Offered by Midwest Spec Racer, Inc.

“You have brought me a car that was the most fun to drive of any car that I have ever driven!”                                    Mark Utecht, BIR Performance Driving School

Great balance and a consistent feel!  The car offers so much grip and stopping power compared to its horsepower class that it is difficult for a driver to get in over his head!

Kit prices begin at $39,500.  For more information, please contact Steve Fenske

Midwest Spec Racer, Inc.

(785) 230-0857

msr.steve@sbcglobal.net

With 23 years of Spec Racer experience, Steve Fenske had some goals in mind when he designed this car:

• easy to change engines or transaxles (one skilled tech can swap either unit in 2 to 3 hours)
• modular design of the radiator section to enable quick repair of front crash damage (the entire front comes off with 2 bolts)
• modular design of the bodywork (15 pieces total allow you to replace only the damaged portion of the body instead of repairing large sections)
• simple suspension upper and lower wishbone designs patterned after dirt modified cars keep replacement costs down
• spindle and upright design use a modular approach with all 4 corners using most of the same fabricatied parts and a Chrysler wheel bearing
• brakes are off the shelf Wilwood components to keep cost down and supply consistent

Some of the features added to the car to make it stand out from others currently in the market:

• large 22 gallon fuel cell so the car can run for 3 hours (can be filled without removing bodywork)
• an option for two seats to be able to take friends/students for a ride or an option for a single, center seat.  Seat options can be easily exchanged.
• uses a currently available production drive train that can be easily obtained at salvage yards or purchased new.
• the engine bay is large enough to accommodate a wide variety of drive trains including V-6 or automatics
• a body design that has a retro early Can-Am look to it
• dry sump oiling system to increase reliability and long runs between oil checks

Our prototype car has been competing in Florida since late 2007 in the hands of Frank Severino of SEI Motorsports. More than 60 track hours have been logged on the car with no chassis, suspension or brake failures. He won the ASR category of the SARRC championship with it during the 2008 season competing successfully against other cars running V6 and V8 engines.  

Check out this link to the G2 turbo being driven at Moroso 11/18!   http://www.midwestspecracer.com/stack/moroso.wmv

The G2 at Hallett at the Comma Series event driven by Shane Stephens.

We are moving into production with a Chevy Cobalt SS ECOTEC engine

In these first pictures the car is still running the turbocharged Toyota engine which was never designed to be turbocharged much less having boost levels well over 8 lbs. The engine was upgraded with aftermarket bottom end parts in order to survive the punishment of the higher turbo output.  We decided we needed to use an engine package that could be used straight from the factory without modification and still withstand the punishment of higher boost levels. Thus the search that led to the Chevy Cobalt SS LSJ engine.

The engine seen here is from a 2006 Chevy Coblat SS originally Supercharged. The ECOTEC LSJ engine is 2.0L features among other things, better rods, pistons and crankshaft than the normal Cobalt 2.2L and 2.4Lengines. The original factory ECOTEC LSJ engine was developed by GM Performance to withstand up to 500 hp without internal modification in order to gain market share in the sports compact tuner world. This makes it the perfect platform to build from by eliminating the original supercharger in favor of a Garrett aftermarket turbo package.

In the two pictures above you can see the Garrett turbo and exhaust manifold with oil and water cooling hoses. The flywheel and clutch will be replaced by aftermarket lightweight racing components to handle the high output levels. The serpentine belt driven dual stage oil scavenge pump can be seen below mounted where the A/C compressor would have been on a street application. The oil pan is replaced by a custom cast aluminum dry sump pan which offers a pass through for the pressure stage internal pump pickup. All 3 engine pictures show the accessories which can remain attched to the engine during engine removal/installation. They include exhaust manifold & turbo, oil cooler/heat exchanger, alternator, starter, oil scavenge pump, intake manifold/throttle body & crankshaft pulley. The engine lifts straight up without disturbing the transaxle.

The GM engine and transaxle package fits nicely into the frame and actually allows for easier complete engine swaps than the original Toyota package.

The picture below shows the serpentine belt drive running the oil scavenge pump in place of the A/C compressor. The oil pan fitting to supply intake oil to the factory pressure stage oil pump can be seen at the lower left of this shot.

The production body molds for the entire car have been completed. We started at the front and worked our way to the back. I am completely satisfied with the rear 2/3 of the car but some revision to the front parts is in the works to get a better fit and more secure attachment. A slight revision of the front shape will be hapening during that process. We have combined a few parts to bring the total number of separate body parts down to 15 from the original 19. Below you can see some of the production fiberglass fitted to a chassis.  Check out this link to revisions to the front bodywork (posted 7/9/09).

There is a radiator cooling duct vent on each side of the car along with an optional left or right side fuel filler opening. The main side panels are split into a front and back half. The top of the center section is a separate removable piece on each side to gain access to the oil filter and fuel pump service if needed. The cockpit side panels have been combined with the foreward engine bay side panels and normally remain bolted to the chassis. The revision of the front will yeild four separate parts three of which will be bolted to each other to form a one piece nose leaving the portion above the pedals as a single part that can be removed by itself.

Each rear fender can be individually removed for wheel/brake service. The engine cover be removed individually to gain access to vital engine components.

Assembly of the first 5 customer cars is underway. The powder coated frames being fitted with sheet metal panels.

We keep the cars on rolling stands so we can move each one into position to work on it.

The frame pieces are accurately and efficiently manufactured using computer assisted machines.  To do that, we have generated a complete set of engineering drawings.  Here is a link to the engineering drawings set up in an animated fly-by loop! 

The frame comes powder coated. The side crush boxes are bolted to the main frame, makes repairs a bolt on affair, no welding.

We are using Wilwood brake components that are widely available. A 4 piston aluminum caliper with a 12.19" ventilated rotor attached to a custom aluminum hat. The brake pads on the first car have lasted more than 45 hours, and the rotors are just now showing measureable wear. Brake effectiveness and low wear, what a combination!

All 4 corners use a double adjustable coil over shock. No special tools needed for adjustments, just turn the knobs.

The spindle and bearing upright assembly is a fabricated item using a Chrysler FWD wheel bearing cartridge attached to various aluminum and steel components which are mostly in common for all 4 corners. You don't have to have a press at the track to change a wheel bearing. Use a wrench instead.

This is the front of the car showing the front radiator/crush box, and bumper, umm I mean fender mount. The radiator is a common Jeep part, local auto parts stores keep them on the shelf. If you have damage to the front, you have two bolts and two hose clamps to undo, then you can put on the new front radiator/crush box.

The fuel cell has a filler plate on both sides. The fuel pump is located behind this plate for easy access.  You only have to remove the little round plate to gain access to the fuel pump. A second fuel pump is an option, as is filler ports on both sides.

Upper control arms are adjustable aluminum tubes that allow for caster and camber changes by simple tube rotation. We have developed a chart that makes it easy to change both at the same time by looking at the cross reference table. Notice the driver adjustable blade style anti-sway bar.

Lower control arms are one piece fabricated steel with the steering adjustment on the same plane as the control arm so toe changes are not needed during camber or caster changes. You can see the adjuster blade of the anti-sway bar in this picture too.

This is the intercooler for the turbo option. An exhaust header occupies this area of the normally aspirated version.

The adjustable links for the upper control arm and the toe adjuster link for the lower control arm are shown here.

The driver controls clamp on to the frame. Move the parts around and you have a center seat car for one or right hand driver position for the two seat version of the same car.

Multiple height locations for the shoulder belts, When you change seats and or drivers, you can have the belts at different hieghts. It is possible to have two different sets of shoulder belts at different heights at the same time. How is that for a endurance driver change feature!

This is the sliding pedal box assembly.  Throttle, brakes, clutch and dead rest pedal all move to accomodate drivers of different sizes. You loosen four bolts, slide the pedal assembly and then tighten four bolts. One tool, 60 seconds, the  job is done.

The shifter and seat mount are a key part that bolts in when you want to go from two seater to singler seater. The shifter  has two positions, one position is a little farther forward than the other to better fit drivers of different sizes.

Up front, protected and easy access, to the fire system, battery and oil tank.

The steering rack, shame this work of art is hidden behind the radiator.

The suction oil cooler is mounted in the left side pod in the air stream of the left side radiator exhaust.

The new spindle/upright design is crafted of modular aluminum and steel components and will save  two pounds on each corner of the car! Using this upright design allows us to replace crash damaged spindle parts without replacing the entire upright. Just a couple of the damaged bolt on components will be sacrificed in most cases. One benefit of this design is not being tied to OE manufactured spindles and brakes which are heavier and eventually can become obsolete. Another benefit is being able to engineer exactly the spindle geometry we needed or even slightly tweak those specs later by replacing one or two components if early testing shows a need for change. We are using a 4 piston Wilwood Dynalite caliper seen it the pictures.

This is the same piece with the brake rotor & hat installed. All of the aluminum pieces of the upright assembly and the brake hat will be anodized black for production. The steel bridge bracket of the upright will be zink gold like the bolts. The monoball ball joints seen in the picture below will be part of the upper and lower control arms but are shown here to give you an idea of how we are attaching them to the upright. The steering arm is a bolt on bracket attached to the two holes seen in the aluminum plate just below and to the right of the lower ball joint. This location allows for no toe changes required when adjusting camber since the camber will be adjusted from the upper control arm. Bump steer change due to chassis adjustments will be minimal due to this location as well but any needed bump steer adjustment will be done at this easily accessible location.

The brake rotor is a 12.19” ventilated disc with a bolt on aluminum hat (bottom of left stack). These brakes are huge compared to the 10” ventilated rotor (middle of stack) on our previous SRT which already worked very well. Compare that to the solid 9.25” rotor of the old Sports Renault brake package (top of stack) that our version 1 car replaced. The fact that the brake, suspension and chassis systems of this car are way over built lends itself to the possibility of future drivetrain options that double or triple the current power and still easily fit into the large engine bay.

Front suspension geometry and layout is shown in the above diagram. I have been using Bill Mitchell’s Win-Geo3 software to develop this aspect of the car on paper before moving on to the real thing. The rear is shown below.

Click here for a PDF of the upper suspension drawn in to the frame.

Click here for a PDF of the lower suspension drawn into the frame.

Here is a link to the engineering drawings set up in an animated fly-by loop!  http://www.midwestspecracer.com/stack/cad_g2.wmv

We are currently accepting reservations with deposits for the second batch of 10 car kits. The current kit price is $39,500.00 (less battery, body paint, assembly & fluids). We have already taken deopsits for the first 10 and production is well underway.  I am also open to inquiries from qualified shops wishing to be re-sellers of this car and it's associated service components. My most keen interest in dealers would be from shops that are already operating at or near member owned country club style tracks.

If you have any questions about this project feel free to contact Steve Fenske on his cell phone (785) 230-0857 or e-mail msr.steve@sbcglobal.net

Standard features of the car include: (subject to change)

*  2.0L16 valve, GM ECOTEC LSJ all aluminum engine which comes stock with stronger bottom end components

*  350 hp intercooled turbo option available.

*  Serpentine belt driven dry sump scavenge oiling system with 9 qt. capacity. Uses factory pressure stage.

*  Water/oil heat exchanger style oil cooler on engine pressure stage.

*  Air style traditional oil cooler on scavenge side.

*  Engine management system by AEM with built in loop recorder for easy diagnostics.

*  Close ratio 5 speed  Cobalt SS transaxle with limited slip diff.

*  STACK dash system with timing & data logging upgrade options.

*  Huge Wilwood racing brakes on purpose built spindle assemblies.

*  Wilwood pedal assembly on slider bracket for easy driver size adjustments.

*  Cockpit adjustaqble brake bias.

*  4-wheel double wishbone independent suspension.

*  Outboard mounted double adjustable coilover shocks.

*  Cockpit adjustable rotary blade style sway bars front and rear.

*  Team Dynamics Racing Wheels, 16x7 front and 17x9 rear.

*  Hoosier DOT Racing R6 Radial tires, P205/45ZR-16 front and P275/40ZR-17 rear.

*  Powder coated frame with a choice of colors. All loose steel parts are already plated.

*  Splitter in front & wing in back.

*  Large capacity 22 gallon fuel cell for endurance racing.

*  Modular designed body for better fit and easy affordable crash replacement.

*  Provision for optional headlights in front fenders for endurance racing

    This is no conversion, but a whole new car.  I have drawn from my personal experience and knowledge gained from 28 years of road racing involvement as well as the expertise of the contacts I have made along the way. Our first major engineering project was the Toyota conversion package to the old Sports Renault used exclusively  by the members at the Aspen Sports Car Club. We called thiat car the Generation 1 Sports Racer Toyota. The Generation 2 car is wider, longer, and taller than the generation 1 car.  It is still built like a tank for safety and a long service life without having to spend a lot of money to repair or maintain it. The longer and wider cockpit accommodates those really big drivers or can seat two!  The two seater would make it a popular car for track days, corporate days, or driving schools. In some of the later pictures you will see how easily adjustable the driver controls are to fit driver preference. We are working with various sanction groups to create a spec class or series for the car as well.

The car is homologated in SCCA as a CSR or ASR with the standard engine and ASR only with the turbo option.