January 2008
Monthly Archive
Monthly Archive
Posted by Trey on 29 Jan 2008 | Tagged as: General
We recently posted how you can run COBB logos in the latest NFS ProStreet. After doing so, some of our customers reminded us of some COBB cars they’ve recreated for use in Forza Motorsports 2. So, without further delay, here are a few samples in no particular order:
Great work, guys. Amazing!
Have some other good examples, let us know!
Posted by Trey on 29 Jan 2008 | Tagged as: Events
Many of you may not know this, but we manage a racing series known as the Super Tuner Car Championship. We started it last year as a means to promote both racing in Utah but also with bigger aspirations to provide a place where the cars we loved could compete with one another. As it stands now in North America, there really isn’t a road racing series that allows cars like the Subaru WRX, STi, Mitsubishi EVO, Nissan 350Z, Mazdaspeed3, and so on race wheel to wheel with one another and be competitive. Furthermore, most domestic racing series that allow these types of cars follow the ‘Showroom stock’ style of rules that significantly limit engine modifications (and other) you can make. Tough for a tuning company to really put a lot of money into when you can’t promote the use of the products to design and manufacture.
Our solutions to promote close and exciting racing, while still allowing creative freedom for the tuners, are the same used and accepted pretty universally by other countries and other non-road racing series: intake air restrictors and Weight requirements.  Truthfully, there is no perfect set of rules for a race series, but I think we’ve got a pretty good base to work from. Right now all events are run out of the award-winning Miller Motorsports Park here in Utah. In time, we hope to branch it out to tracks across the country. With Time Attack racing becoming more and more popular in North America, we figure it’s only a matter of time before these competitors decide to take it wheel to wheel.
Interested in learning more, check our the STC website!
Posted by Trey on 29 Jan 2008 | Tagged as: General
Check it out, our G37 is featured in Mackin’s latest ad for the sexy Volk Racing GT30 wheels.
Thank you, Steve!
Posted by Trey on 27 Jan 2008 | Tagged as: General
Something wicked this way comes…
That’s the only hint I’ll give. To protect it on its journey, I requested that our contact in Japan pick up a Koutsu Anzen omamori and place in it the shipping container. In typical fashion, he went above expectations and went to the famous Sumiyoshi Taisha Shrine to have one blessed for a safe journey of our precious cargo. I’m personally not an overly spiritual person but in the chance it helps, why not!
We’ll post soon exactly what this ‘precious cargo’ is… needless to say we’re beyond excited. Until then, here are some pictures of the omamori and shrine. Many thanks to Koji @ Bridge for his assistance. If you’re ever in need of translation services (Japanese-English) or are a business looking for a Japanese contact for import/export, Koji comes highly recommended.
Posted by Trey on 27 Jan 2008 | Tagged as: Product Updates
Work continues on our EVO X. While the software guys are busy hacking away at the ECU, our hardware engineers and fabricators have been busy designing some great new parts.
First up is a rapid prototype of part of our SF Intake. As with our other intakes, it’ll incorporate a velocity stack and a lot of effort to promote a smooth, laminar air flow across the MAF sensor. The advantage of having our own in-house Rapid Prototype printer is that we can design many concepts in CAD and test them on the dyno and on the road before going into production. The ensures we are releasing a product we know that WORKS, rather than just one that fits and looks cool. In addition to this, we’ll be working on the rest of the intake system such as the ducting that leads to the turbo and the all important heat shield/air box so the engine is getting a constant supply of cool, fresh air.
Also on the intake side of things, Josh whipped up these fantastic hard pipes for the intercooler and bypass valve. It’s not easily seen in these pictures, but he went to a great amount of effort to maintain symmetry so the pipes follow the same lines as the factory underhood covers, etc. A lot of attention to detail features unnoticed by most but important nonetheless.
We’ll post more pictures soon. In addition to these parts we are working on:
Posted by Trey on 22 Jan 2008 | Tagged as: General
Not too long ago one of our customers, who just so happens to work at Jones Soda, sent us a care package full of Jones’ Green Apple soda customized with our own Time Attack STI on the label. Being a long time Jones soda fan, it was a bit surreal. I first had it back in ’96-’97 on a trip to the Pacific NW and for awhile I used to stock it for employees to drink until the local distributor started jacking with our pricing. Only thing I can imagine better than having our Time Attack car on a bottle of Jones Soda would be Jones Soda logos on a COBB Tuned car. (hint hint!!) :)
Want your OWN label on some Jones Soda? Well, go do it at myJones.com!
Posted by Trey on 22 Jan 2008 | Tagged as: General
We had a local 2008 STi in for AccessPORT mapping testing (thanks you know who!) and decided to throw it on the scales while we were weighing our EVO X. Not much to say, I’ll leave the results to speak for themselves.
For those that can’t view the images;
3289.3 lbs
59% Front : 41% Rear
50.5% cross.
Posted by Trey on 22 Jan 2008 | Tagged as: General
On Monday night (Jan 21) we picked up a new R&D car, a wicked white EVO X GSR (5-speed). As seen in previous blog entries here, we’ve been ramping up and anticipating our opportunity to develop parts and tuning for the all new EVO.
Of course before we get started, all the control data must be first collected. Changing parts for the sake of changing parts isn’t our specialty, we prefer to challenge ourselves to actually tune the car for a performance improvement. (read: our first mod isn’t going to be bolting on a blow off valve or some other doohickey and call that “tuning”). However with only 20 miles on the odometer, it’s not going on the dyno just yet. Call us old fashioned, but we prefer to break our engines in first.
First things first, we put the EVO X on the scales to see what we’re working with. According to Mitsubishi’s data, a GSR weighs in a 3517 lb. Our car has the SSS package, so we figured it’s be a bit more with the stereo but our real interest was HOW the Weight was distributed. Below are the results, with the car carrying approximately 6 gals of fuel (assuming ~40% shown on the gauge w/ a 14.5 gal tank).
As you can see, the new EVO X is no lightweight (3518 lbs) while also being a bit on the nose-heavy side (56.7%). Once Weight was taken, various parts we’re taken off for measurement and entered into our CAD system for evaluation for improvement and new product development. Over the next few weeks, we’ll continue to post updates regarding what we have planned, what we’ve tested, what works, and even what doesn’t.
Until then here are a few pics of some wheel test fitting we did with some spare sets we had laying around. This work was done so we could see what offset/size we needed to use for our goals.
Stay tuned…
Posted by Trey on 18 Jan 2008 | Tagged as: Events
One of our engineers, Dave Benson, recently attended the Autosport International Show in the UK. Our friends at MSD Ignition and Racepak had a booth at the show and invited us to come out and see what sort of interest might exist in Europe for our products. Overall the reception was VERY good and we came away with a lot of motivation to ramp up our efforts to enter the European/UK market.
Dave documented his experiences and posted many pictures of the show on our forum. Read all about it by clicking here.