We are honored to be one of the few companies across North America selected to participate in IAG Performance‘s pilot Certified Engine Installer program! In short, if you have your IAG engine installed & calibrated at any of National Speed’s shop locations, you will receive a 2 year/24,000 mile workmanship warranty from IAG!
While we have always stood behind our work, we are proud to be able to offer another layer of assurance from a trusted industry-leading manufacturer. Quite an innovative program for the industry & enthusiasts alike!
For the past several months, Vlad had his Quicksilver 1998 Toyota Supra 6-speed putting down ~1,250whp with a maxxed out Garrett GTX4508R — and with that power level, he’s been able to row gears to consistent 8.4x quarter mile ETs at 170mph (video here). Ready to kick it up for TX2K, Vlad installed a Precision Turbo & Engine PTE8685, and let her eat! The result is a new personal best of 1,382.15whp & 975.90lbft at only 43psi! To quote Vlad, “I want to keep it together for TX2K, then I’ll see what she can really do at full kill.”
Stay tuned as Vlad puts this car deeper and deeper into the 8s, chasing that 7-second slip!
Randy Haywood is our senior tuner here at National Speed. Like most 15 year old kids growing up in Raleigh, he loved riding around and pedaling away on BMX bikes while hanging out with friends -That was, until he took an affinity to the big muscle cars his friend’s dad owned. Drawn in by the deep rumble, smooth lines and high horsepower of the Detroit iron, he knew right then and there that it was time for the pedaling to stop and it was time to hop into the world of automotive performance.
Igniting the Passion.
In High School, Randy finally dropped his BMX bike for good and replaced footpower with horsepower in the way of a big block El Camino. Having been bitten by the automotive bug, having a big block under his right foot and still being in high school, it’s no surprise that Randy promptly lost his license street racing the big Chevy. Randy sold the El Camino and ended up purchasing a 1970 Ford Mustang Mach 1 shortly thereafter and ever since then, Randy has been a diehard Ford guy. Fresh out of high school, Randy pursued his automotive interests and got his foot in the industry’s door by working as a technician for Capitol Ford in Raleigh. He continued his job at Ford for nearly 10 years, all while pursuing his real passion of automotive performance, racing and wrenching on the side – except this time legally.
Breaking Records.
Randy realized that his passion for racing was growing larger and larger and in 1997, he finally hung up his uniform and opened his own automotive performance shop, moving his passion into the fastlane. As owner, driver, tuner and fabricator, Randy Haywood’s performance shop built the first NMRA Superstreet Outlaw car in the 7’s using a Ford modular motor. This new setup stunned the drag racing scene and due to Randy’s innovative ideas and execution, the potential for the Ford Modular motor had been shown. Since this feat over 10 years ago, the popularity for the Ford Modular motor has grown substantially in the NMRA Superstreet Outlaw class.
Moving Forward.
Randy continued ownership of his motorsports shop for over 10 years, wrenching, tuning, fabricating and driving. Eventually, this became too much and Randy realized that he enjoyed working on and tuning cars without all of the added stresses and responsibilities of running a business on top of it. This is when Randy decided to come to National Speed. National Speed provides a stable platform for Randy to pursue his automotive performance dreams in a world class shop while not having to worry about all the added stress of business ownership. On the weekends, Randy is still working on and piloting amazingly quick cars the likes of an Outlaw Radial 1800whp Twin Turbo Grand National [Best ET 1/8th mile of 4.75 @ 160mph] and a x275 Radial class 1500whp Turbo Mustang [Best ET 5.08 @ 147mph]. You can be assured that no matter what lane Randy is in, he’s going to be running fast and piloting something with an amazing amount of performance.
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National Speed is honored to have Randy Haywood on board as our Senior Performance Tuner. Randy brings decades of invaluable experience and knowledge to the table and his numerous achievements, showings in magazines and permanent smile has earned him the nickname of “Hollywood” around the shop. Swing by the shop today and have Randy tune your vehicle, you’ll be guaranteed the best results around.
Nick came to us with the goal of making more horsepower to have more fun in his 350Z.
Nick went with a Momentum Performance Single Turbo Kit and he will monitor vitals via an Auto Tech ePod gauge pod. Without an aftermarket valve body upgrade for the transmission, we limited the power to only 4 pounds of boost to keep it safe and ended up with a final number of 304.97whp and 285.53lb-ft.
Nick is excited to get it back to us for a retune once he comes back with transmission upgrades that can handle the power, then we can dial up the boost substantially!
It is being sold as is with NO TITLE. The Civic has a B18 motor from a GSR Integra installed with some bolt-on modifications. The vehicle runs and drives.
Our in-house tuner Randy Haywood has built quite an amazing machine. With an estimated 1500whp to the wheels and capable of sub 5 second 1/8th mile passes on a 275 width tire, this mustang is going to be a serious contender in the x275 class. Expect to see this rocket at regional North Carolina dragstrips such as: Coastal Plains Raceway in Jacksonville NC, Rockingham Dragway, Piedmont Dragway, and other tracks around the North Carolina area.
There have been a few updates since this feature video was put together, including: 434 cubic inch motor, reworked heads and exhaust setup. The new goal for this x275 class monster is 4.60 1/8th mile times, utilizing every bit of that 1500whp. You can be sure we will have full coverage of this beast as it tears down the track.
We are looking for motivated car enthusiasts to join us here at National Speed. If the smell of race gas excites you, you love sharing your knowledge of cars, enjoy being a part of the automotive community and want to pursue a career doing what you love, check us out! We are a fast growing company offering very competitive compensation packages, relocation assistance, and room for advancement.
If you are interested in an exciting career opportunity in performance; we’re very interested in talking with you!
Everyone on the planet has seen Steve McQueen careen down the streets of San Francisco in Bullitt or marveled at the vehicular insanity on display in the Jason Bourne movies. It’s amazing stuff to be sure, but it’s also pretty boring at this point. If you’ve seen one car chase you’ve seen them all…or have you?
To Live and Die in L.A. This is an undiscovered gem from the mid 80’s. William Friedkin, the director of The French Connection and The Exorcist, brings you the most realistic, nail-biting car chase of all time. Filmed at actual speed with no visual effects (as opposed to the hyper-stylized, CG nonsense of the Fast and Furious franchise), the car chase in To Live and Die in L.A. grabs you by the balls and doesn’t let go until you’re blue in the face. Don’t let the cheesy 80’s vibe scare you, this is a crackerjack car chase, and a great movie to boot.
The Way of the Gun. You can consider this one the anti-chase. A nasty, criminally underscene crime caper from the screenwriter of The Usual Suspects, the chase in Christopher McQuarrie’s Way Of the Gun takes everything you’ve seen before and throws it out the window. Like speed. This is the slowest car chase you’ll ever see, and it’s absolutely brilliant. I defy you to watch this sequence and not slap your forehead in disgust at not having thought of this before. From a tactical standpoint it’s absolutely brilliant and shouldn’t be spoiled in a blog. You’ll just have to see it for yourself.
Death Proof. Leave it to the demented brain of Quentin Tarantino to create the craziest car chase you’ve never seen. Unfortunately for Tarantino fans, Death Proof bombed at the time of release and no one but the hardest of the hardcore paid any attention to it. Shame as it’s easily the most insane stunt work ever put to film. Don’t believe me? When was the last time you saw a girl strapped to the hood of a 1970 Dodge Challenger R/T while driving 135mph? I rest my case…
The Seven Ups.You’ve never heard of this one. Nobody has. It’s only just recently been released to DVD and the world is a better place for it. Admittedly, it’s not a particularly great movie. It’s a standard cop flick from 1973 starring Roy Scheider. What the movie lacks in…everything…the car chase more than makes up for. It’s absolutely badass, memorable for the giant ass beating that Scheider’s 1973 Pontiac Ventura Sprint Coupe endures.
Die Hard With a Vengeance. The whole movie is practically a race against the clock, and the taxi cab chase through Central Park is a sight to behold. Featuring Bruce Willis and Samuel L. Jackson, Die Hard With a Vengeance throws in everything but the kitchen sink. Granted, out of all the chases on this list, you’ve most likely seen this one…However, nobody ever holds it in high regard compared to other car chases, which is kind of shocking when you consider the amount of vehicular carnage involved.
What’s your favorite car chase of all time? Leave us a comment below and let us know. We promise not to laugh at you…maybe.
There are some sounds that just hit people the right way. Whether it be the sharp, raucous bark of a Porsche flat 6, the whine of a ported Eaton, or the low thrum of an STi, there’s a sound for everyone. Here’s a list of my favorites, but please note I didn’t do this just for fun. We want to hear back from our readers with their choices as well. Note: yes, I know that some of these cars may or may not be modded.
A personal favorite of mine is the exhaust note of a Terminator Cobra. The 4.6 liter DOHC topped with an Eaton sounds mighty fine in my book. With enough bite to back up the bark, termie Cobras always give me aural pleasure (get your mind out of the gutter, sickos — I said AURAL, not oral).
Next up is one of the only cars that you can throw a cat-back on and actually have it sound good — the Subaru Impreza. The unique exhaust note is considered to be caused by the unequal length header design. Either way, no matter how it’s created, it always sounds damn good to me. You’ve gotta love the way they rumble. Videos never seem to do the sound justice, but give this one a shot.
Coming up next is something off the wall for most people. The Mazda 26B 4-rotor. I’ve always been impressed by the way that the 26B sounds. Think of a cammed, big block loping at idle, and then think of that same big block revving to 10k in a second, sounding like a streetbike or F1 car. Mazda essentially put two 13B’s together and came up with this 700hp monstrosity. The 26B was used in Mazda’s legendary 787B racecar.
Rounding out the list is an Italian V12 that can turn to 8500RPM! Regardless of what you just muttered behind your screen, I say the Lamborghini Murcielago LP640 sounds good enough to be on this list. The original Italian bull was quick enough with 571 Horsepower, but Lamborghini decided to step it up a notch and increase displacement from 6.2 to 6.5 liters, raising power to a stout 640. Emitting pure emotion out of the center tailpipes like only an Italian machine can, the LP640 is good enough to be here.
I could probably list 20 more cars that I want to be on this list, but alas, I have no more room. Instead I’d rather hear what makes all of our readers tingle, so be sure to respond with what engine sounds give you aural pleasure (keep it clean folks, my mom reads these blogs).
As the automotive industry catches up with the technology at its disposal, more and more brick and mortar shops are opening online performance parts stores. In an industry that’s largely resistant to change, it’s nice to see people finally embracing the opportunities that an online performance parts store has to offer.
But there’s trouble in paradise.
With so many online stores vying for your hard-earned dollars, the market becomes flooded with performance parts eStores each indistinguishable from the next. Do a Google and it becomes a flurry of: “We’ll sell our souls to sell you performance parts!”
That’s a slight exaggeration, but you get the point.
It’s actually very similar to what’s happening in the fast food industry. Before McDonald’s opens a new store, they do extensive market research into the area to make sure it’s the best location for their customers and for their business. You know what happens next? Burger King opens a store directly across the street, effectively devaluing both businesses because they sell virtually the same product for the same price.
So what’s a performance parts store to do?
My two cents: Carve out an identity for yourself. Be more than just one of the faceless imitators promoting “top speed performance parts.” Sure, you could say my opinion is biased and our National Speed eStore is still relatively new, but I feel we’re truly doing something that hasn’t been done before in the performance parts business.
Make no mistake: we don’t blog and make videos just to sell you performance parts. We do it because we love the industry that we’re in and want to give you an experience that no other performance parts store does. They say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but we’d rather take it a step further and innovate rather than imitate.
![Life in the Fastlane in the pursuit of Motorsports: Randy Haywood [Tuner]](https://nspexport.enclaveworkspace.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/ns-front.jpg)
