Good Luck fellas! I will be following your OLOA Adventure.

 

I would like to thank Jon at TRE for becoming our latest sponsor for the 2011 One Lap of America.

I had the pleasure of spending about 3 hours at TRE yesterday watching the master at work. I learned SO much about what all goes into creating a TRE transmission, transfer case and rear differential, not to mention the engineering, lubrication and metallurgy lessons. There are tons of steps and little custom or hand finished bits that are done behind the scenes and not really advertised. Jon is just a perfectionist and it shows in his work. For instance - I always just assumed that when they replaced a gear in the trans that he bought a replacement from Mitsu and plopped it in. Nope. Each gear is hand tweeked to make it stronger and last longer. I wish I had a picture of the difference between a TRE finished gear and OEM, but I didn't have my camera with me.

I also got to follow the production of my new Rear Diff Cover for my Max-Lock rear diff. I watched it go from blank to finished product. His mill is a beast! I wasn't planning on needing this upgrade - but my OEM rear diff cover was just like the pile of 40 other bad ones he had laying in a box (including some Cusco ones). The bearing was rotating on the cover and had worn/gouged it - potential points for a stress crack to start. Turns out that Jon had been quietly replacing worn OEM covers whenever he encounted one as part of his MaxLock service. After seeing so many problems he finally came up with a better mousetrap:

http://www.teamrip.com/HD_SIDE_COVER_UPGRADE.html





I have always run TRE drivetrain, and will definitely continue to do so. After 2 years of hard abuse with hundreds of AX runs, multiple 10 second passes and 1.5 second 60' launches, and about 15 full track days - all the transmission really needed was a couple new synchros due to a few bad shifts and my unsprung hub clutch beating them up.

 

John at TRE is awesome!! He did my TC in the evo. But if you want to have a conversation with him, you better have a snickers bar handy, as he sure likes to chat!! lol GREAT GUY!

 

Here are some pics of my new exhaust parts . . . planning a side exit with the muffler where the cat/test pipe would normally be. . .






Inside shot of the Burns Stainless muffler . . .

 

That will be somewhat loud for 5k miles of driving but I think as long as it has a muffler it satisfies the rules.

 

The exhaust won't even be the bad part - it's the solid mounted rear diff that will cause the most headaches! Whines like a banshee

 

Maybe bring several pairs of ear plugs? I can just imagine how the noise in the cab can drain your energy while you're traveling between tracks.

I'm really looking forward to how you do in the One Lap. Good luck!

 

I'm bringing lots of ear plugs. haha

 

invest in noise cancel headphones... they will be your best friend!...

build looks good.!!

 

Leh, you running this year?

I think David already has some Bose noise cancelling headphones! We're GTG!

Now all the car is missing is a clutch, transmission, transfer case, driveshaft, rear diff, complete exhaust, turbo, tune, tires, trailer, rear diffuser . . . only 3 weeks before the first event at MidOhio

 

That rear diff is insanely loud and notchy at first. My Shep unit was the first weekend I had it out on track. I've got vid that sounds like I'm banging through gears similar to a sequential!

It gets better though; as in less noisy. And the shifting is sooo much better feeling; not to mention the loss in weight!

 

I know the feeling, my tranny and turbo got delayed as well and I'm scrambling for alternate solutions. The best part is I was trying to get stuff ordered 90 days before the event but for various reasons it just didn't get done when I wanted to happen. Keep at it like a rabid dog and you will have most of what you planned ready to go.

The noise cancelling headphones are a really good idea, I plan on toning down my exhaust with another resonator but at WOT it will be a dump tube so the car will be heard when it counts.

As far as I know Leh is running a Nissan GTR of some flavor this year and will be tough to beat but this years field is looking very competitive. Seeing that he is snooping around in Evo land is probably a good sign, although we can't appear to be "too fast" or another upgrade or two might make it into the GTR!

 

Make sure you link all the new videos on youtube.com. Been watching your old ones during the cold months

Good Luck Guys!

 

yea he is running with topspeed again .. this time with a gtr ... and a good list of sponsors..... ams turbo kit etc there is a build thread on the gtr website

 

next step is getting it all one color!..


entry list looks awesome. im so pumped for this year!