FabricationLife
 
 

WMD

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WMD usually stands for Weapons of Mass Destruction, but for street racer and fabricator, Greg Leone, it is the name of his fabrication team, race team, and lifestyle.

 Although the crew has not decided on what the acronym definitively stands for, as WMD can stand for many things, their objective is pretty clear: build fun and crazy stuff.

Greg had for a long time wanted to get a hold of a school bus and trick it out. As soon as he got his hands on this yellow short bus, he wasted no time on converting it to a transport vehicle for his gymkhana car, a Nissan 240SX.

The Bus’s transformation took 3 months which consisted of forming the back hatch and ramps and fabricating the front bumper. Though the bus was a “just for fun” build, the car has a little bit more to it.

Greg is a racecar fabricator and has been for years. He and some friends set out to build a practice gymkhana car as something to have ready for whenever there was an event that called for such a thing.

But as the build progressed, the car began to take on a familiar theme for Greg. Previously, Greg had completed a bike build as a tribute to friends and family that he had lost serving in the military oversees.

The military theme carried over to build and infiltrated several other builds Greg and his crew are currently working on.

The Bike features a camo paint scheme, carbon fiber inlays, custom leather work on the seat, integra headlights, a camo NOS tank, and so much more. I didn’t inquire too much on the specs because it was simply a passion build that Greg did for himself and i did not want to reduce the meaning of the build down to its specifications. He took the bike on ride up along the West coast as the final part of the tribute.

 Greg liked the theme on the Bike so much that he applied it to the 240SX and to the overall theme of WMD. His cars feature a camouflage-schemed valve covers as a unifying trait, though each build is severely unique.

Back to the car: Greg’s Camo 240SX features a KA24DE engine, a CXRacing GT35R ballbearing turbo kit, Tein Dampeners for the rear on a cantileaver set up and on the front, stainless steel brake and clutch hardline, VIP Modular VX-S110 Wheels: 18×10.5 on the front and 18×12 in the rear.

I appreciate Greg and his crew taking the time to answer my questions and letting me hang around the garage for  the entire day. It’s always nice to spend time in the presence of people who love doing what they do.

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Greenspeed Sets the Record!

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On November 12-13, the Greenspeed team took a trip to the El Mirage Dry Lakebed in CA for the final Southern California Timing Assc (SCTA) event of the year. On Saturday  the driver, Dave, was very nervous at the start line because it was the first time the truck was going to move while being powered by vegetable oil. However, he took off down the 1.3 mile course and shattered the existing record of 98 mph with a run of 139.882 mph. The next day, the team topped that record with a run of 155.331 mph. The team hopes that that time will be high enough to hold the record until they make it back to the salt flats in August of 2012 for Speed Week. At that point, the team intends to challenge the existing petroleum record of 215.091 mph, with vegetable oil as a fuel.
Greenspeed did actually make the insane deadline of Speed Week 2011. They passed inspection on the last night of the event and made it to the start 50 minutes before the event ended. Given the tight schedule, there was not nearly enough time to get vegetable oil heated prior to getting on course. However, the team was able to make a rookie run and one licensing run though!
After Speed Week, the team brought the truck home, started school the next day, and then started replacing all the duct tape with clamps and made sure everything was in it’s proper place. They put the truck on the dyno and worked to get the injection timing and fuel curve correct with plans of taking the record at World of Speed two weeks later. This time, the crew made it to the salt and passed inspection with plenty of time. At about the half mile mark on the very first run, at a speed of over 140 mph, two cylinders ended up cracking. The next morning, the team packed up and headed home
feeling pretty dejected. They took the engine to Big Twin Diesel for a thorough teardown and inspection. By the end of the day, Big Twin, Northwest Motor Machine, Mahle, and Clevite were ready and willing to help the team have a running engine in time to make it to the salt for one last attempt at World Finals, in another two weeks. So, putting class work on the back burner once again, the team doubled down to get everything ready in time.
The night the team had planned on leaving, with a perfectly running truck, and a brand new vegetable oil system, the event had been cancelled due to 4″ of standing water on the salt flats! In a slight daze, the team  started looking into alternatives (runways, drag strips, anything that might work in order to get the record out of the way). They decided to go for the final SCTA event of the year at El Mirage. It was risky though: a very long drive, questionable weather in the middle of Nov, and a very short course. But as you’ve already read, it turned out well for all.

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200 mph… on veggies?!

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The crew at Greenspeed has built a diesel engine that runs on vegetable oil and has already set the speed record for vegetable oil powered vehicles at 155.31 mph and is now aimed at attaining Diesel Truck Class record of 215 mph.

Their story will air tonight on The Mountain Sports West Network at 5:30 pm Mountain Time and will most likely be on repeat throughout the night. Tune in to get an update and see how the team is doing so far!

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Unique Fabrication

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We sat down with Ben from Unique Fabrication in Irvine, CA to gain some insight into what he does at Unique. Right of the bat, we knew this was going to be a good interview. It doesn’t take long to see that fabrication is not Ben’s job; it’s his passion.

http://vimeo.com/29517494

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We appreciate Ben’s time and the guys at Unique Fabrication for allowing us to film and tour their place.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Trip to The Moon

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We took a trip to the iconic Moon Eyes headquarters in Santa Fe Springs, CA and witnessed the passion behind the fabrication that takes place in the shop. If you’ve ever been near a drag strip, then you’ve seen the Moon Eyes and can probably identify with us on how excited we were to get the opportunity to sit down talk with one of the guys who works there about his day-to-day and to gain a little more insight on the company. We sat down and had a talk with Tim about what he does and why he does it.

http://vimeo.com/29744862

 

 

 

 

 

 

We are extremely grateful to them for allowing us to film and ask questions and sharing a piece of their experience as a racing icon.

 

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