The 2012 Supernationals will be held February 3, 4, & 5 and we are currently finishing up the planning for another great year of customs. Feel free to browse our preliminary information regarding the 2012 Features and Events, and look forward to full show details coming the first week of 2012.

Please click on “Contact Us” and leave us a email and comments about this years show and suggestions. Thanks for attending and your participation.

PLEASE ENJOY DETAILED INFORMATION ABOUT THE FEATURE CARS AND BUILDERS COMING TO THE SUPERNATIONALS 2012, CLICK ON THE PICTURE ABOVE FOR MORE.

Supernationals are Coming – Motiva Performance Will Be There is a post from: Motiva Motorsports

Motiva Performance will be hosting a Dyno Day

When: Saturday, February 11, 2012

Time: 10:00am until 8:00pm

Where: Motiva, 2420 Comanche blvd.

Description: SQC Tuning’s 5th Annual Dyno Day @ Motiva

Click this link Dyno Day, to learn more

Starts at 10am

Measure your Horse Power $40.00 for 3 dyno pulls

• Car Show in front
• BBQ

Pre-Pay at least a week before and get 10.00 off your Dyno
For more info on prepaying call Motiva 505-883-8388

SQC Tuning’s 5th Annual Dyno Day BBQ @ Motiva is a post from: Motiva Motorsports

Dyno Tuning charts on Motiva Performance Site

I have added some post to the Motiva Performance site that includes dyno tuning charts of a bunch of different cars.  These charts, pics and video’s are really something to see.

This shows  you what Motiva Performance tuning is all about.  If you are looking to get the most out of your machine, then Motiva is where you need to take it too.

2010 Camaro LS3 Magnacharged Dyno Tuning Guages

Here are some links to the latest charts and video’s, check them out and come back soon:

• 2010 Camaro Dyno Tune
• Integra E85
• Nissan SR20
• Infinity G35 Dyno Tuned

Come back often to see more cool video’s and dyno charts

Dyno Tuning Charts on Motiva Performance is a post from: Motiva Motorsports

Michael McCarthy is having a highest level cobra build done at Motiva.

Here is his longblock engineered by Motiva Performance to handle in excess of 1200
horsepower.

It features:
-Motiva spec Manley  I-Beam connecting Ross
-Motiva spec forged pistons with total seal rings
-Motiva stainless steel o-ringed cylinder block
-All arp 2000 series hardware
-Motiva valve job on 98 Cobra “B” cylinder heads
-Motiva spec Manley extreme duty Iconel/stainless valves
-Motiva spec Manley extreme duty turbo valve springs

Michael McCarthy having cobra build done at Motiva is a post from: Motiva Motorsports

Maximizing Thrust and Traction in the Water

Jet ski racing update: Now, that we’ve found a little bit of horsepower, we need to start getting El Paso Jet Ski Racer Ricky Trevizo from Point A to Point B faster.  Since Ricky races his Sea Doo RXP in an unlimited class, the race comes not down to not only who makes the most power, but who can maintain traction.

Not unlike our experiences with drag racing, if you apply too much power too fast during jet ski racing, you lose traction. In water, the flow off the impeller of the jet ski “cavitates.” Small voids form in extremely low pressure areas behind the impeller before the water can re-coalesce as an uninterrupted liquid flow, resulting in turbulence and loss of power — with a coincident loss of speed.

Cavitation is the Enemy of Speed

(In submarines, cavitation creates underwater noise — the crashing of the water globules together as they re-coalesce — which lets subs be tracked by sonar. In both high-speed industrial liquid-handling equipment and in racing, cavitation causes metal fatigue around the moving parts exposed to cavitation.)

One of our goals for the test session was to establish baselines for the data so that we could begin to identify what is “normal” and begin adjusting the MoTec ECM to identify when data is outside the normal parameter and eventually take some kind of action.

Our other objectives were: Add electronic boost controller; hard wire fuel pressure/fuel pressure gauge; install new fuel pressure regulator, only if necessary; collect data on new twin impeller design; accurately measure rate of acceleration; implement ambient pressure, spark and fuel correction (this will automatically adjust the tune based on altitude for the lake being raced).

Ricky heads to Lake Dallas to compete in the unlimited runabout class July 2-4.

This Motiva Performance Engineering white paper lays out the results of our testing at Elephant Butte Lake, N.M.

Motiva Picture of the Day

Here’s the Motiva picture of the day, a shot of a section of 4-inch diameter aluminum tubing fabricated by Motiva’s fabricator, Brandon Reed, to ensure that this 900-plus-hp zoo doesn’t blow its boost anywhere but into the engine. That’s part of what makes Motiva special. When we need a part, we can make it. Not just make it but make it as well as it could be made, which is why we say we make the best better.

– Dave Rochau

Trevizo Jet Ski Update: Defeating Cavitation is a post from: Motiva Motorsports

Ferris Bueller Coupe Comes to Motiva

If you’ve ever rented the movie “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,” you’ll remember it featured a 1961 Ferrari 250GT California Spyder. Well, Motiva was called on the other day to perform custom tuning on such a vehicle.

Actually, it wasn’t a genuine Ferrari but a replica created so class-skipping high schooler Matthew Broderick, star of the 1986 movie, and his girlfriend Mia Sara, could blast around in a Ferrari-like vehicle without actually risking a real Ferrari.

(Good thing, because they crash it through a plate-glass window. In a foreshadowing of a crash of another kind, an 11-year-old Charlie Sheen is in the movie, too. He plays a kid in a police station).

2011 Ford GT 5.0 Engine Installed

The car is basically a fiberglass-body knockoff, an amalgam of the best features of Ferrari Spyders from 1958 through 1961, mounted on an MGB frame.

Still, it’s a great-looking machine with classic lines. A Louisiana owner just had one of our favorite engines — you guessed it — a 2011 Ford GT 5.0 engine — installed by a shop in Tucson that knows what we can do with this engine.

That’s how this copy of what is now known as a “Ferris Bueller Ferrari” came through the the doors of Motiva Performance Engineering in Albuquerque for a custom tuning to maximize performance from its non-turbocharged V8.

The first thing was saw was a problem with the intake air flow. The intake was mounted behind the left headlight. Whenever the radiator fan kicked on, it dirtied (or disrupted) the airflow into the intake. That meant squirrelly readings to the intake air sensor. No way could this thing go on the Dyno with a major value missing from the tuning equation. I told the owner and he said fix it. It’s a good thing we have some decent fabricating capability at Motiva, which is why he came to us. We make the best better.

Motiva Cleans Up Intake Airflow

We ran 22.8 inches of intake along the inside of the engine compartment, from about where the shark gills are located on the driver’s side, forward to the intake manifold. The starting point is a natural low pressure area devoid of ram effect and a good spot for mounting the intake to get a clean flow of air and a reliable air sensor reading.

That’s just a small piece of the story of how we helped our client get maximum power from this stylish red convertible that’s bound to turn a few heads when it blasts off from a stoplight back in Louisiana.

Moral of the story: “If it has an engine, we can make it faster.”

–Dave Rochau

Ferrari Replica Air Intake Problem Solved is a post from: Motiva Motorsports

Blasting Across the Waves with 400 hp

Out here in the Wild West it’s so hot and dry the place is burning up, so I thought you’d like to chill with some cool video of Ricky Trevizo’s Motiva Performance Engineering-tuned 400 hp Sea Doo RXP, blasting around Elephant Butte Lake, N.M.

Ricky is in final preparation for racing at Lake Dallas in Texas over the Fourth of July weekend. Motiva Performance Engineering and I are proud to be part of Ricky’s team and give his jet ski ride some serious turbocharged boost.

The video will give you some of the specs.

– Dave Rochau

Video of Ricky Trevizo’s 400 Hp Jet Ski is a post from: Motiva Motorsports

Motiva Doubles Sea Doo RXP’s Stock HP

Motiva Performance Engineering’s R &D project with Ricky Trevizo’s Sea Doo Jet Ski is paying horsepower dividends, so keep your eye on Ricky during the R5WaterXRacing competition at Lake Dallas during the July 4 weekend.

Why? Hear it from Ricky himself: “We were dead in the water with stock 200 hp from my RXP until I teamed up with Dave Rochau and Motiva last October, and we’re now up to 400 hp and headed toward 500 hp,” said Ricky, who races out of El Paso.

“In four days of tuning at Elephant Butte Lake (in New Mexico), I’m seeing more horsepower than I’ve seen since I entered the sport in 2006,” Ricky said.

Motiva ‘Light Years Ahead’ of Other Tuners

Now, Ricky is poised to contend in the R5WaterXRacing’s Rounds 7 and 8 on Lake Dallas. When we recently finished modifications in his jet ski’s electronic control module during our last days of testing on Elephant Butte Lake, and he saw the increased speed, something like another 12 mph, Ricky told me, “World class. I knew you were the way to go.”

“Motiva is light years ahead of other tuners,” Ricky told me.

Now, that’s a compliment, especially since I didn’t know anything about jet skis before I first got Ricky’s call last fall. What I do know as a master engine tuner is turbochargers and turbocharging. Once we got some basic wiring issues straightened out, his horsepower started climbing.

There’s a little more about our collaboration, plus some of our other speed projects at Motiva Performance Engineering.

– Dave Rochau

Motiva Jet Ski Project Reaches 400 Hp is a post from: Motiva Motorsports

The Effect of Boost on Valves

Today’s Motiva Performance Engineering topic is something any performance guy should get a grip on: turbocharging and valve float.

Here’s the problem: Boost pressure into the intake side of a turbocharged engine and you boost the pressure on the exhaust side. What’s the resulting effect on a set of factory-spec valve springs manufactured to handle a mere fraction of all the pushing and pulling force?

How about a sort of oh, no, how to do I stay closed dilemma!!!? Well, welcome to the world of valve float.

Motiva Now Offers Valve Spring Upgrades

Here’s the solution: Motiva Performance Engineering now offers valve spring packages for the 1996-2004 Mustang GT, 1996-1998 Ford Mustang Cobra, 1999-2001 Mustang Cobra, 2003-2004 Mustang Cobra, 2005-2010 Mustang GT and 2007-2010 GT 500.

These packages are designed to work with the increased demand that turbocharger systems put on factory valve trains.

Many times, a customer reinforces the short block on their engine, but the the valve train and cylinder heads are not addressed. Turbocharging systems provide the BOOST in the intake manifold that allows an engine to process more air and therefore make more POWER. But this power is not free.

How to Defeat Turbocharged-Induced Back Pressure

The extra air being passed through the motor will typically “back up” between the exhaust port of the cylinder head and the turbine wheel of the turbocharger. This increase is known as “back pressure” and it pushes back against the exhaust valve. Basically, the only thing keeping the exhaust valve closed is the exhaust valve spring.

Auto manufacturers, by necessity, are always making compromises when designing and producing their power trains. They must always balance cost with reliability.

This usually means that components are designed only to handle the forces seen on a 100 percent stock engine. There is typically a fair amount of engineering margin built in to ensure reliability, but the components provided by the factory certainly aren’t intended to produce 50 to 200 percent more power than the engine left the factory with!

Everyone knows when you increase the power of a vehicle, you can expect that you’ll have to upgrade the drivetrain (clutch, transmission, driveshaft, rear end, etc.), and the short block (crank, rods, pistons, etc.) and many even go so far as to put different camshafts in. But the valve springs are rarely addressed.

On high-boost turbocharged applications, the back pressure will typically be 2:1 — meaning 2 psi of back pressure for every one pound of boost generated.

For example, on my recent engine-tuning tour in Doha, Qatar, with City Car, I came across Ibrahim Alyahia. Great guy. He liked what I did for his car. Ibrahim’s 2007 Mustang GT has a Hellion Power Systems 76mm turbocharger system installed, along with forged pistons and connecting rods.

At 20 psi of boost, this system should be making about 650 hp to the wheels at 5,500 rpm with factory camshafts, intake manifold and cylinder heads.

Well, what happens at high rpm is that Ibrahim’s valves start floating, as the exhaust valves are caught in this no-man’s land pressure cooker of opposing forces of exhaust and intake forces. The poor factory valve springs get overwhelmed. The valves “float” or, precisely, never fully close. Unclosed valves at high rpm mean lost horsepower — or worse!

Take a look at this Dyno graph of Ibrahim’s car before and after. The blue line on the graph is what happened with factory valves. The red line is what happened with Ibrahim’s same setup, but with Motiva valve springs.

Stay with me here: With the stock valve springs, the power lays over and begins falling off at 4,700 rpm, but with the extra capacity of the Motiva valves springs, the power keeps pulling until 6,000 rpm.

Now, that’s what I’m talking about!

Motiva valve-spring packages are made to “drop in” to the factory valve spring locations. The Motiva package includes the springs, titanium retainers and new valve locks, and they can even be provided with the right specialty tools to install the springs.

If you want to see how they go into your block, click here for instructions.

–Dave Rochau

Valve Float During Turbocharging: How to Fix It is a post from: Motiva Motorsports

Finding the Car You Need

Sometimes, this job can be cooler than cool. A call came in the other day: Can you find me a Lamborghini Gallardo Superleggera? Are you kidding me?

No, seriously, one of the guys whose car I tuned during my Doha, Qatar, engine-tuning tour liked what I did so much that he calls Motiva Performance Engineering in Albuquerque and says, I want you to locate one, tune it and ship it to me.

If you’re not into Lamborghinis, the Gallardo (Italian for bull) Superleggera (Italian for super light) started out as 5.0-liter, 523 hp sports car that cost $260,000 when it was unveiled in 2007. Only 172 were produced during a two-year run.

On the Lookout for a Lamborghini Gallardo Superleggera

When the name Superleggera was reintroduced as the LP 570-4 in 2010, it was lighter thanks to more use of composites, and equipped with a 5.2-liter V10 capable of producing 570 hp. It could do 0 to 60 in under 3.4 seconds and topped out at 202 mph.

Motiva hadn’t been in the car locator business  — until now. The idea of serving our clients with the addition of a specialty car locator service has a nice ring to it. The thought of scanning the globe looking for exactly the right car, tune it and ship it anywhere in the world for a client is pretty awesome.

The next call might be for a twin turbocharged 2010 Camaro or a 2011 Ford Mustang GT 5.0. What it better not be is a 1985 Yugo!

I can’t wait to find this client his Lamborghini and at a minimum, add a couple of air boxes to push the performance a little.

– Dave Rochau

Motiva Adds Car Locator Service is a post from: Motiva Motorsports