our MINI to the test. We have many NM bits on our car (intake, torque arm insert, sway bar, springs, and discharge pipe) along with some Enkei lightweight wheels, Toyo tires, monkeyBAR and Schroth Profi 4 point Harness.  This run was the perfect opportunity to test the new parts. 

The first thing I noticed was that our car definitely accelerated a lot quicker. I'm sure this was due to our induction kit and discharge pipe along with our lightweight wheels. It was a great improvement over stock. The second improvement I noticed was the improved grip that the car displayed.  I first experienced this when I entered a corner a little too hot and the car stayed planted through the turn. There was minimal body roll.  I had a big sense of relief and knew that this run was going to be fun.

During the first leg, I did have problems sliding around in my seat. The stock seat belt wasn’t much help for me through these twisties. Luckily I did have the monkeyBAR & Schroth Harness installed; however, I wasn’t strapped in. When we stopped for a quick break, I put my seat forward and strapped in tight with the harness. From this point on, the drive was a piece of cake and a lot more enjoyable. It was great to hang out with so many modified MINI’s.

The run ended for me when we reached Escondido.   Once again thank you West Coast Mini’s for a great run. I meet a lot of great people and saw many cool MINI’s. Can wait for the next one!

reBAR does fit with Magnaflow 3" Exhaust

Last week we had a customer of ours drive down to our shop from the Bakersfield area. He was interested in a couple of the bits we offer(KSRdiscs, reBAR, brake pads). The one concern he had was if our reBAR would fit with his Magnaflow 3" Exhaust. We tested this during our R&D stages with another customers Sky and confirmed it fit. However since the release of the reBAR some have claimed that it doesn't fit with this exhaust. Well, now was the perfect time to test this again.

The reBAR does fit. Here are some pointers to make it work.

• You have to make sure the exhaust is installed at its highest position.



• The clamp that connects the pipe to the exhaust at the rear of the car is the main area to focus on. It has to be tightened with the pipe inserted to the exhaust as high as possible.



• Tighten the reBAR at its lowest position.
  

We found that by doing this you can make it fit without a problem. So, for all of you that have been waiting on purchasing one due to your Maganflow exhaust, now is the time to get one and enjoy all the benefits of the reBAR.

Thank you Bakersfield customer for all of your help!

Ecotec Expertise

Our partnership with Secant now affords us real expertise with the Ecotec powertrain. We will be looking at solutions for the 2.4 & 2.0 Ecotecs found in the Solstice/Sky.

Anyone can bolt on a bigger turbo or other mechanical bits. What our friends at Secant can do is deliver a properly tuned solution. Engine calibration and mechanical integration at OEM levels is what these guys do daily. Since our guys understand these motors AND how to tune them safely, we expect to have some great power solutions sorted.
M62 Blower on this kit:


TVS blower on this LSJ equipped Lotus Exige is the same gen as ZR1 & CTS-V:

We are interested in your feedback on what type of performance you are interested in with your Sky/Solstice. Give us a call or shoot us an email with your thoughts. We intend to continue to sort solutions for these cars and hope to get a clear idea of the items you would like.

Ecotec in a Lotus!

One of the products from our partnership with Secant Engineering is a full powertrain swap for the Elise/Exige + power ehancement for the Atom2. The Secant boys have done an exceptionally nice job in integrating the Ecotec powertrain into their Exige. Their OEM-like approach is evident when you see how clean the engine bay looks.

Secant has already commercialized their Stage 1 kit. It produces 280hp & 241ft-lbs of torque. The power of this kit is impressive BUT so is how docile the car is around town and in day to day use.

The engine shown above was built for us by GM Racing. We will be plugging it into Secant's Exige. We're undertaking this minor surgery at our shop this weekend. This motor is fully built to withstand the added power that will be generated thx to the new TVS supercharger that we are bolting to it. This is the same blower on the new ZR1. It is very efficient and can move massive amounts of air. We'll also raise the rev limiter to 7,500rpm.

We are shooting for approx 325hp. Our ultimate goal is to offer SAFE and RELIABLE power upgrades. We're confident that our aero, brake & suspension solutions are ready for this level of power. Delivering a balanced solution is high on our list.

If you have some free time this Saturday, feel to stop by between the hours of 10-2pm.

monkeyBAR update!

We've been running our monkeyBAR in our R56 for almost two months now and love it! There's something about being strapped into a sporty car that inspires confidence. Our R56 harness bar solution helps us focus on enjoying the MINI and not trying to stay in the seat!

We recently installed the final production black powder coated monkeyBAR in a costumer's R56. It looks great with the blue Schroth PROFI II harness and blue leather inserts on the seats.