Corvette Big Brake

Installed the C5 (13") front brake upgrade on Kira and oh-boy is it an improvement!
To give you an idea of how big of an improvement is simple. I was running ZR1 wheels with 285 kuhmo excsta's, (no clue how to spell it) treadwear is 180 so basically a sticky tire. With this wheel setup the stock brakes couldn't lock up the fronts at all. Now with about 60% peddle effort they lock up.

Now if your saying wow 60% peddle effort to-lock is bad, then Congratulations your not an idiot! I knew it wasn't good but I figured like an F1 pro I'll manage it fine. Sooooooo, three weeks later I flat spotted the fack* out of them in one quick stop on the highway. Blah blah blah this post is to long so the rest in bullets
-put rear tires on the front. 295's
-did a burnout with the fronts on the back. improved the condition of the tires a bit
-bought a new brake bias spring that applies more pressure to the rear
-will install over winter and report
-vette is put away for winter. = Winter projects begin and cooler updates

Winter Time!

Well I parked Megan (silvia) in its corner for the winter yesterday and today it officially snowed! 

---Winter is Here!

I'm super excited for winter because some of you may know I'm a nerd at heart and I take great joy in designing and building then I do after the fact.

The plan for gangsta wheels is still a go. Figure the sizes I'm going for are 18x10 fronts and 18x12 rears. Not sure on the offset but "low." So over the winter fender flares need to be mounted. I've been getting quotes and they have been pretty ridiculous so I'll do it myself. As of now the search is on for silvia fenders to use as a mock and hon my skills.

Similar look below but with gnarly wheels and more low. I'm going for a more gangster look as Kira (corvette) has taken over as the functional performance vehicle. 

I'll save the Kira build for another post and an update is due as well

Greddy Turbo Timer

Picked up a Greddy turbo timer from Mark who's truly generous and probably one of the coolest dudes on earth. 
I was super excited to get home once it was in my possession. First thing I wanted to do was take it apart because the one I'm building is very simple and I wanted to compare.

Well I was impressed to an extent. Quality of work was put into making the board very compact with SMT components and a multilayer board. 

Definitely would be considered a quality product and a testament to Greddys claim to true products made with R&D if it wasn't for the one fet showing signs of significant overheating. On the ribbon cable you can see some browning and the plastic casing on the inside shows signs of slight melting (not shown in picture). I'll make some sort fix and update. So beware if your buying one with significant past use.

Corvette Updates

Vette has an exhaust system now and so its officially on the road. Installed ZR1 wheels on all 4 corners with 285 in the front and 295 in the rear. When these tires are finished I'm probably going to run 295's in the front because they should fit based on how well the 285's fit and then source some 11inch rear ZR1 wheels to put 315's in the back.

With the bigger wheels and tires the braking system feels under-rated and so time to go BIG!.... well bigger

-Z06 front calipers
-Hawk HP+ pads
-13" Stop Tech slotted rotors

Still haven't lowered the vette as its a timely procedure and need to get the Silvia up and running before I do.

Larger wheels fill up the gap well

For some reason the Silvia isn't starting. It cranked over, sounded like it fired once and now just cranks.
I'm glad something is finding some good out of this.

Awesome BMW video... Must watch!!!

Oh and updates on everything soon

Scraped my first 240, Cal's Bmw, Silvia Chilling

Well I am officially down to owning 3 cars as I have just scraped my very first 240 :(

I still love how it looked lowered, pignose front bumper and black rocker guard, it could have been bad ass with some wheels and more low.

The day i got it home

Cal's BMW is coming along, going to help him today finish the brakes and hopefully exhaust

Silvia still being DD

Winter Plans Already?!

I always plan my projects well in advance and right now I can't wait to get started on this one.

I’m happy with how the Silvia looks presently but I feel it’s far short of my dream. So planned for winter is fender flares (not over fenders) which I have kicking around already that will be painted black to go with the cars theme. To fill the fenders I’m thinking something such as Work VS-KF’s in burning black, hopefully financed by a massive parts sale that I plan on doing in the coming weeks. Besides wheels and body work I only expect to be purchasing 5lug hubs, and rear Z32 brakes.

<3 Wheels

Bald Tires and Massive Fender Gap...

The Silvia has been taking a well deserved beating while being DD for the past 2 1/2 months and I can definitely say I'm proud of how reliable its been the entire time.

However I should check the tires more often :p

So now for the time being I'm running my R compounds that i normally use for drag

Corvette is running, sounds wicked at idle with open headers, but its just unbearable when driving so I need to find an exhaust shop pronto.
The vette needs a few more things before I'm happy with it, such as fixing this fender gap. Seriously how did such an acclaimed sports car have such a ridiculous gap.

Car Aerodynamics Simplfied

Found a very simplified and informative write up on vehicle aerodynamics that would benefit a lot of the average joe's so take a few minuets to better inform yourself.


Aerodynamics Simplfied

Mehh, New Starter is In... thats all folks

My new starter came in yesterday which is way lighter and smaller, allowing clearance of the exhaust header and shaving a few pounds (20lbs vs 10lbs) off the car at the same time.

Oh, and a more current pic of the E30

BMW E30

Teaser Pics

CCW Fail

Saw this browsing some corvette threads.

Couldn't handle the 335mm slick on this 18x13" wheel

First Stretch and Poke Meet of 2011

Wasn't at this one but next one hopefully.. Enjoy

Stretch N Poke 2011 from Matt Berenz on Vimeo.

Updates

 Well after headaches with the passenger side header install I opted to purchase a mini-starter. Simply waiting on the mini-starter and AIR delete bracket to arrive now, and sadly neither company gave me the option to expedite the shipping even after clarifying shipping price is not an issue and one company couldn't even get back to me on approx arrival date. Based on my experience I do not recommend www.tpis.com for Canadian buyers however they may get a second chance and Ultimate Corvette Parts didn't fair better especially for being based in Ontario Canada.

In my spare time I've been helping my buddy Calvin with his E30 project. Lets just say this thing will be insane!!!! Key words to describe it: Slammed/Stretched/Turbo M30/Work's/Art

Picked up some tires for the vette, and for Cal's beast courtesy Samson at GB Tires

And the silvia is chilling

Weather is getting better and so is the Corvette

Finally got the oil pan off the other day and after removing the oil pump, a 5lb hammer did the trick and knocked the POS dipstick tube out. I ordered a Felpro gasket which looks amazing by a quality and engineering view point but hopefully it fits as good as it looks.

Underside with the oil pan removed

Oil Pan. Little bit of sludge but nothing to worry about.

Up-skirt shot