Dave T's 'Ring Lap Walk Through Video

We've posted a video of Dave Thilenius walking us through a lap of the famous Nurburgring from our Tech Seminar last month. Dave's commentary of the 14-mile lap included detailed descriptions of the track and anecdotes from his time developing the Solstice GXP at the 'Ring. Enjoy the video!

reBAR confirmed on Magnaflow 2.5"

A customer has recently confirmed that our reBAR fits with the Magnaflow 2.5" exhaust with dual-dual (quad) outlets (model 16664). This is one more in a line of confirmed aftermarket exhausts that the reBAR works with.

You’ll be amazed at the difference the reBAR will make in the handling characteristics of your Kappa car. The reBAR strengthens the rear sub-frame making the chassis much stiffer and much more compliant.

Other exhausts the reBAR fits with:
-Magnaflow 3"
-SOLO GXP Street Race exhaust
-Kappasphere's KS1 & KS2
-Flomaster
-Borla
-&, of course, stock

Kapparoo Pouches are back!

We are happy to announce our Kapparoo Pouches are back in stock! We know many of you have been waiting for these. For this new batch, we have released a cutout template for those of you with the seat height-adjustment knobs on the driver’s side. This template will make it easy to make the cutouts needed to accommodate the height-adjustable driver seat.

To use the template on your Kapparoo Pouch, follow these simple steps:

1. CLICK HERE to view the template.

2. Right click on the image and save it to your hard drive.

3. Find the image on your hard drive.

4. Print it from your system's image viewing program (do NOT print the template from your web browser). Print in "landscape" mode.

5. Follow instructions on template.

The Kapparoo pouch has been a terrific product giving people a convenient place to store important items in an easy-to-reach spot. This better-than-ever marsupial solution is now back IN STOCK and ready to ship!

Solstice Coupe @ Kappasphere

A black Solstice Coupe stopped by our shop this morning. We had some time to look it over and we all agreed that is a beautiful car. The Solstice Coupe has some of the best lines of any coupe on the market today. It's so much more impressive in person on the road. Pictures don't do this car enough justice. This particular car was a very rare 5-speed GXP. Seriously wicked!

We checked the car out to see what products of ours would work on the car and possibilities for future Coupe-specific bits. There's still no doubt that we'd love to get our hands on our very own Solstice Coupe!

kappaSPRINGS by Eibach

We are driving enthusiasts at heart here at Kappasphere. Our kappaSPRINGS by Eibach are one of the best examples of our passion for great handling. We worked closely with Eibach to develop the perfect drop amount and spring rates for the Kappa chassis. The setup we landed on is one that will optimize handling without a harsh ride.


The drop in ride height of 1" in the front and 1.3" in the rear lowers the car's center of gravity to minimize body roll. This will make the car much more stable and neutral, especially at initial turn in. Stiffer springs also do their part in keeping the car flat through the corners.

click here to view Solstice stock vs. Kappaspehre


The spring rates we chose minimizes the rear end squatting under hard acceleration and the nose diving under hard braking. All of this, including the reduced body roll, is accomplished without loosing the car's great ride. We developed these springs to give you maximum performance in a street-friendly package.



Our base Sky was able to smoke much higher horsepower Kappa cars in the canyons with these springs. You'll be able to embarrass some heavily modified Solstice and Skys with little else than the kappaSPRINGS.



We are generally a function over form company. It just so happens that these cars look phenominal with these lowering springs. A much welcomed bonus to having a better handling car!



IN STOCK & Ready to Ship

Nurburgring/Data Acquisition Tech Seminar on Sept. 26

Save the Date!

September 26th, 2009 @ 11am Nurburgring/GXP Tech Seminar @ Kappasphere!

This special Kappasphere Tech Seminar will feature Dave Thilenius. Dave is the hot-shoe that did the ride & handling development for GM on the Pontiac Solstice GXP at the famed Nurburgring! He's logged over 200 laps on the "Green Hell" in a handful of GM's hottest performance machines and is currently running in the Koni Challenge Series seen on the SPEED Channel.

Dave's Tech Seminar will focus on his experiences at the Nurburgring as a ride & handling engineer at the OEM level. He'll share every terrifying detail of the world's most challenging, most demanding and most dangerous race track as well as the sophisticated data acquisition equipment he used on the 'Ring. Dave has worked closely with Shinoo on the track using data acquisition and helped him shave significant time off his laps and he's going to share his secrets with you!

Lap Time Contest! Win a Free Solstice Book (Sky included)!

In recent years, a car’s lap time on the Nurburgring has been a major focal point for companies testing there. Whoever comes closest to guessing Dave’s fastest lap time in the Solstice GXP on the 14-mile Nurburgring Nordschleife wins a copy of “The Pontiac Solstice Book!” Send your guess to bill@kappasphere.com. The contest will end Monday, September 21. The closest guess wins!

To RSVP call 951-296-6762 or e-mail bill@kappasphere.com

Tech Seminar Location:

Kappasphere

41740 Enterprise Circle N. Ste 101

Temecula, CA 92590

KSRdiscs Stop You the Right Way

Our KSRdiscs use smart slots rather than cross-drilling to be as strong as possible and dissipate heat very effectively. Slotted rotors continuously clean the surface of your brake pad and extract the hot gasses produced by heavy braking. Cross-drilled rotors are prone to cracking from each of the drilled holes.

The durable, one-piece KSRdiscs will give you stellar braking performance on and off the race track for a long time. Kappasphere's parent company, Sector111, uses similar construction on its two-piece ULTRAdiscs (see our S111 blog for more info), which sees very heavy track use on Lotus Elise and Exiges.

Slotted rotors, like our KSRdics, are the preferred configuration for brake discs in motorsport. You get the maximum friction surface, constant brake pad cleaning, excellent heat dissipation and durability. You can get all of that HERE for you Solstice & Sky

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.

More MINI Harness Bar Pictures

The R56 Harness Bar is In!

Phil & Jeff @ Burkebuilt have sorted a great solution for our R56!  Our approach is similar yet simplified over the Brey Krause solution for the 1st Gen MINI.  We've added an additional rearward mounting point.  This bar is seriously solid.

Our bar will unbolt easily enough for quick removal after the track day.  

Here are some of the key features:

• Bolt-in - no mods neccesary
• Loads into 5 solid locations onto the chassis
• Takes wrap around style shoulder belts with guides
• Fire extinguisher mounting plate
• Almost full seat travel (less 1")
• Rear seat bottom can be installed
• Works with stock seat
• DOM tubing

More info to come as we continue to finalize this complete kit.  Contact us if you are interested.

We are fitting the same harness that we've developed for the Lotus Elise/Exige: Schroth Profi II with ASM.  This HANs compliant harness can safely be run as a 4pt solution allowing you to use your stock seats.  This can be upgraded to 5 or 6pt if you choose to run a race seat.

  

Harness Bar Fitment

We attempted to fit the BreyKrause harness bar into our R56 and have found the following issues:

• Seat travel is reduced significantly for taller drivers
• New brackets are required to bolt the bar into 2nd Gen MINIs

This picture shows Jeff in our car.  He has a 34" inseam and can not get enough leg room - we

 placed a rubber pad between the seat and the bar (see the circled area).  MINI has done a great job in creating a ton of seat travel with our car but it runs into the harness bar.  With an average sized driver (see Phil below) there is enough room.  

The BK bar attaches to the rear belt mounting points via rear seat brackets and to the front with additional supports and brackets.  We've discovered that almost all of these will need to be redesigned to fit the R55/56.  They are very close but not close enough for us.  

Though it is an excellent bar, the BreyKrause bar was designed for the 1st gen MINI.   We had hoped to get it to fit but we did not succeed.  With our partners, BurkeBilt, we will now design one that will work.  Luckily we have a bit of experience as we were the first to develop a harness bar to the Lotus Elise in the US.  

Mini Harness Bar Under Development!

The Brey Krause harness bar arrived today. Its an very well engineered and fabricated part. We know the bar isn't designed for the second generation MINI's, but we are going to create one that will. Stay tuned!

NM Tie Bar & Enkei Wheel Install

Our MINI was spoiled this Valentine's day. When I arrived to the shop on Saturday morning, I was eager to get the new Enkei's mounted and install the NM-ENG billet aluminum tie-bar.


Everything is pretty straight forward when it came to installing the wheels. As long as you have all the necessary tools you shouldn't have any problems. We all agree that the car looks a lot better with the new wheels on. The Enkei RPF1 wheels are hub centric, light weight and fit perfectly. There's no guess work in lining them up on the hub.


NM-Engineering's billet aluminum tie-bar was next to go on our Cooper S. This billet aluminum tie-bar, often referred to as a strut bar, mounts easily to the top of the two front strut towers, located in the engine bay. There is no interference with the stock intake, hood or NM's high-flow induction kit. The quality and attention to detail in this strut bar is really amazing. Everything has been well thought out, including: install instructions, mounting pads and each nut and bolt. All the hardware fits flush and torque specs are provided.



An example of NM-Eng's attention to detail is the machined pockets on the mounting pads that accommodate the upper strut bearing locator pin. The less-esthetically-pleasing solution to this is drilling a hole straight through the the mounting pad. NM-Eng's method is much cleaner and better looking.





Another great detail NM includes is the two bolts connecting the rod to the mounting pad. This design prevents any pivoting that would occur if only one bolt connected the rod to the mounting pad. This, along with the billet construction, makes for a super-rigid system.

We chose the black bar to contrast well with our blue NM-ENG high-flow induction kit. We especially like the blue adjustment/locking nut that matches our induction pipe, springs, and sway bar. The nut allows you to adjust the length of the bar to fit your MINI perfectly.

After everything was buttoned up and torqued down, I took it out for a test drive. You could definitely feel the difference in acceleration, stopping and turning. The car, with the new wheels/tires and tie-bar, feels like a totally different MINI. It's much lighter and tighter.

Enkei Wheels + NM Billet Tie Bar

Our MINI got an earlier valentines gift today - new wheels and strut bar. We had the Toyo's mounted and balanced and will bolt up everything tomorrow.

New Tires & Wheels for the MINI

We've ordered a new set of shoes for our MINI. Now that we've upgraded the suspension (review coming soon), the tires have become the weak link. We looked at the market options and opted for a light weight wheel and some high performance tires. We've chosen the Enkei RPF1 as they are very light and affordable. I decided to get the TPMS bits as well so we can keep the ecu happy. Here are the specs:

17x7
$229 (each)
Offset: 43mmBackspacing: 5.62"Bolt Pattern: 4-100Rec. Tire Size: 205/45-17Weight: 14.6lbs.


We're sticklers on proper fitment and lightweight. Saving unsprung weight is a mantra in our company. I thought long and hard about sticking with a 16" wheel but ultimately decided to go Plus 1 for potential BBK clearance. I ran 16" wheels on my R53 MINI and was very happy with how it sucked up the road/canyon irregularities. This time, bigger brakes are something I needed to consider when choosing a wheel. Our Plus 1 solution will fit well and should deliver some great canyon carving along with occasional track use.

We chose the Toyo T1R tire in a 205/45 ZR17. We ran these on our Sky and feel they are a great tire for all season (CA) performance. I considered fitting the R888s we run on our Exige and Atom, but opted to run tires that should deliver more life. They would have been a blast though clearance is an issue I need to investigate further as they are wider...maybe sometime in the near future?!

Springs and Torque Arm

The NM Engineering front and rear springs are all installed now. Everything fit like a glove! The car's still up on the lift right now, so we don't know how low it will actually sit with the new setup. It should sit about an inch lower, though. The blue springs, sway bar, and induction kit look really good installed too.

The engine torque arm was installed also. That installation was extremely quick and straight forward. Now, we'll take the car off the lift and see how she does in round 2 on the dyno. We'll post the before and after dyno graphs here shortly.

NM Rear Sway Bar!

Slowly but surely its coming together. We were able to get a little dirty along with Arturo from Paladin Motorsports as we installed the new sway bar. Every thing lines up perfectly. The detailed color instructions made it much easier. Can't wait to put it to the test.