TEAM PENSKE DISPLAY AT THE ENTRANCE OF PRI 2019

TEAM PENSKE AT PRI 2019 

Team Penske’s display of two championship INDYCARS at the 2019 Performance Industry show in Indianapolis Indiana gave attendees a new perspective on the Chevrolet-powered Dallara DW12 chassis fitted with the UAK 18 universal aerokit.

The neon yellow Menard’s sponsored #22 was driven by Simon Pagenuad during the 2019 NTT INDYCAR season. After he went winless in the 2018 INDYCAR season, the Frenchman swept the races in the month of May at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.  

Simon passed Scott Dixon and led the final two laps to win the INDYCAR Grand Prix held on May 11 on the Indianapolis road course, then on May 19, he won the Firestone Fast Nine Shootout to capture the pole position for the Indianapolis 500-mile race.  

On May 26, Pagenaud led a race-high 116 laps in a dominant win to record Team Penske’s 18^th Indianapolis ’500’ win.   Pagenaud finished second to his teammate Josef Newgarden in the 2019 NTT INDYCAR Series championship.

The red, white and black Hitachi sponsored #2 was driven by Josef Newgarden during the 2019 NTT INDYCAR season. Newgarden started the 2019 season with a win at the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg and was in the championship hunt all season long. With three pole position starts, three additional wins at Alabama, Toronto and Mid-Ohio along with eight top five finishes in 17 starts, Newgarden claimed his second INDYCAR championship, as he previously won the 2017 Verizon INDYCAR Series title.

All photos by the author 

“Fat n’ Sassy, 1954 Buick Century Estate Wagon

Fat n’ Sassy

The primary focus for brothers Dominic and Nicholas Cape is their race team Cape Motorsports which fields four Mazda-powered Tatuus USF-17 race cars in the Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship. The Cape team have earned nine consecutive titles with a total of thirteen titles to their credit. For relaxation in 2014, the brothers started the Cape Brothers Speed Shop.  

The shop’s latest creation “Fat n’ Sassy,” a two-tone green 1954 Buick Century Estate Wagon, appeared at both the 2019 (Specialty Equipment Market Association) SEMA show in Las Vegas and the 2019 Performance Racing Industry (PRI) show in Indianapolis.  

1954 Buick wagon mailer 

The new-for-1954 Buick Century design highlighted the new Libbey-Owens-Ford (L-O-F) panoramic windshield, which traced its history back to the 1951 Buick XP-300 concept car.  It reported took L-O-F engineers many months to perfect the wrap-around production distortion-free windshield. The 1954 models, the first of Buick’s second fifty years in operation, were unveiled to the public in showrooms on January 2 1954.

A 200-horsepower 322-cubic inch “vertical valve” “Fireball” V-8 engine powered the two-ton six-passenger all-steel wagon, Buick’s first all-steel wagon, as the 1953 Buick wagon was the last Detroit wagon produced with wooden structural components.  This wagon is equipped with the optional ‘Twin Turbo Dynaflow’ automatic transmission, the ‘Sonomatic’ radio, heater and defroster, along with a tachometer and 'Brodie knob' added later.   

The Buick Century Estate station wagon (catalog model 69) General Motors’ most expensive wagon, had a list price of $3,470. Ionia Manufacturing Division of the Mitchell-Bentley Corporation in Ionia Michigan built just 1,563 Buick Century Estate Wagon bodies for the 1954 model year. In a twenty-six year span, Ionia Manufacturing built station wagon bodies for all of Detroit's Big Three automakers from its six-block long facility.

“Fat n’ Sassy” started as a well-preserved ultra-rare original car, and the Cape Brothers “resto modded” the car, as the shop added a new frame and air suspension and a modern V-8 power plant with FiTech fuel injection topped by a vintage style Buick air cleaner (although it isn’t correct for this model). 

The wagon, fitted with a brand-new vintage interior and restored original steering wheel, rolls on 20-inch diameter by eight-inch wide Detroit Steel “steelie” wheels fitted with thin line whitewall tires, and a roof-top suitcase and surfboard complete the vintage road trip look.  

All photos by the author who is a proud SEMA member

“Pro Rat” 1928 Ford Model TT truck

“Pro Rat” 1928 Ford Model TT truck

Ryan Hopkins at Cat House Customs of La Pine Oregon started his 2019 SEMA (Specialty Equipment Market Association) project build with a 1928 Ford Model TT 1-ton pickup, a truck which was based on the Ford Model T, but with a heavier frame and rear axle. The original frame was thrown away, replaced by rectangular tube chassis built by Lahrs Speed and Custom with a buggy-spring “suicide” front suspension. Hopkins left the cab at the original height.

In place of the original 20-horsepower four-cylinder engine, the Model TT is now powered by a 496-cubic-inch big-block “rat” Chevrolet engine, topped with a GMC 6-71 supercharger fed by a pair of 750 CFM carburetors, estimated to develop 1,000 horsepower. We guess that with those “zoomie” style headers, most folks hear the “Pro Rat” before they see it.  

All that horsepower is fed via a Turbo 400 transmission to a coil-over suspended Winters Performance Products rear end fitted with Wilwood disc brakes with four-piston calipers and 12” rotors.  The Model TT pickup bed was shortened 14 inches and fitted with a radiator with the fuel cell disguised inside a large antique trunk with 44-inch long Competition Engineering wheelie bars underneath.

All photos by the author

“Are you telling me you built an electric car...out of a DeLorean?”

“Are you telling me you built an electric car...

 out of a DeLorean?”

Jacob Graham built an electric car out of a 1981 DeLorean DMC-12 that he calls “AC-DMC” which was on display in the feature vehicles lot at the 2019 SEMA show.  Jacob used a 2016 Nissan Leaf motor, a 24 KwH Leaf battery pack, with a Zeva Energy Management system.

The build also uses a Chevy Volt DC-DC converter and a TC 6.6 KwH charger to achieve a 90-mile range. To paraphrase Dr. Brown in Back to the Future, “if you’re going to build an electric car, why not do it with some style?”  

All photos by the author

John Force special edition 2020 COPO Chevrolet Camaro

John Force COPO Camaro 

The 2020 COPO Camaro John Force Edition shown at the Chevrolet Performance booth at the 2019 PRI show is a distinctively styled, supercharged race car.

Since 2012, Chevrolet has built only 69 COPO (Central Office Production Order) Camaros per model year, making them rare factory race cars but this John Force edition is a one-of-a-kind with its “2020COPO-FORCE” identification plaque, and is not part of the 69-car 2020 COPO Camaro production run. 

Powered by Chevrolet Performance’s supercharged, LSX-based 350 cubic inch engine, with a Magnuson supercharger and all-new LSX-SC cylinder heads. This car is equipped with the Racer’s Package, which consists of a carbon-fiber air inlet, dual batteries, weight box, parachute and a quick-change coupling for the supercharged engine.

In addition to the John Force signature graphics inside and out, the car has an NHRA-certified roll cage, custom embroidered racing seats and harnesses and rides on WELD® racing wheels fitted with Hoosier® tires.

This one-of-a-kind car was auctioned off on January 17 2020 at the Barrett-Jackson Auction for total sale price of $600,000.00 which went to the charity DonorsChoose.org. The winning bidder also received a custom helmet and fire suit provided by John Force.   

Chrysler VH Valiant Charger at SEMA

The “Hey Charger”

In 1971 and 1972, Chrysler Australia built and sold a two-door hardtop coupe as the Chrysler VH Valiant Charger. Based on the United States Chrysler A-body platform used for the Plymouth Duster and Dodge Demon, the VH featured the same front suspension, but with wider front fenders and a wider rear axle than United States A-body cars that gave a more muscular appearance.  Chrysler Australia advertising used the tag line "Hey Charger!"

  

Owner Mario Ciarrocchi bought this car in 1986 as a 17-year old and through the years envisioned a full custom with Ferrari design cues mixed in with the timeless Chrysler design. Massachusetts-based Ben Hermance of Hermance Design made renderings then Mario enlisted Justin Hills of Hills and Company Customs of Taree, New South Wales to build his dream car.  The “Hey Charger” appeared in the Mothers Polishes outdoor booth at the 2019 Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA) show.

The custom grille and custom front air dam show the Ferrari influence while the molded-in rear spoiler and valance improve on the original Chrysler design, topped off by a gas cap from a 2008 Challenger. All the custom bodywork including the custom bumpers is covered in Ferrari “Rosso Corsa,” or “Racing Red.” The shine is preserved by Mothers car care products available at http://www.mothers.com/ .

Under the custom carbon-fiber hood is the 540 cubic-inch engine that uses the “Indy Maxx” Indy Cylinder Head Products aluminum V-8 block topped with 440 aluminum cylinder heads. 

The induction is handled by custom aluminum throttle bodies on an Edelbrock Six-Pack manifold controlled by the Fuel Air Spark Technology (FAST®) EFI ECU system.   The jewel-like engine surrounded by custom-built black anodized inner panels, transmits the power to the rear wheels through the TCI® six-speed 4L80E automatic transmission.

The interior draws heavily on the interior design of a vintage Ferrari 365 Daytona with a fawn-colored Hydes full grain leather interior with black stitching and carpets, a custom dashboard and a leather-wrapped Billet Specialties steering wheel backed by paddle shifters.       

The car continues the Ferrari influence with Independent front and rear suspension, power rack and pinion steering, while the one-off wheels designed by Ben Hermance are reminiscent of  the nineteen-seventies Motor Wheel Corporation Magnum 500 wheels used on many muscle cars.

Built by custom wheel manufacturer EVOD Industries, the front rims measure 18-inches diameter by 7-inches wide while the rear wheels measure 19-inches diameter by 11-inches wide, wrapped in Pirelli P Zero tires. All four wheels are fitted with Wilwood disc brakes and calipers.  

Photos of the finished custom are by the author a proud member of SEMA.

Hyundai Sonata Hybrid record setter

Hyundai Sonata Hybrid record setter 

Hyundai Senior powertrain engineer Dean Schlingmann took a ride in this modified Sonata on September 25, 2019 at the Bonneville Salt Flats and ran a top speed of 164.669 miles per hour (MPH), compared to the previous record set in 2016 by a Hyundai Ioniq prototype at 157.825 MPH.

The Sonata in a unique wrap appeared at the Hyundai booth at the 2019 Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA) in Las Vegas in early November. The Sonata was slightly modified from stock, as it rode narrow Goodyear Eagle™ Land Speed D2956 28 x 4.5-15 tires inflated to 70 PSI mounted on Vision Rally 55 race wheels with Mooneyes™ Moon disc covers.

For the record run, Sonata received an FIA-specification chromoly cage, Sparco seats and harnesses, KW Suspensions strut/shock/spring package, a custom front valance, custom-made high-speed brakes and Simpson parachute. Power train modifications included a Nitrous Express setup, custom header and Injen Technology 3-inch stainless exhaust system, and new engine software to work with the nitrous system and the VP™ MS109 unleaded highly oxygenated race fuel.  

All photos by the author.