PIRATED VIDEO FROM EPISODE: https://youtu.be/u5v0XYFMMus
So until Monday we're still on a limited "gag order", so what I can share now is somewhat limited for a few more days. The 2nd part of the build episode for Aaron's E36 M3 challenge car is on this Monday, 3/6/2017, at 8 pm CST. Check it out!
This Fast-n-Loud shoot deal happened pretty fast. Aaron turned in his notice to Gas Monkey right as they had kicked off a "build off" between Fast-n-Loud and Street Outlaws. They proposed a 2nd build-off for Aaron vs Farm Truck + AZN from the same show, and he jumped at it - and immediately called me at Vorshlag. This was about mid-January of this year.
As Jason said, we know AK from Pikes Peak, local Cars & Coffee events, Optima events, etc. He's a super nice guy, not an egomaniac like some TV stars, and an accomplished racer and builder outside of the TV show stuff.
So he told me about the shootout, what events they had planned (2 of the 5 events are all we knew about: autocross and drag race). We had talked before about our winning build for the $2011 GRM Challenge, and I told him what I thought would make the most sense for the Discovery shootout: E36 LS1. He already knew what I was gonna say, heh.
An in-house E36 LSx build we are doing for a customer, which was filmed extensively for the show - but never shown
On Friday night he needed to find a car and round up the swap parts immediately, so I told him to call me back in 5 minutes. I found him a cheap E36 M3 rolling chassis and rounded up a swap kit with headers from the car above in our shop. They filmed at our shop Monday morning, so we thrashed all weekend making the shop as clean as possible.
We had to thrash over 24 hours to finish the dual 3" into 4" exhaust for our customer's E36 LS1, then yank the headers to give to Aaron
He did get $15,000 from Discovery Channel for the build, but he and the Street Outlaw guys had an understanding that their builds might cost more - obviously labor was not counted, which can amount to a lot. They all have a bit of pull with some vendors and can often get free sponsored tires, wheels and the like. And they both had some "cool parts laying around" that... well.... people at that level tend to have. Like engines, transmissions, etc. No, you cannot build a fast, clean, and good handling E36 LS1 for $15,000 all in!
But at Vorshlag "We sponsor nobody". He paid real money for the car, our LS1 swap kit parts, and a rushed built set of MCS TT1 coilovers and "Vorshlag stuff" to go with it. He even bought four E46 M3 fenders from us to make the flares to clear 315mm tires. So yea, a big chunk of that "$15,000" was spent here at my shop. Realistically its about $25-30K worth of car and parts, plus lots of labor. And he could lose it all if he doesn't win 3 outta 5 events... but so could Farm Truck and AZN. Neither team wants to lose their investment, or the $15K from Discovery. The challenge is real.
Aaron already had an LS engine laying around (who doesn't, hehe), some mystery T56 from another project (nobody knows what that bastard "T56" trans really was, but it was weird and caused some "problems"), and he had to compromise on a few items that he could get sponsored and/or built to order super fast, like the wheels & tires.
We BEGGED him to use Hoosier A7s (see a 315mm Hoosier sitting next to me in the image above - we talked a lot about tires on camera, which you will likely never see), as they are DOT legal and that's the minimum that the two teams agreed to, but the budget just wasn't there so he had to "get what he could get". The timeline was also pretty brutal... he had to build the car in 3.5 weeks (not the 6 weeks said on the show), including custom bodywork and paint (it is a TV show, after all), which is nuts. This is a 6+ month build at most shops, working normal 40 hour weeks. And he built all of it in his home garage, mostly by himself! He bought almost everything we make for the swap, to save time, and we had to rob the headers off a customer's car (who approved) to meet the crazy timeline.
So yea, the $15K car + parts budget isn't 100% real, but if he loses the 3 outta 5 shootout he loses the car, all the labor, and his engine/trans. So the risk is very real.
There was 6 hours of TV footage shot at Vorshlag, but we got 3 minutes of air time. Which is to be expected, and I'm happy with how it turned out, in any case.
We will talk more about the results after the 2nd part of the 2 part buildoff episode airs, 3/6/2017.
Cheers,
So until Monday we're still on a limited "gag order", so what I can share now is somewhat limited for a few more days. The 2nd part of the build episode for Aaron's E36 M3 challenge car is on this Monday, 3/6/2017, at 8 pm CST. Check it out!
This Fast-n-Loud shoot deal happened pretty fast. Aaron turned in his notice to Gas Monkey right as they had kicked off a "build off" between Fast-n-Loud and Street Outlaws. They proposed a 2nd build-off for Aaron vs Farm Truck + AZN from the same show, and he jumped at it - and immediately called me at Vorshlag. This was about mid-January of this year.
As Jason said, we know AK from Pikes Peak, local Cars & Coffee events, Optima events, etc. He's a super nice guy, not an egomaniac like some TV stars, and an accomplished racer and builder outside of the TV show stuff.
So he told me about the shootout, what events they had planned (2 of the 5 events are all we knew about: autocross and drag race). We had talked before about our winning build for the $2011 GRM Challenge, and I told him what I thought would make the most sense for the Discovery shootout: E36 LS1. He already knew what I was gonna say, heh.
An in-house E36 LSx build we are doing for a customer, which was filmed extensively for the show - but never shown
On Friday night he needed to find a car and round up the swap parts immediately, so I told him to call me back in 5 minutes. I found him a cheap E36 M3 rolling chassis and rounded up a swap kit with headers from the car above in our shop. They filmed at our shop Monday morning, so we thrashed all weekend making the shop as clean as possible.
We had to thrash over 24 hours to finish the dual 3" into 4" exhaust for our customer's E36 LS1, then yank the headers to give to Aaron
He did get $15,000 from Discovery Channel for the build, but he and the Street Outlaw guys had an understanding that their builds might cost more - obviously labor was not counted, which can amount to a lot. They all have a bit of pull with some vendors and can often get free sponsored tires, wheels and the like. And they both had some "cool parts laying around" that... well.... people at that level tend to have. Like engines, transmissions, etc. No, you cannot build a fast, clean, and good handling E36 LS1 for $15,000 all in!
But at Vorshlag "We sponsor nobody". He paid real money for the car, our LS1 swap kit parts, and a rushed built set of MCS TT1 coilovers and "Vorshlag stuff" to go with it. He even bought four E46 M3 fenders from us to make the flares to clear 315mm tires. So yea, a big chunk of that "$15,000" was spent here at my shop. Realistically its about $25-30K worth of car and parts, plus lots of labor. And he could lose it all if he doesn't win 3 outta 5 events... but so could Farm Truck and AZN. Neither team wants to lose their investment, or the $15K from Discovery. The challenge is real.
Aaron already had an LS engine laying around (who doesn't, hehe), some mystery T56 from another project (nobody knows what that bastard "T56" trans really was, but it was weird and caused some "problems"), and he had to compromise on a few items that he could get sponsored and/or built to order super fast, like the wheels & tires.
We BEGGED him to use Hoosier A7s (see a 315mm Hoosier sitting next to me in the image above - we talked a lot about tires on camera, which you will likely never see), as they are DOT legal and that's the minimum that the two teams agreed to, but the budget just wasn't there so he had to "get what he could get". The timeline was also pretty brutal... he had to build the car in 3.5 weeks (not the 6 weeks said on the show), including custom bodywork and paint (it is a TV show, after all), which is nuts. This is a 6+ month build at most shops, working normal 40 hour weeks. And he built all of it in his home garage, mostly by himself! He bought almost everything we make for the swap, to save time, and we had to rob the headers off a customer's car (who approved) to meet the crazy timeline.
So yea, the $15K car + parts budget isn't 100% real, but if he loses the 3 outta 5 shootout he loses the car, all the labor, and his engine/trans. So the risk is very real.
There was 6 hours of TV footage shot at Vorshlag, but we got 3 minutes of air time. Which is to be expected, and I'm happy with how it turned out, in any case.
We will talk more about the results after the 2nd part of the 2 part buildoff episode airs, 3/6/2017.
Cheers,
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