Moroccan Gold Imports

Time for an update…

RWheelz — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 21:21:28 +0000

I see I have neglected my site over these harsh winter months. It has been incredibly cold and snowy this winter in Billings. The S2000 did not leave the garage for over 6 weeks- from Thanksgiving to after the New Year. The STI is currently riding on Michelin Pilot Alpin tires in a 235/45-17, mounted on Gold Rota DPT’s (17×9 +42). The tire installer commented that V-rated snow tires are “completely unnecessary” and that I wasted my money. Little does he know, these Pilot Alpin’s are undoubtedly the best snow tire I have ever driven on! I purchased them in early December after the STI was stuck at the bottom of my driveway for four full days. Apparently, AWD is not enough. The Kumho XS I was running were hard as bricks in below zero weather, and the 275mm width made them float on top of the snow. I can’t wait for spring….

Big Sky Subaru Track Day at Lewistown

RWheelz — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 15:29:32 +0000

I decided to take the Honda this time around. The track surface was “chip-sealed” the week before the event and the surface was atrocious. No traction at all, and to make it worse my car is now covered in little flecks of this stuff. There was a great mix of cars. Sadly, this was the last track day of the season (there is one autocross left this weekend). Here are some photos!

More pictures from Solo Nationals

RWheelz — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 23:48:22 +0000

: Love the MR2s!

: More vettes than you could shake an import at

: Too many cool cars to count

SS cars, always an impressive mix

I didn't expect to see this!

Nicest ass in the paddock

Another look at SS

For those of you that didn’t hear…

RWheelz — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 20:24:31 +0000

I absolutely had my ass handed to me at Solo Nationals! What can I say… apparently a relatively stock car cannot compete in a built-motor class after all, even with the legendary RWHEELZ at the helm. Nationals was truly awe-inspiring. My parking spot in the paddock must have been a half mile from the courses, and just about every person there brought some kind of pit bike, or at the very least, a bicycle, to get around on.

Miles and miles of smooth concrete made for loads of grip, much more than I am used to at the Billings autocross venues, to be honest. My first run resulted in a big slide by the third cone on course, and I was only clean one one of three runs on the west course on day one. It rained the morning of day two and our times on the east course suffered as a result (we didn’t have it near as bad as SS – those guys had to run in pouring rain and deep puddles, half of their runs were DNF’s and it was rather amusing to watch!). The street mod class consisted of some pretty insane builds, and there was no doubt I did not fit in with the pack. I had an awesome time though! I would like to go back and spend the whole week there just watching the run groups and meeting people.

Unfortunately, I got very few photos and NONE of my own car. You are either busy running or busy working, and I was all alone, so what can I say? I do have in-car video from the GoPro camera, I will edit it and post it up soon.

Car is ready to go

F430 with cone marks!

SS in the grid for the west course

Sun beating down on the east course

Map of the east course:

Solo National Championships – Lincoln, Nebraska

RWheelz — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 14:48:59 +0000

It is confirmed- I am heading to Nebraska to compete in the Solo National Championships next month! It is apparently quite an event, drawing more than 1200 racers from all over the country. I will be competing in the STI in the “Street Mod” class. For tires I picked up a set of race rubber- Hankook Z214 (C70 compound) in a 275/40-17.

Thumbs up to MGI sponsor Subydude at Wheeldude.com, for helping me out with another set of wheels to mount the slicks on! I will have some photos up of the sponsor magnets I had made up at Solo Graphics here in Billings next week.

Lewistown track day with Big Sky Subaru

RWheelz — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 13:21:29 +0000

Here are some video clips and pictures from our track day in Lewistown. There was a good turnout and track time was essentially unlimited. It is about the best bang for the buck track time you can get, and that includes SLMP. The STI ran strong all day, big thumbs up to Clark for the tune! The magnets stayed on the car even at speeds of 130mph.

This is the crew stopped along the highway on the commute to Lewistown:

Here is a video of most of the cars doing fly-by’s near the “pits”:

Here is a lap in the STI during the morning session, where they had an autocross course setup on the venue’s skidpad:

A video of a ride along in the STI taken by a passenger:

Afternoon session (open track) in the STI:

A local character who goes by the name of DOUGY FRESH, doing what he does best in his Subaru RS with a WRX powertrain swap:

120mph fly-by in the STI:

httpv://s51.photobucket.com/albums/f387/ZipDriveX/Lewistown/?action=view¤t=CIMG1008.flv

The course:

A clip of the STI turning onto the front straight:

http://s51.photobucket.com/albums/f387/ZipDriveX/Lewistown/?action=view¤t=CIMG0966.flv

Listen to those Kumho tires squeal!

http://s51.photobucket.com/albums/f387/ZipDriveX/Lewistown/?action=view¤t=CIMG0975.flv

Another shot of the course at Lewistown:

To put this into perspective- I can come out of turn 5 in 3rd gear and hold WOT all the way until I brake for turn 10, hitting right around 130mph on that back section in 6th gear.

And check out the backdrop- beautiful scenery up that way…

Legend has it that Lewistown is an old bomber base from the 50’s that went defunct. A few years alter, the Montana DOT modified it into a driver’s training facility. I am told it is around 2.2 miles in length and the fastest cars that run there run lap times in the 1:30’s. We did not have timing equipment so I am not sure what the STI was turning.

Sponsor magnets arrived

RWheelz — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 18:33:03 +0000

Clark (ClarkTurner.com) has agreed to keep tuning the STI in exchange for a little advertising. Since the stickers I used for One Lap were so difficult to remove, and I don’t want to get pulled over at every other stoplight, I decided to have some magnets made up at Solo Graphics here in Billings. They have an in-house designer who did a great job placing the text over the Subaru logo. I am attending a track day at Lewistown with the Big Sky Subaru club in 2 days, and am curious to see how well these magnets hold on at top speed! I will have pictures and video from the track day up next week. They are supposedly going to have drifting and drag racing in addition to the road course.

Motor Trend Video #1 is live!

RWheelz — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 06:12:40 +0000

Check it out, Motor Trend has their first video of the 2009 OLOA event coverage up on youtube- Team MGI can be spotted a few times:

They also posted the story here: http://www.motortrend.com/one_lap_of_america/top_stories/112_0908_2009_tire_rack_one_lap_of_america_coverage/index.html

For anyone interested, they have a 10 page spread coming out in Motor Trend magazine as well, available July 1st (August issue).

Team MGI’s Dominating Performance at Gainesville Dragway

RWheelz — Thu, 28 May 2009 23:57:21 +0000

I have ONE more video to make, the overall One Lap video, that will have a lot of clips mixed in and possibly some music, if I am feeling ambitious that day. That will be the final One Lap of America 2009 Blog post from Team MGI. Over the next few months, the site will transition into more of a traditional website, with links to blogs for every event we attend.

Please email with any and all feedback!

And now for the long-awaited, and much-anticipated, Gainesville Dragway video. Watch Team MGI pick off the competition one by one! Covette’s, GT3’s, motor swaps- IT DON’T MATTER NONE!!!! We will take on anyone, anytime, anywhere… that’s how we roll at Moroccan Gold Imports.

Fast facts and trip data

RWheelz — Tue, 19 May 2009 23:01:33 +0000

We travelled almost 6400 miles in total (my intial estimate was just over 6500).

We burned at least 420 gallons of gas.

The worst tank of gas averaged 8.28 mpg (this does not include on-track racing, which I assure you is even worse). Those of you who have driven across southeast Montana can make an educated guess at how fast I must have been going to burn this much fuel with a 4 cylinder! I got 8.48 mpg on the following tank going 10mph slower. However, I made it to Walker’s Grill in time for Mother’s Day brunch.

Cost of gas for these two tanks = $60; Brownie points scored with mother-in-law = PRICELESS

PAY ATTENTION KIDS, THIS IS MONEY WELL SPENT!!!!!!!

The best tank of gas was somewhere in the high 20’s mpg (Simon driving, and he could have done better but I was bitching at him to go faster the entire time! I think he could actually pull off 30mpg if I let him, which is miraculous in the STI considering 850-cc fuel injectors and a rich tune).

The maximum speed on the trip was 142 mph as registered by the Garmin Nuvi GPS.

The total driving time (keeping in mind that the GPS has to be on to keep an accurate record, and it mostly was) was just over 78 hours.

Hotels and food turned out to be cheaper than expected. We had a cooler and bought groceries whenever we could, both to save some money and to eat a little healthier. I am positive we consumed at least $25 worth of chocolate and candy. The hotels were not exactly top tier- STAY AWAY FROM THE “EXECUTIVE INN” in Kershaw, SC. It was the cheapest at $55.50 per night, but I think it was also the least value for the dollar. I doubt any executive has ever stayed in that place. I cannot lie- Scott and I were both a little fearful, and we breathed a huge sigh of relief when some other one-lappers pulled into the lot that night.

That is all I have for now!