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This beautiful 1966 Chevelle looks great while slaying the track

So is the case with Spectre Performance team driver, Chris Jacobs. Turns out he had a friend with a pro-mod ZR-1 Corvette back in 1993 at a SEMA booth so he tagged along to help out. PRI in Ohio was pretty cool back in the day, but Chris recalls that SEMA was completely overwhelming. At the time having only been involved with drag racing and that being the primary focus of his attention, his first SEMA experience opened his eyes to the endless possibilities with regards to motorsports. What started as a hobby has now become more of a way of life for the husband and wife team with jobs being a means to get back to the track!

His love of anything with wheels started at a ridiculously early age. Up until recently he still had hundreds of Hot Wheels and Matchbox cars, but Chris found a young man in Texas who he thought was worthy of the collection and ultimately made that young Texans' day. From the age of 5 until adulthood he had some form of dirt bike, three wheeler, street bike, or combination thereof.

The 1966 Chevelle of Chris Jacobs handling the road course at the Midwest Muscle Car Challenge

Chris Jacobs makes autocross look easy throwing his 3,800 lb. Chevelle around the track

On the road course at Road America, the 1966 Chevelle of Chris Jacobs

But all this success doesn’t come without the support of his amazing wife Lynda, another Spectre Performance team driver, and of course the help of the incredible folks at the Roadster Shop, Finish Line Performance, Black Dog Speed Shop, and of course his best friend Randy Johnson from D&Z Customs. Chris purchased his Mist Blue 1966 Chevelle from Randy Johnson back in 2010. Randy had installed an LS7 with Spectre Performance cold air intake, with a Rockland T-56 on a G-Machine chassis from Kevin Laatsch at Pathfinder Chassis. Then the two changed sway bars and spring rates and before long the Chevelle handled better and became quite competitive with Chris behind the wheel. In 2011, Jacob’s changed to a Fast Track IRS and was amazed with the car’s performance. Since then not a whole lot has changed with the exception of a C&R Radiator, a set of Penske shocks, a Centerforce Dyad Clutch and a set of BFG Rival tires. Chris takes care of all the regular maintenance on his pro-touring rides, but for car mod’s and upgrades he relies on these professionals saying it’s definitely a team effort.

Chris Jacobs, staging & ready to run the Spectre equipped '66 at the CAM Challenge Chicago Region

The supercharger, intake, and exhaust add well over 100 rwhp, keeping the wheels spinning all day

“Everything art related is freehand, painted directly onto the truck and its parts, meaning nothing was pre-drawn or really mapped out. It was all spur of the moment as I went along, basically like a high stakes game of chance. Trusting my vision in my mind to transform into real life. Glad it worked out,” Chad said with a laugh.

A peek under the hood at the supercharged 5.3 L. Can you spot the Inkabot in the drawings?

Chad’s illustrations can be found under the hood, on the dash, on the headliner, and especially throughout the bed of the Silverado.

We asked Chad how he accomplished the amazing results. “I use really thinned out auto pinstriping paint with a variety of sign/fine art brushes and felt nibs to get it to flow effortlessly. This also makes it very easy to mess up, drip and so on so. Focus is pretty important,” he replied.

Chad drew on the aluminum wheel rims, which were then cleared to protect the art

Restraint applies to the modifications he’s made under the hood, as well. Only those items with the greatest potential for increasing performance were replaced. The base is a stock Ecotec3 5.3L V8, now fed by a Magnuson supercharger drawing air through an intake built from a kit of Spectre Performance components, like the 97990. Exhaust gasses pass through an all-Gibson exhaust, with stainless steel headers and pipes that exit on the right side of the truck, just in front of the rear wheels.

One needs to look up when seated in the cab to spot Chad's work as it covers the entire headliner

From American Racing came VF 502 26×9-inch front and 26×12-inch rear concave billet wheels onto which Chad added his artwork. The wheels then received a clear powdercoat over the brushed aluminum hoops and a Candy Blue finish over the centers by New Year Coatings, in Santa Ana, California.

Explaining his decision to draw on the wheels, Chad said “people get happy just to change the color of their wheels, so I figure why not go the next few steps further and really do something different.” Behind these utterly unique wheels are 15-inch rotors with StopTech six-piston calipers all the way around.

The seats were recovered in blue leather, the dash was dyed blue, and Chad provided his own accents

According to Chad “normal automotive clear coat was then applied to everything on the truck’s body, a combo of gloss and matte finishes.”

A bedliner product was sprayed on, then covered in white automotive paint. Finishing off the bed, Chad added his illustrations and a carbon fiber floor with aluminum rails.

The preponderance of drawings are within the bed, every one from Chad's own hand.

So will Chad Carother's highly-personalized 2015 Silverado mark the start of a new trend in sport trucks, or will it remain a singular example of what happens when an artistic mind combines DTM and JDM inspiration with an American sport truck? There’s really no way of knowing until we start to see sport trucks on coilovers instead of airbags and more Euro-style bodywork, but in the meantime we’re happy to admire Chad’s singular piece of automotive art.

"The ultimate in race modifications - driver mods - eat clean and workout," says Ken Thwaits

Thwaits grew up in Wilmington, California, in the South Bay area of Los Angeles. As a young man Ken was attracted to racing with the dream of going pro in either Formula One or Indy. Admittedly though, he didn’t come from a family of means and that type of racing took money. A lot of money. Ken’s father, Rex Thwaits, raced in formula cars in SCCA during the 1960s and 1970s. Dad had gotten into racing after watching the movie Grand Prix and he encouraged Ken to get involved in motorsports. Following in dad’s footsteps, Ken began his racing career back in 1978 running a Formula Ford in SCCA amateur road racing events. In fact, dear old dad even supported his racing for the first two years, on a shoestring budget. By 1984, Ken had moved up to Pro Formula Mazda in 1984, and won the Pro Formula Mazda National Championship the following season. Ken told us back then the FM cars were a support class to the Indy cars at Long Beach. It was then that Ken went to Long Beach Grand Prix and was so blown away with what he was seeing he quickly signed up for instruction at the Jim Russell Racing School in Willow Springs in hopes of taking his driving skills to the next level. Thwaits then took a few years off before returning in the SCCA's Showroom Stock Class, running Camaros in that series until 1992.

Ken says the race at Charlotte Speedway was the only race where everything worked perfectly

So how does a man come back to win after that much time off? Ken said, “I do my best to stay fit and eat and drink right. I really start to prepare mentally for a race 4 weeks before the weekend starts. I continually run each driving segment in my head and visualize winning. I spend a month thinking about winning. I meditate and pray every morning and give thanks for the life that I have. It is very difficult to beat the power of positivity!” He did what he called a driver modification. As a young driver he learned to run flat out when he needed to and to conserve the car when he needed to. He learned that driving expertise was achieved in levels. He also learned rather quickly that in the OPTIMA series to be on top, you’ve absolutely got to go fast right from the start. He knows his early training has helped him greatly in this series.

The 2006 black EVO of Ken Thwaits, stealthfully avoiding handprints at the Wilwood Booth

The 2006 bone stock EVO of Ken Thwaits showing how important handling is

But 2016 was extremely challenging for the Showtime Team. As we already mentioned, they ran 9 regular series races in OPTIMA Search for the Ultimate Street Car series plus OUSCI. Out of those 10 races they suffered 6 engine failures and 2 clutch failures, with one engine failure happening on day two of OUSCI. Ken hadn't been able to complete one full lap before losing power. The Showtime team kicked in to high gear and with the assistance of a fellow competitor, Ken was able to pull it off in the last minute. Turns out they really only had one race (Charlotte) where everything performed the way it was supposed to. However, Ken is a very positive and determined person and he refused to give up. So, they pushed on and in light of the challenges the 2nd place overall finish is extremely satisfying.

On track at OUSCI with Ken Thwaits at Las Vegas Motor Speedway Road Course

Ken takes being a Spectre Performance brand ambassador and team driver very seriously and said, “quite frankly I am very flattered to be a part of this company I represent. I feel a duty to perform well and conduct myself appropriately when I am at the track or in front of a camera. I also take every opportunity to promote a company who we partner with either by verbally promoting them on camera or by wearing appropriate attire and making sure our sponsors are represented well on our cars. Winning and/or running up front helps you gain an audience who wants to purchase the products that you win with, its that simple.”

Thwaits car collection is home to some amazing muscle and some incredible charity events

The Spectre 9034 air intake system includes a Spectre HPR9892 universal air filter.

The truck comes in five trims and three cab configurations. Each cab style offers more cabin space and visibility than the previous year’s model due to a wider frame and changed door and window styling. In fact, more visibility is offered for driver and passengers throughout the truck because the belt lines of the doors have been dropped about an inch. Better side access to the bed has been achieved because it has also been dropped about 2-inches.

Four engines, two carryovers and two completely new, power the vehicle. A new, naturally aspirated 3.5-liter V6, a 2.7-liter twin-turbocharged V-6 EcoBoost, a 3.5-liter V-6 EcoBoost, and the venerable Coyote 5.0-liter V-8. A previous engine option, a 6.2-liter V8, has been discontinued.

Inside, the truck has been equipped with a MyFord Touch infotainment system that includes an 8-inch screen between the tachometer and speedometer. The system provides access to more engine and vehicle information, allows you to track maintenance and long- and short-term fuel economy, and more.

The 2016 version of the Ford F150 has more technology than any other previous model and includes things that help make it a work truck, play truck, tow truck and muscle truck.

For the work truck incarnation, there are loading ramps that lock into the bedsides so the owner can load an ATV, a BoxLink System including cleats and brackets to divide the bed and anchor cargo, LED headlamps and lighting for the cargo box, a deployable bed step, and steps with a post that serves as a handrail slides out of the tailgate to assist in loading the bed.

The Spectre 9034 air intake has a heat shield that prevents hot engine air from entering the intake

The same engines that work the 2015 Ford F150 are again available to run the 2016 model. The 3.5-liter V-6 produces 282 horsepower and a maximum tow rating of 7,600 pounds. The 2.7-liter turbocharged V-6 generates 325-horsepower and 375 lb-ft of torque as well as a tow rating of up to 8,500 pounds. A stop/start feature is included on this engine. The 5.0-liter V-8 offers 385-horsepower, and 387 lb-ft of torque and has a payload rating of 3,300 pounds and the 3.5-liter twin-turbo V-6 delivers 365-horsepower and a payload rating of 12,300 pounds. A 6-speed automatic transmission integrates with the engines and there are 4x4 and 4x2 drive configurations available. Electric power steering is standard on all models.

The same trim packages that were sold on the 2015 Ford F150 are available for the 2016 version.

Ford’s Sync 3 infotainment system replaced the MyFord Touch system that was on the 2015 version.

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) rates the Super Crew F-150 a Top Safety Pick award. The Top Safety Pick award is limited because of the “Basic” forward-collision prevention system, added IIHS. The agency did not rate the Super Cab and Regular Cab models. The National Highway Safety Traffic Administration (NHSTA) rates the F-150 five stars overall and five star ratings in the subcategories except rollover resistance.

Spectre offers the Spectre 9034 air intake kit for the 2015 and 2016 Ford F-150. The intake kit is designed to offer more horsepower and torque. The kit includes a Spectre HPR9892 red washable and reusable air filter that features a non-woven synthetic media and a flat black top.

The intake system also features three stainless steel clamps, polished aluminum tube and a black powdercoated heat shield that stops hot engine air from entering the intake inlet, ensuring better performance.

Spectre also offers the Spectre Accucharge precision air filter cleaning and oiling system that have been specially formulated to cleanse and recharge the Spectre air filter so that it can be reused. The kit includes two bottles - a spray bottle that contains the cleaner and a squeeze bottle that holds the filter oil.

The Spectre 9034 cold air intake system fits the following vehicles:

2016 FORD F150 3.5L V6 Fuel Injection - All Models
2016 FORD F150 2.7L V6 Fuel Injection - All Models
2015 FORD F150 3.5L V6 Fuel Injection - All Models
2015 FORD F150 2.7L V6 Fuel Injection - All Models

Autoclub Speedway in Fontana once again played host the OPTIMA’s Search for the Ultimate Street Car

Over the course of this past season with 9 qualifying events already in the books leading up to the final event, forty-five invites have been awarded to the top drivers, including those participants who received the Spectre Performance Spirit of the Event Award. Add in the final five from this event and that leaves 15 invitations for the drivers at the top of the points list, pulling points from their best three events during the 2016 season. Mind you these invites are not class specific like the qualifier events have been so we could wind up with more participants from the GTL Class than GTV. It was anyone’s guess!

People like John McKissack, recipient of the Spectre Spirit of the Event Award, embody our goals

At this final qualifier event, two of our Spectre Performance Team Driver’s competed for a chance at the invite for OUSCI. Seasoned veteran racer, Mary Pozzi and 2015 OUSCI Golden Ticket recipient, Greg Thurmond were in attendance. Both driver’s were entered in the GTV Class where they were up against almost forty other class participants. Pozzi and Thurmond are capable, competitive drivers who always excel in autocross and speed stop challenge so Saturday proved to be a real confidence builder for the two. Pozzi and Thurmond killed it in speed stop. However, Thurmond lost gears 2-5 during his speed stop segment leaving him only first gear to compete in autocross. Fortunately Thurmond didn't suffer too much with only first gear in the autocross. The course was technical with some high speed straights but overall Thurmond's gearing worked to afford him some pretty decent lap times.

Spectre Performance Team Driver Greg Thurmond has worked hard all season long and is going to Vegas

Mary Pozzi in her 1973 Inferno Orange Camaro RS is no stranger to OUSCI

There was destined to be a few upsets with so many participants hoping to have made the cut. It’s safe to say that this season has seen some of the best competition the series has ever had. In fact, a number of the drivers have competed in multiple vehicles in multiple classes to see where there could potentially stack up.

Privateer and brand loyalist, Efrain Diaz, proved to be the dark horse in this final qualifier event

Congratulations to all of the winners and invitees and we look forward to seeing you all at SEMA and OUSCI 2016.