V.P. MARKETING/CUSTOMER RELATIONS.......TRISH BIRO trish@rpm-mag.com E-MAGAZINE ASSOCIATE EDITOR.........................IAN RAE ian@rpm-mag.com EVENT MEDIA DIRECTOR.....................................TONY WEBER tony.weber@rpm-mag.com EVENT SUBSCRIPTIONS COORDINATOR.....SHERRIE WEBER sherrie@rpm-mag.com Photographic Contributions: TONY WEBER, TIM LEWIS, BRIAN HANSEN, PETE “BOOMER” ORES, PAUL SCHMITZ, LOGAN WEBER, MARK goDragRacing.org, TOMMY LEE BYRD, www.DragStory.com, BRIAN TYLER, GEORGE PICH, TOBY BROOKS Editorial Contributions: IAN RAE, TONY WEBER, TIM LEWIS, CHUCK SCOTT, TOMMY LEE BYRD, BRIAN HANSEN, BEN STRADER, MARK goDragRacing.org, RAY KNIGHT, BRIAN TYLER, AL HEISLEY, GEORGE PICH, TOBY BROOKS, BRIAN WOOD, PAT McGOWAN Technical Writing Contribution: CHUCK SCOTT, BEN STRADER, SHANE TECKLENBURG, TOMMY LEE BYRD
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EDITOR IN CHIEF.......................................................CHRIS BIRO editor@rpm-mag.com
RPM Magazine is a REGISTERED TRADEMARK of Revolution Publishing & Media Inc. RPM Magazine is a worldwide motorsports publication distributed in 34 countries and can be found on popular newsstands in the USA, Canada and select newsstands in the UK. If you cannot find a copy near you please call 519-752-3705 or email circulation@rpm-mag.com To subscribe to RPM go to www.rpm-mag.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 regards to design and power! RPM Magazine does not sell its mailing list or share any of the confidential information regarding its subscribers.
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EDITOR’S RANT
by
Chris Biro
ADVERTISER INDEX
the
RPM DIFFEERENCE...
W
e’d like to take this opportunity to welcome our many new readers who have joined the RPM revolution over the past few months. Fifteen years in, through our aggressive multi-tiered distribution system and ability to innovate rather than imitate, RPM Magazine has become one of the top selling independent car magazines worldwide, and we’re not done yet! We bring readers what they want, not what we want to shove down their throat to satisfy some sort of trend or ego trip. Let’s face it, whether you’re an 18-year-old high school student that loves muscle cars, a 40-year-old horsepower junky running 8s on drag radials, a new builder in tune with the second coming of Pro Street (a movement that never really ended), the pilot of a 3,000 horsepower Pro Mod, or an 80-year-old fan of all things cars, you’re reading and spreading the RPM word because you like what you see, and we like that! We’re “real” people that encourage interaction and enjoy engaging our readers, making them feel like the content in RPM could include them or someone they know in any given issue. Bottom line, RPM is cool articles about fast cars, relevant tech that’s not the same old “build a 2K small block” or “paint your car for 50 bucks in your driveway” fluff that’s been done (and overdone) in mags and online for too many years now, and project builds to suit every budget. RPM does not exist on the edge, we are the edge, with content that is current not ancient! Yet we also clearly understand that part of our responsibility is to honor the history and roots of fast cars to help secure our industry’s future. To all of our new readers, we’ll give you the RPM heads-up now. Don’t be shocked when you don’t see feature cars that have been in other mags or splattered all over the internet a dozen times before they’re in RPM, event coverage that is 3, 4 or even 6 months old, or the same names in every issue… that’s not the way we roll! And guess what, no more getting your April issue
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in February with last November’s info in it! Like I said, we’re REAL TIME, so you’re getting this April issue between the third week of March and first week of April, and I can personally guarantee that the content in RPM is always fresh, never frozen! Our guarantee to you is that we will not publish an event that has taken place more than 30 to 45 days before RPM hits newsstands, we invented the “REAL TIME CAR MAG” and we’re sticking to it fifteen years later! Don’t be shy, drop us a line! Each month we’re contacted by many readers requesting that we feature their race or street machine in RPM, or maybe run a piece on an organization that they’re part of, and we’ll always do our best to make that happen. As I’ve been saying for 15 years now, we consider RPM your magazine, not ours. You can even contact me directly at editor@ rpm-mag.com and you’ll get a reply, quick. Don’t believe me? Just flip in a few pages and check out Ray Tumbry’s killer clean all-motor Nova, oh yeah, it’s badass! All Ray did was drop me a line a few weeks back, and here it is, his car being seen in RPM in 34 countries in print alone and dozens more online! If you just picked up this copy of RPM from your brother’s, cousin’s, uncle’s, veterinarian’s dentist’s counter, you’re wondering, how can I get my own copy? You can subscribe to RPM directly online at www.rpm-mag.com , by emailing subscriptions@rpm-mag.com or trish@rpm-mag.com or by calling 519-752-3705. You can also pick up a copy at most any bookstore or newsstand including Wal-Mart and other large retailers. RPM is also distributed to performance and race shops in the United States and Canada, but don’t be surprised if their copy is chained to the counter… they tend to grow legs quick! Remember, if for some reason you can’t find RPM in a store near you, simply email us a zip code in the United States (or postal code in Canada) and we’ll tell you who carries it nearby. Unfortunately, most newsstands sell out, so you’ll need to be on your game to get to one in time. Enjoy!
Accufab Inc............................ 37 AFCO..................................... 43 Alan Johnson Performance (AJPE)................................. 32 Alston Race Cars.................... 21 Alston Race Cars Fast Glass.... 16 Applied Racing Components (ARC).................................. 75 ATI Performance Products..... 30 Autoglym.........................65, 89 Bad Attitude Engines............ 71 Baer Brakes......................51, 83 BES Racing Engines............... 13 Bill Mitchell Products............ 10 Blower Shop............................ 5 Browell Bellhousing.............. 55 BTE Racing............................ 54 C&C Motorsports................... 82 Calvert Racing Suspensions... 38 CFE Racing Products.............. 22 CN Blocks.............................. 20 Coan Engineering.................. 72 Competition Products........... 20 COMP Cams........................... 27 Crower.................................. 41 CVR Products......................... 48 DART..................................... 13 Design Engineering............... 26 Diamond Pistons................... 70 DIY Auto Tune/MegaSquirt EFI..................................... 31 Dynotech Engineering........... 26 Ed Quay Race Cars................. 51 Engine Research & Development (ERD)........... 34 Fast Eddie Racewear.............. 69 Fuel Air Spark Technology (FAST)............................... 87 FastMotorsports.................... 10 Fast Times Motorworks......... 50 FORD Racing.......................... 78 Frankenstein Racing Heads .. 25 Gary Courtier Racing............. 45 Gold Living............................ 52 G Force Racing Transmissions.19 GZ Motorsports..................... 71 Harland Sharp....................... 10 Holcomb Motorsports........... 40 HoleShot Wheels................... 14 Holley.................................... 84 Holley Ultra Dominator......... 34 Holley Ultra Double Pumper.. 32 Holley Ultra Street Avenger... 53 Howard’s Cams...................... 25 Induction Solutions............... 30 Innovate Motorsports............ 31 JE Pistons.............................. 33 Jesel...................................... 73
JET Performance................... 77 J&K Converters...................... 74 Joe Gibbs Racing Oil DRIVEN. 29 K&N Filters............................ 67 Lokar Performance Products. 86 LUCAS Oil Products.............2, 75 Lunati.................................... 80 Mahle Clevite Inc................... 17 Manton Pushrods.................. 67 Meziere Precision Mfg........... 81 Mickey Thompson Tires........... 7 Mile High Crankshafts............. 8 MSD Ignition......................... 23 Neal Chance Converters........... 9 New Century Performance.... 64 Nitrous Pro Flow.................... 64 Nitrous Supply...................... 36 OASIS by Corlor........................ 8 Outlaw 10.5 Racing Assoc..... 83 Parts Pro Perf Centers............ 92 Performance Improvements.. 14 Perf. Plus Connection.......50, 82 Powermaster Performance.... 51 Power Tank............................ 72 Precision Turbo/ProInjectors.. 15 Proformance Racing Trans..... 76 Pro Systems Carburetors...28, 84 Philadelphia Racing Products (PRP).................................. 18 PTC........................................ 76 PRW...................................... 85 Quik-Latch Products.............. 18 Racecraft............................... 24 Racepak................................ 35 Racequip............................... 50 Racing Radios.......................... 7 Rev-X Oil Products............68, 79 Rocky DiLecce/Metro Infrastructure.................... 44 Ross Racing Pistons................. 5 Rossler Transmissions............ 88 RPM EXTREME EVENTS.......90 Scorpion Racing Prods......19, 81 Scotty’s Racing Engines......... 19 Shafiroff Racing Engines....... 22 SM Race Cars......................... 19 Smith Racecraft..................... 12 Summit Racing Equipment... 91 Ti64....................................... 10 Tom’s Upholstery................... 77 Trick Flow.............................. 42 TRZ Motorsports.................... 35 Two Guys Garage................... 89 Valvoline............................... 39 VP Racing Fuels................49, 75 WC Enterprises...................... 74 Weinle Motorsports.............. 83 Weldon High Performance.... 67
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www.rpm-mag.com | APRIL 2014
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APRIL 2014 Often Imitated, Never Duplicated—For 15 STRAIGHT YEARS RPM Magazine has been the ORIGINAL Voice Of Wild Street Machines and Extreme Drag Racing 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
SO Much Horsepower Packed Into One Place... That Place IS RPM Magazine!
CARS
COVER CAR
THE WILD MANUAL TRANS
ACTION TWENTY YEARS of
BANGIN’ GEARS
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Nasty ’71.........................................................46
STICK RACING
If looks could kill, this wild Pro Street Camaro would already be under arrest!
PRO
34 THE
TECH
Super Nova....................................................................... 8
Ray Tumbry’s Yenko tribute is true to the early days of Fastest Street Car drag racing
THE
PROJECTS
Shedding Light on Light............................ 24 Metal Matrix Composites…When less becomes more
Products & Innovations.............................. 72 The powerful and versatile Power Tank: Your friend in the pits!
Custom pistons: Knowledge means power!.......................................................... 68 Choosing Project Back on Track slug options with Diamond Pistons
Part 1: Site prep, ordering, delivery, and initial construction................................. 74 RPM’s new do-it-yourself shop series shows how you can put together your own modern workspace, too!
Part 4: The Horse gets fitted with some trick huff, puff & bling! ............... 82 Terry Woods and the Supercharger Store whip up a wicked dual ProCharger gear drive
READ COMPLETE ISSUES OF RPM MAG ONLINE AT WWW.RPM-MAG.COM
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RPM FEATURE CAR
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APRIL 2014 | RPM Magazine
>>Ray Tumbry’s Yenko tribute is true to the early days of Fastest Street Car drag racing story by photos by
I
t is no accident that Ray Tumbry’s Yenko-dressed, tubbed Nova looks like the late ’80s Pro Street builds that raced in the early days of street car drag racing—he went to great lengths to build it that way. “I bought the Nova in October of 1995 after I sold my ’23 Ford altered drag car. I wanted a door car again and loved the ‘Fastest Street Car Shootout’ look. I knew I could not build the Nova to be as fast as those cars, so initially I built it to bracket race,” he said. Ray’s car may not be as quick as the warriors of the heads-up street car drag race movement, but it sure looks every bit the part, plus, at bottom nines in the quarter it is definitely no slouch!
JohnBoy Photography
George Pich and
Dave Schworm
ALL STEEL COUPE…CUT!
The Nova is actually an all-steel 1968 coupe body with a 5-inch Glasstek cowl hood and smooth cowl panel. Now before all the diehard purists reading this take to arms, relax, Ray tells us, “the body was a 12,000-mile original paint car when I purchased it, but rest assured it was already turned into a race car.” The firewall of the Nova has also been painstakingly filled and smoothed out and the killer paint and body work was done at Smitty`s Car Craft in Elyria, Ohio, where Ray works. The color is Torch Red from a 1995 Chevy Corvette and it was actually painted back in 1997. Front and rear bumpers are from Goodmark and N.O.S. (new old stock) front fender and hood moldings were sourced and used on the build.
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SUPER NOVA WHEELS UP FOR LAUNCH As you can see, the Nova really puts on a show while busting off very low nine-second quarter-mile runs!
The Nova retains its stock front sub-frame along with stock front suspension with aftermarket shocks and stock upper and lower control arms with travel limiters. The main front crossmember is notched for the oil pan and engine
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APRIL 2014 | RPM Magazine
diaper and even the manual steering system remains. The rear suspension is a 4-link setup and double adjustable coil over shocks with 135 lb. springs have been used. A narrowed Dana 60 rear differential was installed with a 4.56 gear set, heavy duty axles, and spool. Inside you’ll find an original Nova dash, door panels, original glass and carpeted floors with Kirkey seats, a 12-point cage, Autometer tach and gauges and Painless wiring switch panel.
RENEGADE RIVALS The competition is always tough and the action second to none when a couple of hardcore muscle cars line up at the dragstrip. Here, Ray takes on fellow Renegade and friend Dennis Moore.
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SUPER NOVA
IF YOU GOT IT, RACE IT!
JAW DROPPIN’ CLEAN...EVERYWHERE! The current 565-inch big block Chevy was built in 2010 by Gellner Engineering in Cleveland, Ohio and boasts 975 horsepower without any assistance other than Ray’s foot to the floor.
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“As time went on I ran the car in IHRA Hot Rod 10.90,” continued Ray. “The Nova would run high nines at 138 mph off the stop, so I started to run the index races at some Good Guys events at Summit Motorsports Park (Norwalk Raceway Park).” After getting a taste of a more heads-up race format, in 2003 Ray tried his hand at running a program at Norwalk called Outlaw Street.
TOO CLEAN JUST TO RACE...TOO FAST JUST TO SHOW The 427 and Yenko emblems provide a cool tribute with a Pro Street twist. The Yenko/SC decals look incredible on the straight, original Nova rear quarters.
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SUPER NOVA
SAFE & SOUND Inside, a bunch of factory original equipment remains, staying true to the “Street Car Shootout” cars that Ray modeled the Nova after.
SO WHAT’S THE BIG DIFF? A shortened Dana 60 rear diff was used and the rear suspension is a 4-link coil-over setup.
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“I installed a nitrous kit on my 468 and it ran 9.13 at 140 mph. That lasted two passes, though, as on the next run I stood the car on the back bumper for about 300 feet and had to lift because I was drifting into the right lane.” Since then, Ray has tried racing in everything and anything possible with the Nova, running it in three Pinks ALL Out events (Milan, MI 2007 & 2008 and 2010
APRIL 2014 | RPM Magazine
at Norwalk), eventually hooking up with the Renegade Racing Association in 2010 to run their new 8.90 index class. “I gave the 8.90 Index class a try and ran 9.17 to qualify but broke before the first round. In 2011 Renegade Racing added more index classes and at first I slowed the car down a lot to run their 10.50 index, getting help from Bret at EZ Plate to slow the car down. Then, in October of 2011, the Ren-
egades added a 9.90 class that was better suited for my combination. I entered, qualified number #1, got to the finals and runner-upped in 2012. In 2013 I was champion of the 2Fast Garage 9.90 class.” Enjoying racing and his success so much, Ray also won the Abruzzi Smackdown in 2013, which is a four-car shootout for the top four in points in the 9.90 class.
WHAT’S UNDER THE HOOD? After his first experience with nitrous, Ray decided he’d go without any power adder with his
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NO ROOM FOR LUGGAGE HERE Ultra-clean painted tinwork, a racing fuel cell, and a driver-offset rearmounted battery occupy the pristine trunk.
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next engine project. Built by Gellner Engineering in Cleveland Ohio, the 565 cubic inch big block now at home in the Nova is based on a Dart block with 9.800 deck, 4.600 bore and 4.25” stroke. The rotating assembly includes 15 to 1 (that’s right...15:1!) JE Pistons, Manley rods, and a Callies Dragon Slayer crank. A COMP Cams solid roller cam with .800 / .763 lift and COMP Cams roller lifters were used,
APRIL 2014 | RPM Magazine
while Dart 355 CNC heads with 2.35 intake and 1.88 exhaust valves and Jesel 1.8 rockers complement the stout bottom end. A 1250 CFM Dominator from Dale Cubic sits atop a Dart intake with an EZ Plate system for Index racing, and Lemons 2 1/4 to 2 3/8” step headers flow into 4-inch Outlaw race mufflers to round things out. Electronic duties are the responsibility of an MSD 7AL3, coil and crank trigger, Taylor wires and Autolite spark plugs. To back the naturally aspirated combination, a Rossler Terminator Turbo 400 with lightweight internals and Rossler trans-
brake is used with a Neal Chance 6000 stall 9-inch converter. Ray’s Nova not only looks the part, but it runs strong too. This high compression all-steel all-motor warrior makes 925 horsepower at 7200 RPM and has run a best quarter-mile to date of 9.02 seconds at 150.77mph. “I would like to thank my wife Laurie,” added Ray. “My buddies Rob Larocco and Chico for all the help with the car and my racing friends at the track; Dennis Moore, Tom Hyatt, Dennis Chillik and Kristal Cowle who runs the Renegade Racing series.”
SUPER NOVA
BIG SHOW OFF Ray’s Nova was recently on display at Summit Racing Equipment in Tallmadge, OH, a testament to its quality. It is hard to believe that this car was painted in1997!
mahle hV385 goes
supersonic
with all steel 1mm, 1mm, 2mm rings
MAHLE has a long and storied history of leading the way in developing technology for the finest engine builders in the world. This technology continues to breed success on tracks around the world, and MAHLE has done it again. The engineers at MAHLE revolutionize performance piston ring technology with the introduction of HV385 performance ring sets. A MAHLE patented high-tech process employing supersonic application technology leading to improved part consistency, greater bonding, and reduced drag. www.mahle-aftermarket.com
www.rpm-mag.com | APRIL 2014
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RPM SPECIAL
TWENTY YEARS of
Bill Friend in his immaculate and fast mid 9-second STREET DRIVEN 65 Comet Caliente. He drives the car to the track from Victoria, BC, which involves a 1 hour ferry ride. Amazingly, he is 75 years old and shows the enthusiasm of a 20 year old. He is shown here racing Dale Posnick in his gorgeous big block Mustang. Lloyd Thomas photo
BANGIN’ GEARS
story by
>>The SuperShifters are still beatin’ ‘em with a stick after two decades and counting!
T
wenty years ago this summer, a group of frustrated racers armed with dedication, persistence and a magazine article, approached the management of Mission Raceway Park (in Mission, BC, Canada) with the idea of starting a new class of racing. Racers who love to row
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through the gears with a manual transmission were finding it hard to find a place to race competitively. This is where the frustration comes in. The major sanctioning bodies were pushing for electronics (throttle stops, delay boxes etc) to be a big part of bracket racing, whereas these racers were adamant about racing a clutch-
Dan Maddaloni Sr. equipped car where the driver controls all aspects of the vehicle as it’s going down the track. This is the dedication part of it. When track management was first approached, the idea was flat out rejected. Armed with petitions signed by manual transmission racers, as well as those who said they would convert to a stick for support, they decided to try again. This time, with a magazine article about the Ozark Mountain Super Shifters for inspiration, the track management was again approached, and they finally conceded. They agreed to one event to see if it would work and if it could stand on its
photos by and
Lloyd Thomas Shannon MacDonald
own, with its own sponsors to provide prize money. A sponsor was found, a date was set and the recruitment began. To say the class was a success the first time it ran would be an understatement. There were 36 cars competing at the first race and spectators were coming into the pits with great enthusiasm. They were saying things like, “it’s about time racers who actually ‘drove’ their race cars had a place to race”. Also, comments about bringing back the “lost art of power-shifting” were plentiful. After the race, the track management went to the organizers and offered them four dates for the next season.
The Chevy II of Scott Winterbottom (a past series champion) has been a top performer in the standings. His low 9-second small block bowtie always pleases the Chevy fans with awesome consistency. Lloyd Thomas photo The BC SuperShifters Association was born—and we haven’t looked back. Since its inception this class has proven to be a great success for the track as well as racers. Car counts generally exceed 20 and the venues have increased as Bremerton Raceway (in Washington State) has come on board with races included in the Series. Racers have traveled from as far away as Edmonton, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Montana
with dedicated regulars coming from all over Washington and British Columbia. Several racers have used the Series as a stepping-stone to move up in classes, with a few graduates to NHRA’s Competition Eliminator and Super Stock classes (and setting national records). It’s always a great feeling when someone you’ve raced against does well and is successful as they move up through the ranks. The average ET of the competing cars has gradually become quicker as well. When the class first started there were a lot of dual-purpose cars that The hard hitting 64 Comet of Jamie Roth has found some new power and is knocking on the 9-second barrier. The stroker small block has consistently been in the championship hunt. Lloyd Thomas photo
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Big-inch Dodge power and outstanding driving have always made past series champ Peter Wille a crowd favorite. This car is a former national record holder in Super Stock/D with a Hemi, now converted back to a B-1 wedge to run high 8s. Lloyd Thomas photo
were driven, not trailered to the track, and the average ET was in the mid 11’s to low 12-second range. Today, most competitors drive dedicated race cars with full-on race transmissions (Lib-
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APRIL 2014 | RPM Magazine
ertys, Lencos, Jericos, G-Force, and Doug Nashs being common), but there are still a few who race with OEM transmissions and occasionally even drive their cars on the street.
BANGIN’ GEARS
The awesome clean stroker small block Dodge Dart of Scott Nation has always been a favorite of the fans and he is also the reigning 2013 points champion. Meticulous detail and strong performances are guaranteed from this entry. Lloyd Thomas photo ET’s now range from high 7-second to low 11-second times with the majority of cars being low 9 to high 10’s. Huge wheelstands and big bad smokey high gear burnouts are always plentiful, not to mention entertaining for the crowd.
Car quality also continually improves as the Series progresses. Even the cars that are driven to the track have become more of a specialized dual purpose (race/ street) vehicle. For example, Bill Friend drives his 65 Comet several miles to the track (which includes a ferry ride for over an hour). When he gets there he bolts on his slicks that were in the back seat for the ride and goes out and runs 9.30s and 9.40s all day long! After all is said and done, he puts his street tires back on at end of the weekend and drives home. And did I mention, he is 75 years old! Variety is always the spice of life and there are all kinds of cars competing in the series as well. Tube chassis and balk-half cars and trucks, stock suspension street cars and even a few VW and Japanese models with extensive modifications are in the mix. All enjoying the thrill of banging gears at wide open throttle!
Always in the hunt and usually around in the final rounds, John DePourcq never fails to please fans with killer reactions and hard wheelsup launches. With low 10-second runs in his second gen small block Camaro, he’s always a threat to win. Lloyd Thomas photo Another winning combination is Will Zoric’s 409 ’62 Biscayne. Great driving and consistent performances usually are the norm for this past champion. Watch in the future as Will has a new big block Corvette under construction that should be an instant crowd pleaser. Lloyd Thomas photo
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SPECIAL THANKS Sponsors for the SuperShifter Series include Canada Engines, Tillyer Appliance Services, Pacific Driveline and AJ Transmissions as well as Hyack Trophies, BDM Enterprises, MVP Installations and Northwest Coast Designs who have also supplied product and services for the SuperShifters during the past 20 years. Some of the racers themselves have contributed to the cause and added to the year-end prize fund as well (Riff Raff Racing, Byron Bros Logging, Pleines Logging, Bruch Construction, Horizon Excavating, Award Builders, Raceway Performance, Charleton Automotive, Big “D’s Picker Service, Axis Installations and McKenna Kennels). Current Corporate sponsorship has been extended through the 2014 season by McLeod Clutches. Additional sponsorship is always welcome and businesses interested are invited to visit us at www. bcsupershifter.com for more information and contacts. Likewise, any stick-shift drag racers interested in participating are encouraged to check us out online for rules, info and the schedule of 2014 race dates.
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APRIL 2014 | RPM Magazine
Terry Hoogstins in his fast 56 VW is always a crowd pleaser with his wheelstanding launches. He is a repeat series champion. Racing him in this shot is Tim Elford in his 351W powered Mustang. His consistent driving and tuning have made him a contender at most races. Lloyd Thomas photo Interestingly, unlike most other organizations, you do not have to be a member of the Association to race in the SuperShifter events... however, membership does have its advantages. There are special awards handed out throughout the races that only members can receive. There is always a “Bounty” on the winner of the previous race and the member racer that takes him or her out receives the cash. Also, there are cash prizes for the best reaction time during eliminations and the best package (combination of reaction time with closest ET to your dial-in). Non-members that compete in the SuperShifters race and win prize money would receive 60% of the purse with the balance going to the SuperShifter Association
BANGIN’ GEARS Graham Taylor’s Valiant is a fairly new entry among the SuperShifters, but the Vancouverbased racer has already proven competitive with a win in his first full season. Lloyd Thomas photo
Out for 2013 due to health reasons, Gene Kirner and his ‘66 Mustang are capable of high 7s. Hopefully Gene will be back for 2014. Shannon MacDonald photo
Past series champ Rory McNeil runs low 10s in his Cobra-Jet powered ’78 Fairmont. He has an 85 Mustang that he sometimes races which also runs in the tens. Shannon MacDonald photo
As a tribute to the Ford Thunderbolt, Tom Posthuma built this replica. Times in the low 10s are common with his sights set on 9s. Tom has always entertained with his entries in this class as everything he owns has a manual trans and he has raced them all, including his 13-second ramp truck! Shannon MacDonald photo
year-end points championship fund. Almost every year the championship comes down to the last race of the season to determine the top five paid Champions. The fun and camaraderie among the racers is second to none. If your competition for the next round needs a part and
a fellow SuperShifter racer has a spare, chances are it will be loaned to you and they’ll probably help install it. The BC SuperShifters slogan is, “Beat ‘em with a Stick”, and they have certainly lived up to that for the last 20 years, and we at RPM are looking forward to the next 20!
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RPM TECH SPECIAL
ON LIGHT
SHEDDING LIGHT
story by
Pat McGowan
W
ithout getting too deep, we need to first explain what a Metal Matrix Composite is before we can even begin to talk about their current uses and wide open future in the world of automotive performance and racing. For all of practical history, it has always been “bigger must be better” thinking, however, when it comes to material science, technology has proven that ageold axiom to be wrong. In the pursuit of light and strong nearly 50 years ago, Aluminum Metal Matrix Composites (AlMMCs) were initially developed primarily for aerospace components. These early efforts resulted in the deployment of metal matrix composites (MMC) tubes for the main truss in the Space Shuttle because of the extremely high compressive
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APRIL 2014 | RPM Magazine
>>Metal Matrix Composites … When less becomes more
strength of these composites. MMC is composite material with at least two constituent parts, one being a metal and the other either a different metal or another material such as a ceramic or organic compound. Later, work was conducted on graphite fibers in aluminum matrices such as 6061 and 201 aluminum alloys. This work resulted in deployment on the high gain antennae waveguide-booms for the Hubble Space Telescope due to the zero longitudinal thermal expansion coefficient of these composites, giving rise to extremely high pointing accuracy for the high gain antennae. Aluminum matrix composites with lower properties but more commercial applications were developed next. Silicon carbide particle reinforced aluminum composites have been successfully
used for fuel access covers for the F-16 fighter (pictured above) because the higher stiffness of the aluminum matrix composite allows the covers to share load with the aircraft structure and reduce the fatigue cracking at the corners of the access ports. Aluminum matrix composites are also currently being used by Eurocopter for the main rotor blade sleeves for the NH4 and EC120 because they exhibit a specific endurance fatigue limit rather than the fatigue behavior of normal aluminum alloys, where fatigue strength continuously declines as the cyclic count grows. (Note: These aluminum composite parts replaced titanium in this application.) In the early years of MMC development, the target was hit dead-on; the material was indeed strong and certainly lighter than
its contemporaries. But what cost was this MMC material going to incur with the decreased weight and increased performance? The high expense was certainly on two levels: • The actual cost of the material was astronomically high due to its scientific complexities and cost of raw materials (continuous fiber composites) as well as the costs required for repeatable manufacturing of the material. • The additional increased machining cost incurred when you had manufactured this wonderful lightweight piece of MMC. Once the MMC part was chucked up and machines starting throwing chips on the floor, so were the costs of the machine tools being expended at an extremely high rate.
AIRCRAFT TECH F-16 Fighting Falcon MMC fuel access cover Machinability became a big issue because in the past the “other” MMCs were molten and cast, versus the new powered metal versions. The new powered forged metal versions (GTAlloy) are an American-made product with all of its components being produced and manufactured in the US, with the final extrusions done in the Midwest. GTA utilizes powder metallurgy composites with the reinforcement powder being a commercial grinding grit and the matrix alloy, a “standard powdered aluminum.” The cast MMC had the high cost of the continuous fiber composite material and the machining sometimes eclipsing the total cost of the product, hence MMC losing its benefits. With this new MMC, it becomes an economy of scale. As in everything else, the more that is produced, the lower the cost will be. The making of one or two billets at a time and the processing of the billets by extrusion is extremely expensive because of small numbers. If you can make things say 10 at a time, prices come way down and the single extrusion cost is now
1/10 per billet. The “cost of purchase versus the cost of ownership” has now entered the equation. In the above mentioned helicopter application, the helicopter blade sleeves replaced titanium because of weight, as the MMC fatigue performance is similar to titanium—something not seen in aluminum. When titanium’s fatigue hits the wall, the part ends its life on its own, typically without warning. However, MMCs, even with good success in some fairly high profile projects, have not propelled the material into widespread usage because of the difficulty in machining the composites. The basic issue with these materials derives from the shape and material of reinforcement. Original MMC reinforcements are irregular particles of silicon carbide or boron that were initially developed for the grinding industry. The sharp corners of the particles enhance the cutting ability of the powder for grinding, but have a very negative influence on the machinability of MMCs. To be specific, cutting such reinforced metal quickly dulls even diamond tools and
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COMPOSITE TECH makes machining of the composite difficult. Up until a few years ago, the cost of the tools was one that for every part you were attempting to make, you could burn through 2-3 carbide cutting tools, and still not be finished. In effect, what was happening to the MMC was that it was destroying its own chance of being a “savior” for the weight reduction and strength requirements of the aerospace and defense industries due to its machining difficulties and the cost of machine tools.
“ROUNDED OUT” SOLUTION
GTA MMC composites made with the spheroidized alumina
reinforcement have strength values that are dictated by the matrix alloy and the heat-treat condition of the alloy. When the mechanical properties of GTA composites with 2000, 6000, and 7000 series aluminum matrices in the T-6 condition are compared with familiar 2024, 6061, and 7075 aluminum alloys, the composites have higher strength than the normal alloys, significantly higher elastic modulus values, reduced thermal expansion coefficients, and enhanced fatigue resistance. The thermal expansion coefficients of these composites are a function of the amount of ceramic powder in the product. The fatigue performance of these composites is enhanced as a
MMC COMPARISON TO ALUMINUM
result of stress transfer from the matrix to the higher modulus reinforcement. This stress transfer allows the matrix to have a lower stress level, while the ceramic has a higher stress level. This distribution of stress results in higher fatigue life.
FOLLOWING THE LIGHT...
MMCs have always been touted the next best thing to titanium alloy when it came to stiffness, strength, weight and durability. In many applications, titanium alloys are commonly viewed as the “king of metals” for their light weight and high specific strength (strength per unit of weight). However, titanium based products are very expensive because of their high raw material costs and the high cost of manufacturing. In many aerospace and motorsports applications titanium isn’t able to meet the performance require-
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APRIL 2014 | RPM Magazine
ments, independent of cost. Current methods of producing MMC products also suffer from significant cost barriers. These challenges have been overcome by developing a low cost, high performance family of MMCs that can allow high-end products to be addressed.
APPLICATION OF MMCS IN PERFORMANCE AND RACING
Recently, we talked with Steve Raymond of Dynotech Engineering Services about MMC driveshafts. “The application of the Metal Matrix Composites (MMC) materials in the driveshaft world was fantastic. We were able to build an aluminum driveshaft that had strength characteristics of a steel shaft but with the weight characteristics of a carbon fiber shaft. Basically the
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APRIL 2014 | RPM Magazine
COMPOSITE TECH Eurocopter 120 MMC rotor sleeve assembly where composites have replaced titanium.
best of everything! Any time we needed to build a shaft that could take over 800 horsepower and the customer was looking for the added benefit of light weight, we would suggest the MMC driveshaft. We were able to build a 3.5” diameter shaft that would take “Pro Mod” power at roughly 60% of the price of the carbon fiber shaft. The material was very tough as well. We have racers out there that have made hundreds if not thousands of passes on the same MMC shaft.” “In addition to great toughness in drag racing applications, the MMC shaft performed well in very high speed use. The material makeup of the shaft let us spin the MMC shafts roughly 20% faster than the same
sized 6061-T6 aluminum shaft. That was great when a customer had a long driveshaft and was trying to turn it at very high RPM. Every driveshaft has a critical speed, the point that you excite its resonant frequency. The only way to change critical speed is to change shaft length, diameter, or material. Many times, length and diameter are dictated by the application—you can only move the motor and third member so far and the tunnel will only take so much diameter. The material change to MMC let us use the same length and diameter but raised that critical speed that hindered many a racer.” Ever since Dynotech bought the last batch of MMC tube that Alcoa made, they have been working to get some more. Steve has found better MMC mixtures, and is really excited about what the next batch of
MMC will hold in store for Dynotech. Dynotech’s challenge is getting someone to manufacture a finished product to the high standards of driveshaft quality tubing. Even though they have exhausted their supply of material, Steve says “we continue to work towards our next fix, and you can bet as soon as we have our hands on it you will hear about it.”
COMMON MMC ENGINE APPLICATIONS
Currently, engine components made with MMC have resulted in lower emissions and reduced fuel demand as they run much more efficiently, emit fewer hydrocarbons, and require less maintenance. Here are a few benefits being researched, tested, and/or deployed:
Pistons
• Coefficient of thermal expansion
LOOK CLOSELY Under the microscope you can clearly see the difference from old (top) versus new (bottom) technology in MMC’s. The jagged is SiC which eats cutting tools... the round (SiC-Al) is easy to cut.
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PLAYING ROUGH AMERICAN MADE RACED WORLDWIDE CHRIS RINI
2x NMCA Pro Street Champ 2012 Big Dog Champ EOPM Piedmont Record Holder
3.80 @ 194 MPH
DAMPERS
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APRIL 2014 | RPM Magazine
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COMPOSITE TECH and thermal-conductivity of the GTA 2 is lower than base 2618. • Reduced thermodynamic loss from the combustion process results in improved combustion efficiency. • Reduced piston-to-wall clearance compensates for the lack of expansion at temperature and change. • Ability to achieve an improvement in power and durability as the piston was actually harder at the end if its endurance run in testing. • Piston material improved fatigue performance at temperature.
amount of runs, you need to worry about stretch. With the new MMC, you gain the advantage of the light weight of aluminum with the durability of steel. You can also machine the MMC rods to a smaller profile, say of an H or I beam steel rod.
Valve Spring Retainers
• When using titanium alloys, by the time the retainer material is coated sufficiently to protect against wear, it effectively loses any advantage. (NOTE: Coatings to give the titanium parts wear resistance cause a decrease in strength and fatigue resistance to a point that the specific properties of the titanium parts are the same as the steel parts; no advantage but higher cost)
Connecting Rods
• 7000 series T6 aluminum versus the MMC counterpart. The advantage of the MMC due to yield strength and elongation clearly surpasses the current 7000 aluminum rods. With standard aluminum rods, after a predicable
Pushrods
• Reduction of mass (weight) and increased stiffness equals less spring force required and
120
AFR change (%)
100 80 60
DIGITAL MTX
40
COMPETITORS “UEGO” ANALOG O2 SENSOR CONTROL
20 0 -20
50
100
150 200 Time (msec)
250
300
INNOVATE'S DIRECT DIGITAL TM TECHNOLOGY IS 180 MILLISECONDS FASTER THAN COMMON "UEGO” ANALOG SENSOR CONTROL. AT 8000RPM,THIS DELAY EQUALS AN ASTONISHING 24 ROTATIONS OF THE CRANKSHAFT! IF YOU'RE STILL USING ANALOG TECHNOLOGY, YOU'RE IGNORING CRITICAL CHANGES IN YOUR ENGINES AIR/FUEL RATIO. DON'T BLOW YOUR ENGINE, UPGRADE TO INNOVATE!
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COMPOSITE TECH higher rpm limits
Cylinder Liners Engine Blocks and Cylinder Heads
• Blocks and heads require lightweight materials of high strength and/or high stiffness, high fatigue resistance, high wear resistance, lower thermal expansion coefficient, and high thermal conductivity, and most also require good ductility and most important, MACHINABILITY.
Driveshaft Tubes
• For law enforcement and motorsports. (High stiffness & fatigue resistance)
Suspension Components • A-arms, half shafts, springs, steering etc.
DOES LESS WEIGHT=MORE STRENGTH? (<=>)
Modern MMC technologies have eclipsed traditional reputations of MMC’s of the past. Millions of dollars in R&D and untold hours in laboratories testing with major
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APRIL 2014 | RPM Magazine
corporations, government entities and universities have all contributed to the success of today’s MMC. Being able to reduce weight of vehicles and components is now ringing the collective doorbell of industry. Currently, what the issues are is that based on previous MMC reputations and shortcomings, people had written off the technology for fear of the same old same old. Lightening the load of components and increasing its strength and performance appeared to be an uphill battle, but the road has just been leveled significantly. The costs of MMC’s have been mitigated by recent scientific enhancements thus reducing the investment once required to play in the MMC market. The strength, stiffness, fatigue resistance and wear resistance coupled with its ability to be machined at (rates and costs between titanium and aluminum) reasonable expectations very close to standard aluminum alloys; make MMC the smart choice with the challenges that lie ahead. So the quest is back on and it is only our imagination that is now holding back the progress of MMC’s applications.
BBC 632 Nitrous Series
BBC Open Chamber Blown Alcohol Dome
Designed for Nitrous-fed 632 engines using aluminum rods.
Designed for high horsepower, blown alcohol BBC engines. Ideal for use in Top Dragster and Top Sportsman engines
• Vertical gas ports • Designed with large pin boss span and extra clearance to accept aluminum rods • Designed with 3/16″ oil rings for improved oil control (critical in nitrous engines) • Intake valve relief edge has been machined to remove thin outside area, reducing hot spots and likelihood of preignition • Utilizes JE Pro Seal Hardened Nitrous Series .043″, .43″, 3/16″ ring package
5.OOO'' / 5.3OO''
• Made from forged 2618 alloy
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• Heavy duty .200″ wall wrist pins included
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Pistons • Rings • Pins
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DRAG RACE ACTION
STICK RACING
PRO
>> “Real race cars have a clutch!”
A
sk anyone who has been around fast cars for a while about what makes a great car even better and I bet you that they will say a manual transmission! Some of the greatest drag racers of all time spent their days on the race tracks rowing through the gears of a manual trans. It started with OEM style 4-speed gearboxes and the likes of Ronnie Sox aka “Mr 4 Speed”, Dyno Don Nicholson, “Dandy Dick Landy”, Dave Strickler, Dick Brannan and “Daddy Warbucks” Phil Bonner, to name just a few. There were no clutchless transmissions like we have today, these guys were the real deal, kickin’ in the peddle on the left and pulling the next gear.
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With Super Stock class cars getting quicker and faster and Pro Stock on the horizon, 1968 would see a new type of manual race trans come onto the market and Liberty’s High Performance Products Inc., started by Joe Liberty of Taylor, Michigan, would help change the world of drag racing. In 1970, NHRA made Pro Stock story and photos by an official class and Joe, along with his race transmission, were there to make some noise. Due to rule changes, and the growing cost in both time and money of maintaining the manual “clutched” style transmission, many HANG ON... Pro Stock teams switched over to the Frank Jenkins in his super cool “Snoopy” ‘57 Corvette Lenco after it was introduced at the boasts an injected 486ci big block that sends the oldWinter Nationals in 1973. The Lenco school ‘glasser down the quarter in the 9.70 zone. 4-speed “clutchless” allowed for gear
Tim Lewis
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This tag pretty much says it all!
Smartwire solves the complexities of wiring today’s race cars. The power control module serves as a central point for all of the vehicle’s electrical components. Circuit breakers, fuses and relays are eliminated and replaced by the Smartwire’s programmable solid state circuitry to reduce wire clutter and weight.
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PRO STICK RACING
THIS BIRD CAN FLY This wild little â&#x20AC;&#x2122;63 Falcon of Mark Charcalla is powered by a 427 Ford and has been 8.60s!
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APRIL 2014 | RPM Magazine
changes without the use of a clutch. Some resisted the change and a select few extraordinary drivers were actually still faster using a clutch. Eventually though, all switched to the clutchless designs as the transmission evolved to a point where without it, you were just not going to be in the show. And then along came the 5-speed! The 1990s would see Libertyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s permanent return to Pro Stock with a clutchless 5-speed and Bob Glidden along with Larry Morgan running them. Before long,
all Pro Stock racers were using clutchless 5-speed transmissions from companies like Liberty, G-Force, and Jerico. Today, while most Pro Stockers run a clutchless Liberty, stick racers in many different organizations and even those with hardcore street/ strip cars, have many choices from any one of the top aftermarket manual transmission manufacturers. Because not everyone could afford to race in Pro Stock or Comp and Stock and Super Stock can also be very pricey, eventually other options emerged
PRO STICK RACING
New York racer Larry Carasea runs a 455ci small block in his all-steel show quality 69 Camaro that goes mid 9s.
Series sponsor Leonard Long’s Mustang goes mid 8s with small block power.
HEAVY HOOKIN’ This is the car to watch if you like big wheelstands! Freddie Leyland’s ‘68 Chevelle gets its power from a 532ci big block to run low 9 second times. Michael Ford (yes his last name is Ford!) and his Chevy II put on a good show. for those who liked to row the boat. In 1996 an idea was hatched to give bracket racers with a stick shift their own class, one where everybody is banging gears, and so the Pro Stick Racing Association was born. Their
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APRIL 2014 | RPM Magazine
first race was held at the now closed 75/80 Dragway in Maryland and over the years a number of racers from Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania have joined in on the action. Eric Kitchen put the
group together with simple rules: no dragsters, no delay boxes, no nitrous, no front wheel drive cars, no D.O.T tires, and general safety rules apply. The class does have ET cut-offs. In the 1/8th, times range from 4.75 through 7.39
Introducing Valvoline NextGen. The first recycled oil formulated from a breakthrough process that combines the latest re-refining technology with Valvoline’s special additives to exceed industry standards. It’s the only recycled oil good enough to be called Valvoline, because we hold ourselves to a higher standard. Yours. Go to NextGenMotorOil.ca and find out why it is important to recycle your used oil and use recycled oil.
© 2011, Ashland Inc. TM Trademark of Ashland or its subsidiaries in various countries.
Available at
PRO STICK RACING
The quickest and fastest car in Pro Stick is this wild Probe of Fred House. The turbo 2.3L 4-banger has run a best ET of 7.81 @ 175mph.
Eric Kitchen’s 485 ci Chevelle runs mid 9s.
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APRIL 2014 | RPM Magazine
and on the quarter mile 7.50 through 11.49. Everybody loves to watch stick cars run, and it’s not just the fans. Racers from all types of drag racing will tell you that they love watching the high RPM burnouts, wheels-up launches and hearing that distinct sound of slamming gears. It seems to bring drag racing
full circle, back to its roots. While some newer generation small tire and stock suspension cars can be found in the PSRA mix, for the most part it’s big tires and backhalfs, and that is what these cars are all about! You’ll see everything from a wheelsup hard leaving Chevelle to a Toyota pick up, and one of
the wilder cars in the series is Fred House’s turbocharged four-cylinder Ford Probe which has run 7.81 @ 175mph. There are a number of tube chassis cars also running such as Dean Leyh’s Camaro, Leonard Long’s Mustang, and Michael Ford’s Chevy II. It seems no matter what your flavor: Chevy, Ford, Dodge,
Better Than Ever!
Something great just got better! Trick Flow’s new Twisted Wedge® 11R series cylinder heads for small block Ford deliver even more power thanks to new valve angles, restructured combustion chamber arrangements, race-inspired CNC-ported runners, and more to help your car stay ahead of the pack. All engineered, machined, assembled, durability tested, and dyno proven in the USA! Dyno Results
Twisted Wedge 11R with 205cc CNC Competition Ported Runners
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Twisted Wedge 11R with 205cc CNC Competition Ported Runners Lift Value
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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.
Intake Flow CFM
Exhaust Flow CFM
.100"
71
60
.200"
140
111
.300"
208
150
.400"
261
185
.500"
298
212
.600"
321
227
Tests conducted at 28" of water (pressure). Bore size: 4.030" 66cc CNC-profiled combustion chambers; exhaust with 13⁄4" pipe.
Some parts are not legal for sale or use on any pollution-controlled motor vehicles.
1404RPCT
PRO STICK RACING HOLESHOT Ford vs Chevy down at The Beach! Mark Charcalla’s dad wheels the Falcon while he bangs the gears in his Mustang. Here, the younger Charcalla faces off against Wayne Whittington’s Camaro at Colonial Beach Dragway.
Plymouth, Pontiac, Oldsmobile or Buick…you name it, they’ve got it! By 2013, Mason Dixon Dragway had a whopping 57 PSRA cars show up for the class! Beaver Springs had 54 and MIR saw 48 cars from the series in the “1,000 foot race” held at their Legends event. Keeping racing affordable seems to be the main reason the Pro Stick Racing
Association continues to grow. Who wants to refinance their home to cover another season of trying to keep up with the Joneses at the track? The key is that any one of the PSRA racers can win at any time. 2013 saw Dan Hoyer with his stock suspension 10-second Mustang pick up the championship for the fourth time. Dan’s
331 powered small block Ford looks and sounds like a daily driver. Coming in the number two spot was Larry Carasea in is wheelstanding ’69 Camaro with a 455ci small block, and another Ford racer, Mark Charcalla of Northbend, Pa. wheeled into the third spot. Ed Brady who races his ex-Outlaw 10.5 Mustang moved into fourth and
BLUE SMOKE Ed Brady heats up the tires on the high revving small block Mustang at Sumerduck Dragway on a hot June afternoon.
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PRO STICK RACING
2013 Pro Stick champion Dan Hoyler rounding out the top five was Matt Bergenstock in his small block powered 1990 Chevy S-10. Six out of the top 10 were Ford-powered in 2013, so you can bet that the GM crew will be out with a vengeance this season! The Pro Stick Racing Association is a tight knit group of racers that are willing to help each other—something this sport has always been known
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APRIL 2014 | RPM Magazine
Matt Bergenstock finished fifth in 2013 for. If your fellow racer is in need, you jump in and give a hand, much like what took place after a crash in 2008 that put Al Matteucci in the hospital with serious injuries. The group went on a fund-raising drive through selling “Get Well Al” decals and taking up donations online and at the track. In 2014 the Pro Stick racers will hit 11 races at seven
Wheels-up action is the norm in ProStick!
different tracks with the first event kicking off on Saturday May 24th at Beaver Springs Dragway in Pa. All these races could not be possible without support of sponsors and the Pro Stick Racing Association would like to thank the following supporters: Alternator Starter Rebuilders Inc., ARC Race Cars (Warren Frank), Eastside Auto & Machine Shop, Joe Bowman Auto Plaza,
Marshall Automotive, Marshall Gravely Lawn Tractor Sales and Service, Stanley Dye, Doug Nash Transmission Parts and Service, G-Force Transmissions, Long Shifters, Liberty Transmissions, Mickey Thompson, RAM Clutches, and Strange Engineering. For more information on the series and race dates visit www.PROSTICKRACING. com.
for more info, check out our interview here!
>>If looks could kill, this wild Pro Street Camaro would already be under arrest!
Toby Brooks
by
photos by
Steve Bunker
NASTY ’71
Y
ou could consider it research. Jerry Sanguinetti serves as Bureau Chief for the San Francisco Department of Public Works. Part of his office’s myriad of duties involves managing street-use and mapping for the City By the Bay. That’s a bit ironic, considering the fact that it is a safe bet that Sanguinetti has used and bruised more than one Bay Area boulevard with his stable of Pro Street Camaros, including this wicked second gen. The result is one Nasty ’71.
The original RS Z/28 was actually purchased new off the lot by a family member and was eventually handed down to cousin Rich Rozzi in the early ’80s. The car was lightly modified with a tunnel ram and some other street machine touches before being converted to strip-only duties in the early 1990s. Rozzi then sold the car to Sanguinetti for the bargain basement price of $1 in 2003, and the PhD from San Mateo began the arduous process of converting it into its current wild iteration.
cvrproducts.com For more information visit
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APRIL 2014 | RPM Magazine
www.cvrproducts.com
BAY AREA BRAWLER With a massive pair of rear meats, blown small block, low-slung tube chassis, and wild tribal flamed paint, Norcal resident Jerry Sanguinettiâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s second generation Camaro is one nasty creation!
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NASTY â&#x20AC;&#x2122;71
MULTIPLE POWER ADDED The polished Weiand supercharger has been topped with a 200 HP Nitrous Oxide Systems plate system. Twin NOS tanks painted to match the graphics color have been mounted on billet brackets out back.
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1971 CHEVY CAMARO RS Z/28 Owner: Jerry Sanguinetti Chassis: Performance Fabrication full custom chromoly tube with 4” stretched wheelbase. Rear Axle: Fab9 housing mounted on custom 4-link, 3.91 gears, narrowed 40-spline axles. Brakes: Dynapro 4-piston disc assemblies (front), Dynalite forged drag brake system (rear) Engine: Bad Ass Racing Engines-built 355 CI Chevrolet small block. Dart block, Callies crank & H-beam rods, 7.5:1 JE pistons and custom-ground solid rollier cam. Victor Jr. aluminum heads, Jesel shaft rocker arms Induction: 6-71 Weiand supercharger with NOS nitrous system, dual Holley 750 double pumper carbs, and shotgun scoop Transmission and Converter: Hughes TH400 with reverse valve body. 4,000 RPM stall converter Paint and Body: 4” stretched nose, shaved emblems, handles, marker lights, and body seams. Custom taillights. PPG black base with silver pearl tribal flames completed by Body By Edgar Tires: Mickey Thompson 165/80/15 (front), 31x18.5x15 (rear) Wheels: Weld Pro Star 15x3.5 (front), 15x14 (rear)
The first order of business was to get the chassis in proper Pro Street working order. Steve Smoltz of Performance Fabrication in San Carlos California fabbed up the full custom chromoly tube skeleton, including a 4” stretch up front. A Fab9 rearend
with 3.91 gears and shortened 40 spline axles ride on a custom 4-link out back, while a full custom front suspension with coil overs was installed up front. Braking chores are handled by forged 4-piston Dynapro front & forged Dynalite rear drag brakes.
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NASTY â&#x20AC;&#x2122;71 INJECTION IS NICE, BUT... The potent blown Chevy Mouse is mounted to the Performance Fabrication tube chassis via a custom aluminum motor plate. A Holley fuel system keeps the thirsty small block adequately fed, while a Mezeire Enterprises black billet electric water pump makes sure it is well hydrated.
All that arrow-straight custom fabricated rigidity would be for naught without a heavy breathing powerplant, so Sanguinetti pulled out all the stops to piece together a wild Chevy mouse motor. Starting with an all aluminum Dart block, Arron Johnson of
Bad Ass Racing Engines in Sonoma, CA expertly added a forged Callies crank with H-beam rods, thermal and anti-friction coated 7.5:1 JE pistons, and a custom ground solid roller cam in constructing a bulletproof, but still pumpgas friendly, shortblock.
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NASTY ’71 Johnson then torqued down a set of CNC’d Victor Jr. heads with Jesel shaft rockers and added a portmatched supercharger manifold. A Weiand 6-71 huffer pushing 10 pounds of compressed atmosphere was added next, followed by a 200-horse shot of nitrous and a pair of Holley 750 CFM double pumper carbs. A body color shotgun scoop
was added to top it all off. Backing the potent small block is a beefed Hughes TH400 with a reverse valve body. A 4,000 RPM stall converter helps keep things streetable, while the converter’s anti-balooning plates ensure that a firm poke on the loud pedal doesn’t result in a pile of shrapnel on the street surface below.
CLAN OF THE TUBBED The foot-deep PPG black and silver tribal flamed paint job is the result of a tag team effort by the crews at Body by Jake and Paint by Edgar.
800-626-1828 www.bteracing.com Bill Taylor Enterprises 2 Memphis Avenue • Mt. Pleasant, MS 38649 Some Parts Not Legal for Sale or Use on Pollution-Controlled Vehicles
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Top Sportsman / Top Dragster FEATURES: New BTE Magnum SFI Approved Case, Ringless Vasco Turbo Spline Input Shaft, Mega Racing Band, Two Ring Servo, Performance Servo Spring, Coated Deep Aluminum Pan, BTE Straight Cut Gear set (Available in 1.80, 1.98, and 1.69 ratios), Roller Tail housing/Rear Cover, New BTE High Volume Pump, Roller Governor Support, 10 clutch drum, BTE Top Sportsman High Pressure Transbrake Valve body, Dyno-tested.
$359599 Bracket Powerglide FEATURES: 1.76 Gear set with 4340 forged output shaft and housing, Steel Clutch Hub w/ 5 clutch pack, Rebuilt Pump, Two ring servo, BTE Bracket Transbrake Valve body, Kevlar lined Band, Dyno-tested.
$84995
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APRIL 2014 | RPM Magazine
continued on page 64
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NASTY â&#x20AC;&#x2122;71
SAFE-N-SOUNDS A custom fabricated and powder coated roll cage, custom painted Roy Brizio tin work, and a dash full of AutoMeter gauges is a recipe for success right out of the classic pro street cookbook. Throw in moden touches like an Alpine & Focal audio system and you have all the ingredients for a mean & nasty street/strip bruiser.
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With the chassis and drivetrain in order, Sanguinetti turned his attention to the Bowtieâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s paint and body. In addition to the previously mentioned stretched nose to accommodate the elongated chassis, Body by Jake treated the 30+ year old GM sheetmetal to a host of other mods, as well. Door handles, marker lights, and factory badges were all shaved. Body seams were molded and filled and a quartet of trick flush-mounted rear taillights were also added
before the car was handed over for paint and graphics. Paint by Edgar then laid down a mile-deep PPG gloss black basecoat and added the wild PPG silver pearl tribal flames. Graphics were carried into the mostly-business interior, where driver and passenger are treated to an array of Autometer C2 gauges and custom tinwork by Dan Hall of legendary Bay Area rod builders, Roy Brizio Street Rods. The car also features an Alpine in-dash CD changer and
NASTY ’71 MY OTHER CAR IS
A wesome
TOO...
As unfair as it seems to the rest of us, the ’71 is just one of Sanguinetti’s stable of Pro Street rides. This wicked blown and injected ’69 Camaro is his latest creation, and he just recently parted ways with yet another tubbed ’69 Camaro. Rumor has it he has another full tube chassis car under construction, too. Some guys really have it rough, huh?
Focal component speakers in a custom center console. A TCI Outlaw shifter, a pair of racing buckets, and a powder coated Performance Fabrication cage round out the interior features. Out back, a pair of custom finished nitrous tanks flank the polished aluminum fuel cell in the trunk. A pair of Red Top Optima batteries are positioned fore of the fuel cell, and a pair of drag ’chutes reside aft on a custom fabricated mounting plate. The Camaro rides on a set of Weld Pro Stars wrapped in Mickey Thompson tires. The giant 31x18.5x15 steamroller MTs out back are mounted to 15x14s, while the supermodel-skinny 165/80/15s roll on 15x3.5s. In all, Sanguinetti says he spent the better part of four
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years on the build. Along the way, he managed to do a fair amount of assembly, tuning, and detailing himself, including powder coating duties for all the tins, chassis, suspension, and cage from his own Peninsula Powder Coating business. Jerry is quick to thank friend Noah Kolling for his wrenching skills throughout the build, as well. With the Nasty ’71 all finished, Sanguinetti has turned his attention to other wild pro street builds, including a recently completed blown big block ’69. The result of another two-plus years of investment of time, talent, and treasure, the pearl blue beauty has been filled to the gills with tons of high performance parts and tons of custom touches. It is merely the
It’s not a secret anymore!
latest in a long line of tubbed pavement pounders. In his day job, Sanguinetti spends most of his days assisting the City of San Francisco with the writing of legislation and ordinances. For the sake of area residents, we hope “Dr. Pro Street” isn’t
as vicious with his keyboard as he is with his Pro Street creations, because judging by these wild rides, you would probably think that the likeable Californian has a simmering mean streak!
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www.mantonpushrods.com
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RPM ENGINE TECH
CUSTOM PISTONS
>>Knowledge means POWER!
by
Blake Robinson
photos provided by Diamond Racing Pistons
Q
FLAT & PORTED A flat top piston is shown here. An additional option on this piston is the lateral gas ports on the bottom portion of the top ring land.
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uality forged pistons are a must when it comes to high performance race engines, but which type and style are best for your application? Many companies offer great off-the-shelf products, but when it came to our Project Getting Back on Track Camaro, engine builder Tommy Eufemia of Bad Attitude Engines recommended using Diamond Racing Pistons. Since 1968, Diamond Racing has been producing the highest quality racing parts around. In the late ’90s, the company became solely dedicated to the manufacturing of forged pistons. Since that
DISH IT OUT We will be using a D-shape dish crown to achieve our 9.5:1 compression ratio.
time, they have been known for their custom forged racing pistons and their expanded shelf stock inventory that includes hundreds of part numbers. After contacting Mike Knowles at Diamond, I found that these folks really knew their stuff. Unlike walking up, or in my case rolling up, to a parts counter at a local speed shop and ordering the piston that you “think” is right for your combination (the main concern being that you may not know exactly what you need), Mike wanted every detail available on my engine. I sent Tommy the link to their online Custom Piston Order Form and the ball was rolling. There are several things that some might find confusing when it comes to pistons, but with the knowledgeable staff at Diamond
Racing having my back, I’m not only confident in the final product we’ll get, but with sharing our experience and new found knowledge with RPM readers. The following are several of the options that Tommy and Mike have selected for our custom pistons. Almost every aftermarket piston manufacturer uses either 4032 or 2618 aluminum alloy for their forged pistons. The 4032 aluminum alloy pistons are designed for high performance engines and require less initial piston-to-wall clearance due to its higher silicon content. This alloy creates a low expansion rate and a piston that is good at resisting wear, making them ideal for many street/strip applications. The 2618 piston has a higher overall strength and can ultimately take a bit more abuse
than its 4032 counterpart. This alloy is ideal for forced induction and nitrous engines that experience higher temperatures, making it a must for our build. Pistons are offered in three typical crown configurations, including dished (inverted dome), flat, or domed (also called â&#x20AC;&#x153;pop upsâ&#x20AC;? by some). Each style is beneficial to specific applications and their modifications are endless. In our case, we will be using a D-shaped dish crown with a .250 thickness to achieve our 9.5:1 compression goal. In addition, Mike has placed the ring lands at .285, .180, and .080. Ring land positioning is very important to the strength of your piston. Some longer stroke applications can compromise this strength by moving the top ring up higher on the piston making the top ring land thinner. Though you may choose a smaller ring to try and remedy this problem, remember your ring life will shorten as well. The skirt is the portion of the piston closest to the crankshaft that helps
align the piston as it moves in the cylinder bore. Diamond offers several skirt designs as well as an option for stiffening ribs. These ribs are located just below the piston pin bores on select pistons and their objective is to provide the necessary strength to combat high heat and pressure. We will be using a full rounded .180 wall thickness skirt for maximum strength in our application. Diamond also offers the option of both vertical and lateral gas porting. Vertical gas port holes are drilled through the crown of the piston into the top ring groove behind the ring. Lateral gas ports are drilled through the bottom side of the top ring land and extend to the back wall of the ring groove. Gas ports are used to direct pressure behind the compression ring to allow it to seal better against the cylinder wall. The lateral ports will be used in our application. As far as our piston pins go, Diamond provides pins that are either uncoated or with a DLC coating (Diamond Like Coating). DLC coated pins are a sensible choice for engines equipped with a dry sump or with vacuum scavenging, where pin lubrication can be compromised. We will
be using an uncoated pin with a .205 wall thickness, this is an upgrade over the standard .155 wall pin. To lubricate the pin, double oiling ports with banana grooves will be used in each wrist pin bore, which are fed from the oil control ring groove. This feature will ensure that plenty of oil is available to help prevent galling. (galling is caused by a combination of friction and adhesion between two surfaces.) Several in-house protective barrier coatings are also available. While hard anodizing is available only on custom designs, ceramic crown and moly skirt coatings are both viable options on shelf-stock items. Barrier coatings dramatically improve piston life in a race engine. The benefits found in the Diamond Double Coating process, which will be used in our application are many. First, it provides a thermal barrier and increases both corrosion-resistance and wear-resistance. It also deters piston rings from micro welding
SIMILAR LOOKS, DRAMATIC DIFFERENCES Pistons of the same type crown configuration can have endless modifications. Shown here are two dome type pistons. The one on the left is for a naturally aspirated application, while the one on the right is for a nitrous application. Note the differences in the crown thickness, skirt wall thickness, pin wall thickness, top ring land location, and the use of the vertical gas ports.
DIGITAL PRECISION Diamond uses a Coordinate Measuring Machine (CMM) to provide accurate measurements. For example, the CMM is used to measure the location and details of valve pockets to within .0001 in.
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RPM ENGINE TECH JUST CHECKINâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; The piston is being checked for the proper thickness after the milling process.
PICTURE PERFECT The 3D laser scanner is used for scanning piston domes and can scan thousands of surface points in minutes. Note the 3D piston top image on the screen in the background. These details are transferred through several steps before being communicated with the CNC machines on the shop floor.
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EXACTLY... Diamond uses several different pieces of CNC equipment during the production of their pistons, ensuring each individual component can be manufactured as an exact match.
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themselves to the ring grooves. It is beneficial in resisting high cylinder temperatures and pressures, which in-turn freesup a little more power. Lastly, the baked-on molybdenum dry film lubricant skirt coating adds an anti-friction anti-scuffing surface. The design of a custom piston involves the creation of CAD (Computer Aided Design) models for the bottom portion of the piston as well as its crown. Diamond has the technology that allows them to create dome configurations by pulling molds from a combustion chamber of a head or they
can use an existing piston you may have to recreate it. These items can be scanned to create a 3D model that has both the shape and visual appearance of the target. All pistons manufactured are machined on dedicated CNC & special purpose machines, which deliver high accuracy and consistency. By using this cutting edge technology and precise machining, the end result is one of the best forged pistons in the racing industry. The piston starts its life as a blank (slug) of alloy. The initial pin bore is drilled first. The pin bore is a through hole in the side of the piston perpendicular to piston travel that receives the piston pin. The ring
grooves are then machined followed by our lateral gas ports. The crown is completed in the next step with the valve pockets, followed by milling. The piston is then placed in the pin bore fixture where they bring the bore up to slightly smaller than the finished size. The lock ring grooves are also machined at this point. The double oiling holes and banana grooves were machined next. After a final cleanup is completed, our pistons are on their way for the Diamond Double Coating. The process for hard
IT IS ALL IN THE DETAILS... The piston is placed in a pin bore fixture to bring the bore up to slightly smaller than finished size (.001 small), they also machine the lock ring grooves at this point.
WELL I’LL BE DIPPED.... The pistons are seen here during the hard anodizing process.
HEY...NICE SKIRT! Here the moly skirt coating can be seen.
PRETTY PISTONS These are completed Diamond Double Coated pistons. Note the pin oiler hole and banana groove that can be seen on the left.
CROWN ‘EM Diamond also offers a ceramic crown coating as seen here.
DONE DEAL
coat anodizing begins by submerging the pistons in detergent-acid baths and in rinse tanks to prepare them for the anodizing phase. Anodizing takes place in an electrically charged bath containing sulfuric acid and water. The electrolysis process takes approximately 30 minutes and is followed by several rinse cycles.
The pistons are then returned to the machine center to have their pin bores finish machined. To complete step two in our coating process, a molybdenum skirt coating was applied. With our custom pistons now complete, join us next time for some tips to help in choosing your custom camshaft.
Shown here is a finished piston beside a slug—what a transformation!
SOURCES Diamond Pistons
www.diamondracing.net Ph. 857.552.2112
Bad Attitude Engines
www.badattitudeengines.com Ph. 352.528.5386
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RPM QUICK TECH
PRODUCTS & INNOVATIONS >>Cool Stuff!
R
ecently, during the PRI trade show in Indy, we were stopped in our tracks by a few unique and innovative products that we felt needed to be introduced to racers and hardcore performance enthusiasts through RPM. One of those products was Power Tank. We’ll admit we’d never seen anything like it before, and we were skeptical, that is until we discussed the product with its creator, Steve Sasaki. We could tell that Steve had seen more than his share of doubters over the course of the show as he was bang-on with his presentation, explaining and demonstrating the features and benefits of the Power Tank without missing a beat. The product itself is one where the more time you have to think about it, the longer the list of uses you will have for it, and the design and quality are simply unbelievable! Interestingly, while the Power Tank is wildly successful in so many forms of motorsports, and essential in many other industries, it had yet to be
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by
George Pich
heavily marketed in the world of drag racing, not to mention the emerging-in-popularity high power street machine market (particularly for “tour” types of events designed for long hauls in big-power street machines). So getting the good word of Power Tank out there to racers and enthusiasts alike was a must. Steve himself is a gearhead through and through, so he also has incredible insight into the many ways his product can benefit us.
SO WHAT IS POWER TANK?
FRUSTRATION TURNS TO INNOVATION
“Right from high school I was always into hot rods,” Steve explains, “Power Tank continued Steve. “I had a ’70 is the original CO2 air system Camaro with a small block and and has been setting the stana 4-speed that I dropped in mydard for all high performance self, and it was even the car that air systems used to inflate tires, I eventually drove to college.” run air tools, and many other But as most stories go, Steve uses since 1997. Our passion for sold his street machine to focus new technology to improve the on other things in life and went performance of our products is through a number of more what makes Power Tank the #1 practical vehicles. “Then, in the brand in high performance air. late ’90s, I got my first taste of Power Tank products guarantee rock crawling and off-roading. you the best in performance, the I thought it was so cool that I best in quality, and the best in went out and bought my first design.” four-wheel-drive vehicle, a 1990
APRIL 2014 | RPM Magazine
4 Runner. I stuck bigger tires on it and started wheeling. On my first trip out, I learned quickly that the tire pressures needed to be lowered for better traction, but once we got through the trail and back on pavement I also found out that if you didn’t have a way to put the air pressure back up, you had to drive to find a gas station! Lesson learned, as I chewed up a brand new set of mud tires on that trip looking for that gas station with air.” Steve’s problem was a common one for off-road enthusiasts as in those days if you wanted air you either built an underhood compressor from
GO BIG OR GO HOME The FB10-5240-YL Large is the best tool to have in the pits. It’s easy to carry, will run air tools effortlessly, and airs up tires in a snap. a converted AC compressor or you bought a tiny 12-volt compressor. “I didn’t like either option,” Steve said. “So I came up with my own system using a regulator on a CO2 tank. It ended up working so well I decided to start a business making and selling them. With $10k of my own money I placed a tiny ad in the largest off-road magazine and started producing the first Power Tanks in my garage. One size, one color, no options. Low and behold people slowly started buying them. I also went to the Easter Jeep Safari in Moab, UT and set up a booth with a folding card table. I got lots of smiles and patronizing compliments
that weekend, but things definitely improved from there.” Since then, Steve has expanded the air system line to six different sizes and over 100 kit iterations, added N2 products, developed a huge line of high quality accessories, and amassed over 400 SKU’s. “Our intent with the expansion into the performance world is to bring the usefulness and convenience of our systems into the various race and performance markets,” explained Steve. “We’re confident this market will find Power Tank air systems and accessories worth buying for that extra edge needed to bring back a win.” As we mentioned earlier, just a few minutes after seeing the way the product works, it is pretty easy to come up with a long list of practical uses for the track, those long street tours, not to mention dozens of jobs
TAKE YOUR PICK The Power Tank PT10-5240-YL with aluminum Super Bracket is great for mounting inside the race trailer. Power Tank systems come in 4 tank sizes, 5, 10, 15 and 20 lb. tanks.
that would be that much easier with a Power Tank system in arm’s reach. And we think that goes as much for at home or the shop as it does at the track or on the road. In fact, Power Tank has everything from a Race and Performance series system all the way to an RV, TowMan or even Construction series systems! If all this wasn’t enough, Steve completely erased any remaining hint of our skepticism when he put things terms we could identify with… the bottom line, ONE single PT10 Power Tank system is equal to FORTY 10 gallon air tanks, and get this, just one PT10 system (tested with an IR T231 1/2” impact gun) will remove at least 360 fully torqued lug nuts! You can remove any part you can think of in the pits, change tires on the road or at the track (and the Power Tank can set tire beads as well), drill, grind… heck, we can even install the missing trim at the house that has been on the honey-do list for the last year! A Power Tank can run any air tool that a shop compressor can run, right up to a 1/2” drive impact wrench. CO2 vapor is dry—so dry that you can spray paints and varnishes with it straight out of the tank. And it is made in the USA! Steve also gave us a few hints to max out system performance, including the fact that you’ll want a good quality quick release coupler for your hose (like their Air Lock Autos or Tomco Super Couplers). The last thing you want to hear while changing wheels or dropping your transmission is that power-wasting hiss coming from that cheap QR coupler. And don’t skimp on the quality of your air tools either. Cheap air tools use up more air and do less work. So why CO2 instead of nitrogen? CO2 will give you three
DARE TO COMPARE It takes 40 ten gallon air tanks to match a single PT10 Power Tank system! times the energy of nitrogen in a given tank size. Having one tank of CO2 is like carrying three tanks of nitrogen. This makes it more economical and means that you’ll have the power when you need it all in one small tank. The average cost to refill your tank with CO2 is only about $12 to $18, and refill outlets are available everywhere. Steve adds, “And when you buy a Power Tank you will never have to buy another air system. All of our Power Tank regulators come with a limited lifetime warranty—the best warranty in the business. And with our upgrade program, you will always have the option to trade-in your old Power Tank regulator towards the purchase of a newer model.” For more product details, cool real world videos and even information on becoming a Power Tank dealer, visit POWERTANK.com and watch for more in upcoming issues of RPM as we put the Power Tank to good use!
SOURCE Power Tank
Steve Sasaki 43 Commerce Street, #103 Lodi, CA 95240 Ph. 209.366.2163 www.POWERTANK.com
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RPM’s new do-it-yourself shop series shows how you can put together your own modern workspace, too! Toby Brooks >>Site prep, ordering, delivery, and initial construction
by
W
hen we started Project aPocalypSe Horse back in the December 2013 issue, two things became abundantly clear. First, it was going to be an absolutely incredible expression of all that a modern-day pro streeter could be. And second, we were in dire need of another shop to house the build. Desperate to get the car stripped down and off to the chassis shop, we actually pulled the engine and transmis-
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PART 1:
sion and gutted the car out in the fresh air. While sometimes it is nice to get in touch with your roots, that’s no way to live. We needed a new workspace and we needed it before we took delivery of the car back from the chassis shop. After pricing “red iron” buildings (so named for the reddish-maroon primer used on the steel spans and purlins) and traditional stick-built construction methods, we were concerned that our budget would not accommodate the square footage we decided we needed.
To make matters worse, the 8-12 week leadtime for red iron was far longer than we wanted to wait. The clock was ticking and we needed our shop done as quickly as possible. As a result, we kept looking for other options. After a phone call to Hi-Plains Building Division, a local dealer for Nucor Building Systems, representative Leighton Crouch told us about an exciting new building system designed for the do-ityourselfer that might serve our needs well. We listened intently as Leighton
RPM GARAGE
1
ROAD TRIP This is how our new 30â&#x20AC;&#x2122;x50â&#x20AC;&#x2122; Nucor Steel Utility Series building arrived from the factory. With the wall panels and roll up doors loaded up front and the 30 foot long trusses loaded to the rear, our shop kit pretty much took up the entire trailer. A smaller install like a typical two-car garage would be considerably more compact.
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RPM GARAGE 2
TIME TO UNLOAD After removing more than 30 nylon tie down straps, we positioned our rough terrain forklift into position to begin the unloading process. A smaller kit could possibly be managed by a group of strong friends, but we didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t even attempt it with a load this large.
3
outlined all the advantages of the new Nucor Utility Building line. What we liked best about the Nucor Utility Building kits was the fact that they were designed with the homeowner and do-ityourselfer in mind. The kits are available in a number of standard configurations that can be delivered in as little as three weeks from the date the order is placed. The galvanized steel construction is designed to withstand significant snow load, and more importantly for our West Texas location, wind speeds up to 90 mph. Compared to wood alternatives, the kits are also resis-
tant to fire, water, and insects. With a 30-year warranty on the Galvalumeroof and a 25year finish warranty on all wall panels, we can be confident that our new building will last. Even better, the 20 guage 2x6 steel modular stud wall construction makes finishing the interior of the building a snap. We plan to finish out around 500 square feet of the building with a spacious office, a restroom and shower, and a small storage closet with a full mezzanine above the finished space for additional storage. With some roll in insulation and standard sheet rock, weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll be able to do that quite easily.
FIRM FOUNDATION? With the first wall panel module carefully pulled off the trailer, we placed it in position on the two-week-old building slab. We would soon discover that the concrete contractor poured it slightly too small and never poured the toe down ramps he promised. Live and learn!
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After spec’ing out a 30’x50’ model with 11 1/2’ sidewalls, a walk-in door, two 10’ roll up doors, and four windows, we got busy getting the site prepared while the building kit was in production. Unfortunately, we failed to do our due diligence when selecting a concrete contractor. Not only did the slab employ material with a lower fiber count than specified, it was also poured with little to no excavation work, meaning the north end of the pour was nearly 12 inches above the ground surface. The contractor also
shorted the size of the slab by four inches in width, meaning we had to perform additional footer work prior to the install of our new building kit. The real kicker was the fact that after pouring the slab, the contractor totally disappeared even though he had agreed to pour entrance ramps and make the pad accessible with a car. Thankfully, due to our rural location, our construction site was not subject to building permits or other legalities, as his track record indicated that probably wouldn’t have been
THE START OF SOMETHING GREAT Even before assembly, the kit is impressive to see. The windows and walk-in door are visible behind the trusses along the fence line.
4
OOPS. Who was the idiot who drove over the irrigation system valve box? That would be me. The two wet spots seen here hinted at more than $300 worth of damage as a result of careless forklift driving. Any time you operate heavy equipment with buried lines below, it is a good idea to flag off areas to avoid in order to prevent such mishaps from occurring.
5
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REAL POWER. REAL PERFORMANCE. REAL SUBSTANCE.
REAL VALUE.
BOSS 302 AND 351 ENGINE BLOCKS • Available in 8.2, 9.2 and 9.5 deck • 4-bolt main 2,3 and 4 caps • Designed for stroker and big bore applications
True
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COBRA JET THROTTLE BODY • Electronic or mechanical linkage available • CNC Billet Aluminum • SVT and Mustang GT applications
COBRA JET DAMPERS • Front - 19mm more travel than stock Mustang” • Fits 2005-2012 Mustang • Valved for Drag Racing • 5 Adjustable Settings
DON’T LOSE YOUR CASH!
COBRA JET CHASSIS KIT • Fits 2005-2012 Mustang with 9” Axle • Designed for Drag Racing • Includes Adjustable Torque Arm
BOSS 302S INTAKE MANIFOLD • Fits 2011-2012 5.0L Mustang • Great for Forced Induction • Composite Connstruction • “Runners in Box” Design • Accepts new 90mm throttle body
Ford Racing posted more contingencies in 2010 than any other vehicle or performance parts manufacturer, don’t let your winnings get away! REGISTRATION IS REQUIRED FOR 2011 CONTINGENCY PAY-OUTS. BE SURE TO REGISTER ONLINE AT FORDRACINGPARTS.COM/REGISTRATION. Complete contingency part listing available online - Buy the brand that rewards your performance.
Get True Blue Ford Racing Performance Parts, the only performance parts good enough to wear the Ford oval! Don Sanderson Ford Glendale, AZ www.sandersonford.com (800) 729-2593 Autocars/Speedshop Direct Atascadero, CA www.fordracingpartsdirect.com 877 SPEED BY (773-3329) Hawaii Racing Simi Valley, CA www.hawaiiracing.com (805) 583-8800 Mustangs Unlimited Manchester, CT www.mustangsunlimited.com (800) 243-7278
Gary Yeomans Ford Daytona Beach, FL www.garyyeomansford.com (800) 231-6172 Chicago Parts and Sound LLC Elk Grove Village, IL www.clickoncps.com (630) 350-1500 Rod Baker Ford Plainfield, IL www.rodbakerford.com (815) 436-5681 Apple Valley Ford Lincoln Mercury Apple Valley, MN www.appleautos.com (952) 431-1414
Hilbish Motor Company Kannapolis, NC www.hilbishfordperformanceparts.com (800) 849-0233 Roush Yates Mooresville, NC www.roushyates.com (877) 798-RYPP Downs Ford Motorsport Toms River, NJ www.downsford.com (800) 378-3673 Team Ford Las Vegas, NV www.teamfordparts.com (800) 791-6436
Northcoast Performance Ontario, NY www.nthcoast.com (585) 216-1210 Tasca Automotive Group Cranston, RI www.tasca.com (888) 832-8272 Tommie Vaughn Motors Houston, TX www.tommievaughn.com (800) 944-4415
RPM GARAGE
6 ASSEMBLY REQUIRED Nucor provided a 47 page kitspecific instruction manual that detailed every step of the project, including how to unload the kit without damaging it. Even better, they sent it prior to our kit’s arrival so that we could read through it a few times before anything got to us.
LET THE FUN BEGIN Wall panels come bundled and screwed together into modules of 6-8 panels for delivery. An 8mm socket in our power drill helped us quickly separate and prep the individual pieces for install.
7
appropriately handled, either. We ended up having to pay another contractor an additional $1,200 simply to make up for the first charlatan’s unfulfilled promises and mistakes. Trust us here. Do yourself a favor and get references first. With the initial cost of the slab at $5,250 and the additional work at $1,200, we were at $6,450 for concrete before the building was ordered or delivered. Our budget for the project turn-key complete was $30,000, so we were doing okay even with the setback. The building ordering process was simple and Nucor provides tons of options to help customize your shop along the way. We selected a neutral color scheme with a decorative wainscot along the bottom of the exterior walls. With eight siliconized polyester colors available, most any existing structures can be matched or complemented. Nucor has manufacturing locations in Indiana, South Carolina, Utah, and Texas. Our kit came from the Terrell, TX plant and like all Nucor kits, was designed and built in the U.S. and was provided with 100% American fasteners and hardware. The company also offers distribution in Canada, as well. The building kit arrived via a 53’ tractor-trailer completely loaded with our materials. Presumably, a typical two-car garage would be quite a bit smaller and easier to unload. We rented a rough terrain forklift for $200 per day from a local equipment rental business and the unloading process went relatively smoothly. After around three hours and a busted irrigation system valve box (we weren’t careful to avoid it, totally our mistake!), we had the kit unloaded and maneuvered near the construction site. Initially the plan was to assemble the kit entirely ourselves, documenting the process for
RPM readers along the way. While such a goal might have been plausible for a typical two-car garage, just the sight of the large 30 foot long 22 guage steel roof trusses was enough to cause us to quickly rethink that plan. We needed some friends to help if we were going to pull the project together in time to get the aPocalypSe Horse a suitable place to stay once it returned from fabrication. Here’s where we also quickly did the math and discovered that a crew who had access to the rough terrain forklift would actually give us a cost savings over doing it ourselves and continuing to rent the forklift for $200 per day. What we couldn’t have known (but frankly should have expected) was that that pesky West Texas wind would delay construction on multiple occasions. Although total workdays from start to finish probably numbered 8-10, the total time necessary from project start to finish was closer to a
8
WORLD’S MOST FUN PUZZLE With our manual in hand and a tape measure handy, we positioned the wall panels in place. A factory punched hole in each panel’s base plate helps the installer quickly orient each one correctly.
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RPM GARAGE full month. With four or five friends, a typical two-car garage kit could be completed in a couple of weekends and likely without the need for a forklift. The modular wall panels were shipped fastened together in large modules with binding studs. We used the highly detailed (and engineer stamped) customized building plans to disassemble the wall panel shipping modules and arrange them in their correct positions IT IS ALL THERE around the periphery Nucor supplies more than enough hardware to construct your building, of the slab. The system is realincluding all clips and fasteners (top), ly an impressive piece weatherstripping and seals (middle), of engineering. All and slab anchor bolts (bottom).
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wall panels and roof trusses are shipped built to the appropriate size, essentially eliminating the need to field cut or assemble individual pieces onsite. This dramatically reduces time required to frame the building and virtually eliminates waste. We were impressed. Once Chris Henrichetta and his crew from J & W Welding showed up to help, the whole construction process went pretty quickly. With a team of three to four individuals, the slab was squared and a seal between the slab surface and the base of
10 GOING UP... Once we addressed our slab issues and got everything all square, we placed the first two panels and clamped them in place and readied them for attachment.
11
BOLTED DOWN Using the supplied hardware, each wall panel is anchored using a boot channel and anchor clip and fastened with hex headed screws. The wall panel is then firmly fastened through the anchor clip using a supplied concrete anchor bolt.
PLENTY OF SUPPORT All wall panels must be supported with temporary bracing at least every 10 feet until the structure is complete.
the wall panels was installed. A hammer drill with a 7/16” masonry bit was used to prepare the concrete surface for the provided anchors. The wall panels then quickly and easily bolted together using the provided anchor clips and hardware. Like any stud wall construction, appropriate wall bracing to the ground was necessary while the building was being erected. Within the next few days, Chris and his crew had the entire perimeter of the shop bolted down and bolted together. Things were shaping up quite
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nicely and it was clear that we were going to have a fantastic workspace once the project was complete. Tune in next month as we show the remainder of construction, including the installation of the roof trusses, side wall and roof paneling, and all doors and windows as the RPM Garage gets ready for use on Project aPocalypSe Horse and a number of other upcoming tech features!
COMING ALONG QUITE NICELY, THANK YOU... With all perimeter wall panels in place, roof trusses can then be installed. After fighting the wind while installing the first truss on the north end wall, we found it safer and easier to pre-assemble the trusses in clusters of eight that could then be hoisted in place with the forklift.
SOURCES
Waterloo, IN: 260.837.7891 Swansea, SC: 803.568.2100 Terrell, TX: 972.524.5407 Nucor Building Systems nucorbuildingsystems.com/utility Brigham City, UT: 435.919.3100 Hi-Plains Building Division 806.763.9915 Lubbock, TX leighton@hpbuildingdivision.com www.hpbuildingdivision.com
ENDURANCE SERIES
Shaft Mount Rockers RACE PROVEN PERFORMANCE!
Take your engine to the top level with Scorpion Shaft Mount Rocker Arms. Made for the most demanding racing applications, this system greatly increases valvetrain stability, stiffness and geometry, which means much better performance and more horsepower potential. Rocker Arms • Lifters • Pushrods Valves • Valve Springs & More!
(800) 208-1755
Meziere.com
Crafted in the U.S.A.
352-512-0800
ScorpionRacingProducts.com
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RPM PROJECT CAR
PART 4:
>>The Horse gets fitted with some seriously trick huff, puff & bling!
by
Toby Brooks Terry Woods
photos by
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A
fter a month-long hiatus from the pages of RPM, things have started to pick up significantly for Project aPocalypSe Horse in the past few weeks. Such is the ebb and flow of the project car lifecycle. The whole point of a magazine project build is to learn and subsequently teach “real world” lessons about taking parts and pieces, coupling them with vi-
APRIL 2014 | RPM Magazine
sion, craftsmanship, and innovation, and creating something that is functional and effective. And in the case of our Pro Street Mustang project, beautiful, too. In case you are just joining our continuing saga, dubbed “The Second Coming of Pro Street,” we’ve previously laid out our plans for the build and obtained a killer Steve Stanford rendering, detailed how we acquired the car, and showed you
how we gutted the 2006 Mustang chassis in a driveway (see Part 1 of RPM Garage in this issue for details on that). However, the time to talk about the build has come to a close. It is time we start putting some of these ideas and parts together as we attempt to build the wildest Pro Street Mustang the world has ever seen. One of the amazing things about the build thus far has been the considerable geography in-
GEAR DRIVEN TWINS The billet Supercharger Store dual F1 ProCharger gear drive is custom configured to every application based on customer specifications. The six-hole main drive seen on the backside of the unit is designed to nest inside the crankshaft pulley and couple with a urethanebushed male flange. volved. The car is currently in Jacksonville, Illinois at Gebhardt Pro Cars getting a full chromoly chassis (the subject of an upcoming installment). The F-1 Procharger superchargers and twin gear drive and complete front accessory package is in southeastern Arizona. At the same time, nearly all the parts and pieces for the incredible 529 cubic inch Ford Boss Nine engine have found their way to Kaase Racing Engines in Winder, Georgia. However, before the engine can be built, dyno tuned, and shipped north to the chassis
shop, the custom supercharger system needed to be built and mocked up to work with all the other systems we intend to use on the car. Building a functional and beautiful gear drive to spin two ProCharger F1 superchargers is no small feat. Doing it to also play nicely with a billet serpentine belt drive that would also drive the water pump, power steering pump, alternator, and air conditioning (yes, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll be air conditioned, too!) compressor is another story altogether. We needed some help.
DROP DEAD GORGEOUS Make no mistake, the front-mounted twin F1s look wicked, especially when paired with the Style Track system. We still have to modify the system slightly in order to mount the power steering pump low on the passenger side, but the two units actually worked well together with minimal modifications.
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• 100% Holley - Made in the U.S.A. • 97% aluminum construction • 28% weight savings • 20% more fuel bowl capacity • 10 new fuel bowl features • 6 new main-body features • 5 new metering block features • 1 new carburetor ... Gen 3
ALL NEW CALIBRATIONS FOR TODAY’S ENGINES!
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(Previous)
GEN 3 mainbody with noticeably larger air entries than previous generations
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Integrated idle bypass valve for full idle control
Fully machined from venturii throat to throttle bore for predictable & repeatable performance
•
950 TO 1475 CFM!
Factory ready TPS mounting points for use with data acquisition
| Techline: 270-781-9741 APRIL 2014 | HOLLEY.COM RPM Magazine
Available in vibratory polished finish with Red™ or Black™ metering blocks & booster inserts or in Hard Core Gray™ hard-anodized finish!
FULLY ACCESSORIZED The beautiful Tuff Stuff Performance air conditioning compressor (left) and high output alternator (right) are direct-fit bolt-ins for the March Performance kit and come as part of the system. We also ordered a power steering pump for our application. Notice the cool clutch and pulley covers and socket head bolts, too.
GEAR DRIVIN’
Terry Woods and brother Bob Woods at the Supercharger Store in Huachuca City, Arizona eagerly stepped to the plate to fab up a trick custom twin supercharger gear drive that would accomplish several groundbreaking goals all at once and do it with style. First, the gear drive provides a unique and clean way of mounting the twin ProChargers. The crank-driven system eliminates the need for a belt at all, essentially clamshelling into the lower pulley on the crank. The system not only looks unique and eliminates the possibility of belt-robbed horsepower, it also adds reliability—not to mention a dead sexy chunk of CNC-machined billet aluminum hanging off the face of the engine. Typically, a Supercharger Store gear drive starts as a standard unit that is then customized and configured by the Brothers Woods to fit the customer’s chassis and power additional accessories through the use of one or more mandrels that are built into each unit. The mandrels provide a rotating “power port” of sorts for pretty much anything a needy street machine builder might want to “plug in,” including parts like a dry sump oiling system, a vacuum pump, a high output mechanical fuel pump, or even
more standard street accessories like an alternator or power steering pump. After talking it over with Terry, we opted to go with a billet serpentine belt drive from March Performance to manage the lion’s share of our accessory drive needs, thereby leaving the mandrels on the gear drive available for other purposes should we need them down the road. Now all Terry had to do was get it all to fit together.
BELT IT OUT
The first order of business was to get the billet Style Track System in place on an available big block Ford in the shop. Luckily for us, a customer had seemingly abandoned an F-3R Procharged 555 Ford engine at the Supercharger Store where it had sat in a corner for almost two years. Terry planned to pull the single gear drive and F-3R and use the block to mock up the whole system. He joked at project onset that the customer would probably show up midstream expecting delivery of the engine. It happened. We can’t make this stuff up! The Style Track System is designed as a complete solution to both provide and mount whichever engine accessories necessary. March sources those accessories from Tuff Stuff Performance in Cleveland, OH.
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RPM PROJECT CAR BALANCER OR DAMPER? The two terms “damper” and “balancer” are often confused and frequently used interchangeably. The function of a damper is to absorb the vibrations created by the engine from the firing pulses of the combustion process. On the other hand, a balancer is used along with the crankshaft and flywheel to balance the rotating assembly of the engine. While the use of the word “balancer” is commonly used to describe any and all dampers and balancers, technically, the use of the term “balancer” would be reserved for applications on externally balanced engines that utilize an external bolt-on weight.
FEEL ME FLOW, NOW... The polished aluminum PRW water pump offers increased performance and undeniable good looks. Although most of the pump will be obscured by the serpentine system, it will complement the aluminum block and heads nicely. Tuff Stuff is well known—particularly in street rodder circles—for their impressive assortment of engine and chassis components in chromed, polished, or powder coated finishes. To be fair, the company also offers their products in factory finishes, but seriously, what fun would that be? Far from just a pretty face, Tuff Stuff products are just as at home on wild street machines and drag cars as they are on street rods. Everything they sell is backed with a full one-year warranty. We opted for a polished aluminum alternator, power steering pump, and air conditioning compressor and also ordered up a matching brake master cylinder while we were at it.
(WATER) PUMPED UP
Before any of those items could be mounted, we had to start with the water pump. With an aluminum C&C MotorSports block and aluminum Kaase Boss Nine heads, we knew that an aluminum water pump was a necessity. We chatted with our
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APRIL 2014 | RPM Magazine
friends at Meziere Enterprises about going electric only, but opted to instead develop a unique combo setup that incorporates both an engine-mounted mechanical pump and a high flow in-line electric pump that would hold up to even the harshest demands whether cruising down the interstate for hours at a time or idling around on a searing summer day. For the mechanical pump, Schean Barrett and the crew at PRW came to the rescue with their polished aluminum high performance model. With pressure balanced water passages, billet steel hubs, and alloy housings, they far outperform a factory piece. Plus, they’re shiny too. Install is a simple bolt-on affair with one exception: we plan to use a ¼” carbon fiber engine plate. That isn’t a problem, per se, except for the fact that the hardware we would need to use throughout the entire March Performance system would need to be ¼” longer to accommodate
the additional thickness of the plate. The simple change will keep everything mounted to the water pump aligned. However, that also meant our crank pulley would now be ¼” too far inboard and now wouldn’t line up with the rest of the system. With so many moving parts (literally and figuratively), our relatively simple install was getting more and more complex by the second. Terry had planned ahead, however, and a quick call to the great folks at Innovators West had us all square again in no time.
DAMPED VIBRATIONS
We’ll be honest…we called Innovators West with a pretty long list of needy demands. But after hearing our plight, Chris Rose at Innovators worked our problem one step at a time and delivered a game saver. First off, the Callies crankshaft we selected has the shorter Ford Motorsports-style snout rather than the standard—and
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RPM PROJECT CAR longer—460 Ford style with which the Style Track System is designed to work. No problem. Innovators makes a long snout adapter harmonic damper to handle that problem. Next up, the standard four-bolt Ford crank pulley isn’t ideal for the Supercharger Store gear drive, as Terry prefers to use a six-bolt (dual big block Chevy) pattern. Again, no problem. Or how about an all-in-one crank trigger built into the damper to work with our FAST injection system and MSD ignition? Yeah, they can do that. Or what about that crank pulley that was ¼” too shallow to work with the engine plate? Innovators simply custom built a lower crank pulley based on the included March component but with an additional ¼” of depth and the requested six bolt hub pattern. They even offered up their trick billet big block Ford timing pointer, too. By the time the damper, crank pulley, and associated
hardware was delivered to the Supercharger Store in Arizona, Chris and the gang had pretty much solved every problem we had ever had other than a troublesome wireless router in our home office and the rising cost of healthcare. Heck, they could probably solve those too. We just never asked. With the damper and crank pulley thoroughly sorted, all that was left was to fit it all together. Terry had to shave just a few thousandths from the inner surface of the crank pulley to get the gear drive to fit. He also had to slightly modify the Style Track System to freely mount with the gear drive. This is also where we determined that pretty much every bolt in our Style Track kit would have to be replaced with slightly longer pieces in order to adequately engage the threads due to the additional ¼” motor plate. Terry made use of the mounting bosses in the C&C MotorSports block. Not found in a typical Ford big block casting, these mounting bosses proved critical in building a geardrive
PROBLEM SOLVING INNOVATORS The factory Ford pulley is a four bolt piece, but Terry prefers the dual Chevy six bolt pattern to drive the blowers. TOP: The custom Innovators West six bolt pulley with an additional 1/4” of depth to accomdate our motor plate. MIDDLE: The gear drive coupler nests tightly inside the crank pulley and bolts to the custom Innovators West damper. BOTTOM: The damper features an integrated crank trigger system, and the billet pickup and timing pointer are seen here. This eliminates the need for a stand-alone trigger and simplifies a crowded area of the engine.
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FULLY LOADED Our loaner block had the same mounting bosses out front as the C&C MotorSports block awaiting our build. They proved critical for securing the massive twin F1 gear drive. We still need to mount the power steering pump, route and secure the serpentine belt, and squeeze the whole thing in the custom tube chassis, but this pic shows the enormity of the system.
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RPM PROJECT CAR HEAVY BREATHIN’ The dual ProCharger F1 system can produce upwards of 30 pounds of boost if required!
that could be block mounted rather than chassis mounted. This will be very helpful when it comes time to run the engine on the dyno, as the entire engine and induction system will be bolted together as a single unit. Once everything was mounted up, we had an incredible looking and performing system that will now be carefully packed up and shipped to Georgia, where it has a future
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appointment with Jon Kaase and his crew who will be piecing together the remainder of the engine very soon. The lessons learned here are many, but boil down to this: a build of this magnitude depends heavily on vision, planning, and execution. By anticipating our problems before they even cropped up, the Supercharger Store made what could have been a maddening exercise in trial and error months down the road into a pretty straightforward process of systematically tackling issues now. Coupling high quality off-the-shelf parts from March Performance, Tuff Stuff, and PRW along with
APRIL 2014 | RPM Magazine
SOURCES • Innovators West 2816 Centennial Road Salina, KS 67401 785.825.6166 www.innovatorswest.com
• PRW Racing 1722 Illinois Ave. Perris, CA 92571 888.377.9779 www.prw-usa.com
• March Performance 16160 Performance Way Naples, FL 34110 239.592.4074 www.marchperf.com
• The Supercharger Store 314 W. Highway 82 Huachuca City, AZ 85616 520.456.9706 www.thesuperchargerstore.com
• ProCharger 14801 W. 114th Terrace Lenexa, KS 66215 913.338.2886 www.procharger.com
• Tuff Stuff Performance Products 9004 Madison Avenue Cleveland, OH 44102 800.331.6562 www.tuffstuffperformance.com
some critical custom one-offs from Innovators West and the Supercharger Store, the Horse is now fully blown and belted.
Check back next month as the Second Coming of Pro Street continues to take shape!