We pulled into the paddock area and looked around for the Fusion trailer. Well, wouldn’t you know the very first car we saw blazing past on the track was the FRC-14. The car had been painted a stunning yellow (different from the press photos where the car was white) and was a total blur. All I could think about was, "Wow, now the thing really stands out!" Not a bad first impression!
OK, so now we’ve at least seen the car, let’s find the team. So we headed over to the hot pit lane and ran into owner/driver Dennis Bainbridge's wife, Wendy and Jake Terepaky who had the head phones on and was monitoring the car. Introductions were made and the team informed owner/driver Dennis Bainbridge over the radio that we had arrived.
The Fusion FRC-14 is attractive from a lot of angles, including this with the door open.
Dennis Bainbridge points out the easy-to-access front suspension to Butch.
But, enough of the fluff -- let’s get to the reason we all came together.
Dennis was happy to explain his FRC-14 to us.
Dennis knows what he wants out of his product. "We wanted to take the next step and become a racecar production company and this is what we came up with. We build the car right in our shop and it takes us about 250 hours to put it together."
I’ll go into more detail, but first off let me just say the FRC-14 is just plain AWESOME! This is truly the little car that could!
When I first saw the FRC-14, all I could think about was how much the car looked liked one of the Grand Am Rolex Series Daytona Prototype cars. In reality the car is about 90 percent the size of a real DP.
What you see here is the Kawasaki engine, but there's room for a bigger, more powerful unit.
The power plant for this car is the Kawasaki ZX-14, which in naturally aspirated form gives 180 horsepower to the rear wheels. Not bad when you consider the car only weighs about 1,250 pounds. The car is designed to hold a variety of engines. These include a turbo Kawasaki with almost 300 horsepower, and the sturdy Duratec four-cylinder engine available in 180 & 220 horsepower variants from the 2.0-liter motors. So the customer has option on what to run.
The suspension drew a long, hard look.
The first thing you notice when the doors open is how much room the cockpit has. This is a car meant to fit just about anybody. In fact the team has had a person 6-foot-7 climb inside with no problem! Oh, and one occupant was over 300 pounds! That just doesn’t happen on many purpose-built racecars.
Yet when I got behind the wheel, I felt very comfortable straight away (I’m 5-7 and about 150 pounds). And boy, what a view! In all the years I’ve been around the sport I can’t remember any car that has the wide-open views this car has (heck, some street cars don’t offer the view this car does).
The FRC-14 is huge on the inside, with ample room for two occupants -- big occupants!
After going over the whole car with Bainbridge, we suited up and headed out for a few laps to see what the car can do.
And those of you who think a car with a motorcycle engine isn’t fast, well you don’t know what you’re talking about. Plain and simple, this thing flat out flies, and they are currently developing a motor with another 50-60 horsepower!
Down the front straight the car is as steady as can be. The turn-in is amazing.
This is a track car you can handle on your own, with easy access to everything.
And the brakes, damn! Again, some cars have a tendency to roam around a bit under heavy braking, but not the FRC-14. It’s rock solid. This car has just got gobs and gobs of mechanical grip and you can feel it in all types of corners.
To be honest, I didn’t find one thing wrong with the car . . . and that’s saying something because if I don’t like something, I’ll let you know right up front.
Now, how about the bottom line? You can buy one of these little rockets for between $70,000 to $80,000 give or take a bit depending on the options you want to have. And, this is for a car that will run for weekend after weekend with no major extra expense. Sure, you’ll have to do your routine stuff like oil changes and so on, but it's a very cost effective track car.
Out on the track, the FRC-14 was hot, both on the outside and inside at speed!
Now, that’s amazing stuff.
So, if you’ve got the cash and are looking to have a LOT of fun going pretty darn fast -- and not have a bunch of added running costs -- then the Fusion is the way to go.
Check out their website at 
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