Please nominate for showoff of the week.
The new project: Madmods Spacecar
MADMODS
Man, its the end of the year 2009. Been going at this car for a long time. I'm a little burnt out and honestly it feels good to be able to drive the car after having it on a lift for 8 months. After the fast & furious 4 filming I tore the car completely apart. She got more hp, new interior, airbagged, Audi R-8 type headlights, wheels, led tailights and a revised body. The car is finally done after 3 remakes. Alot of solstice aftermarket parts were made by some of the projects on this page.
Madmods
Welcome to my car page. My name is Paul, but eveybody calls me Madmods. Please rate me. I did the majority of the work myself. These days it is really hard to trust anybody working on your car. Most mechanics, techs and audio installers don't give a rat's ***** about your car if your not there watching. They do not torque bolts right, leave stuff loose, leave nuts & bolts off, etc. Seems like everybody who has worked on my cars has screwed something up. Got tired of those crackheads, so I started doing my own work many years ago. I'm sure were all in the same boat here guys. Burnt out on the solstice, but excited to start work on the Vendetta. I loved it the moment I saw it, and it makes a good starting point so I can mod it madly. Going for 700-1000hp.
Team Solstice is a group of highly modifed solstice owners throughout United States. Most of us are hardcore competitors in hin, dubb, shows etc. Jen@cardomain did a feature on us. Read about us here:
http://blog.cardomain.com/2008/04/05/cool-car-club-t/
Contact email: paul_ntempe@yahoo.com (Don't forget the underscore after paul)
Here is the superbowl Fast & Furious 4 commercial. The solstice opens the scene: http://video.cardomain.com/madmods
Universal Studios needed a car for their fast & furious modeling contest.
Don't forget to check out the bikes on page 3.
Fast & Furious 4 on page 4 An insiders view on page 4.
The new project: the vendetta Page 5
THE BUILD:
Custom body: Front bumper/nose
I never liked the solstice nose. It doesn't make sense to me. The car looks sporty, but the front end looks too old fashioned. I wanted a sportier look. Everybody uses the RK kit, but I didn't want my solstice looking like everyone elses. The original plan was an Infiniti G35 billet grille that was molded into the nose. But the inlet was too small to control temps in the beefed up motor. I then chose the f430 front end due to the 3 vents in the nose. I wasn't trying to make a ferrari look-alike. I just wanted a cool looking functional nose. Plus ebay happened to have a wrecked one for a decent price. The dealer wanted eight grand for a new one.
The Ferrari front end was cut up, shortened a inch and fiberglassed in. This aftermarket front bumper was the actual Sema front end prototype that was used to make the Rk kit. I scored the prototypes on ebay. It was made out of fiberglass which was a big plus for me. The production kits are made out of urethene. Fiberglass makes molding so much easier. The piece was used to keep the solstice sides and headlights shape, while the middle of the ferrari got molded in. This piece tripled my air intake to feed the aftermarket intercooler and turbo. 
The ferrari piece vents air in to two outer radiators. That won't work on the solstice. The solstice has its radiatorm in the middle opposed to the ferrari side mounted ones. The vents were cut out and reversed to flow air into the middle(radiator/intercooler) instead of the outsides. A mold was made. I've been asked a million times will you make me a copy? NO!......but, you can now buy this bumper at Normsfiberglass.com Tell Norm madmods sent you.
Here was a photoshop of what the Ferrari hybrid front end would look like. It came out exact.
I tinted the bottom fog lights and headlights with night shades. It cleaned up the bottom end. I also removed the rk hood after the fast & furious shooting. It never looked good to me. It took away from the sleakness.
Custom body: Headlights
The darkened headlights look good, but they are illegal as hell, and do block a bit of light at night. Not to safe if you don't know the area at speed. So I got to get rid of them. I like the Audi R8 led look. This is going to be the next trend in my eyes. Here is the stock headlight.
Projectors were the choice. Projectors, Audi R8 type leds, angel(halo rings) lights and led turnsignals went into the oem housing. Make sure you know what your doing. Most leds will not take the heat of the projectors. The little strip in the very rear is a led strip for the turn signals.
Heres the projector with the angel lights and R8 type leds turned on.
Damm the R8 type leds came out awesome.
Custom Body: Front Fenders
The front fenders are custom one offs. I saw a pic of a porsche caymen, and got the ideal for the fender vents off it. 
From far away I saw the porsche pic and said cool fenders. When I got closer, I noticed that it was the rear end of a caymen Porsche. I bought some aftermarket fiberglass fenders and the Porsche caymen vents. I cut the fenders to allow the porsche vents to. The fender frame needs a bit of surgery and battery tray modified or you can replace your stock battery with a smaller one. I cut a bit of the fender bracket out. The vents were molded in with fiberglass. I added a aftermarket motorcycle blinker. The fenders vent hot turbo air out of the engine bay. If you really want these, normsfiberglass.com can make you a copy.
Custom body: Reverse light removal
The reverse lights on the solstice look very cheesy. They ruin the rear end. Leave that look for grandma's car. Why not just do reverse lights with leds in the brakelights since you had to make new tailights anyways Gm? The reverse lights suck. They are borrowed one of their suvs.
I removed the reverse lights, and routed the exhaust tips out of that spot. It took some work. Make sure you know what you are doing, because you can very easily catch your car on fire.
I removed the reverse lights. I then cut out the plastic around the light's mounting hole. I routed a custom dual exhaust to exit where the reverse lights were. The exhaust is 3" all the way around with aero 4" tips. It looks like its suppose to be there.
Once you cut the holes, there is no going back. I wrapped the pipe in racewrap. All electrical was routed away. Everything close by was wrapped in heat blanket/wrap and heat tape.
The reverse light holes covered with high temp tape to keep things from melting or catching on fire.
We pulled the rear off and got this guy below to weld up a exhaust. This guy had more crack showing then the crackhead from bumfights. Good news was that we got the pipes welded.
The
The exhaust near the body was also wrapped with heat wrap, everything covered with fireproof coating and all wires rerouted away. I had to cut into the trunk a bit for exhaust clearance. I then laid thin sheets of metal to make a new wall for the trunk. I also covered both sides of this wall with heat tape. You can not tell the trunk mods with the liner/carpet re-installed.
I replaced the rear end with a beautiful custom finned diffuser. Want one?Normsfiberglass.com has at least 7 versions. I have used several ones throughout the years. They are now all in production.
I made a screen for the rear diffuser out of some material I bought at home depo. The screens were bolted down, and I used a glue gun to coat the nuts to keep them from backing out.
I wanted to see what a black stripe looked like sideways before actually painting it. I made it in vinyl first. I marked out a pattern in the rear fascia using a markee and a long straight ruler..
After the pattern is marked out, use paper to make your transfer pattern. I keep adding paper to make the top and bottom lines.
The pattern is then transfered on to striping vinyl tape. Reverse it to make the other side.
The pattern is then transferred on to the body using a soapy water concentration. The edges are then gone over with a black paint pen to fill in any imperfections.
I actually liked the way it looked, so I masked the area to paint it instead of the vinyl wrap.
Custom body: Reverse lights + Backup camera
Since the pipes exit where the reverse lights were, I had to add some back-up lights. A hotrod shop provided these led reverse lights.
The rear view camera mounts on the license plate and looks like crap. I wanted just the lense to show so I drilled a hole underneath the third brake light. I had to remove the license plate light from underneath to make room for the camera. I will replace the license plate light with one built into a license plate frame later.
The rear view camera mounts on the license plate. I cut down the frame to make it as small as possible. The camera is then siliconed in place and clamped until the glue dries.
Next I needed a license plate. Cops love to pull you over for this little light late at night. Found this cool frame and painted it black. It has built in lights.
This keeps me fully legal and keeps the man off my back.
Custom body: Tailights
Nobody makes tailights yet. I added spider light leds, and painted them. I am experimenting with a custom red angel light along with some leds.
I masked the tailights to add a different design.
Here they are before final sanding and a clear coat. Sic
Custom body: Sideskirts
Aftershock products made this prototype sideskirt, and I loved it the moment I saw it. Owner Rudy supplied with some pre-production sideskirts and one of his custom wings.
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Doing the prefitment prior to paint.
Added a little mesh to the back of these after paint. I used a glue gun to hold it in.
I installed them with screws, epoxy and used a heat gun to warp them in place. They were clamped down while the glue cures. Using the heat gun helps them keep their shape and put less stress on them.
Custom body: Tow hook
If you got custom work done, put on a tow hook. Most tow-truck drivers smoke meth and will f**k up your car in a second. Ask me, I know. Front tow hook keeps the front bumper safe during any towing incidents. Its bolted on to the crash bar. Please if you get one make it functional. Their is noting cheesier then a fake one.
While I had the front off, I drilled a total of 5 holes in the crash bar in front of the filter to feed the turbo cool air. Heres a pic half way through. I used a large unibit, followed by a file and then some black paint.
Motor: Ecotec build-up
Gm claims they got a 1000hp 2.0 4 cylinder. I believe them. Ryh's Millen is currently making 500hp in the redbull drifting solstice. The ecotec motors have been pretty reliable when hopped up. No bs numbers or false claims, its dynoed. I don't want to rely on race gas for power. Been there-done that. Goal 400 hp.
I added a stage 2 precision turbo kit from Autoperformance Werks. These guys have benn in the game a long time and make several kits for alot of different cars. This was a beta kit we tested using a watercooled turbo. The watercooled never made it to the market, but several versions did. Dave at Werks can give you 500hp or drop an ls2-7 in your car. So I'm using his stage 2 turbo kit. The precision turbocharger features a dual ball bearing center section, water cooling, 54mm inducer compressor wheel, and a T31 exhaust wheel. It will support approx 450 flywheel HP. The manifold and downpipe are custom stainless steel units. I replaced the injectors with bigger ones and replaced the 1-bar sensor with a 2-bar sensor. The ecm has been reflashed using Ls2 edit and HP tuners software. I use a Tial Blowoff and wastegate. A AEM boost controller with a setting for race gas and a scramble boost toggle controls the boost. I have a setting for 8, 10 and 13 lbs of boost on it. The FMIC is from Vibrant Performance. I am looking into trying a water cooled interrcooler.
All the silicone is from Silicone intakes. I use 4 AEM gauges (wideband, boost, oil pressure, and water temp). I used all t-bolts clamps. Why people still use regular clamps is beyond me. Clutchmaster handles the clutch and I also replaced the flywheel with a spec unit. I used a K&N filter. The exhaust is a custom 3" dual pipe from the cat-back. The stock cat was cut to steal its flanges and then welded up to a high flow cat. See below. The ecotec motor has been bullet proof. Our goal is 400hp at the rear wheel with 91 octane. The meth/water injection raises the octane to about 115. Our main problem is keeping traction. Bad wheelspin on the freeway nearly cost me my life. We finally stiffened the chasis up a bit to try and control wheelspin.
Motor: Powdercoat
All the pipes, valve cover, breather canister and coil cover got powdercoated in a matching yellow.
Motor: Downpipe build
A hole was drilled in the stainless downpipe. What I'm doing is adding a Aem UEGO wideband gauge to my car. Every turbo should have one. The kit comes with a bung that needs to be welded into the downpipe. Thats exactly what was done. 
Motor: Operation Lockwire
I lockwired everything to keep it on. So many guys are breaking down on long trips due to parts coming off. Its going to happen. Learn how to lockwire. Go to youtube and watch videos. The pliers are cheap. Even if you do a half-ass job, it will still keep your parts on. Who wants to breakdown. I use to lockwire everything in the military. Damm I remember lockwiring in the Iraq desert during desertstorm 1. Worst thing about iraq?? 13 million Arabs, and not one 7-11!!!
Motor: Meth Injection
Aem water/meth injection keeps my motor safe and raises my octane. I'm a big believer in it. The water/meth injection stopped the motor from pinging. Plus they say it is equal to running 115 octane. I call it horsepower for cheap. I picked up about 25hp of his alone.
Motor: Cooling-Racing Radiator
Heat has become my new enemy, so I went with an aftermarket corvette racing radiator which is 3 times bigger then stock. Drove 7 hours in 100+ degree heat and a/c on with no problems. Big props to the Werks radiator. The MSD Dashhawk has functions to leave my fan running on high when the car is on.
Any plastic loom near the turbo is going to melt, so wrap everything with heat shield. I wrapped the exhaust manifold and downpipe with header heat wrap. I used thermotec's new copper based wrap.
Motor: High Flow Cat
Fabrication a high flow cat. Here is the stock and the magnaflow one. I cut off the flanges of the stock unit. The flanges were then re-welded by Greg at parkerracing to the aftermarket highflow cat. Should flow alot more then the stock restrictive one. Parkerracing is a fresh approach to new ideals. Plus a well equipped garage and ability to think out of the box for new stuff.
Transmission: racing clutch
The clutch has been holding down the car at the dyno. I replaced the clutch with a clutchmasters stage 3 and a spec lightened flywheel:
Transmission: Carbon fiber drive shaft
Monster performance (eatmyshift.com) made me this mega cool carbon fiber custom drive shaft. The lighter weight gives me instant throttle response, + the gain of hp due to less inertia spinning the driveshaft.
Go to next page to see a concept car exterior, air bags & rims.
