Project Update
RochesterDSM One Lap Team featured in Mitsubishi Gearbox Magazine
The RochesterDSM One Lap team is featured this month in Mitsubishi Gearbox Magazine. There is a great story and some cool photos too.
2010 Galant VR4 Calendar
The Galant VR4 platform is a collectors item to those lucky enough to find one. Every year, Garfield Wright, owner of Tuners Nation puts together a calendar of the best Galant VR4 pictures of the year. These calendars themselves are in limited edition.
With such a pronounced impact on the Galant VR4 community in 2009, the One Lap VR4 car is proudly taking the May slot, appropriately in time for 2010 One Lap. Garfield went a little above and beyond this year by inserting some of the calendar dates of the event this year and even putting a map of the 2010 One Lap of America even on the back of the calendar.
The calendars will be in short supply, so if you want to pick one up, I suggest you order one before the masses find out.
Official 2010 Galant VR4 Calendar
0The Plea for Tunes
Take 3 guys, put them in a car for 1600 miles with a normal radio that has two deck speakers and some questionable factory door speakers. I think we made it to the thruway in Henrietta before we realize we really need some attention on the audio system. While we can talk about cars for days, as we have now put to the test, the car is in desperate need of a better audio system.
As if to rub it in and poke fun at our lack of tunes, the Rockford Fosgate Evolution X showed up to represent their relationship with Mitsubishi at the 2009 Mitsubishi Owners Day. It was very cool to see a built audio car again, though some people went over expecting to see performance parts. I have some respect for the work, as I have strong roots in the car audio business, working for some of the shops around town when I got out of college. I have fond memories of the scene which used to revolve around car audio and the innovations which really made the car manufacturers pay attention to the audio in the car. Ok I will admit it, I completely whined like a 4 year old, asking for a sound system, knowing I had to drive 700+ miles to get home.
Of course their system sounded good from across the parking lot, and all we need is something that can cut through the drone of a 3″ inch exhaust at 75 MPH. The fiberglass enclosures were encouraging, though we would need one speaker apposed to the whole back seat. The cage was well hooped, but purposeful for holding speakers, not saving your life on the track.
We happened to run into the guys who brought the Rockford Fosgate car the night before the MOD event, eating dinner at the restaurant. It is hard to miss a car with speakers on the hood, disguised as rally lights. Great bunch of guys, and very approachable. While could have easily out powered the band they brought in, they were pretty good about not out staging the guys on stage. When the band cleared out and the music went up in the Rockford car, it sounded awesome.
Rockford Fosgate has the systems in many of the new Mitsubishi cars. I know their system came with the Sight Sound and Speed package that I purchased when I bought the 2008 Evolution X, that I now own.
Dear Rockford Fosgate, if you guys ever feel like retrofitting a 18 year old car so that 3 guys can survive 3500+ miles of driving across America between race tracks, let us know. We leave May 1st 2010.
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Other Attractions at MOD 2009
While the One Lap car appeared on the list of attractions, we weren’t exactly a vendor per say and we were not the center off all attention. Though we felt like it at times. I actually missed some of the things I wanted to see, because time moved so fast.
The event was organized very well, keeping people busy the entire time. I know Carol Redfern-Ambler, and the team at Mitsubishi worked hard to put together a diverse, yet owner centered event. It definitely paid off, because between the raffles, watching car being destroyed, a chance to ride in the new Mitsubishi electric car, and a tour of the manufacturing plant, it is just impossible to fit it all in. I didn’t even get to run the obstacle course that the national gaurd setup. I might have to go back next year to catch all of the things I missed. Here are some of the things I did not.
Team Illuminata Motorsports
Our setup area for the One Lap car was back to back with a group called Team Illuminata Motorsports. Out of all of the shiny and perhaps “show” cars in that lot, there is no place we would have rather been, than next to a driven rally car. Tim, quickly adopted and branded one of the team sticker across his chest, as it obviously acted as an over-sized name tag 
spelling out TIM. We had chance to relate with and meet with Paul and Demetri, who brought actual race worthy parts to share with the crowd. The group is out of Michigan, and you may have seen them go through some of the rallies like Snow Drift. They would be the guys who get airborne first, and think about landing second.
NOS Energy Drink
While we thought AMS was a sponsor themselves, they 
actually were there supporting NOS Energy drink, having built the Quickest Evo VIII in the world for 
them. Energy drinks seemed to have made it deep into the automotive performance industry, though I am not sure I think of drinking anything when I think of NOS. Well apparently neither does the NOS group, as I caught a picture of the NOS booth sponsor guy, slugging down a good old Mountain Dew at lunch. I do laugh a little when I hear the word NOS, as it instantly reminds me of that terrible movie 
which completely mocked everything I valued about automotive tuning.
Buschur Racing
If you haven’t heard of Buschur Racing, then you haven’t been in the industry, well ever. Dave Buschur has a bit of history with the One Lap car. In fact, he used to own it. I originally purchased 187/1000 from Dave Buschur, as it was a project car he was building up to cover a magazine shoot, “back in the day”. The magazine backed out, Dave was going to drive it daily, then the land went up for sale by the shop he is in. He sold the car to buy the land, and I went down with Mike Hayes to pick it up with a less than appropriate trailer setup. That is the short version of a rather beer required tale.
While the car started off as a drag car, it certainly has transformed into a versatile track car for us. We were able to chat with Dave for a few minutes, remembering back when he originally had the car himself.
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