It's true, we flipped through the one dictionary that Primedia makes us share and looked for one word that says it all. Luckily, we only had to get to the letter S to find it or else Jonny wouldn't have made it home in time to watch One Tree Hill. Then he'd start whining again and Roel would have to punch him in the stomach to get him to stop. Great, now we forgot what we were talking about. Oh, right, the Civic SiR that Skunk2 built for the Challenge and how everything about it can be summed up with the word sinister.
It took three dedicated Skunk2 team members 45 sleepless days and nights just to get the car ready for the unveiling at the SEMA show in Las Vegas. Usually, a black car with bronze wheels isn't exactly what we'd call eye-catching. For many, including us, the car simply looks like someone sprayed it with flat-black paint and decided to call it a day. But up close, the true beauty of the custom Stealth Black hue with a satin clearcoat reveals itself. The attention to detail can be seen in every hump on the bulky widebody kit. As for the dark-colored wheels, those are the same bronze super lightweight Volk Racing TE37s that Chimpy thinks about every time he plucks his unibrow. Throw in a set of Toyo stickies and the exterior of this car is just about complete.
Skim through the Fast Facts box for this car and you'll start to realize that there isn't a JDM theme to it. Most of the parts are sourced from Germany, the U.K., Italy, and the good ole US of A. Dave Hsu, President of Skunk2, tells us that from the bottom up, the SiR was built as close to Touring Car specs as possible. In fact, the Moton shocks the SiR sits on are the same ones you can find on World Challenge cars. Even the sexy Brembo brakes that your eyes are focusing on right now aren't off-the-shelf parts. They're full floating race versions of the stoppers we've all come to know and love.
Dave also tells us that the biggest problem they ran into was lack of time. Fortunately, the team was able to do most of the work in house. From the race ready K20 engine build to the rollcage fabrication, the SiR never had to leave the Skunk2 facilities. A MyChron data acquisition steering wheel, a Braille carbon Kevlar racing seat, and a horde of other goodies were also tacked in to accent the interior.
If you haven't looked up sinister in the dictionary yet, you probably should do that now. That way you can have a full understanding of why the Skunk2 SiR scares us so much. Sure, it may have placed last in our Challenge, but you have to remember that this is a naturally aspirated car that's going up against a bunch of forced-inducted ones. That's a feat in itself. (Couple this with the fact that both of Skunk2's race challenges were thwarted by driver error.--JN) The Skunk2 crew could have possibly spent its money and resources developing a car that was boosted, but then Skunk2 wouldn't be keeping it real to its legacy. And that's what it's all about, isn't it?
Waddup, Foo?
Almost Making It Down and Around the Track
The moment the SiR was fired up at Button Willow, everyone stopped what they were doing and ran to the track to see what was going on. The rumble of the Skunk2 race motor was loud enough to drown out Gilbert Godfrey in a karaoke bar. As World Challenge driver Roger Foo started to make his test runs around the track, it seemed as if the car was ready for some hot laps. That's until the loud bang that caused the entire Skunk2 crew to cringe. It appears that a misshift caused the engine to over rev, damaging one of the rod bolts, which eventually led to a rod being thrown through the side of the block. A dismal Skunk2 crew gathered its tools and headed back to the shop to spend another sleepless night swapping the motor for the drag race the next day.
Buttonwillow to Skunk2 to Palmdale, the crew made it back with a fresh motor for the drag race portion of the Challenge. Piloting the SiR down the track would be Shawn Hillier, an all-motor racing hot shoe. On the first pass, another misshift ended up grinding off all the teeth on Second gear. This made it impossible for the car to make a pass at full potential, so it was loaded back onto the rig for the remainder of the event.
It was clear that both incidents were caused by driver error, but Dave humbly stated, "It's all a part of racing." We couldn't have said it any better.