The annual competition sponsored by Sport Compact Car Magazine was conducted this summer and the final results are now available to read in the December issue that is on the newstands now. Lots of pages, pictures and text describing the various challenges that all the cars went through.

The G35 finished third overall. Learned a lot, as did everyone, and no question could have done a few things that would have allowed the car to do better. But then, so could everyone!

The lads at SCCM did a very fine job and it was a good experience.

They did find out that we take our braking very seriously.
1st place 80mph to zero in 168 feet.
Skidpad 1.01 lateral g, for fourth place.
Racetrack third place, with a lap time of 1:23.48

I won't talk about the other categories or cars because there is just too much and it would take away from the excitement. (so, yes, this probably makes the thread a "teaser"...but one does not want to take away from subscriptions and sales!) Gas mileage sucked. Obviously on some of the other categories we did not do as well, but overall.......very pleased with the car and how it stacked up. And yes, done a bunch of stuff to improve it since then. Check out the magazine and all the other really nice cars.

 

Congrats Eagle1! Well done, and I look forward to reading it.

 

Thanks Eagle1.....I'll definitely have to check it out!

You always have done an excellent job at showing what a G35 can do on the track!

 

Here's a link to the online description of the "contenders". Don't worry, it's just a very long teaser... doesn't give away the final rankings:
http://www.sportcompactcarweb.com/us...ers/index.html

G35: http://www.sportcompactcarweb.com/us...initi_g35.html

 

^^^^ nice nice

 

Guys, don't let the VRT sticker fool you.

 

NO, you are correct, it is not VRT's car. It is my car.

It was one of the first few they built with the Jim Wolf twin turbos, with Scott Bush and Mark Brent and Jim Wolf participating, almost two years ago. And many of the specs were unique and my own, as were many of they key parts to the build, which I supplied directly to be added. These included boost control system, harmonic damper pulley, dual oil filtration system, plenum spacers, three disc carbon clutch and flywheel, suspension, upper control arms, rear camber links, power steering cooler, oil cooler, gauges, thermal coatings -Scott had those done for me with Olympic Coatings- bushings, special rear hats for the racing brakes, just a whole bunch of direct deliveries of pieces that were not part of their typical build profile and in most cases completely unique to this car from anything else they ever built. I paid for the labor to put it on, but it was my stuff and could not come from any other car.

The car is maintained by Mark Brent, and he has checked and confirmed the parts etc are mine and legit, because as soon as this storm started up and he got his hands on the car, I asked him to do that. But I did let VRT put the stickers on the car almost two years ago (Scott Bush designed the vinyl and put it on) as a favor and thank you because at the time they treated me well. And I treated them well. The car ran pretty strong and I have had a lot of fun with it. I let them enter it in the USCC earlier in the year before their business went supernova, because they promised to do an all wheel GT-R conversion to it. The deal was simple: if I liked it I would pay for the work and parts, and if I did not, they would return it to the way it was with my original parts, and no charge. Somewhere along the way the conversion did not get done, the car was entered as a 2 wheel drive into the competition, and that is what you see in the magazine. It appears that things went sideways down there, and VRT is no more. And neither are the stickers. I may be owed some money, but with their bankruptcy that is not going to be seen ever. Certainly I don't have any inside knowledge or the faintest idea of what is going on down there, nor do I need the grief for their press relations challenge. I am a former customer too. Like many good businesses when they have gone bad the blast wave reaches pretty far and hurts a lot of people, some a lot more than others. I am not happy about the situation either, but thrashing around the forum about it isn't going to get my money back or my peace of mind. I got the car back as they promised they would give it back, almost, and was probably lucky.

Bottom line, it is not their car. I lent it to them to enter into the event when things were apparently good. Unfortunately I had to get two new turbos after getting the car back, the reason they failed is a bit involved and we don't need to go into it other than, it certainly should not have happened and there is nothing I can do about it now, and I spent weeks waiting for the order to come through because of the backlog of orders waiting to be filled and the small production volume from Garrett, but Mark finally was able to get them and I hope to have the car back and operational (I have not had it for many months). It is a less than happy ending chapter to the story, and I do not take particular comfort in the fact that it could have been a lot worse. I have no interest in bashing anybody or defending anybody because I just do not know what is going on with somebody else's business. But it is over and I move on.

On the positive side, the special set up works well. Indeed my specs work even better than what was tried on the car for the USCC. I have the Stance coilovers that Scott had built for me (the fronts I had Sam at GTM replace because one of them failed a while back). Jim Wolf is giving it a new dyno tune and I will be running it again next month.

And the car just goes like heck, handles great, brakes great, and still has stereo, air conditioning, and all the goodies. The wing is a necessary evil for the track, but it is removable for the street. Believe me, you notice the difference at speed!!!

 

im glad to hear your car is ok. when i picked up the magazine and saw the VRT stickers i was a little worried

 

Good job Eage1, I love your car, hopefully someday you can give me some pointers about racing.

 

Roadster:
Come out to Cal Speedway on December 1 & 2. Just bring a toy for the kids at the charity sponsored by the US Marines and the Team Transport club. You can strap in and ride shotgun with me for a session and we can talk cars.
Ed

 

Damn nice work. Sorry about all the frustration with your car, but modding does bring a lot of frustration at time, doesn't it? I wish you the best of luck with your car.

Ps. I'll be at Cali Speedway on Dec 1

David