Project Talon Part 2?

From 1995 to 1999, Project Talon was probably the most well-known import magazine project car in the States. This 1990 Eagle Talon TSi was transformed from a 15.35-second quarter-mile stocker into an 11-second street-driven rocket over the course of those five years. Having an 11-second streetcar back in the late 90s would be the equivalent of a 10-second streetcar today. While the performance improvements were impressive for the time period, it was really the trials and tribulations of experimentation and pioneering new technologies that made Project Talon so interesting. Recently, Tym Switzer of Switzer Performance Innovation sent a map for our COBB AccessPORT in our Project R35. Tym named the map “2012_Switzer_P600-Ferrara_ProjectTalon Pt2.” After laughing till it hurt, I started reminiscing about the early days of the tuning industry and all that we have accomplished along the way. It’s pretty amazing when you look at a product like the COBB AccessPORT and its capabilities versus what we had to work with for stand-alone engine management tuning back in the late 90s. Today’s tuners don’t know how good they have it.

When reflecting on Project Talon, I have few regrets. It was not an easy project, but it was a tremendous education. During that time, we obliterated every used transmission in Southern California once the vehicle was running in the low 12s and high 11s. No one knew how to rebuild the transmissions back then, so you’d find a used replacement and pray that you got some passes on it before it broke. When I started Project Talon, I could have saved a great deal of time and headaches by simply working directly with David Buschur to get a combination that went fast. However, I wouldn’t have learned as much about the DSM platforms and I know that some of what we learned and tried trickled down to the market as a whole.

Now with our Project R35 GT-R, we face a similar situation to Project Talon in 1995. We could just work with AMS, Switzer Performance Innovation, SP Engineering or one of the other R35 GT-R specialists to build a bad-ass R35. Instead, we’re going to try and experiment with some new parts along with the parts already proven to work well. Hopefully, we learn so stuff along the way. Next issue, we’ll have our first Test & Tune session on our Project R35 and we hope to get some updated strip and track times soon. Our plan is to not go too crazy on our Project R35 GT-R, but plans can always change.