OEMplus: V8 TT Wrap-Up!

[OEMplus.com]

As I type this, we are putting the heat shielding and bumper back on our first Heffner TT car. Looking back over the 40+ cars we have modified in the last two years, I can say with absolute confidence that this is easily the most amazing R8 we have ever done. The lag is essentially nil while the turbos spool up and then it just GOES. You have to feather the throttle in first to keep it from breaking loose above 5k and it will spin the tires up to 4th gear when you nail the pedal, but it is docile and easy to handle if you can keep your foot out of it. Truly an incredible machine and hopefully a motivator for buyers trying to decide between low mileage V8 or new V10...

So, a short list of modifications:
- Heffner Performance Twin-Turbo
- OEMplus V10 clutch kit
- Brembo 380mm rotor upgrade
- OEM V10 blades & skirts
- OEM V8 6W9 grill

We have been tuning and tweaking the TT kit for a week now, getting used to the intricate assembly and tight tolerances required for installing a package like this. Definitely NOT something for a home mechanic or DIY to install. The book time is 40 hours and I hope that we'll be able to hit that number with some more practice! All of the Heffner components are top notch, on par with the excellent craftsmanship that goes into the VF SC kits we know and love, so working with the parts was a dream. Routing the lines for coolant and oil is tricky and we have been giving feedback to them on ways to tighten that up (new kits will be even better), but we cannot complain. For the returns you get here, the skinned knuckles and headaches are easily worth it.

To support the increased power, we added a V10 6-Speed clutch & flywheel with a few special modifications. It comes with stronger springs and thicker plates, more than up to the task of the new-found strength. Installation was straight-forward, but pulling the trans is again not for the weak of heart. Luckily this was a manual trans, so we didn't have to deal with the R-Tronic complexity.

Getting up to speed is no longer a problem, so we figured stopping should also be improved. The 380mm kit from Brembo is a no-brainer upgrade and we added that while the car was in the air. A spacer kits pushes the factory calipers out to accommodate the +20mm size of the rotors, which are both directional, drilled and fully floating. Hooray!

Adding the wider V10 sideblades ensured that we got all the air possible to the new filters inside the rear fenders and the V10 skirt were a styling choice. We also added a 6W9 V8 front grill while the bumper was off for the heat exchanger.

Anyway, if you're reading to this point then you are probably waiting for the nitty gritty: We headed over to Gruppe-S in Lake Forest this afternoon and strapped it onto their Mustang AWD dyno. Using 91 Octane fuel, we made three runs and came out with 524hp and 404tq, an increase of 147hp and 122tq! The power was still climbing at 7750 when the throttle cut out, so we are going to play with the limiter and see if we can bump the redline to 8k.

Feel free to ask questions and I will post pictures, dyno charts and a video tomorrow. If you are in the area, the car will be with us until Monday. I cannot offer any ride & drive, but I am happy to walk through the finer points of the work we have done. We have another car queued up for the same package in early June if you cannot make it out this week...

BIG thanks to Jason and Zach at Heffner and to Chris at Brembo.

And if you're really a glutton for punishment, there is an upgrade kit that will push the turbos to 8lbs.

[SDR8]

...The 385mm kit from Brembo...are both directionally slotted...

The pict looks to be of a drilled rotor. According to Brembo's site, the 09.7792.11/21 rotor is drilled and 09.7792.10/20 is slotted. Are they 385mm or 380s?

[OEMplus.com]

Touche, they are 380mm. Sorry.

Yes, these are the drilled version. We went back and forth on them and decided against the slotted so it would match the rears... OP corrected.

[Heffner Performance]

Great post, Rich. Firstly, it was great to work with you and I can't tell you how excited I am to work together in the future and build this relationship. Let's get those dyno graphs up! Oh, and some more pictures. And some video would be nice. We are buttoning up car number 9 today. My personal car will be car number 11. I can not wait!

[Wheelb]

Sick guys ! nice work !

[OEMplus.com]

Working on the content today Jason!

Thanks Ben!

[Vincent]

Working on the content today Jason!

Thanks Ben!

Excellent work Rich. I trust you'll give us all a decent video of this car. I am especially interested in the sound of that tiny Burn muffler.

[Vincent]

Great post, Rich. Firstly, it was great to work with you and I can't tell you how excited I am to work together in the future and build this relationship. Let's get those dyno graphs up! Oh, and some more pictures. And some video would be nice. We are buttoning up car number 9 today. My personal car will be car number 11. I can not wait!

Jason what number am I?

[Heffner Performance]

Vincent, yours will be the 10th one running but the first to have a long list of special modifications!

[OEMplus.com]

Thanks for coming by Steve!