Bottom End : view from the shop

2008 SEMA Show Attracts More Qualified Attendees Than Ever

bbaker — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 21:53:00 GMT

Large crowds fill the hallways and booths at this year's SEMA Show despite a difficult forecast.

According to a recent SEMA eNews report, the domestic and global economic crisis offered 2008 SEMA Show exhibitors and attendees at least one small benefit: it kept the "tire kickers" at home.

SEMA has taken several steps in recent years to protect the Show's purpose of connecting buyers and sellers. These include assigning "alumni numbers" to qualified attendees, and heightened screening of the application process. These and other safeguards paid dividends to the Show's more than 1,900 exhibitors.

"Going into the Show, I figured I'd be selling parts to the gang in the booth next to us," says L.J. Lobsinger Jr., national sales manager for Specialty Auto Parts USA. "We were pleasantly surprised by the turnout, and it was truly a quality-versus-quantity show, as we met with nearly every important buyer on the books."

Lobsinger also noted the general optimism of buyers and attendees, particularly a day after the general election and regardless of poor earnings reports announced by GM and Ford.

"This industry will always show resiliency. No matter what GM, Ford, Chrysler, Honda, Tata and so on build, the aftermarket will create something to make those cars and trucks look better and go faster."

Despite the bailouts and belt-tightening, despite the market's dependence on discretionary income and despite the dour news of slowing auto sales, the specialty-equipment industry demonstrated its confidence and foresight.

"Attracting more than 100,000 attendees was remarkable under the circumstances of a difficult year,” said SEMA President and CEO Chris Kersting. “Each year the Show brings new challenges and the industry showed that it has the confidence and desire to overcome a tough stretch of road. Those who exhibited have positioned their products well for when the market comes back to full strength.”

Tales from the Track: The Sport is Called Racing, Not Just Winning

bbaker — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 19:45:00 GMT

Dave Caracci, retired VP from Robert Bosch, has returned to his first love – racing. In part three of this multi-part series, Caracci takes us behind the scenes on the road with Prime Time Racing, where he serves as Logistics Engineer. Having accomplished a Top 5 finish in the international 12-hour race at Sebring, the team went on to race in the streets of St. Petersburg, where the Viper was totaled following a collision with one of the Penske team Porsches. Dave brings us up to speed since then.

By Dave Caracci

When I last wrote, the Primetime Viper, which had been totaled during the St. Petersburg race was in the tractor-trailer and on its way back to the race shop in Hollywood, Fla. When the team tractor-trailer, carrying the wiped out Viper, pulled out of St. Pete April 6, many of the officials and our competitors counted us “out” for the upcoming Tequila Patron American Lemans Series race in Long Beach, Calif. The Tequila Patron event was scheduled to start Wednesday morning the 16th, giving the Performance Technologies race shop only 10 days to build a new Viper race car, load it in the semi and drive the 2,726 miles to Long Beach, Calif.

BUILDING ANOTHER RACE CAR — FAST

The wrecked car arrived at the shop and by Monday night had been disassembled, while the crew pulled out an older Viper chassis that had been saved as a “spare.” This would be the new chassis used to build the new car, since the one had been bent badly in St. Pete and was being shipped back to Roush Racing in Michigan for straightening.

Turning a street car like a Dodge Viper into a professional race car is an interesting process when considering basic things like a chassis. The chassis on the street never sees the forces put on the racing chassis as sticky racing tires, wings and a slew of horsepower push the street chassis (frame) to the point that it flexes and bends during cornering. As you can imagine, aligning the tires and wheels for maximum grip is impossible if the chassis bends and flexes in the middle of every corner. To keep the Viper chassis from flexing, car chief Frank Parzych welded steel cross bracing and gusseting into the Primetime Viper chassis when the car was built for Sebring. These braces and gussets kept the chassis straight and the Vipers handling through the high-speed turns under control.

The spare chassis being used to build the new car for Long Beach had no cross braces or gusseting but there would be no time for Frank to weld the gussets and braces into this new chassis as he had into the one used in St. Pete and Sebring.

What Frank DID take time to do while trying to build a new car in time to race at Long Beach, was to relocate the mounting points of the suspension parts to add anti-dive and anti-squat. These are critical when turning the street car into a race car that must stop and turn as fast as a Ferrari or Porsche. Think about your own car. If you jump on the brakes, the front of the car dives dramatically, allowing the back of the car to rise up. As the back rises, the traction on the rear wheels is lost and your rear tires skid, with the rear of the car sliding to the right or left. By Frank repositioning the Dodge factory suspension attachment points, he adds “anti-dive” keeping the nose up and the rear tires firmly planted on the pavement, during hard braking.

Likewise, under full power acceleration, the rear of a street car “squats,” raising the front of the car. As the front rises, the front tires lose traction and begin to slide. If the car is turning a corner, and the front tires slide, it is called “pushing” as the front doesn’t steer where you point the tires and instead, “pushes” to the outside of the turn. The technical term for this is “understeer” because the car is not steering in the direction that the drive is pointing the tires. As Frank made the changes to the chassis that would be used to build the new car, the team mechanics, Robert Milian, Ronnie Murphy and Mike Ansbaugh spent their time putting the engine, transmission and other running gear from the wrecked Viper onto the new Viper.

AN OVERALL TEAM EFFORT

Working 24 hours a day, the team spent hundreds of hours building a new Primetime Viper for Long Beach. So here it is Wednesday morning and I feel like I’m in the script of the “Oceans Eleven” movie. Just like George Clooney’s rendezvous with his team of guys in Las Vegas, nine of us from around the country meet at the Budget car rental booth in Los Angeles International Airport. We, the Primetime race group, load our gear in the van Brent rented and head off to Long Beach to set up our race garage for the week. Driving a car fast is NOT racing — being a member of a team aimed at beating the competition IS racing.

Like the race track in St Pete, this track is set up in the middle of downtown. And like St. Pete, the streets of Long Beach have been blocked off to make our racetrack and there is NO room for the race garage, team semi trucks or pits. But it’s very cool as we realize the whole darn town is shutting down to watch us race (and maybe they’ll have a party or two).

Like St. Pete, John, the Primetime semi driver has put the tractor-trailer in a good spot, but there is so little room, we can’t set up the typical giant tent for our garage, so we just unload the car, put a little awning over the car, set up the alignment rack and begin finishing the car. While other things are being done to the car, team engineer Eric Schieb, from Atlanta, has me connect wheel speed sensors to the new car while he works on the cars computer system. We need the wheel speed sensors as Eric is trying to install some new software that we didn’t have in the old car. He gets everything to work except the pit speed limiter. To make the racing pits safer for pit crews and drivers, there is an official pit speed limit. If the driver exceeds that speed coming into or exiting a pit stop, we get a penalty. Since it is hard to keep the cars going slow enough, Eric is installing a computer program to shut off some of the engines cylinders if the Viper starts to exceed the pit speed limit. This works well on a lower torque Porsche or Ferrari, but it is really hard on the driveline of a high-torque car like the Viper. Brent elects to drop the idea for this race and rely on our drivers to watch their pit speed.

On a professional race team, every one has specific responsibilities and while the mechanics work on the car, others are out doing their own jobs. Team owner/driver Joel Feinberg is on a mission to get better tires for the team. During the St. Pete race, Joel and Brent learned that Primetime was not getting same Michelin race tires as the Ferrari and Porsche teams. Since those teams have season contracts, they get the professional race tires while the tires sold to Primetime are “club” tires meant for amateur races. Brent predicts that the professional tires are sticky enough to take two seconds off our lap times. So, while the team works on the car, Joel and Brent use their connections with Hankook tires to strike up a deal.

As he comes back to our garage, Joel proudly announces that the Primetime Viper will be THE Hankook tire car for the season. Joel has struck a deal to get all the professional race tires we need for the season from Hankook, plus the help of their engineers to work with our team at test days to develop faster tires. We won’t have the tires for this race in Long Beach, but they have already scheduled two days testing next month at the race track in Savannah, Ga. As I said, everyone works on the team, so team marketing manager Britoni Burdett and I go to the press rep conference to meet with people like the announcers from ESPN or Radio Lemans. We give them press releases about the Primetime team and get to know them so that during the race, they may give our car and team news coverage which is great for our sponsors.

By about 9 p.m., we have dinner, close up the garage and head for the hotel. At 7 a.m. Thursday, we arrive at the track and get the car ready for technical inspection. We push the car to “tech” where the ALMS inspectors check to make sure the car is both safe and not breaking any rules. One of the things they check is to make sure the car and driver transponders are working. Each driver has an electronic sending unit that he carries and as he climbs into the car, it is plugged into the Vipers transponder. Every time the car passes the start finish line, it tells the officials which driver is in the car. This helps the officials keep track of how much each driver runs in practice, qualifying and even the race. This is how the officials know who turned what qualifying time and how the guys on TV can always tell you who is driving which car. During tech, the inspectors decide that the rear wing on the new car is too high and Brent agrees that he will lower it back in our garage. One of the rules of life, that you learn racing cars – “Never argue with a tech inspector or a guy with a badge.” During tech, we also discover that the team of the Aston Martin that hit Joel in St. Pete couldn’t fix the car in time to make the Long Beach race. So we figure we’ve already beat one team, by out working them at the shop.

It’s 1 p.m. and the Brent goes off to a mandatory crew chief meeting for all American Lemans Series crew chiefs. At this meeting the officials discuss any special details about this week’s event. How to exit pit lane safely on the Long Beach streets, what to expect from the pace car, etc. They will actually go over the same info and more with the drivers on Saturday right before the race.

THE FIRST LAP ON THE TRACK

After Brent comes back from the meeting, Joel climbs in the car for the first test session since the car was built. Everyone is a bit tense. Two laps (3 minutes 21 seconds) into the session, Joel radios in that the seat is too far back for him to reach the controls comfortably, so he pits and the crew repositions the seat. “IF that’s all that they missed building a new car in a week, we’ve got it made,” I say to Eric as we watch from the data center on top of the pit cart. (I should’ve kept my mouth shut).

Joel goes back out for more test laps and after seven more laps (11 minutes) he radios in that the brakes are not quite letting him turn into the corners without locking up the rear tires. Eric, who down loads the data from the cars computer during every pit stop informs Frank that the rear brakes appear to be “dragging” the rear of the car. Frank radios, “Joel adjust the brake bias knob for 53 to 55 percent of the brake pressure on the front tires.” Joel turns the knob until the display in the center of his steering wheel shows 54 percent. Still not happy with the brakes, Joel’s best lap time around the 11-turn, 1.8-mile course is 1:29.336 (One minute & twenty nine seconds). Joel pits and co-driver Chris Hall climbs in. Brent holds Chris in the pits for 9:14, letting he new brakes cool. He hopes this will fix the brake issue. After the 9-plus minute cool off, Chris exits the pits for his first time ever driving at Long Beach and turns a 1:29.860. Looks like Brent’s idea paid off.

There isn’t much of this test session left, but in seven practice laps Chris turns, his last is best at 1:26.863. Our next and final test session today is in 45 minutes, so we just stay in the racing pit and primp the car a bit. When the time comes, Joel climbs in the car and takes it out for the second test session. The car seems to be running well, and Joel turns nearly two seconds faster than his first time out. But, my data shows something that may be significant. ALL the other competitors are turning SLOWER lap times than the first session. Something has made the track slicker and the other cars slower, but Joel is going faster. That looks good for Primetime’s new car.

After 11 laps, Brent brings Joel in to have Chris run some practice laps and Chris turns a 1:25.9, before the engine starts to get hot and Brent has him reduce the shift point to a lower RPM. After twenty four practice laps between both drivers, the session ends and our Thursday on the track is through. With the car back in the garage, the guys go over all the usual checks and adjustments. Robert Milian measures the fuel used and I calculate that on this track, the Viper is burning .33 gallons a minute or about .5 gallons per lap. Brent and I will use this in the race on Saturday to calculate pit stops.

During a review of Eric’s down loaded car computer data and a meeting with both drivers, who are complaining about the car “pushing” in the hairpin corner, it appears that the missing chassis braces and gussets are allowing the chassis to flex more than the old car. This could be causing the “push,” so Eric and Frank start working out a spring/shock adjustment to help reduce the handling problem.

Everyone on the team works all day on various projects. Our press work pays off as the promotional staff of ALMS invites the Primetime team to participate in the “Pit Stop Challenge” with the Corvette Racing team. This will take place Friday night at the big party held on the main street of Long Beach. A great opportunity for Primetime to get fan and press exposure and that helps bring in sponsorship dollars. By about 8 p.m., the team is feeling confident with the new cars performance, so we have dinner and head for the hotel.

A DAY OF PRACTICE AND QUALIFYING

Friday morning, we arrive at the track at 7 a.m. and race mechanic Robert Milian meets the ALMS officials at our racing pit. They are there to inspect the refueling rig that Robert has set up. This way the officials are sure that each team has a safe refueling system and rig. You can imagine the chaos and damage that would happen in a pit lane for 35 race teams if a team’s refueling rig failed and caught fire. Robert has been setting up rigs like this for Brent for many years and the officials approve it without issue.

By 9:05 a.m. the car is on the track for our first and only Friday practice session. Joel’s in the car first. It’s running great and he turns a 1:25.6 before going off in turn 9. Brent has him come in to check for damage, but the Viper is fine and he goes back out to turn a 1:25.4, before turning the wheel over to Chris. Chris hits the track and in three laps turns a 1:26.2 before he spins. The session ends with a red flag as one of the Prototype cars crashes.

At 11 a.m. race mechanic Ronnie Murphy has the AMLS inspectors come by to mark our tires. In an ALMS race, all our tires must be marked to make sure they are legal AND after qualifying on a set of tires, we must start the race on those same tires (they let us change one if there is any damage). This is done to prevent people from using special sticky qualifying tires that are not capable of running an hour or so in the race.

Friday afternoon, it’s time to qualify. The GT cars all hit the track at the same time for just 25 minutes. Every lap that they run is recorded by the officials and used to determine where each car starts the race. The driver’s transponders tell the officials which driver was in the car for which lap time. Joel turns a best lap of 1:25.22 and Chris turns a 1:25.144. My previous race experience tells me that when two drivers turn best laps that similar, they are both probably getting the car to go as fast as it will go in its current state. The session is over, and the car heads back to the garage for final checks before tomorrow’s big race.

Considering all that needs to be done and the fact that our race warm-up is at 7:15 a.m. tomorrow morning, Brent has Britonni and I cancel the team’s PR appearance in the “Pit Stop Challenge.” After all, we are here to win a race, not a “Pit Stop Challenge.” Friday night the crew goes over the Viper looking for any possible problems. Brent has me figure the “pit window.” The pit window is the period that we should pit for fuel, tires and a driver change. Burning .33 gallons a minute, and considering driver rules, Brent and I agree that we should begin watching for a yellow flag at lap 40 and as soon as a yellow comes out we should pit. If there is no yellow, our pit window will close at lap 45 OR 67 minutes into the race, which ever comes first. So even if there is no yellow flag lap to pit on, we must stop for fuel, since at 67 minutes, it’s all gone!

RACE DAY

Saturday morning comes fast as we need to have the Viper on the track for a 15-minute warm up at 7:15 a.m. It has rained during the night and the pavement everywhere is wet. As we drive the city streets to reach the track today, things are different. There are traffic cops everywhere, lines of spectators, blimps, helicopters, and planes pulling beer banners. There is even a giant 15-story-tall sign reading “Tequila Patron”, running down the entire side of one office building facing the circuit. There are groups of people all in lawn chairs out on the balconies of the condos and office buildings overlooking the race course. I think some of them might already have a celebratory beverage in their hands and it’s just after 7 a.m.!

Today the guards won’t let our truck transporting the race crew into the garage area. Wow, traffic jam or not, we explain, we’re the racers. “Race team pass or not, you’ll have to park your vehicle somewhere in the city and walk in,” says the guard. We finally get everyone into the garage area and roll the Viper out to the pits for the warm-up session. The pavement is wet, but no longer puddled, so all the cars keep their racing slicks on. The Viper looks ready. To a goofy sentimental car guy like me, the Viper even looks happy.

At 7:15 a.m., Chris and the other 27 ALMS cars roll out on to pit lane and begin a 15-minute practice. Chris runs a very slippery and slow three laps and Brent has him pit to practice a driver change. The guy’s break their record and change drivers in 43 seconds! Man, this team is “hot” today. Joel runs one practice lap on the damp track and goes nearly as fast as he did yesterday in the dry. Brent has him pit. No reason to risk damaging the Viper this close to race time. Everyone on the team is geared up, fast and ready today.

We take the car back to the garage, the drivers attend the mandatory pre-race drivers meeting and at 3 p.m., we and all the other teams full of race cars, pit carts, tire carts and pit crews line up at the garage exit to caravan to the racing pit. This track is like St. Pete. We have to haul all our race gear from the garage, over to the racing pit for the actual race.

At 3:45 they open the garage exit and 27 teams of some 15 crew members each (about 500 people), all riding on pit carts, golf carts and such, carrying tires, tools and race “stuff”, caravan down the track past tens of thousands of spectators. As I ride on our cart, wearing my fireproof crew suit, radio headset and clipboard, I watch all the crazy spectators in the stands and on the buildings.

We set up our pit, the cars are lined up for the start. It’s a big deal with music, movie stars, flags and formalities. Finally, after all the formalities and traditional singer, the cars fire up their engines and roll off the starting line. I am already back at our racing pit, manning the data center station and tuning in my radio headset. Brent and Frank are wearing radios, when Chris calls in from the Viper with a radio check. We hear him loud and clear. Chris and the Viper are read to blast off, just two weeks from when the other car was totaled in St Pete 2,700 miles away !

As the cars circle the circuit on the first pace lap, Chris radios in that there seems to be a problem. When he gives the car full throttle it feels like it’s only getting a quarter of the power. Brent and he try to diagnose the problem as the Viper and other cars do a second pace lap. Then as fast as the problem appeared it disappears. Any experienced mechanic will tell you that we hate it when that happens, because you never know when the gremlins will reappear.

The car seems fine, the cars roar up to speed for the start as the pace car pulls out of the way. At more than 100 mph accelerating, the green flag drops and the entire American Lemans Series field Ferraris, Porsches, Corvettes, Prototypes and all, thunder off to turn one. WAIT — Chris and the Viper coast to a stop just past the starting line, right in front of the TV cameras and tens of thousands of spectators. The car won’t move! Chris shuts down the engine and checks around the cockpit. Brent and Frank radio him to see if he can nurse it back to the pit, so the team can work on it.

Chris restarts the engine and hears a horrendous roaring sound, so he quickly shuts it back off, only to realize that the roar continues? It is the crowd in the stands! When the fans see him restart the car, they think he’s back in the race. They think the American Viper is going back after the Italian Ferraris, the German Porsches and the Japanese Accura prototypes. The ensuing cheers from the fans are so loud that Chris thinks the noise is coming from the broken car. He fires the engine again, but once in gear, the car still won’t move. The 700-plus horsepower V-10 engine has broken the drive shaft.

Kelli from ESPN runs to our pit to find out what is going on with our car and the entire Primetime team is standing in our racing pit, watching the TV screens show the Viper sitting dead front of the crowd as the announcer talks about our broken car.

The race is over for the Primetime team, before it even starts.

Depressed? Disappointed?

Racers are a funny group of personalities, driven to keep trying to beat the odds and the other teams. And, that night after the car is loaded and heading back to Florida and the race team is sitting at the bar in the Los Angeles Airport waiting to fly home (it’s 11 p.m.), the team is already planning for the next race.

Brent sums it up: “That’s why they call it racing and not just winning.”

More View From The Shop>>

Rebate checks going to car repairs, not new cars

bbaker — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 17:47:00 GMT

By NEIL WHITE, The State

Tony Nguyen doesn’t need a business analyst to tell him why major automakers are considering cutbacks in the face of sluggish sales.

He sees it every day in his Seven Oaks Auto Repair on Piney Grove Road.

Nguyen used to have customers facing expensive repairs tell him they were going to buy a new car instead.

“But in today’s world, people are fixing their cars instead of buying them,” he said.

General Motors is preparing to cut thousands of jobs and possibly unload one or more of its brands, according to published reports Monday. Ford has already taken similar measures.

In an economic downturn, the decision to repair a car as opposed to getting a new one has customers shifting gears.

“It’s cheaper to fix a car than to buy a new car,” said Tanya Blankenship, who has run Danny’s Automotive in Northeast Richland with her husband, Danny, since 1999. “We’ve seen a lot more transmission repairs. We’ve done more head gaskets this year than in a long time. In the past, people wouldn’t fix that kind of stuff.”

Nguyen estimates an average transmission overhaul would cost anywhere from $1,800 to $2,800. But even a used model, such as a 2006 Ford Taurus on cars.com at $16,000, would cost $400 a month over four years.

Faron Waguespack of Columbia, a regular customer of Seven Oaks Auto Repair, had his teenage son’s 1994 Dodge Ram pickup in the shop this week for cable accelerator work. In addition to the pickup with 190,000 miles, his family also has a 2003 Ford Expedition with 60,000 miles and a 1983 Datsun 280-ZX with 100,000 miles.

“Without a doubt, I can maintain and fix my cars easier and quicker and cheaper than I can paying a car note and high property taxes,” he said. “I’m all about maintenance.”

Nguyen believes his business benefited from the economic-stimulus package that had tax rebates coming to people in the past couple of months.

“Rather than spend that on a $20,000 to $30,000 new vehicle, they took that $1,000 and spent it on repairs,” he said.

Danny’s Automotive has a pair of regular customers who do what they can to keep their cars running, even when the required repairs start to add up.

Raymond Foster drives a 1998 Ford Explorer with more than 174,000 miles. He recently had exhaust manifold and suspension work done on it because he likes the idea of keeping it.

“Twice in the last four years, I’ve put $1,400 to $1,600 in it at one time. But that’s still more cost-effective than going out to get a new vehicle,” said Foster, who added it’s also important to have a mechanic you can trust who knows the car. “Four or five months of payments is better than six or seven years of payments with interest.”

Mike Metzger of Columbia has four cars, including a 1999 Chevy Suburban with 120,000 miles and a 2000 Cadillac Escalade with 225,000 miles. Because he has regular maintenance done on them, he has no problems sending his daughter off to college in a vehicle with that many miles.

“You’re looking at $25,000-$30,000 for a decent size car,” Metzger said, “and you can repair them for a long time for that kind of money.”

From www.thestate.com

Environment Tops Cost as Top Auto Industry Challenge According to 2008 DuPont Automotive/SAE Survey

bbaker — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 17:18:00 GMT

A new survey conducted by DuPont and the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) shows that environmental issues top the list of challenges facing the automotive industry, outranking cost reduction for the first time in 14 years.

A total of 53 percent of the respondents said that a basket of environmental factors such as fuel economy, CAFÉ and emissions or clean air regulations are the top challenges versus 32 percent who cited cost. The survey was conducted among automotive designers and engineers in advance of the upcoming SAE World Congress in Detroit.

“While cost reduction remains very important, the automotive industry’s emphasis is on the environment and the demands that puts on innovation,” said Chris Murphy, director – Americas, for DuPont Automotive. “In the results, environmental considerations are driving system and vehicle design and development and are a differentiator in the consumer marketplace. Automotive designers and engineers are working with suppliers like DuPont to address these issues and to design and develop cost-effective, fuel-efficient vehicles with reduced environmental impact.”

To support that drive, DuPont Automotive has launched several new material families and technology solutions, including:

MetaFuse™ nano-metal/plastic hybrids which offer the strength and stiffness of metal combined with the design flexibility and lightweight benefits of high-performance thermoplastics to help take the weight out of structural automotive components. This also helps improve fuel economy and contributes to reduced emissions.

DuPont™ Renewably Sourced™ Materials – high-performance, bio-based materials and biofuels that are made in whole or in part from renewable agricultural feedstocks such as corn, soybeans, sugar cane and wheat, rather than petroleum. Today, nine product families have been launched, including DuPont™ Sorona® polymer, DuPont™ Sorona® EP thermoplastic polymer, DuPont™ Hytrel® RS thermoplastic elastomer and DuPont™ Zytel® long chain polyamides.

The annual DuPont Automotive/SAE survey of OEM and supplier designers and engineers was conducted by Consumer Insights, Inc. Key findings include:

Fifty-four percent of respondents say that fuel efficient vehicles with reduced environmental impact are important to consumers. Forty one percent say enhanced safety and 37 percent say improved comfort and convenience are important to consumers.

For the fifth consecutive year, alternatively powered vehicles are predicted to have the greatest impact on the industry. Sixty percent selected alternatively powered vehicles in 2008, while 15 percent selected safety features and 16 percent selected electrical/electronic advances.

Future is Bright for Diesel

Fifty percent of respondents see diesel engine technology as a key focus to help achieve 2020 efficiency regulations (35-mpg in U.S. and sub-120g/km CO2 in Europe), while 46 percent say hybrid-electric powertrains and 42 percent say extensive use of lightweight materials.

Optimizing diesel and hybrid-electric engines will dominate engineers’ work for the next 10 years, say 25 percent and 24 percent of respondents, respectively.

In 10 years, vehicles will run on bio-based diesel fuel (27 percent); petroleum-based diesel (20 percent) and E85 (20 percent). Only 18 percent predict gasoline will dominate.

Materials Matters

Cost reduction is still one of the top material selection criteria, say 91 percent, but weight reduction jumps to the top of the criteria list for 82 percent, up from 66 percent last year.

Poised to grow the most over the next 10 years are advanced composites, say 62 percent of respondents. Bio-based, renewable materials will grow the most, say 26 percent; the same number who predicts aluminum will grow the most.

More View From the Shop features>>

Who's Feeling the Pinch at the Pump?

bbaker — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 14:00:00 GMT

With the threat of $4 a gallon fuel prices casting its shadow on the racing season during the summer months, many in the racing industry are worried that rising costs will keep racers off the track, and engines and parts on the truck. A recent edition of SEMA eNews detailed how escalating prices may have an effect on some racing plans this season. But is it time to panic yet? Experts think that the competitive spirit will overcome the fuel costs but may still keep racers closer to home.

From SEMA eNews

RACERS AND ENTHUSIASTS FEEL THE PINCH OF HIGHER RACE FUEL PRICES

As prices escalate at the pump, so too does the price of race fuel, causing crew chiefs and weekend enthusiasts to adjust their budgets accordingly. The rise hasn’t been dramatic, but still noticeable.

“The cost is increasing, maybe even more than pump gas,” says Steve Scheidker, global marketing manager for VP Racing Fuels. VP makes a number of race fuel blends, including spec fuels for American LeMans and NHRA.

Scheidker adds that since VP buys refined product and additives to produce its blends, the company is also subject to the ebbs and flows of the chemical industry. “In some cases, those have been in short supply: oxygenates, isopentanes, isooctanes – you name it. When those material costs go up, our costs go up just like they do at the pump.”

The rising cost of steel is another factor that impacts VP’s bottom line, Scheidker adding that the bulk of his company's product is shipped in steel drums and adds “another $.50, $.60, $.75 a gallon. The cost of steel is a significant factor.”

The average national price for a gallon of premium unleaded 91 octane rose 22% in the last year, and 6% in the last month, according to data from the Automobile Association of America.

The price for 100- and 110-octane at Willow Springs Raceway in Rosamond, California, has risen in step with pump prices nearly 20% – but in half the time, according to WSR’s assistant manager Jim Hutchings. Hutchings says he was charging $5.50 a gallon six months ago and recently raised it a dollar. That’s still cheaper than some other stations nearby or in Los Angeles and Orange County, he says.

And while the rise in high-octane unleaded and leaded fuels is not significantly higher than that of regular pump gas, the spike in methanol prices is another story. Typically used in high-performance classes such as Top Alcohol drag racing, methanol prices have jumped as much as 50%, says David Hedderick, general manager of Hyperfuels, based in Houston.

“I know it’s popular with individuals making their own biodiesel, but most of my customers run it in alcohol go-karts or run methanol-injection on their turbos and turbodiesels,” Hedderick says. “It’s gone up quite a bit on me, and my margin has been gradually dwindling over the last six, eight months. Last June I was selling it for $2.10 (a gallon for a 55-gallon drum). Now it’s $2.90.”

The methanol spike is due in large part to labor disputes and natural gas supply problems experienced at the South American facilities of Methanex, the world’s largest methanol producer, according to Bloomberg. Recent prices appear to have leveled off, even dipping in parts of Asia, but Methanex’s situation still looks dicey.

The government of Argentina, a major supplier to Methanex, recently raised the import duty on natural gas. CNNMoney.com quotes a senior Latin American Methanex official as saying the company’s plants in Chile have only been operating at 30% capacity since June 2007.

Ironically, a country often cited as a catalyst for rising fuel prices due to increased energy demands is selling race fuel to American distributors cheaper than what U.S. refiners can offer.

“I sourced some nitromethane from California off of a Chinese tanker,” Hedderick says. “I did some testing on it and it is every bit as good as the stuff we make here. It just costs significantly less. My price on nitro is lower than everybody I know of.”

Even though the price of race fuel hasn’t increased significantly parallel to pump gas, its rise has been noted and chips away at established race team budgets.

“The trend has definitely been upward, like everything – hotels, diesel,” says Bernie Fedderly, co-crew chief for John Force Racing, explaining that race fuel typically accounts for 5% of his team’s budget.

“I don’t think it’s anything above the norm,” he adds. “And sponsorship dollars don't necessarily keep up with other expenses! We just learn to live with it.”

SEMA research analyst Megan McKernan, who races in NHRA’s Super Comp class, isn’t so much worried about rising race fuel prices as much as the costs of getting to the track. She recalls a particularly painful moment recently filling up her diesel tow vehicle at nearly $4.50 a gallon.

“My race season doesn’t really start until May, so I’m a little bit worried about summer prices. I think that’s where it’s going to hit most people, both the cost of diesel and race fuel prices. I won’t be surprised if it affects a lot of people’s decisions to travel for races.”

Hutchings, who sees enthusiasts at his track daily, doesn’t sense a great outcry – yet – among the weekend warrior leadfoots.

“If you’re a racer, fuel is just part of it, like tires.”

2008 Hot Rod & Restoration Show Wrap-up

bbaker — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 21:49:00 GMT

Depending on how you looked at it, the 2008 Hot Rod & Restoration Trade Show was a success and maybe somewhat of a dud. First the good: as it was our first time exhibiting at the hot rod show, we weren't sure what to expect. But in the first two hours of the show on Friday, we handed out approximately half of all the magazines we had with us. That's when I started to get a little excited and scared. If this pace were to keep up, we would run out of magazines before the end of the first day! The thoughts that ran through my head ran something like -- what would I do for the next day and a half? We couldn't very well fold up and go home. But my worries of running out of magazines subsided as show traffic slowed. We did run out of magazines on Saturday afternoon, so we will definitely bring more the next time.

Another positive was getting the chance to speak to some of our readers and show off our new website. There are usually a few engine builders who will stump me with technical information and articles we've run in past issues and how can they find them. But this year we finally had an answer. I was able to log-on to our website from the booth and actually search our archives, something unheard of with our old site (R,I.P. old site). With our old site, I'd still be searching for these articles, but it was a breeze to help people find what they were looking for with the new site..

On Thursday night my publisher and I made plans to meet early the next morning in the lobby of the hotel and head over to the opening breakfast. I was not expecting a big crowd to be perfectly honest. Boy were we surprised -- the place was jam-packed! We located a table and settled in for what ended up being a 2 hour and 30 minute tribute to Alex Xydias, founder of So-Cal Speed Shop and recipient of this year's Robert E. Peterson Lifetime Achievement Award. Xydias' amusing anecdotes were the high point of the day as he and his friends (Vic Edelbrock, Barry Meguiar and others) relived the glory days of hot rodding and his So-Cal speed shop. Included in the presentation were great photos and video footage taken by Xydias himself of such famous cars as the Belly Tank and So-Cal Streamliner, which he set a speed record with, becoming the first person to go over 200 mph.

Friday night in was the Industry Reception sponsored by our friends at Egge Machine Company as it done for several years. I must say one of my personal high points was drinking the free beer in my Egge collectible mug (if only could have stayed long enough to get full set of mugs!). The reception was great, and all never forgive myself for missing out on the root beer floats, but everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves. One attendee said that he had driven two hours just so he could see the movies that Alex Xydias had made of his racing days and during the time he worked for Peterson Publishing. It was great to see some of the old footage of what looked like the glory days of racing, but I also couldn't help but notice there were more people reliving the past than were looking to the future. A look around the room and I was definitely one of the "youngsters" in the crowd, and I ain't no spring chicken. So I started to wonder where were all the young people in the industry?

One obstacle that seemed fairly obvious was the fact that hot rods as we know them are generally from a bye-gone era. The young people today know more about computers and Hondas than about hot rods from the depression or muscle cars from American Graffiti. So it seems the industry has to do more to bring in young people, such as "Bring a kid to a Car Show" that ARMO promotes to help kick start interest in cars at an early age. On Saturday ARMO held a panel discussion titled, "Who's trainging our workforce for tomorrow and what are they training them?" The discussion was emceed by Egge Machine's Ernie Silvers, who is also Chairman of the ARMO council. According to one panel member, there aren't as many qualified candidates for tech schools because many potential students are enrolled in 4-year college programs.

By mid-day on Saturday, the show was nearly empty as many of the attendees had already headed home. The show was small enough to cover in a few hours so most people seemed to only be visiting for a few hours. One of the more difficult things for us was trying to find actual engine builders. I saw many name tags that said they were engine builders when in fact they were just using a friends company for a cover to get in the show. There were some engine builders though, and even some young engine builders. University of Northwest Ohio's E85 Team stopped by our booth to chat about how they did. We will report more about that in a future issue. The kids were near graduation and very fired up about being part of the industry. So as I packed up and drove home, I had a good feeling that hot rodding will live on for another generation. There may be a few more electronics involved but it will still be a hot rod.