Tuesday, January 31, 2012
2012 off season build, part one!
Here's some random shots of just some of the build work for the L during the off season, photo credits go to the man Aaron Lundgren from AFL Photography
Monday, January 23, 2012
Reflections on why we do this and what it takes!
People ask me all the time why do we choose to do Time Attack and secondly what does it take to do it.
Why do we do Time Attack, well firstly we kind of fell into Time Attack after building the L initially to run in the 2006 NASA 25 hour endurance race with the view to run the 2007 NASA WERC's series. What actually happened was we had a crack at the 06 25 hours but it was largely unsuccessful for us on many fronts, due in part to lack of testing and such with a new car. After licking our wounds from the event it became apparent that with the US Time Attack scene taking off it made sense for our business to have a crack at it and we essentially took an endurance built car and turned up the power and added some wider stickier tires. Our first real event was Redline Time Attack Buttonwillow early in 2007 where we got a first in class and came 2nd overall to the Carbon S2000 of C-West.
What astounded us following our first event was amount of coverage the event got be it either online or via printed media.
What has kept us doing it and why we do it now I think has evolved as much as the car has since that initial outing in 07. I think at first like everyone else we were competing for the win and associated media the results produced, somewhere along the ways the whole scene with the teams we raced against sorted of morphed into a really close knit band of people we now refer to as friends. Do we still want to kick the shit out of Ken and Co at FXMD or the lunatics at World Racing? hell yes! at the same point we'd happily yank parts off our car or from our spares to keep either one of them in contention!
Some of the parties and such at the events have been the stuff of legend! Be it the Mike Kenney sponsored pool party at the Pahrump (How many models still have toe nails falling off from Boot's jumping in the hot tub) or the nutters from Berk Technology shooting me with fireworks on the 4th July at Willow Springs, we've had some great times and hope to have many more with everyone!
We're still focused on trying to run as fast as we possibly can as always but I think we're also just happy to be out there doing what we love with our extended family of fellow Time Attackers, we push ourselves hard with the car and it's development but like the saying goes "Work Hard, Play hard!"
Ok so now, What does it take? Great question! Well there's two ways to look at it outside of the obvious (a fast car and great driver!) Firstly I think there's a couple of ways to do it and be successful. The first being have a boat load of cash, I really can't cover that one as I never have two nickles to rub together so I'll cover the 2nd option which is basically Hard work, a great team of friends, fantastic sponsors and a wife who 10 years ago must have lost her fucking mind!
Typically speaking if your not made of money your building everything for your car yourself obviously with some serious trail and error, for me I feel I am extremely lucky to have the friends I do that have put in so much hard work and time for nothing other than eating some overcooked meat I have cooked on the BBQ or "wow that looks great" What people may or may not realize is our car is basically never worked on in shop hours (it doesn't even reside at the shop anymore!)
Outside of what we are able to fabricate we're also blessed to have great sponsors without whom we would no doubt not have been able to run a fraction of the events we have in the past 4-5 years.
So in a nutshell if your not Bill Gates you need to have a great bunch of friends and some serious knee pads for chasing sponsors! I'd love to tell everyone how to go about getting help from sponsors but honestly I have no idea, I feel we have been very fortunate to date and all I can tell anyone is it's best to start doing first then start soliciting for support from companies!
I can't help you on the wife thing very much either, I am thankful daily for my wife's support in all of the hours I am away from home in the evenings or weekends working on the car with the guys. How's the saying go? "Behind every successful man is a great woman!" I'm not sure if I would call myself successful but I do have a great woman, Thank you Dionne! you truly are one in a million!
Why do we do Time Attack, well firstly we kind of fell into Time Attack after building the L initially to run in the 2006 NASA 25 hour endurance race with the view to run the 2007 NASA WERC's series. What actually happened was we had a crack at the 06 25 hours but it was largely unsuccessful for us on many fronts, due in part to lack of testing and such with a new car. After licking our wounds from the event it became apparent that with the US Time Attack scene taking off it made sense for our business to have a crack at it and we essentially took an endurance built car and turned up the power and added some wider stickier tires. Our first real event was Redline Time Attack Buttonwillow early in 2007 where we got a first in class and came 2nd overall to the Carbon S2000 of C-West.
What astounded us following our first event was amount of coverage the event got be it either online or via printed media.
What has kept us doing it and why we do it now I think has evolved as much as the car has since that initial outing in 07. I think at first like everyone else we were competing for the win and associated media the results produced, somewhere along the ways the whole scene with the teams we raced against sorted of morphed into a really close knit band of people we now refer to as friends. Do we still want to kick the shit out of Ken and Co at FXMD or the lunatics at World Racing? hell yes! at the same point we'd happily yank parts off our car or from our spares to keep either one of them in contention!
Some of the parties and such at the events have been the stuff of legend! Be it the Mike Kenney sponsored pool party at the Pahrump (How many models still have toe nails falling off from Boot's jumping in the hot tub) or the nutters from Berk Technology shooting me with fireworks on the 4th July at Willow Springs, we've had some great times and hope to have many more with everyone!
We're still focused on trying to run as fast as we possibly can as always but I think we're also just happy to be out there doing what we love with our extended family of fellow Time Attackers, we push ourselves hard with the car and it's development but like the saying goes "Work Hard, Play hard!"
Ok so now, What does it take? Great question! Well there's two ways to look at it outside of the obvious (a fast car and great driver!) Firstly I think there's a couple of ways to do it and be successful. The first being have a boat load of cash, I really can't cover that one as I never have two nickles to rub together so I'll cover the 2nd option which is basically Hard work, a great team of friends, fantastic sponsors and a wife who 10 years ago must have lost her fucking mind!
Typically speaking if your not made of money your building everything for your car yourself obviously with some serious trail and error, for me I feel I am extremely lucky to have the friends I do that have put in so much hard work and time for nothing other than eating some overcooked meat I have cooked on the BBQ or "wow that looks great" What people may or may not realize is our car is basically never worked on in shop hours (it doesn't even reside at the shop anymore!)
Outside of what we are able to fabricate we're also blessed to have great sponsors without whom we would no doubt not have been able to run a fraction of the events we have in the past 4-5 years.
So in a nutshell if your not Bill Gates you need to have a great bunch of friends and some serious knee pads for chasing sponsors! I'd love to tell everyone how to go about getting help from sponsors but honestly I have no idea, I feel we have been very fortunate to date and all I can tell anyone is it's best to start doing first then start soliciting for support from companies!
I can't help you on the wife thing very much either, I am thankful daily for my wife's support in all of the hours I am away from home in the evenings or weekends working on the car with the guys. How's the saying go? "Behind every successful man is a great woman!" I'm not sure if I would call myself successful but I do have a great woman, Thank you Dionne! you truly are one in a million!
Thursday, January 19, 2012
Thoughts going into the New Year!
Well we're firmly set into 2012, we survived New Year's Eve, I survived my Birthday (well partially anyway!) and now it's time to see what we can do with the "L" to bring on the pain to our rivals this season!
There's been some changes in the realms of Time Attack over the past week or so both domestically and abroad so first I'll touch base on those.
The UK Time Attack series has just announced they are moving away from what used to be essentially a spec tire series and are now opening it up to full blown slicks, no mention yet if this is brand specific or not but regardless I see this as a good thing. From watching some of the various internet based clips of the UK series in the past it has always struck me that the cars have way more power than grip and while sliding around a corner may look cool it's not exactly the fastest way to do it. I really look forward to seeing how fast the cars can go now with grip level to match their power output!
Global Time Attack launched a teaser just a day ago that they may go to a championship format, I have mixed feelings about this based on ourselves getting boned by Redline Time Attack back in 2010 where someone running the series who has less brains than my dog made it based on driver not car, granted the driver has a lot to do with the outcome but seriously this is a team/car sport where most of the shoes are hired guns and have shit to do that actually pays them more than a big mac meal and night out with a cheap hooker so like the rest of us if they have something to do that pays the bills they have to do it leaving the team scratching to find another poor sole stupid enough to strap into a car for nothing but the glory and promise of smelling like shitarse champagne!
Will Global Time Attack get it right? I personally believe they will and I certainly can see why certain teams/drivers want it, let's face it anyone can take a record away from you but nobody can take away the fact your a season champion so from a marketing and sponsorship angle it certainly makes sense!
So now onto us I guess, are we ready for the 2012 season? Simple answer is Fuck no! Will we be ready? Yea pretty sure the magic men of Earl, Aaron, Keith, Mert, Zarlo and sometimes even me will get something together for Buttonwillow in April!
Joking aside the car has gone through some pretty radical changes since it's last outing in November with the radiator now relocated to the trunk and the front end having the frames taken back to the shock tower. The radiator and front end is probably 4 work days out of completion (which means every night this week and all weekend) then it's time to address the new exhaust and Aero setup which from concept and design is pretty cool and should give us a ton more downforce.
We have some other things in the works but for now I'll keep those under my hat!
There's been some changes in the realms of Time Attack over the past week or so both domestically and abroad so first I'll touch base on those.
The UK Time Attack series has just announced they are moving away from what used to be essentially a spec tire series and are now opening it up to full blown slicks, no mention yet if this is brand specific or not but regardless I see this as a good thing. From watching some of the various internet based clips of the UK series in the past it has always struck me that the cars have way more power than grip and while sliding around a corner may look cool it's not exactly the fastest way to do it. I really look forward to seeing how fast the cars can go now with grip level to match their power output!
Global Time Attack launched a teaser just a day ago that they may go to a championship format, I have mixed feelings about this based on ourselves getting boned by Redline Time Attack back in 2010 where someone running the series who has less brains than my dog made it based on driver not car, granted the driver has a lot to do with the outcome but seriously this is a team/car sport where most of the shoes are hired guns and have shit to do that actually pays them more than a big mac meal and night out with a cheap hooker so like the rest of us if they have something to do that pays the bills they have to do it leaving the team scratching to find another poor sole stupid enough to strap into a car for nothing but the glory and promise of smelling like shitarse champagne!
Will Global Time Attack get it right? I personally believe they will and I certainly can see why certain teams/drivers want it, let's face it anyone can take a record away from you but nobody can take away the fact your a season champion so from a marketing and sponsorship angle it certainly makes sense!
So now onto us I guess, are we ready for the 2012 season? Simple answer is Fuck no! Will we be ready? Yea pretty sure the magic men of Earl, Aaron, Keith, Mert, Zarlo and sometimes even me will get something together for Buttonwillow in April!
Joking aside the car has gone through some pretty radical changes since it's last outing in November with the radiator now relocated to the trunk and the front end having the frames taken back to the shock tower. The radiator and front end is probably 4 work days out of completion (which means every night this week and all weekend) then it's time to address the new exhaust and Aero setup which from concept and design is pretty cool and should give us a ton more downforce.
We have some other things in the works but for now I'll keep those under my hat!
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