V.P. MARKETING/CUSTOMER RELATIONS..........TRISH BIRO trish@rpm-mag.com E-MAGAZINE ASSOCIATE EDITOR................................IAN RAE ian@rpm-mag.com EVENT MEDIA DIRECTOR...........................RAYMOND KNIGHT events@rpm-mag.com EVENT SUBSCRIPTIONS COORDINATOR.....SHERRIE WEBER sherrie@rpm-mag.com SPECIAL PROJECTS DIRECTOR...........................TOBY BROOKS toby.brooks@rpm-mag.com Photographic Contributions: TONY WEBER, TIM LEWIS, PETE “BOOMER” ORES, MARK goDragRacing.org, GEORGE PICH, TOBY BROOKS, MATT WOODS, TABITHA SIZEMORE, MIKE COSTIC, TARA BOWKER, JOHN ULMAN, KRISTAL COWLE, and LOUIS FRONKIER Editorial Contributions: TIM LEWIS, CHUCK SCOTT, TOMMY LEE BYRD, MARK goDragRacing.org, RAYMOND KNIGHT, TOBY BROOKS, BRIAN WOOD, PAT McGOWAN, TABITHA SIZEMORE, KRISTAL COWLE, JAMES WILLIAMS, TIM BIRO, STAN SMITH, and GEORGE PICH Technical Writing Contribution: CHUCK SCOTT, SHANE TECKLENBURG, TOBY BROOKS, TIM BIRO
ADVERTISING SALES For advertising information contact
TRISH BIRO .............519.752.3705.......trish@rpm-mag.com Art & Graphics Director: Toby Brooks Special Events Managers: Chris Biro, Raymond Knight events@rpm-mag.com Special Events Sales: Trish Biro: 519-752-3705 trish@rpm-mag.com Subscriptions/Address Changes: Circulation circulation@rpm-mag.com General Inquiries: 519.752.3705 info@rpm-mag.com
MEET THE RPM TEAM
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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RPM Magazine has been a world leader in motorsports publishing for 16 years and has support locations in Ontario, Canada, Alabama, Texas, and Virginia, along with contributing writers and photojournalists worldwide. If you have a story that may fit within the focus and scope of RPM Magazine’s coverage, please email our Editor In Chief at: editor@ rpm-mag.com. Submission of an article does not guarantee that it will be published. Revolution Publishing & Media Inc. (RPM) / RPM Magazine IS NOT Responsible for errors or omissions in ANY advertisement or article. Advertisements may be rearranged or altered at the sole discretion of RPM to allow the ad to fit in the space purchased by the advertiser. WE RESERVE THE RIGHT TO REFUSE ANY ADVERTISING WHICH WE CONSIDER TO CONTAIN MISLEADING, OFFENSIVE OR FALSE INFORMATION. REPRODUCTION OF ANY INFORMATION HEREIN IS STRICTLY PROHIBITED WITHOUT PRIOR WRITTEN CONSENT.
Publication Return/Address Change Information USA RPM MAGAZINE (USPS Periodical #023474) is published monthly 11 Times/year, except for a combined issue in January/February by USA Publisher’s Agent, 10387 Main Street, Suite 300, Fairfax, VA 22030. Periodicals Postage Rate is Paid at Fairfax, VA and additional mailing offices. Postmaster: Send address changes to: RPM Magazine P.O. Box 24020 Brantford, Ontario CAN N3R 7X3 CANADA PUBLICATIONS MAIL INFO AGREEMENT NO. 40045044 RETURN UNDELIVERABLE CDN ADDRESSES TO RPM MAGAZINE P.O. BOX 24020 BRANTFORD, ONTARIO N3R 7X3 OVERSEAS RPM MAGAZINE P.O. BOX 24020 BRANTFORD, ONTARIO, CAN. N3R 7X3
EDITOR’S RANT
by
Chris Biro
because...
MORE RPM IS ALWAYS BETTER!
I
n our continuing effort to support the automotive performance and race industries, we’re once again offering a chance for related companies to take advantage of our “Industry Distribution Program” which sees FREE copies of RPM Magazine sent to performance & racing related businesses in the USA and Canada. So, if you own, operate, or manage any type of performance or race business (ie: speed shop, performance, race or chassis shop, manufacturing firm, installation facility, warehouse, etc.), you need to sign up for your FREE subscription to RPM Magazine today!
Simply complete this form and send it in along with your business card and you’ll start getting your complimentary copy of RPM, right to your business door each and every month. Because MORE RPM is ALWAYS better, we also offer an enhanced program that enables you to order MORE copies of RPM for an incredibly low price to either give away free to your best customers or sell on your magazine rack. Industry Distribution Program info can also be found at www.rpm-mag.com and completed online! Or by simply emailing trish@rpm-mag.com. Do it today!
COMING NEXT MONTH: Project aPocolypSe.............................................. Our new Visner Engine Development intake wraps up and chassis fab nears completion
More tech and projects........................................................
The RPM Hardcore Horsepower garage nears completion and we update the cooling system in a third-gen Camaro with a new AFCO radiator and fans
4
THIS AND MORE IN THE NEXT RPM!
november 2015 | RPM Magazine
ADVERTISER INDEX ACC Performance................... 86 Accufab Inc............................ 40 Aeromotive......................... 109 AFCO..................................... 81 Alan Johnson Performance (AJPE)................................. 11 Alston Race Cars.................... 34 Applied Racing Components (ARC).................................. 84 ATI Performance Products..... 28 Auburn Gear.......................... 64 Autoglym.............................. 79 AVAK/Ridgegate Tools........... 89 Baer Brakes......................10, 52 BES Racing Engines............... 76 Bill Mitchell Products.......29, 60 Blower Shop............................ 5 Borla................................... 110 Browell Bellhousing.............. 44 BTE Racing............................ 38 C&C MotorSports................. 106 Calvert Racing Suspensions... 33 Canton Racing Products........ 20 CFE Racing Products.............. 13 Chassis Engineering...........8, 60 CN Blocks.............................. 20 CNC Motorsports................... 35 Coan Engineering............. 22,87 Competition Products........... 85 COMP Cams......................... 112 Crower.................................. 50 CVR Products......................... 25 DART..................................... 18 Design Engineering............... 24 Diamond Pistons................... 23 DIY Auto Tune/MegaSquirt EFI..................................... 83 Drive Train Specialists (DTS)... 90 Dynocologists........................ 93 Dynotech Engineering......... 109 Earl’s Performance Plumbing.37 Ed Quay Race Cars............... 107 Edelbrock.............................. 41 Energy Suspension.............. 103 Erson Cams............................ 61 Fuel Air Spark Technology (FAST)............................. 108 FastMotorsports.................... 52 Fast Times Motorworks......... 50 G Force Racing Transmissions.26 Greyhound Package Expresss.27 GZ Motorsports..................... 47 Harland Sharp....................9, 57 Holcomb Motorsports........... 65 HoleShot Wheels................... 78 Holley...............................18, 31 Howard’s Cams...................... 97 Ian Hill Racing..................... 111 Induction Solutions............... 80 Innovate Motorsports.......... 101 JE Pistons.........................83, 98 Jesel...................................... 76 JET Performance................... 47 J&K Converters...................... 78 Jon Kaase Racing Engines... 107 Karbelt-Holley...................... 83 LenTech Automatics.............. 43
Lokar Performance Products. 96 LUCAS Oil Products.................. 2 Lunati.................................... 45 Magnuson Superchargers...... 91 MAHLE Clevite Inc................... 7 Manton Pushrods.................. 61 MAV-TV................................. 58 Meziere Precision Mfg............. 8 Mickey Thompson Tires......7, 13 Mile High Crankshafts........... 12 Miska Trailers...................... 100 MSD Ignition......................... 15 Neal Chance Converters....36, 63 New Century Performance.... 15 Nitrous Express...................... 94 Nitrous Pro Flow.................... 48 Nitrous Supply...................... 39 Parts Pro Perf Centers.......... 116 PBM Performance Products... 43 Performance Improvements.. 10 Perf. Plus Connection.......11, 97 Powermaster Performance.... 84 Precision Turbo...................... 62 ProCharger............................ 16 Proform Parts........................ 53 Proformance Racing Trans..... 29 Pro Systems Carburetors... 27,48 Philadelphia Racing Products (PRP).................................. 14 PTC........................................ 75 Quick Fuel Technology........... 88 Quik-Latch Products............ 106 Racecraft............................... 46 Racepak................................ 42 Racequip............................. 102 Renegade Racing Fuels........... 9 Rev-X Oil Products............59, 94 RJ Safety............................... 56 Ross Racing Pistons................. 5 RPM Magazine Subscribe!.114 S&W Race Cars.................... 113 Scorpion Racing Prods......26, 90 Shafi off acing Engines..12, 22 SM Race Cars......................... 37 Smith Racecraft..................... 74 Steve Morris Racing Engines. 21 Strange Engineering............. 30 Summit Racing Equipment. 115 Taylor Cable Products............ 86 TCI Automotive...................... 82 Ti64....................................... 50 Tom’s Upholstery................... 75 Trick Flow.............................. 17 TRZ Motorsports.................... 77 VP Racing Fuels................19, 32 WASP Cam............................ 99 Weinle Motorsports.............. 48 Weldon High Performance.... 95 World Products..................... 43
Made in aMerica & designed for: • STROKERS • NITROUS • TURBOS • BLOWERS • NaTURaLLy aSpIRaTEd Ross carries hundreds of proven, race winning, domestic and Sport Compact piston designs to fit virtually any engine combination. along with an extensive line of piston accessories and coatings, Ross has over 35 years of experience in the design & manufacturing of custom piston applications! Call or go online to see what Ross Racing pistons can do for you.
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www.rpm-mag.com | november 2015
5
november 2015
Be sure to check out our Performance Directory on page 68!
Often Imitated, Never Duplicated—For 16 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!
HOT
EVENTS
THE SO Much Horsepower Packed Into One Place... That Place IS RPM Magazine!
RIDES
COVER STORY
YellowBullet Nationals 2015............. 36 Clear skies, packed crowds, and record-setting performances
all help make this year’s Nats the best ever!
Fast Frost........................................................ 54 A Chevy II build that turned into an entire event
’Velle Raiser. ..............................................................24 Bobby Starcher’s 1972 Chevelle is a stone cold killer!
One of One........................................................................ 8 Bob Romano’s unique Dart is one bad machine and can prove it on the street and strip!
PROJECTS TECH
THE
AND
The Test Mule................................................................88
Breathing new life into an old star… Who says you can’t teach an old dog new tricks?
WASPcam..................................................................... 99 We review the new standard in action cameras
The Buick and the Beast.............................76 A small-tire 1970 Grand Sport with some real anger issues
Engine Build Part I.........................................................94 The short block is ready to rock!
AN Hose Assembly Made Easier....................................104 Making braided hoses with Koul Tools: Your fingers will thank you!
Creepin’ Along.............................................................106
Slow progress is still progress as we continue to inch evercloser to getting our 2006 Mustang project car to paint
READ COMPLETE ISSUES OF RPM MAG ONLINE AT WWW.RPM-MAG.COM
6
november 2015 | RPM Magazine
DELIVERING PERFORMANCE WITH INNOVATIVE HIGH QUALITY PRODUCTS
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All Clevite® engine bearings are manufactured on OE equipment, using OE knowledge
Visit us at PRI booth #1601
www.rpm-mag.com | november 2015
7
story by
Stan Smith photos by
A
bright orange Mopar out of Plymouth Meeting, Pennsylvania had the street car drag race world in awe this past July as it led qualifying in Kristal Cowle’s inaugural War By The Shore Real Street Showdown class. A Dodge leading the pack…this just doesn’t happen, let
Mike Costic
alone a 100% Mopar powered Dart. For those less familiar with the world of fast street cars, among the most popular models to build—for various reasons along with their obvious good looks—are Fox body Mustangs and first-gen Camaros, and these are the cars that are predominantly found in most any pole position
or winner’s circle. So who the heck is this guy with a Dart and how did he end up wheeling one of the baddest small tire Mopar street machines in the northeast?
GO “BIGTIME” With racing in his blood since he was a teenager, Bob Romano started building his first street machine/race car—a 1967 Camaro—at a relatively
young age, before he even hit 20. Romano raced the tricked-out Chevy for a number of years and he found that his love of horsepower and going fast was becoming much more than a pastime. Eventually, Romano
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november 2015 | RPM Magazine
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9
ONE of ONE
ANYTHING BUT TYPICAL A Chris Alston crank-driven ProCharger, on a blow through carburetor, on a big block Mopar in a small tire 69 Dart, yep, that’s one of one!
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november 2015 | RPM Magazine
moved up to designing and building an IHRA-legal altered and he recalls that when a friend saw the quality of the build, not to mention how Romano seemed to be a natural behind the wheel, the friend commented, “…you should go bigtime with this stuff…”. The name stuck and Romano’s race cars and business have been called “Big Time” ever since.
NO ONE HIT WONDER HERE
In the summer of 1993, Romano won the IHRA Summer Nationals in the
Altered and was featured in IHRA Drag Review September 1993, and ESPN also did a story on Romano and the altered that same year. Shortly afterwards, Romano retired the altered from service and removed himself from racing altogether while devoting much of his time to another profession. Quickly finding out that he’d been bitten far too hard by the attraction of fast cars, Romano continued to work on hot rods during his free time and decided to venture out into something he could call his own, opening Bigtime Automotive, and since then has never looked back.
www.rpm-mag.com | november 2015
11
PUT DOWN THAT COOKIE!
Wanting something different to showcase his abilities than the “cookie cutter race cars” he was seeing most everywhere, Romano went looking for a Mopar—specifically, a Dodge Dart. His search paid off uickly with a solid find, but it just wasn’t meant to be. “The first guy backed out of the deal,” Romano said. “But then one night while
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november 2015 | RPM Magazine
driving back from a race with my friend JB, we saw a 1969 Dart that just happened to have a ‘for sale’ sign in it, and I bought it right then and there. It was a basic Mopar race car with a big block, a foot-shaped gas pedal and it ran 11.50’s,” he added. Romano quickly set out to make a unique build of the Dart, and while the car was all there, it needed a complete going over to bring it up to Romano’s standards. He not
ONE of ONE
John Boy Photography
HEATIN’ UP Romano loves running the Dart hard on the track as much as he enjoys cruising the streets. Here, he warms the hides prior to a run at War by the Shore at Thompson Raceway Park.
RULE THE
STRIP
www.rpm-mag.com | november 2015
13
ONE of ONE
DUAL DUTY The chute and wheelie bars might lead one to believe that the license plate isn’t shooting you a line.
only wanted a wild street machine, but wanted to make it one of the fastest street cars around the area of his shop. Not just talk either, Romano needed to
be able to prove it at the track at any given time. Once the Dart hit the streets, Romano became well known for being “that” street car guy with the
target on his back, but he could still be found constantly working on changes and adjustments, making the build a five year evolution into what it is today.
John Boy Photography
BILLET PRODUCTS THAT YOU CAN’T DO WITHOUT! BILLET TIMING POINTERS
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BILLET SHIFTER HANDLES / PISTOL GRIP KNOBS
Universal shifter handles made from a solid piece of aluminum and machined to a stylish lightweight design. All handles have an anodized finish and are a available in either clear, or black. The top of the handle is equipped with a stainless 3/8”-16 stud and jam nut for easy shift knob installation. These lightweight pistol grip shift knobs will compliment any shift handle on the market. Kit includes hardware to mount 3/8”-16, 3/8”-24, or 7/16”-20 thread types.
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november 2015 | RPM Magazine
LS PERFORMANCE
The most cost effective solution to mounting an electric water pump to your LS engine. These LS adapter kits are designed to mount a big block Chevy electric water pump to the front of your late model LS. Each adapter is O-ring sealed and comes complete with stainless steel mounting hardware.
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LOOKS TO KILL AND GUTS TO BACK IT UP A musclecar that still looks like a musclecar. Romano’s Dart uses all the factory trim and bumpers, and aside from the hood and trunk lid, the body is all steel.
BOOSTED BULLETPROOF BIG BLOCK… DODGE!
For anyone who knows anything at all about making horsepower, you understand that getting mega-power out of any big block without a bowtie stamped on it can not only be difficult, but costly, too. Plan to spend at least twice as much on the combination and you can also count on having to fabricate a few things here and there along the way. The 540-inch mill between the
Dart’s rails started with a Keith Black water block filled with a Crower custom billet crank, GRP aluminum connecting rods and Diamond Pistons slugs with Trend tool steel wrist pins. Cylinder heads are the real deal—Indy 572-13 heads with titanium valves, PAC valve springs and Crower titanium retainers prepared by Best Machine Racing. A “super secret” custom camshaft umps COMP Elite Race roller lifters, Manley pushrods and Jesel rockers. An F2 ProCharger with a Chris Alston gear drive assembly
www.rpm-mag.com | november 2015
15
ONE of ONE
SNEAK ATTACK Romano’s Super Bee license plate covers up the charger inlet when he wants to remain on the down low, but on the strip it is removed to reveal the ProCharger inlet.
16
boosts the big block Mopar via a blow thru C&S aerosol billet Dominator style carburetor that sits atop an Indy intake manifold that was reworked by Slawko Racing Heads. A Hutch Turbo 400 transmission handles the massive amounts of horse-
power and torque produced by the blown monster and sends it back to a fabricated nine-inch Ford rear packed with 40 spline gun drilled axles and a Strange Ultra center section with pro gears. The Dart maintains its stock
november 2015 | RPM Magazine
framerails, floor and firewall and was treated to mini tubs out back and rides on coilover shocks with an S&W ladder bar suspension. Up front an Alterkation K-frame was installed. The car looks tough as it is but the chute and wheelie bars out back and
ProCharger peeking through the front bumper (when Bob has the front license plate removed) are a dead giveaway of the potential. The car was featured on the cover of Mopar Enthusiast Magazine in June 2010 as one of their “Top End Terrors,
Mopars that can top 170 MPH” and Romano continues to take it out several times a year for select races, like the War By The Shore. So effective is Romano’s “one of one” combination that it propels the car to a stout 4.70 at 155mph in the eighth-mile.
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Trick Flow’s new PowerPort ® 365 aluminum cylinder heads were designed and built for you to win races. These new extreme performance race heads for big block Chevy engines flow a massive 424 cfm @ .900" lift. The high-strength castings can withstand enormous amounts of compression and RPM. Rectangular-shaped 365cc CNC Competition Ported runners, 119cc heart-shaped chambers, CNC bowl blended valve seat transitions, 24° intake valve angles with 4° side cants, and the highest quality valvetrain components help make PowerPort 365 heads the best choice for your car. Use PowerPort 365 heads on your engine and turn your goal of winning into reality! Dyno Results PowerPort 365
Test Engine: 14.3:1 compression 572 c.i.d. with Trick Flow PowerPort® 365 cylinder heads (TFS-4141T804-C02), solid roller camshaft (285°/296° @ .050"; .918"/.874" lift; 114° lobe separation), 1.7 ratio shaft mount roller rocker arms, Trick Flow R-Series intake manifold (TFS-41400111), Holley Gen 3 Ultra Dominator 1,250 cfm carburetor, Trick Flow by Stainless Works headers (TFS-UBBC225238), 3½" dual exhaust with Flowmaster mufflers.
1511RPCT
www.rpm-mag.com |
2015
17
Some parts are not legal for sale or usenovember on any pollution-controlled motor vehicles.
BIG BLOCK CHEVY ENGINE COMPONENTS DESIGNED FOR STREET, STRIP & HEAVY DUTY APPLICATIONS
SPORTSMAN
310 / 325 / 345cc
BBC SINGLE PLANE MANIFOLD
• High Nickel 220 BHN cast iron • Standard 9.800” or 10.200” deck heights • Siamese bore sizes from 4.250” up to 4.625” • Priority main oiling system with external ½” NPT oil feed • Billet steel or Ductile main caps
• 310cc, 325cc and 345cc intake port volume • RMR cast aluminum alloy • Rolled 24° intake valve angle with 2.300” x 1.880” valve job • 121cc combustion chamber
• High flowing cast aluminum ports • Raised plenum with single plane design • Machined for 9.800” and 10.200” deck height with 4150 or 4500 carb flange • Street or strip performance from 3,000 to 7,500 RPM
VISIT DART AT THE 2015 PRI SHOW – BOOTH 2211
248.362.1188 | DARTHEADS.COM
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november 2015 | RPM Magazine
NOT THE ONLY GUN IN THE HOLSTER Over the years Romano amassed an interesting collection of cars. While he seems to have developed deeper roots with the Pentastar, there are a few others in the mix for good
measure. For example, Romano has a nasty 1987 Buick Grand National with a naturally-aspirated big block Chevy that he races at Cecil County Raceway SCSO (Street Car Shoot Out) every month in the 8.50 class and an Outlaw 10.5 1969 Camaro. In 2013 and 2014, he raced
his 1995 Chevy S10 truck in the 10.00 class at Cecil’s SCSO and won the championship both seasons then ended up selling the truck to a friend at the end of the 2014 season. In the ’90s, Romano built (and still has) a 1971 Dodge Challenger with a 440 six pack fin-
ONE of ONE
COMFY CAGED CONFINES The super clean black interior, while paying homage to the Dart’s original sixties styling, is complemented by a full cage, race buckets and various other equipment to get the car from point A to Point B in a big hurry.
www.rpm-mag.com | november 2015
19
BOOSTED EXPECTATIONS The 540-inch Indy-headed Mopar wedge makes some serious grunt. Add in an F2 ProCharger and you got one of the baddest street cars in the Northeast.
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november 2015 | RPM Magazine
ONE of ONE MORE SPACE REQUIRED The blow-thru pipe and carb hat increased the height of the combination enough to make it a must to have the cowl hood.
MEATY Bob relies on Mickey Thompson 315 ET Street Radials to hook the Dart to the track.
ished in plum crazy that was featured in High Performance Mopar Magazine in January 1999. His first and only new car purchase was a 2008 Dodge Challenger and he also has a Typhoon and a Cyclone, plus he is building a 1969 pro touring Camaro and a 1967 Camaro to the exact configuration and look of his first car that inspired this direction in
www.rpm-mag.com | november 2015
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BOB ROMANO’S 1969 DODGE DART STREET/STRIP TERROR Chassis type & mods: Stock frame, floors, firewall, mini-tubbed rear. Suspension: FRONT: Stock frame with bolt-in Alterkation K- frame, Santhuff hocks/springs. REAR: Stock rails mini-tubbed, Santhuff hocks/ springs, S&W ladder bars, wheel tubs and wheelie bars. Body & Paint: 4-inch fiberglass cowl hood and trunk lid from AAR fiberglass. Paint work by Martin Auto Paint. Engine: 540 cid, KB water block, Indy heads 572-13 by Best Machine Racing, titanium valves, Pac valve springs, Crower titanium retainers, Manley pushrods, Jesel rockers, Crower custom billet crank, GRP aluminum rods, Diamond pistons, Trend tool steel wrist pins, Bullet cam, Comp Elite race roller lifters, Jesel belt drive, Charlies oil pan, Milodon dual line pump, and ATI Super Damper. Induction: Indy manifold reworked by Slawko Racing Heads, C&S Aerosol Billet Dominator Carburetor, and Superior Airfl w carb hat. Fuel Delivery: Aeromotive regulator, Waterman cable drive fuel pump. Power Adder: ProCharger F-2 centrifugal supercharger, Chris Alston gear drive and accessory drive. Electronics: MSD digital 7, MSD HVC coil, MSD crank trigger, Firecore spark plug wires. Transmission & Converter: T400 By Hutch’s Racing Transmissions with Pats Converters torque converter. Diff rential: Ford 9-inch fabricated housing, Strange Ultra center section with pro gear, Moser 40 spline, gun-drilled and star-flanged axles. Additional Info: Powermaster starter, Meziere remote water pump, RPM data logger, Weld Racing wheels, Aerospace brakes, Mickey Thompson tires, custom built headers by Bigtime Automotive, ARC switch panel, B&M trans cooler, Hurst Quarter Stick shifter, 25.5 cage by Bigtime automotive, Aeroquip hoses and fi tings, Verocious Motorsports mufflers. Performance (eighth-mile): 4.70 seconds at 155 mph; 3300lb race weight.
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november 2015 | RPM Magazine
ONE of ONE
LAUNCH STRAIGHT AND FLY RIGHT An Alterkation front K-frame was installed in the Dart which allowed Romano to remove the inner fenders and use tubular control arms, front coil over shocks and rack and pinion steering, all making the car much more controllable at over 150 mph in the eighth-mile and 170 in the quarter-mile!
John Boy Photography
COOL OUT BACK When you strap a monster ProCharger to the front of your big block Mopar, there’s not much room left for a fan and radiator, so move them out back!
his life. It’s the Dart though, that seems to be an attention getter wherever it goes. If the bright orange paint and stunning good looks of the car
John Boy Photography
don’t grab you, its performance on the track most certainly will. As Bob puts it, “it’s unique, not just because it is a small tire ’69 Dart, but because it has
a Chris Alston crank driven ProCharger, on a blow through carburetor, on a big block Mopar—so it’s pretty much one of one!”
With Pro Line Racing Engines and Diamond pistons, Q80 Racing team resets quarter-mile doorslammer record at 5.46 seconds and 272mph “Diamond’s contributions have been invaluable.” Doug Patton, Pro Line Racing Engines
Diamond’s turbo pistons make big power and combat heat and pressure. • Forged from 2618 aluminum with Herculean pin bosses that accomodate tough TP-1 or H13 tool steel piston pins • Lower skirt rigidity maintained by full-circumference designs that boast the strongest-known stiffening ribs • Hard-coat anodizing, ceramic crowns, and moly skirt coatings available • Fastest turnaround time on custom pistons Questions? Knowledgeable Tech Support: M-F, 9AM-5PM EST
Call today: 586.792.6620 or visit diamondracing.net www.rpm-mag.com | november 2015
23
story by
Toby Brooks photos by
Y
Louis Fronkier
ou remember, don’t you? Do you recall just how horribly bad some of those ’80s horror movies were? Whether it was Freddy Krueger from Nightmare on Elm Street, Michael Myers from Halloween, or Pinhead from Hell Raiser, each blood-and-gore protagonist ran through the same predictable plot line: hapless victim
makes one too many boneheaded mistakes before being somehow chopped to pieces or otherwise dismembered at the hands of said terrifying villain. After taking one look at professional fabricator Bobby Starcher’s 1972 Chevelle, we’re pretty sure its wicked stance, nasty blown big block, and sinister color combo is
enough to send chills up your spine with gripping fear. And be honest—it is way more frightening than any of those crazy horror flick killers. But be cool and don’t make any rash decisions and you just might live to tell the tale of your en-
TITANIUM EXHAUST WRAP THE ORIGINAL
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24 november 2015 | RPM Magazine
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>> IF LOOKS COULD KILL... Whether it is the perfect stance, the cool spindle-mount front wheels, the killer color combo, or the sinister murdered-out blown and injected big block, Bobby Starcher’s 1972 Chevelle is just oozing with contemporary pro street coolness..
cvrproducts.com25 For more information visit
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www.rpm-mag.com | november 2015
26 november 2015 | RPM Magazine
’VELLE RAISER THE CHANGELING Although Starcher has owned the car for nearly two decades, he’s gone back and forth over whether to configu e the car for street or strip duty. With the resurgence in pro street’s popularity in the past several years, he opted to finish the ar as primarily a street bruiser, but he hasn’t ruled out taking the car for a few passes on the strip in the very near future.
SMOOTH MOVES The House of Kolors Kandy Brandy Wine paint is unfettered with graphics, but envelops the lightly massaged factory GM sheetmetal perfectly. Shaved door handles and emblems and stretched rear wheel openings are the only body mods, but the blackedout factory trim coupled with the black tinwork keep the whole “evil villain” theme going strong.
counter with one evil-looking bowtie’d pro streeter. Maybe. “I’ve had the car for 17 years, and when I got it, it was the start of a race car,” Starcher said. “I built a new chassis for NMCA Nostalgia Pro Street competition, but the class changed before I finished,” he added. The Chevelle’s racing strut front suspension was removed and a factory-style dash was put back in place to comply with the rules changes. However, progress on the car stalled, and with the resurging interest in pro street, Starcher decided to scrap his plans to race the car and instead focus his eff rts to put it back on the street. “My dad was into cars, and I have been into them my whole life, too. I have raced, showed, and cruised ever since I got my license, and I have grudge raced, too” Starcher said. And as appealing as the
www.rpm-mag.com | november 2015
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’VELLE RAISER
WICKED FROM ANY ANGLE The lateral view of the car shows off the Starcher-built black pro stock-style rear wing and long wheelie bars out back and also shows the BDS injector hat perched perfectly just below the car’s rooflin ... while the front view shows the huge blower and skinny front Moroso tires.
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BOBBY STARCHER’S 1972 PRO STREET CHEVELLE SS Chassis type & mods: Owner-built 7.50-cert mild steel tube chassis with twin funny car cages. Suspension and Brakes: FRONT: Factory-style control arm suspension with 2-inch dropped spindles and double-adjustable QA1 shocks. Custom 4-piston calipers modified for use with spindle-mount config ration. REAR: Custom 4-link with single-adjustable QA1 coilover shocks.
grudge race scene was, it was ultimately the desire to drive the car in and around town that swayed him to opt for a street legal setup. Chassis work on the car is superbly well done, as the tube setup from the firewall rearward is all Starcher’s work. The lead fabricator at Virginia Rod Company, Starcher cut and bent a custom
7.50 cert mild steel setup, incorporating a custom 4-link with single-adjustable QA1 coilovers out back. Up front, a factory-configuration dual control arm setup with 2-inch dropped spindles and double-adjustable QA1s smooth the bumps while also situating the Chevy at a more appealing ride height. Of particular note, the car rolls
on spindle-mount 15x3.5-inch Weld wheels up front with Moroso 25x4.5-15 front runner tires. What makes the setup so unique is Starcher’s use of custom mounts and tweaks to incorporate 4-piston calipers rather than the typical race-only 2-piston calipers used with spindle mounts. The requisite fat meats out back come
Body & Paint: All steel factory sheetmetal. Shaved handles and emblems with 4-inch stretched rear wheel openings. Owner-fabricated rear wing. Paul Anderson-prepped body. House of Kolors Kandy Brandy Wine paint applied by Bruce Wills and Tim’s Custom Painting. Tires and Wheels: FRONT: Weld Racing spindle-mount 15x3.5 with Moroso 25x4.4-15 tires. REAR: Bogart 15x20 wheels with 33x22-15 Mickey Thompson Sportsman SR radials. Engine: 468 ci big block Chevrolet with Bryant forged crank, Eagle rods, and 8.0:1 compression SRP pistons. Lunati roller cam roller and lifters with Manley pushrods. Brodix aluminum cylinder heads. Exhaust: Custom owner-fabricated 2 1/8-inch stainless steel headers.3 1/2-inch stainless oval tubing with Flowmaster mufflers. Induction: GMC 8-71 supercharger with BDS fuel injection hat. Electronics: MSD 7AL-2 box. MSD crank trigger, MSD Pro Billet distributor and Pro Power coil. Transmission & Converter: Turbo 400 with Griner manual reverse valve body. ATI 4,000 stall converter. Lenco-style shifter levers. Differential: Fabricated Ford 9-inch housing with Strange center section with Strange 40 spline axles and 4.56 gears.
www.rpm-mag.com | november 2015
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’VELLE RAISER
TWO COLORS... TONS OF VISUAL INTEREST It may be “just” red and black, but the use of matte and gloss textures and a few well chosen polished or machined aluminum pieces gives the Chevelle an incredible look. in the form of custom 15x20inch Bogart wheels wrapped in Mickey Thompson 33x22.5-15 radial tires. A narrowed Fab9 rear housing has been stuff d full of all kinds of Strange goodies, including 40-spline axles
and a Strange 4.56 rear gearset. Matching 4-piston discs help slow the Chevy from behind. Yet another change Starcher made during the car’s initial build was a new paint job. “The paint on the car is 10-12 years old, and it
has held up well since the car was stored during that entire time,” Starcher said. “It wasn’t until about a year and a half ago when I decided it was time to finish it,” he added. Body mods are minimal but eff ctive. Shaved
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30 november 2015 | RPM Magazine
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www.rpm-mag.com | november 2015
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door handles and 4-inch stretched rear wheel openings have been partnered with blacked-out factory trim, a monochrome House of Kolors Kandy Brandy Wine paint job, and matte black tinwork to carry through the stealth look. Paul Anderson handled the initial prep work, while Bruce Wills and Tim’s Custom Painting handled the basecoat/clearcoat application and final polish. A matteblack decklid matches the open-hooded engine bay’s tinwork perfectly, and it has been fitted with a Starcher-built pro stock-style rear spoiler for an extra dash of nasty.
Speaking of engine bay and nasty, the wicked all-black powerplant is an owner-built blown and injected 454 Chevy that has been poked to a spacious 468 cubes. Starcher started with a 1969 GM block that was bored 0.60-over, then added a Bryant forged crank with Eagle rods and SRP 8.0:1 pistons. At the heart of the mill is a Lunati blower cam that has been partnered with Lunati roller lifters and Manley pushrods. Brodix aluminum heads have been topped with black aluminum valve covers. Starcher employed varying levels of gloss to give the murdered-out
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’VELLE RAISER
COOL CRUISER The less-is-more theme carries into the interior, as well, where yards of plush gray cloth weave under and around the cool body color painted dual funny car cage. A single Dakota Digital gauge cluster serves as the only adornment in the otherwise smoothed and filled factory dash placement. The Lenco-style shifters are iconic pro stock style, but they have been modified to control the Turbo 400 automatic transmission.
www.rpm-mag.com | november 2015
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’VELLE RAISER motor even more visual interest and texture. A TRW high volume oil pump resides and operates in a Moroso 6-quart pan to keep things slippery, while a ProForm water pump and a Jegs aluminum radiator help keep things cool. A Summit Racing 1-wire 100-amp alternator keeps the juice flowing appropriately, while an MSD distributor and ignition with crank trigger manages the sparking chores. A MagnaFuel electric fuel pump keeps the thirsty big block adequately supplied with copious amounts of high-test gas. Up top, there’s no escaping the wicked threeeyed monster that is a BDS bird catcher injection hat sitting atop an 8-71 GMC supercharger, all painted black to go with the whole sinister theme. A Weiand supercharger intake has
been heavily modifi d by Starcher for this unique application, but an unsuspecting onlooker would be hard-pressed to notice any diffe ences between it and a stock piece. Spun at 12% over, the blower should be good for around 10-12 pounds of boost. Backing the potent powerplant is a GM
34 november 2015 | RPM Magazine
TH400 trans with a Griner aluminum valve body, all blueprinted and assembled by Kenny Keller. An ATI 4,000 rpm stall converter and Jegs flexplate reside upstream in the driveline, while a Spring Menders custom fabricated steel driveshaft ends power rearward from the three-speed auto.
Exhaust duties are entrusted to a set of Starcher-fabbed stainless 2 1/8-inch headers. Behind the collectors, 3 1/2-inch oval tubing makes its way back to a pair of Flowmaster mufflers before dumping just before the diffe ential. Moving inside, the most obvious modification is the cool body col-
or twin funny car cage; however it is far from the only change. Charcoal cloth covers most of the well-appointed interior, including the recovered Camaro bucket seats, the dash, and the massive rear wheel tubs. A trick Dakota Digital carbon fiber gauge cluster keeps an eye on all of the engine’s
vital signs, while a set of authentic Lenco shift evers have been retrofitted to command the GM automatic transmission. Custom wrapped door panels have been fitted with billet pulls, and an overhead switch panel serves as mission control for the lucky pilot. A Grant leather-wrapped steering wheel with a quick release mount enhances ease of entry, while a pair of 5-way harnesses helps prevent unintended exit in the unthinkable event of a high-speed mishap. Audio entertainment is entrusted to the
stainless exhaust, as the Chevelle is sans stereo. While the build might have dragged on longer than originally anticipated, the end result is well worth it. Fit and finish on the car are impeccable and the styling is spot on, with enough dark sinister colors to reflect modern trends but enough tasteful color and a splash of sparkle to hint at an even more contemporary look. “I’d like to thank my wife Rhonda Starcher, as she was an incredible help in finishing the car,” Starcher said. And while it might not have
ended up a drag strip champion as originally intended, the finished product is a champion nonetheless, taking the highly coveted Best of Show award at RPM’s recent Southern Fried Festival in Hampton, Virginia. So while those hokey ’80s horror flicks might have been enough to keep you from sleeping back in the day, we’d advise against spending too much time staring down Bobby Starcher’s nasty Chevy, because this ’Velle Raiser is wicked enough to scare the ’Velle out of you!
www.rpm-mag.com | november 2015
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T E L L U B W O L YEL NATIONALS EXTREME EVENTS
2015
>>Clear skies, packed crowds, and record-setting performances all help make this year’s Nats the best ever! story by
Mark at goDragRacing.org
photos by
Mark at goDragRacing.org and Tara Bowker
SEPTEMBER 4-6
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R
acers from around the country converged on Rising Sun, Maryland and Cecil County’s well-known surface as both eighth and quarter-mile racing was locked and loaded for the Labor Day weekend. The big guns would battle for the winners circle in all classes from Outlaw 10.5, Big Tire Outlaw, Top Sportsman, Outlaw Drag Radial, X275 Radial, Ultra Street Radial, 8.50 Index 10.0 Index, Pro Street and Pro Dial.
november 2015 | RPM Magazine
Last year, the YB Nats were called off efore eliminations due to heavy rains which only heightened the excitement for this race with forecasts for clear skies and warm temps for the entire weekend. It was horsepower mayhem from the opening day to the finals in all classes on this track known for its “down home feel” by those who race there in the monthly Strange Engineering Street Car Shootout on Saturdays. The crew at Cecil County were on target from the first day of racing as the track
was prepped to perfection by Jim Halsey’s motivated team led by Chad Porter and Anthony Frassetto. After a Thursday test session, Friday’s racers and fans began the long procession into the gates at Cecil County to witness the Mid Atlantic’s finest end-of-the-year show which included not just racing but other various activities and the annual toy giveaway by Monty Mikho and Maria Szkudlarek Mikho. Overflow parking was filled to capacity, and had you not
planned ahead, there was little to no chance of booking a room, so yes, this race is big! Yellowbullet.com was buzzing as the date neared, however, even on such a “spirited” forum the talk seems to have now gelled into a positive experience for everyone and support for each other, with much of the chat focusing more on possible records and less trash talking than you would encounter on almost any other open forum. Much of that talk was the large contrast between the “Slicks
1
1: John Snyder’s 65 GTO is the epitome of Ultra Street. His big bad all-motor Pontiac leaves so hard and high yet still manages to run the numbers. We love his wheelstanding action- packed passes!
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www.rpm-mag.com | november 2015
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YB NATS 2015 vs. Radials,” as there is a large following focused on the success of the radials compared to the slick-tired cars, yet both have completely different ways of conquering the track in the shortest time. Drag Radials have been more widely accepted as the “feature” because of the size of the tires in comparison, and the quick times accomplished with them. The radial following is almost cult-like and it seems the deeper south you go, the heavier the concentration of radial fanatics…and it is definitely headed north! Friday and Saturday racing hosted 540+ cars in the lanes with four qualifying rounds in each class. Racers had to tune for obscenely hot track temperatures well past 140+ degrees during the heat of the day Saturday and only dropping to 100 during
2
5
2: Chuck Ulsch burns up the 10.5 tires under the lights in Gil Mobley’s new big screw-blown Hemi Corvette on his way to the winners’ circle.
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november 2015 | RPM Magazine
3 3: “Oh Canada”… Frank Pompilio hazed the track to a new Outlaw 10.5 record in his stunning ’67 Mustang with 481X twin turbo power, setting the MPH mark at an amazing 203 MPH! nighttime rounds. The air was around 3,000 ft, which by all reasonable calculations shouldn’t produce great numbers, but YB Nats racers proved that wrong when eliminations came!
4
HIGHLIGHTS 4: Another racer from north of the border, Jerry Mitrovich, has been tearing up the Mid-Atlantic States Outlaw 10.5 series in his mega cube 903ci, Liberty-shifted ’68 Camaro. Mitrovich would be eliminated in the semifinals but oh what a show he puts on!
Beginning with the top class, Outlaw 10.5, there was no shortage of on-the-edge action from these incredibly high tech ultra-quick machines. Every power adder was on hand: blower, nitrous, and turbo. Canadians dominated the top five of the ladder that was led by hometown Maryland heroes Chuck Ulsch and
Gil Mobley clicking off a solid heat-of-the-day 4.072 @ 193 mph pass as they finally get a handle on their new C7 Corvette. Canada’s Frank Pompilio in his gorgeous ’67 Mustang stunned everyone by setting the new 10.5 MPH record during a 4.098 @ 203 mph lap. Another Canadian to set his own class record as the quickest small block 10.5 was Nick Agostino. Powered by just 380 cubes, his fourth-gen Camaro ripped off a trong 4.100 @ 201 mph pass. Also running out of Canada in his 903ci mountain motor Camaro, Jerry Mitrovich seared the air with a nitrous blast of 4.103 @ 185. New Jersey favorite and last year’s Mickey Thompson Challenge Points Champion
www.rpm-mag.com | november 2015
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november 2015 | RPM Magazine
5
6
5: Hello Record Run! Direct from Canada, Nick Agostino reset his own small block Outlaw 10.5 record in the Precision Turbo-pressurized 480ci Patrick Barnhill beast in front of a ProTorque Converter and M&M transmission. This little engine propelled him to a stunning 4.100 @ 201 mph!
YB NATS 2015 Steve Gorman was literally flying with the crowd on their feet as he had trouble keeping the car on the ground with a 4.11 @ 197 mph, on the wheelie bars! After four rounds of extreme 10.5 racing, it was two Maryland favorites heading to the lanes for the final. The sinister looking black C7 Vette of Ulsch/ Mobley powered by a screw-charged blown Hemi opposite Mo Hall in his big cube nitrous C6 Vette. Hall took a shot at the tree and went red giving Chuck Ulsch the honors of the weekend with a 4.091 @ 189.
OUTLAW DRAG RADIAL
This is the mother of Drag Radial classes, featuring 10.5 style rides on a 315 Drag Radial tire. Tuning and chassis setups are polar opposites creating one of the quickest classes for treaded tires, and a class looking for that elusive three second pass this weekend. One car stands out as the one to beat and he also took both ends of qualifying- Dewayne Mills in his “Golden Gorilla” Camaro making the trek from Oklahoma and setting the bar high with 4.015 @ 200 flat.
6: Dewayne Mills in his “Golden Gorilla” Camaro was the fi st and only to shatter the three second barrier in Outlaw drag radial with a 3.981 @ 202. Mills also moved on to the fi als and took the championship win.
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www.rpm-mag.com | november 2015
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YB NATS 2015
ACCURATE GROUND SPEED REGARDLESS OF WHEEL SPIN OR WHEEL STAND
7: Another racer who was almost a shoe-in for a three second pass in Outlaw Drag Radial, Rick Thornton, couldn’t quite get it there in the turbocharged, Liberty-shifted small block ’65 Vette, running a 4.071 @ 189. 8: The PSI Motorsports equipped twin turbo 69 Camaro of John Fischer has been terrorizing the big tire ranks in the Northeast. Fischer seems unbeatable and proved it once again as he took the title this year carrying the left front tire at the 660ft mark to low 4-second runs.
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november 2015 | RPM Magazine
Small Block Rick Thornton followed this up with a strong 4.071 @ 189 all the way from Texas in his colorful Vette. Georgia resident Keith Berry in a later model Vette would be in the show at 4.120 @ 186. A native of Pennsylvania and crowd favorite in Maryland, Frank Soldridge placed number four 4.250 @ 187 and “The Kevin Mullins” with a 4.362 @ 171 was fifth. Running late into the night, ODR’s top two met in the finals; Rick Thornton would go dead red on the tree to watch from the best
seat in the house as Dewayne Mills knocked down the record of 3.981 @ 202 mph leaving no doubt about who was capable of “threes” and took the championship back home.
OUTLAW BIG TIRE
The heavyweight brutes are making a comeback with Pro Street styling—big tires, massive scoops, and big power to go with it! The northeast is strong in this category and a diverse field of power adders topped the five quickest starting
7
8 with John Fisher’s Camaro featuring twin turbos taking top honors both MPH and ET in qualifying with 4.349 @ 175 mph. Richard Shainline put the “fire in the pipes” tune-up in all weekend garnering him the number two spot, 4.379 @ 168. Maryland native Scott Kline posted a 4.413 @ 167 using ProCharger power in his ’63 Chevy Nova. This car just sounds vicious! Big Tire Champion of an endless amount of events, Mitch George was again seated in Jack Boer’s ’84 Monte Carlo on spray and managed a 4.421 @ 159, followed up by Tommy “Shake and Bake” Romeo spraying his ’70 Nova into a solid fifth spot 4.449 @ 163 mph. This large field went through five rounds of big tire crushing passes to the final where again we
have the two quickest cars engaging in the beams. John Fischer’s Camaro would stay the course with his winning 4.292 @ 180mph run, while Richard Shainline would suffer a HUGE nitrous blast through the 903 ci motor!
X275 DRAG RADIAL
For one of the most anticipated classes of the weekend, small tire fans held vigil-like gatherings behind the cars as the rounds went through qualifying. Parity between these cars is so close, each race is never a given to any single racer as it is a struggle to balance huge power on this tire. Rich Bruder took the number one spot in his ProCharged Mustang with 4.479 @ 159 with Dean Marinis turning the wick up on his nitrous fed Mus-
www.rpm-mag.com | november 2015
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YB NATS 2015 9
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9: Richard Shainline and his insane nitrous tune-ups ripple the air on another winning pass. The large crowd at YB Nat’s in behind him is a blur from the multiple nitrous stages poured into the Musi 903 in his ’67 Mustang. Shainline would have to settle for a runner up finish as a HUGE nitrous explosion ended his night in the finals.
november 2015 | RPM Magazine
10 10: The 2015 X275 Drag Radial Champion Ron Rhodes (previously featured in RPM) has all but owned this class in the Mid-Atlantic States with his “one off” combination with an ultra-small BES Racing Engines 414 cubic inch, 23-degree conventional head combo. The car is sprayed by huge amounts of Induction Solutions nitrous and backed by a Hutch Powerglide, a PTC Converter, and runs a leaf spring suspension tuned through Cal-Tracs. Rhodes posted a stellar 4.482 @ 156 in the final.
tang to the tune of 4.490 @ 165 and produced the top MPH and second spot on the ladder. Ron Rhodes, a Cecil favorite, uses a small cube 414 in his bright red 68 Camaro to keep pace, knocking down a solid but off is usual ET 4.539 @ 155, and Jamie Stanton out of New York with his big tune-ups and consecutive fire breathing nitrous passes in his 2002 Camaro gets
in at fourth with 4.552 @ 157mph. Charles Hull powers his way into the top five in his 92 Mustang 4.562 @ 159 on a very tight track. As rounds went on through the day, copious amounts of prep is needed to make these cars run at their best, which involves scraping to 60ft, and spraying and dragging the track until Jim Halsey gives the go ahead to let them loose.
Five full rounds of knockdown drag-out action left Jamie Stanton and Ron Rhodes staging up for the finals- two nitrous equipped Camaros of differing eras, and two highly different combinations of small vs. big cubes. With the tree turning green, Rhodes was out first by the slimmest of margins with a .059 start to Stanton’s .088 and as they blazed into the night Ron
Rhodes would become the champion with the clocks showing 4.482 @ 156 to Stanton’s oh-soclose 4.488 @ 158...what a drag race!
ULTRA STREET
This class is becoming one of the favorites; strict rules were set in the very beginning to create an “entry level” drag radial class, but as always in heads-up drag racing, it has become an animal of its own with constant wheelstanding action and ultra-quick stock
looking cars. Fifty-one entries made a real statement of how well this class has taken on. Though the initial thought of the class was to try and keep the cars in the five-second area, the racers decided otherwise. Alex “The Calypso Kid” Hays lead the field with 4.913 @ 141mph. Shawn Pevlor followed at 4.924 @ 142 in his 93 Mustang. J.C. Beattie Jr. was thrilling to watch in his wild 2012 COPO Camaro, launching hard to 4.950 @ 143. And two big names in
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www.rpm-mag.com | november 2015
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11
11: One of the prettiest and most powerful cars in X275, Jamie Stanton’s big cube fourth gen Camaro hits the rev limiter spewing nitrous flames on the hit. Stanton would get back into his groove and have to settle for runner-up this year.
46
racing Joel Greathouse with 4.952 @ 142 and Chris Evans with 4.969 @ 144mph would finish the top five respectively. Five grueling rounds ensued with tight, intense racing and upsets galore to bring the two finalists to the line. Shawn Pevlor blasted a 4.898 @ 143 but it wasn’t enough to stop Greathouse’s 4.873 @ 145 as he took both the tree and the stripe, earning the Ultra Street Championship.
TOP SPORTSMAN
In a class where racers need to be bang-on or be eliminated, Todd Fontana slammed down a strong 4.116 @ 173 placing him at the top with his bright red 1968 Camaro. When the finals came it was a Ford vs. Chevy battle with two big names, Ron Riegel and Ronnie Proctor taking center stage, and
november 2015 | RPM Magazine
both were on nitrous. The stunning black and blue 68 Camaro of Riegel dialed in at 4.60 and made his run to the finish with a 4.622 and a better package ahead of Ronnie Proctor’s 4.35 dial/4.362 run in his sleek 2009 Mustang.
8.50 INDEX
Don’t let the “Index” fool you: this is one of the largest fields in Northeast drag racing—
stock looking cars, heavy on the horsepower with a wide selection of makes, models and power adders in the mix. You can count on awesome wheels-up action, not to mention some of the best side-byside heads up racing on the planet. YellowBullet Nats had 62 entries for a 32 car field with a bump of 8.53! Joe Albrecht out of New York led the pack with an 8.500 in his ’85 Monte SS.
Going through such a huge field of tough competition is no easy chore, and Rodger Purdy III with his wicked looking ’79 Camaro knocked out an 8.568 @ 151 mph in the final and came out the winner by way of a holeshot against a quicker, but losing, Chris McNeil with an 8.556 @ 148 in his red ’94 Camaro. Purdy’s .030 reaction time against McNeil’s slightly slower .082 decided the win.
YB NATS 2015 12
12: JC Beattie Jr. took a shot at running in the YB Nats Ultra Street class with their ATI COPO Camaro. This 388ci supercharged beast is fl tout awesome and the team managed a semifinal appearance and number three qualifying spot with 4.950 @ 143mph.
10.00 INDEX
This class is modeled after your typical ten second street car, where most if not all are weekend warriors who seldom have any ‘regular” practice. Yet in most cases the win comes down to the thousandths of a second. With 61 cars entered, the bump was crazy low at a 10.094 and number one qualifier had an
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almost perfect time, with a 10.001! The 32 car ladder came down to Dana Loffredo and Justin Nowlen in the finals. Both these cars, Nowlen’s wheelstanding Mustang and Loffredo’s hard-launching Firebird come out of the same shop, Fonse Performance, and they are close friends, yet intense rivals. Loffredo’s .019 off he tree put a big leave on Nowlen’s .111 and as both head to
the stripe the slower Loffredo, with a 10.116, takes the win by a holeshot over Nowlen’s quicker 10.048. Remaining classes were composed of three dial-in style racing classes, all with huge car counts: Pro Dial, Super Street and Pro Street. This is part of what makes this race fun for all- fast dial-in racing to break up the heads up classes. Jeff astburn wad-
ed through 112 cars to get to his winners circle in the hard-leaving Chevy Nova. Super Street featured 77 entries with George Martinelli in his very strange idea of a dial-in car, a supercharged dual-quad equipped 32 Ford, taking the winners circle. And Brandon McMillan would take the final round win light in Pro Street. It was an exhausting weekend for racers
13: Joel Greathouse thrashed to return this gorgeous KBX Performance Mustang to gasoline power for this year’s Ultra Street after a rule change was applied, and he qualified number three. Greathouse went on to make the quickest side-by-side Ultra Street final ever against an equally worthy Shawn Pevlor.
continued on page 52
www.rpm-mag.com | november 2015
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YB NATS 2015
16
14
15 14: In Ultra Street, Shawn Pevlor was working his car hard all weekend pushing big numbers including his 4.898 @ 143mph in the finals with his nitrous equipped 438ci BES powered Fox body.
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15: Rodger Purdy played no games on his way to the title; he basically out tuned and out drove his competitors in the wild 8.50 Index class. The brilliant orange big block Camaro did damage to everyone in the opposite lane.
november 2015 | RPM Magazine
16: One of the most feared drivers in the 10.0 Index, Dana Loffredo, proved her point again using her skills—and her Pontiac Firebird—to take a wellearned win and beat her Fonse Racing opponent Justin Nowlen at the tree with a holeshot in the final.
17
YB NATS 2015 17: Runner up in Top Sportsman, Ronnie Proctor, has created one very fast 706-inch Ford. He put the lid on some tough competition in each round but fell to Ron Riegel by mere thousandths in the final.
18: A huge amount of racers descended on the YB Nat’s for the Pro Dial class, but the great tuning, driving and stamina of Jeff astburn prevailed all the way to the winner’s circle! Amazingly, Eastburn installed a brand new Wilson Racing Engines motor in his car which was delivered to the pits just one day before the race, bolted in a new Select Performance converter and ran through seven rounds to take this title!
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november 2015 | RPM Magazine
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19
YB NATS 2015 19: Lou Herfurth III qualifi d third in the 10.00 Index with a 10.006. The sedate looking four-eyed Mustang is a strong hitter and Herfurth is one of the YB Nats celebrities with his massive barbeque and pig roasts where everyone is welcome.
battling high temps, warm nights and the endless party style atmosphere at Cecil County. Fans were back for more each day as racing ran well past midnight. The scene of multitudes of fans getting the best view from behind the cars, on top of trailers and filling the stands is why the YellowBullet Nationals has become the go-to event in the Mid-Atlantic States.
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20: Anything but your conventional race car in a dial-in index class is George Martinelli’s ’32 Ford knocking out consistent 10-flat quarter-mile passes. Martinelli is a crowd favorite with this supercharged small block entry.
T E L L U B W O L L YE ALS
NATION
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2015
november 2015 | RPM Magazine
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story by
June Allison photos by
Jene Hammond
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FAST FROST
J
ust like many of today’s fast street car racers, Platteville Colorado’s Matthew Frost grew up with a love for cars, especially fast ones, and would eventually turn this attraction into a passion to build and race them. One of his first ventures into building was a 1972 Camaro that he hit the streets with to race and cruise, but as often happens, the need for speed came upon him faster than expected and soon it was time to move the Camaro off o the side for a while and build something new. It was a 1932 big block blown coupe that caught his attention and once completed it was fast—fast enough to hit the tracks and get involved in some local “outlaw” style racing that seemed to be the hot ticket of the day, and it wasn’t long before Matt rose to the top of the list in the Colorado Street Outlaws. Frost’s collection and experience was growing, but he still wanted more. With an eye for style and impeccable detail—not to mention knowing how to make some serious horsepower, he set out to build his 1967 Chevy Nova—now known as “The ulk.” This build had a more defined purpose as Matt wanted to throw his hat into the ring and compete with some of the fastest street cars in
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november 2015 | RPM Magazine
Pit Mat
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THE HULK’S NOSE The Hulk hides twin 88mm Precision turbos behind the front grille. A keen eye will catch that the front bumper has been customized and flip ed upside down.
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november 2015 | RPM Magazine
FAST FROST tour-style drag racing, and the Hot Rod Drag Week Unlimited class is where he set his sights. Matt searched the web for the perfect find and purchased a full chassis Nova which went straight to his body shop, In & Out Customs and Collision, where it was immediately torn down. The ar came with fiberglass panels but Frost wanted real steel, although it would be a “heavy Chevy,” and some people thought he was crazy to choose steel over a lighter build. However, Frost wanted it to be a real car in as many ways as possible.
BIG OL’ SNAILS Yep, they really are that big...and there are two of them! Twin 88mm turbos hang off the f ont of the 632-inch AMS-built big block.
THE HULK’S TAIL When you take 3500 pounds up to almost 200mph you will need dual parachutes to get it shut down.
!!! www.rpm-mag.com | november 2015
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FAST FROST
DRIVEN Its the real deal, and to date the car already has over 4000 street miles on it!
NOW YOU SEE IT... ...now you don’t! Matt and his crew at In&Out Custom And Collision made the steel fenders and front end removable much like a fi erglass unit would be.
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november 2015 | RPM Magazine
So began the quest to refit the Chevy II with steel panels and engage in some trick body treatments along the way. A practice among Chevy II drag car builds is to flip the front bumper upside down, which takes some creative body work, but looks trick and takes a keen eye to notice. Matt and his crew also made the steel doors and front clip come off asily, much like fiberglass would. Once the body and mods were completed, Brandon Coddington and Brad Gadeken helped with painting the Nova. Using green, his favorite
color, Frost introduced the idea of adding orange, black and purple into the mix, and the final result is stunning. Frost started the Chevy II build in 2012 with the hopes of making Drag Week 2013, however, the original small block engine didn’t last through the gruelling dyno session just weeks prior to the event, dashing his hopes to go play with the big guns on the tour. Frost knew from the start that the small block he originally planned for the build was probably not the best choice anyway, so despite being disappointed about
the engine’s demise, he moved on…and moved up in the engine department. It was time to bring The ulk to life and Frost enlisted his friend and technical guru Brent Coddington as his right hand man, and, in a two-car garage they started to prepare the car for the new twin turbocharged big block Chevy. At a planned 632 cubic inches, although the monster would be tame at idle, it would get very mean when angered. Frost loaded up a truck full of parts for AMS Machine to get started on assembling the motor,
MATTHEW FROST’S 1967 CHEVY II
Chassis Type & Mods: Square tube chromoly tube chassis, 6.0 certification. Suspension: REAR: 4-link rear suspension with Big Gun double adjustable shocks and Strange sheet metal housing. FRONT: Heidts tubular A arm front end with Strange spindles and disc brakes and Big Gun double adjustable shocks. Body & Paint: Body is mostly sheet metal. Front clip is metal one piece removable, doors and body are steel, hood is aluminum, bumpers and trunk are glass. Body completed by Matt Frost, Brandon Coddington at In & Out Custom And Collision. Paint is Irish green candy on top, Rhapsody Purple stripe, Tequila Sunrise orange stripe, and black on the bottom with Dupont clear. Painted by Brad Gadeken and Brandon Coddington at In & Out Custom And Collision with the help Of Matt Frost and Cameron Frost. 3-D flames on hood done by Brandon Coddington. Engine: AMS-built 632-inch with Dart 10.2 Big M block. 4.75-inch stroke Windberg crank, GRP Pro Mod aluminum rods with 4.500 bore Diamond coated turbo pistons and Perfect Circle Hell Fire rings. Big Chief 18 degree offset heads that flow 515. 2.4 titanium intake and 1.9 nimonic super alloy exhaust valves. Jesel shaft mount rockers. Crower lifters with a custom ground camshaft. Profiler Hitman intake manifold polished by J&M polishing, Wilson intake elbow with a Wilson 105 throttle body, two sets of Billet Atomizer injectors (one set are 160lbs, second set are 225lbs). Larsen Race Cars water to air intercooler. Fuel Systems: RACE: Waterman mechanical 16 gpm pump with Aeromotive boost-regulated regulator. STREET: Aeromotive A1000 electric pump. Power Adder: Twin Precision Pro Mod 88 mm turbochargers. Electronics: Leash Electronics relay board for all car functions, Leash bump box, Bigstuff 3 en 3 ECM. Racepack V500 data system with IQ3 display dash. Hyperactive boost controller. Onboard compressor instead of co2. Transmission & Converter: M&M Turboglide trans with Pro Brake with M&M torque converter. Differential: Strange sheet metal housing with aluminum bolt through Strange center section with 3.89 gears, 40 spline Strange axles and Strange disc brakes. Performance: 7.23 and 197 mph in the quarter-mile.
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FAST FROST SPACE AT A PREMIUM The engine bay is a tight squeeze for the 632 and its twins. There’s not much room to work on the engine with the body in place, so The Hulk’s steel front clip needs to be removed for most repairs and maintenance. A frontmount fuel cell for racing and water-to-air intercooler sit out front of the big mill.
QUITE A STABLE Behind the Chevy II sits Frost’s first amaro and of course the blown coupe he made his initial mark in outlaw racing with.
while Coddington took charge of sourcing a Turboglide transmission and converter from M&M Transmission. When the motor returned from the machine shop, parts poured in daily and the duo worked endless hours at piecing the puzzle together. Once again though, despite the early start, it was a mad dash to get the car ready for Drag Week. Challenges like where to mount the massive
Precision pro mod 88mm turbos and how to route all the tubing in such a tight space were addressed, and to help, the pair enlisted the help of Zack Dickehage for fabrication. Finally, after months of long hot days and late nights it was time to breathe life into the beast, and the sound of success was amazing! With just a few days to test and tune the car before they had to pack up for Drag Week, Frost and
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FAST FROST UPTOWN TRUNK The large 20 gallon “street” fuel cell sits out back with batteries and the fi e suppression system bottle. The trick with a tour style drag car is to be able to switch to the rear fuel system with electronic pump and 20 gallon “pump gas” fuel cell when cruising the streets. his crew were still able to make the event, and while he fell short of completing the entire tour due to dropping a valve on the way back to the very last track after approximately 1100 street miles, it was still an amazing accomplishment. The ntire experience only strengthened Frost’s love of all things horsepower and set in motion a chain of events that would see him develop something even bigger, namely the Rocky Mountain Race Week. Frost set out not only to compete in tour events, but to start his own, and less than a year later the RPM Rocky Mountain Race Week was born. Frost planned the event with help from friends, associates and sponsors and competed in the Unlimited class of the event himself (covered in the
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november 2015 | RPM Magazine
WOULD YOU QUIT STARING AT THAT REAR END ALREADY?? A massive bulletproof Strange rear diff with Strange 40 spline axles sits front and center out back. Underneath, the car has been powder coated which makes cleaning after lengthy road trips a bit easier.
Check out the videos of Rocky Mountain Raceweek shot by MileHigh1320
GUTS OF THE HULK A street car is diffe ent than a drag car and a drag car is diffe ent than a street car, but The Hulk’s interior makes it a seamless transition to be both! The interior isn’t much for creature comforts, but it certainly gets the job done. Most of the intense electronics involved in a build at this level are tucked away neatly in the glove box and below the dash in the Nova.
continued on page 76
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FAST FROST
GET ON UP... TOP: The Hulk lights up the hides at Bandimere Speedway. BOTTOM: Yanking the wheels in the thin air of Colorado’s high altitude is no easy task‌unless you have 632 inches of twin turbo big block under the hood!
LOW IS COOL, AND THE COOLER IS LOW The massive radiator hangs low and can present challenges with bumps, potholes and even road-kill on the streets.
THOSE FLAMES, THOUGH... The paint work on the Chevy II catches attention wherever it goes. The flames in the aluminum hood are actually embossed into the body by hand, a technique that Matt is not willing to share with many people.
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november 2015 | RPM Magazine
Rob Pearson photo
Check out in-car footage of Matt Frost and his Nova in action:
QUICK CHANGE ARTIST Fresh off the street and preparing to hit the drag strip. Sept. 2015 issue of RPM), finishing third overall with his best time of 7.23 at 197 mph. So with all these accomplishments already under his belt, what’s next for Matthew
Rob Pearson photo
Frost? Watch for an attempt to top the 200 mph mark and break into the sixes in The Hulk for 2016, as well as a continued charge with the Rocky Mountain Race Week.
“RMRW was a huge success!” Frost said of his first event. “Thank you so much to everyone for their support. We are already making plans for next year and it’s only going to
Matthew Fro st & June Allison
get better, and I hope that this ends up being a long lasting relationship with everyone involved.”
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Page 68
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>> A small-tire 1970 Grand Sport with some real anger issues
Tabitha Sizemore
story and photos by
N
estled away in Kenton County, Kentucky, amongst the old oak trees and the roaming horses, is one of the oldest functional drag strips in the world. Full of friendly folks and inviting faces, pony power is a plenty, despite the age of the
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mature track. Slowly trickling through the gates at Th rnhill Dragstrip, are some of the quickest small tire cars in the area, all coming to play and battle it out for their piece of the pie from the Nsane Outlaw Series. And snaking its way through the pits, in all her big body glory, is the head-turning curves
november 2015 | RPM Magazine
of Justin Cox’s 1970 Buick Grand Sport, ready to get down to business. The ig booty Grand Sport is not one of the typical platforms most see now-a-days in the racing world, and that is quite alright, as this voluptuous nitrous fed GS knows how to get the job done, and gets it
done rather well. Being distinctive is one of the main reasons Justin built the car, as he’s quick to mention, “It’s different. It’s a Buick and not a Mustang!” Prior to the addition of the Volkswagen Green GS to the family, Justin started his love for racing behind the
wheel of an ’87 Buick Grand National, which he acquired in 1994. “I street raced it and
took it to the track for bracket racing. I eventually got tired of working on the Grand National, so I got myself a big block N/A car,” Cox shares, “which took about a year and a half to build.” What describes a man’s love for his car and his addiction to racing? The endless amount of
hard-earned money that is spent going faster? The ours upon hours of time devoted to busting knuckles and turning wrenches to get ready for that next outing? In the case of the newly purchased ’70 GS and devoted owner Justin, it involves sending your wife home with strangers! “In 2000, or 2001, I
went to Mountain Park Dragway, in Clay City, Kentucky for Street Wars. It was taking so long, I sent my wife home with strangers so I could continue racing. Strangers to her anyway,” Justin chuckled. “It was me and another guy in the final round, and we were the last ones there at two o’clock
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BUICK BEAST
BIG-N-BAD The ’70 GS was originally purchased as a bracket car with Lexan windows all around, fi erglass fenders and doors, and one racing seat. It took Justin just three weeks to refurbish this beauty back with steel doors and fenders, real glass, and full interior.
in the morning. I won, and was so tired I left ithout even picking up my money or trophy.” Co-owned by Justin and Harvey Cox, the Grand Sport was purchased in the late ’90s out of Cleveland, Ohio. “It was a full blown bracket car at that time, and started out with a 630 cubic inch BES Buick motor. I found the car
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in the Auto Trader back then and paid $10,000 for it in very good condition,” Justin recalls. “A couple years later we dropped an 890 cubic inch BES Buick motor in her, but we just couldn’t keep the big block Buick engines together. We went with a BES 565 big block Chevy after that, which we eventually blew up in 2010 at an 8.5 race in Georgia.”
november 2015 | RPM Magazine
Far from dainty, this beautiful VW Green Buick tips the scales at around 3,400 pounds. And at that weight has stopped the timers at a blistering 5.28 @ 137 in the eighth-mile while on 275 drag radials. Currently powering this machine is a 496 cubic inch stock block BES engine fed by an Induction Solutions Cross Bar nitrous plate.
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FEATURE CAR “When I started class racing in 2005, the car always had 26 x 8.5 slicks on it, and in 2010 it went a 5.35 at 139 on that tire. After the 565 blew at the 8.5 race in Georgia, the car sat for two years. I opened my own excavating business, and now I’m back at it with the 496 cubic inch BES stock block motor, because of the rules up here where we race. This is the first year I’ve had the 275/60-15 drag radial tire on it.” The atest mill is complemented by an Eagle rotating assembly, Ross pistons, BES G14 “classified” camshaft, and off-the-shelf GM performance heads. The adder bar suspension car is driven by wheel-
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november 2015 | RPM Magazine
NOT LAZY The Grand Sport has blistered the track with a personal best of a 5.28 in the eighth.
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BUICK BEAST
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man, Lonnie Diers, and has a 25.5 chromoly cage, fabricated by Gary Rohe. Rohe also did the fab work on the fender exit exhaust on the nitrous car. Filling in some of the juicy details, Justin shares, “She has Quarter-Max ladder bars, a braced 12-bolt rear end with chrome moly tubes, spool, 3.73 gear, anti-roll bar, double adjustable coil over shocks, and the stopping power of Strange brakes – front and rear. Jeff ohnson did the fancy dancy bracing job on the
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november 2015 | RPM Magazine
rear end, and he also scaled and aligned the car.� The ront of the ’70 sits on PA Racing upper and lower control arms, PA Racing custom made spindles for custom mount wheels, double adjustable front shocks, and has a custom built manual rack. The tunning big girl is as beautiful as she is fast, and was painted in 2004. “Larry Johnson did the paint work, the colors are a Volkswagen green with a GSX stripe.�
JUSTIN & HARVEY COX’S 1970 BUICK GRAND SPORT Chassis Type & Mods: 25.5 chromoly cage built by Gary Rohe. Suspension: FRONT: PA Racing upper and lower control arms, PA Racing custom made spindles for custom mount wheels, double adjustable Santhuff ront shocks, custom built manual rack. REAR: Quarter-Max ladder bars, 12-bolt rear end braced by Jeff ohnson. Spool, 3.73 gear, anti-roll bar, Santhuff ouble adjustable coil over shocks, Strange brakes. Body & Paint: Volkswagen Green with GSX stripes, painted by Larry Johnson. Engine: 496 stock block BES engine, Eagle rotating assembly, Ross pistons, BES G14 classified cam shaft, off-the-shelf GM performance heads, Pro-Filer intake, Holley Ultra Carb. Power Adder: Induction Solutions Cross Bar nitrous oxide plate. Electronics: RPM data logger complete with dash, MSD 7531 box, NLR nitrous controller, wiring by Jeff rightman of Precision Autosports. Transmission: Extreme Automatics Powerglide (switching to TH400 two-speed).
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As with any proper lady, she cannot give away all her secrets. So to find out more about this curvaceous beauty, one can catch her in action around her stomping grounds in the Ohio and Kentucky area; with the XOS, Nsane Outlaw Series, and OSCA, to name a few.
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As all racers know, going without an excellent support system, makes the sport we all love a much tougher world. Justin sends thanks to all of his family and friends who have been there to back him in so many ways. Justin’s gratitude goes out to his biggest supporters; his wife,
november 2015 | RPM Magazine
THE OFFICE The 25.5 chromoly cage was fabricated by Gary Rohe.
BUICK BEAST
BEAUTY IN THE BEAST The heart of the 1970 Buick is a 496 cubic inch stock block BES engine.
www.rpm-mag.com | november 2015
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BUICK BEAST
THE CREW! daughters, son, grandson, and mother. Lonnie Diers, the hired gun; Steve Mathews, the crew chief; Harvey Cox, Dad, golf cart
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TOP: From left to right: Lonnie driver, and chef; Diers, Justin, Steve Mathews, Jake Bowling, track Jake Bowling, and Bill Sizemore. supporter and RIGHT: Wheelman, Lonnie Diers is reader; and lastly, but not least; Cincy all business as the GS creeps Speed and S & M across the scales. This big gal Motorsports. weighs in at 3400 pounds!
november 2015 | RPM Magazine
RPM QUICK TECH
THE TEST MULE >> Breathing new life into an old star… Who says you can’t teach an old dog new tricks?
We Install AFR 205cc Renegade heads and a Quick Fuel Black Diamond 850 Carb on an elderly small block to make some solid new horsepower!
by
Tim Biro
A
s speed shop owners and tuners, we strive to be at the top, showcasing our skill and abilities by trying to build the baddest engines and cars on the planet. But we need to devise ways to do this within the budgets of our customers, which means constant testing. From all those test builds, triumphs and failures occur and we start to acquire a heck of a lot of used race parts. I am a firm believer that a well-engineered plan leads to the correct combination of parts that should always net positive results. After trying so many different combinations,
you come up with your own recipes for success to pass on to your customers and end up with many used, good quality parts for others to enjoy. Every shop has a test mule and a budget for this kind of research and development, and this “test it, test it again and then test it more” mindset really helps make each shop owner unique in their projects and results. After owning a speed shop for many years and still dabbling in the automotive game, I naturally had my own test mule. The car was purchased new in 1984—an ’85 Mustang Cobra GT, dubbed the FLY N 5. The car was campaigned through the late ’80s, ’90s,
and early 2000s as a shop car running in “true” street style drag racing in Canada and the United States. Now though, it is mainly a street car with the occasional drag strip appearance; probably close to something that most readers have in their garage and would love to update and turn back into a high power bruiser. The test mule gave us the ability to install different parts in diverse combinations from the many quality manufacturers that the high performance industry has available to us. The relationships that form between shops and the manufacturers, along with the sharing of test results, makes for a
great informational tool between the end users of the parts, the shop owners and the manufacturers. Successfully using all these parts, shop owners are more informed and become great advocates for the manufacturers. The test mule generally is a chassis that would be certified to go faster than it may ever go. It will probably have an oversized fuel system and over-strengthened transmission, driveshaft nd rear axle, and so on. These are all systems that provide longevity to the car’s life and give it the opportunity to provide a strong foundation for any power combination to be installed. In other words, you can pour the power to
it without worrying about failure elsewhere! FLY N 5 has had a gamut of quality new and used race parts installed into its chassis over the past thirty years. The current pushrod V8 engine combination was built from past parts used on it as the test mule (so you might say we are re-testing our previously tested parts) and includes a well-seasoned set of forged 11:1 compression pistons, used aluminum rods, and a used 3.750 inch stroke steel crank all stuffed in a rather elderly, well-enjoyed 9.500 inch Windsor-style race block. A custom solid roller cam is the only brand new part that was installed.
1: Our AFR cylinder heads shipped completely assembled, ready to bolt on, and The AFR Renegade exhaust ports look to be a perfect match to our 1-3/4 inch long tube headers.
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2 2: The QFT part number BDQ-850 Black Diamond Q-Series, 850 CFM mechanical secondary carburetor.
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3: The Renegade’s radius intake port is a full 205cc intake runner. The ported Victor Jr. intake found a perfect home bolted to the cylinder heads. 4: A nice reassurance touch to see the QC sticker on the deck.
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Camshaft pecs are 0.739 intake /0.690 exhaust lift, 249/264 degree duration @ .050, and 112 degree LSA. The engine was topped off with aluminum race cylinder heads that we tested with other equipment many times over, a ported Edelbrock Victor Jr. intake and a 4150-style 950 cfm carb. One summer morning, on the way to a show, ol’ FLY N 5 dropped a cylinder. Rather than be disappointed, though, our first thought was “what a good run we had with those old parts.” After further diagnosis, the failed part was one of a well-used
set of very old valve springs, which probably shouldn’t have seen the recent 7000 rpm burnout the week prior. However, sometimes we get comfortable with the combinations and forget how many cycles these old parts have actually seen. Thinking back, these are the same cylinder heads that propelled two other cars in the past. These hand-ported aluminum castings gulped a lot of nitrous and even found a home on my brother’s tubbed 1974 Capri that he raced at a couple of Mobile One Ford Challenges back in the early days of street car drags.
BOLT ON HORSEPOWER? YOU BETTER BELIEVE IT!
I decided that we had a good useable short block, and with the correct heads and carburetor, we could get to that 600hp mark at the motor. Armed with a plan, the motor came out. Over the past years of planning, building and massaging various parts for complete engines, I have had the pleasure of seeing a lot of quality parts and have always believed that AFR has one of the most advanced and high- quality
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RPM QUICK TECH cylinder heads available. The plan for this combination was to take an “off he shelf” cylinder head, bolt it on, and tell you all the good, the bad and the ugly. With a quick call down to our friends at AFR, together we came up with the part number 1450. This is their “Renegade” 20-degree competition cylinder head. It boasts a 205cc intake port and a 2.08 inch intake valve. All AFR
cylinder heads are 5-axis CNC ported to a desired port volume, meaning all the ports are exactly the same. One thing that I learned early on in this game that I’d like to pass on to readers is that when building any combination, the need for information can be significant. For me it is more of quest sometimes—a quest that has had me disassemble almost every part I have ever purchased simply to learn
5 5: Jerami from more about what I am AFR suggested installing on my car (or in the case of the the PAC Racing shop days, a customspring upgrade er’s car). It also helps to keep our keep me confident that valvetrain stable the parts I am using past 8000 rpm— have been correctly some good supplied and asseminsurance for the bled, so that there is next upgraded no gray area. Sure this camshaft install. takes extra time, but the rewards at start These dual coil up and in testing far Pacaloy springs exceed the time you’ve spec out at 250 committed to it. Prepounds seated cise preparation is the and 770 pounds key to any successful open. combination.
6: A good travel pattern was evident on the valve to help keep our used push rods alive in this engine.
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7: AFR’s 8mm valves are 15% lighter than 11/32 diameter valves which substantially reduces valve float, and ha e 10 degree beadlock style valve locks for superior clamping.
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Every time I complete a routine pre-install disassembly using AFR castings, I find their quality and workmanship to be second to none. Back in the day, we had to make our ports work through R&D of every cylinder head— countless hours with rotary tools and on the flow bench. Now, we live in a world where these ports are readily available for the consumer
assembled cylinder head comes ready to bolt on. But like I said, I disassemble and check everything nonetheless. The five-angle valve job is exquisite and the spring installed heights and pressures were all as requested. Impressed, and honestly just enjoying looking at these bad boys on the bench, it was time to reassemble and get the show on the road.
from a multitude of quality manufacturers to make the power that he or she desires, and at a very reasonable price. Thanks to folks like Jerami Patrick at AFR, these castings were no different. Each port is masterfully CNC ported to flow what they say they flow. The hardware quality from valves to guides, from springs to retainers, are all up to the task. The
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8: With dual springs with 10 degree titanium retainers, we will not encounter any valve float
9 Features
TSV Technology
9: They are also equipped with hardened spring cups to positively locate each spring, keep the premium Viton oil seals in place and not compromise valve control for additional power.
TECHNOLOGY IS WHERE IT’S AT
The last major part we had to acquire was a new, updated carburetor. The old carb was just plain worn out—but it served well for quite a long time. RPM has had a long relationship with Quick Fuel Technology and from my own days of owning a shop to most recently installing the heck out of their Hot Rod line
of carburetors, I have used their product with amazing success. Again, a quick call to QFT for some of that good old priceless information to work into our calculations, and we came up with an 850cfm carb as the choice. Bill Wetzel at Quick Fuel agreed and we ordered their part number BDQ-850 Black Diamond Q-Series, 850 CFM mechanical secondary carburetor. What I particularly like about this piece
We started from a clean sheet to create the most efficient, most advanced supercharger ever created for GM LS engines. Our revolutionary new intercooler design delivers more power than the competition run-after-run, regardless of how hot it is outside. With factory-like drivability, a bypass valve for enhanced fuel economy, and OEM-level fit and finish that looks great under the hood, Magnuson's Heartbeat is true horsepower without compromise.
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is that it has their unique high temperature NitroPlate® coating, which is impervious to under hood chemicals and fuels. Another cool aspect – it’s black! QFT figures this coating provides a 6% reduction in fuel temperature, which will be needed when the FLY N 5 rips up the streets, and track! The QFT carb is also bolton right out of the box, but we disassembled ours to help explain what’s inside. For many years, we have all struggled with sticky carburetor gaskets. Well, have no fear, as QFT provides a very good no-stick gasket that also seals very well. Cool mods include a fuel bowl site glass, billet metering blocks, a billet throttle body, screw in air bleeds, rear bowl jet extensions, aluminum main body and fuel bowls, and a 1-to-1 linkage option, all making this lightweight carburetor very well equipped and ideally suited for easy adjustments.
TIME TO BOLT ON THE BOLTS ONS
It worth mentioning once again that prior to going forward with ordering our bolt-on parts for the project, we confirmed that we had no piston damage from the valve due to the valve spring failure. We slowly removed our old
cylinder heads expecting to see a nice divot or hole in a piston, but were pleasantly surprised (and impressed) that there was no damage, meaning we were good to go and wouldn’t have to get into the short block. The new cylinder heads were installed with our existing ½-inch head studs, washers and 12-point nuts. The push rod length was checked and the old rods were good to go. We did replace our existing 1.7 ratio intake rocker arms as the old ones did not clear the AFR spring diameter. Having used Scorpion rockers in the past for this kind of application, we opted for a set of their Pro Rockers to cure our clearance problem. With the heads torqued and the valve train lashed, we moved to installing the intake manifold. AFR sent a detailed instruction/spec sheet and their suggested gaskets were perfectly suited to the port design. We did encounter some header to chassis fitment issues, but after making a few shims and enlisting a lot of help from our resident young apprentice Shasha, we made it all work. We primed the motor, dropped in the distributor, and installed the new QFT 850. We checked the float level, baselined the throttle blades and idle screws, and she fired right up!
100% CNC exhaust port (10), intake port (11), and 58cc combustion chamber (12). A great look at where the 2.08 inch intake and 1.60 inch exhaust valves seat.
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11 12
13
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13: Cylinder heads are torqued and awaiting the addition of the new 1.7 Scorpion Pro Rockers and our previously enjoyed 1.6 ratio rocker arms.
TESTING, 1, 2, 3, 6500, 7500…
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We set the timing to 34 degrees locked, jumped in the car, and took ’er for a rip! Once on the road, be sure to pay close attention to noises or anything that may not be right. It’s a lot better to be a bit overcautious than a lot overzealous. In our case, everything seemed good to go, soooo, coming back from the required warm up, I
stopped at a stop sign and rolled into the accelerator very gradually in first gear to 6500 rpm. Going a good speed, I stepped on the clutch, pulled it into second gear and mashed the throttle. The engine screamed with pleasure, barely keeping the sticky Mickeys planted. The rpm instantly shot to 7500 rpm as the car was now sideways. I straightened her up, and drove back to the shop with that feeling we all love—the power level that breaks tires free at will
RPM QUICK TECH
Check out the dyno pull by scanning the QR code here:
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14: With the new rockers on the intake side and our retainer clearance problem fi ed, the engine was ready for installation. 15: This black diamond looks like it should be on the wife’s finger! he new QFT Black Diamond 850 carburetor is one awesome piece of hardcore engine bling, that works!.
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and gives you that plantedin-the-seat feeling that only instant, hardcore acceleration can—smiles and thumbs-up all around! The next stop was the dyno. Before the dyno session, we had to check the valve lash, verify correct timing and jet the carb. The QFT carb was a dream to work on—changing jets and air bleeds was a snap. Jay, of Misener Motorsports, (AKA The Dynocologist) and I tuned the car on his Dynojet 224 mobile chassis dyno. After making gradual changes in jetting, using half pump gas and half 110 octane fuel, we achieved our goal of 500 rear wheel horsepower (scan the QR code above to view the dyno pull). We were impressed, especially as the car also has a fairly long exhaust system exiting just before the rear axle (it’s a real street car). Getting back to the title of one of those old spaghetti westerns Clint Eastwood did…the good, is that anyone can purchase these parts at
an affordable price and make some serious naturally aspirated horsepower. The bad, was really hard to find— we had very few hiccups, and I would say the header-to-chassis fitment was the biggest obstacle to overcome. The ugly? Well that is definitely in the future, as we will probably need to upgrade the transmission in this combination. Plus, I’m not sure if anyone caught a glimpse of the plate and solenoids under the carb…but the future also looks full of nitrous for this old mule. Despite getting pretty close to the end of the race season, the gang at RPM was putting the screws to us to take FLY N 5 down the track before this issue hit the stands, and we really did try, but rain forced the cancellation of our testing. So unless we can get to the strip in late, late fall, ET and MPH will have to wait until spring. Until then, enjoy your performance projects and keep on building!
SOURCES 16
16: After the street test we hit the chassis dyno and produced a tick over 500 rear wheel horsepower and 466 pounds of torque. Once we calculate in an average horsepower loss from fl wheel to rear wheels we’ve reached our 600 engine horsepower goal. And the car defini ely feels and acts like a completely diffe ent animal…amazing what a few bucks invested in some new technology can do!
Air Flow Research
Quick Fuel Technology
www.airflowresearch.com 877.892.8844
270.793.0900 www.quickfueltechnology.com
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RPM PROJECT CAR
ENGINE BUILD PART 1 >> The short block is ready to rock!
Tommy Eufemia
by
F
irst, we needed a solid platform for this engine build so we contacted PBM for a World Products Motown II block. With the power levels we are looking to make it was essential to get as strong a bottom end together as we could. A forged Scat crankshaft nd H beam rods upgraded with ARP2000 rod bolts should help with that. Diamond Pistons knocked off a set of custom pistons for the combination that are truly a work of art. We’ll be using Total Seal gapless rings on them and Mahle Clevite supplied their H series bearings for our bottom end.
Once we had all the parts it was time for me to get to work. The first thing I always do is check main bore dimensions, block deck height, journal dimensions of the crank, rod big-end size and pin bushing size. Bearing clearance is critical on every engine build, and this being a turbo build, I wanted .003 on the mains and .0025 on the rods. After mocking everything up I ordered the bearings that would give us the desired clearance. The next step is machining the block. We decked it to 9.025 which leaves the piston in the hole .015, and leaves plenty of room for rebuilds that may require decking the
block in the future. Next, I hone the cylinders with a torque plate to achieve .007 piston to wall clearance. We also torque the main caps before honing so the block is stressed in the same manner as if it was assembled. I hone with a specific stone for the type of rings used and finish with a plateau brush. Some blocks are much more susceptible to cylinder bore distortion, and a 4.125 bore small block Chevy is definitely one of them. With the block machine work done, the next step is to balance the crank. Most quality aftermarket pistons and rods are manufactured with such close tolerances that
1 1: We balanced the Scat crank to less than 1 gram on the Pro Bal balancer.
2: Decking the block to 9.025 on the Bad Attitude DCM HB3800 with CBN cutter.
2
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3: A Sunnen CV616 with torque plate was used for honing the cylinders to final si e.
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4: The custommade Diamond pistons with double coating are a work of art.
4 5: With some calculations based on our combination along with help from the folks at Howards, we were able to decide on a custom ground solid roller camshaft.
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no grinding or milling is needed to weightmatch them, and these were no exception. We balance the crank on every engine build, and on a race engine that will see much higher loads and RPMs it is extremely important to get the imbalance as low as possible because when RPM increases the imbalance increases exponentially. The Scat crank only needed a small hole drilled in the rear counterweight, but the front needed a little extra attention. The leading edge of the front counterweight had to be milled down to bring the imbalance to a spot on the counterweight that could be easily drilled. With everything cleaned, cam bearings and brass freeze plugs were then installed. The top ring was file fitted
to a gap of .031 and the second to .027. It was then time to start assembling the short block. Howards Cams spun us up a custom-ground solid roller camshaft nd a Cloyes billet true roller timing set was used. With the number one piston and rod installed, TDC (Top Dead Center) was located and the cam was degreed-in off he number one intake lobe. A cylinder with checker-springs was installed to check piston to valve clearance and pushrod length was determined using adjustable pushrods. The cam specced out at .600 lift n the intake and exhaust with 245 degrees duration at .050 for both. It also had a 110 degree intake centerline and 114 degrees of lobe separation.
Designed to meet the demanding
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8 7 7. 9 3 5 . 3 6 6 1 W E L D O N R A C I N G . C O M
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RPM PROJECT CAR 6
8: We went with a trusted brand for timing our mouse motor and chose a Cloyes billet true roller timing set.
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8 6: We used a Total Seal gapless ring set with steel top ring for the soonto-be boosted small block. Gapless rings are critical for boosted applications like our turbocharged setup to minimize blowby.
ABOUT BAD ATTITUDE
7: Super-tough Scat H beam rods with ARP2000 rod bolts were chosen for our turbo’d small block workhorse.
9: Clevite H-series bearings were used for the cam bore, the rods, and the mains. Initially developed for NASCAR engines, these coated bearings are well-suited for all types of competition engines.
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I always install the cam first, in case the cam bearings need to be fit to the cam. Next, the crank goes in and main caps are just snugged down. I use a composite piston installer to tap the crank forward and back to seat the thrust bearing. Thrust clearance came in at .005. Main studs and bolts could now be torqued using ARP moly lube. Rod bolts were tightened using a rod bolt stretch gauge which is much more accurate than simply torquing them. Also, rod side clearance
november 2015 | RPM Magazine
was checked before final assembly and came in at .018. Project Back on Track’s bulletproof 400-inch small block Chevy bottom end is now ready for all the boost we are willing to throw at it—and knowing us, that will be a lot! With some cylinder heads and an induction system, we’ll be just about ready to fire it up. Tune in next month as we continue to get this third-gen Camaro Back on Track!
Located in Morriston, Florida, Bad Attitude Engines has been serving the performance and race industry since 2000. Bad Attitude Engines owner Tommy Eufemia has over 35 years experience building and assembling winning combinations, shipping engines worldwide for street machines, drag cars, circle track, road course, tractor pulling, monster trucks, airboats, and jet boats. Every job is given Tommy’s personal attention to detail, whether it is a simple valve job or a complete race engine. Bad Attitude also completes machine work for many high performance shops and engine builders throughout Florida and Georgia. “It was a pleasure to be able to lend our services to this project and I’d like to personally thank all the manufacturers that came on board for it. I’ve known Blake for years and couldn’t be happier to help him get ‘Back On Track,’ Eufemia said.
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10: From the top side of the assembled short block, you can see engine at TDC with the coated Diamond Racing piston sitting at the top of the first cylinder.
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11: From the bottom end, the forged Scat crank and H-beam rods can be seen along with the Cloyes billet true roller timing chain.
SOURCES Bad Attitude Engines
Mahle Clevite
www.badattitudeengines.com 352.528.5386
www.us.mahle.com 423.581.6603
Cloyes Performance
PBM Performance
www.cloyes.com 479.646.1662
www.pbm-erson.com 800.588.9608
Diamond Racing
Scat
wwwdiamondracing.net 586.792.6620
www.scatcrankshafts.com 310.370.5501
Howards Cams
Total Seal Rings
www.howardscams.com 920.233.5228
www.totalseal.com 800.874.2753
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The latest technology for your Big Block Chevy 3D milling
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RPM QUICK TECH
WE CHECK OUT THE WASPCAM >> The new standard in action cameras
T
here’s nothing quite like being behind the wheel of a car, but talk is cheap. WASPcam lets you show, not tell. You know what you can do, and with WASPcam you can prove it. WASPcam offe s several options for High Definition Video recording. What is more, WASPcam has a wide assortment of accessories needed to document your adventures behind the wheel and everywhere else.
This rapidly growing action-sports camera company prides itself in making the best quality product at the most aff rdable price. With WASPcam you can relive every pass, every perfect run, and everything in between. Simple to use and tailored to suit your needs, WASPcam has a variety of products that will help you make polished, professional video at the press of a button. We tried out the versatile WASPcam 9902 Gideon
system along with the unique wireless wrist remote at a recent event and we were thoroughly impressed. Considered WASPcam’s gold-standard automotive product, the Gideon is a full-featured action cam well suited to any number of high def video shooting tasks. We also discovered that the high quality wide-angle lens makes it an excellent tool for shooting high resolution digital still images of tight engine bays and interiors (for proof, check out the October
STUCK QUITE NICELY We used our new WASPcam Gideon 9902 at the Street Machine Nationals and were impressed. The 9902 comes with a wireless wristwatch remote and retails for around $340 with the remote and $270 without. We picked up a suction cup mount on eBay for $20, and WASPcam also has a line of trick billet clamps perfect for in-cockpit mounting in your racecar.
REMOTELY COOL The unique WASPcam LVD wireless wrist remote sells for around $120 and can control the Gideon 9902/9904 cameras from up to 15 feet away. It is waterproof to nearly 200 feet and features an LCD screen that lets you preview your shoot via a live video feed, eliminating the guesswork about optimal camera placement before you start recording footage.
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RPM QUICK TECH issue of RPM where two of our features include images shot on the Gideon). The Gideon records at 1080p/60fps, 1080p30, 960p60 and 720p120. And unlike other action cams, a wireless wrist remote controls the camera’s photo and video functions up to 15 feet away, freeing up your phone (and its battery) for other tasks—critical for us during an event where our phone always seems to be in use and with a dying battery. The watch remote features a Live Viewing Display (LVD) showing exactly what the camera is recording. This takes the guesswork out of making videos. Whether recording inside the cockpit, or mounted outside the vehicle, the Gideon will capture the clean and crisp footage you want.
Check out these videos shot on a WASPcam by Ryan Cueni:
Other features of the Gideon include built-in wi-fi llowing for instant sharing and live viewing on a smartphone, auto-loop functionality and the option between 5, 8, 12 ,and 16 megapixel photo quality. We picked up a suction cup mount and a couple of micro SD cards on eBay and were ready to go in no time. Both the camera and the wireless remote charge via USB inputs using the supplied cables. Note that the camera and the remote use diffe ent connectors, so be sure to pack them both to ensure uninterupted use on a busy weekend. We made the mistake of failing to fully read the instructions prior to ordering our memory cards and ended up buying two 128GB micro SDs that were not compatible with
DASHCAM AND MORE The 9401 P.O.D. is WASPcam’s top-of-theline, full featured dashcam device. It seems inaccurate to simply call it a camera, as it offers GPS fun tionality along with integration into your car’s OBD-II data port for data overlay along with the incredible high def video capture.
PACKAGE DEAL The Gideon 9902 system comes with both the WASPcam LVD wireless wrist remote and the Gideon high-def camera. The LVD has a rechargable battery and provides normal wristwatch functions like time, date, alarm clock, and lap timer, too.
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the Gideon. It will support up to a 64GB card, which is still good for hours of recording or thousands of still images depending upon the resolution in which you choose to shoot.
In addition to the Gideon, WASPcam also offe s a dashcam that can function as a GPS and an onboard diagnostic so you can focus on what’s going on behind the wheel while getting to where you need to be. The 9401 P.O.D., WASPcam’s top-of-the-line auto-
motive camera, is a unique take on the dashcam and offe s the same reliability and quality action camera customers have come to expect. The P.O.D. works as an OBD-II (on-board diagnostic) recorder and a dashcam. It is equipped with built-in GPS, a 2.7-inch
ENTRY LEVEL DOESN’T HAVE TO MEAN CHEAP QUALITY WASPcam’s newest product, the TACT features wireless control like the Gideon but the simplified emote with a 1.5-inch LCD screen built into the back of the camera instead. You can pick it up with a high def camera, wireles remote, and a whole boatload of accessories all included for around $200, making it an exceptional value.
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Camlock from $139.95 RaceQuip also manufactures SFI rated window nets and mount kits, as well as a complete line of gear for Jr. Dragster Racers.
WWW.RACEQUIP.COM • 813-642-6644
Online Orders Are Shipped From The Nearest Stocking Dealer.
All Prices Shown are Racer Net – Shop Our Dealers for Best Pricing.
RPM QUICK TECH TACT REMOTE The WASPcam TACT system comes with an included wireless remote, again freeing you from using your smartphone to control the camera.
TACT CAM The new WASPcam TACT camera features a 1.5inch LCD screen on the back of the camera and can shoot in full glorious 1080p high def video or 12 megapixel still photo mode. It can serve as a great entrylevel camera for anyone just getting into the action camera game.
16:9 TFT LCD display, a built-in microphone and speaker, an auto-start/ stop recording function, and a G-sensor. The P.O.D. records HD video at 1080p/30fps, 720p/60fps, 720p/30fps and 480p/30fps. Its 1/3-inch CMOS image sensor has a 148-degree view angle in order to catch as much of the road as possible, and the OBD interface displays the car’s diagnostic info on the screen. The TACT is the newest product in WASPcam’s product line. Waterproof up to 98 feet without any external protective case, the TACT is the go anywhere, see anything addition to WASPcam’s line of exceptional cameras. New with the TACT is a built-in 1.5-inch
LCD screen on the back of the camera. The TACT records HD video at 1080p/30fps, 720p/60fps, WVGA 60fps and VGA 120fps. It can record at 5, 8, and 12 megapixel photo quality, and comes with a wireless wrist remote. Its built-in wi-fi also allows instant sharing, live viewing, and remote control through a smartphone app. If you are in the market for a new (or your first) action camera, be sure to check out the whole line from WASPcam. Not only are they high quality and competitively priced, but they incorporate a number of features you simply won’t find in any other brand. For more information visit waspcam.com.
www.rpm-mag.com | november 2015
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RPM COOL TOOLS
Making AN Braided Hoses with Koul Tools >>Your fingers will thank you!
by
James Williams
I
f you have ever tried to assemble Army/Navy (AN) braided hoses, then you have most certainly experienced the dreaded “braid spread.” No matter how carefully you try to tape and cut the hose, as soon as you attempt to thread the fitting in place, the braid frays, exits the inner surface of the fitting, and likely painfully pokes you in thumb and fingers.
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Until Dick Raczuk came along, you were pretty much out of luck, forced to suffer (and likely cuss) your way through the AN hose assembly process. However, Raczuk is a good ol’ American hot rodder—not to mention a pretty clever inventor. While walking the aisles at the 2014 Performance Racing Industry trade show, we were intrigued by the Koul Tools booth and we asked the com-
november 2015 | RPM Magazine
pany’s founder to show us something “Koul.” He certainly delivered. The AN Assembly Tool is one of those inventions you look at and wonder why you didn’t think of the idea first. Available in common AN sizes from -4 through -16 individually and in convenient combo packages, the AN Assembly Tool makes hose assembly quick and painless. The tool is essentially a small funnel that forces
all parts of the frayed hose end into a smaller opening that just happens to feed directly into the bottom end of your favorite brand of anodized AN fitting. Assembly tools range in price from $30 for a single -6, -8, or -10 size to $75-$90 for three-piece kits (depending on sizes). You can also buy the Pro Combo with all available sizes for $150, saving you $15 over the cost of purchasing each kit seperate-
ly. Given the prices of AN plumbing, the tools won’t break your budget, and trust us—the time, pain, and suffering you will save is more than worth the expense! We ordered up p/n 681, the “Hot Rod Kit” that includes tools for -6, -8, and -10. In addition to the tools themselves, the kit came packaged in a handy blow-molded plastic case and included various spacers and
1 1: We ordered the Koul Tools p/n 681 “Hot Rod” kit, which includes a tool for -6, -8, and -10 tool most often used for fuel and oil system plumbing. The kit sells for $80. Money well spent!
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4: With the socket portion of the fitting loaded into the tool, it is a simple process of threading the hose into the fla ed opening that funnels the frayed braid into the open end of the fittin .
5: Using Earl’s urethane vise jaws helps protect the anodized finish during assembly. With the socket end threaded with the previously frayed hose, you are ready to complete assembly as usual. thorough instuctions. Ready to plumb up our transmission cooler, we grabbed our Summit Racing Equipment hoses and fittings, our new -6 Koul Tools AN Assembly Tool, and promptly got to work. Hose assembly was transformed from something we dreaded into a real snap. We cut the hose as per usual, taping the end thoroughly and using an abrasive cut-off saw to make the cut (a hack saw works fine, too) to length. Using a blow gun, we shot a couple of quick blasts to dislodge any debris (blow from the end AWAY from where you
just cut). Loading the socket end of the fitting into the AN Assembly Tool, we used one of the supplied spacer disks to ensure a tight fit. Our Summit fittings required just one, but variations between manufacurers means that may vary. Placing the other half of the tool in place to create the “funnel,” we then clamped it into our bench vise and twisted the hose into the socket fitting. No pricked fingers, no dirty words, and no problems later, our hose and socket fitting were blissfully united. Next, we pulled the hose and fitting out of
2: We taped this Summit Racing -6 hose with thick tape then cut it using an abrasive cut-off whee . As careful as we were, you can still see the braid slightly delaminating and flaring ou wardly at the tip. Putting this into the open end of a fitting ould usually be somewhat of a challenge. Not with an AN Assembly Tool! 3: With the socket end of the fitting in han , all you need to do is take the clamshell AN Assembly Tool and load your fitting in place. The orifi e of the tool is funnelshaped to help push that frayed hose down into the precise opening in the fittin . Place the top of the tool in position and clamp it securely in the vise and you are ready to rock.
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3
SOURCES Koul Tools www.koultools.com 928.854.6706
5
Summit Racing Equipment www.summitracing.com 800.230.3030
Earl’s Performance Plumbing www.earls.com 270.781.9741
the tool and clamped it into our vise using a pair of Earl’s urethane jaws to avoid marring the finish. We applied a drop or two of lube on the threads of the other half of the fitting and started it into the socket fitting. Using our adjustable AN fitting hose wrench, we completed the assembly. We can’t say enough good things about the Koul Tool AN Assembly Tool. It is remarkably simple and incredibly effective. The next time you even consider making an AN hose, do yourself a favor and order one or more.
www.rpm-mag.com | november 2015
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RPM PROJECT CAR
W
e’ll admit it. We look forward to the day when we can show you grand-scale progress in these pages that includes putting some color on our custom chromoly chassis or—even better— the car itself. Or maybe the day when we fi st fi e the Kaase Boss Nine with it nestled in the framerails. Or fi st pull the Hurst QuarterStick back and inch the car forward under her own power. Or any number of other monumental fi sts. But in order to get to that day, we know we have way more days like those that dotted this past month. But it is in these relatively pedestrian tasks that
1
CREEPIN’ ALONG story by
PART 19
Toby Brooks
>>Slow progress is still progress as we 1: Delicious billet goodness: There simply isn’t much that’s cooler continue to inch ever- closer to getting looking than a freshly-milled CNC cut part. And when it is something as awesome and over-the-top as the world’s first oss Nine billet cover? As our 2006 Mustang project car to paint our friends in the Northeast would say, “Fuhgedaboutit!” Michigan-based Visner Engine Development cut these beauties on their mill and they are currently working on a wild billet intake manifold to match.
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november 2015 | RPM Magazine
2
2: What is it? That’s what we asked, too. Bobby Starcher has been busy painstakingly piecing together these laser-cut scalloped strips into a trick mounting system for the carbon and aluminum panels that will finish out the ar. The cleco pins will eventually be replaced by stainless steel Allen-headed fasteners.
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the real details of any build take shape, and that’s precisely what we have been up to since we last met here in October. As usual, progress is occurring simultaneously across the country. First up, as we showed you last month, Visner Engine Development (VED) in Grand Rapids, Michigan fin shed up all the necessary CNC
programming to carve up the world’s fi st set of billet Boss Nine valve covers. Starting with two enormous chunks of T-6061 billet, VED founder, owner, and resident SolidWorks guru Dave Visner fi ed up the VED 5-axis CNC mill and proceeded to produce an equally huge pile of aluminum shavings—and quite possibly the most
jaw-dropping pair of valve covers the world has ever laid eyes on. Using artwork we supplied, Visner also added a custom “Boss 529” mark along with the VED logo on the cover tops. Our initial plan was to apply a high tech ceramic coating and paint fill the accents, but the covers turned out so incredible we are tempted to just bolt
4
3 & 4: With the scallop pieces tacked in place, Starcher then trimmed pieces from the Wildside Composites carbon fi er sheet to finish out the spaces behind the huge 40-inch carbon fi er wheel tubs.
www.rpm-mag.com | november 2015
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RPM PROJECT CAR 5
5: This opening in the rear bumper is being trimmed out with matching scalloped pieces and carbon. This view also provides a straight shot at the serious hardware out back, including the S & W Race Cars fabricated 9-inch housing, the RIdeTech ShockWaves, and the Baer Brakes rotors and mounts. Imagine what it will look like with some color!
them on as they are and go. After all, they will match the new intake that is being fin shed up by VED. Speaking of the intake, progress on it has moved along since last month. With the runners and valley pan areas of the intake completed digitally, Visner turned his attention to the throttle body mounting area and the provision for the small 4-port nitrous stage that will reside just behind it. Using a quartet of dry nitrous nozzles, threaded ports will be
machined into a small spacer plate bolted between the throttle body and its mounting flange on the intake’s upper plenum. Meanwhile, each runner has been designed with a mounting bung provision for two injectors per cylinder as well as a nitrous fogger on both the top and bottom surfaces. Counting the two foggers per cylinder and the 4-port system up top, that’s 20 ports of NOS nitrous— an intentional tip of the cap to pro street legend Rick Dobbertin and his
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6: On the other side of that rearend housing is even more of the good stuff, as the Moser aluminum center section has been loosely snugged into position in order to check the fitment of the DynoTech 4-inch T-6061 aluminum driveshaft. While we considered going with a carbon fi er unit, the short shaft length as a result of the Gear Vendors overdrive is actually lighter in aluminum than it is in carbon. When you throw in the fact that carbon is nearly triple the price and has a lead time of 4-5 weeks as opposed to aluminum’s 2-3 day lead time, it was a no brainer decision. Trial fitment he e shows that the shaft was measured and built to the perfect length.
www.rpm-mag.com | november 2015
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RPM PROJECT CAR iconic Pontiac J-2000. Hopes are high that fi al design and machining on the intake will wrap up in time for next month’s installment, because some 800+ miles southeast of VED, Virginia Rod Company has been trying to stay dry while making steady progress on the chassis and tin/ carbon work but will be ready for that intake in order to complete fabrication on the intake charge tubes. Faced with historic rainfall punctuated by landfall of Hurricane Joaquin, the guys at VRC have had their hands full with some real problems in and around their coastal community, so understandably progress has been somewhat limited. Limited progress is still progress, though, and Bobby Starcher of VRC has been busy fin shing out the carbon work in the rear of the car. Using laser-cut custom scalloped panel mounts, Starcher has been intricately piecing together a trick mounting system that will allow pieces of our Wildside Composites carbon fiber sheet to bolt right in. Once the mounts are fully welded and powder coated, the end
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result will be strong, lightweight, and promises to look fantastic. In order for the chassis fabrication to be completed, the crew at VRC is still waiting on a few pieces so that they can weld in the appropriate mounting provisions. Probably the most important piece is a custom aluminum radiator. While we considered an off- heshelf model from a number of manufacturers, we fi ally settled on a custom-built model from Saldana Racing Products. Not only will this ensure maximum radiator size given our tight space constraints, it also will allow us to incorporate some pretty unique—dare we say “cool”—additions to our street/strip cooling system. We knew from the start that cooling would be a challenge to say the least on our twin ProCharged 529 ci Kaase Boss. Saldana came to our rescue with an entire cooling system design that will incorporate both a mechanical and electric pump along with cutting-edge SPAL brushless fans that are both highly effective and effici t. First, Saldana designed a 33x20x3 triple fl w radiator that
november 2015 | RPM Magazine
7: This view of the driver’s side fl or pan shows not only the fabricated aluminum work under the seat, but also the Tuff Stuff olished aluminum master cylinder and the heavy duty steel transmission tunnel. “I built it out of a heavier gauge steel to retain parts and pieces in the event of a catastrophic failure,” Starcher said. Our unmangled flesh thanks you, Bobby!
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8
8: No off-th -shelf radiator would quite fit our need , so it was straight to the drawing board. Peter Wilska of Saldana Racing Products got us started with a simple sketch to determine overall dimensions, bung number and placement, and general design. Note the sketch included a provision for a radiator-mounted electric pump as seen in the lower lefthand corner of the initial drawing.
9
10 included provisions for a pair of -12 AN bungs up top as well as mounting provisions for a Meziere WP-361 billet electric radiator-mounted water pump down low. The made-in-USA electric pump provides an impressive fl w of 55 gpm and will be critical for ensuring good coolant circulation, particularly for slow-speed cruising situations when the car is idling around and the mechanical pump isn’t spun fast enough to keep
the fl w rate up. The black anodized billet housing bolts directly to the lower radiator port, minimizing risk for leaks and other problems. Complementing the Saldana radiator and Meziere pump are be a pair of SPAL NUOVA sealed brushless cooling fans. Brushless technology has rapidly become the “standard� in high performance cars like the C7 Corvette. Th s groundbreaking design can maintain
9 & 10: The Meziere WP-361 billet radiator-mounted electric pump fl ws 55 gpm and will really help prevent overheating in slow engine speed cruising situations. It is also available in a dual outlet configu ation and comes complete with a machined bracket that is TIG welded to the radiator tank at the lower opening.
www.rpm-mag.com | november 2015
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november 2015 | RPM Magazine
RPM PROJECT CAR 11
11 & 12: The all-new SPAL brushless NUOVO fans are state-of-the-art and provide unmatched airfl w in a relatively compact, quiet, and efficient form actor. The sealed motor assembly can actually run when submerged in water, making it highly durable on the street. Saldana Racing is fabricating a custom radiator mount in order to affix a pair of the 10-inch del #30107089 units to the aluminum radiator. This will prevent us from having to use the typical through-the-core mounting method that can expose the unit to abrasions and other damage. Together, the fans will fl w more than 4,000 CFM and will be connected so that they will continue running after shutting the car down if desired. That amount of airfl w will be necessary, as VRC will also have to fabricate mounts for the twin B&M HiTek transmission coolers as well as the Vintage Air condenser unit, too.
12
optimal effici cy even under extreme load conditions. Traditional brushed electric cooling fans are rated according to CFM output at a static (unloaded) pressure. Based on these ratings, many brushed fans will experience a dramatic reduction in effici cy (as much as 60%) under load. Utilizing brushless technology allows for a design that maintains optimal effici cy without drawing enormous amounts of power to do so. We had SPAL send out a pair of their #30107089 10-inch brushless fans along with sending units and harness adapters. The fans will pull more than 4,000 CFM through the radiator, an unheard of amount of airfl w for a design so compact. They also feature a “soft tart� feature that eliminates electrical in-rush spike
www.rpm-mag.com | november 2015
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RPM PROJECT CAR and they are guaranteed to run cooler and quieter than traditional designs. The sealed motor structure is waterproof and resistant to vibration. Elsewhere on the build, our one-off udnik Wheels aPocalypSe steering wheel arrived, complete with horn button and custom billet adapter to mate it to the quick-release steering column mount. The wheel was designed to mimic the look of the one-off illet street wheels we have for the build, and the end result was just the look we were after. Although the wheel is brushed for now, we’ll treat it to a custom ceramic coating and leather
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wrap once interior fin shing commences. Lastly, out in California, the crew at DJ Safety got started on our copious amounts of safety equipment, including 5-way harnesses, dual parachutes, window and wheelie bar netting, and a 10-pound fi e bottle system. We’ll feature more on this next month once the guys from VRC get to installing it. With that said, take solace in knowing we are working hard nearly everyday to get this thing done and to a show or race near year for the 2016 season. Keep checking back on our progress as we work to usher in the Second Coming of Pro Street!
SOURCES
13: The one-off aPocalypSe steering wheel arrived from Budnik Wheels. The machined details in the spokes match the one-off road wheels nicely. 14: DJ Safety received our templates and started making the window and wheelie bar safety nets. We’ll have much more on selection and install of the DJ Safety equipment next month.
november 2015 | RPM Magazine
Visner Engine Development www.visnerengine.com 616.726.6600
Virginia Rod Company www.varodco.com 757.596.7275
Saldana Racing Products www.saldanaracingproducts.com 317.852.4193
Meziere Enterprises www.meziere.com 800.208.1755
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SPAL Automotive www.spalusa.com 800.345.0327
Budnik Wheels www.budnik.com 714.892.1932
DJ Safety www.djsafety.com 323.221.0000
Frosty the Go-Man. Cold weather won’t stall your project. And it won’t stop us from supplying you with the parts and tools you need to get the job done. That way, you’ll spend next spring driving instead of wrenching. From tires and tools to T-shirts and toys, rely on us to fuel your high-octane holiday.
1930s Vintage Gas Pump Drink Dispenser
• Holds 32 oz. of your favorite beverage • Chrome plated steel base • Stands 19" tall
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High Performance Valve Spring Kits
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International Sales: USA 1.330.630.0230 Tech: USA 1.330.630.0240 • SCode: 1511RPC Call by 10 pm EST: In-Stock Parts Shipped That Day! Find it at Prices good through 12/1/15 • Typographical, description, or photography errors are subject to correction. Some parts are not legal for sale or use on any pollution-controlled motor vehicles. ©2015 AUTOSALES, INC.
Direct-fit Flex-a-fit Radiators Featuring patented sidetank tank technology. The “T” channels offer 130 percent better heat transfer, a durable mounting system for the radiator, electric fan and optional oil cooler or expansion tank. Some units include a Flex-a-lite dual X-treme S-Blade electric fan system with Variable Speed Controller.
Shift Improver Kits • Provide crisp shifts on any stock automatic transmission. • Eliminate soft/sluggish shifts. • Eliminate shift overlap. • Eliminate clutch and band wear. • Available for GM, Ford and Chrysler transmissions.
Virtually everything you need comes completely organized in one convenient package! Each and every fastener is superior in strength to the OEM bolts. Being stainless steel they also have the added benefit of being virtually impervious to rust and corrosion. PN 535-9601 SB Chevy Hex Head PN 534-9501 SB Chevy 12pt PN 534-9705 SB Chevy LS Series 12pt Many more engine applications available. Ask your Parts Pro sales professional for details
Convoluted Tubing
• Protects wires from dirt and abrasion • 6 color options for a customized look • Available in 1/4", 3/8", 1/2", and 3/4" diameter • Split for easy insertion and removal • Organizes wiring, eliminates clutter • Ideal for shop use or for computer use
Heat-treated 8740 chrome moly, tensile strength of 200,000 psi, sold in 4 or 5 packs, cadmium plated for extra durability, nuts not included
ARP Wheel Studs
Available in two styles: premium grade Pro Series, with a 200,000 psi rating and High Performance, with a 180,000 psi rating. Featuring an exclusive, flat, 12-point head design and larger than stock shank diameter for increased strength and improved flywheel register.
ARP Flywheel Bolts
Use Ultra-Torque to precisely duplicate all ARP fastener preload specifications PN 100-9908 0.5 oz pouch PN 100-9909 1.69 oz. tube
ARP Ultra-Torque Assembly Lube
Dual Friction Clutch Stainless Steel Kits Engine & Accessory Bolt Kits
Performance matched pressure plate & disc combination featuring the patented Centerforce centrifugal weight system (where applicable) and specialized machining processes to provide a performance clutch that offers exceptional street characteristics, while offering outstanding holding-capacity and durability.
Micro Electric Fuel Pumps Easy installation with simple two-wire design! PN 12D Diesel Applications 35 GPH, 4-7 PSI PN 12S Carbureted Applications 35 GPH PN 12E Ethanol, Methanol, E85 transfer pump
HYFIRE®6AL
PN 6852M Digital Ignition Digital multi-spark high output Capacitive Discharge ignition system. Includes a built in adjustable rev-limiter from 4,500 to 12,000 RPM. No chips required! Works with OEM distributors.
Seal-4-Good Reusable Gaskets Multi-layered and made from a special "Dead Soft" Aluminum, which conforms to header flanges for the ultimate seal. They easily conform to small imperfections that a copper gasket simply can not. Due to this construction, these gaskets will not blow out or burn out when properly installed.
Visit www.edelbrock.com/promo for complete details
Hyper-Flex Performance Motor Mounts
Made from "Hyper-Flex" performance polyurethane, they are soft enough to absorb the vibrations of street use but hard and rugged enough for racing. They are resistant to most of the fluids that can be found under vehicles such as oil, coolant, transmission fluid, and road contaminants. Available in graphite black or red for a variety of engine combinations. Ask for details.
Ask for details
Blaster 2 Coils Looking to upgrade your stock coil, or want to compliment the performance of your MSD Blaster Ignition? The Blaster Coil line is the right choice. Designed for improved spark output and provides maximum voltage build-up!
DynaForce Starters
MSD's new DynaForce Starter is designed to crank over the highest compression engines on a hot day in Death Valley! Featuring all new components beginning with a three horsepower motor. This power is used to crank over the reduced 4.4:1 gear set to deliver great torque to the engine’s ring gear to get the engine turning.
XPR® Racing Oil Extreme Performance Racing, XPR oil combines the highest quality synthetic base oil with Royal Purple’s proprietary Synerlec® additive technology to maximize horsepower and torque while providing the highest level of protection against motorsportsgrade heat and wear.
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