Targa New Zealand Rally – STILLEN GT-R Ready To Compete!
October 19, 2010
Well, it’s that time of year again. Every year around this time we prepare for Steve Millen to send the race car to some far off country or island where we will race for 5 days straight and cover nearly 2,000 miles. In 2009 the team took on the challenges of Targa Newfoundland for the first time and brought home a first place finish in the modern division, first place finish for the manufacturers, and put down some new stage records on the public streets of Gander and others. It was an amazing journey that saw the unveiling of the STILLEN GT-R in Targa rally competition.
If you’ve been following the STILLEN GT-R race-car you’ve seen that upon completion of the Targa Newfoundland rally the car was immediately driven by Read more
Spectre 341 Challenge – Final Recap
June 29, 2010
Steve Millen and the STILLEN team have returned home from the Spectre 341 Challenge. We had a great trip and we are already thinking of ways to improve the car for next year and see what kind of car I (Kyle Millen) can bring up there to compete in! The team at Spectre did a great job for their first event and we are really looking forward to heading back next year!
Photo courtesy of Larry Chen / Spectre 341
The GT-R finished 2nd overall, missing the top time by 1 second. Next year we’ll be bringing back some Dunlops and should be able to pick up at least 5 or 6 seconds. Unfortunately the Bridgestone run flats did not offer enough grip for the hill climb. But, we knew that going into the event as the Dunlop tire is the NISSAN recommended performance tire. Unfortunately they were out of stock though so we had to run the Bridgestone’s. Read more
STILLEN GT-R at Spectre 341 Challenge – Ongoing Updates
June 25, 2010
Looks like cell phone coverage is decent out in Virginia City where STILLEN and Steve Millen are running the GT-R at the Spectre 341 Challenge. We’ll use this blog post as a place to post updates and photos we get back from the team. We’ll have a full recap after the event ends.
Friday 6/25 – 11:20am (Kyle via text)
Phone works okay.. no real updates.. did drivers meeting this morning and the drivers got a tour of the race course with tips from Amir from Spectre
The HRE Porsche is pretty nice and looks well prepared and the LG Vette is nice.. light weight good tires.. all good
There’s a hearse here too! I don’t know about it though.. I think they are just here
Friday 6/25 – 11:43am (Kyle via text)
The hearse now has numbers.. looks like it’s running! Read more
Team STILLEN Attacks Spectre 341 Challenge Hillclimb!
June 22, 2010
The busy schedule for the STILLEN R35 Nissan GT-R has finally finished with the shows and now it’s time to get back to racing! Team STILLEN will be bringing the orange beast to Virginia City, Nevada for the first annual running of the Spectre 341 Challenge being held June 25-26, 2010.
This event is held on a closed section of Highway 341 that would normally be opened to the public. Originally started in the early 70’s this event was pioneered by the local Ferrari clubs. The event ran until 2002 before being shut down. 2010 marks the re-organization of the event Read more
Steve Millen To Drive at 2010 Toyota Pro/Celebrity Race
March 16, 2010
STILLEN founder and owner Steve Millen has again been invited out to the 2010 Toyota Pro/Celebrity Race at the 36th annual Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach on
April 17, 2010.
Steve Millen will climb into the Scion tC, pitted against a field of 17 other drivers, from long-time STILLEN friend and comedian Adam Carolla, celebrities such as skateboarding legend Tony Hawk, to other racing stars such as drift and X-Games driver Tanner Foust. Read more
STILLEN GT-R On Cover of Road & Track Dec 09 Issue
November 13, 2009
The December 2009 issue of Road & Track is out on the newsstands now, and features the full Targa Newfoundland Rally article written by R&T’s Feature Editor Mike Monticello, the Co-Driver on the rally in the GT-R with Steve Millen.
Check your favorite newsstand and see this issue, it’s a neat story from Mike’s perspective on taking part in this 6-day rally, and what it was like being at the mercy of Steve Millen pushing the STILLEN modified R35 GT-R to it’s limits over city streets and tarmac. Read more
Targa Newfoundland: Friday Day 7 – Racing Day 5 & Wrap-up
September 19, 2009
Sorry for the delay in getting the final day’s wrap-up onto the site, we took some time after the rally and celebrated with the rest of the Targa folks. It was then up first thing to get the car situated, and everything packed up for shipping back to STILLEN HQ, while Steve and Jodi drive the GT-R all the way back to Maine.
We’re proud to say that we finished up winning our division. The results speak for themselves in regards to the overall scores. This rally is without question designed to be won by classic cars. We knew there would be handicapping, but it would seem there is no way that a modern car can win. We won the majority if not all of the stages by putting down the fastest times but we still lost. In one of the stages on Friday, Steve and Mike actually passed three cars, and still missed their goal time and incurred a penalty. Read more
Targa Newfoundland: Thursday Day 6 – Racing Day 4
September 17, 2009
Well, it’s Thursday night and we have some great news! We’re in the hotel room at 9pm! The new CV boot swap the guys made last night worked perfectly today and the car ran flawlessly.
We were back on the road a few hours after getting back to the hotel but it was worth the effort. The crew have been absolutely amazing this week and they are doing an incredible job! Read more
Targa Newfoundland: Wednesday Day 5 – Racing Day 3
September 16, 2009
Well, we have officially made it through the first half of the week. As expected the GT-R is running very well and if it weren’t for the worries about the CV boots, the only service we would be performing to the car would be filling it up with fuel. This car is truly incredible. Steve is having an absolute blast and after each stage has a huge grin on his face.
Mark and Joe are really doing a great job and working hard. They had a bit of a problem today when the service van started filling with the fumes from the fuel and was messing with their heads a little. We have taped off the back half of the van with clear drop cloths and a lot of duct tape so it should be well sealed from here on out. Read more
Targa Newfoundland: Tuesday Day 4 – Racing Day 2
September 15, 2009
Well today was eventful. There were eight stages in total, one of which was canceled due to a problem with crowd control (good call by the organizers!). We were able to get some great video footage of the car coming through two stages as well as photography through Stage 8.
Photo courtesy Warwick Patterson / Formulaphoto.com
Stage 8 is insane! This stage takes place in the middle of a housing district. Imagine the largest neighborhood in your area. Now block of the roads and run a train of rally cars through it. It was incredible. Mike and Steve did a great job through here and really hustled hard. Unfortunately they caught the Subaru early in the stage and weren’t able to get by because the roads were so tight. Read more
