Cars that get you all hot and bothered

[Goodspeed]

The mad scientists at Twins Turbo have resurrected this car from a long slumber

About 2.5 years ago we started making some suspension changes to the car to try to take it to the next level. We took out what we did to the track to test and, well went back to the drawing board.

Here's what we ended up with:

We started by taking the entire rear cross member, mounts and all, and moved it UP into the chassis by 1.5". This was pretty tricky and we needed to clearance the frame for the tire but it came out prefect.

The idea is not new, and we wanted to "lower" the car without compromising the suspension geometry. Having the mass of the car 1.5" lower helps out dramatically on a track car, but lowering the car too much on the coil overs causes the control arms to begin pointing up towards the ball joint. This will get you into all sorts of fun scrub issues with the radius changing dramatically as the car compresses.

The issue now was what to do with the front suspension? If you look under the engine, the FT cross member is very close to the bottom on the engine, so we were not just able to "move" the front up as we did in the rear. We were thinking of moving the engine back, behind the crank pulley, and that would allow us to move the cross member up. The problem is the engine would need to go back a good 16"+ to clear. That would mean the trans would be back 16", driver would need to go back 16", pedals, seat, on and on. It would be good, but time and cost prevented us from going this route. We even considered using a 4 banger like the 2AZFE, or 3SGTE, but couldn't part with the 2J power.

The solution was in the front hub.

What we did to start is we made a set of Billet Aluminum, 7075 aluminum uber light weight uprights for a drag customer over seas. Those along with our LCA's dropped almost 22 lbs of unsprung off the front suspension. When we made them we moved the wheel bearing up 1.5" to drop the ft some. We took a set of the Billet uprights (we made 2 sets) and created a fixture that would allow us to cut up and re make a factory set of uprights out of chrome molly steel.

We could have used the aluminum uprights, but we were worried about the side load with 12" slicks up front. A drag car just goes up and down. a RR car sees all sorts of different loads in the suspension. We thought steel was a better bet for long term life.

So here are some pics of the current state of the car. Rebuilt engine, new turbo, LCA's, FT uprights, rear cross member.
Hopefully we can make Button Willow in less than 2 weeks from now.

First Startup after hibernation

Dyno

NASA @ Buttonwillow, chasing LS-powered Lister

[fiveoh2go]

*puts on flame suit*









**Vid of the Coyote swapped LX Notch**

[ViPER1313]

Mint 18k Mile 1989 SHO

[Goodspeed]

Grrr. Always loved the New Edge Saleen cars :twisted:

Justin - PAS has this for sale there in Richmond. Trade the Saablazer?

[JustinG]

i look at the website about once a week and just molest the pictures

[Mike]

i would sex the shit out of that truck.

[D_Eclipse9916]

Win..

[fiveoh2go]

Grrr. Always loved the New Edge Saleen cars :twisted:

Yeah, this car is crazy rare (1 of 1) and a show stopper. It started out as a '04 Terminator Cobra with the limited production factory Mystic paint (color shifting) option. After it was built at Dearborn, it was then shipped out to Saleen in Irvine for all of his goodies to be added to it.

[ScottyB]

Win..

i think i've driven on that road a few times :lol:

you don't see many of those in red. i like blue, but red is amazing.

[Goodspeed]

You may not be aware, but I like Eleanor. A lot. And one day I will have her.

Which is why this photoshoot makes me happy.

Original Thread

Full Photo Set

To start off, this was the most intensive photo shoot I have ever done to date. It spanned a total of 5 days, contained 26 hours of shooting time, and probably at least 3 times that in editing time alone. One shot I have close to 10 hours of editing time into.

Would I do this again for another Eleanor owner? Not a chance in hell. I've done it once and in my opinion thats all it can be done. The concept that the owner wanted was to replicate screen captures from the Gone In 60 Seconds movie - not an easy task when the movie was filmed on the exact opposite end of the country in and around Long Beach CA. Not all the shots are a dead match, but they're close. Some shots were given our own spin, something that looks like it belonged in the movie. Other shots I gave my usual treatment to. As you can see in the shots below recreating a movie still completely goes against my normal method of shooting a car so it was difficult to un-learn what I usually do, and then do something completely different.

Highlights of the shoot: We had a run in with some State Troopers in Albany, I witnessed a Mexican gentleman dry hump the rear quarter panel of the car in South Troy, we had countless people stare, one guy back his car up down a one way street in Troy, a visit from a Government security guard at an old Navy Yard, shooting in 96*F high noon sun, and probably a lot more things I am forgetting.

The hood of this Eleanor is the one used in the movie before he jumps the ambulance, which I am told took two months of constant phone calls to get them to sell. The wheels and exhaust tips also came from movie cars.

[premiershine9]

Eleanor is another reason why I love Chip Foose's work Sucks that Unique went out of business and stopped producing them......

[SlimKlim]

I love Elenore as much as the next guy, but this has to be by far my favorite feature.

[fiveoh2go]

Eleanor is another reason why I love Chip Foose's work Sucks that Unique went out of business and stopped producing them......

Yeah, Chip is a great designer (and a really cool guy in general) but Steve Stanford is actually the guy responsible for coming up with the initial renderings of Eleanor and then further developing them with Foose into the car that eventually hit the silver screen.

[premiershine9]

Eleanor is another reason why I love Chip Foose's work Sucks that Unique went out of business and stopped producing them......

Yeah, Chip is a great designer (and a really cool guy in general) but Steve Stanford is actually the guy responsible for coming up with the initial renderings of Eleanor and then further developing them with Foose into the car that eventually hit the silver screen.

Ahhhhhhhh, thank you for clearing that up, anyone know exactly why unique went out of business? Something about messing around with the vins?

[fiveoh2go]

Anyone know exactly why unique went out of business? Something about messing around with the vins?

The VIN tampering was part of it but Unique Performance's troubles went waaaay deeper than that.


Between the sketchy titling issues, the sub-par build quality of cars built within the last year the business was open, and the fact that
the executives of Unique were never brought up on criminal charges once things started to unravel, this whole ordeal was one big mess.

[ScottyB]

beyond hot

[fiveoh2go]

There's one of these running around the 'Burg in this same color that's caught my eye a couple of times.

[JustinG]

i see at least one a day here.....cool car but it doesn't make it move.

[CaptainHenreh]

You may not be aware, but I like Eleanor. A lot. And one day I will have her.

Which is why this photoshoot makes me happy.

Original Thread

Full Photo Set

So I read that whole thread, and I'm pretty impressed. Goes from a shit roller to a full on eleanor in like a year.

While that car is fine as hell, I am kind of "meh" on "eleanor". I'd love to build a 67 fastback, but I wouldn't build an eleanor...because meh.

*goes and looks for a mustang on craigslist*

[Mike]

right... i don't quite get the fascination for "eleanor." sure, it's a nice looking car, but who wants to spend that kind of coin for something "unique" that's from a movie and that hundreds of other folks also have? then again, i kind of understand that from you, goodspeed.