I'm Moving to Phoenix...like, now!

[SEStone]

Just a head's up. Tomorrow morning, my girlfriend and dad and I are leaving MN with our three cars to take up residence near Phoenix, AZ. I've taken a job with Evolution Motorsports (www.evoms.com) selling parts for VW/Audi and Porsche. A pretty big step and a totally new environment, but aside from the incredible stress of moving we're very excited for the change. I'll be within like 5 hours of Hank and 6 hours of Jimminy too! The plan for Thursday (10/31) is to stay in Denver, then onto Phoenix via ABQ. We're very tight for time, so I don't think I'll be able to socialize with any of the CO peeps, but if anyone here lives in the Phoenix area I'd love to touch base and show you around EvoMS if you ever stop by.

Sam

[loxxrider]

Just a head's up. Tomorrow morning, my girlfriend and dad and I are leaving MN with our three cars to take up residence near Phoenix, AZ. I've taken a job with Evolution Motorsports (http://www.evoms.com) selling parts for VW/Audi and Porsche. A pretty big step and a totally new environment, but aside from the incredible stress of moving we're very excited for the change. I'll be within like 5 hours of Hank and 6 hours of Jimminy too! The plan for Thursday (10/31) is to stay in Denver, then onto Phoenix via ABQ. We're very tight for time, so I don't think I'll be able to socialize with any of the CO peeps, but if anyone here lives in the Phoenix area I'd love to touch base and show you around EvoMS if you ever stop by.

Sam

Cool! They do some pretty high end work. I bet you're excited Best of luck in your new home and at your new job!

[PRY4SNO]

Congrats on the upgrade.

Phoenix is nice!

[WOMBAT]

That's really exciting Sam! Have a safe trip!

[AudiSport4000]

Nice job, Sam!! It was nice to meet you when you were still in the midwest

[85oceanic]

Awesome man! My brother actually lives down there.

[chaloux]

Very cool, congrats. Keep posting here!

[SEStone]

Made it down just fine. 1900 miles. Coupe did it just fine, zero issues. Got between 22-26mpg depending on altitude, doing 75-80 the whole way at 3700-4000rpm. Rented a really nice apartment today, including a two car garage. I doubt it will have much room, lighting, or resources for doing any work, but it's an indoors place to store my stuff and my car.

First day at EvoMS is Monday.

Sam

[A20V200]

Good move Sam...Evoms is a great place to be at and like others said..high end $$$$ dropped on super cars daily. Used to be down there now up in Prescott...about an hour north of you. Bangetek / Brian ...is down there somewhere.

[PRY4SNO]

The Lemons team from Audizine are in Phoenix too, AudiStyleRacing. Great crew of enthusiasts, give them a holler... I'm sure they'd be happy to show you around and have your input on their "junker."

http://www.audistyleracing.com

[scubadave]

sweet sam, Phoenix is just a hop, skip and a jump, plus a jog and another hop and a waddle into a slide from here. glad to see you made it, and looking forward to a gtg in the near future.

I believe PRA4WX is also down that way.

[JustinB_20vt]

sweet, welcome to the hood!. I work right down the street from EVOMS and live out in Gilbert. Have to meet up at some point

[PRA4WX]

sweet sam, Phoenix is just a hop, skip and a jump, plus a jog and another hop and a waddle into a slide from here. glad to see you made it, and looking forward to a gtg in the near future.

I believe PRA4WX is also down that way.

I sure is! Welcome to the promise land, Sam!

[SEStone]

I posted this on another forum. Been here almost two weeks now.

Sam,

Thanks for chiming in!

Can you give the basics on what is done/cost for doing the 1600hp 997? I'm not shopping, I'm just very curious if any of the factory internals remain or if it is all new. How big are the compressors and how much boost?

Thanks!


Costas
cars and such...

I don't know if I can fully comprehend the work that goes into those cars. But briefly, the stock 3.6L motor is rebuilt to 4.0L via bigger pistons and cylinders. The block/case gets some machining done to help it stay square under load, since the actual long block itself is made of about eight different pieces (case halves, cylinders, head ports, cam cradles). Bigger head studs are machined in/installed. The heads get a full CNC port job with bigger valves, valve springs, and aggressive cams. I believe the variable valve lift system gets tossed as part of that. Redline is somewhere between 8000-9000rpm.

Turbos on the cars thus far have been mostly GT35R based stuff. Some of it is venturing towards the GT37, with some newer hybrid/custom options coming for future builds. Boost at those power levels is at least 35psi, likely over 40...I haven't gotten that secret yet and am not in a hurry to ask seeing as it's my second week here . Intercooling is done with large air:water cores with a large tank full of ice in the front boot. Since these are drag racing/standing mile cars, I don't believe there's a water:air heat exchanger, the water just gets drained and refilled after each run. Fuel in these 1000hp+ builds is MS109 at a minimum, but preferably C16. Race gas flows like water around here.

The clutch is a triple plate carbon clutch. Axles made of 300M chro-moly that were developed by EvoMS. The transmissions are built, the old shop car ("Mayhem") is currently rocking a Hollinger dogbox for the current owner in the middle east. The spare actually just arrived, which is good as the first one didn't hold up to a full boost drag launch very well.

All of the suspension pivots are solid/spherical. The geometry in the back of these tends to have a lot of bumpsteer, which is worsened if any of the stock rubber bushings are there. They've gotten the alignment and differential sorted to where it's reasonably stable. Tires are usually R888s. Still...it's a lot of power, and the surfaces they run on aren't that great: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lcPOdsPoyg

Edit: As far as costs...I quoted someone earlier this week who wanted his 996 Turbo to make 700whp. That puts him in our GT850 kit, which involves a basic motor build on the stock displacement, a badass fuel system, and a pair of 3076Rs. That came to somewhere around $50-60k. Stepping up to 1000hp involves going to a 3.8 and doing a bunch of other stuff, and adds about $20k. 1200-1400hp is another stepping stone, and those builds run $100-120k depending on how they're being used. That price includes suspension, brakes, wheels/tires, and some safety stuff as well; everything the rest of the car needs to try and handle going super fast. I was told trying to replicate the kind of numbers the shop car made would need about $150k into a 997 Turbo.

[Mcstiff]

Sick. I keep telling people we need 300M axles

[chaloux]

I think you are kinda living my dream. What exactly are you doing there at evo?

[SEStone]

I think you are kinda living my dream. What exactly are you doing there at evo?

I'm handling retail and local sales. I was a service writer at Imola who also put together a lot of the performance projects and did a bunch of tuning/logging...I told people what they needed to make their stuff go fast and then made sure the results delivered. Part of that was selling and supporting EvoMS parts on the Porsches we built, so thankfully I had a healthy head start on this gig. At EvoMS, virtually everything I do is over the phone and email, to people all over the country/world. It's a lot more procedurey salesy stuff than Imola (where you worked with almost everyone face-to-face), but it's ALLLLLL performance stuff. Anything from the results of an intake and a tune on a Mk4 VW to helping people go nuts on their new McLaren.

We also have a full fab shop here, with a lathe, small mill, dude who is really good at building parts, etc. There's an engine 'clean' room, a whole room full of Porsche Metzger engine internals, a dyno (free dyno time for employees!), a full warehouse full of really nice quality hardware, silicone bits, filters, etc.; it's a cool place to be.

Sam

[audifreakjim]

Sounds great Sam

[SEStone]

Bored and drunk on Friday night update. Mr. Lofquist inspired me to bring this up to speed with his own major life change.

Six months on from the move. Six months of perfect weather, even now with highs in the 90s. I like the southwest. I like the Phoenix area. It's huge, and we find brand new stuff to do all the time. A friend and I are going to knock out a ton of service work on my girlfriend's GLI tomorrow. The high is supposed to be 75 with a slight chance of rain, and like 35% humidity. We've been bitching back and forth over text message how shitty cold and humid that is. Such is life in the desert...

The people are really nice. Through the Audi circle, I met Val and Savannah Ivanitski a few months ago. Heather and I hit it off with them and we've become really good friends. Val has an UrQ these days that needed a bunch of bodywork done...Savannah was 8 months pregnant at the time, and Val resolved to have the car fixed before the baby arrived. I'd never done bodywork before, or even seen it done, so I made a few trips over to watch, learn, and get messy. After about two weeks, he/we did a bang-up job of rust repair and had the whole car repainted in his garage. It needs some sanding work to be perfect, but it looks great from 5' and I learned a lot I plan on using with the Coupe.

The car scene down here is nuts. There are five tracks within five hours, and Wild Horse Pass is 5min from my house. Track events are going on two or three weekends a month with some great local clubs. I've made some good friends and acquaintances through the local NASA club, and have watched a lot of friends race. As soon as Heather and I get a firm grip financially, I can't wait to have some fun on my own.

My job is insane. The records, reputation, and history speak for themselves that I am in an industry leading company. I work with some very smart people building some seriously cool shit. Our old shop car, now in Qatar, broke a world record last month by doing 217mph in a standing half mile, on 28psi. Out of a 4 liter flat six. The engines, toys, turbos, and tuning we play with on a daily basis are pretty fucking cool. We have an R&D relationship with Tial, and there are shelves of various large frame turbos laying around. We work a lot with Injector Dynamics, who have stopped by a couple times to check things out--those guys are serious professionals, Paul who runs that shop is a very smart guy. The multiple technologies and relationships we use for tuning OEM ECUs, and the cars we tune with them are neat. We're the leading McLaren tuner in the world currently. Some dude came in the other month with a brand new Gallardo with a supercharger kit on to have it dynoed. We're moving some stuff around right now to purchase a 991 Turbo development car.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZ_qws1EP-w[/youtube]

Anyways, those looking to get out of a rut and pursue new opportunities, even if they're thousands of miles away--do your homework and take a leap. Totally worth it for the experience and trying new things.

Sam

[SEStone]

Oh yeah, it took four months for an opportunity to come up where I got promoted to the head of sales for the company. I learned of the opportunity Monday afternoon and interviewed after lunch on Tuesday, and got the position. It's a learning experience for sure, but I'm working at grabbing it by the balls and trying to make some waves. The opportunity is as good as I make it be.

Sam

[EDIGREG]

Congrats!! Sounds awesome. Glad to hear your happy with the move

[audifreakjim]

Way to go Sam. Let me know how much work you actually get done in that GTI tomorrow

[85oceanic]

The opportunity is as good as I make it be.

Truth. Seriously congrats man! I hope my experience goes as well as yours! As far as I can tell moving to Vegas is going to pretty much revolutionize what I'm used to in terms of a car scene. Currently I salivate over bone stock early 2000's Boxsters, hell even your run-of-the-mill Audi's when they come in for service. I can't wait to see what the future has in store for Me and my Lady. Again man Congrats! Good luck with your new position!

[SEStone]

Way to go Sam. Let me know how much work you actually get done in that GTI tomorrow

We spent 12 hours replacing the thermostat, timing belt, and cleaning the carbon buildup out of the intake ports. It was messy and that engine is a whore to work on. The 'front' of the motor is crammed with shit and fasteners that are always blocked by something. We got it back together at 11:45, took it out for a drive, came back to look at logs and jaw jack in the driveway, and heard a sudden pop and hiss from the engine. We believe one of the injector o-rings failed. The rail is built into the bottom of the intake manifold so all that shit has to come apart again. Oh joy...


Sernt frrrerm Terrrperrterrrk