David Buschur interview + Evom shootout article
Jul 27, 2010, 12:40 PM
#1
David Buschur interview + Evom shootout article
In August, I will be headed up to Ohio to do a site feature on the Buschur Racing DSM/EVO Shootout! In the interim, I did an e-interview with David Buschur, please check it out.
There is some interesting history behing this event, as well as some precautions of how to conduct yourselves while in Norwalk and at the track.
I am going to use this thread to describe my trip up there, take pictures, post results, etc. I hope those of you attending will post up in here too! Also, if you have any shootout stories or memories, this is the thread to post them in.
1) Can you give me a history of how the Shootout started?
Way back, nineteen years ago now, before the first real shootout was the first real shootout, I had originally started building some parts for my own car because there were no others produced, like an I/C pipe without 10 bends or a place to mount gauges. Back then a man named Mike Westwood had a company called Alamo Autosports down in Texas. He started a club called the "Mitsubishi Diamond Star Owners Group" or MDSOG for short. The club sent out a quarterly newsletter. I became involved and started writing articles for it. Mike wanted me to start selling parts so I agreed and named my side business effort "Priority Performance". Somewhere along the lines it was decided we should do a drag race get together here at Norwalk. My Talon then was running 12's and I was the quickest/fastest in the country. The week we were doing the race I broke my first axle and had to take it to the dealer to get it fixed. So I was without my Talon at the first "shootout" which wasn't called a "shootout" yet. Mike and his wife Pam came down, I drove my 1969 Chevelle SS396 to the event and raced, Bob Haworth was there in his '90 Talon equipped with every HKS part made, Dean Bradley with his '92 Talon and there was a N/A RX7. I seem to recall one other car too but could be wrong as I only remember 4 cars being there. So, this just popped into my head. Dean and I were going back and forth then every few weeks with who was the fastest in the country. That night I think he was only able to run low 13s. Bob had a LOT of money and parts on his HKS equipped Talon and was running 15s! Dean and I were watching and both of us knew something was wrong with the car. We went back to the pits and found that the rod going to the wastegate was actually OFF the pin. We hooked it back up and he went out and ran some mid 13s! I've actually got VHS video from that event that I've put on a DVD. Kind of off topic but that next year my side business grew exponentially and I changed the name to Buschur Racing and we then arranged with the track to have our own lane for the event on a Friday night, Lane #8 was reserved for just us DSMs.
The official DSM Shootout- The word got out about the first year's get together through the MDSOG coverage, so the following year more people wanted to come out. Remember guys, it's been a long time so my recollection of exact details won't be perfect, but there were for sure 8 guys, all of us with running DSMs. Jeff Hill, myself, Dean Bradley and Chris Croft were there. I have pictures of that event and may be able to remember a few more names if I dig them up. We all met at my house and the pictures of all the cars were in the back yard of my old house, clean new beautiful DSMs!
2) Since Evos hit the states, how has the shootout changed?
The shootout was originally named the DSM Shootout, obviously. When the EVO came we had to integrate them in, thus the DSM/EVO Shootout. In 2003 the Shootout was still mostly DSMs competing and the quickest Evo that year was in the high 11s. In the last eight years of Evos being involved they have become almost equal to number to the DSMs. The race cars are mostly based around DSMs now while the Evos have seemed to remain more fast street cars... And I mean fast street cars as there are many 9 second Evos that drive in the gates and drive home at the end of the day. Attendance has continued to grow for the nineteen total years there has been a race, in the early days it was doubling in size every year, 4-8-17-43 and then it got a lot larger all at once. The event is now large enough that it takes up two full days. The first day of the event, Saturday, is an unofficial car show or maybe it should be called a cruise-in at Buschur Racing. That is combined with a dyno competition. The town we are located in is small, about 900 people On that Saturday every year the population of our town more than doubles with attendance at the shop over 1,000 people. It is so large there are banners hung completely across the street of the town saying, "Welcome Buschur Racing Shootout participants". The street, which is a US highway, is closed off by police on both ends of town and traffic is re-routed around the town. The streets are FULL of people and bad *** cars every where. We have multiple food vendors on site, it's something you have to see and experience to realize how good it really is.
3) What is your favorite shootout memory through the years?
I've got a lot of memories in my head. I guess I'll try to keep this related directly to the actual Shootout, which is a race, and I will narrow it down to two. Back in the early '90s there was a HUGE rivalry between Hondas and Mitsubishis. Hondas got all the magazine play because they were on the West Coast. My good friend Mike Ferrara who was with Turbo Magazine back then arranged a race. The race was to be between Dave Shih, the owner/driver of the world's quickest and fastest Honda at the time, and myself. We had just finished the first RWD conversion on a DSM. We put the 4G63 in a 1992 Talon with a GM powerglide behind it. I think we had taken the car out once on the stock ECU/ HKS VPC and ran some mid 11s. Well the day before the Shootout we had a Sport Compact Race and that is where the race between the two of us was to take place. Dave Shih was plagued iwth problems all day, broken parts, the car smoked so bad we secretly called it "Pig Pen" from Charlie Brown. He beat me and beat me bad as my car would not leave the line and bogged/spit most of the way down the track. We could not figure it out. Finally I told my brother Dan, you know the only thing we changed were injectors, let's change them back. We had put a large set of injectors in the car so we put some 660s back in it. At the time we were on the spectator side of the track for a car show at the end of that first day of racing. I started the car, pulled out on the pavement and with a few hundred DSM fans standing around. I tried to do a burn out and it worked, the burnout was HUGE!!!! Everyone screamed and applauded, it was fantastic. The next day we became the quickest DSM in the world, again running some 10.60s at about 18 psi of boost and beat Dave at the Shootout in front of a large crowd. Dave was a great sport, we had a really good time that weekend.
My most recent memory had to be the chase for an 8 second passes with the Evos. It was pretty obvious it was going to be Buschur Racing or AMS to pull it off. AMS was there with their drag car and we were there with ours. AMS was having a lot of problems and our car was running exceptionally. The entire BR crew and the entire AMS crew were at the starting line when my brother pulled our Evo up to the line. When that 8.95 came up on the scoreboard I went freaking absolutely crazy! I try to not get over excited if we set a record or win as it looks bad, but in that case I was jumping all over. I turned and saw Martin from AMS standing there and ran over, jumped up on him and hugged him and told him "You can't take that one away from us, we got the 8!" He laughed, I laughed, shook hands and it was all good. They were great sports over it. Later in the day I could hear their car was breaking up from ignition. I took one of our COPs over to them, then told Martin to let me have a look at the AEM and we changed some ignition settings for the COP to work. They went out and ran perfectly clean after that and set a new personal best of a really low 9 that day. That was the start of them using selling the COPs we produce. That was a great day too, competition was fierce but the sportsmanship was awesome.
4) What is the percentage of DSMs to Evos to other 4G63 swapped cars that race?
I'd say that DSM/Evo is about 50/50 if I had to guess. Other cars that have had 4G63s swapped into them is small. I'd guess 10 of those cars show up per year.
5) Are you expecting any fast Evo Xs this year?
Unfortunately probably not. The Evo X as a drag car has not taken off. Last year there was a very low number of Xs competing. This year we have combined the Evo Xs into the other classes with Evo 8-9s that have the "same" modifications.
6) Is your shop more busy than usual right before and after the shootout? Do customers bring builds in to you just before the event to compete in it?
For about 2-3 weeks before the shootout we are slammed with work. We stay pretty busy all year but those weeks are our "hell weeks". The few days before are rediculous and overwhelming to be honest. Yes, we have customers that bring their cars in that HAVE to have them just for the race. We've got 3 at the shop now that fit that description.
7) How many people normally turnout at the dyno event on Saturday? How many to the race on Sunday?
For the Saturday portion we can't get an accurate count as there is no sign in but the police department that direct traffic and block off the roads estimate over 1,000. Sunday there are over 2,000 people on hand.
8) Is there anything you would like to say to the people coming to the event next year?
Of couse the biggest thing I need to say and make clear to everyone is that, "I truly appreciate the support all of you have given us for the last 22 years of business and the last 19 years of the shootout!" That is most important that people know we appreciate it.
9) Is there anything else that goes on that people should know about?
Yes, the scene at the hotels at night are out of control As with most things in life, with the good comes the bad. We've had some problems in the years gone by with drinking/partying and some poor destructive behavior that has put me in meetings with the Chief of Police of Norwalk and the owner of the race track. So as long as I am saying something to the people of the shootout I'd like to ask that when they come here they remember I have to live here all year. I'd appreciate them having the time of their life but keeping the racing and burnouts at the race track and behave like their mothers are watching. Last year there was a competing race so some groups went there instead of the DSM/EVO Shootout, we still had a record crowd and I am very happy to say it was the first year in a long time there were ZERO complaints about behavior at the hotels in the evenings.
Cruising through the hotel parking lots at night and hanging out is something that has to be seen. There are three pretty large hotels in Norwalk, they are booked solid with DSM/Evo people. The parking lots are full of cars. Some being worked on, some being cleaned. It's one of the coolest things at the shootout I think. I don't spend much time there but do like to at least cruise through because it blows my mind. If you come to the shootout it is one part you have to go see and experience.
There is some interesting history behing this event, as well as some precautions of how to conduct yourselves while in Norwalk and at the track.
I am going to use this thread to describe my trip up there, take pictures, post results, etc. I hope those of you attending will post up in here too! Also, if you have any shootout stories or memories, this is the thread to post them in.
1) Can you give me a history of how the Shootout started?
Way back, nineteen years ago now, before the first real shootout was the first real shootout, I had originally started building some parts for my own car because there were no others produced, like an I/C pipe without 10 bends or a place to mount gauges. Back then a man named Mike Westwood had a company called Alamo Autosports down in Texas. He started a club called the "Mitsubishi Diamond Star Owners Group" or MDSOG for short. The club sent out a quarterly newsletter. I became involved and started writing articles for it. Mike wanted me to start selling parts so I agreed and named my side business effort "Priority Performance". Somewhere along the lines it was decided we should do a drag race get together here at Norwalk. My Talon then was running 12's and I was the quickest/fastest in the country. The week we were doing the race I broke my first axle and had to take it to the dealer to get it fixed. So I was without my Talon at the first "shootout" which wasn't called a "shootout" yet. Mike and his wife Pam came down, I drove my 1969 Chevelle SS396 to the event and raced, Bob Haworth was there in his '90 Talon equipped with every HKS part made, Dean Bradley with his '92 Talon and there was a N/A RX7. I seem to recall one other car too but could be wrong as I only remember 4 cars being there. So, this just popped into my head. Dean and I were going back and forth then every few weeks with who was the fastest in the country. That night I think he was only able to run low 13s. Bob had a LOT of money and parts on his HKS equipped Talon and was running 15s! Dean and I were watching and both of us knew something was wrong with the car. We went back to the pits and found that the rod going to the wastegate was actually OFF the pin. We hooked it back up and he went out and ran some mid 13s! I've actually got VHS video from that event that I've put on a DVD. Kind of off topic but that next year my side business grew exponentially and I changed the name to Buschur Racing and we then arranged with the track to have our own lane for the event on a Friday night, Lane #8 was reserved for just us DSMs.
The official DSM Shootout- The word got out about the first year's get together through the MDSOG coverage, so the following year more people wanted to come out. Remember guys, it's been a long time so my recollection of exact details won't be perfect, but there were for sure 8 guys, all of us with running DSMs. Jeff Hill, myself, Dean Bradley and Chris Croft were there. I have pictures of that event and may be able to remember a few more names if I dig them up. We all met at my house and the pictures of all the cars were in the back yard of my old house, clean new beautiful DSMs!
2) Since Evos hit the states, how has the shootout changed?
The shootout was originally named the DSM Shootout, obviously. When the EVO came we had to integrate them in, thus the DSM/EVO Shootout. In 2003 the Shootout was still mostly DSMs competing and the quickest Evo that year was in the high 11s. In the last eight years of Evos being involved they have become almost equal to number to the DSMs. The race cars are mostly based around DSMs now while the Evos have seemed to remain more fast street cars... And I mean fast street cars as there are many 9 second Evos that drive in the gates and drive home at the end of the day. Attendance has continued to grow for the nineteen total years there has been a race, in the early days it was doubling in size every year, 4-8-17-43 and then it got a lot larger all at once. The event is now large enough that it takes up two full days. The first day of the event, Saturday, is an unofficial car show or maybe it should be called a cruise-in at Buschur Racing. That is combined with a dyno competition. The town we are located in is small, about 900 people On that Saturday every year the population of our town more than doubles with attendance at the shop over 1,000 people. It is so large there are banners hung completely across the street of the town saying, "Welcome Buschur Racing Shootout participants". The street, which is a US highway, is closed off by police on both ends of town and traffic is re-routed around the town. The streets are FULL of people and bad *** cars every where. We have multiple food vendors on site, it's something you have to see and experience to realize how good it really is.
3) What is your favorite shootout memory through the years?
I've got a lot of memories in my head. I guess I'll try to keep this related directly to the actual Shootout, which is a race, and I will narrow it down to two. Back in the early '90s there was a HUGE rivalry between Hondas and Mitsubishis. Hondas got all the magazine play because they were on the West Coast. My good friend Mike Ferrara who was with Turbo Magazine back then arranged a race. The race was to be between Dave Shih, the owner/driver of the world's quickest and fastest Honda at the time, and myself. We had just finished the first RWD conversion on a DSM. We put the 4G63 in a 1992 Talon with a GM powerglide behind it. I think we had taken the car out once on the stock ECU/ HKS VPC and ran some mid 11s. Well the day before the Shootout we had a Sport Compact Race and that is where the race between the two of us was to take place. Dave Shih was plagued iwth problems all day, broken parts, the car smoked so bad we secretly called it "Pig Pen" from Charlie Brown. He beat me and beat me bad as my car would not leave the line and bogged/spit most of the way down the track. We could not figure it out. Finally I told my brother Dan, you know the only thing we changed were injectors, let's change them back. We had put a large set of injectors in the car so we put some 660s back in it. At the time we were on the spectator side of the track for a car show at the end of that first day of racing. I started the car, pulled out on the pavement and with a few hundred DSM fans standing around. I tried to do a burn out and it worked, the burnout was HUGE!!!! Everyone screamed and applauded, it was fantastic. The next day we became the quickest DSM in the world, again running some 10.60s at about 18 psi of boost and beat Dave at the Shootout in front of a large crowd. Dave was a great sport, we had a really good time that weekend.
My most recent memory had to be the chase for an 8 second passes with the Evos. It was pretty obvious it was going to be Buschur Racing or AMS to pull it off. AMS was there with their drag car and we were there with ours. AMS was having a lot of problems and our car was running exceptionally. The entire BR crew and the entire AMS crew were at the starting line when my brother pulled our Evo up to the line. When that 8.95 came up on the scoreboard I went freaking absolutely crazy! I try to not get over excited if we set a record or win as it looks bad, but in that case I was jumping all over. I turned and saw Martin from AMS standing there and ran over, jumped up on him and hugged him and told him "You can't take that one away from us, we got the 8!" He laughed, I laughed, shook hands and it was all good. They were great sports over it. Later in the day I could hear their car was breaking up from ignition. I took one of our COPs over to them, then told Martin to let me have a look at the AEM and we changed some ignition settings for the COP to work. They went out and ran perfectly clean after that and set a new personal best of a really low 9 that day. That was the start of them using selling the COPs we produce. That was a great day too, competition was fierce but the sportsmanship was awesome.
4) What is the percentage of DSMs to Evos to other 4G63 swapped cars that race?
I'd say that DSM/Evo is about 50/50 if I had to guess. Other cars that have had 4G63s swapped into them is small. I'd guess 10 of those cars show up per year.
5) Are you expecting any fast Evo Xs this year?
Unfortunately probably not. The Evo X as a drag car has not taken off. Last year there was a very low number of Xs competing. This year we have combined the Evo Xs into the other classes with Evo 8-9s that have the "same" modifications.
6) Is your shop more busy than usual right before and after the shootout? Do customers bring builds in to you just before the event to compete in it?
For about 2-3 weeks before the shootout we are slammed with work. We stay pretty busy all year but those weeks are our "hell weeks". The few days before are rediculous and overwhelming to be honest. Yes, we have customers that bring their cars in that HAVE to have them just for the race. We've got 3 at the shop now that fit that description.
7) How many people normally turnout at the dyno event on Saturday? How many to the race on Sunday?
For the Saturday portion we can't get an accurate count as there is no sign in but the police department that direct traffic and block off the roads estimate over 1,000. Sunday there are over 2,000 people on hand.
8) Is there anything you would like to say to the people coming to the event next year?
Of couse the biggest thing I need to say and make clear to everyone is that, "I truly appreciate the support all of you have given us for the last 22 years of business and the last 19 years of the shootout!" That is most important that people know we appreciate it.
9) Is there anything else that goes on that people should know about?
Yes, the scene at the hotels at night are out of control As with most things in life, with the good comes the bad. We've had some problems in the years gone by with drinking/partying and some poor destructive behavior that has put me in meetings with the Chief of Police of Norwalk and the owner of the race track. So as long as I am saying something to the people of the shootout I'd like to ask that when they come here they remember I have to live here all year. I'd appreciate them having the time of their life but keeping the racing and burnouts at the race track and behave like their mothers are watching. Last year there was a competing race so some groups went there instead of the DSM/EVO Shootout, we still had a record crowd and I am very happy to say it was the first year in a long time there were ZERO complaints about behavior at the hotels in the evenings.
Cruising through the hotel parking lots at night and hanging out is something that has to be seen. There are three pretty large hotels in Norwalk, they are booked solid with DSM/Evo people. The parking lots are full of cars. Some being worked on, some being cleaned. It's one of the coolest things at the shootout I think. I don't spend much time there but do like to at least cruise through because it blows my mind. If you come to the shootout it is one part you have to go see and experience.
Last edited by Noize; Jul 27, 2010 at 12:48 PM.
Jul 27, 2010, 01:03 PM
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That would be sweet to see those hotel parking lots. I could park my ride there and know its safe. Any thief would be a fool to mess with mine when there are probably hundreds of cars way nicer than mine.
