Steve Millen will climb into the Scion tC, pitted against a field of 17 other drivers, from long-time STILLEN friend and comedian Adam Carolla, celebrities such as skateboarding legend Tony Hawk, to other racing stars such as drift and X-Games driver Tanner Foust.

Interesting note.. despite his lifetime racing career, many championship victories at places like LeMans and Daytona, and his recent successes with the Nissan GT-R at Targa Newfoundland, rules are rules, and Steve will be attending a couple of days at a Racing School prior to the event. This will be the first time for Steve to have attended a driving school of any type. (Yes, we’ve had a little fun teasing him about it.. especially about who his instructor might be!)

Steve Millen did participate in the 1986 Toyota Pro/Celebrity Race, making his way to the front, taking the lead before being rammed by a celebrity in a hairpin soon after the pass, taking the Toyota Celica suspension with him, and ending the day for Steve.

See below for the official Toyota press release, along with the full list of celebrities, pro’s, and other drivers:

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HORSEPOWER DRIVEN BY STAR POWER
2010 TOYOTA PRO/CELEBRITY RACE DRIVERS ANNOUNCED

LONG BEACH, Calif. (March 11, 2010) – An eclectic group of Hollywood’s stars from film, television, music and sports will put their freshly honed racing skills to the test all in the name of charity on Saturday, April 17 in the Toyota Pro/Celebrity Race, part of the 36th annual Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach.  The field of drivers will compete in identically-prepared race-ready Scion tCs in what has become the world’s longest-running, most prestigious celebrity racing event.

The historic, 10-lap race for charity on a 1.97-mile street circuit through the downtown streets of Long Beach in Southern California is one of six featured events during race weekend.  This year’s anticipated field of 18 drivers includes the following diverse entertainment and media personalities:

• Adam Carolla – Radio and television host, comedian, and actor best known for programs like “Crank Yankers” and Comedy Central’s “The Man Show” alongside Jimmy Kimmel.  He also was a former contestant on “Dancing with the Stars.”
• Adrien Brody – Academy Award winning actor in 2002 for his role in Roman Polanski’s “The Pianist.”  Other on-screen credits include, “King Kong,” “The Village,” “The Jacket,” “The Brothers Bloom,” “Darjeeling Limited,” and “Summer of Sam.”
• Anthony Anderson – Television and film actor currently starring in the television drama series “Law & Order” as Det. Kevin Bernard.  Film  credits include “Transformers,” “Hustle & Flow,” “The Departed,” “Me, Myself & Irene,” and “Romeo Must Die.”
• Brian Austin Green – Film and television actor best known for his roles  on “Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles,” “Beverly Hills 90210” as David Silver and “Freddie.”
• Christian Slater – Film and television actor currently starring on ABC’s new crime drama “The Forgotten” and was the lead role on NBC’s  “My Own Worst Enemy.”  On-screen credits include “Windtalkers,” “3000 Miles to Graceland,” and “Robin Hood.”
• Jesse McCartney – Recording artist best known for hits including “Beautiful Soul,” and “Leavin’.” Recipient of the ASCAR Pop Music Award for Song of the Year (2008).
• Keanu Reeves – Actor whose films include “The Day the Earth Stood Still,” “The Matrix, I, II & III” “The Replacements,” “Speed,” “Walk in the Clouds,” “My Own Private Idaho,” “Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure.”
• Patrick Warburton – Film and television actor currently starring in the hit CBS comedy “Rules of Engagement”.  Also most recognized from the hit NBC comedy “Seinfeld” as “Puddy” and the ABC hit comedy “Less than Perfect.”  Film credits include “Bee Movie,” “Underdog,” “Scream 3,” and “Men in Black 2.”
• Tika Sumpter – Television and on-screen actress best known for her role as Layla Williamson on “One Life to Live.”  Tika just completed filming her co-starring role in “Stomp The Yard 2: Homecoming” due out this year.
• Tony Hawk – Iconic pro skateboarder who landed the first-ever 900 at the 1999 X-Games.  He is also president of Tony Hawk Inc., and regularly appears on television and films.  Also hosts a weekly show on Sirius XM satellite radio network.
• Zachary Levi – Film and television actor best known for his roles in the action-comedy television series “Chuck” as Chuck Bartowski and ABC’s comedy series “Less than Perfect.” On-screen credits include “Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel” and “Stuntmen.”

Vying for a win in the “Pro” category is returning champion of the 2009 “Celebrity” category Keanu Reeves who is set to race against the pros, including Jimmy Vasser, 1996 CART Champion for Target/Chip Ganassi Racing and current IRL Team Owner and Toyota dealer; Steve Millen, Toyota MTEG Champion (1986 and 1988), IMSA GT Champion (1992 and 1994) and founder of STILLEN; Tanner Foust, Formula Drift champion and X Games Rally Gold Medalist; and Marty Nothstein, Olympic gold medalist, American professional road bicycle racer and track cyclist.

The Southern California Toyota Dealer seat is being filled by Chris Ashworth, Vice President & Partner of Toyota of North Hollywood.  Rounding out the field are charity auction winners Jerry Westlund and Dave Pasant, who each won the opportunity to race in exchange for donations they made in two different charity auctions.

“As the crown jewel of celebrity race events for more than three decades, the Toyota Pro/Celebrity Race continues to attract the most adventurous celebrities and professional racers,” said Les Unger, Toyota’s national motorsports manager.  “Throughout the history of this event we’ve managed to transform our favorite celebrities into high-speed racers, while also changing the lives of children in need.”

Toyota will donate $5,000 to “Racing for Kids” in the name of each celebrity racer, and another $5,000 to the winning racer’s charity of choice.  Racing for Kids is a national non-profit program benefiting children’s hospitals in Long Beach and Orange County, Calif.  On behalf of the race and its participants, Toyota has donated more than $1.8 million to various children’s hospitals since 1991.

Finally, a $15,000 donation is made in conjunction with the 13th annual “PEOPLE Pole Award.”  Sponsored by PEOPLE magazine, the award honors the pole-position winner of the Toyota Pro/Celebrity Race qualifying session on Friday, April 16.

May 8th, 2010! 

2009 brought some high highs and some low lows.  Through the tough economic times STILLEN pushed ahead with new products, new race programs and took the STILLEN prepared Nissan R35 GT-R to a first place finish in the Targa Newfoundland Rally.  All the while continuing growth saw the expansion of our manufacturing facility and more development out of R&D.

Development of that race program prevented us from being able to hold our annual Open House Customer Appreciation Day, but we are very excited to announce that 2010 will see the return of the highly anticipated event.  We would like to invite you to come down and celebrate our 25th year in business!

The STILLEN Open House event is arguably the largest gathering of Nissan/Infiniti owners in the world.  Showcasing some of the most highly modified vehicles you can imagine from all over the United States.  This day-long event is here at the STILLEN facility, and in 2008 we had to block off more of the street than usual and this year we are hoping to go even further!  This show brings thousands of cars and is a great place to see all kinds of modified vehicles from mild to wild!

Come down, bring your Nissan or Infiniti (or just yourself) and join us as we celebrate 25 years of STILLEN and Nissan/Infiniti performance!

Special Features and Attractions:

• Thousands of highly modified Nissan/Infiniti cars from around the country
• Discounted Dyno Runs
• Show Specials on Products
• Special Guest Appearances
• Shop Tours
• Technical Seminars
• New Product Launches
• Great Raffle Prizes and Giveaways
• And much much more!

Nissan arranged for transport, and placed the Targa GT-R in the center of their booth, giving attendees a chance to get inches away from the Orange Godzilla and get a peek for themselves. The show runs through February 21, 2010. [Pictures & Video after the jump]

TBWA\Toronto, Nissan’s agency in Canada put together this video of the GT-R on location at the show:

Click here to view the embedded video.

OFFICIAL NISSAN PRESS RELEASE:

Mississauga, Ontario – The Stillen GT-R that competed at the 2009 Targa Newfoundland will be on display at Nissan’s booth at the Canadian International Auto Show in Toronto in February.

Race car driver Steve Millen and his Stillen crew completed a tear-down and build-up of the GT-R to compete in the Newfoundland tarmac rally race.

“Nissan is excited to provide GT-R fans with this special appearance,” said Jeff Parent, vice-president of sales and marketing at Nissan Canada. “The Stillen crew showed us all just how mean ‘Godzilla’ can be, so we wanted to give fans a chance to get up close and personal to this great machine.”

While many modifications were made, the major change was a weight reduction of 78 kilograms over the stock model, along with increased throttle response and appropriate suspension changes.

The Stillen GT-R reached 96 km/h in 2.9 seconds, compared to 3.5 seconds in the stock version.

Here’s some photos of the GT-R at the event, taken by Ryan Cash with rwdftw.com:

 

If you haven’t seen the STILLEN GT-R in action, here’s a couple of in-car footage of stages during the 2009 Targa Newfoundland Rally:

STILLEN R35 GT-R – Brigus Stage – Day 5

Click here to view the embedded video.

STILLEN R35 GT-R – Gander Stage – Day 2

Click here to view the embedded video.

STILLEN had a Detail Clinic with Adam’s Polish and it was a beautiful sunny day, perfect for a good car detail.  People where out in full force to see Dylan and Ashley from Adam’s demo the full product line they have to offer.  The coffee was flowing and donuts being consumed as Dylan was explaining the importance of proper detailing techniques.

Everything you ever needed to know about detailing was explained, waxing to even the correct towels to use. Participants were even given the opportunity to roll up their sleeves and get down and dirty with the clay bar to help get their rides the ultimate mirror smooth finish.  The day concluded with a Q&A session where customer could ask specific car detailing question and even had Dylan work on there own personal cars!

Thanks to everyone who came out that morning it was a huge success and we at STILLEN plan to have events like this In March!

As you can see we have relocated the throttle bodies to one side of the intake manifold.  There are several reasons for this:

Intercooler Installation - Our intercooler is actually incorporated into the intake manifold. This dramatically decreases the intake air temperatures right before the engine receives the air. On the 350Z we found that the intercooler removed over 100 degrees immediately before the air entered the engine. There are other intercooler styles available, such as the water boxes that Vortech offers that are before the throttle body. Unfortunately on the VQ37 this would have significantly increased the cost, having two intercoolers and all of the associated plumbing, as well as space required in the engine bay would have been a major issue. Additionally, there is a lot of residual heat inside of an engine bay. Heat coming off of exhaust manifolds, the engine block, valve covers and more. Running two pipes across the top of all of this heat would only cause the air to re-heat inside the pipe prior to going into the engine. By cooling the air in the manifold immediately prior to its introduction into the engine we are getting the air as cool as possible.

Equal Pressurization - Yes, it would have been possible to simply use a Y-pipe design coming off the supercharger that went into the throttle body. The problem with this design is the different length tubes would cause an unequal amount of air entering the intake manifold on each side. Imagine a centrifugal supercharger mounted behind the headlight on either side of the vehicle. On the supercharger side, the air would only have to travel a foot or two to one throttle body, but on the opposite side the air would have to travel three feet across the front of the core support then another two feet back to the throttle body. This differential in distance means that one side of the plenum is seeing boost well before the other side, causing uneven air flow and pressure. This potentially could cause issues with tuning, power delivery, and could even cause additional turbulence inside the intake pipes. If both throttle bodies are open and one is receiving forced air but the other is still requiring the engine to be sucking air this will cause a large amount of turbulence inside the intake manifold. By equalizing the length of pipe that the air has to travel through, the engine will receive forced air in the intake manifold equally through both throttle bodies, thus reducing any turbulence.

Equal Air Distribution - It is very important to ensure that the air pressure is equal prior to going into the manifold, but it is even more important that the air is distributed evenly to each cylinder. The factory intake manifold has a very aggressive slope towards the front of the manifold. Combine that with the fact that the throttle bodies are aimed rearward, this could cause the front two cylinders to not get enough air thus causing the two front cylinders to run rich. By running rich and having more fuel than necessary in those cylinders it is actually hurting power and performance. By redesigning the intake manifold we are able to supply each cylinder with an equal volume of air which allows each cylinder to produce the most power possible and to work at its maximum level of efficiency.

Longer Runners - Another design that was incorporated into the intake manifold was a larger intake runner. By lengthening the intake runners we are able to increase torque which will help greatly with acceleration.

Here’s some higher resolution images of the 3D CAD renderings:

 

STILLEN Supercharger Development Posts

• 370Z / G37 Supercharger System Progress: R&D
• 370Z / G37 Supercharger System Progress: Intake Manifold & Intercooler
• 370Z / G37 Supercharger System Progress: Intake Manifold Design & Detail [Current]