Supercharged Porsche 997S by JRZ & Fashion, Glamour & Bikini Model Brandy Starr

Brandy Starr We couldn’t let our Las Vegas Bikini Contest Winner go without some elaboration. And she’s worth it. Just think about what that means – Las Vegas Bikini Contest Winner. We all think of Vegas having the best looking ladies, and they seem to congregate there even more when SEMA is in town since so many companies in the car industry hire the best looking models for their SEMA presentations. As you can tell from our SEMA photos, SEMA had some fantastic lady talent. They have to be gorgeous, personable, intelligent and fun people, and Brandy beat ‘em all. We’re proud of Brandy. Read the following and then look at her pictures again. We’re already trying to think of way to get her back for more. *Born: Salt Lake City, Utah, raised in St. George, Utah. She graduated from Dixie College in St. George, Utah with honors in Science and Human Development. She’s also fulfilled requirements to become a nurse, “just in case my modeling/acting career doesn't pan out.” She can probably forget about nursing for a while. *Measurements: 34C-24-32 *Hobbies: Dancer for 13yrs. (studied jazz, ballet, and hip-hop) she also enjoys working out, playing board/card games, watching movies, camping, snowboarding, and playing tennis.

*Brandy is a champagne person. “I have a hard time with the taste of alcohol so I am famous for taking a couple sips off of a drink and leave it lying around. With champagne I can drink it, no problem. Plus it only takes a glass or two to make me giggly. My favorite champagne is Perrier Joet Rose.” Unfortunately we did not know that before hand or some Perrier Joet Rose would have been on hand for the shoot. We did get some giggling, though. We’ll have to go for more giggling at our next shoot with Brandy, and now we know how to get it. *Brandy has been modeling for the past 6 years. She got started winning her first bikini contest and became Ms. Venus Swimwear Utah. From there, she competed in the International Finals in Florida and “loved every minute of it. I won the title again before moving to Las Vegas, NV. Since then my career has blossomed. I have been on the TV show ‘Las Vegas’ twice. I was a featured extra on the recently released movie ‘SuperCross’, and I was the hostess of a TV show called ‘City Beats’.  I have also been in two fitness infomercials. I love being in front of a camera and I really enjoy modeling and acting. My dream is to someday land a more permanent gig as a television hostess.” If you could have heard her say that you would have almost heard the giggles. She really is a lot of fun. * Her favorite date? “I am somewhat of a home-body so my dream date is very cliche'. I love to go out to dinner and either see a movie or go bowling, then afterwards play a board or card game. I am a sucker for amusement parks, so if you want to see me smile or laugh, take me to Six Flags!” Or, try the champagne, apparently. * Her favorite cars – there are a couple. “My favorite practical car is the new Acura TL. I am getting ready to buy one! My favorite dream car is the Ferrari Enzo, need I say more?”

*She is single, and we did not intentionally leave that super-critical information until here at the end. Unfortunately, she is quite serious with some bloke, darn it, and they have a precious dog, “a toy American Eskimo with a personality like nothing else.” (she’s referring to the dog, we think) * Brandy is definitely a live wire: “My mother taught me to live life without any regrets and I think of that daily. I try not to let anything hold me back and if there is ever anything I want to try, I do it. I have even been skydiving once and loved it. I was told by the instructor that I was the first person to ever giggle when I jumped out of a plane.” Maybe they were over Six Flags. We always love feedback, especially when it comes from a beautiful model. “I loved this shoot and it will always stick out in my head. It was a last minute, hurry and find a location, type of job. My photographer was awesome and very personable. It is hard to find nice people in this business and it sure helps when they come along. It comes across in pictures when somebody is having fun, and on this day (even with the blazing sun in my eyes), I had a blast!”

The TPC Superchargers / JRZ USA Porsche 997S Text and photos by AdPix.Biz Model: Brandy Starr Location: undisclosed location too close to an airbase Porsche is undisputedly the king of handling and performance. Even if your taste is more Mercedes, or BMW, or Corvette, everyone acknowledges that Porsche has wrapped up the handling challenge long ago. Even their “truck”, the Cayenne, is begrudgingly acknowledged as a great-handling vehicle, and not just for a truck. People may not realize that Porsche is really an engineering think-tank. They make cars to show off their engineering. So it is quite bold for anyone to think they can improve on Porsche’s handling. And that is why only another engineering think tank, like TPC and JRZ USA, can do it. This bright yellow Porsche 997S is packed with the latest and best technologies that the race track can yield.  TPC Racing and JRZ USA racing technology have teamed up to deliver the ultimate performance, even beyond the “standard” items that any Porsche owner gets when buying a product from a company that’s won over 21,000 international races. You’ve probably seen many sources of suspension upgrades, even for Porsches. What you may not realize, is that most of those are re-branded parts from nameless manufacturers in Taiwan, for example that offer little to no technical benefit over stock.  Shock and spring sets one may find on sale from the internet or even from the better resellers regardless of brand name may boast improved performance but how would they know they don’t race or even competitively compete.. These are not quality units. Even the most famous brand of springs, one that has nice logos on racing Porsches, does not do what JRZ USA does in terms of unique, verifiable, race-quality suspensions. Some of those famous brands are, in fact, JRZ USA suspensions. JRZ USA’s shop includes specialty tooling and testing equipment, chassis and shock dynamometers. They also support Grand-Am, ALMS, World Challenge, SCCA, and world Rally to name a few series and bring their engineers and some equipment to the tracks, making changes, engineering support and tweaking customer cars based on real-time input and competition against the big-boys of serious racing.

Few street after-market shocks are higher quality than the OEM shocks. Sometimes an owner will spend thousands on his car, adding name-brand shocks, and he brags that it is so much better. But the bumps are harsh because the after market cannot control “low-speed” shock reactions. “Low-speed” is 0-2 inches per second. But JRZ has developed a way to incorporate a unique valve and piston design, the most crucial part of the shock that allows low speed control without affecting high speed control. It is truly maximum traction without hard ride. The JRZ RS shock is twin-tube, high-gas, and 2-way. That means they can control both compression and rebound adjustment, independently. No one has ever done this with high-gas pressure. One can adjust the JRZ’s rebound without affecting compression. The advantage of gas pressure is that it stops oil from foaming and provides lifting force for the piston. No one else has figured out how to build a seal that allows gas pressure in a true twin tube. JRZ is the only one in the world that can do this. It’s something they’ve learned at showroom stock racing, and their package now gets the technology to the road.Like most things in the complex, inter-related world of suspension technology, which is an art form on top of some rigid science, the JRZ shock provides a number of benefits other than just rebound and compression. It allows a tremendous range of springs, from a 300 lb to 2,000 lb, without valving changes. Others cannot even control a 300 lb spring let alone a 2000 lb. one. Also, this allows more freedom with the hollow anti-sway bars. Anti-sway are custom designed by JRZ USA  for this 997S. No one in the world has a hollow street / race anti-sway bars for 997, but JRZ USA. Because the shock is so much better, they can run more than twice the factory spring rate. This provides unparalleled platform and amazingly good chassis control. There’s no snap oversteer on entry and there is incredible corner exit even with the increase in performance by the TPC Supercharger Kit. It is compliant over a wider window. The factory spring is about 220 lb/inch. This JRZ one is 500 lbs per inch of control, but it is no harsher. The JRZ shock allows greater spring control without harsher springs. They’ve learned to do this with “Spec” racers – a race series that allows only certain modifications. Only springs, anti-sways and shock absorbers can be changed. So they have to be very good at making changes without upsetting the restrictions. JRZ USA is a contingency sponsor of Rolex Grand Am Series. Their premier shocks are on most podium finishers. They also work with BMW, Lexus IS 350, Subaru WRX, Mitsubishi EVO, Lotus Elise, Audi and Volvo to name a few. The National SCCA run-offs were won by JRZ-shod factory Subaru WRX, in T2. JRZ USA provides private labeling to Dinan and Callaway. They’re the exclusive shock for Team Subaru, Team Lexus and countless Porsche race teams.  The JRZ USA teams have won more races in Grand Am in one year, than any other American race teams. It's natural to put the TPC Superchargers / JRZ USA Porsche with Brandy, the bikini contest winner, because TPC / JRZ appreciates “a complete package.”  JRZ’s package includes proper springs, sway bars, and shocks, and proper tuning package settings (which most spring manufacturers conveniently do not supply, because they haven’t done the testing to know!), for $4,500.00. Better yet, TPC Superchargers can fit your 996 or 997 Porsche, like this one, with the Eaton model 90 ((http://www.automotive.eaton.com/product/engine_controls/superchargers/index.asp) supercharger, engineered as well as the suspension.  Most superchargers are centrifugal, but this uses roots-type positive displacement, the same as every OE manufacturer today. It’s hard to “add” this type of supercharger because it’s so hard to package and engineer, but for TPC. A centrifugal supercharger uses the compressor of a turbocharger, mated to a gear induction unit or transmission. It’s much less expensive, but their system’s transmission makes a distinctive whirring noise, and that’s one reason why you don’t hear the whirring with an AMG Mercedes or Jaguar, or TPC Porsche, which uses positive displacement. Another reason car manufacturers don’t use centrifugal superchargers is that the increase is slight, and anything significant is only felt at the highest rpms. This means the engine is trying even harder, especially since the driver ends up trying to peg those powerful revs to feel the impact of the supercharger at red-line. But not so with TPC’s supercharger. Enjoy some arithmetic here (you’ll find Brandy’s measurements in her bio, this is about the car). This supercharger model 90 means 90 cubic inches. For every 360 degrees of rotation, it displaces 90 cubic inches. The 3.8 litre engine displacement is per 720 degrees of crankshaft rotation because it is a 4-cycle. Therefore it displaces 1.9 liters at 360 degrees of rotation. Add to that the model 90’s 1.5 litre of displacement to each rotation.

It is being spun at about a 2:1 revolution, that’s the pulley size or gearing. It spins twice for each revolution of the crank. Therefore the 1.5 litre is really 3 liters, feeding the engine’s 1.9 liters of displacement. The engine doesn’t know boost, only displacement. So it effectively creates a third more displacement, termed as pressure. This is positive displacement. For those of you that just returned from another view of Brandy’s numbers, the end result of our supercharger exercise is that it’s like putting a 7-litre motor in the back of a Porsche. This results in an increase of over 100 hp and 100 ft lbs of torque, at every rpm. Or, YeeeHAAA! The kit is fully adaptable to C2, and C4 and automatics. The supercharger package is $9,900 plus installation, but comes with pulleys, computer hardware, and the liquid-to-air intercooler. It takes about 40 hours to install, but it does not require any special tail, nor is engine removal required! TPC has trained dealers around the globe. Their kit comes with 1 –year warranty. They have over 10 years of designing superchargers for Porsches, including 993 and 964 air-cooled cars. Amazingly, TPC also has improved the Porsche’s brakes. Their big brakes package is from TPC Racing. It uses the same brakes as on their Grand Am GT3 race cars. They have custom Pagid pads, that don’t squeak, and a 6-piston front caliper (stock is 4 piston), with 380mm APC rotors (stock for the 996 turbo is already a whopping 330mm). It is a two-piece floating rotor – not rigid to the hub. This prevents vibration from being transmitted to the brake pad, and stops pedal fluctuation. One interesting side point is that Michael Levitas, one of the TPC and JRZ engineers we meet at Vegas, and the one lucky enough to meet Brandy, is an Aviation Engineering graduate from Emory-Riddle Aeronautical University. His specialty is turbo supercharging and suspension engineering. One of Porsche’s founding engineers was Norbert Singer, himself an aeronautical engineering graduate, before going on to engineer more LeMans wins than any other race engineer, and one of the brains behind the GT1, and the Carrera GT.