The evolution of my nth moto built TT ACR

[Junkie]

I just figured I would sum up the experience I've had with this car, Aaron Miller and his guys at nth moto over the past several years.

It all started at the Texas Invitational around 2012 or 2013, timeline could be off but thats not horribly important. I was there in my green TH400/88mm/Nitrous Supra, Aaron was there with a customers car. The first Viper that I'd ever seen that was a real monster from a roll. It was the blue Gen3 they built years and years ago that was unmistakably fast. The car was sitting on some big 15" tires with turbos and a sequential. This thing was serious and the first gen3 that I ever even liked. Well fast forward to several rounds of eliminations, of course I draw the Viper. My car had been running great, into the high 180's all day and leaving awesome, honestly I was a pic to win the event. Well I knew how fast that blue Viper was and I got greedy, turned the car way up and said "its either going to spin or I'm going to drag them".....well it spun lol. The blue car jumped out of me and regardless of scramble buttons and nitrous kits it was all over. I was still happy about it, watching that car drag me down the runway was awesome! I went over to congratulate Aaron and his guys and ending up having a really great conversation that would lead down a road of them building my current TT ACR. The way they entire camp conducted themselves was like nothing I'd ever seen before. They somehow made me feel good about losing to them, and I was now rooting for the nth moto camp in a strong way! I walked back to my trailer and told a very good buddy of mine Ross Baird "someday I'm going to have them build me a car".

fast forward a couple of years 2014 at the Sema show in Las Vegas, as I was walking around I spotted the first ACR I'd ever seen. I was so hooked, I ended up walking back to that booth 4 times during the show just to check the car out. I tried to buy it, but that wasn't happening. After that I came home and instantly sold my Gallardo, to fund ordering an ACR. This was my first ever brand new car purchase, I was nervous and excited all at the same time. I've always settled for something that would "work" simply to save money, this time I did it, I ordered EXACTLY what I wanted from the get go. Now the waiting begins, from the get go of ordering this car I had already decided that I was going to enjoy it stock for a while and save up to have nth do a stock motor/TT build.

Picked the car up in January of 2016, it was an early birthday present to myself and I was so excited! We took the car the long way home from Detroit down to Dallas Texas where I live. We hit Tail of the Dragon, stopped in Tn to hang out with my family, then down to Louisiana and jumped in with some other buddies on the Hot Rod Power Tour. The trip ended up taking right at 9 days and the car got a strong 2500+ mile break in! I drove it for a few months here, then ended up calling Aaron to see when he could get me into the schedule, he was so informative and helpful in helping me decided what I really wanted. I wasn't an easy customer by any means, I told him "Well I need stock drivability, 1000+ on 93 and I want a flex fuel setup as well". He ended getting me on the books and the waiting game started again.

Fast forward several months, the car went up to Mn to get the turbo treatment, exciting! They had the car roughly 6 weeks, the entire time my car was there I was getting updates often, occasional pics, progress reports and tons of information. I've been in the motorsports community for 16 years now, I've NEVER received this type of info from a shop, it was incredibly refreshing. I knew my car wasn't just sitting and collecting dust, I knew it was getting cared for just as well as normal, if not even better. I got a dyno update around week 5 and was astounded at the power the car was making, soooo pumped to get it back.

The car arrives at my house just North of DFW, fires right off in the trailer, I back it out and instantly take it on a test drive. During the test drive I instantly start making hits. Lots of 50-60mph testing, pulls to over 180mph, etc.... I was just amazed by how this car was performing. I've had several 1000+whp cars, and nothing was even close to comparable to this thing. Regardless of conditions you could stab the gas and the car just took it. Clawed into the concrete and starting chewing up Realestate. I learned that I got spoiled quickly, the car pretty much lived on E85 75%+ of the time I was driving it, which was a lot! As it sat I drove it to Houston and Austin several times, lots of road trips and daily driving abuse. How it sat with this combo I ended up putting thousands and thousands of miles on it, the only thing that ever broke was the factory trans. Id like to say thats my fault due to the abuse I put her through. It got to the point where I couldn't really catch a street race anymore and the evolution bug kicked in. I thought to myself "if this car is so great now, more power would obviously be better". So then I started talking to Aaron about pricing out a next step for the car. Well that snowballed lol!

I ended up sending it back to them and doing what would be considered a "big build". The car staying H pattern and on 19" R888's was an absolute must for me, but even with those factors we decided to push the envelope a little bit on this combo. It got a fully built motor, fully built 6spd, more turbo, more boost, custom setup active suspension, all kinds of small custom touches including the nth billet intake, I knew we wanted to push past where the factory intake manifold was going to let us go. Luckily Aaron and I had developed a good enough relationship where he was ok with pushing things as well, I may venture to say he was even excited about turning the car up.

Well its 2K18 at this point in time and the car gets delivered in Houston so I can partake in the event and street action that I love so much. Aaron gave me a quick lesson on how to properly drive it and off I was. I think he underestimated the beating this car would take during the weekend. First ever pass down the track in the 2K18 roll event the car trapped well into the 180's, I was already floored/impressed/ecstatic with how the car was performing. Holy crap this thing is a riot to drive, its hard to imagine but its hooking harder, shifter faster, it seems like every gear ends so fast its actually hard to keep up with and shift in a timely manner. After the event I wanted to drum up some street action, we ended up putting over 110 gallons of ethanol through the car in 5 days. I made HUNDREDS of 60-180+mph hits and the car never missed a beat, Aaron inched up on the tune up a little bit every night and by the end of the event this thing was what I would consider a monster on the street. The fun part is where are just beginning to lean on things....

I beat on the car like this until the WGF event in November in Dallas, I figured why not, its in my back yard. We decided to try and put some 18" CCW's I had off my Gen4 Viper on the car with a MT drag radial. Well that DID NOT WORK, it ended up breaking the bead on my driver side rear tire at 200+ mph, pretty scary but due to the car being amazing it stayed planted on the tarmac and pretty easy to gather back up. It is kind of funny, on this pass, coasted through the traps on 3 tires it still went 200.1 mph lol. This ended up killing the diff in the car due to the car losing all traction on one side at 200+mph. Here is where my team really came together, Clint Baird let Aaron and I use his shop that night to change the diff out and even helped us along with it. Wouldn't take a dime from me, to say I'm surrounded by a great group of people would be a serious understatement. The next day I had a good buddy of mine run to my house and pick up my factory wheels with Toys R888's. Well these tires were cooked, but I didn't care, we'd just need to pull some power out, I really wanted to try for 210mph. Well first pass on the cooked R888's was 215mph, I was super excited! This thing is just as fast as it feels! Ended up doing another pass and it clicked off another 215mph, with what I would say is some pretty poor driving on my part honestly. We ended the event with that, my R888's were showing cords and it had been a long weekend!

Now we are well into 2018 and the car has really just been taking a beating on the street, I've ran out of guys to race and started to get bored. The chance to run the car up in Colorado at Shift Sector dropped in my lap and I figured why not! So I sent the car back up to Aaron and his guys so it could get some maintenance and QC before the event. Everything checked out great, which is a huge shock to me lol, I really beat the living crap out of this thing but it just takes it. I end up flying and meeting them at the event, the weather and back drop at this event in Colorado Springs is amazing. Well we unload the car, make a test hit, 200+mph but not where I want to be. Car has developed a pretty serious misfire, time to do some trouble shooting. Aaron M and Aaron B start trying everything we have access to but we can't find it. Finally we find someone in the pits thats racing a stock Gen5 and he actually lets me borrow his plug wires and coil packs. BOOM, that fixed it, went and clicked off 212mph on my first healthy pass at 10,000+ feet of elevation. I had to hurry up, and make changes to get back into the lanes. I was on borrowed coil pack snacks didn't want to ruin the other drivers weekend. So we didn't even cool the car down, pulled back into the lanes and clicked off 214.xx mph. I was more than happy, 214mph in this type off elevation was fast for me! Our event is done, time to enjoy some steak and whiskey, and wait for my car to get home for me to enjoy some more.

Fast forward through most of the year and WGF comes back to Dallas in November. I really want to take a shot at this, I think the car is working better than it ever has, I've learned how to drive it a little bit better and the weather should be great! So we decided to give it up a shot, Aaron sponsored the event, brought 2 more cars and we planned on bringing home a bunch of 200+mph slips. Well the event comes to surface, I drop my rig off the night before so we have a good base camp, my good buddy Philip drives into town with his nth TT TA, and Jeff does the same with his TT GTS with a sequential. First pass of the event with little to no prep we click off 212mph, and there was plenty left in it, I could feel it! I pulled it back around, turned the car up a bit and went back to the lanes....heres where I suck lol. I went 10mph faster to the 1/4 and ended up missing 5th gear. Yup, that was THE PASS and I screwed it up, the car felt like it was on a mission. We make no changes, just let the car cool off and look at the data. I went up to the lanes, tried to calm down but all I can think about is missing 5th gear. Well that does not happen this go around, I match my 1/4 speed and I knew she was on a pass, clicked 5th, drove through the traps with the shift light on and knew it was fast. The timing guy in the return road lanes handed me my slip, holy crap we just went 222.xx mph! I thought maybe 218, maybe 220, something like that, but 222 is seriously fast!!! At this point I'm done, I don't want to push it further, weather conditions were getting worse, and more than anything I was happy with the car. Jeff clicked off 200+ on his first ever pass as well, and ended up going 208mph, that car is seriously fast. Well Philip had no intentions of competing but ended up figuring "why not". His first pass was also 200+ and he ended up going 206mph after missing 5th, letting off and putting the car back in 5th lol! Talk about a victorious weekend.

Well now what do I do with the car? I hit my goals with it, F it time to go drag race. I decide I want to try and run 8's exactly how I drive the car on the street, no tire change, no tune up change, none of that stuff. My first ever pass down the 1/4 on this combo yields a 10.0@185mph lol, holy crap I suck at driving! Next pass got a little better, went a 9.3x@187mph, this thing is making some power. My friends rental was ending though so I didn't have time to make anymore passes. We planned on doing another rental in 2 weeks. I get there, no ice, no prep, no tire change, didn't even touch tire pressure. First pass, 9.2x@182! Ok now I'm learning a bit, I walk around from the group and try to get my head right. I start evaluating what I did wrong during the pass and pretty easily figure it out. I'm simply not hitting the car with enough throttle in 1/2, I'm trying to do "too much" driving. Well the next pass we went a 9.0x@185, with a 2.0 60". While that isn't good at all, for a full blown street car with Toyo's and a manual trans I'm chipping away at it and happy. I decide to ice the car down, turn her up a click on the boost controller and just concentrate on throttle input in first gear. Next pass, 8.88@186 mph, we did it!!!! Full blown street car, 16k+ miles, and driven all over the place on different fuels and in different conditions. The car has so much left in it, but I told myself I just wanted to go 8's and I would stop, no need to go down that slippery slope of trying to go faster. My buddy Chris McKinney has been keeping Aaron in the loop the entire time via text. Aaron and McKinney both are going absolutely nuts. Me, my camp, and everyone is jumping for joy. This car is just a monster, its good at everything I ever wanted. 5 years ago there was no way I would believe this type of combo was even possible.

Sorry for the long post, I just figured it would be kind of cool to highlight the main points of my history with nth moto and how fantastic my ACR experience has been. This is easily the most fun I've ever had in a car. To say I'm happy with the nth moto crew would be a serious understatement, they have knocked every goal I had out of the park without issues. This thing is so fun! I'll include pics and video in the next post.

https://youtu.be/5BTVA2sIOFU

[Junkie]

Right after the first build

Untitled by Will Dugas, on Flickr

Untitled by Will Dugas, on Flickr

Untitled by Will Dugas, on Flickr

Untitled by Will Dugas, on Flickr

Untitled by Will Dugas, on Flickr

Untitled by Will Dugas, on Flickr

Untitled by Will Dugas, on Flickr

Untitled by Will Dugas, on Flickr

[Junkie]

First built motor combo

Untitled by Will Dugas, on Flickr

Untitled by Will Dugas, on Flickr

Untitled by Will Dugas, on Flickr

Untitled by Will Dugas, on Flickr

[Junkie]

Now we are turning her up....

Untitled by Will Dugas, on Flickr

Untitled by Will Dugas, on Flickr

Untitled by Will Dugas, on Flickr

Untitled by Will Dugas, on Flickr

Untitled by Will Dugas, on Flickr

Untitled by Will Dugas, on Flickr

Untitled by Will Dugas, on Flickr

[Junkie]

Untitled by Will Dugas, on Flickr

Untitled by Will Dugas, on Flickr

Untitled by Will Dugas, on Flickr

Untitled by Will Dugas, on Flickr

Untitled by Will Dugas, on Flickr

Untitled by Will Dugas, on Flickr

Untitled by Will Dugas, on Flickr

Untitled by Will Dugas, on Flickr

Untitled by Will Dugas, on Flickr

[Murpowa]

Nice write up Will, simply a beast. This photo says it all!

[TA Two Oh]

Amazing photos and an even more amazing story! I really enjoyed reading it; thank you for sharing. Our cars sure have a lot of headroom for mods.

[RT SERPENT]

Very cool story! She's a beauty.

[TheWessss]

Awesome write up. Cheese grating those diffuser blades, lol.

[USAFPILOT]

that thing was really squatting in the rear, maybe leave on those front canards!

[LifeIsGood]

Great read. Thanks for the story.

[ViperPete]

Great story! What an amazing car too. Can hardly tell that its TT.

[serpent]

Makin silver look good!!! Bad ass beast for sure.

[1evilviper]

So awesome! If I could afford it id do the exact same thing....but I guess ill have to stick to my na car that goes a measily 9.7 @ 147

[Lost me beer]

That is simply one sick fukn snake! Great read too.
Troy

[Scott_in_fl]

The baddest Gen 5 around, no doubt.

[1ststrike]

Awesome pictures!! One looks like you are just about to pick the front tires and another looks like you have wrinkle wall slicks on it. Thanks for sharing

[SilverACR]

You may want to start looking for bead locks my friend! Cool car man

[SilveRT8]

Totally Badass !
Cant help but think it would still be faster without all the aero ?

[stradman]

Totally Badass !
Cant help but think it would still be faster without all the aero ?

Great thread! Agree with above though. Why keep all the aero? Surely it would be faster without, no?

[ACRSNK]

Love this car / build!

[JPL]

Great post, some of the best genV pics I've seen!

[Snakebit10]

And now the car will be up for sale!!! lol j/k.....Just used to hearing that over the years after big Viper builds.

Great write up and pics. One of my favorite tuned street cars ever. One of the cleanest street car builds I've ever seen. So stock looking. I can only imagine the horror you put in some of those legit faaassst street cars thinking it is a stockish Viper.

Pretty good youtube content on this car too....Continue to enjoy in good health.

[Nth Moto]

Thanks for the great story time read Will, it was fun to think back through it from start to finish! You've been a phenomenal customer and friend and as I've said before, we owe it to people like yourself for giving us the opportunity to build these awesome cars, so thank you.

Cliff notes on performance metrics in case the gravity of that is missed by chance:

222.7 MPH in the standing 1/2 mile.
8.86 @ 186 MPH in the 1/4 mile.

All on normal R888R street tires and ethanol fuel, exactly as he drives this car around for the past 10K miles.

And kudos to all the Dodge boys back in Michigan... the following parts are still stock OEM based pieces (albeit all modified, but still a stock part to start with) block, heads, crankshaft, wet sump oil system, rear differential, brakes, and overall chassis. That's a feat that I promise you is rare company, if at all in other platforms.

Viper is alive and well my friends!

[TrackAire]

Junkie,
Congrats on your success and driving talent.

Holy hell, I can't believe those Toyo's did not break the bead in the above photo where the sidewall is wrinkled and bead is flexing inward in two different places. Amazing considering the minimal amount of sidewall that size tire has. This is a very impressive testament to Toyo's quality and construction. One of the products we sell is a manual bead breaker and the bead usually doesn't even have to move inward as much as your tire did in the photo to get the bead to break. Like I said, impressive tire and wheel construction.

Although I'm at pretty much stock power levels, I do feel good about deciding to put R888R's on my Viper and Vette after seeing them hold up to this type of extreme abuse.