ARCHIVES: Private Tour of STILLEN Motorsports Part 1!

"Jake Stumph Racing" (jakestumphracing) 06/01/2015 at 11:34 • Filed to: STILLEN, NISSAN, history, private, tour

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Originally written and posted on February 14th, 2014 at:

https://www.tumblr.com/blog/jakestump…

Welcome Internet, to STILLEN.

A small group of us were invited to a private tour of STILLEN’s headquarters in Costa Mesa, California. Who knew that STILLEN was just a 10 minute drive from home?!

After congregating at 8:00AM, and loitering for a sufficient amount of time, we all rolled over to STILLEN.

We were greeted by non other than Kyle Millen.

Kyle is the nephew of Steve Millen, New Zealand’s most prominent export, racing car driver, and founder of STILLEN. Their waiting room was chock full of cool stuff, but most of those pictures turned out blurry, shame.

Notice I said “most” but not all! So much history cataloged here:

As Kyle ushered us away from the lobby, we were greeted with some serious hardware:

Kyle described the working relationship STILLEN has had with AP Racing, including these custom racing calipers. STILLEN has been a massive supporting force in the research and development (R&D), and prototyping for industry giants, like AP Racing.

That particular caliper was developed from scratch by STILLEN. He passed it around, and having recently pulled the 6-piston Brembo calipers off my car, I was shocked at how light, and rigid this design was. This is true, top dollar, race car engineering.

Moving on, our next stop was the Boost Department (a personal favorite of mine):

Let’s look a little bit closer:

Kyle detailed the work STILLEN has done with the California Air Resource Board (C.A.R.B.) to make the majority of their supercharger kits CARB legal. This ensures a hassle-free experience. “If the Cops ask you to pop the hood. You just tell ‘em “Glad to!”, and there’s nothing they can do about it.”

So. Much. Boost. These are the pulleys responsible for providing the boost to STILLEN’s superchargers.

Moving on...

Here’s one palette of brake pads:

Roaming the halls, you really gain an understanding as to how large the operation is.

Pod filters for their patented intake systems:

Sway bars!

Want to be exhaust ed with options, come to STILLEN:

Intake Plenums:

MORE brake stuff:

Good God Almighty, this place is HUGE! Come to find out that this is just Building No. 1 of 4 in their Tuning Campus.

The scale of STILLEN is better understood when you realize that they develop parts for a lot of the OEMs, in particular, Nissan, and General Motors have a history with the marque.

We were eventually guided towards a bright orange bedroom wall poster on four wheels. I am of course talking about the STILLEN prepared Targa New Zealand/ Targa Canada Nissan GTR:

STILLEN’s goal with this car was to keep the power around the factory output of 480 horsepower, but to see how light they could get this big bruiser to be. This car is some 600 pounds lighter than a show room car.

Here’a video of it in action, as recommended by Kyle:

Among this motley crew, there were many covetous looks. Carbon fiber, and a bright paint job, a bedroom wall poster does make. You are never too old for race cars.

Group photographer, Nick Pereira, caught on the other side of the lens. Busted! Much of the nicer looking photos in this post were shot by Nick, and all credit is due to him. Thanks, bud!

Opposing this Tour de Force was something mysterious. Something hidden away from prying eyes, that did not go unnoticed by us. There were whispers and nods indicating towards these veiled mysteries.

Curious indeed. Draped in these dusted covers, there was a deeper history here. Their shapes had the more finely tuned eyes in the group sizing them up.

What lie beneath the veil?

A Formula car, perhaps of late 1970’s/early 1980’s vintage?

Well, I’ll be damned. This is origins.

It was never stated for how long the car had been torn down, or whether or not it would ever see the light of day again. Pounding down race gas like a lush with a bottle in each hand. This mid-engined fire breather looks the best sort of leery.

From race car to road car, Steve Millen has had quite the career. As previously mentioned, STILLEN does R&D, and manufacturing work for a lot of the OEMs.

In an effort to cement their long standing relationship with an act of good will, Nissan designated the last 300 units of the production 300ZX as “Commemorative Edition” cars. The street-going realization of Steve Millen’s Z32 chassis race car, these were tuned, and signed off by Millen himself. As such, they all bear his signature.

Available in STILLEN racing green, this was the swan song of the Nissan Z32. After this brief run in 1996, that was that, and the Z-car was no more. In the United States, this brought about the only absence in production of the Nissan Z-car since it’s introduction to the U.S. market in 1970.

The Commemorative Edition was all well and good, however, the 300ZX that truly resonated with Steve Millen was the one we found tucked away in a forlorn corner.

The IMSA 300ZX. This car dominated Daytona, Sebring, and ultimately, Le Mans before retiring in 1995. Powered by the same twin-turbo VG engine one could spec their 300ZX to have off the show room floor. Sure, it technically continued on for part of ‘96, but it was already dead in the water. Killed by regulations, which deemed the twin-turbo motor too potent, and by it’s aged design. The Z32 was gone.

‘96 was right about when Japan’s economic bubble burst. The result was far fewer Jap Imports into the U.S., and at much greater cost. By the early-90’s, it seemed like all of Japanese manufacturers were in on the sports car action, each with the desire to prove their worth. Honda/Acura had the mid-engined NSX. Mazda built upon their years of rotary experience with the FD-generation RX7, equipped with a state-of-the-art twin-turbo Rotary setup. Toyota had the 2JZ-powered Supra, a car whose twin-turbo Inline-6 is still revered to this day as one of the greatest engines in the modern world. And Nissan had their 300ZX. It too sported a complex twin-turbo 6. However, Nissan’s ace was in the limit-pushing technology used throughout the car, not just in the engine bay. Variable Four-Wheel-Steer, and electronically controlled everything. In their final years of production, all of these Colossal Giants had price tags that had risen far greater than anyone could have imagined. These asking prices matched the decline of Japan. Dark days lay ahead for Japan, and it’s smaller manufacturers were the ones who suffered the most. It would be some time before the Japanese sports car revival took place, and re-established the land of the Rising Sun as a formidable powerhouse in the realm of sports cars.

PART TWO IS LIVE: !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!!

NitroNick > Jake Stumph Racing 03/23/2018 at 12:11

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some notes here.
Kyle is Steve’s son. Steve is a champion in many different series but AFAIK no pikes peak trophies for Steve yet.

Rhys Millen is Steve’s Nephew, and Rod Millen’s son.

Source: i work at stillen