RPM Magazine July 2020 - Digital Interactive Edition

4,500+hp Full Water Jacketed pro Mod engine

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EDITOR-IN-CHIEF..............................................................CHRIS BIRO editor@rpmmag.com V.P. MARKETING/CUSTOMER RELATIONS..................TRISH BIRO trish@rpmmag.com EVENT MEDIA..................................................events@rpmmag.com EVENT SUBSCRIPTIONS COORDINATOR...........SHERRIE WEBER sherrie@rpmmag.com ART DIRECTOR............................................................TOBY BROOKS toby.brooks@rpmmag.com Photographic Contributions: TIM LEWIS, MARK goDragRacing.org, GEORGE PICH, TOBY BROOKS, MATT WOODS, TABITHA SIZEMORE, MATT TROMBLEY, LOUIS FRONKIER, WILL McDOUGLE, BART CEPEK, PATRICK “RED” WILLIAMS, BLAKE FARNAN, JERRY GARRISON, NEIL ZIMBALDI, STEVEN TAYLOR, and EDDIE MALONEY. Editorial Contributions: TIM LEWIS, CHUCK SCOTT, MARK goDragRacing.org, TOBY BROOKS, TABITHA SIZEMORE, JAMES WILLIAMS, TIM BIRO, STAN SMITH, JT, GEORGE PICH, JAY MISENER, and EDDIE MALONEY. Technical Writing Contribution: CHUCK SCOTT, SHANE TECKLENBURG, TOBY BROOKS, and TIM BIRO.

ADVERTISING SALES For advertising information contact

TRISH BIRO...........................519.752.3705.......trish@rpmmag.com

Special Events Manager: Chris Biro events@rpmmag.com Special Events Sales: Trish Biro: 519-752-3705 trish@rpmmag.com Subscriptions/Address Changes: Circulation circulation@rpmmag.com

MEET THE RPM TEAM

PRODUCTION STAFF

RPM Magazine is a REGISTERED TRADEMARK of Revolution Publishing & Media Inc. RPM Magazine is a worldwide motorsports publication distributed online.

To subscribe to RPM go to www.rpmmag.com or email Trish Biro at trish@rpmmag.com, or call 519-752-3705.

The focus of RPM is to bring a diverse mix of high performance street and race automobiles to life within its pages including race cars, musclecars, hot rods and street legal machines with an emphasis on the “EXTREME,” including fast doorslammer and outlaw forms of drag racing. Not familiar with these types of cars? They are considered to be the top-shelf of the industry and are on the edge with regard to design, performance, and power!

RPM Magazine does not sell its mailing list or share any of the confidential information regarding its subscribers.

WANT YOUR CAR IN RPM?

RPM Magazine has been a world leader in motorsports publishing for 21 years and has support locations in Ontario, Canada, Alabama, Texas, and Virginia, along with contributing writers and photojournalists worldwide.

If you have a story that may fit within the focus and scope of RPM Magazine’s coverage, please email our Editor In Chief at editor@rpmmag.com.

Submission of an article does not guarantee that it will be published.

Revolution Publishing & Media Inc. (RPM) / RPM Magazine IS NOT responsible for errors or omissions in ANY advertisement or article.

Advertisements may be rearranged or altered at the sole discretion of RPM to allow the ad to fit in the space purchased by the advertiser.

WE RESERVE THE RIGHT TO REFUSE ANY ADVERTISING WHICH WE CONSIDER TO CONTAIN MISLEADING, OFFENSIVE OR FALSE INFORMATION. REPRODUCTION OF ANY INFORMATION HEREIN IS STRICTLY PROHIBITED WITHOUT PRIOR WRITTEN CONSENT.

General Inquiries: 519.752.3705 info@rpmmag.com

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editor’s

Rant

by

Chris Biro

RPM MAGAZINE...

STILL THE BADDEST MAG IN THE LAND!

F

or the record, we didn’t say that, you did!

If you haven’t heard by now RPM is 100% digital, and we’re kickin’ butt in all areas!

Not having your favorite mag in print has definitely been tough for us all, but following our first full digital issue, we are overwhelmed with positive comments and thanks for what our small team of awesomeness has been able to bring readers for the past 21 years.

Well, we’re continuing on with RPM MAG’s exclusive brand of horsepower, and, it’s you, our readers that continue to motivate us! At a time when our industry and companies in it face uncertainty for several more months, the RPM readership has continued to increase and we’d like to once again thank you for your dedication and support.

Now, if you are just joining us, let’s get down to the what RPM is all about:

DEDICATION TO WHAT WE ALL LOVE

RPM is dedicated to horsepower worldwide. Street or strip, you will continue to see the same content in RPM that you have grown to know and love over the past 21 years, only now it will be enhanced with various cool features like embedded videos, interactive features and special links with offers from advertisers and more. We’ve always said, think of RPM as your car mag, not ours. We don’t let our own likes or dislikes get in the way of bringing our readers what they want.

EXCLUSIVE CONTENT

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AED Competition..................77

Manton Pushrods.................90

Aeromotive/NPW.................52

Mark Williams......................89

Air Flow Research

Metal Products.....................63

(AFR)........................5,56,57 AJE Racing............................77

We’re not a copy cat mag, we’ll leave that to the others...ouch, that one hurt! As many people know, other magazines big and small have gone to great lengths to do what we do, but they’re just not RPM. They don’t have our dedicated staff and passion for the grassroots of horsepower and fast cars. We will continue to do our best to bring features from the street and strip scene that are exclusive to RPM. That content includes; full features, tech, builds, tools, products, and every now and then a special event that is close to us in some way.

American Racing Headers....56

FORMAT

CFE Racing Products.............10

For the record, RPM is not a blog or web based magazine. We are an actual magazine that has been a world class product for 21 years. The only difference is that now you get it directly (and instantly) to your electronic device, and hey, if along the way we can save some trees and also save everyone a big hassle when the postman doesn’t get your magazine to your doorstep, we’re good with that.

WHAT HAS CHANGED?

Aside from some paper, nothing!

Instead of taking away, we’ve added to RPM. We mentioned our new features and enhancements to the magazine itself, however, as mentioned right here last month, our website design and content has been completely overhauled to complement the magazine and our industry.

All the content from each and every REAL TIME copy of RPM will be continually posted Interestingly, we were checking out the car mag landscape the other day and down the road for all to enjoy. As well, noticed that, even though they are full each and every new issue will become digital publications, many magazines still live for everyone to see once it has been released their July magazine way back replaced with the next issue. Also, check in May, and it had content as far back as out the banner ads at www.rpmmag.com March in it. We have just never been able Notice something? Yep, there’s no earwax to figure that one out. Fear not hardcore removal or lotions and potions ads on our horsepower enthusiasts, RPM will contin- homepage, just your industry ads. All we ue to work harder to ensure we stay with ask is that you click on them and check a properly dated monthly magazine with them out...remember our motto for over content that is current not ancient!

20 years, “support those who support your sport.”

WHEN WILL YOU GET YOUR To sum it up, we’ll keep moving forward with the pedal to the metal in MAGAZINE? support of the performance and race Just like with the print magazine, every RPM digital magazine will be current enthusiast and industry worldwide, but in the meantime, got a cool street or strip dated, so you will get your digital copy ride? I want to know about it and my of RPM the 25th of every month. This office door is always open, so email me magazine will be current, meaning you directly at editor@rpm-mag.com anytime will receive the August issue of RPM on July 25th and so on. and I will answer.

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ADVERTISER INDEX

Aurora Bearing.....................77

Meziere Precision Mfg..........48 Misener Motorsports..........101 Moser Engineering...............62

AVAK/Ridgegate Tools..........50

Neal Chance Converters........98

Baer Brakes.....................31,73

Northern Radiator................60

BES Racing Engines..............35

Parts Pro Perf Centers....53,110

Bill Mitchell Products......12,32

PBM Products.......................13

Billet Specialties...................66

Piston Racing Engines..........89

C&S Specialties.....................69 Calvert Racing Suspensions..43 Canton Racing Products.......26

Profiler.................................63 PRW-USA.............................96 Race Part Solutions........30, 72

Chassis Engineering.............52

Racequip............................. 63

Clearshot Customs................80

Rage Wraps..........................63

Delta Performance Auto Grp..20

RAM Clutches.......................78

Design Engineering............439

RCD......................................88

Dynotech Engineering..........11

RM Racing Lubricants......21,71

ECAM.................................102 Erson Cams...........................90 goDragRacing.org..............102 Goodson Tools......................56

Ross Racing Pistons...........7,47 RPM Magazine...................105 RPM Magazine Subscribe!....35

Granatelli Motorsports.........61

SG Metal Works....................70

GRP Connecting Rods...........67

SM Racecars.........................97

Harland Sharp......................27

Smackdown 4....................101

Hitman Hotrods...................57

Summit Midwest Drags........51

HoleShot Wheels..................49

Summit Racing Equipment

Hughes Performance..............7 Ian Hill Racing......................47 Icon Forged Pistons..............88 Induction Solutions..............18

................................73,97,115 Taylor Cable Products...........91 T&D Machine........................71

Jesel.....................................48

The Supercharger Store........71

Joe Van O..............................57

Ti64......................................87

JW Racing Transmissions........5

Tom’s Upholstery..................72

Karbelt.................................77

Total Seal Rings....................62

Kinsler Fuel Injection......13, 63

Trailer Alarms.com...............88

LenTech Automatics.......27, 70 Liberty’s Gears......................70 Lokar Performance...............66 Lutz Race Cars....................102

Trick Flow........................15,97 Tuned By Shane T.................65 VFN Fiberglass......................62

Magnaflow...........................96

Wiseco...............................102

MagnaFuel...........................16

World Products....................67

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July2020 Often Imitated, Never Duplicated—For 21 STRAIGHT YEARS RPM Magazine has been the ORIGINAL Voice Of Wild Street Machines and Extreme Drag Cars WORLDWIDE! Don’t Settle For Less! We DELIVER Insane Fast Cars and Bring You NO POLITICS... JUST ACTION! Your ONLY “Real Time” “Real World” Car Mag...PERIOD!

THE

RIDES

My Taxy.................................................................

54 Javier Chavez’s 2004 Mustang Cobra

Malibu Dream............................................................. 8

Las Vegas native Bobby Bridges transforms a bone stock 1979 Chevrolet Malibu into one of the West Coast’s most notorious grudge cars

Thames Fame.......................................................... 24 Gary Clinton’s 1948 Thames Panel Van is a street driven tribute to his racing roots!

EXCLUSIVES & Tech

RPM

Shop Talk....................................................................72 Next Level: Reflecting back to pre-pandemic life

Law & Order.......................................................38 This first Gen Camaro is the down and dirty alter ego of Mick McGirr

The Rebirth of Madness: Part 3............................... 79 The heart(s) of madness: We show you what it takes to build an 1,800+ hp street engine

Project Pace Car Race Car.............................94

Part 2: Choosing our small block Ford pistons with Wiseco

Cool Tools................................................... 100 ProForm 7000-pound slim wireless vehicle weighing system

Quick Tech: Your Oil’s Best Friend...................... 106 ...the piston ring

READ COMPLETE ISSUES OF RPM MAG ONLINE AT WWW.RPMMAG.COM 6

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story and photos by

Eddie Maloney

ONE B A S M R O F S N A R T S E G Y BRID LAS VEGAS NATIVE BOBB WEST E H T F O E N O O T IN U IB L A M STOCK 1979 CHEVROLET E CARS G D U R G S U IO R O T O N T S O COAST’S M HUMBLE HAULIN’

“She’s not the prettiest and the quickest car out there, but it runs good. Not bad for a garage build with no professional help,” Bobby Bridges.

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W

e often hear the slogan, “like father like son.”

This story holds especially true for Las Vegas native, Bobby Bridges. Like many before him,

Bobby grew up in the garage, wrenching at a very young age, owing it all to his late father, Kenny Bridges.

“My father is 100 percent the reason I got into hot rods.”

Growing up, Bobby

lent a hand helping his father build all his hot rods and subsequently got to see him race. Kenny’s passion for hot rods and racing was immediately instilled in Bobby, and when Bobby was

old enough to drive, he was ready for the world.

IN THE BEGINNING

For the past 25 years, Bobby has grudge raced everything from Chevrolet

powered mini trucks to 7 second pro street cars. In 2014, he wanted to try his hand in the local grudge racing scene and that’s when he found this bone stock 1979 Chevrolet Mali-

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GETTIN’ ON DOWN

Circa 2016, Bobby and his Malibu running Danny Topol’s Las Vegas Motor Speedway Top 10 small tire class. However, as seen here, now has some fat Mickey Thompsons where the 10.5 Hoosiers used to roll.

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RPM Magazine

Anywhere you see the RPM VIDEO EXTRA icon, click to see this feature in action!

bu. “I have always liked the square, ‘boxy’ style cars, it’s a different approach as opposed to building a Mustang or Camaro.” Bobby purchased the car and started the transformation almost immediately.

Being quite handy around the shop, Bridges decided

to take on most of the build himself.

THE BUILD

Transforming a car from its original condition to a full-blown race car is no easy task, but Bobby was fully prepared for it. He had the knowledge and tools learned from his father many

years ago. So, let’s take a look inside Bobby’s garage built 79 Malibu!

The heartbeat of the Malibu is a nitrous assisted 622 cubic inch big block Chevrolet engine built by Reher Morrison Racing Engines.

Transferring the 2,000 plus horsepower machine to

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G-BODY BOOGIE

Bobby and the Malibu doing grudge racing things with his grudge racing friends.

Chuckwalla Valley Raceway most notably known for its road course, hosted a small event in late 2019 in hopes of turning their 5300’ runway into an 1/8-mile dragstrip.

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the ground is a bullet proof BTE Powerglide transmission and a Neal Chance Racing converter. Bobby has immediate plans to add two more stages of Nitrous

oxide provided by Induction Solutions.

Next up, he built the wishbone style, 4-link suspension in his shop utilizing Strange Engineering double adjustable

shocks. Out back you will also find a a Moser Engineering 9.5� aluminum bolt through rear end and Strange engineering 40-spline axles. The front suspension

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LET’S THROW DOWN ALREADY

Anytime, anywhere Bobby tells us. Bobby seen here racing fellow Bottom 10 Racing member Jason Ayers. was replaced and upgraded with a direct fit setup from Global West Suspension. Stopping power, especially if you prefer the more full-figured body styles such as the General Motors A or G body, is equally as important as horsepower is provided by custom four-wheel

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disc brakes and a parachute out back.

Wheel choice for the Malibu are a set of Billet Specialties Comp 5 Series wheels with a double beadlock rear, wrapped in Mickey Thompson tires (this was initially a small tire car). Once the suspension and driveline were ironed out, Bridg-

RPM Magazine

Power Up. Take performance to the next level with Trick Flow Twisted Wedge® 11R cylinder heads for small block Ford.

The heads have 11° intake and 13° exhaust valve angles plus unique “twisted” combustion chambers for more airflow and power capability. High velocity runners are optimized for popular bore and stroke combinations. Premium materials and components ensure uncompromising quality and durability. The fully machined castings increase strength and have a great-looking billet-like appearance. Available in an entry-level form with 170cc or 190cc CNC Street Ported intake runners or in an ultimate performance version with 190cc or 205cc intake CNC Competition Ported runners.

Dyno Results

Twisted Wedge 11R with 205cc CNC Competition Ported Runners

Airflow Results

Twisted Wedge 11R with 205cc CNC Competition Ported Runners

Lift Value

Intake Flow CFM

Exhaust Flow CFM

.100"

71

60

.200"

140

111

.300"

208

150

.400"

261

185

.500"

298

212

.600"

321

227

Test Engine: 11.59:1 compression 427 c.i.d. with Trick Flow Twisted Wedge® 11R 205 cylinder heads (TFS-52615601-C03), Trick Flow Track Max® hydraulic roller camshaft (TFS-51403005), 1.72 ratio roller rocker arms, Edelbrock Super Victor intake manifold, Hooker headers with 17⁄8" primaries, 3" dual exhaust with Flowmaster mufflers.

Tests conducted at 28" of water (pressure). Bore size: 4.030" 66cc CNC-profiled combustion chambers; exhaust with 13⁄4" pipe.

Your Recipe for Small Block Ford Performance!

New heads are just one component of the horsepower recipe. To make it complete, you’re going to need some more ingredients.

Track Max® Hydraulic Roller Camshafts Give your small block or 5.0L engine significantly more horsepower and torque increases with a Track Max® Hydraulic Roller Camshaft. These premium billet steel, hydraulic roller camshafts are dyno-proven to produce a wide power curve over the entire RPM range, not just at a particular RPM.

EFI Intake Manifold Kits When it comes to making horsepower, one size doesn’t fit all. That’s why Trick Flow offers many intake manifold combinations for 5.0L and 351W Fords. Each manifold is computer-engineered to deliver an excellent balance of airflow distribution and velocity to increase low-end torque and provide superior high-RPM horsepower.

Trick Flow by Wiseco Twisted Wedge® Forged Piston Sets These lightweight premium alloy, fully skirted forged pistons perfectly match the unique chamber and valve angles of Twisted Wedge heads. They feature oversized valve reliefs, precision-fit wrist pins, and Spirolox retainers. Available in a choice of compression ratios as low as 8.0:1 for supercharged applications.

TrickFlow.com • 1-330-630-1555 2008RPCT

Some parts are not legal for sale or use on any pollution-controlled motor vehicles.

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ROBERT BRIDGES’ 1979 CHEVY MALIBU STREET/STRIP GRUDGE CAR Chassis Type & Mods: Back half stock frame with 7.50 cert moly cage built by owner. 32-16-15 tire, Fabricated 9” rear end.

Suspension & Brakes: FRONT: Global A-arms with Strange double adjustable shocks with stock spindles and Wilwood brakes on front. REAR: Strange double adjustable coilovers,4 link setup with wishbone. Wilwood brakes.

Body & Paint: Owner.

Engine: 622 ci BBC Reher Morrison 14-degree dry sump nitrous engine. 16 to 1 compression, Big Chief heads. Callies crank, MGP aluminum rods, and RM pistons.

Induction & Fuel Delivery: Dual 1150 Dominator carburetors.

Power Adder: Two-stage Induction Solutions direct port nitrous kits (500hp per kit) .

Electronics & Ignition: MSD box, MSD front drive distributor, MSD coil and NOS mini progressor.

Transmission & Driveline: BTE Powerglide with Neal Chance converter.

Differential: Aluminum bolt-through with 9.5-inch ring gear and Strange 40-spline axles.

Other info: “I bought this car bone stock in 2014 and built everything but the motor and trans.”

Performance (eighth-mile): “Mid 4’s…but that’s as much as I can say.”

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es then focused on building the roll cage. Like the other components, it has progressed over time. As he went faster, he added more bars to stay in compliance.

Over the course of two years, Bobby’s Malibu went from a bone stock daily driver to a competitive street legal grudge contender.

GRUDGE RACING

We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again, the grudge build is far different than the average street or strip warrior. While Bridges prepared the entire car for duty himself, he was sure to spend time and money where it was needed most, and that would be to create the most

effective platform to use every bit of the over 2,000 horsepower available. The car looks tough and mean, but is even tougher when it comes down to capability. Hard work and dedication to his passion have proven their worth over the years. Bobby and his Malibu have appeared on the hit television show Street Outlaws on three separate

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LAS VEGAS STRIPPER

Get your mind out of the gutter...it’s not even like that. Sure, shots at the track are great but what is more iconic then the Luxor Pyramid on the famous Vegas “Strip.”

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occasions. While the Malibu is a terror on the streets, you can also find it running in many major, sanctioned track events. Bobby has competed in the Las Vegas Top 10 small/big tire class, the West Coast Hot Road Association, and at the Street Car Super Nationals.

THE FUTURE

Grudge racing is as ever evolving as anything else in the sport of drag racing.

The competition is getting quicker and faster by the day and Bobby is fully prepared to do what it takes to try and keep up.

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FAT & JUICY RAT

The sizable Reher-Morrison 622-inch big block Chevy fills the engine bay of the big bodied Bowtie nicely. Although the combo includes two stages of Induction Solutions nitrous makes over 2,000 hp at preset, Bridges says there’s more coming!

There were only two parts of this hot rod that Bobby didn’t build: the engine which he left to the folks at Reher Morrison, and the transmission which he had the pros at BTE handle.

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“It’s not always about having the fastest car on the street, it’s about being able to go from A to B.” One is never quite done when it comes to building a race car, there is always someone that’s going to be faster. In order to keep up with his friends, Bobby plans to add some power and chassis upgrades. With the popularity of grudge racing, Bridges doesn’t plan to limit his options to the west coast and is constantly invited to

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SAFE & SOUND

A look inside the cockpit of the Malibu Dream. Bobby wanted to keep as much integrity of the factory interior as possible.

The Malibu features a 7.50 SFI certified roll cage and all functioning street equipment.

A Racepak dash and two analog gauges keep Bridges in touch with the car before during and after a run, or when street driving the Vegas Strip.

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G-BAR-dy

The extensive bars of the 7.50 ET cert cage wrap around Bridges to keep him safe. The chassis work was all completed by him.

big money grudge races throughout the United States. Watch out though, he might just show up!

FOR DAD

When Bobby is not working or racing the Malibu, he is working on a special project to

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honor his father. The current project is a 1964 Chevrolet Nova Gasser that he plans to race both grudge races and exhibition runs at the track. We look forward to seeing this build when it’s completed later this year!

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VAN L E N A P S E M A H T 8 4 9 1 ’S GARY CLINTON IS A OTS O R G IN C A R IS H O T E T U TRIB

STREET DRIVEN

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story by

George Pich photos by

M

ost hot rodded cars and trucks enjoyed previous fame as production vehicles.

The Mustang, Camaro, and Challenger, or even the fifties and sixties big bodies, were all popular before they ended up in the hands of somebody with a more sinister plan for them.

Some vehicles, however, just plain fell flat on their face as production

Matt Trombley vehicles, but somehow, somewhere somebody saw something in them that would make them a good candidate to “hop up.” And the 1948 Thames panel, like Gary Clinton’s blown big block Mopar ride, certainly falls into the latter category.

In the early 1930s Ford began production of complete cars in Britain. Their models were definitely geared towards the European market with smaller

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ALL KINDS OF CUSTOM

Clinton’s Thames panel features a body that was lengthened 10 inches with the roof chopped 3.5 inches, giving it a completely different look than the original tall short wheelbase production version. The overhead gives you an idea of space available in the cargo portion after the body stretch.

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RPM engines and very basic amenities, and they experienced impressive sales in Europe.

Ford expanded the lineup by the late thirties and in 1940 introduced the Ford Anglia.

While production was interrupted during the Second World War, it resumed again in 1945.

By 1948 Ford of Britain decided to export vehicles to the United States and Canada and projected substantial sales, sales that never happened. The Anglia, Prefect and Thames Van were offered, but less than 4,000 vehicles sold, and even with a substantial price drop, the very basic, smaller, thir-

ties-looking models just never caught on.

By this time North American car buyers wanted, big, lots of chrome and more power.

By the sixties, though, these models caught the attention of American hot rodders and racers and became very popular, especially during the Gasser wars. Even

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HOME BUILT

Owner-fabricated wheelie bars and parachute were originally installed during the race build but kept in place for the re-tool to a wicked street machine.

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the legendary “Ohio” George Montgomery campaigned Hurst’s Gasser Passer.

Today, although not something you see at every dragstrip or cruise night, there are still many examples of Ford’s offerings from overseas, including the Clinton Clan Racing panel van.

Hailing from Prescott Arizona, Gary Clinton is the mastermind of the over-thetop build and is supported by

his son Joshua.

“My dad built this car to go Top Sportsman racing, but a heart condition prevented him from relicensing with the NHRA,” Joshua explained. “So he re-tooled it into a street car.”

If you think this is just some guy with no real world experience who threw together a cool car, um, you would be 100% wrong.

Clinton drag raced Anglias in brackets and NHRA Super Gas for 30

IT’S LEGIT

It IS the real thing! This car was built for the strip including the 15% overdriven blown 512-inch big block Mopar mill. Nothing was changed in the engine for the street car, so let’s just say you can hear Gary coming from miles away...and when he cracks the throttle you know it!

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years. His last Anglia was flipped and destroyed at the top end during a run in Super Gas when a rear tire went flat just as he went through the finish line beams.

With an obvious affection for Ford’s British designs, Clin-

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ton sought out to find another worthy candidate.

With aftermarket body and chassis offerings now available, the decision was made to build his own 1948 Thames Panel. For the record, the name “Thames” was originally

made famous for being the longest river entirely in England. It’s that river in all the movies showing the London Bridge and Tower Bridge.

“This was my dream car,” the elder Clinton said.

“A modern build of an old school

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...NOT BOUGHT

The panel was built almost entirely

by Gary in his home garage.

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GARY CLINTON’S PRO STREET 1948 FORD THAMES PANEL (ANGLIA VAN)

Chassis Type & Mods: Art Morrison chrome moly frame and cage for Anglia coupe extended 10” to fit the extended body. Some of the driver’s compartment roll bars were altered when the car was put onto the street.

Suspension & Brakes: Art Morrison front struts with Aldan front coilover shocks. Wilwood front brakes. Aldan rear coil over shocks and Ford brakes on rear.

Body & Paint: Fiberglass Trends fiberglass body. Front end is stretched 4 inches.

Anglia coupe doors are 6 inches longer than Thames Panel doors, so the body was stretched 6 inches to fit the coupe doors. The entire car was stretched a total of 10 inches. The body also has a 3.5 inch chopped top. Rear doors were also modified to fit the body. Paint is from 4th Dimension. Hi-lite Blue Pearl main color with midnight blue stripes and accents. Entire body work, and complete paint job done by owner in 3 car garage.

Engine: Dodge wedge head 512cu. inches of MOPAR power. 440 with .060 overbore 4.38 bore size. American Custom Cams roller cam custom ground intake .665 lift, exhaust .650 lift, duration intake 316, exhaust 276. Lobe centerline 114 degrees. 440source.com Stealth aluminum wedge heads custom ported.

Large valves. Zoomie headers by Good Vibrations and custom header inserts for mufflers for street driving built by owner. 440source forged crankshaft. Ross 9.5:1 forged pistons and forged rods.

Power Adder & Induction: BDS 8-71 blower with Enderle Big and Ugly injector hat. Blower has 15% overdrive. Runs on 110 octane VP fuel or Alcohol. With Alcohol pills, approx. 1200 - 1300 horsepower. Motor completely built by owner in home garage.

Electronics & Ignition: MSD 7A ignition box with MSD distributor. Autometer gauges. Painless wiring kit throughout car.

Transmission & Driveline: 727 Torqueflite racing transmission by TCI with 4000 stall converter Differential: Ford 9 inch built by Currie Enterprises. Strange aluminum center section. 4.30 gears with Strange spool. Currie axles.

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AA/gasser. So we built it to run in fast brackets and Top Sportsman style events.” Gary built the panel, “Ol’ Blue,” in his three-car garage at home. The motor, trans, most of the assembly and paint are all his work.

An Art Morrison chromoly frame and cage for an Anglia coupe was used and extended 10 inches to fit the extended

Panel body. Art Morrison front struts with Aldan front coilover shocks were installed along with front disc brakes.

Moving rearward, a Ford 9-inch built by Currie Enterprises boasts Currie axles, a Strange aluminum center section, 4.30 gears and Strange spool.

A 4-link with Aldan rear coilovers suspends the rear diff.

feature CAR

RPM

SUBTLE IT AIN’T

The towering presence of the injection hat is well hidden by the body until you lift the tilt off front end. You would be hard pressed to find many enthusiasts hard core enough to run a real race style injection system on the street.

Gary Clinton is one of them.

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A Fiberglass Trends fiberglass body with 4-inch front end stretch was set in place and, since Anglia coupe doors are 6 inches longer than Thames Panel doors, the body was stretched 6 inches to fit the coupe doors.

The body also has a 3.5 inch chopped top.

But what would any cool, low slung nostalgia build be without a blown big block to back it up?

For this task Clinton chose a Mopar wedge to the tune of 512 cubic inches. Ross forged blower pistons pinned to forged rods are spun by a 440source forged crankshaft.

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UPDATED INSIDES

The Thames was built to race, however Clinton removed some bars for access requirements and added some door panels and other aesthetics for street appeal.

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SAY WHAT??

Zoomie race headers were equipped with owner-fabricated baffles for street driving. The sound is still unmistakably blown big block, though.

An American Custom Cams custom grind roller cam was slid into place and 440source. com Stealth aluminum wedge heads were custom ported. Base compression ratio is 9.5:1 to accommodate the BDS 8-71 blower that runs 15% overdriven and an Enderle Big and Ugly injector hat completes the package. The motor is satisfied with VP 100 octane, but has a soft spot for the occasional alcohol buzz.

A 727 Torqueflite racing transmission

by TCI with TCI 4000 stall converter backs the wicked wedge and shifts are commanded by a B&M ratchet shifter.

The original race Zoomie headers are by Good Vibrations but when switching from race to street duty Gary fabbed up some header inserts for mufflers for street driving. Additional mods for street

duty, aside from adding full-functioning equipment to make the car street legal, included modifications to some of the cage bars “for ease of access for an old guy” as Gary put it.

While it’s not on the track, Gary’s build commands attention wherever it goes, if not for the wild chopped top and low ride look, then definitely for the ear and earth shattering lumpy rolling idle of a 1,200-plus HP blown big block.

“He has offered to let me to race it,” said son Joshua, “but I have always refused in fear of hurting the car. Now he and wife Karen use it for car shows and street driving and I tell my own two boys that Ol’ Blue keeps their grandad young.”

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RPM

story by

George Pich

photos by

Matt Trombley

THE IS O R A M A C N E G T S IR F IS TH IRR ALTER EGO OF MICK MCG

DOWN AND DIRTY

W

hy is the car a little on the janky side?” is the question Mick McGirr asked us during his interview. And his answer is a bit more complicated than the usual reasons. “The easy answer would be because it costs money to make a car beautiful and I’d rather spend that money on going fast,” he continued. “But, to be hon-

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est, it goes deeper than that. I’m an attorney and run a firm in Arizona—Phocus Law— where I have to be clean-shaven, welldressed, and generally dialed in all the time. My Camaro, affectionately known as ‘1SLOW69’ is my alter-ego. She’s loud, dirty, trashy, and has no inhibitions. I can’t bring myself to turn it into a flawless, beautiful car because it’s my outlet.”

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RADICAL STANCE

We love the low, sinister stance of McGirr’s Camaro with just a touch of ole’ school rake. Wheel & tires consist of 15x8 and 15x4 factory-style rallys with either Mickey Thompson ET Street R Bias 28x11.50LT or Mickey Thompson Pro Radial 275/60/15 (depending on the event) and 165/80 skinnies up front.

Mick’s Camaro has actually been with him for some time, he just didn’t have the time and money to do much with it. “I bought the car in 2004 when I was 19 and in college. It had a clapped out 350 and slipping Turbo 400,” he said.

McGirr managed to hang on to the car throughout college, then law school, starting a business, and having his first child 3 years ago and then moving to Arizona. When

it was in storage he would make sure to go and run the car once or twice a year just to be sure it was all still in working order, and when he eventually got it back on the road his budget was always tight.

“I went through probably a dozen ‘corners-cut’ engine/ trans combos, pretty much always with some sort of slipping trans.” But all this came to a head when he made a pass a few months after his daughter’s birth, “I

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BEEFY UNDERPINNINGS

The modified 12-bolt rear, a sumped tank and 3-inch exhaust with Magnaflow race mufflers can be seen underneath. Hotchkis weld-in subframe connectors are part of the chassis upgrades, while rally wheels all around with caps only on the front (no trim rings) give the car a cool look. Out back the fully exposed 3-inch long wheels studs and Moser axles might hint that this is no worn out street cruiser.

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was so pissed at my slipping 700r4 that I told my brother who was there watching that I was going to stop racing it for a while. I meant to just pull the 700r4 and have it built, but I received an offer

for the 383 that was in it, including that the slipping trans, and I couldn’t turn it down.”

Selling that engine/trans was what pushed McGirr into the direction he is now. “I’m finally

doing it right,” he said. “With the help of a lot of friends, I was able to complete 90% of the swap/ build in my garage, but it took 2.5 years.

Finally, with my second child, a son, on the way, I enlisted

my friends at Outlaw Race Engines to help put the finishing touches on it. We got the car on the dyno and I drove it home one week before my son was born.

The chassis of the Camaro is mostly

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SUBSTANCE OVER STYLE

“It’s Janky” as Mick McGirr puts it when discussing the body of his Camaro. “Rust is just weight savings!”

stock with a few upgrades in the form of welded-in Hotchkis subframe connectors. Up front, Speedway tubular front A-arms work with Hotchkis lowering springs and Competition Engineering adjustable drag shocks and a Right Stuff front manual disc conversion. The manual steering is stock but with all fresh parts. Out back, Calvert Racing split mono-leafs are coupled with Calvert

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Racing CalTrac bars and Competition Engineering adjustable drag shocks. A BU-coded 1969 Camaro 12 bolt housing was stuffed with 33 spline Moser axles a TruTrac posi unit and US Gear 3.55 gears. C-clips were eliminated and 9-inch ends added with disc brakes and 3-inch wheel studs. At the time of our photo shoot there was no roll bar in the Camaro, however, by the time this article runs a new

RPM Magazine

PARTS TO PERFORM

Calvert Racing Caltrac bars and split mono-leafs along with a pair of drag shocks help hook the Camaro on any surface. The Nitrous Outlet bottle and battery are trunk mounted for space and weight distribution.

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8.50 cert cage will have been installed.

There’s no mini-tubs as Mick wanted to save the backseat, but he admits to hitting the Camaro wheelwells with “some angle grinder love” to fit the bigger tires, and we love the low, sinister stance!

When it comes to the body of the Camaro, what more can we say that Mick didn’t sum up in his opening statement? Well to

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start with, the car is not a southern piece but originally from Washington, and the paint, “It’s 30 year old lacquer and the passenger side fender was rattle-canned, cleared, and buffed to hell 2 days before the photo shoot. Rust is just weight savings!” laughed McGirr.

Rust repairs have been completed on a rolling basis since he bought the car, and most recently McGirr enlisted the

RPM Magazine

MODERN POWER

A very capable new 408-inch LS mill based on a Gen IV 6.0 iron block was built for the first gen musclecar. The unmistakable Holley Hi-Ram intake with Holley billet rails has been fit with a 92 mm GM throttle body was ported by Cordes Performance Racing in Tempe, Arizona.

MICK MCGIRR’S STREET/STRIP 1969 CHEVY CAMARO

Chassis Type & Mods: Stock subframe with Hotchkis subframe connectors welded in. By time article runs, will have 8.50 cert chromoly cage by 1320 Industries in Phoenix, AZ.

Suspension & Brakes: FRONT: Speedway tubular front a-arms. Hotchkis lowering springs and Competition Engineering adjustable drag shocks. Right Stuff front manual disc conversion. All rebuilt stock-style manual steering components.

REAR: Calvert Racing split mono-leafs. Calvert Racing CalTrac bars. Competition Engineering adjustable drag shocks. Moser 9” style rear manual disc brake setup.

Engine: 408 LS. Started life as Gen IV 6.0 iron block. Precision Race Components CNC’d LS3 castings. LS3 style rockers with Texas Speed Trunion upgrade. Lunati .638/.624 lift, 247/255 nitrous grind. .700 lift springs with platinum retainers, etc.

11.7:1 static CR. Holley sheet metal valve covers and Holley 302-3 stroker LS-swap style oil pan. Long block assembled by Outlaw Race Engines in Phoenix, AZ. Tuned by Aaron Schwartz and All-Out Tuning in Phoenix, AZ. K1 Technologies 4.00 stroke forged crank. K1 Technologies 6.125” forged H-beam rods. Wiseco 4.030” domed forged pistons. Balanced by Outlaw Race Engines.

Power Adder & Induction: Nitrous Outlet plate kit. Nitrous Outlet DIY Stand Alone Fuel System with Aeromotive components. Currently just on a 150 shot.

Nitrous Outlet billet bracket, bottle heater, remote bottle opener. Externallymounted Aeromotive A1000 fuel pump. RedHorse ethanol safe braided -10an feed and return lines and fittings. Aeromotive regulator. Holley Hi-Ram rectangle port intake and Holley billet fuel rails. GM 92mm TB ported by Cordes Performance Racing in Tempe AZ. FIC 1050cc Injectors with AUS Injection spacers.

Electronics & Ignition: Gen 4 GM ECU from a 2012 CTS-V. TCI EZ-TCU. GMPP E-Rod harness with a lot of customization to make it all work.

Transmission & Driveline: 4L80 built by Animal Performance Transmissions.

Animal Performance 4000 stall with anti-balloon plate. B&M Pro Stick shifter.

Differential: BU-coded 69 Camaro 12 bolt housing. Housing ends replaced with 9” pieces to eliminate c-clips. TruTrac posi unit. US Gear 3.55 gears. 33 spline Moser Axles with 3” studs.

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AFFORDABLE. REPLACEMENT. STEEL. Jesel Engineers have combined all of the features of our Pro Aluminum Rockers with the durability of our Pro Steel Rockers. Jesel Sportsman Steel Rockers provide engine builders with the option of high strength steel rockers at an extremely affordable price and can be ordered separately or as an upgrade to certain Pro Aluminum rocker systems.

For additional product details, visit us online at Jesel.com or contact us by phone at 732.901.1800

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FUELISH PLEASURE

The Camaro sports an E85capable fuel system consisting of an externally-mounted Aeromotive A1000 fuel pump, RedHorse ethanol-safe braided -10AN feed and return lines and fittings, and an Aeromotive regulator.

UPGRADES ABOUND

The factory manual steering has been fully rebuilt. Tubular A arms were used up front with lowering springs and drag shocks.

help of Tim Rigby for some floor pan work. There are plans to install a 4” fiberglass cowl hood in the near future as well.

The fresh 408 LS started life as Gen IV 6.0 iron block. A K1 Technologies 4.00” stroke forged crank swings K1 Technologies 6.125”

forged H-Beam Rods and Wiseco 4.030” domed forged pistons and was balanced

by Outlaw Race Engines. Rings are gapped for spray and all ARP studs were used throughout the engine. The engine has 11.7:1 static compression ratio and a Lunati .638/.624 lift,

247/255 nitrous grind cam was slid into the shortblock, “We built this LS with the intention of reaching 1000+ wheel horsepower in the future,” McGirr added.

Cylinder heads are Precision Race Components (PRC - Texas Speed) CNC’d LS3 castings with LS3

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STOCK-ISH

Looks pretty well factory in here. By the time you read this an 8.50 certified cage will have been installed in the Camaro. Part of the work in progress was adding new OEM style seat covers front and back and new carpet inside the Camaro.

Aside from factory gauges, McGirr’s tablet is interfaced with the car’s electronics.

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feature CAR

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style rockers with Texas Speed trunion upgrade and .700” lift springs and retainers were used. Induction comes via a Holley Hi-Ram rectangle port intake and Holley billet fuel rails. A GM 92mm

throttle body was ported

by Cordes Performance Racing in Tempe AZ. and FIC 1050cc injectors with AUS injection spacers supply fuel. Speaking of fuel, a GM-style FlexFuel Sensor is tuned for 91 octane and E85, so far and an externally-mounted Aeromotive A1000 fuel pump and Red-

Horse ethanol-safe braided -10an feed and return lines and fittings were used, “We went overkill on the fuel system to grow into it with future iterations,” said McGirr.

Nitrous is currently supplied by a Nitrous Outlet plate kit with a dedicated fuel system. Mick

STOUT TRANS

A B&M Pro Stick ratchet shifter commands the 4L80 trans built

by Animal Performance. “This trans is good for 800hp and we’re knocking on that door,” said McGirr. The cool Nitrous Outlet command center is tucked inconspicuously in the lower part of the dash.

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FINALLY SORTED OUT

Going for a ride in the Camaro has taken on a whole new meaning since the recent upgrades. After going through a number of combos that just didn’t produce, “I did it right this time” said McGirr.

currently feeds the LS a 150 shot on a button, not a switch, but that’s just to break things in. “With the local tracks, Wildhorse Pass and Tucson Dragway, being shut down due to all the COVID-19

BS, I’ve taken her out to ‘Mexico’ to do some testing and, based on how she hooks on the street, the goal of being well into the 9s on a baby shot looks like it won’t take much to make a reality.”

But as long as the car has been with Mick, and as much fun as it is to drive and race, the most memorable experiences he’s had since the rebuild are when he takes his daughter,

A3000 DRAG RACING

now 3, for a drive.

“She throws her earmuffs on and yells for me to go faster the whole time,” he added with a smile.

You might say that

his Camaro, while definitely on the wilder side, is the order side of McGirr’s life in Law. Hey, everybody needs and outlet to stay balanced.

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Cover Car

RPM

story and photos by

Eddie MALONEY

4 0 0 2 S ’ Z E V JAVIER CHA USTANG

M

COBRA

Cover Car

RPM

FEAR THE SNAKE

This wicked street driven raced hard Screaming Yellow Cobra was a must have for Javier Chavez 11 years ago, and it just so happened that he worked at a car dealership that was able to make it happen.

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I

t’s often said, a boy’s first hero is his father. Javier Chavez has a lot to be thankful for, especially his father getting him involved in the Mustang world.

“Growing up as kid, I can vividly remember my father owning several Mustangs. He never raced any of them, but he took great care of them.”

Fast forward many years, Javier just turned 16

years old and was ready to start driving. At the time, his father owned four Mustangs and was ready to part ways with them. “He asked me which one I wanted to keep, and I ended up choosing a red 1993 Mustang GT convertible.

It was the cleanest out of all four of them and I enjoyed cruising with the top down.”

THE START OF SOMETHING GREAT

One day, while cruising around the streets of Las Vegas, Javier ran into a group of “car guys.”

They belonged to a local car club called, Destructive Creations, Javier joined almost immediately. “We would cruise together to all the local car shows and

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STRONGER & FASTER

JAVIER CHAVEZ’S 2004 FORD MUSTANG COBRA

Chassis Type & Mods: 10-point roll cage by Belfab Racing. Factory frame beefed up, no tubs .Kirkey race seats with G-Force 5-point harnesses.

Suspension & Brakes: FRONT: Aftermarket K member with QA1 struts & caster/camber plates. REAR: Aftermarket upper & lower rear control arms & anti-roll bar.

Body & Paint: Original “Screaming Yellow” paint. Stock body except for Harwood fiberglass lift-off 4-inch cowl hood.

Engine: Ford modular 4.6 4 valve Teksid block. OEM heads ported by a local shop in Las Vegas, HBR Competition Engines. JE pistons with Manley rods & Eagle crank.

Induction & Fuel Delivery: Custom single front mount turbo kit by Belfab Racing.

Power Adder: Precision Turbo dual ball bearing billet wheel GT42 8285.

Electronics & Ignition: Currently running PRO EFI engine management system with Boost Leash boost controller & Motion Raceworks C02.

Exhaust: Custom turbo headers.

Transmission & Driveline: 2-speed Powerglide with PTC converter.

Differential: Factory 8.8 housing with Strange Engineering axles & spool 3.90 gear & large wheel studs.

Performance (eighth-mile): 5.608 @ 127 BEFORE. After the changes—I can’t tell!

Class: Small tire/grudge eighth-mile (moving to small tire quarter-mile).

Other Important Info: “The car is known as MY TAXY. It’s known for grudge racing from street to track. Since I bought the car 11 years ago, my goal was to make it into a competitive race car. I went from running 13.5s stock to now running high 8s with the new changes I recently did to the car we’re hoping to make it quicker and thus more competitive in the small tire class.

Special Thanks: Mike Prock, Jamie Belfiore, Elton Burnley, and Kyle LeBanc.

the most exciting part was when we went to the dragstrip.” Javier took his first pass down the quarter-mile at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, running a blistering elapsed time of 15.9. “I was slowly starting to get better at shifting & driving and started running

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mid 14s. I was on cloud 9, at that time, I thought my car was really fast.”

One day, Javier and his good friend Salvador were hanging out and he blatantly asked Salvador if he could drive his 2003 Mustang Cobra.

At the time, Salvador had the fastest car in the

RPM Magazine

It’s not a 13-second Mustang anymore!

The last recorded ET was in the 5.60 eighth-mile range, but we can guarantee that doesn’t tell the most recent story of what this car is capable of as it moves into small tire quartermile grudge racing.

Cover Car

RPM

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I’LL BE BAAAAHCK

The 2004 Cobra, otherwise known as “The Terminator,” is one of the more sought-after body styles Ford produced outside of the Fox body. To this day, you’ll have to pay a premium to get your hands on one! Out back, a beefed up Ford 8.8 rear boasts Strange Engineering axles & spool and 3.90 gears.

club, running low 12-second ETs. “I was really excited because I had never driven a car at that power level. I buckled up, drove off, and ended up in an empty stretch of road and did a pull to hear the supercharger whine.

When I did the pull the car pinned me back so hard into the seat it instantly put a big smile on my face. When I got back from the drive, I decided I was going to save up and buy a Mustang Cobra.”

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RPM Magazine

THE RISE OF THE COBRA

At 18 years old (2008), Javier started working as a porter at a local Cadillac dealership. Javier’s 93 convertible had been good to him, but he needed to sell it in order to save up for the Cobra. He started searching on craigslist and ended up finding a 2004 Screaming yellow Mustang Cobra in town. Javier and his friend

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Luis contacted the owner and went to see the car in person.

It was everything he hoped it would be, and more. Unfortunately, the car came with a high price tag and Javier was not able to secure the loan to purchase it. “A few weeks later while at work, my friend Luis

calls me over and told me that the wife of the Cobra owner was looking for me. I didn’t believe him at first, that’s until I looked outside and saw the Cobra sitting there.” She mentioned to Javier that her husband was previously in a motorcycle accident and they

moserengineering.com

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RPM Magazine

STREET LETHAL

Although it’s no longer his daily driver, Javier’s Cobra is licensed, registered, and insured with all functioning street equipment.

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MODDED MOD

In 2004, Cobras came with a 4.6-liter, 32-valve modular V8. This supercharged powerplant produced 390 horsepower that could easily run mid 12s at sea level.

Javier’s current setup uses a single turbocharged bullet producing over 1,000 street driven horsepower. The 4.6 4 valve Ford modular mill starts with a Teksid block.

Heads are OEM ported by HBR Competition Engines in Las Vegas.

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BOOOOOOSTED

A Precision Turbo dual ball bearing billet wheel GT42 8285 turbo graces the forced induction system of the Cobra. The custom single front mount turbo kit was done by Belfab Automotive.

had an urgent need to sell the car. However, Javier was denied for the auto loan and was still unable to purchase it despite her willingness to negotiate the price. She threw the idea out of selling the car to the Cadillac dealer Javier worked at and seeing

if maybe they were willing to in-house finance the car for him. “It’s a longshot,” said an excited Javier, “but I will ask my boss Dan. I told him the story of what was going on and how I really wanted the car. He went outside to take a look at it and thought

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SHIFTY MOVE

A 2 speed Powerglide with custom PTC converter sends power rearward and shifts are controlled by a cleverly disguised shifter handle with stock boot pulled up tight. At first glance you might think the Cobra is a stick car. A 10 point roll cage was fabricated by Belfab Automotive and the factory frame beefed up. Also, you might notice there is still a backseat and no rear wheel no tubs.

PLUSH COCKPIT

We love that Javier kept the factory interior mostly intact.

Plans are to upgrade to an SFI 25.5 roll cage.

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it was a gorgeous car.

He told me to take it to the back, and if it passed inspection, he could make something happen. After the car passed inspection, my boss and I went into his office to discuss the terms of the loan.”

The very next morning, the title arrived

at the dealership and the Cobra was finally Javier’s to own and enjoy.

MY TAXY

“I took the car for a cruise down the famed Las Vegas Blvd that night and I noticed a bunch of yellow taxi cabs driving next

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RPM to me. It gave me an idea of calling the Cobra, MY TAXY since it was yellow of course.�

When Javier purchased the car, he had already envisioned that he wanted to build it into

a competitive street/ strip car. He raced the Cobra nearly every weekend, getting used to the car and the more he hustled, the more money he was able to put towards making the car quicker and faster.

COLOR COORDINATED

The Matching Ford Super Duty tow rig is a nice touch.

While the Mustang is street legal, it probably makes for a comfier road trip to the track when rolling in the SuperCrew.

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THE TRANSFORMATION

When Javier purchased the Cobra, it ran mid 13 second quarter-mile times but that was 12 years ago.

Through blood, sweat, tears, and lots of hard work, his Cobra has transformed into an 8-second runner and he’s raced at several major events such as the West Coast Hot Rod Association and the Street Car Super Nationals. But Javier is a grudge racer at heart, and grudge rac-

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ing is rapidly becoming the most popular way to drag race. With a number of recent changes to car, including adding a little more power, Javier is confident the car will raise some eyebrows in clocks-off competition, “My goal is to become more competitive in the eighth-mile small-tire class,” he said.

Judging by the matching tow rig, eyebrows will be raised long before Javier even fires up the bright yellow Cobra!

RPM Magazine

PEEK-A-BOO POWER

With the Harwood hood pinned in place, you can barely make out the Precision Turbo hiding subtly behind the factory grille opening, but with it romoved, you can see the intercooled induction system in all its glory.

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TALK

SHOP

NEXTLEVEL

E IF L IC M E D N A P E R P O REFLECTING BACK T

JT

story and photos by

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T

his month we’ll reflect back to a time just before coronavirus or Covid 19 became household

RPM Magazine

names worldwide.

It was mid-March 2020 and just after a long winter of making upgrades to my Camaro (Big

Red), I was hoping for an early spring and anticipating driving and racing the car throughout the season.

One of the areas of the car I focused on was the front suspension. I went with a 50lb heavier spring that is also 2 ½”

1

2 1: After experiencing coil bind after a hard launch, it was time to make a change. Look at the difference between the old yellow coils and the new black ones. 50lbs heavier per side and 2 1/2� longer.

2: After a thorough polishing the new coils were mounted to the shock. Ready for assembly.

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TALK

SHOP

3: Make sure you pick up a set of these bearings so your spring can move freely during its cycle.

Be sure to apply grease to all surfaces for assembly.

3

4 longer. If you recall from a past article, I made a wheel / tire change last season.

This change resulted in shaving a ton of weight and a much better overall look, but gave me some ride height issues.

After adjusting the ride height, I was left with very little front spring. When

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the car would settle down after a hard launch it would bottom out the (oil pan saving) wheelie skids I fabricated underneath. This resulted in some major negative g-forces, not to mention a light show from the sparks that shot out from under it. I was able to correct that problem

RPM Magazine

last season with some suspension tweaking, but was still left with very little coil compression. After doing much research and talking with a few different companies, the plan was made to install the taller and heavier coil. The increased preload from the taller coil will hopefully transfer a

little more weight to the rear at launch.

The heavier coil will give me a little more ride height adjustment without encountering coil bind.

That is the plan, and I’m happy to say it looks great sitting in my shop.

Another cool thing that happened last season – I was in-

vited to attend some indoor car shows and have Big Red be a featured car. As a builder and a chronic gearhead, this was a huge compliment to me. She was well received at all of the events we attended, and I had the time of my life talking to so many people about the build. It

4: The ride height issue is not a problem anymore. She looks great just sitting there.

Time to hit the streets and do some testing to see how the new springs perform.

5: Here I am hard at work making the display. I am looking forward to showing you the finished product set up around Big Red. I am actually looking forward to seeing it.

touched my heart that kids and adults alike, both seemed to enjoy hanging around our pit and getting to know Big Red a little better. My highlight last season was not in all of the victories, but rather engaging with all of the disabled children who came by to see

my car up close. I was so impressed that these special kids knew more about cars than most of the adults that came by. No matter where we were, or what condition Big Red was in, I fired her up and believed with each engine rev, I was helping those

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6 & 7: Here are two examples of some different display borders designed to keep people away from the car. We took another slightly different approach.

6

9 kids in some small way. I became so passionate about this group of children that I would love to bring Big Red to more events that help fund research or aid for them. Being able to make a difference in their lives with my passion for cars would indeed take this project to the next level.

Speaking of the next level, let’s get back to my invite to attend some indoor car shows. If you hadn’t figured out by now, I absolutely love talking about cars. Especially about home built cars like mine that took years of sacrifice and hard work to

complete. An opportunity to do this on a grand scale in a temperature controlled environment is something I am going to take very serious. Not knowing anything at all about indoor car shows (besides SEMA) I did some research and found out I was going to be in way over my head. Plain

8: Here is the new Big Red logo that will be used on the decals and clothing line.

9: I already placed the new decal on the valve covers and the center of my custom dual plenum.

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8

and simple, Big Red is a drag car that looks pretty.

Most cars that get invited to indoor car shows are purpose built show cars with matching displays. I contacted the person who invited me to attend his series of shows and asked him if he was sure he wanted me to attend. He assured

7

me that my car was worthy and he wanted me to bring the whole “race car display” and add to the diversity of the event. He wanted me to set up my car on the pit mat, next to my hauler just like at a race.

I asked my buddy Nelson if he would attend an event with me and explained that we needed to do some recon and see how the cars were displayed and get an overall vibe on the event. He happily accepted my invitation and the two of

us attended The Motorama Event that was held in Harrisburg, PA. What an amazing production! This was an enormous event with an unbelievable diverse collection of automobiles. I saw everything from velvet ropes, chassis mirrors, custom lighting, tilted ramps, spinning displays, to full blown themes with props.

Although my hauler, canopy, pit mat, tools, and Big Red make a cool race car display, I really need to take it

to the next level. The brass pole and velvet rope approach, besides being extremely expensive, do not fit the look of my car. Neither does the rustic wood fencing with barbed wire that the off-road vehicles use. The “caution do not cross” yellow tape was certainly a cheap option, but besides looking cheap, did not fit in with my super friendly and inviting personality. My buddy and I both liked how a lot of cars had some type

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10: The design for the shirts and hoodies came out AMAZING! I am extremely impressed and am proud to say that this is just one more step to taking Big Red to the next level.

10 of composite fencing with a rope, chain, or pvc pipe connecting them. We agreed to think about it for a few days and discuss what we should do.

Well the very next day my buddy stops in my shop with a bunch of samples from the lumber yard and begins to explain his vision. I absolutely loved his plan and more importantly his excitement with this project. Although a new member of

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our Shop Squad, his excitement, passion, generosity, and work ethic are a breath of fresh air to me. He picked up all of the necessary hardware we needed to fabricate this display and said, “here you go, do what you do!”

Over the next few weeks I looked at his blueprint (yes, he drew one up – I love that) and started measuring, cutting, drilling, and assembling our 10’ x 20’

RPM Magazine

car enclosure. I am extremely pleased with how the finished product turned out and couldn’t wait to actually see it set up around my car. In addition to the new fencing, we will add a few mirrors so people can see the detail that lurks beneath and not look too foolish or disrespectful bringing a race car to a prestigious indoor car show. In keeping with my taking it to the next level mantra,

I contacted the super talented people over at Konstant Design and had them make Big Red its own official logo and shirt design. As with all of their work, they completely knocked it out of the park. I can’t wait to share them with everyone who stops by to visit us.

So my fellow gearheads, whatever this next level has in store for us, particularly after we begin to rise from the grip of

the pandemic, I can only pray that it gives us a bigger audience to entertain and help make their day just a little brighter. That it inspires others and gives them hope after hearing our story of sacrifice and hardship, and how the generosity of a few extremely talented friends helped make this dream a reality.

RPM

Exclusives

REBIRTH of

S S E N MAD

PART 3: THE HEAR T(S

OF MADNESS

) 1

story and photos by

TROY

LaCrone

AKES T IT T A H W U O Y W O WE SH P H + 0 0 8 1 N A D L II U B TO STREET ENGINE!

A

s we follow along with the rebirth of “Blue Madness” we felt that RPM readers would enjoy a detailed look into the engines that power it. In our June issue, we mentioned the

1: On the stand and ready for action, Blue Madness’ pair of big block Chevy bullets await their turn to power the resurrected beast. We will spend this issue looking at the process of building the 580 ci Drag Week bullet on the left, and we’ll show you the buildup of the new 2,000+ hp on the right in an upcoming installment.

car is powered by one of two big block Chevy powerplants. Both are capable of street driving thousands of miles and making upwards of 1,800-2,000+hp on the bigger tune-ups. This month, we will focus on the 580ci power

plant which was used in Drag Week 2018 to finish in 2nd place in the competitive Pro Street Power Adder class. The 580ci is our main engine and the one we have the most history with.

Engine transparency is not always common

when specifics are asked.

In this case, we will not only give specifics, we will hear from several industry experts on their part of this team. I feel that an engine tech article is best when the true experts contribute to it directly.

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I C 0 8 5 E H T T A K O O L A DRAG WEEK ENGINE SHORT BLOCK: THE FOUNDATION

This build started with kicking around a lighter engine to get the car’s weight to 2800 lbs. without driver to honor the 6.00 chassis cert that is only valid/legal at that weight or less.

Therefore, we set out to replace the iron block 572 we had successfully campaigned for several years. Chris Straub, the owner of Straub Technologies helps with my engines and is a major part of our team. Chris is also a close friend. Straub is top notch with tons to offer in both part selection and advice.

He suggested a Brodix 10.2 tall deck aluminum block serve as the foundation for this build. We opted for several updates, like 55mm cam journal raised cam, slightly taller deck, and the block has the HIP process done to it to increase the strength (photo #2) Straub explains, “I love racing and when a customer drives a low 7 second car on 1,000-mile trips, even better. “It provides us a lot of information, including identifying parts that survive these conditions.”

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Once the block direction was determined, the next piece of the puzzle was easy, a billet crankshaft.

Connected to it are a set of Bill Miller Engineering (BME) aluminum rods (photo #3) that swing CP custom nitrous pistons (photos 5 & 6). Total Seal rings, ARP fasters, Moroso billet oil pump, and a Stephs oil pan complete the short block. Chris Nowak, of Nowak Racing says: “you normally get what you pay for. You can buy the right parts up front or spend a lot of time and money trying to make the wrong parts work. We punish these parts, and they normally keep coming back for more. Troy turns this engine 8,200rpm on a bunch of nitrous, things must be right.

Even more so, he then drives it like a daily commuter on the street. Both of which place high demands on the engine in different ways. At times, when he has needed the 2nd or 3rd stages of nitrous, we put 1,000hp in just nitrous through it. So, a stable foundation is critical. I think successfully building engines is no different than successfully doing anything in life, make sure the basics

RPM Magazine

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3

4

5

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6

6: (Left to right): Chris Straub, Troy, Ed Morel & John Callies

are right and don’t try to get too fancy.”

THE CAM AND INDUCTION

Chris Straub of Straub Technologies specs all of Troy’s cams.

Chris explains… “we get the valve events right and the engine makes more power and is much happier, as well. The cam is the brain of the engine. We give it what it wants, and the engine will respond accordingly.”

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Straub always recommends quality lifters in a build like this and we went with .936 Morel Black Mamba DLC coated lifters combined with CHE lifter bushings. We run these lifters countless thousands of street miles with zero issues, ever. We use Smith Brothers push rods and T&D steel shaft mount rockers that are one-offs made for Straub.

The team initially wanted to keep the engine along the lines of a conventional head.

A set of Brodix SR20 heads were purchased.

Scott Foxwell set them up initially and developed the cnc’d ports. (photo #7). We use all titanium valves coated from Victory, 2.45 intake and 1.80 exhaust.

All told, the heads produce great flow numbers throughout the lift range. The intake and exhaust flow 528 and 371cfm @ 1.00 lift respectively. That’s a lot of airflow by anyone’s standards. Nowack explains, “I like the heads a lot in terms of

their capability. With the help of expert team tuner, Jim Gray, we learned that the only issue we had with the heads was a narrow tuning window. To help resolve this issue, Nowak recently developed a new combustion chamber design. “I designed the new chambers in SolidWorks 3D modeling software and then machined them on my CNC mill. Our goal was simply to allow us to spray more nitrous safely, but it turns out the changes

MADNESS MAKING A NIGHT PASS...

7

7 & 8: The Brodix SR20 heads were reworked thanks to Scott Foxwell and a custom CNC port job.

9: The original chambers were prepped.

10: The finished, free-flowing heads making breathing easier.

8

9

10

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actually netted more torque and horsepower naturally aspirated too. In our recent 06/08/20 dyno session, we saw an average gain of 30 in lbs of torque and horsepower naturally aspirated. We started the nitrous tuning as of right now, it has been absolutely remarkable thus far.”

The intake is an Edelbrock Super Victor, the carb is a big single custom AED 4500 Dominator style.

With AED you can just about bolt it on and call it done (photo #10).

Every carb I’ve got from them is impressive. After the switch to AED in 2017, we averaged 15mpg driving 1,000 miles during tour events, while pulling a trailer!

We were amazed by that, shocked actually. Jay at AED says, “we work with each customer to build them exactly what their engine needs. That does not stop after we

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11

RPM Magazine

CHECK OUT THE DYNO PULL...

11: The AED 4500 Dominatorstyle carb.

12

12 & 13: Race fuel for Blue Madness is supplied by Renegade Race Fuels.

13

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sell them a custom carburetor, we stay as engaged as we can to respond to any need after the sell as well.”

The carb loves race fuel supplied by Renegade Fuels (photos 11 & 12). We run their best nitrous fuel, Pro Nitrous Extreme. It is an outstanding fuel that helps us tremendously. No way we could get to the level we are at without it.

Star Machine vac pump, and Lemons headers complete the build.

14

THE GOOD STUFF: INDUCTION SOLUTIONS NITROUS SYSTEMS

My first nitrous system dates back to 1987. It was a plate system on my ’72 Camaro. We went to Wise Speed Shop and bought the system,

14: I’ve been using boost in a bottle for over 30 years.

Induction Solutions provides me with the tunability and reliability needed in order to be consistent in a Drag Weekstyle event.

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15

PUTTING THE INDUCTION SOLUTIONS SLEDGEHAMMER KIT TO WORK...

15: Jim Gray of Bullet Racing Engines.

if my memory serves me, I paid like $430 for it. It was the adjustable version, called the Super Power Shot.

We immediately went for the 175hp jets and I recall that we actually made fun of how crazy it was that they would provide lesser levels. Our thinking was, why would you want a 100hp gain if you could get 175hp?

When I hit that button for the first time I was hooked for life.

Since then, I’ve bought and tuned a lot of nitrous systems. For many years, I would buy systems and spend months perfect-

ing the tune-ups.

Sometimes during tuning I created what we call piston trophies. I also normally stayed at levels below 400hp because my budget did not allow building engines capable of safety spraying more.

One day I decided to call Induction Solutions. I told Steve Johnson what I had, a 3,570lb pro street Camaro with a bone stock 620hp GM 572 crate motor. It ran 10.70’s @ 125 naturally aspirated. I explained that I wanted a simple bolt-on plate system to get it into the 8’s without touching the engine. Also, I

wanted it to be easy on parts so there isn’t much maintenance. I received the Induction Solutions Sledgehammer system a few days later. The video shows you the result. We ran 8’s easily with zero issues ever. The system was dialed in right out of the gate. Never in my years of racing had I made a better purchase. Steve to this day remains one of the best parts of our team.

“We have great nitrous systems, but even more so we sell service,” Johnson explained. “ You buy one of our systems, we help you achieve

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success.” Lastly, we made a significant change when nitrous hp levels went to higher than 600hp. We teamed up with Jim Gray of Bullet Racing Engines (photo #14).

Jim is a very high-end engine builder, but even more so he is a ridiculously talented nitrous tuner. Jim’s help has been game changing for us.

“I love working with teams like Troy’s. They have a passion and love for the sport, so I fit right in. We just finished the base-tune up for the 580 last night, we picked up 380hp on the 300hp tune-up and all of the plugs are even and extremely safe. We start there and then work our way up.” Gray said (photo #15).

DYNO R&D AND TUNING CENTER

Chris Nowak wanted to be able to test his ideas and prove them out in an R&D setting. “I didn’t want to just buy a bunch of parts and bolt them together,” He said. “I want to know what works and what doesn’t with my own proven data. Only then, do I feel like I know what the engine wants and where to find hidden hp potential.

So, I made the decision to purchase a state of the art Superflow dyno. We bought the dyno and had the best in the business set it up. Then, I built a world-class room for it to go in. Finally, I outfitted it with a TFX Cylinder Pressure Transducer set-up to record combustion event information on all eight

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16

16: Anyone running a nitrous setup knows that reading plugs isn’t just an option. It’s life!

18

17

17 & 18: Wheeled into the dyno cell at Nowack’s and ready to blast some big numbers!

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cylinders. Finally, to complete the madness, we have 8 wide bands and 8 egt’s as well. For each run we make, we get a lot of great data. The results are less guesswork and more actual data to make better decisions.�

Side note: Nowak does not like RTV and the mess it leaves behind.

Check out the pics of the re-usable o-ring gaskets he made. He is fearless when it comes to improving things (photos 19, 20, & 21).

TRACK RESULTS

19

20: The combustion location data is far superior to guesswork.

20

Nothing would matter much if we were not getting results down the track. The 580 has not been ran with the new chamber design. Last year, the engine ran 4.73 on a partial run,

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19: A cylinder pressure transducer provides critical data for the pull.

RPM Magazine

THE PASS BEFORE THE NOW INFAMOUS CRASH PASS...

21 21: When you are pulling an engine apart on the regular, standard gaskets can be a real pain. Nowak likes to solve that problem by machining in reusable o-ring seals anywhere he can.

Powered by Enthusiasts.

Low Cost, No Hassle, Landed Cost Shipping.

Landed Cost shipping includes all duties, taxes, and clearance fees.

In-stock parts are shipped FAST, delivered to your door with no unexpected fees.

Questions?

Complete details available in the Customer Service section of SummitRacing.com, talk via Live Chat, or Call.

1-800-230-3030 www.rpmmag.com

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23

22 22, 23, 24, & 25: Modern problems call for modern solutions, and with this solution you can put your razor blade away!

With Nowack’s trick CNC machined o-ring seals, scraping cruddy gasket material and RTV off your heads and polluting your engine valley is a thing of the past.

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DRAG WEEK PASS, 7.7 SECONDS @ 175 MPH

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24

25

mph was only 130 because we were off the gas about 500’ into the run.

It has gone 7.50 @182 in the ¼ mile and on another run went 150mph in the 1/8th. Those numbers are at over 3,000lbs. With Blue Madness 2.0 being a much lighter car, our goals for this

engine are reliable 4.50’s @ 150+ mph and low 7’s ¼ mile.

If / when we lean on it, it will run 6’s @ 195mph in the ¼ mile. The grudge engine remains a little more of a secret, but it will run in the 6’s @ 200mph with ease.

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Project Car

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PROJECT

PACE CAR RACE CAR Biro L

story and photos by

TIM

PART 2: CHOOSING OUR SBF PISTON 94

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ast month we gave RPM readers the entire rundown on how the Project Pace Car Race Car came to be and left you wanting more with a photo of our assembled short block.

Ok, maybe we got a bit ahead of ourselves, so instead of giving you information overload in one article we’ll break things down a bit, and this issue we will focus on our piston choice.

Having a place to work on your project is great but having all

RPM Magazine

the equipment and tools available at your fingertips is something totally different. As we’ve said many times over the past 21 years in RPM, we’re just like you, our readers; hardcore car people, and because of past years in the business of horsepower, we find ourselves very fortunate to have all these things and more at our age. Not to say that I am in advanced years (insert LOL here), but when you start as a teen, 30+ years makes for a lot of experience.

It takes much dedication to build cars

and the builder doesn’t usually get to enjoy the fruits of his/her labour in the end. In short, it takes a momentous amount of time to acquire the knowledge and the equipment to carry out others’ dreams. Through many years of building relationships with people in our own circle and people across many countries, states and provinces, one acquires a wealth of information and resources literally at our fingertips with the technology we have today. Throughout this pandemic, we have

had to social distance and do all the good health practices our health officials deem safe. But by human instinct, we must make contact with people. My phone and computer have been my best friends the last couple months and they keep our contact alive. We have been able to stay in contact with all members of the Pace Car Race Car (PCRC) build and deliver the next segment of our project. As the health restrictions are now easing up a bit, tracks are opening, people

1

2

3

1: Our Wiseco 2618 high strength alloy pistons boast a 360 degree skirt for extra rigidity. The top of the piston has been totally radiused in all the critical areas, no heat risers here! Note the thickness of the forging at the pin and skirt area.

Also note the pin and its thickness. High strength and reliability is present in every design aspect of this piston. The Wiseco engineers designed and built this piston for poweradder applications.

can be seen in larger groups, and we pray, our lives may return to some type of new normal.

When we left our readers last month, it was clear that the PCRC short block needed some serious attention. When planning and building a project, our experience tells us to keep in mind the time process parts have to go through before you actually get them in your hands. If you are ordering in-stock or stocking parts, you may receive them in a day or two. But when ordering custom parts, which are non-stocking, they may have a longer delivery time and obviously a higher price point. Both are completely justified as the custom parts must be designed and manufactured correctly, which simply takes more time and resources.

For many years, hot rodders have talked about boring and stroking engines. The process of boring is to increase the bore size of the cylinder the piston travels. The stroking process relates to increasing the length from the rod pin to the centerline of the crankshaft. Stroking increases the distance the piston travels in its bore. The increase in bore, say from 4.00” to 4.125” is significant.

The stroke increase from 3.50” to 4.00” is also significant. By boring www.rpmmag.com

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Project Car

RPM

and stroking, you have effectively made more cubic inch displacement from the same dimensionally sized engine block. Every engine builder knows that there is no replacement for displacement.

With a little math, you can see, using the previous numbers, what was once a 351 cubic inch (CI) engine has now turned into a 427 CI monster.

4

Math example: CI Displacement= (Bore/2) x (Bore/2) x 3.1416 x Stroke x Number of cylinders (4.125 in./2) x (4.125 in./2) x 3.1416 x 4.00 in. x 8 = 427.634 cubic inches.

In the early days, you could increase the stroke of a certain crankshaft by offset grinding the rod pin of the crank centerline, obtaining a smaller diameter rod pin to achieve a longer stroke.

Today, there are many cranks available for all sorts of applications when you need more stroke.

There are limitations to boring and stroking an engine, though.

Obviously material must be removed from the cylinder block for the process, which will weaken the cylinder blocks integrity. The builder must know the maximum bore and stroke their block can safely withstand. The aftermarket is filled with manufactures of quality blocks who cast extra thick blocks for all the major engine designs. For the PCRC, we choose (due to original plan and budget) to use our stock 351W, 2 bolt main block. It is old, well seasoned and ready for a little hit of the juice - just a little hit, though.

The max cubic inches I believe we can safely design within this

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5

6

4: Here you can see the ring pack design. The first ring is placed a longer distance from the top of the piston which increases the top land dimension to keep the area alive in a heavy nitrous oxide application. You can also see the different valve angles that the TFS R cylinder head has, by evidence of the valve reliefs in the piston dome area.

5: The valve relief pockets in the top of the piston were designed for our TFS R cylinder heads. We supplied our camshaft specification to Wiseco in order to obtain a dome that would net maximum compression and correct valve to piston clearance during engine operation. One of the critical assembly steps is to check the valve to piston clearance.

stock block is 410. We have designed our combination around a used forged crank that we had, with a stroke of 3.750” and our block bore of 4.040”.

These dimensions will net us 384.569 cubic inches, let’s just call it a 388 CI, it sounds cool!

Since our crank now has a longer stroke we cannot use stock length rods and stock compression height (CH) pistons. Keep

in mind, it all must fit inside your block height. In our case, the deck height of our block is roughly 9.500”.

Cylinder block deck height is measured from the crank centerline (main cap centerline) to the top of the cylinder bore surface, known as the deck of the block. The piston compression height is measured from the top of the piston to the centerline of its piston pin.

Swinging just the extra .250” of stroke manipulates the rod length and piston compression height. To fit it all together, our math tells us that the rods are now 6.250” long and the piston compression height must be 1.375 inches.

Our TFS R cylinder heads discussed last month,require a certain piston. When designing your engine, the builder must keep in

6: Wiseco supplies coatings for their pistons and we ordered ours with their skirt and top coatings. You can see the ArmourGlide skirt coating which is a Molybased solid film lubricant on our piston skirt. The ArmourGlide coating reduces friction, increases power and reduces piston rock. The top of our pistons are coated with Wiseco ArmourPlating which lowers the crown temperature 20 degree C on average and reduces the effects of detonation on the dome. ArmourPlating also provides a hard smooth surface for the rings to prevent microwelding in the ring grooves. Notice the oil drain back holes in the oil ring groove for superior oil control.

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mind the cylinder head type due to the combustion chamber design. Other dimensions like compression height (CH), ring pack location, material and pin type are key factors in your engine’s success.

If you are lucky, you may find an off-theshelf piston to work with your combination. Since we wanted to make as much squeeze (static compression) as possible, use a little nitrous oxide, and require an uncommon compression height, we thought it would be best to have a custom piston designed for PCRC. The “wise” choice for this project was to use Wiseco for our pistons. For over 75 years, Wiseco has been known for quality pistons. They offer pistons for every conceivable engine, including engines in ATVs, bikes, sleds

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7 and more.

Their corporate headquarters in Mentor, Ohio, boasts of over 150,000 square feet of state-of-the art forging and CNC machining equipment. Their engineers utilize the latest in 3D design and finite

RPM Magazine

7: Here you can see the piston in mock up. Fits perfectly with having the flat part as high as possible in the bore. With our .040 head gasket we have a desirable quench area to make good power.

element modeling software and the Wiseco research and development facility boasts an in-house Dyno that is equipped with the latest technology.

This, along with their

rigorous field-testing network, ensure that their products meet the expectations of every engine builder.

Their ordering network is very knowledgeable and seamless, with a quick call

and a few questions answered, our pistons were on the way.

With all the math and the short block out of the way, we turned our attention back to the top end of our engine. With

Project Car

RPM

8: I am setting the TFS R cylinder on in the mock up stage to check piston to combustion chamber fit, piston to valve clearance and head gasket fit.

the Trick Flow head ports capable of solid torque and awesome high rpm power numbers, we needed a valve train to support the same. Knowing how much and at what lift a port flows can assist you in your selections. We must also keep in mind the design of our engine and realize the limits of each component in our build. We all want to make 2000 horsepower, but soon realize the size and complexity and cost of an engine producing that much power is beyond most people’s reach. Not to mention the chassis required to contain that amount of power. Plan your build and build your plan. Keeping that in mind, we know the power we needed to produce to take the Pace Car to our desired ET. Excessive rpm can kill many parts in an engine. We need to spin the engine to a peak rpm of 7500 rpm and would like it to stay under 7200 rpm for many reasons.

Early on in my drag racing and engine building I saw a

8 few engines fly apart from trying to extend the design engineering specifications of engine parts. Examples include; main caps walking, block cast cracking, melted/broken pistons, etc.

Heck, I remember one time, a customer came in after rippin up the street, pedal to the floor, in front of my shop and said “Tim, I think she is down a cylinder.”

Sure enough, after a quick diagnosis, it was. I found the head of his intake valve laying on the pavement, It broke and dropped straight down the header tube, then through the collector, and onto the road. Nowadays in-

stead of overextending stock parts, we have excellent support from manufacturers that test and produce high quality parts that far outlast the stock parts of the OEM world.

NEXT MONTH

After a quick visit to the machine shop to touch up our balance we were ready for the next phase of our build and returned back to the RPM shop with the custom Wiseco pistons, rings, bearings, crank, rods and block, and prepped each part for final assembly of the short block. We cleaned, measured and assembled the rotating parts into the

cylinder block and will dig into the step-by-step assembly of the short block and also finish the top end of the RPM Pace Car Race Car build next issue.

Soon we will be steps closer to being a part of a larger goal, one that is enjoyed by friends and family at a track hopefully soon.

This is why I have a passion for race car design and assembly, drag racing and engine building.

SOURCE

Wiseco Pistons 800.321.1364

www.wiseco.com

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Exclusives

RPM

1

1: The high quality fully padded carry case with retractable handle and wheels makes moving the Proform 67644 scale system safe and easy.

S S E L E IR W IM L S D N U O P PROFORM 7000 WEIGHING SYSTEM

VEHICLE

George Pich

story and photos by

T

his month’s cool tool may not be the first thing on your wish list to fill that empty drawer in your toolbox, but for the serious racer, it is a must.

Think of the advantages of being able to weigh your race car anytime, anywhere.

Or maybe you need to be able to distribute weight/ballast properly throughout the car, or add and pull weight often for different classes. Like-

100 july 2020 | RPM Magazine

wise, if you are a race event promoter and want control over your weight restricted classes at any venue, than you need to check out the Proform Vehicle Weighing system.

Proform offers two Vehicle Weighing Systems; a 5,000lb wired system Part #67650, and their 7,000lb wireless system Part # 67644. For a few hundred dollars more, since we live in a wireless world that is becoming more and more wireless, we felt

the latter would be best for our purposes.

Will we have the need for 7,000lb capable scales? Probably not, but then we’d rarely need 5,000lb capability either, so the deal maker for us was the wireless feature for the 67644 system.

We ordered our scales initially to fill the void for event venues without a scale system but since have found them invaluable during builds and especially for preparing cars for race classes

that require different weights for different combinations. We quickly became the “popular kid” and regularly lend out our scales (to reliable people who will take care of them of course). It seems that once somebody discovers the uses for having scales at their fingertips, they get hooked pretty quick.

Proform 7000lb Slim Wireless Vehicle Weighing System Part # 67644 features include:

2

3 2: Proform includes a Tech Service support contact sheet so you’re never alone with questions or concerns.

3: Packing and unpacking the system is effortless.

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Exclusives

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• 7,000-poundcapacity, • 1,750-pound per-pad rating • Includes 4 pads at 15”L x 15”W x 1 5/16”H • Backlit LCD display • Hard case w/ telescoping handle • PC program for data export • AA batteries Included We mentioned that being wireless was important for our specific needs. Generally, most people will use their scales in their own shops or pits, but we knew that we’d be hosting events at tracks and other venues with no scales and that we would need to make our setup and take down as easy as possi-

ble. We would be scaling dozens of cars each day, so ease of use and reliability was a must.

Proform scales have evolved to this third generation offering which includes the slim aluminum scale pads that are just 1 5/16” high with a drive-up angle for easy setup. There is also live stream data feed capabilities via USB cable (included) to computer with free downloadable program for viewing and file exporting, a backlit LCD screen and control buttons, and a foam lined hard case with wheels for storage.

Standard information display features include Cross weight, Side/Side weight, and Front/Rear

4 4: The slim aluminum scale pads are just 1 5/16” high. Here you see the drive-up angle on each end of the pad for easy setup. If you prefer, it’s also quick to simply use the jack to set the car on the scales.

5 102 july 2020 | RPM Magazine

7 7: As you can see ,the easy to use backlit LCD screen shows up well in any lighting environment and offers Cross weight, Side/Side weight, and Front/Rear weight in addition to the standard weight and percentage for each wheel and total vehicle weight.

weight in addition to the standard weight and percentage for each wheel and total vehicle weight.

Interestingly, when we first put

our scales to use we had a class racer insist they were 100lbs out compared to their builder’s shop scales. So we put our Proform scales

to the test and over and over again they have proved to be accurate and dependable. In fact, Proform scales are accurate to 1/2 of 1%.

6 5 & 6: Jay Misener’s class racing Fox Body Mustang was recently weighed-in after substantial changes during the off season.

“They are completely portable and very accurate,” said Misener.

“I have backed them up on 6 different sets of track scales throughout the US.”

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8

9 8, 9 & 10: Aside from use at events on most anything you can think of, we have also used our Proform scales on more full figured candidates such as this ultra-clean wedge powered Mopar.

Note that each scale pad has an in-operation light visible at a quick glance.

10

So check out the Proform Vehicle Weighing System for your cool tool line up, or better yet, get together on a set of scales with your racer friends so you can share the cost and more importantly the benefit of flexibility before, during and after each event.

SOURCE Proform Parts 586.774.2500

www.proformparts.com

104 july 2020 | RPM Magazine

Exclusives

RPM

1: Blow-by contamination is the primary reason oil turns dark with use. Less blow-by increases the life of the motor oil.

D N IE R F T S E B S ’ L I YOUR O THE PISTON RING

Lake Speed, Jr. story by

Photos provided by Total Seal Piston Rings

H

ave you ever wondered why automatic transmission fluid is “fill-for-life” and motor still has to be changed every 5,000 to 10,000 miles? The simple answer is contamination.

In an engine, combustion is a powerful but dirty business.

While combustion produces the heat energy that powers the engine, it also creates super-heated gases

106 july 2020 | RPM Magazine

filled with carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, vaporized moisture and partially burnt fuel. Those same exhaust gases that we don’t want to breathe (because they can kill you), leak past the piston rings, which we call blow-by. These harmful gases chemically attack the motor oil.

As a Certified Lubrication Specialist, Oil Monitoring Analyst and member of the Society of Tribologists & Lubrication

Engineers, I can state unequivocally that lubricants will do exactly what they are designed to do unless they are contaminated or chemically degraded. Guess what combustion blow-by gases do?

Now don’t get me wrong, motor oils are designed to withstand the assault of these intruders, but the fact remains that combustion blow-by gases contaminate and chemically degrade motor oil. This is why

1 a high performance motor oil can contain up to 14 different chemicals and a jet turbine oil might contain only 4 different chemicals.

In fact, the same base oil used to make motor oils is also used to make stationary turbine engine oils.

While a motor oil might live 10,000 miles in a 4 cycle engine, these turbine oils will live more than 10 years! What is the difference? Turbine engines never expose

2: John Ramsbottom invented the piston ring in 1854— before the gasoline engine was even invented!

2

the lubricant to combustion gases.

Both internal combustion engines and turbines generate lots of heat, but only internal combustion engines expose the lubricant to combustion blowby gases.

So what does all of this mean?

Simply put, your piston rings are your motor oils best friend! Motor

oil is the lifeblood, the sole source of lubrication for your motor. The job of the motor oil is a follows: 1. Cool the lubricated parts in the engine.

2. Clean the lubricated parts in the engine.

3. Protect the lubricated parts in the engine.

4. Transfer power in the hydraulic parts in

the engine.

Fuel dilution, moisture, soot and heat all affect the motor oils ability to do its job, so it pays to keep your motor oil cool, clean and dry. With that said, your piston rings are the only line of defense between combustion gases and your motor oil.

Invented by John Ramsbottom

3: Ring seal impacts engine performance and durability.

Reducing blowby requires addressing all three leak paths.

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Exclusives

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4: Looking at the inside of this internal combustion engine you can clearly see the visible effects of improper maintenance. It’s what you don’t see, excessive wear, that will hurt performance and longevity.

in 1854 (before the internal combustion engine was even invented), the piston ring is a type of seal. The job of the piston ring is to: 1. Seal the combustion chamber and minimize the loss of gases to the crank case.

2. Improve heat transfer from the piston to the cylinder wall.

3. Help maintain the proper quantity of oil between the piston and the cylinder wall 4. Regulate engine oil consumption by scraping excess oil from the cylinder walls When you look at the job of the motor oil (to cool, clean

and lubricate the engine) and the job of the piston rings (to seal, transfer heat and meter the oil), it is easy to see how they play complimentary roles.

The better the piston rings do their job, the easier it is for the motor oil to do its job, and vice versa.

In over 15 years of reviewing used oil analysis reports, I’ve never seen low engine wear when the oil contamination levels are high. In fact, the bad wear results generally coincide with high levels of fuel dilution and other combustion related contamination.

However, when is the last time you thought of motor oil and

108 july 2020 | RPM Magazine

immediately thought about piston rings?

When you think about motor oil today, the first thing that probably comes to mind is Zinc (ZDDP), and that is understandable. The issues related to ZDDP level changes in motor oil have been the headline story in the industry for over 15 years, so it is understandable to think zinc at the mention of motor oil.

However, there is more to motor oil than just ZDDP – just as there are other parts in an engine besides a camshaft.

In simple terms, the better the piston rings seal the gap be-

tween the piston and cylinder wall, the less combustion blow-by gas (which is hot, full of moisture, fuel and other nasty chemicals) gets into the oil. The bottom line is that better ring

seal means better oil life and performance, which means longer engine life. That is why your piston ring is your motor oil’s best friend!

SOURCE

Total Seal Piston Rings 800.874.2753

www.totalseal.com

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