Performance Racing Industry 2014: Part 1

,

My favorite part of these shows is the moment I walk in, when I get that instant sensory-overload with too many recognizable companies I tend to gravitate towards.  Hey, to my right is Swain Tech Coatings.  Let’s go check them out.

There’s founder Dan Swain on the left, alongside Richard Tucker on the right, who runs most of the company today.  It was great to see these guys in person for the first time because I’ve been working with Swain Tech in my projects cars for over 10 years!  And they're as nice in person as they've always been on the phone.

I'd recently gotten some stuff Swain Tech coated for our Project M3 and Supra, and it was neat to see a reprinted copy of a test I did on Swain about 10 years ago for European car Magazine, which apparently gets sent out with their products.  In that article I tested a Swain-coated Wiseco forged piston versus a non-coated one, and melted the non-coated one with an acetylene torch while the coated one looked relatively unscathed after the same abuse.  Swain's White Lightning stuff really works!

Here’s a turbo manifold I had Swain Tech coated for an 1100whp Honda you’ll be seeing in the near future.  This is Swain’s “White Lightning” coating, which is their flagship product.  We’ve also got Swain-tested exhaust parts on our Project Supra and Project E46 M3.
 

Cometic gaskets was on display with its cool, sponsored Speed Energy Formula Off-road truck.  With over 600 horsepower, these cars reach some jumps at 100mph and top over 130mph.  Some of these trucks run Cometic head gaskets, which is a leading gasket brand in the off-road racing community.

I’ve used Cometic 5-layer MLS head gaskets in two different BMW M3 turbo engines, one of which was holding over 24 PSI and 550whp, and they rock.  A friend of mine also runs one of their gaskets in his supercharged M3.  They’ve got MLS gaskets for all sorts of applications.

As expected, the AEM Electronics booth was quite popular throughout the weekend.

If there’s one booth I could spend nearly all day in, it’s AEM's.  People think I have a company-crush on AEM, but I love their products and, no, I’m not saying that because we’re partnered with them here at MotoIQ.  Since 2004 I’ve run two Series 1 EMS boxes and two Infinity EMS boxes on three different cars, along with their gauges in a couple of other projects, and between the hardware and customer service, this company is a class act.  Let's check out some of their new stuff on the next page…