At the heart of the PRI Show experience are the new product introductions and race car reveals. For many companies, the Show marks the debut of the latest engine components, safety equipment, chassis gear, electronics, and more. In addition to seeing cutting-edge product solutions for the first time, racers walking the Show floor may also get a peek at their competition as numerous race vehicles will be featured in the booths.
Each December in Indianapolis, Indiana, the PRI Show gives teams, builders, and manufacturers a critical advantage in planning the future as well as tackling present-day challenges. Around each booth, bench racing sets the tone for the Show as everyone looks for the game-changers across their racing disciplines.
"We are looking forward to demonstrating our product to the US market and making contact with shop owners, tuners, and Porsche enthusiasts. We believe that it will be the best place to launch our product globally," said Victor Appolinario of RennFlasher in Brazil.
"Right now, we're anticipating two car debuts that will be worth coming to see," said David Kennedy of the NHRA, based in San Dimas, California. The NHRA teams with Fox Sports to present a stage where fans can meet celebrity drivers and watch live interviews that are streamed over the Internet.
Simply observing the new hardware is a wasted opportunity. Thousands of professionals from across motorsports converge on the Indiana Convention Center and Lucas Oil Stadium. This is where connections are forged and knowledge is shared. Networking remains one of the Show's most valuable elements. For smaller companies, it's a chance to build credibility and form alliances. For established organizations, the PRI Show provides a chance to strengthen relationships and seek out new markets.
What follows is a sampling of what attendees can expect at this year's event. With more than 1,000 exhibitors, not all can be featured. Some companies are planning big surprises, while others are burning the midnight oil to complete development and have prototypes or production models on-site. These capsule reports, however, provide a quick overview of the Show floor experience.
PFC Brakes & JRD Motorsport
The new ARC2 spec rally car--built for the American Rally Association (ARA) open class in the USA by JRD Motorsport--will be featured in the PFC Brakes booth (#4123). This car is heavily influenced by the Rally2 program in Europe, where numerous automakers have homologated their entries for the FIA. The cars are all-wheel-drive, and the engines produce around 300 horsepower.
"The problem in America is that those cars are difficult to import," said Johan Ragnarsson of JRD, which used to handle prototypes for the Panoz program. "Rally cars [in Europe] are street legal because part of the race takes place on public roads when you transit between stages. They're basically street-legal race cars over there."
With the blessings of the ARA, JRD proposed adapting a US-based compact car that is equivalent in performance to a Rally2 car. The plan starts with a Chevrolet Sonic. Although the car is no longer manufactured, it is readily available on the used-car market and is the ideal size. Once a customer has a car with a legitimate VIN, it's taken to JRD for all the modifications.
The cars in Europe require a restrictor in front of the turbo to limit the horsepower, which Ragnarsson feels leads to spending big dollars to reach proper power levels. JRD's approach is to import a sealed engine from Aurobay and require a locked ECU.
"We'll basically tune the car to mimic the torque and horsepower curves of a Rally2 car, and we can take all that engine development cost off the bottom line of the car," added Ragnarsson.
Two-time world rally champion Marcus Grönholm will be the development driver for the project.
NHRA/Fox Stage
Always a vibrant cornerstone of the PRI Show, the NHRA/Fox stage is easy to find and hard to leave. Between the cool race car reveals, constant flow of celebrity drivers, and interesting interviews covering all topics of drag racing, the stage is a hub of activity that always draws a crowd.
"It's possible you may see the debut of a new type of Funny Car there," teased Kennedy. "We'll have three days of livestream interviews. That's every 15 minutes with a different person."
Spirits will be high around the stage as the NHRA prepares to celebrate its 75th year of operation in 2026. "There will be a surprise 75th anniversary announcement," Kennedy added.
As usual, next year's rulebook will be available for the first time. Tech officials will be on-site to discuss any changes or provide clarification to racers.
The NHRA/Fox stage is located in the 7000 aisle, which is a public walkway. A badge isn't required to view the activities.
CP-Carrillo
A new bushed piston available to the aftermarket will debut in the CP-Carrillo booth (#317).
"A high-level motorsports customer requested a short-life engine package, targeting half the standard durability but with a higher output," said Cindy Verkooij of the Irvine, California-based company.
Combined with other changes, such as reducing the wrist-pin diameter by 3 mm and cutting 15 grams of weight off the small end of the connecting rod, the team picked up a consistent 2 horsepower on the dyno. The engine was run to standard durability limits with no failures.
"From that point forward, the bushed piston package became a standard race component, delivering higher performance and improved durability," added Verkooij.
The proprietary copper alloy bushing allows for higher maximum contact pressure than the piston's base aluminum material. Practical benefits include adding more boost without changing pin diameter or compression height, or reducing pin size, which will result in less piston-crown stress.
CP-Carrillo is also showing off a trumpet pin-bore design for custom pistons. These shapes are added to the pin bores to help distribute and reduce peak stress and contact loads on the pin bore. Company sources said the profiled pin-bore technology is available on custom orders but includes an upcharge and longer lead time.
RennFlasher
Porsche racers will see the debut of RennFlasher at the PRI Show (booth #2237). Two engine tuners and one race-crazy software developer with a combined 50 years' experience teamed up to create this product, which can connect Porsche owners to tuners worldwide in an intuitive and capable platform.
"We offer off-the-shelf maps with plenty of customizable options where end users can activate features like high-performance cooling, 'pops and bangs,' and many others. It also includes high-speed data logging and DTC display," said Appolinario.
Sources at the Brazil-based company said the platform is stable and fast. It allows racers to gather data at the track or flash new tune-ups in just a few seconds, when necessary.
"We offer an embedded marketplace where Porsche tuners can connect to their customers worldwide and provide custom maps safely and effectively," added Appolinario.
Brodix
At last year's PRI Show, Brodix (booth #941) of Mena, Arkansas, introduced a new BP BR X 18 cylinder head for big block Chevys. A Super Comp car running those heads posted some incredible speed numbers at the recent US Nationals, so the company is expecting quite a crowd at its booth this year.
"It definitely turned a lot of heads," said Mark Fretz. "I have a feeling there's going to be a considerable amount of Super Comp and Super Gas guys who are going to be there looking at it. That's the head's primary market: heads up and fast bracket-class type customers."
Inspired by Pro Stock designs, the head features a new 18-degree valve angle in a conventional package. There are also raised intake ports, a 2.500-inch intake valve, and a nitrous-friendly 93cc combustion chamber. It's also designed for shaft rocker arms and requires offset lifters.
Brodix will also debut a new BBC dual-plane intake manifold at PRI this year. "It's designed as a bolt-on piece for rectangular-port, factory-style engines and for owners who want to maintain the original hood clearance," said Fretz. "We've had one before that was really good, then we completed a redesign and renumbered it as the 2010."
Premier Mega Truck Racing
If you haven't heard of Mega Truck Racing, which is based in McKenney, Virginia, take a walk on aisle 7000 near the media center.
"We're bringing the Hells Bells Mega Truck, like we've done the past couple of years," said Bailey Hilton. "It's actually one of our owner's trucks."
The sanctioning body sponsors side-by-side truck racing over challenging dirt terrain at a number of tracks around the Eastern seaboard in Virginia, Kentucky, North Carolina, and New York. Trucks compete in different classes according to tire size, body style, and axle housings. Drivers compete for points in the elimination-style format.
Race Winning Brands
Race Winning Brands (RWB), headquartered in Mentor, Ohio, has 20 companies under its umbrella, including Diamond Pistons, Haltech, Dart, MGP, PAC Racing Springs, Wiseco Pistons, Transmission Specialties, and Trend Performance. It occupies a large footprint at the PRI Show (booths #825 and #925) and staffs the space with plenty of tech and marketing representatives to meet the needs of attendees who have questions.
Manley is just one of the many RWB companies that will introduce a new product at PRI this year. It's a new aluminum rocker-arm kit designed for popular applications like small block Ford, small block Chevy, Oldsmobile, and Pontiac engines. These rockers are CNC machined from 2024 billet aluminum, then shot-peened and anodized. The polished steel axles are heat-treated and have a 60–62 Rockwell hardness. The rockers are rated up to 750 pounds open spring pressure and are available in various ratios for each application.
Another RWB company, JE Pistons, will show off its improved, lightweight, two-barrel pistons designed for IMCA/USRA competition. These pistons are for classes running 350–362-cubic-inch engines and now come with dual-velocity gas ports to improve ring seal and reduce blow-by. Available in seven bore diameters and two different compression heights, these pistons feature a .043-inch, .042-inch, 3-mm ring package.
MagnaFlow
Following more than a decade-long absence, MagnaFlow (booth #2843) of Oceanside, California, is returning to PRI with its customary celebrity autograph sessions along with a new company to showcase.
"The last time we were there, we had Robbie Gordon, and we were looking for that relationship to grow and see where the world of mufflers and catalytic converters were with the NASCAR crowd," said Richard Waitas. "We've since acquired the suspension company Camburg Engineering. They've never been to PRI either."
The company will show off updated applications for its suspension products. If all the patent paperwork is approved, a brand-new product will be unveiled.
"We're not going to release it as a patent pending," noted Waitas. "We have a couple of other things still pending on the product release side, but this is really more of introducing the brand. We're pushing forward with the race support in the off-road world."
In years past, lines of Show attendees have wrapped around the MagnaFlow booth, waiting their turn to get an autograph with a motorsports celebrity. This year, Mario Andretti will be in the booth following his appearance at the Grand Opening Breakfast. Other racers who may appear, depending on team commitments, include Richard Petty and Joey Logano.
InTech Trailers
If you've never seen a race car trailer being built, you'll likely have that opportunity at this year's PRI Show. There are still a few details to be addressed, but InTech Trailers (booths #8701 and #8713) in Nappanee, Indiana, is planning to assemble a 24-foot "tag" trailer during the three-day event.
"Obviously, we can't do any welding," explained Jim McConnell. "The cage or framing for the walls will be there. We'll be adding interior walls, exterior walls, cabinets, and so on."
Four InTech workers will handle the assembly, all of which begs the question: Why?
"It's something that no one has ever done at the Show," said McConnell. "Essentially, we want to show off our talent. It's a unique atmosphere at PRI, and we want to showcase our guys who actually do the production."
The team made a couple of practice runs while building customer trailers at the home shop. The goal was to make sure they could finish in the allotted time without any serious issues.
"The devil is in the details, and InTech is very good at details," added McConnell. "That's what we're going to show off and give our future customers a good idea of what they can expect."
Borowski Race Engines
Everyone at PRI loves engines, and Borowski Race Engines (booth #409) in Rockdale, Illinois, will show off a new LS package that includes a 3.8-liter Whipple supercharger.
"It's a different technology and design from previous generations," explained Ken McCaul. "Other engines have had the 3.8 for some time, but it's only been available recently for the LS. I've already built two, with one going to Brazil. On E85 with A/C, power steering, and a hydraulic cam, it made 1,414 horsepower with 1,312 lb.-ft. of torque."
The engine measures 427 cubic inches, runs All-Pro cylinder heads, and would be a strong contender in some drag-and-drive classes. Peak power came at 6,600 rpm, and peak torque was measured at 4,700 rpm. In fact, the engine pulled 1,100 lb.-ft. of torque or more from 3,500 to 6,700 rpm while on E85.
"We already have a racer who's real competitive with the 3.0-liter supercharger," added McCaul. "He drives from track to track. In pump-gas configuration, he can run 9.0 and then change fuel and run a consistent 8.50. He's done Sick Week and doesn't have all those issues with turbos. This is a very tight little package with the LS and Whipple."
Sources
Borowski Race Engines
borowskirace.com
Brodix
brodix.com
CP-Carrillo
cp-carrillo.com
InTech Trailers
intech.com
JE Pistons
jepistons.com
JRD Motorsport
jrdmotorsport.com
MagnaFlow
magnaflow.com
Manley Performance Products
manleyperformance.com
National Hot Rod Association (NHRA)
nhra.com
PFC Brakes
pfcbrakes.com
Premier Mega Truck Racing
premiermegatruckracing.com
Race Winning Brands
racewinningbrands.com
RennFlasher
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