Vanna White

[fourgsixty3]

Looks amazing, can’t wait for you to build mine!

Just a month and a half longer for me. Yay.

 

[MorrisonFab]

I was thinking to heat shield the oil pan too. [like]

DAMN, looking absolutely stunning! Nice work!!!


100%
Where would one go about finding some slick heat shield like that?

here's the heat shield!!

Floor & Tunnel Shield II™ (Adhesive) - 21" x 24"

Use as a barrier to reflect and insulate from any heat source. Designed to provide the best possible heat protection in areas where high temperatures are always present and problematic, Floor & Tunnel Shield II™ limits heat transfer on fire walls, transmission tunnels, floor boards, fuel cells...

www.designengineering.com

 

[MorrisonFab]

Well, the best update I have is that it runs!! Started up with zero issues and it was as though it had been running for years. Matt and I both looked at each other and said no car we’ve ever put together, been a part of, or been there for their first start has ever started as well as this did. It was wild.
And I cried.
It was the absolute best. Doesn’t quite feel real that it finally runs after all these years. And that it’s truly exactly how I hoped it would be. Probably even better than I hoped it would be.
Getting the intercooler piping made right now and then first drive in a few hours!! Will post photos and videos today

BIGGEST shoutout to my husband for everything he did to help me get it to this point. His knowledge is out of this world and we had an absolute blast thrashing the past few weeks.
And to /J for coming over to help get it going too. It was amazing that he pulled in and went right to work. Not many outside folks I trust to touch my car(s) but he’s one of ‘em.
And to everyone on this forum. Even with this car we were on here researching and getting help from threads from 2003 (still relevant and all the photos worked!). For sure couldn’t have gotten the car running without the people who spent a bazillion hours giving away their knowledge and sharing their experiences for free. Having all of this stored in a single place is invaluable.
(and a friend who does not own a DSM messaged me the other day and said this was the only forum that showed up with multiple threads on whatever it was he was looking up - injectors I think he said - and everything was spot on and helped him immensely!!!).

Anyway, i think that’s it for now and I can’t wait to share the photos and videos here soon!!!!

 

[MorrisonFab]

Okay here’s some from pre-intercooler piping yesterday minutes after the car started.

Also, this was my face just after it started.

 

[MorrisonFab]

Didn’t get any videos but here are some photos after the first drive!
Ran into some problems with the alternator but luckily we have an entire fleet here of cars we could steal from (sigh, ol) and all is well! Car drives INCREDIBLE. So smooth and easy. Dialing it in tomorrow and man, I’m so stoked

Tomorrow is wiring in the gauges, swapping the cluster (tach isn’t working), alternator wiring, and dialing it in.
And then it’s time to load up tomorrow night!!!!
I’ll get videos tomorrow- forgot in all my excitement

 

[MadelineP]

Holy moly that Turbo is the size of a watermelon. So far this is looking excellent. Definitely will be looking over this build thread.

 

[92Turbski]

Holy moly that Turbo is the size of a watermelon. So far this is looking excellent. Definitely will be looking over this build thread.

Lmao, right!
It is such a killer build!

@MorrisonFab have fun at the shootout!

 

[MorrisonFab]

Having the car at the shootout was amazing. We finally got it all finished finished Wednesday around 11pm and we left Thursday at 6am. We were running into some wiring issues and ended up stealing some parts off the green car so we could just get it there. Was really considering just pushing it off the trailer but we instead thrashed to get it all done. Grateful for that.

BUT- that meant zero time to get it dialed in. We were hoping to just upload everything from Prototype, which is why we kept ECMLink on the car, but we didn't realize all the logs and information was saved on a computer that is deader than dead. So we were starting from scratch.

So, you can imagine it drove all wonky and Matt was trying his best to figure it out in the 15 minutes it would take from getting to the track from the hotel but it was hard. Nothing was seeming to go right. LUCKILY a good friend, McKenzie Lange (@perrytheplatypus157 on instagram and here), was able to look things over and WHAM BAM BAM the car felt better than ever. So now I have an official tuner and that's super rad. It took him less than 10 minutes to get the car running well and I could finally drive it (I had Matt do all that while it was being funky 'cause I don't like the feeling of not running well- my tuning knowledge is VPC and nobody knew VPC, . It was just turning some knobs until it semi-felt better and praying you weren't gonna blow something up, HA). All these fancy programs are fancy.

Anyway- it was a phenomenal time. Running on 10 hours of sleep over the course of 2 weeks made me realize we are no longer 20 but that's fine, everything was fine. Got home Monday and still feelin' hungover from exhaustion but that's okay. Matt and I have taken the car out a few times to finish get it dialed in and figured out and it's near perfect. Drives on the street better than I always expect it to (despite driving Prototype daily 40 minutes each way in traffic). The best part is the only way to get under power is intentionally. It's surprisingly quieter than I thought it'd be, too.

Anyway- looking forward to getting the Haltech on, getting some good data, and using all 8 injectors for all the fuel. Once that's done, goin' straight to the track just to roll off the line and see how things all go. Maybe before the salt gets dumped on the road, maybe not. It's Wisconsin so we could have a blizzard the first week of October and then 80s the next week.

Here are some photos courtesy of Tony Bird, Andrew Gonzalez, Troy Gundrum, Ronnie Grant, Matt, Craig/Courtney Loudermilk, and the Queen Marybeth Kiczenski (I tried not to include duplicates but I also didn't try, ):

 

[Anfurnyy]

Man that car is just so absolutely clean. I would eat off of it.

 

[92AWDHX40]

It was awesome seeing it in person.

 

[Spleen8urLSX]

Unfortunately for me I was knocked on my ass sick all last week and didn’t make it out there until Sunday and only stayed a whopping 2 hours and left, however I did make sure I walked by to take a look at this. Thing is absolutely spectacular in person!

 

[MorrisonFab]

Well, got the Haltech Nexus R3 and IC-7 dash. Been ehhh about wanting to do anything extra awesome until there are some failsafes in place and a way to acquire *all* the data.
Not looking forward to tearing it apart again but hey, that’s how it all goes! And it’ll be rad to have the wiring cleaned up and all fancy like, and be able to really dial things in with bein’ worried

Also, been doin’ some grocery shopping with it and I give that a 10/10 ‘cause I can’t go wild and buy all the snacks ‘cause it won’t all fit

And just a couple-a besties hangin’ out

 

[Ludachris]

Well, got the Haltech Nexus R3 and IC-7 dash. Been ehhh about wanting to do anything extra awesome until there are some failsafes in place and a way to acquire *all* the data.
Not looking forward to tearing it apart again but hey, that’s how it all goes! And it’ll be rad to have the wiring cleaned up and all fancy like, and be able to really dial things in with bein’ worried
View attachment 709639


Also, been doin’ some grocery shopping with it and I give that a 10/10 ‘cause I can’t go wild and buy all the snacks ‘cause it won’t all fit
View attachment 709641

And just a couple-a besties hangin’ out
View attachment 709640

you know it's car people when you see a car parked WAY out there in the parking lot, far away from all the other cars.

 

[MorrisonFab]

Well, don’t really have many (any) updates.

Thought that the car would be in a different place (Haltech) but nah, didn’t get there this season!
Waiting on my Haltech to get back from DSM 3D Creations but they’re having a hard time getting a bracket made to fit in the stock location with the little things that stick out (Nexus R3). Which is ok because it gave me a reason to really think about what the heck i wanna do with the car.
I still do not really know but i have decided to make some changes!

i have made the decision to go auto. i bought all the things to swap over many years ago but never really wanted to go that route. I love the inconsistencies (mostly) with a manual car. I love that bangin’ gears makes me push myself a little harder and chase a little more.
Butttttttttt i am too heckin’ elderly to crawl under cars anymore to fix things that are bound to break.
My back hurts. My head hurts. And i am tired.
So we doin’ it.
(dont come at me, i know they break too)

The dogbox would’ve been cool but.. i drive the car everywhere. Truly, I do. Grocery shopping for two weeks? We gonna pile them bags in there. Picking up 638466 books from the library? Let’s go! It’s such an expensive thing to wear down and potentially have a very bad time with (again) and it’s just not worth the hassle (to and for me).

so, i s’pose not having the car where i hoped it would be has been a good thing. Probably wouldn’t have wanted to make any other changes if the haltech was in so it’ll be nice to do everything at once. Gonna be a rad off-season to do all the things to be able to do more things with the car next year! Can’t wait to make a pass in it!

Not the most exciting update but there it is anyway, ha!

AND(!!!) we brought home Matt’s car to get running again too which is the best best best. Having both of our cars in a good place? 10000000/10
Also bought the 4G63 SL-R for him which also kinda took some time away from doing anything to mine this year. (Can’t wait to get doin’ stuff to that and make a build thread for it and his car!)

So anyway- hope that the next update will have actual updates but until then, gonna have a great time just goin’ everywhere in it!

 

[MorrisonFab]

Some more photos from the event from the Queen of the Camera herself: Marybeth!

 

[Pjj]

@Stella you made the cut

 

[ClayC]

Really enjoyed reading this thread. The pictures are amazing. Congratulations to you on this build.

Very much enjoyed listening to you on the Tuned In podcast as well. Just realized that was you!

 

[MorrisonFab]

Very much enjoyed listening to you on the Tuned In podcast as well. Just realized that was you!

This is my car (Annika) but yep, my husband, Matt, did that super rad podcast! That’s so nice of you to say- thank you!

 

[ClayC]

This is my car (Annika) but yep, my husband, Matt, did that super rad podcast! That’s so nice of you to say- thank you!

That's even better!!

 

[Ludachris]

@MorrisonFab - you guys want one of these?

33rd Annual The Shootout 2026

This is the Event Thread for You must be registered to see element.. Discuss the event below.You must be registered to see element.

www.dsmtuners.com