Paolo Castellano
Enthusiast
Sport Compact Car Ultimate Street Car Shootout Photoshoot:
Dave Blankenbaker and myself arrived in California @ 4:00 am on Tuesday 09/23/2003.
We got up and did some final preparation to the car and arrived at the K&N facility around 3:00 PM. And we met all the magazine guys and some of the competitors.
We were assigned a photographer and went out to shoot some pictures.
It was early evening and the photographer got some awesome shots of the car driving down the road.
Then he wanted me to come around a 90 degree right hand turn and get mad wheel spin and spin the [******] out of the car. I told him I could do more spectacular slides if I made a left turn as I would have another full lane to work with. He told me I did not understand his artistic vision and that he wanted me to do a right hander……..
As you all know I was eager to grant his every wish.  I must have done 10 slides where I spun the car and went off onto the shoulder.
He finally let me do a couple of left handers where I was able to get some 360 degree spins.
This guy had balls like an elephant and laid on the ground getting his shot as the 900 RWHP Heffner Viper was sliding sideways at him at 45 MPH!
Then came the burnout portion:
All I have to say here is that there was initially a six foot twin patch of rubber on fire after the burnout. The picture on the internet does not do it justice!
Then I did what I do best and ran out of fuel. I started with what was seemingly a ¾ tank of fuel. I did not think I needed more for a photo shoot. After driving around to find the right setting, doing the moving shots and the slides and the burnout, I believe the fuel level was low enough and the engine was hot enough after three 15-second burnouts in a row to vapor lock the fuel.
The photographer wanted to finish up the shoot with some still shots:
He thought the middle of this not too terribly busy intersection would make the perfect shot. I let him do so and everything worked out fine even with some semis going through the intersection.
Since we did not get 93 octane when we could, Geoff had given us the address to several 76 gas stations that had 100 octane. Dave went back with the photographers and got the truck. He found the gas station and got the fuel while I used the 3 gallons of 93 that came out of the generator to get to the evening meeting place where all the competitors were.
Dave Blankenbaker and myself arrived in California @ 4:00 am on Tuesday 09/23/2003.
We got up and did some final preparation to the car and arrived at the K&N facility around 3:00 PM. And we met all the magazine guys and some of the competitors.
We were assigned a photographer and went out to shoot some pictures.
It was early evening and the photographer got some awesome shots of the car driving down the road.
Then he wanted me to come around a 90 degree right hand turn and get mad wheel spin and spin the [******] out of the car. I told him I could do more spectacular slides if I made a left turn as I would have another full lane to work with. He told me I did not understand his artistic vision and that he wanted me to do a right hander……..
As you all know I was eager to grant his every wish.  I must have done 10 slides where I spun the car and went off onto the shoulder.
He finally let me do a couple of left handers where I was able to get some 360 degree spins.
This guy had balls like an elephant and laid on the ground getting his shot as the 900 RWHP Heffner Viper was sliding sideways at him at 45 MPH!
Then came the burnout portion:
All I have to say here is that there was initially a six foot twin patch of rubber on fire after the burnout. The picture on the internet does not do it justice!
Then I did what I do best and ran out of fuel. I started with what was seemingly a ¾ tank of fuel. I did not think I needed more for a photo shoot. After driving around to find the right setting, doing the moving shots and the slides and the burnout, I believe the fuel level was low enough and the engine was hot enough after three 15-second burnouts in a row to vapor lock the fuel.
The photographer wanted to finish up the shoot with some still shots:
He thought the middle of this not too terribly busy intersection would make the perfect shot. I let him do so and everything worked out fine even with some semis going through the intersection.
Since we did not get 93 octane when we could, Geoff had given us the address to several 76 gas stations that had 100 octane. Dave went back with the photographers and got the truck. He found the gas station and got the fuel while I used the 3 gallons of 93 that came out of the generator to get to the evening meeting place where all the competitors were.
