Category: Uncategorized

New Military Humvee Tire: The Honeycomb

Forget you guys with your lifted trucks. You aren’t ballin’ hard enough if you aren’t riding on some Honeycomb wheels.

The University of Wisconsin-Madison and Resilient Technologies have come up with a wheel that doesn’t need any type of Air pressure. Instead of rolling on air, you’re just rolling on a honeycomb structure. Oh, and did I forget to mention this puppy is Bullet-proof and Bomb-proof? Tired of being late to work trying to drive through the battleground that is rush hour traffic? Thwart the old ladies tossing grenades out of their windows and get some of these 37″ “tires”.

Created for the Military, these prototype tires are guaranteed to save many lives. Conventional tires are useless when they lose air pressure or get blown out in combat. What’s the use of Armor if your tires are blown out? A few advantages to this new honeycomb design is that it costs about the same as a conventional tire and rides the same.

Hopefully soon they will be moving to consumer vehicles. Same price, same ride, ballin’ pattern, bomb-proof and bullet-proof? Sign me up. I’ll throw some on the 240. Me Want Honeycomb!

Be safe out there, Happy Turkey Day!

November 26, 2008
National Speed Christmas List: Performance Parts for Subaru Owners

With Christmas time right around the corner, we here at National Speed have compiled a list of gift ideas specifically for Subaru owners.

Factory Top Mount got you down? Stock Blow off valve just not cutting it? Perhaps you’re looking for some coilovers to slam your car and go terrorize a road course. Whatever your fancy, the National Speed eStore has what you’re looking for.

Perrin Front Mount Intercooler

One problem with the EJ series motors is that the factory Top Mount Intercooler is inefficient with any aftermarket compressors. Don’t worry, we have what you’re looking for. We now carry a full line of Perrin products and one item in particular is the Perrin Front Mount Intercooler relocation kit. You can not only gain horsepower and torque from a more efficient design, but give your Subie an aggressive smile as well. These kits support up to 1000 Horsepower and offer less than a 1/4psi drop across the core at 20psi.

GT35R Kit

I know what you’re really looking for… How does 500 All Wheel Horse Power sound? Agency Power has released arguably the best GT35R kit for any WRX or STi, and we have it in stock. The Agency Power GT35R kit is designed to maximize performance for street, drag, or road racing. The oil and water cooled Garrett GT35R is a ball bearing turbo that has a .63a/r for a quick spool, and includes a 84 trim wheel. The kit includes all the necessary lines and hoses needed to fit the factory connections. Not only will this kit make huge power, but it is also compatible will all of the popular Front Mount and factory Top mount intercoolers.

StopTech Big Brake Kit

With all that AWD power, now you need something to stop all of it. Utilizing massive 380mm rotors and six pistons, the StopTech Big Brake Kit has enough power to stop a freight train. Not only will this give your Subaru ultimate hard parking status, but you will get vastly shorter stopping distances, better brake modulation, firmer brake pedal feel and less brake fade when you take it to the track. We have many different size brake kits to suit specifically what you need.

COBB Tuning Pads

If you aren’t willing to fork out the cash for a full Big Brake Kit, you can still gain braking force by upgrading to a set of COBB Tuning brake pads. Designed for street use, COBB Tuning Street Formula Brake Pads are the best balance of performance pad without excessive noise, brake dust, or rotor wear.

STIFFI

For you STi guys that still have the factory spoiler, want something to help that annoying vibration out? We now carry the very helpful Perrin “STIFFI” to eliminate wing flex. Add 4 or 5 to get that authentic WRC look! Plus…Who doesn’t want a STIFFI?

This holiday season, the National Speed eStore has you covered, check us out!

November 7, 2008
Bang for Your Buck: Cheap and Effective Performance Parts

Cheap and Effective. Sound good to you? It sure does to me. It’s all about getting power for cheap nowadays. I think it’s time to go over some inexpensive but effective mods you can make to your vehicle for your budget build.

Intake
It’s pretty hard to drink something through a coffee stirrer, isn’t it? That’s what your factory air intake is like to your motor. An aftermarket intake has a larger diameter pipe with a less restrictive path than factory, and with a freer breathing filter. Not only will an aftermarket intake reflect gains in the seat of the pants, but it will add a nice growl to your factory motor!

Exhaust

Another popular and effective mod is exhaust. Take that same coffee stirrer, flip it around, and blow into it. That’s your factory exhaust. With more air being introduced into your intake system, now you need a proper way to remove it. Stock exhaust is very restrictive and doesn’t allow all the air entering the intake system to exit effectively, thus causing excessive backpressure. Excessive backpressure chokes up your engine, not giving you all the power your motor is creating. A good way of eliminating all this unnecessary backpressure is to get an aftermarket exhaust system.

If you want to remain legal, you can find a good quality catback exhaust for your vehicle for pretty cheap. This is arguably the biggest improvement to sound you can make. (Or detriment, depending on the listener.)

Headers
Headers are the central part in between your Intake and Exhaust. Without proper flow in between these two items, there would be a bottleneck, which in turn, would choke you of your potential power. Headers, or an exhaust manifold as some call it, relieve your intake manifold of backpressure caused by an ineffective design. One header relieves one bank of exhaust ports, so that’s 1 header for the 4 banger guys and 2 for everyone with a few more cylinders

Tune
Now that you have your car breathing healthily, you need to have your ECU compensate for all this new airflow. Getting a tune is one of the most important things you can do to your car. Not only will a tune let your ECU know that much more air is entering the system, but your fuel and spark maps will be adjusted more aggressively to unlock all the power that you now added.

When looking for the best bang for the buck, these mods are vital to your build. While generally the most common, the importance of these mods is often overlooked. Any of these items would be a great addition to a Christmas list for any car enthusiast.

November 6, 2008
Ben's S2000 Build – Part I
I became employed by National Speed back in February. That was the first time I’d seen Ben’s 00 Honda S2000. The car was bone stock and made for the perfect daily driver…until Ben tore it apart piece by piece. Apparently Ben not only enjoys tuning cars, but also taking them apart. To be perfectly honest, I think he might be out of his mind when it comes to “modifying” cars. We’ll get into the nitty gritty later on, but for this post I’ll give you a rough overview of what Ben’s S2000 has gone through.

The S2000 under the knife

It all started with “removing the air conditioning.” The compressor was broken which meant it was time for Doctor Ben to put the car under the knife. This would be the first of many “procedures,” and before you know it the entire engine bay was completely gutted. Since then the car has turned into a huge project. Ben wants over 600 horsepower, which’ll help push the car around race courses like VIR.

Out on the track

As of this week Ben’s decided to completely remove the interior and re-wire everything in the harness. From the looks of it he’s managed to make the car run off four or five wires. I’m telling you, this guy has some serious A.D.D. The second it looks like the car is about to go back together, he finds something else to improve.

The engine bay in process

Some of the highlights of this build are:
- Turbonetics GTK 650 with tangential divided T4 turbine housing turbocharger
- National Speed sidewinder turbo manifold (t4 divided)
- National Speed intake manifold
- MoTec m800 standalone
- Spoon sports hardtop
- D2 suspension
The mods list is long and I could go on forever, but I think you get the picture. Ben is crazy.

This won’t be the last blog about Ben’s car, and honestly, I sometimes question if he’ll ever be officially “done” with it. I mean seriously, who does this kind of thing to a perfectly good car? Not to mention this is his only car, so if you ever see Ben on the side of the road please be nice and give him a lift. I swear the guy has voices in his head telling him not to stop until it’s an all out racecar. But then again if that gets him a good time at VIR maybe that’s not such a bad thing.
August 5, 2008