Hardcore Gary

Having been silent and watching the trash talk about Hardcore Motorsports and Ronnie Duke for some time now, I felt it was time to introduce ourselves and offer our perspective on what the future holds.

First, who are we? Hardcore Motorsports is a 50,000 sq ft speed shop in Flint Michigan. With 10,000 sq ft of retail showroom, and 40,000 sq ft of state of the art shop including fabrication, machining, engine and chassis dyno, we are Michigan's largest performance center. We handle parts from over 500 manufacturers and can modify your existing car or build you a turn key car from scratch.

Now, the race team. Our nine member proffesional race team has a resume that reads like a who's who of motorsports proffesionals. Team owner and company CEO Ronnie Duke has a long history as an automtive enthusiast. With a pedigree that includes the first Supercharged 8 second LS1, and numerous show winning appearances as well as extensive national media exposure. Most recently Ronnie and the team eclipsed the current LS1 ET record witn an 8.11 pass in Bradenton Florida. Company General Manager and Lead Engineer, Jim Stewart Sr. brings 30 years of engine development and test experience to the team as well as years of Nascar, Busch and Arca, racing experience with many of that sport's leading teams. Marketing Director, Gary Penn, brings seven years experience in product development and marketing for GM Performance Parts and nearly 10 years experience in automotive engineering, much of which with turbo and SC boosted engines. NHRA Licensed Driver Jason McNeil, is also Hardcore's lead fabricator with a formal education in racing chassis development and build, and comes to us from the former team of the late Steve Grebek. Another former Grebek team member, Brett Templeton, the teams crew chief and chassis man is also a fabricator at Hardcore. Mike Litwaitis, a 25 year fabricator with Indy 500 winning Indy team experience, also serves as the team cook...and we eat good. Jimmy Stewart Jr., Hardcore's lead technician serves as engine man on the crew and brings years of drag and circle track racing experience to the team. Mark Fryfogle, another skilled Hardcore technician, backs up Jimmy on the engine program and supports the team in all aspects of between round prep. "Muck" McNeil, Jason's father, pilots the so called "Nascar Hauler" as well as serves as a valued team member, preping and maintaining the race cars. Muck brings years of drag racing experience to the team. All in all, the Hardcore team has experience which rivals the best teams in our industry, and we come to play.

For 2005 the primary goal of the Hardcore team is to be the fastest, period. We have the resources for the necessary research and development and are committed maintaining our "Fastest Status." The team will debut one new car, and a re-fitted version of the now legondary convertible car as well the test mule t-top car, which recently set the record. We are a business and make our living serving customers like you and are willing to share our experience and knowledge, call, visit our website or stop by the shop, we'd like very much to include you in the Hardcore family. However, when the green light's on, all bets are off and we're racing, but stop by our pit after for a coke and some words of consulation.

Have a merry Christmas, a happy New Year and be safe, see you at the track.

Gary Penn
Marketing Director
Hardcore Motorsports
5200 Clio Rd
Flint, MI 48504

ph. 810-787-2960

www.weracehardcore.com

Caveman

iTrader: (2)

That sounds like an impressive group of guys working under one shop. Congrtas on the new 8.11 record, you`ll probably have to step it up next year to keep the record from Mat Harlan. Is Hardcore planing on running the U.S. Street Nats in Bradenton on Jan 27-30.
Good Luck, Dave

DERTY

Gary, Welcome and glad to see you make a post here. The trash talking usually comes with the game. I see it on just about every message board. Hopefully we can hear more first hand from you guys in the future. Good luck in Bradenton at the end of the January (if you're going to the shootout there). Also, any info on when or where you plan to debut the new car?

gator's 99TA

iTrader: (2)

no doubt the team is made up of top notch people or the cars wouldnt perform like they do. the crew is truely professional. the only issues some have are with Duke's past history. i dont think that speaks for the team or the company and their tremendous abilities.

BIGBOS

Sounds like a quality team you got there........any pics of the shop setup?

Jammer

iTrader: (1)

Good to hear from you guys at Hard Core. Please try to stay active in here. Were not after trade secrets, but sharing the good and bad with us helps this community as a whole.

frcefed98

iTrader: (16)

what jammer said, we all can use help in the S/C'ed and FI community here. No trade secrets just friendly advice if we are doing something that isn't benefical to our goal of going faster. The more info and advice you can send our way the better, just makes the FI LS1 community stronger and faster as a whole, and I think thats the best way to make the haters into supporters.
Welcome and don't be strangers.
...nice to see a s/c'ed ATI car on top
J

smokinHawk

iTrader: (48)

ok so what did your TA have in it to run the 8.11 we are all guessing, 6.0 block or C5R?

granitemonkey

that would be my guess

CAT3

iTrader: (9)

Other than sharing some FI and general LSx building tips, good luck on keeping the title, and welcome.

Phoenix 5.7

iTrader: (7)

maybe yall should become a sponsor

NumberOneSled

iTrader: (1)

I think they are.

granitemonkey

*cough* they are *cough* https://ls1tech.com/forums/sponsors.php?pp=25&page=2 about the 7th down

Phoenix 5.7

iTrader: (7)

ok, didn't know, i only saw that Hardcore Gary is only a registered user and not a sponsor as his title says

Nine Ball

iTrader: (38)

Sponsor status updated. Hardcore has been a sponsor on the site for about a year now. I'm glad Gary posted up the shop info, and I hope they become more active on the site. We could definitely learn something from the crew that maintains the quickest LS1 on the planet.

Big Mike

iTrader: (4)

Lets hope Gary isn't a "one post wonder". As mentioned above, having them here is beneficial to all of us.

OSR 1

after reading that I feel very lucky that hardcore has blesed this site with all that
knowledge.
just 1 question if you have all that expericense and a state of the art shop why send the car 'to wheel to wheel and then not pay the bill (I would love to hear your side)
anyway "LS1 Tech outlaw class" is shaping up to be a great one this year I
hope you guy show because with the way the rules are I doubt you will have the record long.

Hardcore Gary

Thanks for the warm welcome. Will post some pictures of the shop next week, when back in the office. But here's a brief rundown. DTS engine dyno, Dyno Jet chassis dyno, two surface plates for chassis build, TIG & MIG, all tubing and flat stock fab equip & tools, Engine build clean room, Nitrous refill station ($2.50 per pound by the way), machine shop (mill, drill, turn, grind, etc.), and a lot more, we build turn key cars although we outsource paint and upholstry. Currently have two 10 inch tire cars on the plates and several LS powered F and Y cars in for anything from a head and cam swap to big stroker install. We also do older cars, recently put LS1 in beuatiful '56 chev for a guy, and installed an injected 502 in a 66 Chevelle a couple weeks ago. We can even tune carbs if we have to....a dying art.

We are fortunate to have personal relationships with many industry leaders, comapny owners and presidents and get support above and beyond the call of duty. Just last week Dan Jones, the President of Procharger, stopped by to help sort out a blower belt problem we've been having. In Florida Jim Hughes at Hughes Performance built us three custom converters over night and air frieghted them to us so that we could continue testing. No one does what we do in a vacumm, information sharing and support is critical. Pushing the envelope as we do means that we don't always have immediate access to the answers, and a strong support network is critical. We share what we learn with our customers and as a result continue to be tasked and learn ourselves. We're only as good as we are at any moment in time. As a result I'm sure there will be times when someone (Likely to be Harlan) will run faster than us, but we're commited to evolving the Gen 3 stuff and will keep on coming.

The car that went 8.11 recently is the same car that won at Thunder, it's a T-top car that has more than a few passes on it. The engine at Thunder was a F1 Procharged 408 inch 6.0 block engine at about 1000HP. The engine in Florida was a 385 inch C5R with an F2 Procharger making a little more. We have a few C5R's being refreshed now for testing in Jan and Feb, and will working to mock up some new Procharger hardware in the near future.

Sometime next summer we will roll out a new car...perhaps with a hairdryer or two hanging off the headers. The chassis is built, but the car has been set aside so that we can focus on a run or two deep into the 7's with the test mule.

Also, we've designed a new "stock" rear suspension for the F cars which is superior to anything available today. It's on the test car as well as my personal car, and loads the tires better than anything we've seen and we've tried 'em all. You won't see any pictures of it, nor will I tell the details of the construction or geometry here, but we can build you one,just call...send money and keep our little secret as long as you can.

Visit our website at weracehardcore.com and call the next time you need parts, we UPS everyday.

Gary

Hardcore Gary

The wheel to wheel car was built before Hardcore existed, we have since fixed that particular car, the shop is less than a year old, in fact, big party January 29th to celebrate our one year anniversary. Stop on by. Regading all the rumor mill stuff, I've heard most of it and there is very little truth to most of it, so my advice to those who would propogate unfounded rumors or those only loosely based on reality....shut up and race.

Gary

smokinHawk

iTrader: (48)

what 60's have you cut with these, last i heard Turley had the stock style record for a 4th gen with a 1.18 or something like that. not to dog, im just curious.
hmmm check your PMs