Blog News

The SHART Finally Gets To Stretch It's Legs!!!

NASA Track Event at Buttonwillow Raceway April 21-22, 2012

Buttonwillow Raceway -- The Ultimate Proving Ground

Think you're a fast driver?  Think you have a fast car?  There's only one way to measure and everyone knows the question.  What Lap Times do you pull on Buttonwillow Clockwise 13 Configuration.  Buttonwillow Raceway is the benchmark for local tracks in this area and possibly THE benchmark for Time Attack drivers in North America! 

Since we ran Project SHART last year in the MotoIQ Series, and didn't do as well as we had hoped, we made some changes, added some power, took weight out of the car, improved braking and suspension, and other misc. projects.  Now is the time to do some testing.  Since the MotoIQ Pacific Tuner Car Championship is now running along side the NASA race series, all drivers must prove themselves and earn their race license.  Since I had never run with NASA before, i had to sit out the first event weekend as I take my lumps and earn my spot in the field.  This particular weeken...

Preparing for the 2012 MotoIQ Pacific Tuner Car Championship Series

Project SHART -- A Victim of Murphy's Law or Just Lucky?

"There Are No Problems...Only Opportunities"

We've come to the conclusion that 2011 was not our year.  A new platform, a newly sorted car, working the bugs out, an unexpectedly short season, and working on a tight budget.  There were many factors that led to our successful and unsuccessful season, depending on how you look at it.  Sure, we didn't get much testing in...actually, we had zero testing.  The car ran two MotoIQ events resulting in two DNF's.  The success...we learned a lot.  We learned how to build a car with parts that weren't supposed to be in it.  We learned what to do and what not to do.  I learned a lot as a driver about the driving dynamics when going from an AWD platform to the new FWD platform.  We learned to work within a particular budget and to deal with the time constraints given to us.

After a long break...we were able to sit back, and reflect on the previous yea...

July 2, 2011

Rosamond, CA -- Big Willow (Fastest Track in the West)

Surface Temps 150 Degrees

Ambient Air Temp 106 Degrees

Project SHART -- Lives Up To It's Name

Photos by: Kyle Lewis, David Karey, and Jeff Naeyaert -- Courtesy of MotoIQ.com

Welcome to Rosamond, CA, home of the Fastest Track in the West -- Big Willow.  Arguably the Hottest track in the West by those in attendance this year.  Round 4 of the MotoIQ Pacific Tuner Car Championship brought us back to Big Willow for another shot at getting Project SHART on track.  Our second time on track with this build in as many races brought us an equal amount of Joy as it did heartache. 

Our first event at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, CA sent us home with a lot to work with and even more to work on.  As with any new project, we took it as a learning experience and really its first shakedown of the car.  We hadn't even shifted it past first gear before that event...hence, we didn't even know if the transmission was worth its weight in scrap metal.  We came home with really only two major issues that needed to be sorte...

One Week and Counting -- Project SHART Transforms

by Scott VanderHeide

Its been a busy week and we've been putting in work!  Fontana Nissan's Master Tech, Chris Heimburg has almost completed getting the heart of this project to running condition.  It fires right up...and lives true to its name...Mini-Godzilla!!!  Next up for the motor is a few couplers, a battery tie down, and a properly fitting radiator and it should be ready to go!  A trip down to Roger's Exhaust shop resulted in a pretty mean looking and sounding side exit straight pipe exhaust.  A car this little should not sound this big!!!  Roger also fabbed up new seat brackets for the Buddy Club P1 Race Seats.

Thanks to our newest sponsor, APR Performance, we got our hands on their GTC200 Carbon Fiber Wing and Splitter.  There wasn't too much to the install on the rear wing...with the exception of a small mishap with the drill, resulting in a nice scratch on the top of the trunk...whoops!!!

As no Splitter is a direct bolt on, we had to put some thought into this one.  Because t...