Balanced Performance Motorsports Your Neighborhood Service Center


	HOME I ABOUT I CONTACT

What is it? Why does it matter? How do get it?

BALANCE IS:
What you get when all things have been developed to a point of compatible integration for the intended function. It is the feeling you get when everything feels great in your life. When the things that you do all go well and somehow work in unison. Some call it Karma. In the case of machinery or more importantly, automobiles it is represented by the best engineered products that we can imagine. The balance achieved depends on the design target. Is it luxury, sports car performance, durability and longevity, or all out unlimited racing performance? If all out performance is the goal, what is the intended venue of competition? We have all seen various competition cars. Drag Cars, Rally Cars, Sports Prototype Cars, Oval Track Stock Cars and even Show Cars.	So how do we determine how to measure BALANCE? It depends on the owners or teams personal interpretation of what it will take to excel at what they intend to do. The only place to use the word BEST is to describe the compromises that are made. The best available component is only the best if it integrates well with the others. Beyond components, there are systems. The three primary systems that enable a car to go stop and turn are Drivetrain, Suspension and Brakes. Again, integrating these systems into a balanced package, suited to it's intended use, is the goal and where the best compromises need to be made. This process can continue to subsystems such as fuel systems, ignition systems etc. For now, we'll keep it simple.

BALANCE MATTERS BECAUSE:
We all know what it feels like to run on too little sleep or to miss a meal and feel hungry. These things tend to throw us off balance. It's far more difficult to perform at our peak because we are lacking something necessary to achieve our full potential. In order to reach "FULL POTENTIAL", we have to have everything working together at maximum efficiency. If we do, we get a feeling of CONTROL. The same is true of our cars. In order to drive well, and do what we ask of them, they need to have all of their systems well integrated and "BALANCED". If we've done it right, we get the chance to experience the rush of feeling that the car is infallible. It will do whatever we ask without protest. Did you ever hear a race car driver rave about how perfect his setup was after winning a race? That's what he's talking about. The setup on his car was balanced better than his competitors. His Team did a better job in the pits giving he the driver the control and the edge necessary for the win. The same can be said for any professional sport or even any given profession. Do successful athletes, teams and business professionals know what balance is? You bet they do. Do they always have it? NO. Why? Because everything is constantly changing and trying to throw things out of balance. The winning driver we mentioned has to face changing tracks, weather and competition week after week. Those of you that have the baddest show car this year find yourself outgunned next year at the same event. Balance is very illusive. Here one minute and gone the next.	There are other things to be considered here as well. How long will a motor last running at the edge of capacity at high RPM? Professional Drag Racing teams tear down engines after only one pass down the quarter mile. The cost of running at the limit. Can you afford that on your daily driven street car? So how durable does your setup need to be? How often will you be willing to build the motor? As long as we're talking cost, how much will it cost? For that matter how do we look at cost? Do we measure it as the cost of each build item one at a time? Do we add all of those build costs together at the end when we sell the car? Anyone sell a car and think back about how much money they spent redoing things multiple times because either it wasn't done right the first time or something was tried and later abandoned in favor of another idea? Doing things "right" ALWAYS costs more initially. Doing things wrong and doing it over and over, ALWAYS ALWAYS costs even more still. There are three, and ONLY three rules of all known forms of motorsports. 1) There is never enough time. 2) There is never enough money. 3) Nothing ever fits. How much money do you have to spend? How do you want to spend it? Does BALANCE matter? We think it does!

HERE'S HOW YOU GET IT: THINK:
Think about what you plan to do. Do some investigation and see what others have done. If you want to build a show car, go to numerous shows. Gather ideas of what you like and put together a list of things you like and things you don't. If you plan to Autocross, take your daily driver as it sits and go run an autocross event. Talk to competitors, learn the classes, learn which makes and models compete best in each class.	Get a copy of the rules so you know what can be modified in each class. The faster classes allow more modifications and will take a greater budget to compete in. This holds true for the cost of consumables as well as the initial cost of building the car. If you plan to Drag Race the car…., you get the idea. The cost of racing following the degree of modification is pretty much a constant throughout motorsports. The equation is relatively simple. SPEED = $$$, how fast do you want to go?

SET GOALS:
Do you plan to show to win or just to display your creative talents? Do you plan to race your daily driver in autocross events or build a dedicated class contender? In most forms of racing there are usually both amateur and professional ranks. The same is true on the show circuit. The difference is simple. Are you paying to go or being paid to go? It's important to realize that the goals you set today may change once you begin the journey. Quite simply, "you don't know what you don't know".	Keep this in mind as you enter the next stage of planning. Allow yourself a way out or at least know what it will cost you to change ships mid-voyage. If you suspect you will want to move up quickly but find it too expensive to start there, you may want to do the unthinkable. STOP & WAIT. Save your money and take the bigger step first. Remember the more times you start over or change mid-voyage, the greater the long tem overall cost will be.

PLAN and STRATEGIZE:
Build a plan and strategy to get from where you are to where you want to go. Any plan needs a few essential elements. First of all you need to look forward to what you plan on doing. Plug your goals in and work backward with the details. At some point you will have to look back at what you've done up to this point. This way you'll add into your plan essential things such as an honest self-assessment by reviewing your past endeavors. Are you patient or impatient? Do you have strong technical skills or not? How did that last project turn out? Did you complete it successfully on your own or have to turn to others in the end? Did you do a good job of estimating time and money or did you aim at the moon and hit the barn? Armed with an honest assessment of your own past performance will help you more accurately forecast what will happen in your next effort. Back to the goals and details. You'll need to map out some sort of design for your finished project. If it's racing, all the systems will need work. Drivetrain, Suspension and Brakes. The class rules will tell you something but until you talk to veterans of the sport, you'll have no idea what the "hidden costs" will be. You know what hidden costs are. The additional bracket not supplied with the kit, the fabrication time needed to enlarge or shrink something, the incompatibility between the wiring plug of one part going to the socket in another. These hidden costs are responsible for the creation of the three rules of motorsports. 1) There is never enough time. 2) There is never enough money. 3) Nothing ever fits. Starting to get the picture?	Your plan will need to allow for those three rules over and over. The difficulty of the planning process in doing anything for the first time is that "you don't know what you don't know". It's never been done before. In big business, they call it research and development. Large companies spend billions on it. In some areas of R&D, they have only one goal and that is to reach a discovery or understanding. In the more controlled stages the goal is a new product. Each however contains varying unknown elements. And these companies all have to do this at a cost that is recovered in the ultimate sale of their products. In the end they have the responsibility to show their investors and employees that they can adhere to a budget that is BALANCED. It matters. If you are planning your education, do you start buying books on all sorts of subjects and just start reading? You could, but where will you end up. I know it's basic but that's why there are established curriculums designed to guide your course of study to a degree in the field you have chosen. Sure you may change majors. You may even change schools. If you modify your plan and get back on track after changes, eventually you'll get that degree. Remember though, even here change has an additional cost in both time and money. Why do professional sports teams hold a draft each year and constantly try to bolster the weakest positions on their rosters? They are continuing relentlessly to search for new talent. "Research and Development" What are they seeking for their offensive and defensive teams? BALANCE Why do they want it? Because it gives them the competitive edge they seek.

Is BALANCE important?
To athletes, professionals, teams, governments and countries it is. Do we know what it is? Maybe, maybe not. More often then not, we know what it isn't. We know when we're off balance or out of balance. It's probably easier to recognize that you have it by the absence of feeling off balance.	While finding balance in your life may seem daunting, building a balanced project car is considerably easier. Stop in and discuss it with us. Maybe together, we can design it and build it. Then you can enjoy, BALANCED PERFORMANCE.

QUICK LINKS: