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  • Introduction

    Hello everyone, I was brought here by Jason who saw my posts of my winter build on DSMTuners which I had just registered on. I have actually never been to a car show before, well a real one anyway. I am actually not sure if I would have enough time commitment to really do any showing if I am trying to make competition this season. But maybe some future season or if my plans change. I thought at any rate it would be nice to meet some people and get a feel for what the car show thing is all about and keep some doors open and make new friends at the least.

    So I will post a little about me personally, my DSM, my motorsport achievements and my future plans. Sorry for the very long post!

    My name is Andrew Brilliant and I own a 1997 Mitsubishi Eclipse GS-T Spyder. I am originally from LA and live in San Francisco. Some of my family now lives in Yokohama Japan and mostly in the US, I prefer japan except for one thing, you can't work on your own car! I speak a *little* Japanese. I originally purchased my eclipse in 2001 from my best friend who had used it as his daily driver he always jokes about it because he can't believe what I did to it. My goal was to build something almost as fun as my motorcycle but a little safer and the downward sprial began. The fun factor is the single largest reason why I started with a spyder. There are few things that can compete with how much more fun it is to have the top down. Even with a slower car. At the time I first bought i had a girlfriend in LA and was living in San Francisco and the hours to drive back and forth just flew by with the top down. I also managed to do 145 indicated with the top down when it was stock and my best friend that I bought the car from was asleep in the passenger seat, that was good times. I also broke a convertible latch off at 192mph on the san mateo bridge. The car was my daily for 4 years. I now keep it nice and slow on the street. I think it was a combination of getting old and California laws making the penalties so high you never want to risk it.

    As many racers, my first racing experiences were motorcycles. In my case drag and land speed racing. I achieved 9.7@147 in the quarter and a bonneville top speed of 208.8 on a couple different GSX-R 750s (from the days before there was a 1000cc). The DSM was my first car I ever modified and so I could never really let go of it in spite of owning my Supra. So I decided to build the supra as a restoration/modernization daily driver and keep the eclipse as a race only car.

    More on my supra can be found here:
    Douro Oni

    My current motorcycle (just mildy modded) here:
    Douro Oni

    I was originally hooked on going fast when I test drove a brand new 98 eclipe GST as a university freshman, and I promptly bought the car (my first DSM). I have been broke ever since LOL.

    I came into real motorsports when I volunteered to work as part of a 3 man crew and data aquisition specialist for Aaron Downey's SCCA E production Mazda RX3. We easily dominated golden gate region and advanced to nationals 3 consecutive years. I was mentored by Jose Rodriguez, multi time (more than i could count and he wanted to mention) SCCA GT3 championship driver and car builder.

    Some notable motorsports achievements:

    My eclipse race car:
    0.6MPH from a world land speed record (3000cc production hardtop class (F/PS, there is no separate class for convertible). The car was designed by me and built by me and my friends and since 07 my one sponsor. The car is the fastest convertible to have ever run land speed, as well as the fastest 4 cylinder convertable I can find any record of. It has substantially more top speed in it as I have been MUCH faster in testing but has only competed on the short standing mile dirt surface of El Mirage with poor surface conditions and low traction to 174.4MPH while still accelerating 0.3Gs through the traps. I don't go WOT until roughly 150mph. I believe it will exceeed 200mph at bonneville. Video here:
    http://gallery.mac.com/andrewbrilliant1#100416

    more car info here:
    Douro Oni

    Other features notable about the car is that while driving 400 miles back and forth to the track I achieved in excess of 30mpg keeping at 5 over the limit (75mph) which is substantially better than the cars stock efficiency. It also passes California noise requirements.

    In 2006/2007 I worked as crew and data aquisition specialist for the Modellista Designs time attack supra, in our rookie season we won 1st place in the super street/euro tuner time attack for street tire class.
    5th place 2007 @ super street
    2rd place 2007 redline time attack

    I designed and built a Suspension for toyota supra which has become a popular option. I donated this knowledge the Supra community and has created a nationwide 4 month backorder on the base Bilstein monotube shocks. The system achieves 1.2Gs sustained on the skidpad and has ride comfort roughly like stock. I have begun design on a suspension rework for my DSM.

    Designed a drag/land speed wing which was featured in Japanese tuner magazine "option" (most popular car magazine in japan) and some other intl magazines "maxi tuning, max power" and US magazine sport compact car. The wing achieved a decrease in drag as well as moderate downforce.

    I performed ECU tuning on Martin Check's eclipse GSX as well as design of his custom sway bar. Martin competed in 2003 open track challenge: 4th, 5th,4th places at pahrump, thill and Las Vegas.

    My future plans for the eclipse are centered around an aerodynamics, suspension and power package that I designed during the off season. The power package will be centered around a Forced Performance GT3582HTA, Shepperd trans and a very special cylinder head. Keeping my proven magnus 2.4 longrod bottom end, which I have been very happy with. I/we spent several years finding a combination as reliable as the car was from the factory. My goal is less than 3800rpms of lag and approaching 700whp with a very effective traction control system to manage the tires.

    The cylinder head is being built using a 'wet' flow bench and some ideas we spent a while brainstorming. The valvetrain will be extremely light weight loosing more than a kilogram from the components which preceded it. I believe this will be an effective combination to reach my goals.

    My aero package progress thread can be found here:
    diffuser update:
    http://www.dsmtuners.com/forums/appe...#post151433806

    front end progress:
    http://www.dsmtuners.com/forums/appe...#post151455610

    I am transitioning for this season to time attack which allows me to return the car to a little more refined and streetable state so I'll be putting at some interior back with a touch of class and finishing my aero package and hoping to make some races by seasons end. Right now its slow going as I have only one sponsor, KBR performance that tries to fit me in between jobs because hes got a kid on the way and needs to pay the bills.

    Nice to meet you all.

    -Andrew Brilliant
    Last edited by gixxer_drew; 04-22-2008, 02:00 PM.

  • #2
    hey, welome to the forums :]

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    • #3
      Welcome to the forums Andrew. Your post is very professional to say the least. Kind of feels like we're interviewing you hehe. Anyways welcome and if you do decide to show, I know Jason will take care of you.

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      • #4
        Thanks Tim, I was thinking to start out by just showing up at an event you guys are at and seeing what its all about. Without my car though just me. See how the whole thing works so I can get a better idea if I can fit it in with racing in some way. The last thing I would want to do is say I'll do something and not be able to follow through. Jason and I were going to do this at the last HIN but plans fell through on both our ends I think.

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        • #5
          geez...that is fast !! :O

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          • #6
            welcome and nice to meet you

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            • #7
              good intro drew, looking forward to meeting u...cya around and welcome to the forums

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              • #8
                wow way to much to read

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                • #9
                  welcome to the forums

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                  • #10
                    Originally posted by Spdyevo View Post
                    wow way to much to read

                    Sorry bro, I wasnt sure how big or small it should be.

                    Thanks for the warm welcome everyone.

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                    • #11
                      Originally posted by Em View Post
                      good intro drew, looking forward to meeting u...cya around and welcome to the forums
                      Em, where can I see more of the interior in your avatar??

                      Spdyevo, I see you have a lotus logo in yours do you have one? I used to have an Elise, I miss it.

                      http://gallery.mac.com/andrewbrillia...lack&view=grid

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                      • #12
                        nice MKIV
                        ive seen douro oni on supraforums lol
                        welcome welcome!!

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                        • #13
                          Originally posted by gixxer_drew View Post
                          Em, where can I see more of the interior in your avatar??

                          Spdyevo, I see you have a lotus logo in yours do you have one? I used to have an Elise, I miss it.

                          http://gallery.mac.com/andrewbrillia...lack&view=grid
                          cool, nice pix!

                          i dont have pix of my car uploaded on the net anymore (its been retired since mid 2006)

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                          • #14
                            welcome!

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                            • #15
                              i <3 dsm

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