The Yokohama Tires display at SEMA 2019

Yokohama Tires display at the 2019 SEMA show

The outdoor Yokohama tire exhibit at the 2019 Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA) show was very unique in its compact display of Yokohama ADVAN tire-equipped race cars. ADVAN tires are race-inspired and street legal, and allow drivers to experience exceptional handling with their high performance sports cars.

In 2019, Yokohama Tire Corporation celebrated its 50^th anniversary in the United States.  ADVAN tires are manufactured in the US at Yokohama’s 1.2-million square foot Salem, Virginia facility. Yokohama also has a $300 million one-million square foot commercial truck tire manufacturing facility in West Point Mississippi. 

The first featured car at the SEMA 2019 display was this 2006 BMW M3 E46 GTR raced by Tom Milner’s Prototype Technology Group (PTG) in 2006 with ADVAN 2005 series tires. During its 11 seasons with BMW, the PTG partnership yielded titles in IMSA, the United States Road Racing Club championship, the American Le Mans Series and Grand-Am Series. Powered by a 3.4-liter inline six cylinder engine, Team PTG finished in sixth place in the 2006 American LeMans Series GT2 class.

This Panoz Esperante GTLMe was one of two raced by PTG during the 2007, 2008 and 2009 American Lemans Series seasons in the GT2 class. Powered by 5-liter Ford V-8 engines, the PTG team finished seventh in 2007, sixth in 2008 and fifth in the 2209 season final standings. 

Also on display was the ADVAN 2006 Porsche 911 GTS Cup racer.  For the 2020 racing season, Yokohama is the title sponsor and the ADVAN A052 series is the specified tire for the Porsche Sprint Trophy USA West and Porsche Air-Cooled Cup USA series, as well as the Porsche Sprint Trophy USA West Invitational.

This Yokohama display also included this striking display of hoods with graphics showing the layouts of the tracks which challenge the competitors in the Porsche GT3 Challenge Cup USA presented by Yokohama.

This is the 2018 Porsche Cayman GT4 Clubsport driven by Yokohama brand ambassador Travis Pastrana to victory in the Porsche Pikes Peak Trophy by Yokohama class at the famed Pikes Peak International Hill Climb in 2018 and 2019. The three-time AMA Motocross and Supercross Champion, X-Game winner and stunt performer set the class-winning time of 10-minute, 33.897 seconds in 2018 in this car equipped with ADVAN A502 tires.

Also on display was this Yokohama sponsored and equipped 2019 Toyota Baja trophy truck built by Racer Engineering.

No 2019 SEMA exhibit would have been complete without a display of 2020 Toyota GR Supra this one of course was equipped with ADVAN APEX V601® high-performance tires.   

Check out the ADVAN website at https://www.yokohamatire.com/advan-tires

All photographs by the author who is a proud member of SEMA 

"Outlaw" Porsche 550 Spyders

built SEMA style

The key to grabbing attention for exhibitors at the annual Specialty Equipment Market Association show (SEMA) in Las Vegas is to display a car (or cars) with over-the-top build details. 

The Toyo Tires tent at 2019 SEMA show held a pair of highly customized 1955 Porsche 550 Spyder “outlaw” replicas built by Edison Sarkisyan’s S Klub shop in Los Angeles that illustrated this point perfectly, as the cars were mobbed constantly during the show.   

The metallic root-beer brown car with gold accents, converted to a center-steer configuration and powered by an air-cooled Volkswagen engine fitted with Weber carburetors, was a SEMA Battle of Builders finalist.

The gray car is powered by a turbocharged, water-cooled Subaru  WRX engine fitted with a huge intercooler. Said to produce 400 horsepower the engine is fitted with a titanium exhaust system and copper trim throughout the engine bay.

All photos by the author 

NFL player Jimmy Graham’s

“Safari” 1984 Porsche 911 Carrera at SEMA

MOMO (MOretti MOnza) was founded in 1964 after racer Gianpiero Moretti had a local craftsman make a custom steering wheel for his racing car. The new MOMO steering wheel caught the attention of Ferrari Formula One driver, John Surtees, who wanted to mount it on his single-seater car, and the MOMO company was born. In the years since  years MOMO added seats, safety harnesses, road wheels and tires to their product line.

The MOMO booth at the 2019 SEMA (Specialty Equipment Market Association) showed off a Kelly-Moss Road & Race shop built matte black 1982 Porsche 911 3.2- liter Carrera “Safari” owned by the NFL Green Bay Packers tight end Jimmy Graham (38- in your programs).  

A 911 “Safari” build such as this one evokes the styling cues of the 1984 Dakar Rally winning Porsche 953, and Graham’s car uses MOMO equipment throughout.  

Inside the 911, Graham grips a 10-inch MOMO Prototipo steering wheel while seated in MOMO Super Cup seats held in place by MOMO six-point racing harness.

The Porsche rides on MOMO Heritage Six wheels shod with MOMO M-Trail M8 AT tires. The six-spoke wheels are made using revolutionary dual-way flow forming process that creates a rim area with similar strength and impact ratings to forged wheels with a 15% weight reduction over alloy wheels through a unique combination of heat, pressure and rotation.

The all-new MOMO M-TRAIL M8 AT is a versatile and rugged all-terrain tire designed to handle on and off-road adventures with a tread pattern that utilizes step block edges to provide biting grip in rough terrain and complex siping for enhanced traction in inclement weather.

All photos by the author

Pelican Parts open house

Pelican Parts and Dempsey Motorsports recently held an open house at their shop in Harbor City, California and your intrepid author spotted by and took a few photos.  


Pelican Parts was started in 1997 by veteran Porsche owners  Wayne Dempsey and Tom Gould with the goal  to provide affordable European Parts and accessories to enthusiasts worldwide. 


Pelican Parts'  customer focus is on the weekend mechanic - the fellow who loves to tinker and work on his car at any chance he can get. They specialize in parts for Porsche, Mercedes, BMW, Audi, Volkswagen, Saab, Volvo and Mini.

Freshly restored 1966 Jaguar XKE 4.2 liter convertible

This 1958 Porsche 356 Speedster Southern California two-owner car

was repainted in the 1977 but is otherwise original

1973 Porsche 911 Carrera RSR tribute

This Porsche 962 chassis number 112 was the subject of a recent 3-year restoration

Mercedes 300 SL Gullwing in the parking lot

Check out the Pelican Parts and Dempsey Motorsports websites:

https://www.pelicanparts.com/

http://dempseymotorsports.com/

The $500,000 Gunther Werks 400R

 

The 400R in the 2017 SEMA Battle of the Builders staging area

The only imported car named as one of the twelve finalists for the 2017 SEMA (Specialty Equipment Market Association) Battle of the Builder was this Gunther Werks 400R, a modified 1995 Porsche 911 Carrera which was displayed during the week in the Meguiar’s booth.

The 400R in the Meguiar's booth

 

Gunther Werks was founded in Orange County California by Peter Nam, the man behind, a company best known for body kits for luxury cars such as BMW and Mercedes-Benz and Vorsteiner Nero which builds kits for high-end sports cars such as Lamborghini and McLaren. For more than 14 years, Vorsteiner has manufactured autoclaved pre-impregnated carbon fiber composite parts and now offers forged aluminum custom wheels.

 

 

The 400R in the Meguiar's booth

 

The company name is an homage to Günter Wendt, a German born mechanical engineer who worked with NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) as an employee of McDonnell Aircraft and North American Aviation. Wendt was in charge of the spacecraft service crew on the launch pads for the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs and the early phases of the space shuttle program at the Kennedy Space Center before he retired in 1989.   

 

The 400R in the 2017 SEMA Battle of the Builders staging area

 

Gunther Werks specializes in the development of its Porsche 993 400R designed to retain the appearance and driving experience of the Porsche 993 (the last air-cooled Porsche) but augment it with modern technology   Only 25 examples of the $525,000 Porsche 993 400R conversion will be produced, each customer car modified to the customer’s specifications.    

Photo provided by Gunther Werks

 

Rothsport Racing enlarged the stock Carrera’s 3.6 liter flat-six naturally aspirated engine to 4.0-liters of displacement, and the engine uses Mahle pistons, billet connecting rods and billet crankshaft which are blueprinted and balanced before its dynamometer test. The power and torque targets are 330 foot-pounds (ft/lb) of torque and 400+ horsepower with a 7800 revolutions per minute (RPM) redline, which is quite an increase from the stock 911 Carrera’s 272 horsepower, 243 ft/lb of torque and a rev limit of  6700 RPM.   

 

 

 

According to Gunther Werks, “all the greatest Porsche race cars ran a square track where the front and rear tracks were the same width which helped to eliminate the inherent understeer of the 911 platform.” Apparently these folks have never seen a Porsche 917, in particular the 917/30 SCCA Can-Am car which had a 4-1/2 inch wider front track than the rear.

The 400R has a 63-inch track both front and rear, a huge increase from the stock 55.3 inch front and 56.8 inch rear track widths. In addition the 400R is equipped with 8-1/2 inch wide front and 11-1/2 inch wide rear Pirelli P Zero tires , which is 1-1/2 wider than stock in front and 2-1/2 inches wider in the rear.  

To incorporate the extra width, the 400R bodywork retains the basic style of the earlier 911 models, but uses carbon-fiber composite body panels, hood, deck lid, spoiler, front fascia and roof to create a customized body that is lighter weight, stronger and more rigid than the original.

While it was an honor to be selected to participate in the Battle of the Builders the 400R did not make it to the top-three finalists as Troy Trepanier’s winning 1929 Ford Model-A Tudor sedan edged out Alan Johnson’s 1932 Ford Tudor Sedan and Troy Ladd’s 1936 Packard roadster. 


 
Information for this article was provided by Gunther Werks which is not affiliated with Porsche Cars North America, Inc., or Dr Ing h.c.F. Porsche, AG. The Porsche®, 993® and 911® names are trademarks of Dr. Ing. h.c.F. Porsche AG. Any mention of trademarked names is for purpose of reference only.

http://guntherwerks.com/

All photos by the author unless noted

Racing Porsches on display 

On Saturday June 16 Pelican Parts hosted a Coffee & Cars show on the top deck of the parking garage at the Promenade on the Peninsula in Rolling Hills Estates, California. There were several interesting Porsche 911 racing or racing themed cars on display that caught the author's eye. 

All photos by the author

Porsche septuplet  at SEMA 2017

The author is not a Porschephile, but there were a number of interesting Porsche builds at the 2017 SEMA (Specialty Equipment Market Association) trade show, so today we offer a cross-section of different styles and genres of seven Porsches seen at SEMA 2017.

Shown outside on the Silver Lot was this Porsche 993 (the last of the air cooled 911 models) modified by RAUH-Welt Begriff (RWB) a Japan-based builder of custom “wide bodies” for Porsche 911 series.   According to the RWB website the company which started in a small shop in Japan by “Nakai-san” (Akira Nakai) now has locations in both Northern and Southern California. According to the RWB website this body kit costs $22,000 and the wheels add $5500.

Parked outside in front of the Central Hall was a pair of Porsches shown by AccuAir Suspension which designs and manufactures air suspension systems for all vehicle types. Both of these Porsches are owned by Brian Henderson who together with partner Jason Whipple owns Rotiform Wheels which builds “Monoblock” one-piece low pressure cast and three-piece forged custom wheels. Both of these cars were modified by AccuAir Suspension installer Sadistic Iron Werks of Hesperia California just weeks before the SEMA show.

 

 

This Porsche 356B Super 90 Coupe appeared stock aside from the air suspension, the custom wheels and the low profile, rubber band like tires.

 

 

 

This Porsche 911 Carrera known to the factory as the 991.2 is powered by a water-cooled 182-cubic inch turbocharged flat-six cylinder engine. Yes the car sits very low at rest - the turbocharger actually touched the ground.

 

Most of the attention in the AkzoNobel paint booth at SEMA 2017 was focused on the hot rod and custom car builds from Kindigit Design, and lost in the “reality TV frenzy” was this good-looking early seventies rally-styled Porsche 911 Carrera RS.

 

The booth of another paint company, Valspar Prospray, featured a 1960 Porsche 356B super 90 coupe built “outlaw” style which uses the original body but with performance upgrades. This car known as “Blau Grau” (translated to Blue-Grey) for its unique color was built by Matt Howard’s Deluxe Customs in Tempe Arizona which specializes in early Porsche and Volkswagen restorations.

 

The Spyder Auto booth featured this Porsche 997 (the second generation of water-cooled 911s) which had been shown with a different wrap at the Toyo Tires display at the 2016 SEMA show. The car which mimics the “slant nose” style of the Porsche 935 was built by IDL Designs using a body kit produced by Old & New from Hiroshima Japan.  You can purchase the body kit for 1,550,000 yen (approximately $14,000) plus shipping taxes and installation.  The wrap which appears to an homage to the famed Martini & Rossi racing Porsches was applied by Impressive Wraps using 3M brand film.    Spyder Auto offers a complete range of automotive lighting that includes fog lights, crystal and projector headlights, and taillights.  

 

 

Last but not least is the Magnus Walker Urban Outlaw shop built Porsche 911 S RT. Most striking to the author were the louvers on top of the 911's fender completed by metalsmith Rod Emory of Emory Motorsports. The car powered by 2.5 liter twin plug  (two spark plugs per cylinder) engine debuted at the 2017 SEMA show.  

 

All photos by the author