In this week's episode we invite a special guest Reggie Wynn from Wabtec. Wabtec is the parent company to Precision Turbos and Turbonetics. Reggie is one of the best human beings we have met and we are honored to have him as out first call in guest. He talks about how he started his love for cars and his journey. We also tackle those tech questions and Reggie offer his input on them including do you really need a waste gate actuator heat shield? We jump in and answer more of those tech questions, so keep them coming.
Episode 6 Show Notes Below
Announcer:
Welcome to Hot Lap brought to you by Heat Shield Products. Race testing.
Chris:
All right, welcome back to Hot Laps, a podcast by Heat Shield Products. We're at lap number six. Pretty cool. It's... The race is running, as they say. Let's introduce ourselves.
Steve:
I'm Steve, the head [inaudible 00:00:33] at Heat Shield Products.
Chris:
Right on. I'm Chris, the sales manager.
Shane:
I'm Shane. I'm the other [inaudible 00:00:40].
Chris:
And we are joined today by a special guest. He, his name is Reggie when he is the sales and marketing manager for the Wabtec Turbo Group. He's got some serious knowledge when it comes to a Megan horsepower with a turbocharger and he's just an all around good dude. He's been a big help for heat shield and we really appreciate it.
Steve:
We're going to embarrass Reggie a little bit here, or I am. He's not just lone of the best car people you'll ever meet, he's one of the best human beings you'll ever meet. Raise a really good person.
Shane:
I agree.
Steve:
Yeah, they don't make enough of Reggie.
Chris:
So Reggie's on the phone.
Reggie:
[inaudible 00:01:22].
Chris:
Reggie's on the phone. We're going to talk...
Reggie:
Hey guys.
Chris:
Hey, what's up buddy? But we'll talk a little bit about your history in the automotive industry and just some of the things around your life, but we just appreciate you being here.
Steve:
Absolutely [crosstalk 00:01:37] and for everything else you've done.
Announcer:
Hot Laps special guest is on now.
Reggie:
All good man. You guys have been really good to me. I mean it's probably been... I think I've known Steve for well over 10 years, maybe even longer now. And I still... If I remember correctly, I think we met at one of the summit shows.
Steve:
Yeah.
Reggie:
That was a while ago, man.
Steve:
A while ago.
Reggie:
I just remember [inaudible 00:02:07] was so hot and the power went out and...
Steve:
Dude, that's right. I forgot about that.
Reggie:
I think you saw me wearing a Niners shirt or something. You commented and then we just started... We hit it off from there. Just knowing that you're from Cali, pretty much the same part of town where we're at. We just totally hit it off.
Steve:
Absolutely. Reggie's a super, super easy guy to talk to. Super knowledgeable, all the big name people, like TV personalities,... Everybody knows Reggie.
Chris:
That's right.
Steve:
He's not on the TV all the time, but he's the guy that everybody knows because he's just great person first of all, foremost. Who doesn't want to know a great guy that works at a turbo company? And he likes football. So I mean, he's right... He's my brother.
Chris:
Exactly. It hit your top 10.
Steve:
Cars and football. So, Reggie's my brother.
Reggie:
Yes. Cars, football, sports, fishing.
Steve:
He likes fishing.
Chris:
That's...
Reggie:
I love... Die hard fisherman, man. I love it, man. It's one of those things.
Chris:
Before we get too deep down the rabbit hole of your life, we'd like to kick it off with a quick question just a food for thought. It's a two part today. So just kind of listen up. You need to think of what your daily driver is and I want you to just say it, your daily driver. And then if you had 10 grand to update your current daily driver, what would you do? And we'll start this one off with Shane.
Shane:
If I had 10 grand, I think I would just use that as a down payment and update it by getting a new one.
Chris:
What's your daily driver, Shane? First of all...
Shane:
Toyota Four Runner. It doesn't overland. It off roads and it camps, but it does not overland.
Chris:
Gosh. Steve.
Steve:
I have a Super Duty, a 2017 Super Duty. 10 grand? I don't know. It's got to go faster, first and then maybe a lift. The problem with the lift is I just don't want to screw up. After my last Super Duty and lifting it, I don't want to screw up the ride quality.
Shane:
It's already got every bell and whistle.
Steve:
I would just make it go faster.
Chris:
Go Fast. I'm sure Reggie could help you out with that.
Reggie:
For sure.
Steve:
They might. They probably make a kit and an inner cooler and all kinds of good stuff there.
Chris:
Reggie, how about you? What's your daily and if you had 10 grand.
Steve:
You got a new daily.
Chris:
We're getting into that...
Reggie:
I got a new daily. [crosstalk 00:04:35].
Chris:
We're going to get into that later. Go ahead. I'm sorry.
Reggie:
No worries. I had a 2015 Nissan GTR and if I...
Chris:
Godzilla.
Reggie:
It's a daily, man. I mean, that's my daily. People say, "Oh you just drive this on the weekends?" And no, it's my daily. It's my dream car. It's the car that I've always wanted to get and I was able to get it this year. But if I had 10 grand, easy bro, that's easy. Turbo upgrades. There's a company in Oxford called RD Engineering. I would get a pair of his RD800 turbochargers custom tune and push that bad boy over 800 horsepower. That what I would do.
Chris:
Nice.
Steve:
That's cool because he's right down the road from you. That's not too far from you. That'd be a nice little weekend upgrade, wouldn't it?
Chris:
With that, you may...
Reggie:
I tell you what, I traveled the country going to all these shops and I'm so lucky to have a shop like that [inaudible 00:05:24]. I can get there in 10 minutes from where I live. I live in Cambrio. So the guy he's on it, dude. He's got the GTR market cornered, for sure.
Steve:
That's awesome.
Chris:
Yeah. You'll be able to go down to Beverly Hills and race the Lambos.
Reggie:
I don't think I'd even go that far, man. There's a lot of people in West Lake to hide them in the Valley. We have Supercar Sunday here, on the weekend.
Steve:
That's rad. I want to come up for that.
Shane:
I was just thinking the same thing.
Steve:
Shane and I are going to come up and visit you.
Reggie:
They don't want the GTR, bro. Come on. They don't want to see it.
Steve:
They want to see the taillights, right, Reggie?
Reggie:
Exactly.
Chris:
All right. Well, if I had 10 grand, my daily is an older F250, it's a 2006. It's a V 10. How much does it cost to put a turbo into a turbo conversion?
Steve:
I think if you're going to do a $10,000 you just buy the DC power stroke and put it in there.
Chris:
The power stroke.
Steve:
Just get rid of the gas motor.
Steve:
It's a great truck, but it just struggles on the hills when I'm pulling a trailer. That's what I would drop. Our special guest and your background... I was going to ask you a few questions here and everybody's going to just put it in their two cents. First question out of the hole, are you still getting over the 49er's losing in the Superbowl?
Steve:
Oh man.
Shane:
That's low.
Reggie:
Dude. Oh man, it's rough. And I'm going to keep it 100 with you guys. I purposely took that Monday off to recover either way.
Steve:
Good for you. Because you're not a... Reggie's not a crazy drinker or anything like that. So for him to take a Monday off in advance...
Shane:
Just to recover, emotionally. [crosstalk 00:07:06]
Reggie:
Physically, to recover, man. It was a great season and the frustrating part is you go on social media, you see all these quote unquote experts who haven't watched many of the Niners games. "Oh, they should have ran the ball," shit like that. Bottom line is, we've been in that situation all season and we came through each time. But this time we didn't. We didn't make the plays when we needed to. We can't blame the referees, can't blame the coaches. Bottom line, the players that make the play. The plays were there. You go back and look at the film that's on tape. You can see guys that were missed a number of times. And the funny thing is that on that long ball that Jimmy threw to Emmanuel Sanders, that's the same play that they beat the Rams on that safety's bit. I don't know if you got to remember that, the same exact play and he just missed them. It happens. I'm a believer in the coach. I'm a believer in the quarterback and we have a bright future, man.
Steve:
They've got a good, young team. Bosa was a rookie. That's scary.
Reggie:
Oh, dude. He's my favorite Niner right now. He's a beast.
Steve:
His brother, as a former Charger fan, they're dead to me now. His brother was unbelievable, but the younger Bosa, he's better and he was a rookie and he was scary this year. So it's only going to get ugly from here on out for anybody trying to block that guy.
Reggie:
I agree.
Chris:
[crosstalk 00:08:34] Before we start breaking the game down quarter by quarter, let's get into some car stuff here. Cause I know you and Steve could talk about that for probably a day and a half. But seriously...
Reggie:
We talk about it all the time, man.
Chris:
I know you do.
Reggie:
Send each other text messages, "Hey, what's going on in the game?" And all that. We talk about it all the time.
Steve:
Seriously, let's get into the background of your life as automotive and... So did you grow up in California or are you a native or are you from outside?
Reggie:
I was born in Harbor City, which was in the South Bay, February 22nd, 1974. So I'll be 46 next Saturday.
Chris:
Nice.
Reggie:
My dad is a California native. My mom is from Mobile, Alabama. My dad's always been into cars, man. Just growing up, I remember him just always wrenching on something and trying to make something faster. He never had nice cars, though, that's the funny thing. He never had nice cars but they were always quick. Whatever he had, he just kind of got the most out of him.
Steve:
That's awesome.
Reggie:
And he would take my brother and I out to the... Kind of dating myself here, I already did, but he would take us out to Terminal Island where they would have the legal drag races because my dad was obviously a street racer too. But he would take us out there and we would watch the races and that's kind of where the love started. Growing up, for me, I loved Indy Cars, watching the Indy 500. I go back to when the Indy 500 when it was not even on live. They would show a tape delay or they always show that night. I think it would be that Sunday night they would come on. My guy, growing up, was Rick Mears. Huge Rick Mears guy, I wanted meet that guy one day. Just watching that type of racing and growing up and just being around cars all the time. It was just one of those things that... I didn't know at the time, but I was just this almost destined to come into this industry. So fast forward into high school, I have always been a Nissan guy. I don't know why but just they've always...
Reggie:
Those cars always appealed to me. Seeing back then that's when the Z32 first came out and the 240SX, those came out at that time, as well. And I couldn't afford one, I grew up in Inglewood, man. I was lucky to have a roof over my head. Growing up, there and pretty... Let's call it what it is, it was the hood. It was not too nice of an area. I think our family, we have one car and there's no way that I was going to be able to afford one. But I would always look at him and say, "Hey man, one day I'll get one. One day." So when I was in college, I was playing a lot of video games. I know it's kind of one of those nerdy things and...
Steve:
Sounds familiar.
Reggie:
Stuff like that. Kept me out of trouble, especially where I grew up.
Steve:
Hey Reggie, got three guys guilty as charged right there with your brother. We're all in the same age group, so that's just what we did.
Reggie:
Just playing a lot of video games growing up. That's how I learned how to drive stick, man. It's kind of funny playing pole position and seeing how you shift. You shift the car and go up and down the gears and all that stuff. This is a true story, man. What I'm about to tell you guys and it's probably going to get a little bit of trouble for this. My dad picked me up once. I want to say I was in the 10th grade and we were going to go fishing up in Morro Bay and he was wasted, he was done. And he had the car, he was driving with a stick and I just jumped in and it was trial by fire, man. You going to learn how to drive this thing right now or die. So I was driving all the way from LA up to Morro Bay. That's how I figured out the whole driving stick thing.
Steve:
Learn by doing.
Reggie:
Back to the... What was that?
Steve:
You learn by doing, and sometimes you just have to do it.
Reggie:
Just kind of throw them in the water.
Steve:
That's it.
Reggie:
Sink or swim, right?
Shane:
Yeah.
Reggie:
So video games was huge for my brother and I, growing up. I mean that's... We never were in any gangs, we didn't do drugs and drink. But playing sports, fishing and doing car stuff kept us out of trouble, man. I thought we avoided all that stuff growing up. So while I was on the final years of going to school, there's a video game that came out called Gran Turismo. That game, I would say, probably changed my life in the sense of the career that I ended up in...
Chris:
That was a great game.
Reggie:
Because the first car I purchased, on my own, was a 1989 Nissan 240SX. I loved... That car, that was my car, man. And I was like, "Dude, this thing's awesome." But when I was playing that game, I noticed something completely different about that car because that car was in the game.
Reggie:
The car had a different engine. It had a 20DET versus the KA24DE that the car came with, here in the States. So this was when the internet first started popping and everything and I started searching on the internet. I searched 20DET and seeing if anyone did any swabs back there. This was back in like '98, '99. Internet's super slow. There weren't that many guys. I would say that's probably... I would say two or three guys that did that swap here in the States. One of them ended up being a guy that was in Thousand Oaks, a guy by the name of Mark Hutchinson and ended up becoming pretty good friends with him. But at the time, to do that swap, it was pretty expensive. You were probably looking at around... It was around eight grand to do it.
Steve:
[crosstalk 00:14:16] Wow. Dude, that's big. That's a lot of money. That's a lot of money now but even more so back then.
Chris:
Yeah, that's a lot.
Reggie:
So I had the fortune of... I've always worked jobs where I had to talk to people and do sales. I was just always fascinated by that. I don't know why, but that's just something that I kind of liked doing. So I was working at a company where I sold Verizon, Nextel, Sprint, all the different cell phone carriers. I ended up selling cell phones to different companies and one of the companies I sold back then was actually [inaudible 00:14:49]. I sold them their first Nextel's way back in the day.
Reggie:
So I needed to sell, just doing the math rough numbers, I needed to sell a hundred phones in a month to be able to afford to do that. And I just kind of made it my goal. I printed a picture out of that engine, even got a little wristband that was the color of the valve cover so I can look at it every day and just kind of focus on that goal. Just being able to say, "Hey, I need to... This is what I need to do, to do it." And I kid you not man, I did that in one month.
Chris:
Nice.
Steve:
Dude, that's rad.
Reggie:
I was able to raise that money and do that amount of sales and to do that swap and in one month, man. The first time I drove that car with a turbo, Oh my gosh, I was shaking. I was... I mean, it wasn't a lot of horsepower but it's a hundred over what the stock was, but that...
Shane:
Big improvement.
Reggie:
That was my whole introduction into the turbo game.
Steve:
It was certainly more than what you were used to. So that was a big adjustment. Anytime you're in the same car that you've been driving but then you double the horsepower or whatever basically, that's crazy because you're expecting to get into it and have it feel the same way and it doesn't. That's crazy.
Reggie:
I mean, that's from there. That's where I got the turbo bug, for sure. Then playing other video games, like Tokyo Extreme Racer. That's another game that was on... I think it was on Sega Dreamcast, where you raced people on the freeway and you're modding your cars and going bigger turbos and that whole bit. So we'll go into the part of where I was... I ended up quitting that job and when I quit that job, I went to go work for Verizon doing yellow page advertising. And dude, I hated that job, bro. I couldn't stand it. So I was there for, I want to say two or three years, and they sent the email out to all the employees saying, "Hey, we want to have a voluntary separation package. You could sign up on Friday at 5:00 AM." And granted, we didn't have to be to work till eight but they said at 5:00 AM you can sign up. Man, I showed up at five that day to make sure I was on that list.
Reggie:
The package included... For me it was $12,000, you can do unemployment for a year, and you have medical. So I took that whole year off. I was just coaching girls softball and just doing whatever I wanted to do for a year. And at the end of that year, I ran out of... I didn't have any more money and the turbo in my car, at the time, went bad. So I went back to [inaudible 00:17:25] and I was like, "Hey guys, I need a turbo but I can't afford to pay for it. Could I work in the shop, pay it off and can we do that?" And they were like, "Yeah." So I started off working here. [inaudible 00:17:38], it was over 15 years ago in the shop. I was working in the [inaudible 00:17:45] department. I was sweeping floors and putting the [inaudible 00:17:48] kits together.
Chris:
And that was to work off the turbo that you were getting or were you actually getting a pay check?
Reggie:
No, that was working off the turbo I was going to get. I had no plans of staying here . My plan at the time was to go work for the LAPD. That was the plan. I was like, "Hey guys, I can't... I'm not going to stay here. I just want to pay off this turbo." I was supposed to go work for LAPD, but everything happens for a reason, man. I got the [inaudible 00:18:18] for, what I think are, these BS reasons, but it didn't happen. I think I ended up at a better place and in a better situation anyways. It's just funny how things work out. So one day when I was at work, all the sales guys called out. There was some guys at the track, at an event and another two people were out sick and they said, "Hey, can you go up and cover the phones for us?" Mind you, I didn't know their systems, I didn't know anything other than the turbo stuff that I've been doing for that before. And they decided to keep me up here and trained me and here we are now, man. It's crazy.
Steve:
Well, I tell you what, they made a great decision. And you're right, you never know... What's that expression? We all make plans and God laughs, right? We all think things are going to go a certain way and you're right, things all do happen for a reason because you are where you belong, I think. Because you love cars, you've grown up loving cars and now guess what? You get to work with big name people, big name companies, small ones like us.
Chris:
Right.
Steve:
And you treat us all the same. And that's what the greatest thing about Reggie is. He's just good to you. Plus they make a great product and now they have precision under their umbrella too. So you've got the two, arguably two of the biggest or if not the two biggest, turbo performance companies that you're overseeing and in charge of, as far as the marketing and sales goes. Reggie goes all over duties at every trade show. He... God bless you, dude. You are everywhere all the time, every event.
Chris:
Well, he's my... On Instagram, he goes to all these shows. I think he was in the Middle East at one point. But I don't think I'll ever go to the Middle East in my life. But his pictures and information that were handed down, that was... That's all I needed to know. I'm not sure I want to go there, but it was cool. And you go all over and you're at a trade show, it seems like every other month or so.
Steve:
Or every other week. This is a slow time for shows this year, but pretty soon Reggie will be gone. Doesn't it kind of start with [crosstalk 00:20:34] Formula D?
Reggie:
Yeah, it's going to pick up pretty soon, but that's how these shows... Actually, to be completely honest with you, I was worried. I was a little nervous and that whole bit and besides the whole logistics behind the whole thing, it was a great show. I would definitely go back again. Just take some [inaudible 00:20:52]. It's not like what you're used to, here in the States, by no means. If you drink, you're not going to drink there because you can't. If you like bacon, you're not going to get pork there.
Steve:
It's different. It is. It's just different. It's not wrong, it's just different.
Reggie:
That's the biggest thing that I learned is that who says what we do is right?
Steve:
Right.
Reggie:
I mean, everyone has their own culture and different things. If you respect them and they'll respect you and after, the people were super nice to me over there. I had a great time.
Steve:
They may not have the booze or the bacon, but they sure have the cars. You know what I mean?
Reggie:
Yeah, they do.
Steve:
That's the universal culture there, cars.
Reggie:
Universal language, for sure, is cars.
Steve:
Speed, baby.
Chris:
Hey, Reggie?
Reggie:
Yes.
Chris:
We got a little bit of backstory. It's awesome. We learned that you started working with Steve at a summit convention. Could we ... Let's move on to some of the cars you've had. So you had the NSX. I'm really interested in knowing... You had a Raptor for a little while, but then you got your new Nissan you're driving and you just said that that was your dream car. That's it? I mean, you made it, you got rid of the Raptor, you got your Nissan. That's it? Or is there something else that would make you tick?
Reggie:
Yeah. So in a perfect world.... So just for the record, I never had an NSX. I'm not a Honda guy.
Chris:
Did I say NSX?
Reggie:
Yeah.
Steve:
Yeah.
Chris:
I did? I'm sorry. [crosstalk 00:22:27].
Shane:
240SX.
Chris:
Shows you what I know. I'm a Ford guy, that's all I know.
Shane:
He's 240SX.
Chris:
240. Sorry, Reggie.
Steve:
That's what he meant to say.
Chris:
I'm Ford all day.
Reggie:
It's all good. I've had one, two... I've had three S13's and those are 240's. I had two S14's and then this GTR. The Raptor was amazing. Oh my gosh. And I'm kind of torn, in a sense that... Obviously, I said earlier that I do a lot of fishing, right? So the GTR is not going to fit any Jake sticks in there. You're not going to fit any 10 foot poles inside the GTR. So when I'm able to do that financially, I will get a truck just to be able to do my fishing trips.
Reggie:
I love going down to San Diego, fishing out at Point Loma on the Mission Belle, fish at Coronado Islands. All that's fun, right? I mean to do that and the GTR is just not... It's not practical. I had to weigh my options at the time and was like, "Hey, do I want to... Do I keep the Raptor or do I get the dream car that I wanted and that I would drive every day?" And that's why I got rid of the Raptor. Because I technically, I didn't really use it for what it was intended for. Maybe only once or twice a month when I went fishing, but I never went off road or anything like that.
Steve:
Now, before the Raptor you had an Infinity, right? And you had hot rodded that too, I believe.
Reggie:
Yeah. So I had... You're right, I had two Infinities. I had the Q50, I had the four door sedan. Had the V6, the Q... I'm trying to remember the... It said the 3.5 liter and then I got the twin turbo version, a red sport one and that thing was nice. It was pretty much like a baby GTR.
Steve:
That's pretty awesome.
Reggie:
The same thing, it's nice thing to have but putting the fishing rods in there... It just wasn't practical. Having a truck that... You guys know, you guys drive trucks at this. It's so easy. You can do just about anything, having a truck. Maybe down the road I'll probably get another truck to start. Maybe a Titan, since I'm a Nissan guy and get a nice... Get a good deal on one of those, have that for my fishing trips.
Steve:
Get one of those commons and then do an upgraded turbo on that thing for it, that five liter. That's a cool motor, man. I think that's a cool...
Reggie:
Yeah, it is. There's tons of potential, right?
Steve:
Absolutely. Dude, I think that's an untapped power plant right now. So, okay, go ahead Chris, what's your next thing?
Chris:
Well I was just going to tell you, you can always leave your jake sticks at my house and pick them up on your way down.
Reggie:
Okay. I might take you up on your offer, man.
Chris:
Well I'm taking you up on a fishing trip this year, if not two or three. I was going to say, you also can't throw a Dorado or any fish like that in the back of your Nissan.
Steve:
No.
Chris:
It may start stinking. Or in the truck too.
Reggie:
I did that. I did that in the Infinity, bro. That was bad news. The bag came loose because I didn't use a cooler because the trunk wasn't that big. And water got everywhere. Dude, I threw all the carpet and stuff in one of those large washing machines at the laundry mat and it still didn't work, man. Throwing down baking soda back there. It took me a good two months to get that smell out of the car.
Steve:
I believe it.
Chris:
And while they smelled good on a boat, it doesn't smell good in a car, that's for sure.
Reggie:
I'm a big smells guy, so if it smells bad I'm not going to... [crosstalk 00:26:03]
Steve:
That's why you got rid of the car.
Announcer:
It's time to answer those burning questions. It's tech time, here on Hot Laps.
Chris:
Let's get into a couple of these. And it's actually kind of cool, we're actually getting questions now for the podcast. So I'm going to throw them up and I got a few names to it. This first one is definitely appropriate for you. It comes from Justin S. Says, "I am very interested in your turbo heat shields and I understand how they can block heat, but can you better explain how they boost performance? And do I need to wrap the downpipe as well?"
Steve:
I would say it's all situational, wrapping the turbo and downpipe will help extract more heat out of it; help it spool and boost up quicker. The real big advantage to putting a turbo heat shield on is two things: if you're paddling the car, it helps you get back up to speed a little bit quicker, kind of reduces the flutter and lag. The other thing, too, is lowering the air intake temperatures. Your under hood temperatures. That's where you really get the power boost. That's why they put an inner cooler on a turbo, is so you can lower the IATs. That's the big thing. And Reggie can expand on that a little bit as well, I'm sure.
Reggie:
The cooler that you can get that charger temperatures, the better the turbo is going to perform. That's why mornings, like now here in So Cal, it's a little chilly out for us. People back East, they're crying because I was on the phone with the guys from PT and they're like, "Yeah, it's negative eight." No, dude, not here. I'm talking about... It's here in the forties in the morning, that's perfect turbo weather. You'll notice your vehicle would perform like crazy because that charge air is really, really cold and turbos, they love that. So the cooler that you can get things the better it's going to perform.
Steve:
Absolutely. Yep. And that's what a turbo like a downpipe heat shield and a turbo heat shield, it'll help you keep it all cooler.
Chris:
All right, so wrapping the downpipe is situational.
Steve:
And Reggie's right. 40 degrees, that's like parka weather, thermal underwear, weather out here.
Chris:
Right, I'm freezing.
Reggie:
Yes.
Chris:
All right, next question and it comes from busted knuckles. You could probably figure out why. "I am extremely happy with your lava wrap on my race car exhaust and I wanted to wrap my daily very soon. But the pipe is not as easy to get to as my race car. Is there a product out there that can be used without taking the pipe off?"
Steve:
Again, depends on his... How much room he's got, but that those armor, either the armor pipe kit or the regular heat shield armor. Those work great. You can get those. In fact, Shane and I... Of course, that Jeep was a little different, that was easy to get to because it was up in the air even though we did lift it.
Chris:
Right.
Steve:
But getting it up off the ground. That's always the hurdle is, do you have a lift? Can you get it up off the ground enough with some jacks? [crosstalk 00:29:10].
Shane:
Do you have room to work?
Steve:
But it's real easy to install. Clamp on and away you go.
Shane:
Nothing. No assistance required.
Chris:
This one comes from Kyle E., "I've used your header shield and fuel line insulation and I'm a big fan. I have a carbon fiber hood I'm going to install. Can you advise what product would be appropriate to insulate the underside of my new hood?"
Steve:
Well, this is one that I'm sure Reggie will be... Reggie, does your car have a carbon fiber hood? Did it come factory with one?
Reggie:
No, it did not. No, it's a normal hood.
Steve:
So Reggie'll probably put a carbon fiber one on there and if Reggie was to do the same thing, I would lava shield because it has that cool carbon fiber look. But we're working on one that's going to be a sound and heat insulator. It'll look real high end. So Reggie, when I get that figured out and you get your carbon fiber hood, just send me a pattern. We'll make you a custom a blanket.
Chris:
There you go.
Reggie:
Sweet, I like that.
Steve:
Lava shield, the thick one. That's what I'd put under there.
Chris:
Right on. Let's do a quick product showcase. And this one's definitely up for Reggie. It's the lava and stealth turbo shields. If you're watching on YouTube, you can see in front of us.
Steve:
Yeah, see in front of us.
Chris:
Can you just briefly talk about the material that's on the outside versus the material on the inside and why do they look different?
Steve:
Yeah, so two different fibers, two different textiles. The outside is the lava that's a basalt. So it's crushed volcanic rock spun into fiber. It's excellent for, I say low temp meaning 1200 degrees or less. To us that's low temp because it's very strong, very rugged Russian technology. The Russians developed it as a counter to Kevlar and Nomex. It didn't have the ballistic capability they did but it had a much better thermal capacity. So it's great for our industry that's kind of where the whole basalt lava rock thing started.
Steve:
The inner is a silica installation and this is an amazing silica insulation. Silica fiber. It remains flexible. That's always a problem with anything high temperature, like an exhaust wrap, that type of thing. As soon as it over heats, it becomes brittle and then it starts to fall apart or lose its structural integrity. So the business end of this is a real... We rate it at 1800 degrees. We always underrate a little bit, that fabric can see 1900 2000 degrees and still say flexible. It's a great product. And then we've got the insulator on the inside and then the cool little stainless steel fasteners and all that good stuff.
Chris:
And then Reggie, maybe you can touch on if someone is buying a turbo heat shield. We do buy the flange size. Is there like a key to that or is it just they should measure their turbo and kind of look on our website? I just want to kind of get your idea on...
Steve:
How to guide people because that is... That would be... That's a great one.
Reggie:
I would just find out if you have... I mean, there's not that many different plan styles, so just find out which one you have. If you have a T2, T3, T4. Some people call it T5, but the T5 and T6 are technically the same thing. Or if you have a VBIN, just find out what the base of your turbo is and then that will help you figure out which he chose to go with, out of your product line. I know it may sound a little intimidating hearing those numbers, but trust me, it'll be pretty simple once you do it a few times and if you have a hard time understanding it or if you want someone to guide you through it, I'm sure the guy at Heat Shield Products, or even myself, can walk you through it an make sure that you get the right heat shield the first time.
Steve:
Reggie gets a lot of secondary tech calls from us. I'm always like, "Hey Reggie, what's this?" I mean, we know our share, but we don't know them all?
Chris:
Right. For sure. We've got to go to the experts. On top of that, waste gates. So we're making covers now for waste gates and...
Shane:
The actuator.
Chris:
What's the best way to explain why we should do that?
Steve:
A couple of things. It can help prevent the heat from deteriorating the diaphragm in there, prematurely, keeping it inside. And then the other thing is just like Reggie was saying, anytime you have something... A lot of times in these cars, dude, everything's just jammed in there. So you've got to... Maybe you got your turbo or your waste gate actuator underneath like a intercooler pipe or an intake pipe. So that's another reason to adjust... Anything you can do reduce that under-hood heat to get more power. That's the whole idea.
Chris:
Reggie, what's your thought on the waste gates heat shields?
Reggie:
I think Steve hit the nail on the head. I mean, basically you want to make sure that you can protect that diaphragm, especially in street driven or daily driven applications. It will be important to protect that diaphragm. Make sure that you don't have any failures. If you have a failure, you can have loss of power or the waste gate could fail altogether and you can lose an engine. So it's an investment that isn't that much to do, to protect your engine.
Steve:
Yep.
Chris:
Right on. All right. Well, again, we really appreciate you coming. But before we leave, why don't you just give the listeners just some... How they can get in touch with Reggie or...
Steve:
Follow Turbonetics and the whole nine yards.
Chris:
You got to follow his Instagram page because he puts his stuff...
Steve:
His Instagram page and Turbonetics too, obviously, and Precision. But his personal one.
Chris:
So what do you got out there, Reggie? What can the people listening go check you out on?
Reggie:
So my personal Instagram. It's reggiewynn. Just one word: R, E, G, G, I, E, W, Y, N, N. And then for Turbonetics, it'll be under turboneticsinc. and for Precision, it will be under precisionturbo.
Steve:
That's it.
Reggie:
Go ahead and give us a follow and that's it. You'll see some of the new stuff we're working on. And actually, before you guys called, I actually loaded up all the new images that we have of this new turbo that were releasing in another Terminex name. I think people are going to like.
Steve:
Oh and you always have cool cars. Because they always get good builders, racers, that kind of thing. So he's always got something cool on their feed, and the Turbonetics or Precision, there's always just... It's car candy. You know what I mean?
Chris:
Yeah, for sure. Well, Steve...
Reggie:
If you go to our website right now, you'll actually see one of the homepage images we have is the dung beetle with the lava heat shield.
Steve:
Oh nice. [crosstalk 00:35:56] Good. All those street outlaw guys have been good to us. We're big fans of all of them. They're real nice people.
Reggie:
They're good people, for sure.
Steve:
Really good people, man.
Chris:
And Steve, how can they reach us at Heat Shield?
Steve:
It's just heatshieldproducts.com or at Heat Shield Products and that's it.
Chris:
And then podcast questions?
Steve:
Chris:
Nice. And that's all we got. Again, thank you, Reggie.
Steve:
Thank you, Reggie. Dude, I know you're a busy dude.
Shane:
Thank you, Reggie.
Steve:
So we really appreciate your time.
Reggie:
Thank you guys. I appreciate you guys and I'm sure I'll be seeing you guys soon.
Steve:
Yes, sir. You got it. Take it easy, Reggie. Thank you.
Chris:
See you, buddy.
Steve:
See you.
Reggie:
Have a good one, guys. Buh-bye.
Announcer:
From everyone at Heat Shield Products, we thank you for listening to Hot Laps. Leave that review, subscribe, tell a friend, and most of all stay cool. We'll see you next time right here on Hot Laps.
