Sleeper

Definition: a car that has high performance and an unassuming exterior.

Sleeper cars have been around since the 50’s, from stock looking economy cars with large powerful engines coming straight off of the show room floor to nowadays people swapping performance engines into everyday run of the mill Honda Civics. Chad Whitmore’s 2007 Honda S2000 perfectly fits the “sleeper” title and is truly a wolf in sheep’s clothing. 

From the outside, Chad’s car looks like a mildly modified stock S2000 with nothing more then a OEM hardtop, front lip, and coilovers.  The suspension has been upgraded with Buddy Club Race Spec Coilovers and a Digrappa XBrace. Between the factory OEM wheels and the wheel hubs lie Project Kics Wheel Spacers (15mm Front / 20mm Rear). While the exterior and suspension have been tweaked, the real work that has been put into this car lies under the hood. No more than two weeks after Chad purchased this car towards the end of 2009, it was on it’s way from its new home in Virginia Beach to have a turbo kit installed by Inline Pro out of Springfield, Virginia.

Chad’s F22C1 has been built from top to bottom courtesy of Allenbuilt and includes a Micropolished crankshaft, CP Pistons, Inline Pro Rods, AEBS Sleeves, and is running 9:1 Compression. The Inline Pro Turbo Kit that Chad’s car is running is complete with a Precision 58/65 Turbo, Inline Pro Return Fuel System Kit (1st ever done, donor car for kit), Inline Pro Fuel Rail, custom fittings, 2 diff A/N fittings, Fuel Lab fuel pressure regulator, 255cc Fuel pump, braided fuel line for the return, Inline Pro 675cc injectors, and is tuned using Hondata FlashPro system (1st in hands of public, installed & tuned 2 weeks before release date). To top off the kit is the super high flowing extremely obnoxious OEM exhaust.  Helping to get the nearly 450 horsepower to the ground is a Competition 1620 Series Clutch Setup. The only modification that has been done to the interior of Chad’s S2000 is a Ricks Pistol Grip shift knob.

Chad’s car is a perfect example of a sleeper with its stock outer appearance and high horsepower engine. I want to thank him for letting us feature his car this month and look forward to working with him in the future. Also a huge thank you to Natchez Richburg with ProjektPhoto.com for the photos.

Thank you to Speedhunters for putting our article and thanks to everyone that has always and continues to support us! Check out the article below!

ARTICLE

This evening Sumospeed.com photographer Ricky and I went out to Norfolk to shoot Brent Bauer’s Acura Integra for this month’s feature. It was wet and cold but was still a great experience between discussions of plans for the car in the future and a random passerby commenting that it looked like a “Fast and the Furious” car. Quite the contrary, what you see is a  subtle and very well executed exterior sporting a JDM Integra type R front end accented by a VIS carbon fiber front lip and a USDM Integra type R spoiler

Brent has owned this car for nearly seven years and has built it from the mild mannered stock GSR it started it’s life as to the time attacking, magazine featured, show winning, K20 powered machine that it is today. This Integra’s suspension is where we will begin. Brent has replaced nearly all of the stock components with upgrades including Tien SS coilovers, Energy suspension bushings all around, a Skunk2 camber kit, and lower control arms from Function 7. Keeping this thing nice and tight through the corners are a Cusco safety21 cage, JDM Integra typeR and Carbing anti-roll bars with Function 7 anti-roll bar links, as well as a Next Miracle X brace.

The car is rolling on 16×7 Volk CE28N’s wrapped in Falken Azenis. Tucked behind the wheels are Power slot rotors, Spoon 4-pot calipers equipped with Hawk HPS brake pads, and Earl’s stainless steel braided brake lines complete with ACE brake fluid flowing through them.

Within the dark exterior of this vehicle resides a  “light show” as Brent put it, in reference to the Alpine 9856 head unit,  AP1 s2000 gauge cluster and multiple Defi gauges that illuminate as they sweep with a turn of the key. Aiding Brent in piloting this car are a Spoon sports steering wheel, JDM Integra type R DC5 shift knob, and Mugen pedals mounted above USDM Integra type R floor mats. The interior is topped off by Bride Zeta III seats and Takata harnesses.

The heart of this car is really where the magic happens. As mentioned earlier, this car has had a K20A2 installed, replacing the original B18 powerplant. The new engine has had many upgrades including Wiseco 12.5 pistons, IB Spec rods, BC stage 3 cams, TWM individual throttle bodies, 650cc injectors, Knife edge crank, Hasport engine mounts, Brian Crower valves, Brian Crower valve springs, Brian Crower retainers, Brian Crower keepers, Rcrew header, Kteller exhaust piping, Magnaflow muffler, Cometic head gasket, ARP head studs, GReddy oil filter adapter, Koyo radiator, Samco Sport radiator hoses, Walbro 255lph fuel pump, Golden Eagle fuel rail, Russell Performance fittings and lines, Aeromotive fuel filter, AEM fuel pressure regulator, Marshall fuel pressure gauge, Competition Clutch clutch, Competition Clutch flywheel, Driveshaft Shop axles, Custom carbon-fiber oil catch can, Hondata K-Pro ECU, and an Intrga type R transmission.

It was a pleasure going out and shooting Brent’s car and learning a bit about it. Thank you to Brent for letting us do this!

On Saturday, March 20th, we are putting on a game/cruise through Hampton roads that should become an annual event for us. For more information click HERE

To sign up for the event please complete THIS form and return it via email to auto240s14@yahoo.com, select which package you would like to buy, and click “add to cart” button.

Thank you to our sponsors for this event:

Direct Connection Tuning

American Indoor Karting

Stock or Modified Bodyworks

Uno’s Chicago Grill

Longshot’s Darts and billiards

SAGE Autosports

Plaza Azteca

This is the first year of Springfest and hopefully it will be a hit and we can keep doing these. For more info check out the pages in the sidebar to the right.

Here is a photo gallery featuring shots from this past weekend’s Driftwater event. I really wish i could have made it out to this but thanks to Faiz Rahman with Fizzy Status media those of us that didn’t make it out have plenty of coverage. Thanks for the shots Faiz

New gallery from a shoot we did last weekend. I think the pictures turned out awesome!

Huge thanks to Natchez and Jared Houston for the photos and thanks to David, Ian, Joe, and Brandon for coming out and letting us shoot your cars!

Tonight we went out and shot Daniel Bonomo’s KA24DE-T powered 1989 240sx for Sumospeed.com’s December feature car. Daniel picked up this coupe about two years ago in bone stock form and it has come a really long way since that incarnation. We’ve got to of course start at the wheels. The car is running 18×9.5+12 in the front and 18×10.5+15 out back Volk TE-37’s in Takata green.

Working up from there Daniel decided to go with K-Sport coilovers on all four corners of the car and further modified the car’s suspension with ST front and rear sway bars and spl suspension arms (rear upper control arms, toe arms). He also upgraded the front brakes from the small stock calipers to the larger Z32 300ZX units.

The engine bay of the car has also seen quite a bit of attention. The stock KA24DE has been fully rebuilt from top to bottom and received a hefty boost in power via a Precision PT70 turbo setup with 100% custom intake and turbo manifolds with the exhaust exiting through an Apexi 3″ GT spec cat back.

On the exterior of the car Daniel installed a Bings front lip, OEM sideskirts, OEM rear valances, Seibon carbon fiber hood, and a R32 skyline rear spoiler, all sprayed in a gorgeous black/red pearl paint. The interior is simple and clean with leather wrapped factory seats, freshly wrapped center console, door panels, and new carpet. The car is running an Enthalpy tuned ECU, APEXI SAFC-II, and plenty of gauges so he can always keep an eye on what the car is doing.

Despite the frigid temperatures I enjoyed this shoot and also enjoyed looking over Daniel’s car. He definitely has big plans this upcoming year to further modify his car and said his goal is to make into a major magazine within that time.

All pictures are courtesy of Reid Fraser or Ricky T.

pictures from the party are up! click the link to view the rest of the gallery!