The Martini car was in the shop this week for some maintenance and a few custom modifications. We built a new custom bulkhead to seal off the interior from the trunk and installed a new radiator. Once the major mods were out of the way, in went a set of Autometer® gauges for oil temperature, oil pressure and water temperature – you want to keep your eye on these three when you start putting down more horsepower. Before the car rolled out of the shop, we changed the brake fluid with high temperature fluid, changed the oil and mounted some fresh BFG rubber. Steve Whitcomb’s Martini car is a really unique car – we love unique cars.

 

Bill Grubbs BMW 325i race car (aka The Dog Sled) is another car you’ll see around the shop. This recently acquired racer just received some new RaceTech® 6 point harnesses and a Sparco® Evo2 composite race seat. In a race car, you ALWAYS want to protect the most important piece first – YOU! Now that Bill is protected we moved on to setting up the alignment and balancing the car at each corner to maximize weight distribution. Bill has plans to run a full season this year, so that means there will be an ongoing flow of new oil, filters, racing brake fluid and other consumables.

 

This isn’t your granddad’s Chevelle. Sneed just built a 12 bolt rear end with 3.73 gears and a tight limited slip (there might be some burn outs in this Chevelle’s future). We also installed a set of headers and a March® pulleys to find some additional horsepower. This beast rolled 290 rwhp on the in house dyno! With that kind of power, it’s a no brainer that cooling will be an issue unless you add a beefy NASCAR double pass radiator, check. With all the new found power, don’t forget that you still have to stop and turn. The Chevelle should have no problem now with the addition of front coilovers and upgrading the rear drum brakes to a full disc brake setup. Whew, lots of upgrades, but it is hard to drastically change the power of a classic muscle car without making some necessary cooling, handling and braking changes. Now it’s time to go play!

 

 

One of the famed Mini’s we work on is Joe McGlothlin’s black Mini Cooper S. This is no ordinary S. Go for a ride and you’ll understand. Joe’s Mini was recently in for a little plastic surgery to the front end. That’s ABS plastic, what did you think we meant? Seriously, this car flies on track and it was past time for a new Sneed Speed front end + spliter. The new spliter will provide great downforce and help to keep the car planted through fast 4th gear turns like Turn 10 at VIR Full. Joe can now keep his foot in it with confidence!