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2011 RochesterDSM One Lap of America disccussion

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#1 ·
Its with a heavy heart that have the task of breaking the news to you all...


RochesterDSM team announcement.

The RochesterDSM team, after a long and lengthy struggle, has decided to make a change for the 2011 One Lap of America race. In 2011 the 1992 Mitsubishi Galant VR4 which has served us proudly, will be parked and in its place will be Steve's 2008 EVO X. This was not an easy choice for us as we have enjoyed not only the power, performance, and fun the VR4 offers but the support of the entire VR4 and DSM community along the way. In all honesty as much as we love the VR4 it was the connection the car had to the DSM community we feared loosing the most. But, as with all things cool, there comes a time when a change is needed. The VR4 is a competitive, fast, and fun car but it is also almost 19 years old and has over 217,000 miles on the clock. Most of those miles have been racing miles and the platform is showing its age. Last year we suffered through a transmission failure pre-launch, a blown head gasket, a rocker arm that flew off, wheel bearing failures, and brake issues. Most of those problems were obviously the result of a limited budget but even with more support the car was full of weak links that come with age. That's where the EVO X comes into play. At our disposal is Steve's EVO X brand new and ready for racing right out of the box. In its stock form it can corner right along side the VR4 and with some upgrades it can be as good or better in a strait line too. The VR4, in all its glory, is a still an 18 year old car that only 3000 were brought into the country. That makes marketing a huge uphill battle. Most, if not all, the major DSM part suppliers have long ago moved on from the DSM/VR4 platform and have for years only produced new parts for the EVO platform. Racing the EVO X in the 2011 One Lap of America brings us into the modern day along with our sponsors.

This does not mean the VR4 is being mothballed. Tim is still racing the VR4 and has quite a few upgrades planned so we can all look forward to his build blogs and race updates. In the next couple of weeks the RochesterDSM team will have some pretty exciting announcements as we team up with some powerhouse Mitsubishi and other well known shops and manufactures.

We want to be sure that as we park the VR4 we personally thank the people and shops that helped make it successful and by far the most popular car in the 2009 and 2010 One Lap races.

Ryan Hertz who along with the fine folks at Mitsubishi Galant VR-4 Forum - E39A 4G63 have come through time and time again not only with financial support but with parts, supplies, advice, and a place to sit and great home cooked food to eat at the races. Some of our best memories are of the people we've met along the way. The cheering section at Autobahn, the home cooking at Road America, and meeting Curtis for the first time somewhere in Tennessee when he brought us the upper control arms we needed to finish the race.

Garfield Wright who brought the full power of TunersNation.com to (tunersnation.com) help us with the parts we need, money to help the budget, and some really cool work behind the scenes to help bring other vendors to the table.

Curtis the man, the myth, the legend. What can we say? In the 2009 when we broke a rear upper control arm our rookie One Lap was finished before it even really got heated up. We sent out a SOS via the Internet and out of nowhere Curtis comes to the rescue with parts he sourced from his own car. From there we have built a great friendship and partnership and Curtis is responsible for a lot of what "is" the One Lap VR4. There is not a single person who sits in the VR4 who isn't just blown away with his killer gauge plates and custom logo's. His work on the wing pylons, with little notice, no time, no budget, and without having the wing to work with, is his Pièce de résistance.

Emery Kapral and Street tuned motorsports (STM | STREET TUNED MOTORSPORTS | DSM | EVO | SUBARU | PERFORMANCE & DYNO TUNING) who personally opened up his shop, mechanics, and his tuning expertise to bring some real power to the VR4.

Thomas Dorris, who provided us with the ECMlink V3 which is by far the best damn tuning tool on the planet. (www.ecmtunging.com)

Art Hoffman / Forced Performance (Forced Performance Turbochargers) / teamNABR.com …Art loaned us his personal FP3052 turbo to give the VR4 some real bite and the fine folks at Forced Performance provided us with the warranty basically saying “go beat the hell out of the turbo and if you break it we’ll fix it”…The turbo was flawless and easily made 385whp on a conservative tune.

Pina Motorsports (— Pina Motorsports) who sent us a set of there built-proof chrommoly upper control arms and along with Tunersnation.com a set of rear suspension bushings that totally transformed the handling of the VR4.

Gabor (Gabor Mayer Photography) who provided all the killer vinyl for the VR4 that made it the most photographed car the last two years including some shots in Motor Trend magazine.

Autobhan Tom who donated a set of adjustable cam gears that made all the difference in the way the VR4 grunted out of the corners.

Throttlebodys.Com who put a killer TB on the car and has, by far, the best customer service on the planet.

Wilson Performance (Wilson Performance || Everything Racing || Home) who loaned us a trackmate camera system for killer in car track footage with speed and g-force displays.

Harry Blanchard at Welcome to Three Speed - Stainless Steel Scatter Shields (SSSS) for 4G63/DSM who’s scatter sheild protected our ass and who’s support helped us make it all happen.

These fine folks helped make it all happen…

East Rochester Public Library Staff
The Morning Glass
Children’s Medical Group
Mitsu-Media
DSMtuners
Joe and Wes from Prodigy Surgical

Finally we thank our friends, family, spouses who help us, support us, and put up with us as we lived our dreams in the trusty VR4.

We look forward to our new adventures in the EVO X and we’ll be sharing it all with you. There are some really cool projects in the works as well as some new partnerships to go along with our current sponsors. Stay tuned…this is going to be epic!

Tim Harper / Stephen Burke

Rochester DSM OneLap
 

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#2 ·
Let me tell you how wonderful it sounds to be entering a Mitsubishi Evo X into One Lap of America for 2011.

First of all, One Lap is a survival race, so our expectations of taking a stock Evo X and surviving are pretty good. The car has no mechanical issues, hasn't seen any of the NY winter roads and isn't starting to rot out, and for the most part would be a great car to take a cruise across the country in. It has A/C, Recarro seats, and the factory Rockford-Fosgate stereo for easy cruising no matter how hot it gets in Florida and New Orleans.
Here is where we fall into a large problem. There is no way in hell we are going to be able to roll into Indiana in a completely stock car. As budget conscious as we are, bringing a stock car to the event would be the same as picking up a rental car for a week. While there is no rational reason for this problem, we can only blame it on some form of genetics which gearheads around the world seem to be infected with.

This main problem seems to have a list of supporting factors, all of which are like dangling a big carrot out in front of the rabbit.

1. It sounds like there are going to be at least four other Mitsubishi Evo X’s running on One Lap this year, all in the same “mid priced sedan” class that we would be in.

2. You have Chris and Sean running in the reigning champion car, which not only has 3 years of modifications ahead of us, but has two guys who really know how to drive.

3. You have the Kids with Cancer built car with somewhat of an unlimited budget, which should come in around the 600+ WHP mark thanks to AMS building a full track car.

4. Then you have the second Kids with Cancer car, which is the white Evo X we saw last year. Although not a full blown race car it has evolved under the watchful eyes of Chris and Sean into a fierce competitor. Not to mention Paul and Barry are no longer rookies and are expected to make a big jump in there performance.

5. We just left the best support of the planet by leaving the VR4 platform and the following it brought. If we drive a stock car and don't step up the game, we will never hear the end of it.

Let’s go over our assets.

We have a stock 2008 Mitsubishi Evo X GSR with about 15K miles on the clock.
Two guys who are passionate about racing, and who race to support the fans and sponsors that keep them running. Our budget is small but our goals are big. We want to be competitive. We want to be able to show what we can do when we are not bogged down with broken parts, up to our elbows in grease, or lagging behind because we spent all afternoon installing front wheel bearings in Oklahoma while the rest of our competitors were racing to a good nights sleep.

What we need is some help. But not just any help. We knew our way around the VR4 pretty well but the EVO X is a whole new ballgame. Long gone are the days of us on our backs wrestling in transmissions. The EVO X clutch job is a 10 hour job with every minute of that spent sweating, shoving, prying, and spewing some of the most liberal use of sailor talk this side of Annapolis.

So we need an expert, somebody with the now how and the swagger to help us take on the big guns. Part slingers need not apply. We need a guy who’s raced, lost, won, and blown up everything under the sun. A guy who eats, sleeps, and drinks cars not because he can but because he needs too.

We need to find a way turn the wick up on the EVO to the tune of about 200hp and improve the handling on what is already a spectacular chassis. Making that happen on our local track is simple. But we aren’t in Kansas anymore and we’ll be all over the country, on different tracks, from hot, to cold, to 94 octane gas, and all the way down to 91 skim milk for fuel so we need to build the car to win and survive. We need and expert..

The Philistines are camped outside. The largest of them, wears a cool AMS t-shirt, is hurling momma jokes at our camp every morning hoping we’re going to crack. We’re not scared and on an early morning in May we’ll take that challenge, reach into our bag, and pull out a stone…or a well modified EVO X and let the fun begin…
 

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#3 ·
Press release: Magnus Motorsports sponsors RochesterDSM One Lap team for 2011 race.

Rochester NY (December 6th 2010)

The One Lap of America team of Stephen Burke and Tim Harper have partnered with Magnus Motorsports to help build a competitive track car for the 2011 One Lap of America race. Marco Passante and the team at Magnus Motorsport are going to transform our stock EVO X from a competent track car to a monster, track clawing, Goliath slaying machine.

The One Lap of America race has its roots in a mad dash coast to coast no rules event first run in 1971. The race has been evolving over its history and by 1992, the Cannonball transformed once again into what it is a today where competition occurs as time trials held on Americas best race tracks. The event is an exercise of endurance and preparation as there are no support trucks, no pit crews, and you race the entire event on the same set of street tires. There’s a reason that a co-driver is required as no single racer could handle the stress of driving to and from each event as well as racing at speed and expect to survive. The scoring is based on your performance on the track but the real test is the car & drivers ability to traverse over 3000 miles without regard to sleep or personal hygiene. The format is gruelling for sure and depending on the distance to the next track it barely allows enough time to get from one event to the next let alone getting any food or rest. The typical day goes something like this: race the car hoping it holds up to the abuse, pack everything up, drive like hell for hundreds of miles hoping to catch a bite to eat and a few hours of sleep in a crusty motel, unpack the car, and repeat that cycle 24 hrs a day for 9 days straight.

The RochesterDSM One Lap team was formed in December 2008 when a group of friends came together and asked each other “why not us?”. In 2009 and 2010 we built and piloted the One Lap Mitsubishi Galant VR4, a classic all-wheel drive 400whp track machine. We pushed that car to its limits and had an amazing and successful time doing it. In the fall of 2010 the team switched to a 2008 Mitsubishi Evolution X which brings us into the modern day. We are committed to carrying on the legacy of the VR4 by pushing the new EVO and ourselves further then we’ve gone before and we are confident that our partnership with Magnus Motorsports will get us there.

About Magnus Motorsports:

Magnus Motorsports has been 15+ years in the making. Magnus is a Toronto-based speed shop, manufacturing, and engineering facility owned and operated by Marco Passante. Marco is well known for pioneering the 4g63 culture worldwide.

Magnus was built around a philosophy that if we are going to do it, it has to be of the highest quality and it must work to the highest standard. Simply put – make it work, make it look good, make it the best. This philosophy was affirmed many times over when Magnus powered the fastest, most reliable and most powerful 4 cylinders in the world, continuously breaking world records and countless podium wins and Championships. What separates Magnus Motorsports from other tuner style shops is Magnus Motorsports prides itself on building full competition cars as well bridging the gap between professional racing and the import car tuner market.

Contact:

rochesteronelap@gmail.com

(Rochester DSM OneLap)

marco@magnusmotorsports.com

(Magnus Motorsports)
 

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