BloodSimple

By Eddie Habeck III

For Rick Fontan's sake, it's a great thing that people are really crappy drivers. It's a good thing that he was driving along in his 1998 Mitsubishi Eclipse and he was the first car in a three-car pile up. It was also fabulous that he was driving along a few months later and got smashed up from behind. This is what hot tuner cars are made out of folks — lots of bent metal and blood. No wonder he chose red as the color for his sleek coupe.

The irony doesn't stop there. I've wanted to shoot Fontan's car for CAR SOUND & PERFORMANCE for a while now, but our schedules never meshed. Fontan lives in the Bronx, and I'm three hours away in upstate NY. We finally settle on a day, and it just happens to land on Halloween eve. The location where we decided to meet up? Of course it's got to be the largest cemetery in the area. What better way to throw down on Halloween?

Fontan's masterpiece has been four years in the making, and without the help from some dear friends and lots of accidents, the car would not be where it is today. Every facet of this vehicle has been altered, and it shows. The best thing is that nothing is done so wild that it takes away from something else  — every one of Fontan's insane concepts flows effortlessly into the next. This whole crazy ride started after the car was complete mush. Instead of simply fixing it, it needed to be made better. A close friend of Fontan's took him under his wing and started introducing him to all of the people that would eventually aid him in building this car to where it is today. Let me give you more.

The devilishly blood red paint is difficult to miss amidst a sea of mundane grey gravestones at our photo shoot location. It's actually difficult to miss almost anywhere it goes, and attracts attention effortlessly wherever it peruses. Some car builders choose to use the art of clashing colors to achieve visual fixation. Fontan kept it simple by mixing from a palette of strictly red and black. The black scheme is aided heavily by the use of carbon fiber — a carbon fiber hood, wing, mirrors, splitters, and canards highlight the exterior. Major work was done to the outside in the form of shaving and molding. The door handles and antenna have vanished, and a full custom wide body kit was molded in. Add to that the sexiest headlights in the world, borrowed from a Nissan s15. Throw on a set of Honda S2000 tail lamps, and then add the ever-popular vertical door conversion along with a roof scoop, and you have yourself one hell of a body. The shop, Adrenaline, formerly in Flushing, NY, performed a majority of the work on the outside. They were the same group of guys that used to run the now defunct Import Xpression show series that toured the east coast.

"This is accomplished via a Hahn Racecraft stage 2 Turbo installed by Ryan Chua of RCT Performance. Chua is also the man behind a multitude of other go-fast goodies in the Eclipse, such as its custom intercooler and turbo piping."

Also visible from the outside are the black 18-inch Axis Reverb wheels rockin' the 225/40/18 Nitto Neo Gen tires. The wheels are tucked nicely into their fenders with the use of a 10-switch air ride suspension setup. Poking through behind the front wheels is a set of Wilwood cross-drilled and slotted rotors matched with 4 piston calipers. Stainless steel brake lines also aid in stopping power.

The exterior flows on for days, eventually leading into the interior and engine bay — its only logical that a flashy ride like this one is prepped for speed as well. This is accomplished via a Hahn Racecraft stage 2 Turbo installed by Ryan Chua of RCT Performance. Chua is also the man behind a multitude of other go-fast goodies in the Eclipse, such as its custom intercooler and turbo piping. A Precision Turbo front-mount intercooler, Fluidyne radiator, Flex-a-lite fans and Hahn Racecraft exhaust manifold were also fitted to the vehicle. No custom turbo'd car today is complete without a blow off valve, as seen here from TurboSmart. Also from the same company is an external waste gate. An Apexi N1 full cat back exhaust throws out the fumes. Thrown in for good measure was a Nitrous Express wet system and intercooler system along with an NX purge valve. Don't look at it like all this stuff will get Fontan into more accidents, think of it as his means of 'outrunning' them.

Let's sway to the interior: The black and red theme continues with more heavy uses of carbon fiber. The headliner, as well as the doorsills, is completely wrapped in it. Racing seats, such as the Corbeau CR-1 with 4-point harnesses, are a must in a car like this. Powder coated NX bottles reside in the back. A slew of Stewart Warner gauges (boost, air/fuel, oil temp, water temp, oil pressure, and volts) keep tabs on everything.

The interior flows nicely into the stereo work, which is all molded and wrapped in suede. The signal gets its start with a slick location. The Pioneer head unit's faceplate has been mounted onto a modified rear view mirror and is fully functional from that location. The signal flows to three MTX amplifiers that gets spread to two 12-inch MTX subs and MTX 6 x 9's in the front and rear. More fun comes from a PS2, digital camera, and DVD player throwing a signal to five LCD's — two up front, two in the side windows, and one big 15-incher in the hatch.

Fontan's car has had a major presence recently on the east coast show scene. Attending several Hot Import Nights events (and recently winning Best Mitsubishi out in Boston), as well as numerous other events. He hit up close to 15 shows alone in 2005 and took home 14 trophies when all was said and done. Not a bad ratio huh?

Of course, any project like this can be severely painstaking. Fontan threw in several years of hard work into the ride along with help from numerous friends. He wanted to send a special thanks to his boy Brennan who basically got him started in all this and introduced him to most of the people responsible for the work on the car. Ryan from RCT Performance played a major role in it as well. Other shout-outs go to Jimmy who basically did all the stereo work and lighting work in his garage. Most importantly, Fontan thanks his parents, as without their support none of this would ever have came about.

Now, I saved the best part for last, and it's a true testament to Fontan's dedication. Whenever I come across cars like this at shows they are normally representing and sponsored by several companies that made things possible for them. Not so here. Fontan is quick to point out that he "has no sponsors" and did everything himself. That's close to $50,000 of blood, sweat, and tears wrapped into this with only help from some of his people. A true enthusiast indeed. Thank god for accidents.

© 2005 CMP Entertainment Media, Inc.

This article was originally published in the January/February 2006 edition of CAR SOUND & PERFORMANCE on pages 26-34 and online at http://carsound.com/articles/publish/article_779.shtml. It has been republished on rctperformance.com with the permission of CMP Entertainment Media, Inc.