COBB Tuning Blog

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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:

COBB Time Attack STi (1)

COBB Time Attack STi (2)

COBB Time Attack STi (3)

Great work, guys. Amazing!

Have some other good examples, let us know!

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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!

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Check it out, our G37 is featured in Mackin’s latest ad for the sexy Volk Racing GT30 wheels.

Click here for larger image.

Thank you, Steve!

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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.

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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:

• AccessPORT
• Turboback Exhaust
• Sports Springs
• Sway Bars
• Short Throw Shifter
• and more to be announced shortly.

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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!

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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.

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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…

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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.

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This week COBB employees are spread across three different continents. Aside from our operations in Utah, Dave Benson (hard parts engineer extraordinaire) is in the UK attending the Autosports Show while Christian, Billy and I (Trey) are out in Tokyo attending the Tokyo Auto Salon. We’ll be sure to share a full report and pictures from Dave once he returns. Until then, here is a brief update from the Far East.

We’ve been attending the Tokyo Auto Salon for a few years now, ever since we began our relationship with renown Subaru tuner Prova to sell the AccessPORT in Japan. While the show is similar to SEMA, some marked differences exist. For instance, while it is primarily only parts manufacturers that have booths at SEMA, it is not at all uncommon to have ‘tuner shops’ displaying at the Tokyo Auto Salon. By tuner shop I mean a company that specializes more in the installation of parts and custom tuning and often relies on parts manufactured by one of the big manufacturers like HKS, Trust, Blitz, etc. Tokyo Auto Salon is also open to the public, so there’s more of a car show/entertainment aspect to it. Over the years, I’ve seen several companies make the decision not to display at TAS and I honestly can’t say I blame them. It’s disappointing because TAS is the only opportunity some of us get to see their work but at the same time it’s very expensive and there really isn’t a lot of actual business that gets done. In fact, it seems more attention is placed on the models than the cars.

Enough of my babbling, here are some pictures. I’ll post more once we compile all that we have.

I’d probably get in trouble if I didn’t start with a Subaru. ;) Here’s the next generation Forester. I’ll be honest, not a big fan of the ‘double wheel arch’ in the body line. The new Forester definitely looks bigger visually. I trust Subaru on this one, though. While I like the current quirky Forester design, the number one complaint I hear from others when I try to convince them to buy one is that they are ‘too small’. Never thought that with our Forester XT but I can appreciate where they’re coming from.

Next up, for our Mazda friends we have RE Amemiya’s Mazdaspeed3.

Scooters are big business in Japan, they even make body kits for them now! Selection below from Bomex.

Speed Racer’s Mach 5… sign me up!

There were just a few new GT-Rs (R35) at the show. <insert sarcasm here> It’ll be interesting to see how the car does in the States. I was surprised at how much larger it is than the earlier R32-R34 models.

Christian and Billy checking out design elements of the Nismo SuperGT 500 Z33.

Nismo SuperGT 500 GT-R. Looks like a lot of aero development carry over from the Z33. Impressive nonetheless.

The Lexus IS-F race prototype. A very DTM aero package, LHD configuration. I’m still putting my money on this showing up in ALMS if it races though if I were Toyota I’d run it in DTM if I thought it would be competitive. My reason being that people in Europe (Germany) actually care about road racing. Just look at the live crowds DTM draws as compared to ALMS or any other road racing series in America.

And finally, my own personal favorites. You just can’t go wrong with a clean R34 and since I own a Hakosuka and 1st gen Celica, the Rocky Auto and Top Secret examples below are personal inspirations for my own restoration plans.

That’s all for now. We’ll make sure to post more shortly.

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If you’re like me, you’re into racing and driving games. And if you’re like me, you actually remember playing the original Need for Speed on the 3D0 game console (pretty state of the art game system at the time, mind you!). Ahh the hours and hours of playing that game trying to dominate the Coastal course with the car I lusted after in real life, a CYM R1 RX-7. OK, so maybe you’re not so much like me…it’s OK to admit you had a life in the early ’90s. :)

EA’s latest iteration of the NFS series is ProStreet. I’ll admit, I’ve strayed from gaming and the NFS series the past few years as I’ve simply been busy doing, oh I dunno, running a business! This holiday however I took a moment to pop in NFS ProStreet into the ol’ PS3 for a few minutes (hours!) of gaming and I was hooked. If you’re in the market for a new racing game, definitely take a serious look at the latest in the Need for Speed franchise.

Oh, and did I mention you can get a classic COBB logo or our new Time Attack ‘clock’ theme on your Subaru?!? Check out EA’s website and click on the Blueprints feature to customize your own Subaru WRX STI, or even better do so in the game!

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We’ve had a few people requesting that we post more pictures of the 2008 Infiniti G37S that we had in our booth at SEMA. So, here they are. First, a quick list of what’s currently on the car and in development.

• AccessPORT handheld ECU programmer (in development)
• COBB 304SS Cat-back exhaust system
• COBB 304SS High-Flow Cat pipes
• COBB SF Dual Intakes w/ Heat Shields
• COBB Sports Springs (non-production “show” ride height)
• COBB styling treatment – headlights, taillights, decals
• Volk Racing GT30 20″ Wheels – SEMA Debut
• Yokohama Advan ST Tires

There’s still more to come with this car and future Nissan/Infiniti products. Our big push right now is preparing the release of the AccessPORT for 350Z and G models!

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