Performance Racing Industry: What’s New and Cool 2024 Edition

We took a look at Engine Ice’s racing coolant additive last year, and this year, they debuted their new Hot Rod coolant. This prediluted/pre-mixed coolant has a little bit of antifreeze, so it can work for cars in unconditioned but not extremely cold environments. It also features a unique additive package that helps resist corrosion without damaging rubbers while meeting ASTM’s performance requirements. It also claims to be less toxic than other ethylene glycol-based products, which is nice if you’re allergic to toxins. I sure am.

And don’t think that “hot rod” means it’s not applicable to your 240SX that’s been sitting and slowly rotting away in a corner, wishing it was back out there on the Formula D circuit like it was in 2004. Wait, who are we talking about again?

Eat Sleep Race has been making fun apparel and items for a long time, and I just found out that they also have a line of children’s books. I cannot wait to get these! You know, for… someone’s kids. Yeah.

I always take a look inside the race cars to see how they are wired and what their electronics setups look like. I’m almost always horrified in some way. But, once in a while, something unique or interesting catches my eye, and not because I think it’s imminently going to catch on fire.

In this case, I noticed this all-in-one signal, light, and horn controller. I found that a company called Racewire Solutions sells them. I would have loved to have this on my SC300, not that I ever need to use the lights or horn or turn signals because my race car is totally not street-legal. Nope, it absolutely does not have insurance and a tag. And a catalytic converter.

OK, no, it really is street-legal.

My SC300. Not this lighting controller. But this lighting controller would sure help.

Shortly after we bought and installed the Bosch Motorsport ABS kit on Project SC300, I saw the announcement of the Delta ABS kit. If you are looking to do an ABS upgrade that sits between used Teves MK60 or other used OEM parts and the full-bore Bosch deal, this is the perfect thing for you.

The Delta ABS unit looks strikingly similar to the Bosch ABS unit and offers many of the same features, too. The Delta ABS provides all of its details via a CAN stream and includes pressure sensors, a rotary position switch, some wheel speed sensors, the yaw sensor, and more.

You’ll still need to do all of your plumbing like I did, but you can get in the door for a fraction of the cost of the Bosch. This is definitely going to be a trick system.

ECU Master has now gotten into the GDI driver game, but they’re doing things a little differently. One of the biggest challenges with GDI has to do with the extremely small timing window for the injection event and understanding the performance characteristics of the GDI injector. It’s a much, much more difficult thing to figure out than port injection. To that end, ECU Master informed me that they have purchased a very, very expensive GDI injector profiling machine and that they’ll be providing customers with settings for many popular GDI engines. That is an absolute win.

For now it looks like the GDI Driver will only work with the ECU Master EMU Pro, but maybe it will be able to work with other ECMs in the future. Although, it’s not sure if the GDI injector profiling information lives in the ECM or in the GDI driver.