OMG, what a flashback, I forgot all about STS. Glad to see they're still around!
Storytime!
One of my very first self-employed jobs was to lower (2"x3") about 2 HUNDRED used Chevy Astro vans for export to Japan. They would be converted to livable with a raised roof, TV, sofa bed, paint jobs, etc. Like a Mini "conversion-van". It was so the Japanese city workers would drive out from their rural homes and live in them during the week at work. The parking lots of that job would have hook-ups for electricity and TV, and public bathroom set-ups for a dump and a shower.
I was only there to lower them, and the company would do the rest. As a young man I didn't even fathom just how many 200 vehicles is, or that they were used, from back east, and a bit rusty, and didn't even THINK to hire any help. This was just before the mid-90's lower EVERYTHING fad jumped off, so we had a kit designed from a local company (DJM). They were stout, but not the best engineered systems, they required you to remove the gas tank to add some brackets, and all of these rubber mounted suspension bolts were rusted in place and the vans had been staged in a dirt field with drainage problems. Talk about filthy late nights, I probably have Lyme disease or Consumption:upset:
Anyway, that job blossomed into many more jobs on those Astro Vans. One of which was to build a hero vehicle for the newly blossoming SEMA show in Las Vegas. It was my idea (thank you, thank you) to soup-up the little V-6 and settled on a turbo. But its a van, man! No room anywhere for that malarky. Except next to the transmission:eek-new: Working with STS we got most of a kit prototyped and Holy Hell those turbo vans were FAST! In hindsight they probably had waste gate issues and running way too much boost, but longevity doesn't really compute in a 20yo brain
Just picture a minivan, terrible 90's graphics, big add-on windows, velour interior walls, fiberglass running boards/flares, highroof... and positivly BLASTING your doors off, LOL. Good times. We had some connections with GM corporate, so we also helped them prototype the twin turbo Corvette kit where the turbos would replace the mufflers entirely
Even got to do donuts the '95 ZR-1 press car with the Lotus/ LT-5 32 valve V-8! Funny how a 400hp car is so common now-a-days, it was a positive screamer back then.
I'm surprised I've never build a turbo anything before? Always been NA, Torque>HP guy. Buell:love_heart: But times may be-a-changin':angel: