A new beginning

As the weather's getting colder day by day, i can find myself on the computer more. So it seems like I'm getting back to my days of writing again. 

Looking at people you use to go to high school with, or old college friends, you can't  help compare yourself with them. Especially the old class mates that have the same interests's as you. I always seem to wonder what they're up to and what they're doing in this wallet breaking hobby. Knowing old friends that spent the week in Las Vegas at the Sema Show, people sled pulling a purpose built diesel truck-and wining and people making it big in well known sport compact import magazines, i always seem to wonder when my moment will come, or when it may be my time to shine in the light….

With Heinkel Race & Fabrication fully up and running, maybe the light is already shining on me and i haven't realized it……Or maybe things are just suppose to be slow now. I'm not really sure where I'm going with this, but what i can tell all the people who take the time to read this blog, 2014 is going to be my year, or should i say our year…..

Saying goodbye to the legendary Hero was like saying goodbye to a friend. Things happen and people change. It was time for something else. Within the last year and a half, we made a complete change with everything, now owning four domestic vehicles and running one full time next year, it only made sense to buy and run a domestic car. Our plan for the Corolla was simple: Take a 5.3L LM7 out of a 1500 Sierra and stick it in the hachiroku, but with all the other issues with the car, "Hero" had other plans….

But enough of that. Having an extra space in the garage, we began hunting. We started thinking popular track monsters that can be great out of the box, cheap and easy to fix when it does decide to break. Looking heavily into the famous JDM monster, Nissan and there RB powered GTR kept popping in our heads. Finding several in the area, the Godzilla was put on the list. Thinking about what some USDM could do for us, we thought about running the Neon full time next year, since we already ran 2 events it did make some sense. But we wanted something rear wheel drive with massive amounts of power!

The 80's and 90's brought some serious power to the streets of Detroit. The biggest rivalry being between GM and Ford. Camaro's, Transam's, Firebirds and Mustangs were all looked into. During the 80's Ford and the Foxbody Mustang had it locked down kicking the ugly IRock Camaro out the door. This is were something clicked, a light bulb going off. Watching the American Iron Series on Youtube, the Foxbody dominated the track, and there's no question that it destroyed anything on the streets, even today eating everything in it's way. That light bulb going off made perfect sense: Hundreds of companies, and parts that are local, inexpensive, rear wheel drive, solid axle and most importunely, fast out of the box. So instead of breaking something, and doing "over night parts from Japan" a quick stop to Summit Racing could solve all of our problems.

After countless failures and let downs, one afternoon we found a black 86 Foxbody, cammed, lowered, blown and mint. Absolutely no rust found. By the time the evening rolled around, we were owners of yet another black sheep, something infamous.

Already putting money into our new monster, 2014 is going to be a stressful year, but now looking back, i can definitely say the lights shinning on us. We always were the different kids on the block. Trying the keep a solid axle, rear wheel drive, 475 horse power domestic on the twisties is going to be extremely hard, but that's what Heinkel's all about, being different.

-Thanks to all who read this.

Chris 

GrandBend 2013

Let me first off start by saying what a year! we jumped ship and brought another car, sold off the "Legend of Hero" and competed in our first track day. Finally the season has come to an end and i actually have some spare time on my hands.......Like i promised, ill talk about our first official track day at GrandBend Raceway.....

Hauling the SRT4 almost 4 hours was well worth it. We played it safe and trailered the little turbo charged monster just in case the track wanted to eat us new comers up. Once we had arrived, i can definitely say we stuck out like sore thumbs, being one of only a hand full of domestics. But all the thumbs up came to us. People actually like Dodge Neons! Who would have thought?!

After quickly flying through tech without any problems, the wheels were torqued again, fuel was added, and i hit the track for the first time (previous week was at Cayuga). Not knowing what corners to take, i followed some crazy off the wall monster in front of me the best i could have....About 4 laps in, i started to get a feel for things, then all hell broke loose......Slowly driving into pits, the car was driving straight but my steering was off.....I automatically felt it on the back straight as i would have to fight the steering wheel just to keep the 4 straight....Last weekend at Cayuga the same thing had happened. Not knowing the issues after an alignment, we said to hell with it, lets just run GrandBend and see what happens.

We brought our third member Brandon along and boy did he come in handy. After the front tires came off, he knew exactly what the problem was.... The "centric bolts" or main "strut bolts" had shifted. The bolts were not OEM but were aftermarket allowing you to play with positive and negative camber, nothing crazy but enough to get little adjustments done. Our only option now was to hammer in the knuckle assembly was far back as possible, put the bolts in and see what happens. By doing this, the steering and suspension was changed greatly. Having a lot of negative camber now meant i would have more tire traction, but my breaking would be sacrificed a little. I did feel the difference, but due to the circumstances, i had no choice.  

Quickly throwing the tires back on, and old friend of mine came by, Gitano or "G" for short stopped by. Him and his team over at Centerline Motorsports were running a baby blue 240 in the local CSCS Drift competition. After shooting the shit with him, and being a good guy he is, he brought his helmet and got in the passenger seat to show me some pointers. He's no new comer to Grandbend, already running the road course several times in his K20 powered EK Hatch previous years, it seemed i needed all the pointers i could get.

Getting back on the track was a different experience this time around.....The pointers that were given to me came in handy. When to break, when to accelerate, when to lean into the corner and most importantly, being safe. Starting off in the morning not knowing what the hell i was doing, to having a big help from G in the afternoon was like a night and day difference. By the time the afternoon did show up, i was passing people (yes, that's rite, me!!) taking corners like i knew what i was doing, and pushing the little SRT for what it was built for. We managed to spend 45 minutes on track for the second session. After the hour lunch break, we hit the third session like worriers. By then the track was sticky and nice n' hot.

The day however was shorter than expected. Coming into pits again, the steering was off. The centric bolts had shifted a again, and everything was off. Pulling the tires again, you can feel just how hot the Hawk HPS Plus Pads and Stop Tech Rotors were! We did notice that the tires had already worn, and badly. inside the fender, there was a pinch weld that ran from one side to the other. Every time the car leaned into a corner, you could hear the tires rubbing on the inner part of the fender. In all honesty i never thought anything of it while out on the track. the Fronts were pretty much totalled and the rears could have seen better days. Instead of chancing it and blowing a tire out there, we called it a day. Checking the stats on the big screen at the paddock, we were placing tenth. Out of 13 people in my class and being out there for a first time, thats not bad!  

As the sun set, we were happy and proud of ourselves for the accomplishments we achieved. Writing this story now several months after our experience at the track, i can that 2014 is going to be a big year. The Charger has now been stored for the year, along with a new friend. Both cars will experience the track heavily next year.

Thanks to all who take the time to read this, stayed tuned…….

Chris.