A look back: E-tek Racing,
with our Driver, Shannon "Chili" Hill!
with our Driver, Shannon "Chili" Hill!
Everyone who loves cars thinks about racing. Many people DREAM about racing. Some people dream about racing and maybe talk about getting a racing licence and maybe, just maybe, one day get some seat time in a real race car!
Well, it helps to know someone with the skills, time and money - and motivation to help you gt there. Then, just buy yourself a car - and get started!
Race cars hate weight. The more you can strip, the better. So, out came the interior, the sound deadener, the wiring - and anything else not needed to go, turn and operate.
Next is strength. A solid chassis handles better. Most small cars are of unibody construction of some sort, which means most of it is held together with the same light sheet metal as are the body parts. Through carefully engineered bends, boxing and gussets its made stronger, but anywhere you can add rigidity and tie it together, is a good thing.
This gusset, along with double-walling the top and bottom structures, gave the front end of this 240Z an incredible amount of added rigidity, allowing us to delete any external after-market shock-tower bracing.
The front cross member is also a source of flex and stress. This piece was hardened (and thickened) by a chrome-like process plating, called nickle-alloy overplating.
The rear suspension arms where also nickel-alloy plated and the stock strut springs where swapped out for TOKIKO's, 30% stiffer and 1.5" lower than stock.
With everything stripped from the interior, seam sealer was applied to ensure moisture and fumes did not penetrate the cockpit.
We couldnt have compelted this project without a driver who wasn't afraid to get her hands dirty wrenching, sanding or promoting. Her motivation, positivity and ability to work towards an end goal made the entire project worthwhile.
After a year of long hours in the garage -designing, wrenching, sanding, it was finally painted, thanks to Brighouse Auto Body, in Richmond BC. Few know that this was the shop I grew up in, owned by my father, which was sold off after his passing.
The new owner, Frank, did me a solid and painted it for us at cost.
Sponsors are as important as is practice when building a race car - and lucky for us, promotion was something neither of us had any problem with!
With the car looking good, we kept promoting it, doing gigs for our sponsors, all the while testing and tuning until all the bugs where worked out.
And finally, it was TRACK time!
Westwood Raceway in Vancouver was our home track.
Once again, we thank our sponsors, but mostly, it's a tribute to putting your mind to something and getting it done!
