Bruzewski’s Modified Street Car Shootout Build!
Well I guess I'll chime in and share a little bit about our journey to Arizona and the Modified Magazine Street Car Shootout. . .
When David and I first heard about this year's event we immediately thought we were going to run his new blue EVO. He bought it a few months back and we've been working on getting it ready for the road and track once the snow abates. Well, that thought quickly faded as we learned the race was in only 1 month and there was no way the blue EVO would be ready in time. Then I got a brilliant idea and said, "DUDE! Enter the black EVO!". David was not thrilled with that idea and shot it down right away. So I reminded him that this event is EXACTLY what he has been building the black EVO for. The black EVO was built to be David's iteration of the "Ultimate Street Evo". Over the years people have asked him why don't you get small ultralite drag brakes, why don't you get a bigger turbo, why don't you get super soft shocks so you can launch better at the drag strip. . . BECAUSE NOT RACE CAR. This was built as a street car that can do ANYTHING well. (well, except maybe rally, ice racing, baha, rock crawling, etc. . .)
So David didn't think we could use the black EVO for this event, but I kept insisting that it was perfect! I've never driven anything with that much power before, and David kept telling me just how crazy the car gets sometimes. I told him, NO PROBLEM, I can handle it!
So we dediced to enter the black car! 
We knew time was of the essence, so we started prepping the car even before we knew for sure that we got accepted into the race. There really was not a whole lot to do. To wake her up from her winter slumber all we had to do was take off the car cover, change the fluids, fill up the gas tank, charge the battery and she was ready to hit the road. Since my Time Attack EVO was in a million pieces for a complete ground-up rebuild we decided to cannibalize a few pieces from it to give us that extra little edge in some of the competitions. Here are the main changes I can remember:
- removed David's Girodisc 2-piece rotors and street pads and installed my Girodiscs and race pads (so we wouldn't have to re-bed pads before and after the event)
- flushed and bled the brakes with fresh Amsoil racing brake fluid
- removed David's Ohlins and installed my Ohlins with slightly higher spring rates
- installed new adjustable sway bar end links
- corner balanced the car
- removed David's Voltex front undertray and installed my DHP Compostites front splitter/undertray
- installed my RaceTech race seat on sliders along with my custom TeamTech 5-point harness
David also took the car down to AMS for a refresh on the tune and just to make sure everything was good to go. Chris Black gave us a normal full power tune (like the car has been running for 6+ years over 700whp on the same engine) along with a super safe, as low power as possible tune. Basically turned the boost control off so it just ran on wastegate spring pressure which is about 30psi. This went along with our race strategy. . . .
And that brings us to strategy. Before the car was ever tuned, we had a strategy and plan. In a multi-event race like the Modified Magazine Street Car Shootout proper strategy can literally be the difference between winning and finishing dead last. We've seen this over and over throughout the years. David and I own every issue of Sport Compact Car Ultimate Street Car Challenge as well as Modified Magazine Tuner Shootout and Street Car Shootout since 2003. I can't count how many times an overdog car that should have dominated the events broke and did not finish, and many of these are even shop cars. There are many other cars who could have had a very respectable finish, but they were pushed past the limit and broke before the end of the event. With having all this historical knowledge to go by, it helped David and me to formulate what we hoped would be a winning strategy.
The NUMBER ONE key was to finish the entire event without breaking. If we broke, nothing else mattered. We could bring a car with 1000HP, we could bring an 8 second drag car, but if it broke and missed one single event it was all for naught. Based on the way the points scoring is set up we knew that the Dyno Competition and the Drag Competition would be our place to gain the largest amount of points over competitors. The order of events was layed out exactly how we wanted it too. The strategy was faily simple, really - make good power on the dyno (full, daily driver boost level) to bump us ahead of everyone else, then dial it back to wastegate pressure and just be fast enough in each of the remaining events to stay in the lead. Then, with the drag race last, if we needed more points to secure the win we could always crank the boost back up to full normal power.
At least that's how it all worked out in my mind when planning for the event. . . as for what ACTUALLY happened, you're going to have to wait until the feature issue of Modified Magazine comes out in a few months Then I'll do another write up about what happened in each of the events.
When David and I first heard about this year's event we immediately thought we were going to run his new blue EVO. He bought it a few months back and we've been working on getting it ready for the road and track once the snow abates. Well, that thought quickly faded as we learned the race was in only 1 month and there was no way the blue EVO would be ready in time. Then I got a brilliant idea and said, "DUDE! Enter the black EVO!". David was not thrilled with that idea and shot it down right away. So I reminded him that this event is EXACTLY what he has been building the black EVO for. The black EVO was built to be David's iteration of the "Ultimate Street Evo". Over the years people have asked him why don't you get small ultralite drag brakes, why don't you get a bigger turbo, why don't you get super soft shocks so you can launch better at the drag strip. . . BECAUSE NOT RACE CAR. This was built as a street car that can do ANYTHING well. (well, except maybe rally, ice racing, baha, rock crawling, etc. . .)
So David didn't think we could use the black EVO for this event, but I kept insisting that it was perfect! I've never driven anything with that much power before, and David kept telling me just how crazy the car gets sometimes. I told him, NO PROBLEM, I can handle it!
So we dediced to enter the black car! We knew time was of the essence, so we started prepping the car even before we knew for sure that we got accepted into the race. There really was not a whole lot to do. To wake her up from her winter slumber all we had to do was take off the car cover, change the fluids, fill up the gas tank, charge the battery and she was ready to hit the road. Since my Time Attack EVO was in a million pieces for a complete ground-up rebuild we decided to cannibalize a few pieces from it to give us that extra little edge in some of the competitions. Here are the main changes I can remember:
- removed David's Girodisc 2-piece rotors and street pads and installed my Girodiscs and race pads (so we wouldn't have to re-bed pads before and after the event)
- flushed and bled the brakes with fresh Amsoil racing brake fluid
- removed David's Ohlins and installed my Ohlins with slightly higher spring rates
- installed new adjustable sway bar end links
- corner balanced the car
- removed David's Voltex front undertray and installed my DHP Compostites front splitter/undertray
- installed my RaceTech race seat on sliders along with my custom TeamTech 5-point harness
David also took the car down to AMS for a refresh on the tune and just to make sure everything was good to go. Chris Black gave us a normal full power tune (like the car has been running for 6+ years over 700whp on the same engine) along with a super safe, as low power as possible tune. Basically turned the boost control off so it just ran on wastegate spring pressure which is about 30psi. This went along with our race strategy. . . .
And that brings us to strategy. Before the car was ever tuned, we had a strategy and plan. In a multi-event race like the Modified Magazine Street Car Shootout proper strategy can literally be the difference between winning and finishing dead last. We've seen this over and over throughout the years. David and I own every issue of Sport Compact Car Ultimate Street Car Challenge as well as Modified Magazine Tuner Shootout and Street Car Shootout since 2003. I can't count how many times an overdog car that should have dominated the events broke and did not finish, and many of these are even shop cars. There are many other cars who could have had a very respectable finish, but they were pushed past the limit and broke before the end of the event. With having all this historical knowledge to go by, it helped David and me to formulate what we hoped would be a winning strategy.
The NUMBER ONE key was to finish the entire event without breaking. If we broke, nothing else mattered. We could bring a car with 1000HP, we could bring an 8 second drag car, but if it broke and missed one single event it was all for naught. Based on the way the points scoring is set up we knew that the Dyno Competition and the Drag Competition would be our place to gain the largest amount of points over competitors. The order of events was layed out exactly how we wanted it too. The strategy was faily simple, really - make good power on the dyno (full, daily driver boost level) to bump us ahead of everyone else, then dial it back to wastegate pressure and just be fast enough in each of the remaining events to stay in the lead. Then, with the drag race last, if we needed more points to secure the win we could always crank the boost back up to full normal power.
At least that's how it all worked out in my mind when planning for the event. . . as for what ACTUALLY happened, you're going to have to wait until the feature issue of Modified Magazine comes out in a few months
Then I'll do another write up about what happened in each of the events.
Well I guess I'll chime in and share a little bit about our journey to Arizona and the Modified Magazine Street Car Shootout. . .
When David and I first heard about this year's event we immediately thought we were going to run his new blue EVO. He bought it a few months back and we've been working on getting it ready for the road and track once the snow abates. Well, that thought quickly faded as we learned the race was in only 1 month and there was no way the blue EVO would be ready in time. Then I got a brilliant idea and said, "DUDE! Enter the black EVO!". David was not thrilled with that idea and shot it down right away. So I reminded him that this event is EXACTLY what he has been building the black EVO for. The black EVO was built to be David's iteration of the "Ultimate Street Evo". Over the years people have asked him why don't you get small ultralite drag brakes, why don't you get a bigger turbo, why don't you get super soft shocks so you can launch better at the drag strip. . . BECAUSE NOT RACE CAR. This was built as a street car that can do ANYTHING well. (well, except maybe rally, ice racing, baha, rock crawling, etc. . .)
So David didn't think we could use the black EVO for this event, but I kept insisting that it was perfect! I've never driven anything with that much power before, and David kept telling me just how crazy the car gets sometimes. I told him, NO PROBLEM, I can handle it! So we dediced to enter the black car!
We knew time was of the essence, so we started prepping the car even before we knew for sure that we got accepted into the race. There really was not a whole lot to do. To wake her up from her winter slumber all we had to do was take off the car cover, change the fluids, fill up the gas tank, charge the battery and she was ready to hit the road. Since my Time Attack EVO was in a million pieces for a complete ground-up rebuild we decided to cannibalize a few pieces from it to give us that extra little edge in some of the competitions. Here are the main changes I can remember:
- removed David's Girodisc 2-piece rotors and street pads and installed my Girodiscs and race pads (so we wouldn't have to re-bed pads before and after the event)
- flushed and bled the brakes with fresh Amsoil racing brake fluid
- removed David's Ohlins and installed my Ohlins with slightly higher spring rates
- installed new adjustable sway bar end links
- corner balanced the car
- removed David's Voltex front undertray and installed my DHP Compostites front splitter/undertray
- installed my RaceTech race seat on sliders along with my custom TeamTech 5-point harness
David also took the car down to AMS for a refresh on the tune and just to make sure everything was good to go. Chris Black gave us a normal full power tune (like the car has been running for 6+ years over 700whp on the same engine) along with a super safe, as low power as possible tune. Basically turned the boost control off so it just ran on wastegate spring pressure which is about 30psi. This went along with our race strategy. . . .
And that brings us to strategy. Before the car was ever tuned, we had a strategy and plan. In a multi-event race like the Modified Magazine Street Car Shootout proper strategy can literally be the difference between winning and finishing dead last. We've seen this over and over throughout the years. David and I own every issue of Sport Compact Car Ultimate Street Car Challenge as well as Modified Magazine Tuner Shootout and Street Car Shootout since 2003. I can't count how many times an overdog car that should have dominated the events broke and did not finish, and many of these are even shop cars. There are many other cars who could have had a very respectable finish, but they were pushed past the limit and broke before the end of the event. With having all this historical knowledge to go by, it helped David and me to formulate what we hoped would be a winning strategy.
The NUMBER ONE key was to finish the entire event without breaking. If we broke, nothing else mattered. We could bring a car with 1000HP, we could bring an 8 second drag car, but if it broke and missed one single event it was all for naught. Based on the way the points scoring is set up we knew that the Dyno Competition and the Drag Competition would be our place to gain the largest amount of points over competitors. The order of events was layed out exactly how we wanted it too. The strategy was faily simple, really - make good power on the dyno (full, daily driver boost level) to bump us ahead of everyone else, then dial it back to wastegate pressure and just be fast enough in each of the remaining events to stay in the lead. Then, with the drag race last, if we needed more points to secure the win we could always crank the boost back up to full normal power.
At least that's how it all worked out in my mind when planning for the event. . . as for what ACTUALLY happened, you're going to have to wait until the feature issue of Modified Magazine comes out in a few months Then I'll do another write up about what happened in each of the events.
When David and I first heard about this year's event we immediately thought we were going to run his new blue EVO. He bought it a few months back and we've been working on getting it ready for the road and track once the snow abates. Well, that thought quickly faded as we learned the race was in only 1 month and there was no way the blue EVO would be ready in time. Then I got a brilliant idea and said, "DUDE! Enter the black EVO!". David was not thrilled with that idea and shot it down right away. So I reminded him that this event is EXACTLY what he has been building the black EVO for. The black EVO was built to be David's iteration of the "Ultimate Street Evo". Over the years people have asked him why don't you get small ultralite drag brakes, why don't you get a bigger turbo, why don't you get super soft shocks so you can launch better at the drag strip. . . BECAUSE NOT RACE CAR. This was built as a street car that can do ANYTHING well. (well, except maybe rally, ice racing, baha, rock crawling, etc. . .)
So David didn't think we could use the black EVO for this event, but I kept insisting that it was perfect! I've never driven anything with that much power before, and David kept telling me just how crazy the car gets sometimes. I told him, NO PROBLEM, I can handle it!
So we dediced to enter the black car! We knew time was of the essence, so we started prepping the car even before we knew for sure that we got accepted into the race. There really was not a whole lot to do. To wake her up from her winter slumber all we had to do was take off the car cover, change the fluids, fill up the gas tank, charge the battery and she was ready to hit the road. Since my Time Attack EVO was in a million pieces for a complete ground-up rebuild we decided to cannibalize a few pieces from it to give us that extra little edge in some of the competitions. Here are the main changes I can remember:
- removed David's Girodisc 2-piece rotors and street pads and installed my Girodiscs and race pads (so we wouldn't have to re-bed pads before and after the event)
- flushed and bled the brakes with fresh Amsoil racing brake fluid
- removed David's Ohlins and installed my Ohlins with slightly higher spring rates
- installed new adjustable sway bar end links
- corner balanced the car
- removed David's Voltex front undertray and installed my DHP Compostites front splitter/undertray
- installed my RaceTech race seat on sliders along with my custom TeamTech 5-point harness
David also took the car down to AMS for a refresh on the tune and just to make sure everything was good to go. Chris Black gave us a normal full power tune (like the car has been running for 6+ years over 700whp on the same engine) along with a super safe, as low power as possible tune. Basically turned the boost control off so it just ran on wastegate spring pressure which is about 30psi. This went along with our race strategy. . . .
And that brings us to strategy. Before the car was ever tuned, we had a strategy and plan. In a multi-event race like the Modified Magazine Street Car Shootout proper strategy can literally be the difference between winning and finishing dead last. We've seen this over and over throughout the years. David and I own every issue of Sport Compact Car Ultimate Street Car Challenge as well as Modified Magazine Tuner Shootout and Street Car Shootout since 2003. I can't count how many times an overdog car that should have dominated the events broke and did not finish, and many of these are even shop cars. There are many other cars who could have had a very respectable finish, but they were pushed past the limit and broke before the end of the event. With having all this historical knowledge to go by, it helped David and me to formulate what we hoped would be a winning strategy.
The NUMBER ONE key was to finish the entire event without breaking. If we broke, nothing else mattered. We could bring a car with 1000HP, we could bring an 8 second drag car, but if it broke and missed one single event it was all for naught. Based on the way the points scoring is set up we knew that the Dyno Competition and the Drag Competition would be our place to gain the largest amount of points over competitors. The order of events was layed out exactly how we wanted it too. The strategy was faily simple, really - make good power on the dyno (full, daily driver boost level) to bump us ahead of everyone else, then dial it back to wastegate pressure and just be fast enough in each of the remaining events to stay in the lead. Then, with the drag race last, if we needed more points to secure the win we could always crank the boost back up to full normal power.
At least that's how it all worked out in my mind when planning for the event. . . as for what ACTUALLY happened, you're going to have to wait until the feature issue of Modified Magazine comes out in a few months
Then I'll do another write up about what happened in each of the events.Nice write up, Cant wait to get the mag!
I'm still dying to know if we did win the overall contest
