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www.rpm-mag.com RPM Magazine is a REGISTERED TRADEMARK of RPM Classifieds Inc. RPM Magazine is a worldwide motorsports publication distributed in 33 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 subscirbe to RPM go to www.rpm-mag.com or email Trish Biro at trish@rpm-mag.com, or call 519-752-3705. The focus of RPM is to bring a diverse mix of high performance street and race automobiles to life within its pages including; Race cars, Musclecars, Hot Rods and Street Legal machines with an emphasis on the “EXTREME”, including Fast Doorslammer and Outlaw forms of Drag Racing. Not familiar with these types of cars? They are considered to be the top-shelf of the industry and are on-the-edge with regards to design and power! RPM Magazine does not sell its mailing list or share any of the confidential information regarding its subscribers.
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EDITOR’S RANT -- Keeping It REAL - PART I For almost 15 years RPM has been committed to “Keeping It Real”. And that is not just a buzz phrase around here. We really do work hard to find exclusive content for our readers. Interesting, high power and diverse content, but most of all, stories that any one of us could be part of. In particular are the RPM Project cars, all three of which are featured in this very issue, and each are REAL WORLD builds completed in REAL TIME within the pages of RPM. In other words, we are building the car as we write each story as opposed to doing a project then writing about it several months/years later. You get the straight scoop, the good and the bad, and even those little challenges we all have during a project that will put us behind or prevent us from moving on to the next step. We also try to show every step of a project, big or small, so our readers will understand that it is not an easy process, it takes hard work and dedication. That being said, be sure to give yourself lots of time to complete your own project. The last thing you want to do is become frustrated with the time demands, or run yourself short on cash because you have set an unrealistic timeline and then have to put things on hold or give up altogether. Anything worthwhile takes time, and you’ll see by reading about our RPM projects that some have taken four years to complete, but the end result is definitely worth it! About our 3 current RPM Project Cars: Project “Getting Back On Track” (page 84) is much more than meets the eye. The 1992 Chevrolet Camaro RS is being built from the ground up to allow Blake Robinson, a racer who lost his leg as the result of a nitrous oxide bottle explosion, to return to the sport of Drag Racing. The car, once finished, will run in two classes of competition; Outlaw 5.80 and Texas Triple Threat Racing. The four link, back halved Camaro will be powered by a small block Chevy engine with an 80mm turbo. The drivetrain consists of a custom built two speed Powerglide transmission and a Fab9 rear end. We started this build in March of 2012, with plans of getting Blake back in the seat late in 2013, however, with illnesses related to the loss of his leg and the usual project delays, 2014 is now the goal. Incidentally, this project started as a supercharged combination but was changed along the way to the turbo.
ADVERTISER INDEX Advertiser Name Page # Accufab Inc. 33 AFCO 31 AJPE - Alan Johnson Perf. 17 ARC - Applied Racing Components 52 ATI Performance Products 34 Autoglym 27, 66 Bad Attitude Engines 40 Baer Brakes 51, 71 BES Racing Engines 14 Bill Mitchell Products 50 Blower Shop 5 Browell Bellhousing 32 BTE Racing 54 Calvert Racing Suspensions 49 C&C Motorsports 65 CN Blocks 24 Coan Engineering 84 Crower 41 CVR Products 67 DART 23 Design Engineering 42 DIY Auto Tune - MegaSquirt EFI 24 D.U.I. Performance Distributors 72 Dynotech Engineering 8 Ed Quay Race Cars 20 EFI University 25 Engine Research & Development ERD 74 Fast Eddie Racewear 67 F.A.S.T. - Fuel Air Spark Technology 37 FastMotorsports 9 Fast Times Motorworks 50 FORD Racing 73 Frankenstein Racing Heads 76 4
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Gold Living 69 G Force Racing Transmissions 77 GZ Motorsports 81 Harland Sharp 8 Holcomb Motorsports 22 HoleShot Wheels 38 Holley Ultra Dominator 36 Holley Ultra Double Pumper 52 Holley Ultra Street Avenger 64 Induction Solutions 16 J&K Converters 74 JE Pistons 72, 75 Jesel 26 JET Performance 77 Joe Gibbs Racing Oil - DRIVEN 35 K&N Filters 88 Leash Electronics 42 Lokar Performance Products 48 LUCAS Oil Products 2, 89 Lunati 87 Mahle Clevite Inc. 66 Manton Pushrods 84 Meziere Precision Manufacturing 70 Mickey Thompson Tires 7 Midwest Converters 36 Mile High Crankshafts 12 Neal Chance Converters 13 New Century Performance 53 Nitrous Pro Flow 20 Nitrous Supply 10 NOS - Nitrous Oxide Systems 83 OASIS by Corlor 12 Ohsweken Speedway 30 Outlaw 10.5 Racing Association 70 Parts Pro Performance Centers 92 Performance2Way Racing Communications 64
“4 LUG THUG” (page 80). RPM broke from the magazine project car tradition when Project Thug kicked off in the November 2009 issue. Traditionally, magazine builds get thrown together in a matter of a few issues with what seems like half the car being put together in 5 pages. Often, project cars will go several issues and then disappear for years with readers wondering if it was ever finished. 4 Lug Thug was built from scratch in the pages of RPM with each step of the process getting it’s own story in almost every issue over the past 4 years. Readers have watched as the common man’s backyard build has progressed from a junkyard shell to a finished small tire brawler. 4 Lug Thug is a 1987 Mustang Convertible with a nitrous motivated 427ci small block Ford. The build is coming to a conclusion over the next few issues but will be used as the RPM test mule for years to come. Keep an eye out, you may see the RPM staff beating on the old THUG ragtop in Street Race/Ultra Street competition or even the occasional 5.50 or 6.0 index race. Project “GREEN MACHINE” (page 38) is really two projects in one. It all started with an RPM engine project, “Big Block Brawler”, where we built (with the help of Bad Attitude Engines out of Morriston Florida) a reasonably priced big block Chevy to make 1,000HP. The engine build was featured in the June to September 2012 issues of RPM and on the dyno it produced 671hp on pump-gas and 1180hp/1069 ft pounds of torque with a Nitrous Supply annular-discharge Pro Plate. Project Green Machine, the car, is a street & strip 1966 Chevrolet Bel Air that is powered by that same 489 cubic inch big block Chevy ”Brawler” with 10.0-1 compression and a Comp hydraulic-roller camshaft. With its stock style suspension, the Bel Air can fit a 10.5” Mickey Thompson ET Drag slick or 275 Mickey Thompson Drag Radial, so at the drag strip it could be run in a number of different classes. But rest assured, it WILL be street driven... a lot! Chris Biro, Editor In Chief, RPM MAGAZINE Performance Improvements 14 Performance Plus Connection 18 Powermaster Performance 44 Precision Turbo - ProInjectors 21 Proformance Racing Transmissions 38 PROLITE Batteries 85 Pro Systems Carburetors 15, 80 Pro-Werks 85 PTC 80 Racepak 39 Racequip 88 Race Shop Converters 43 Racing Radios 7 Rev-X Oil Products 29, 82 RJ Pro Fab 81 Roman Performance 53 Ross Racing Pistons 5 RPM MAGAZINE SUBSCRIBE NOW! 90 Scotty’s Racing Engines 18 Shafiroff Racing Engines 11 SM Race Cars 76 Smith Racecraft 78 Stainless Works 40 Summit Racing Equipment 91 Taylor-Vertex 68 Ti64 9 Tom’s Upholstery 51 Trailer-Alarms.com 65 Trick Flow 45 Two Guys Garage/Truck U 86 Valvoline 79 VP Racing Fuels 55, 89 WC Enterprises 71 Weinle Motorsports 26 Weldon High Performance 68 World Street Nationals XX 19
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Who’s In This Issue of Often Imitated, Never Duplicated-- RPM Mag IS The ORIGINAL Voice Of Extreme Drag Racing & Wild Street Machines 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!
October 2013
So Much Horsepower Packed Into One Place... That Place IS RPM Magazine!
BULLETS FLY! Just a few weeks back the 2013 Yellow Bullet Nationals became history, but not before once again bringing hardcore fast doorslammer drag race action to racers and fans alike. The YB Nats had more than it’s share of thrills and spills, but this sport is powerful, fast and sometimes dangerous, and every driver knows that as they pass through the burnout box.
8 The Prodigy 2500HP, 4600lbs, 1000WATTS & Air Conditioning means that Ken Ivaska is gonna be cool, comfortable & listening to his favorite tune when he kicks your butt on Saturday night at the strip in his ‘67 Cutlass 442!
46 Where Are They Now?
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We all remember those cars that were the first, fastest, or maybe like this Camaro, just being built for a specific purpose or class of racing that changed during the project. Stewart Herman remained focused on his goal during the process of building his dream car, and that goal was simply... to have fun.
Both Barrels Loaded
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Don’t let the bling and rubber band tires fool you, this is no ordinary Pro Touring trailer queen. To the more trained eye the one-off custom Ram Air hood on John Jinnings ‘70 Torino GT should be a dead giveaway of what lurks within... in this case it’s 572-inches of Jon Kaase “Boss 9” Ford Shotgun Semi-Hemi to be exact!
Read COMPLeTe RPM MaGaZINe baCk Issues ONLINe FRee aT 6
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Story & Photos by
Bullets Fly
L
The 2013 Yellow Bullet Nationals... High Calibre Action!
ast year, the Yellow Bullet Nationals gained a solid foothold after just three short years, which is an accomplishment in itself as Outlaw races are generally more heavily scrutinized from all angles. This year, the calibre, (no pun intended), of the event rose to an all time high, which was actually expected by racers and fans alike given the pre-race banter online. The event venue, Cecil County Dragway, is well known for its Saturday Street Car Shootout series and heavy competition for
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Mark at goDragRacing.org
any diehard racer in the area. But it is this particular weekend that event front-man Monty Mikho, along with his lovely wife Maria Szkudlarek-Mikho and host of volunteers and sponsors, bring one of the most highly anticipated races of the year to the Mid-Atlantic state of Maryland. Most of the year long efforts surrounding event rules come from standout organizer Dave O’Donnell of Finishline Performance. While he tries to stay out of the limelight, it is O’Donnell’s solid
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Photos, left: James Smith, a chassis fabricator at ARC Race Cars launches his 440ci naturally aspirated small block 1979 Camaro high in the air. Making the switch from brackets and Pro Stick to run in Ultra Street, Smith rows a Liberty 5spd transmission and won over the fans with these mile-high wheelstands. Above, from left: Rich Gardner has kept the “Old School” 10.5 tire racing spirit alive but in the index class with the ghost flamed naturally aspirated big block Chevy Mailbu wagon. This car was originally owned by Dave O’Donnell (of the YB Nat’s) and raced heavily in the original East Coast Quick 8’s and Orlando Heavy Street days. Outlaw 10.5 racer Shawn Zubler was one of the unfortunate crashes during the weekend and it was by no fault of his own. His cool twin turbo Trans Am rear-end locked up 330ft out which tossed him hard into the wall with no control and bouncing hard numerous times until it came to rest. Shawn was OK after the amazing response from the added safety crew and quick work of track staff. Right: A sea of spectators. The track was filled almost to capacity over a sweltering hot weekend. Over 500 tech cards were sold during the event, decide for yourself if the fans got what they came for. A small tip… they did, and more!
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Mike Decker’s Camaro (left) and Steve Klupfel’s Mustang (right) wait as they pull into the beams. Despite the 110 degree heat index fans stacked the area behind and down both sides of the track awaiting this pair of blown Outlaw 10.5 monsters to square off. Klupfel would suffer a massive crash later that evening when a broken fuel line poured alky under the tires, he was a bit shaken up but ok.
knowledge of Outlaw Racing that has profoundly impacted the way these events operate. Dave has been both a racer and promoter for years, his experience as a driver and rule maker is undeniably the backbone of this race, and you couldn’t ask for a better combination between all the top major players. Last year, Mikho listened to the racer and fan input in order to better the event in all areas, and despite being the internet sensation for the sport’s enthusiasts that the YellowBullet.com forum has become, even harsh critiquing doesn’t seem to get under his skin. He simply takes it all in, and if the problem is a valid one, finds a solution. The efforts once again for 2013 were to produce an event focused on quality cars, large full fields, safety and family fun.
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Make no mistake, this is Outlaw Drag Racing, and when big money and fast cars get together you reach the level of performance and on-the-edge white knuckle driving that only top events will ever realize; sometimes with catastrophic consequences to teams who push the combination of man and machine to the limits each pass. You can’t place blame on anyone or anything, this sport is powerful, fast and sometimes dangerous, and remember, every driver knows this passing through the burnout box. Monty himself has certainly become noticeably more comfortable as the owner of the event, more at ease (if that was possible) and focused on some of the smaller things in his life and the event, which reflect on the YB Nat’s maturing into what it has
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become today. Monty is really just a big kid at the races, always looking back to his own racing upbringing and how he’s grown with his wife and his internet community. As we cruised to the end of the track, Monty and I chatted about our earlier days in the sport and he shared his experience as a younger man with “Animal Jim Feurer”. An experience that would change many aspects of how he would see his own race. Focusing on kids was a main part of it now, just as Animal Jim did for him. He wanted to bring that life experience and have the children, “Who will become our future racers”, remember their time at this event and keep it alive for years to come.
The 2013 Yellow Bullet Nationals Promoted as a three-day event, it was in fact closer to five days as racers had special test and tune sessions booked ahead of time as early as Wednesday. Racers as far away as California began entering the grounds throughout the nights leading to Friday’s first qualifying session. To say that it was standing room only would be an understatement both Friday and Saturday night. In the final days of summer leading into Labor Day Weekend the temps were driven up to just plain HOT, peaking Sunday to 99 degrees with no relief at night, which would impact the racers’ need for new records. With night air thick with humidity and lows barely under the high 80’s, records of any kind would be a stretch. But still, thanks to Jim Halsey and his exceptional crew that “were ready for anything”, racers had a good baseline on both the track and their tunes for full hits on Saturday.
Larry Wood’s stunning ZR1 Corvette is a show car that races, period. It had all the makings of getting to the finals but big power comes at times when traction is limited. We never get tired of seeing this car and driver in action. Below, Lou Sciortino back to Cecil after a mishap with a wall earlier in the season pushes his freshly painted Camaro to the edge.
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It’s become almost a tradition to have a shot of this insane Nova in RPM during the fall season! Mike Reynolds out of Wild Rides Race Cars was a victim of the Cecil County wall during early test sessions this weekend. The car had suffered some unknown damage in transport that showed up as a broken strut, leaving green on the wall and some minor damage to the Nova. Mike is such a good guy though that struts were handed to him to race in Outlaw 10.5. You may remember this car as an RPM Magazine Cover car over 10 years ago. It’s still as wild today as it was then with a new 526 BAE Hemi, roots blower and huge three storey high 3-hole bugcatcher.
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Pro Class Qualifying & Elimination Highlights From Friday night on, a total of 2,828 passes would be made down Cecil County’s asphalt and it all began with Outlaw 10.5. Thirty seven cars in this class with a well rounded top five spreading out the power adder combinations as follows: Mo Hall blistered to a 4.16 @ 187mph on nitrous. Both Mike Decker Jr. (4.18 @ 188) and Richard Sexton (4.22 @ 189) had the screw blowers sitting in spots two and three. Doug Sikora with a 4.23 @ 179mph used ProCharger power for forth and Larry Wood’s 4.23 @ 188 twin turbo Vette rounded out the top five. Steve Gorman would capture Top MPH at 190. Outlaw 10.5 eliminations were a power struggle, literally and figuratively! All racers put on an 1/8th-mile performance as if it was their last, which ended in a clean final match-up with Cecil County regular Steve Gorman from New Jersey against Apple Valley California’s Doug Sikora. Both were Mustangs, Gorman sporting twins and Sikora with the ProCharger. This final would be the one everyone looks back and says, “do you remember that final at the YB Nat’s when…”. Sikora had it from the start Photos, from top: Making the trip all the way east from Barstow California, Doug Sikora expected to take home the money and trophy, which he did. Sikora’s 2000 Mustang is powered by a 449ci Hemi from Pettis Performance. Steve Gorman, a professional transmission builder and owner of Precision Transmission out of New Jersey, campaigns this 2004 Mustang with 481X twin Precision 88mm Gen2 turbos, backed by a Rossler trans and ProTorque converter. Originally a Skinny Kid Race Cars piece it was updated by Victory Racecraft. Steve made it to the final against the Californian, Doug Sikora, only to lose by mere thousandths of a second. If you want to become a drag racing sensation just stuff a monster blown alky gulping 526 Hemi into a 97 Dodge Ram pick-up and slap a blower on it. Then go run Outlaw 10.5 doing massive 330ft burnouts like Chris Caldotto out of Michigan does. You’re an instant star!
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with a stellar .012 light to Gorman’s very good .054, but what blew us all away was that they would pretty much match ET’s and MPH! Sikora took home $10,000 to win with his 4.341 @ 174.64mph to Gorman’s losing 4.344 @ 174.91...WOW! X275 Drag Radial is obviously still hot as forty five cars were on tap for the weekend’s festivities, with the “Bruder Bothers” taking all the top honors and qualifying number one with 4.63 @ 157mph spinning twins. Next up was Cecil County’s home team of Ron Rhodes (4.67 @ 149) under nitrous power, while Andy Manson (4.68 @ 149), Eric Laferriere (4.73 @ 151) and Petey Auram (4.74 @ 145) rounded out the top five. For eliminations, a healthy dose of track prep before each round was critical to the final pairing, and while others struggled with their combos, it came down to number one Rich Bruder facing number two Ron Rhodes. Both were able to keep it consistent through prior rounds. Rhodes,
Above: Rich Bruder has no problem accepting his Yellow Bullet Championship trophy at Cecil County. Bruder Brothers have dominated X275 with many combinations but this combo is a proven winner now with a 400ci DiSomma Racing Engines SBF and Garrett turbos locked up with a Neal Chance converter. Ron Rhodes completed his stellar weekend setting the X275 Small Block Nitrous record in his 68 Camaro packed with a 414 BES 23 degree SBC motor assisted by Induction Solutions’ single fogger nitrous system and backed by a PTC converter and Hutch glide. Ron is the owner of Rhodes Custom Auto. Not a single car comes out of his shop anything less than spectacular.
Ronny Rhodes, son of Ron Rhodes, took to his first ever race after receiving his competition licence just one week before at 19 years old. Ronny’s ‘68 Camaro was his grandfathers and was rebuilt 95% by Ronny in his spare time. Getting thrown to the sharks early in the YB Nat’s he qualified 16th out of 32 cars with a 5.46. Under the hood you’ll find 420-inches of BES small block Chevy naturally aspirated power and a glide, plus a whole whack of TRZ, Calvert and Santhuff parts that keep him planted and going straight.
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What an amazing color on the sleek 2002 Vette of Mike Pollaro, the Big Tire class champion. It’s bad fast as well, with a 522ci big block Chevy on nitrous. Mike is a regular at many Super Chevy races and local Street Car Shootouts. Check out the shot on the right, how the wind at the top end of the track during a run pushes the front nose of the car in...that just shows how fast these guys are going!
who had set the X275 Drag Radial Nitrous record in earlier rounds, made his way to the line with his massive “posse” of racers and team members, included in which is Ron Jr. just sixteen years old who was running in Ultra Drag Radial. As both Rhodes and Bruder staged, it was Rhodes who got the jump off the starting line with his slightly quicker .063 light, but Bruder’s power took the win with an 1/8th-mile hit of 4.656 @ 156mph off of his .083 light to Rhodes’ 4.723 @ 177. The Big Tire AKA Heavy Street class is badass, and while it sometimes struggles with car counts, it didn’t at the YB Nat’s. Qualifying was tight
and rounds were let’s just say “strange”, with some interesting happenings during eliminations. First, meet your top five: At number one was “Smokin Joe” Schroeder with 4.46 @ 168mph followed by John Schroeder (4.544 @ 159), Scott Kline (4.57 @ 159), Tommy Romeo (4.60 @ 137) and Jason Penna with 4.63 @ 154mph. In eliminations, to say this class was somehow “jinxed” would be understating the crazy events leading to the final decision of this class. A healthy dose of bent metal
Photos, from top: Check out the size of the exhaust dump pipe! Your Big Tire runner up “Smokin’ Joe” Schroeder probably has the most vicious ride in this class, belching soundwaves with earsplitting resonance out of the massive exhaust by way of a 526 Hemi. Clear the starting line, back off from the fence a bit more or you’ll take it on the chin like a punch to the face when this beast launches. Jimmy Reutter brings out his awesome “N.Y. Nova” for the Big Tire class. This class, also known as Heavy Street back in the day, was pretty much designed for the larger musclecar era machines, and the GM’s do especially well in it.
was spread out during the course of the weekend with some hairy accidents; all were OK but bring in an exorcism for these rounds. Starting with John Schroder vs. Joe Serviss in a double DQ when both racers left before the tree dropped. No way something like this could happen again right? But wait for it, in the final round Michael Pollaro and “Smokin Joe” Schroeder would meet. Schroeder begins his burnout and blows off the belt on his supercharger. The starter then waves Pollaro on who made a HUGE mistake by crossing the beams and not taking a green light start, confused yet? …So was everyone else. Schroeder was considered broken but he still had a chance to stage his car since it would be a DQ for Pollaro, but Pollaro was brought back to stage and break the beams for the win in his gorgeous Corvette. In Outlaw Drag Radial 23 cars, a bit smaller field than expected, produced some great qualifying passes. Mark Micke sat at number one with 4.37 @ 183, Paul Major was back on track for number two RPM Magazine, THE Voice Of Fast Cars WORLDWIDE
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(4.44 @ 183). Scott Guadagno with “Scotty’s Racing Engines” nitrous power fell in line at 3rd (4.45 @ 158), Frank Soldridge who seems to always be in the running placed 4th in qualifying with a 4.47 @ 177 and Ruben Tetsoshvili rounded out number five with his 4.51 @ 172mph. In eliminations, the racers that were considered “favored to win” were knocked out of the race by the final, which left two veteran Cecil County legends to pair up; Paul Major and Dwayne “Big Daddy” Gutridge. Major, who was under pressure the whole weekend with a broken valve, had just one day on a new J&E Performance bullet to get it all in line, which he did with the help of Joe Newsham. Major had already set top speed and Low ET for the event; Gutridge was struggling but can never be counted out… ever. Major got the win on a slower .075 start but quicker and faster 4.369 @ 184mph elapsed time to Big Daddy’s traction-challenged 4.487 @ 177 run on a stout .025 reaction time.
It’s great to see Paul Major and his 2001 Corvette finally getting back into rhythm. His win didn’t come easy in ODR though, a broken valve in the 598ci, Precision turbo’d big Chevy nearly kept him out of the race, but his engine builder Joe Newsham of J&E Performance took care of it in one day, and the result was a “W” for Major. Welcome back to the Win column Paul! Scott Guadagno of Scotty’s Racing Engines smokes the hides in early qualifying after a rain stoppage the night before. Scotty went to the Outlaw Drag Radial semi finals in the well known Camaro. Guadagno’s TEAM SPF Racing pit area is everyone’s favorite “Pit Stop” at the races. Despite qualifying fourth, Frank Soldridge, owner of PSI Speed Solutions in PA, couldn’t get a handle on the big power his turbocharged Mustang made and went out early. Frank, with a cast on his hand from a severe cut, put his efforts into all of the other cars he had operating in other classes during the event. By the time our RPM readers see this published, Frank will be married... Congratulations Frank!
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In Ultra Street Drag Radial John Keesey let no one down in his brilliant yellow and blue Mustang laying down the number one position of 5.02 @ 143mph, followed by Jeff Kinsler (5.10 @ 139), John Langer (5.11 @ 135), Charlie Booze Jr. (5.12 @ 134) and Jeff Moyer’s 5.129 @ 138mph. Heading into eliminations Keesey was notably the quickest car in this class and stayed on his game plan with the help of Frank Soldridge “PSI Speed Solutions” and Lil John’s Motorsport Solutions. But his opponent Mark McCloud proved to be no pushover in the final dance… no pushover at all! Keesey left with a .086-second start to McCloud’s quicker .035 light. Folks, in drag racing, this is called a “Holeshot Win”! Keesey’s quicker and faster 5.209-second run @ 142mph would lose to McCloud’s 5.211 @ 134 with the big Monte Carlo all over the little Mustang on boost. The win happened at the starting line but at the stripe it was a .049-second Margin Of Victory (MOV)! Again, one for the history books!
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When it comes to a likeable team, John Keesey’s and his group are it. Not to mention they have the quickest Ultra 275 car around. John and his team are everywhere, and this weekend they took the runner-up spot via a holeshot win by Marc McCloud. With help from big names like Frank Soldridge at PSI Speed Solutions who does the tuning on the ‘89 Mustang powered by a 427 small block Ford and John Bewley from Lil John’s Motorsport Solutions. Below: Marc McCloud has been reigning down terror in the Ultra 275 class, he overcame a slower ET with his starting line skills to take this tough growing class’ top honors. A regular at Cecil County and many other Mid Atlantic events, Marc does like to put on a wheelstanding show for the fans as well as win races.
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This is why we love the 8.50 Index so much! Al Fonse of Fonse Performance in his wild machine takes it hard into the air in his freshly painted Camaro. The crew at Fonse Performance are a large group, always on the sidelines and in the pits helping their regular customers while Al Jr. does his work on the track. Joe Albrecht has been formidable in anything he drives, be it his own car or his father’s Monte Carlo BBC on spray as seen here. He’s deadly on the tree and will beat you to the stripe at any time. Joe was also the 2102 Shakedown Winner split when the race didn’t finish, and also champion from the year prior. Don’t mess with Joe, period.
8.50 Index. This class is run on a full quarter-mile with a .400 Pro Tree and in most cases brings the largest field of race cars, with a diverse field of fifty four doorslammers gracing the 2013 Yellow Bullet Nationals. You could barely fit a hair between the number one qualifier and the bump (which is the “worst” elapsed time in qualifying), as Chuck Koenig led a 32 car qualified field with a dead-on 8.500 @ 163mph and John Razler Jr. sat at the end
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of the line in number 32 spot with an 8.588 @ 159mph. This tough group of racers made for an exciting heads-up style battle. In eliminations, if anyone thought Joe Albrecht was going down at this race they were mistaken! He’s been on a tear all season, and this event was no different as he took the win with a .035-second reaction time and 8.536 @ 157mph run over opponent Rich Gardner’s .034 start and 8.554 @ 158mph pass.
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From top: Ralph Hardesty’s Chevy II was again awarded Best Appearing after struggling with an exploded intercooler. Our readers will notice this car from a previous feature article right here in RPM Magazine. One of the strongest Big Tire Outlaws, Ralph keeps this car immaculate and it’s going to take something special to beat this man for this award anytime in the near future. Ralph now has plans to build his daughter Britni Hardesty a supercharged Chevy II of her own at just 16 years old. We did mention Ralph is an expert in the automotive restoration business, Superior Automotive. Joe Copson was awarded Best Engineered car for his 2010 10.5” tire Camaro at the Yellow Bullet Nationals, and it shows in the build. Many new ideas have been put into this car and it was recently getting some updates at the Big Tire class’ sponsor Gary Naughton Race Cars new shop in PA. Seeing this car is a must. It packs 550 inches with Precision 94mm turbos and 2-speed turboglide. Below, Mark Plucinski hangs the hoops on his Fox bodied Stang in the 10.00 Index class. Plucinski’s been deadly all year with his naturally aspirated small block Ford Mustang, his skills as a driver and tuner have netted him past wins at both Cecil and Atco.
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Top Sportsman never suffers from a lack of participation and the YB Nat’s had it all, from mild to wild with a full 32-car field! Todd Fontana’s insane 4.04 @ 178mph (these are fast Pro Mod numbers) set the bar high. Ronnie Proctor pulled into second spot in qualifying with 4.28 @ 167 followed by Michael Kaufman (4.39 @ 167), Randy Perkinson (4.40 @ 160) and Tony Morell’s 4.42 @ 168mph. In eliminations Ron Reigel threw down a 4.63 @ 149 to hold off runner up John Tiniakes’ 4.76 @ 147 in the 1/8th-mile Top Sportsman final Added Sportsman classes included; 10.0 Index with Eddie Riordan as winner (10.03 @ 128), 11.50 Index with winner Carlton Thomas (11.63 @ 112), Pro Dial Champ Rob Derr (9.43 @ 141), Super Street; John Murphy with an 11.71 @ 112, and in Pro Street it was Joanna Crouch’s 9.43 @ 130mph that took the win.
Photos, from top: Looking and running like it should be in Pro Modified, this stunning Camaro of Ron Riegel fed loss after loss to its Top Sportsman competition over the course of the weekend. Different is good! Mike Clayboss, the local Pottstown hero, was running his incredible heavyweight Buick in Pro Street and also wowed the fans with big wheelies all weekend long. Known well as the “buu’whack”, 9 second quarter-mile timeslips come easy from the Rubright Racing corral of real street machines.
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Dave Dutton’s naturally aspirated small block Chevy powered Corvette lifted the wheels and the fans spirits high in Pro Dial Drag Racing. Action like this is what gets fans going, it’s the equivalent of the slam-dunk in the NBA, but much louder! Below: Some people may have thought they were seeing double as Ed Riordan and Shawn Riordan both drive nearly identical Firebirds, cool huh! Eddie, posing here with his team, took the tough 10.0 class win. This car is fast and immaculate.
Below, Charlie Dolbin fires off a pass with the team’s amazing 2005 nitrous fed 10.5 tire Mustang. Dolbin, with wins and records as long as your arm, wows the crowd with the signature tune-up blazing through the pipes on every pass.
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Plans are already in place for next year’s Yellow Bullet Nationals and it’s going to be another show you don’t want to miss… period! So let the games begin as internet talking over at YellowBullet.com already has... “Where The Weak are Killed and Eaten”. Yellow Bullet Nationals sponsors: Mickey Thompson Tires, Racepak, MSD, Jesel, Moran Racing Engines, Tek Headers, TMS, ATF, Chris Alston, Precision Turbo, Speedwire Systems, ProTorque, InductionSolutions, PA Racing, Yukon Gear And Axle, Racecraft INC, Davis Technologies, Hyperaktive, Holeshot Wheels, Tim McAmis, Team Z Motorsports, Performance Racing Transmissions, VP Fuels, Ultimate Converter Concepts, TRZ, Ultra Carbon, X275.net, Salvato Designs, Chiseled Performance, Prolite Batteries, Thrift-way Autobody, NRC Motorsports, Wicked Grafixx and New York Motorsports.
Photos, from top left: The driving force behind the YB Nationals, Monty and Maria. Jim Halsey stares down track as his “grip tight” track prep team does the job sticking the cars to the pavement. Halsey also has his own new Pro Mod getting ready for competition. Pictured left to right is the media crew for the weekend; long time announcer Lee Sebring narrated perfectly every pass down the track. Mark Walters worked his own live feed out of his RV and his streaming “Motormania TV”. Chad Porter has been at Cecil for many years doing live updates for the well-known Cecil County Street Car Shootouts as he did for this event. For the kids. Monty and Maria were given thousands of dollars of toys, from stacks of Traxxas RC cars to Ipads and so many other gifts, all to be won in a bean bag competition. Joanna Cohen (left), a vital part of this event, keeps tabs on the results. The staff at Precision Turbo (just one of the many companies on hand) had everything you needed to blow dry your car. A pleasant group of specialists were on hand in the pits and on the sidelines photographing their massive amount of customers and giving access to some superb shots taken by the team.
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The Drag Racer’s Mental Game
The Focus Factor:
Improving Focus During Staging for Better Reaction Time By Dr. John O’Connor, Ph.D. – Your Mental Game Coach
I
n Drag Racing, staging your car at the starting line involves a number of processes and is not an exact science. Everyone seems to have different tricks to gain an advantage. However, all racers have to set their mental game in order to get the perfect reaction time at the Christmas Tree. Even professional drivers have issues with reaction time. In a recent national event, all the drivers’ times were in the triple digits, even drivers with normally great reaction times. It all comes down to your mental game and mindset before staging your car, dragster, or hot rod in that short window of time. It’s all about focus. Mental game for athletes is all about doing what you need to do in the small window of time you need to do it in. When I work with clients to enhance their athletic performance, we often work on the issues blocking them from their success. It could be nearly anything – childhood issues, everyday stresses, relationship issues, and self-confidence issues are some of the factors that can block every athlete’s dream. Specifically for racing sports, drivers can be stressed if their car is not performing, or if there are issues amongst the entire team, track conditions, or even stress between the
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SIDEBAR: For those new to Drag Racing: “Staging” takes place after the burnout, when the race car is driven up to the starting line and edged carefully into the starting beams. Once fully staged, the top two rows of smaller amber lights on the Christmas Tree will be lit. Staging is your final preparation for the race. Once staged properly, the starting lights on the Christmas Tree come down, fast! The driver’s goal is to leave the starting line on the green light and do so as quickly as possible without starting too soon and turning on the red bulb on the tree, which is a disqualification. Sounds easy, but it is not. In Drag Racing, many races are won and lost on the starting line, and many of those losses can be attributed to poor staging techniques and lack of focus.
driver and sponsor. These can all be responsible for eroding focus at the time you need it most. As you can imagine, some of these factors take time to work out. However, it doesn’t mean you can’t work on learning some coping mechanisms – a fancy psychological term which means learning to deal with your stress in a constructive way – in the meantime. Here are some suggestions for you to help you at the tree while staging. They only take a few seconds. Practice them, and you will see a better reaction time. Many of my clients use these techniques successfully.
Breathe, Breathe, Breathe If you have read my past articles on mental game, you will find meditation and meditative breathing is always part of what I teach. For instance, when I was work-
ing with Darren Morgan in 2011 in his race to conquer the ANDRA Pro Series Top Fuel Championship, we sat and did his breathing and meditation exercise right before a crucial race. Both drivers’ cars blew up, but he told me somehow his car made it to the finish line first. The breathing had played its part in helping him keep his focus so he could make it down the track and over the finish line, even though he told me the car really shouldn’t have made it. He went on to win the championship in 2011. Meditative breathing has been proven to help with calmness and stress management. I know in my practice it has helped a number of athletes remain focused so they can calmly react to anything going on around them. It doesn’t have to be complicated. Just breathe in for a count of four, hold for a count of four, and breathe out for a count of
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four. That’s it. You can also concentrate on your breathing as a way to shield yourself from distractions, which will help your focus overall.
Visualize Some years ago, I noticed there were some people who were completely lacking in visualization skills, so I started doing just the breathing exercises with them, and we still obtained great results in athletic performance. With people who have Visualization Aptitude Deficit Syndrome (VADS), a type of skill deficit I have identified, the breathing part of meditation is still extremely effective. Once you get proficient at breathing and hyperfocusing, you can start visualizing nailing the light every time. For people with VADS, I can usually get them up and running pretty quickly using this one simple technique. Imagine you are looking at a movie screen. On the movie screen, you see the story of your day’s success unfold right in front of you. You can visualize this any time before the race, before you get into your car.
Hyperfocusing This is another effective technique to use while staging. Once you are in your car and you’re strapped in, find one item in your car you can concentrate on, whether it’s your steering wheel, your hood, or your shifter. While you do this, you do your breathing. Whatever is running through your head, whatever issues, fears, or stress you have, is going to fade to the back of your mind and disap-
pear from the front of your head. It’s going to make you calmer and clearer. You can now stage and concentrate on the tree. Like everything else in life, these techniques take a bit of practice. Start with very small steps, such as working on taking at least three deep breaths while staging to increase the oxygen flow to your brain. When you feel comfortable, add hyperfocusing, then visualizing.
What if These Techniques Aren’t Working? Don’t get discouraged. If you used the above techniques and aren’t making any progress, it means you have some issues blocking your progress. If this happens, don’t worry! It’s actually a very good thing. It means you have now become aware there are issues, like some of the ones I stated above, that need to be worked out in order for you to perform to your satisfaction. It’s very difficult to solve a problem unless you know what the problem is. Knowing you have an issue that is interfering with your focus is a wonderful first step to resolving your issues, you know, the ones that are keeping you from performing at your very best. In the years I have worked with athletes, I have noticed that the ones who come away with the championship, the medal, the trophy, are the ones who were mentally focused. Nothing could shake them that day. Their mental game was stellar. They performed flawlessly. Focus is a large part of your mental game. Concentrate on focusing when and where you need, and you will be able to go home with the trophy.
Contact Information: Dr. John W. O’Connor, Sr., Ph.D., Sports Psychologist Your Mental Game Expert, IDPA Shooter, NRA Instructor President - The American Emotional Wellness Organization
Kirsten G. O’Connor, M. S. Mental Health Counselor Vice President – The American Emotional Wellness Organization
Phone: 276 346 3625 Eastern Time Zone Email: drjohnoconnorphd@gmail.com LinkedIn.com : http://linkedin.com/in/drjohnoconnorphd Did you miss Dr. John’s first two amazing articles in RPM; “The Five Second Phenomenon” (Volume 14, Issue 5, June 2013 pg. 36-37) & “The Winning State Of Mind” (Volume 14, Issue 6, July 2013 pg. 36-38)? If so you can read back issues of RPM in their entirety online at www.rpm-mag.com/rpm-e-mag/
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Where Are They Now?
A
s fans of fast cars, street machines and drag racing, we often find ourselves wondering “where are they now?” Whether it’s after a night at the local hangout, Saturday night at the drag strip, or bench racing in a buddy’s garage, no matter what, it always seems to come up when we talk fast cars. We think about where the once legends on the street and strip ever went. Those that were the fastest of the fast and baddest of the bad; the wild machines spawned
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Story & Photos by
Tim Lewis
from actual cars that were pioneers of a new look or new class in racing. Who has them now, and will they ever pop up again at a race track one day. When the once booming Outlaw 10.5 class went way out of control and just got out of reach for the average guy, the car count fell off quickly to only a handful and the ones that were around from the start,
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just seemed to fade away. Some cars dropped the wheelie bars and mounted up 29.5 x 10.5 tires and raced Limited Street. Others became index cars and even bracket cars. As we’ve said many times when we discuss heads-up classes of racing, they all have a natural progression, a life span of sorts, and Severn, Maryland racer Stewart Herman saw the writing on the wall and made sure he was prepared for what was coming in Outlaw 10.5. Herman, a plumber by trade, has been into drag racing for the past 26 years, and like most of us real hardcore guys he was not simply handed a turnkey fast car. He had to work hard to get what he wanted, and at that time he wanted a 1970 Nova. The little 307 small block ran 14.20’s and that is what got him hooked on drag racing. Even before the Nova though, Stewart, along with his brother Lindy, would tag along with their father and uncle to the drags, and at the very Photos: Sitting in the pits this car draws lots of attention from other racers and spectators alike. Stewart heats up the Hoosiers on a hot Saturday afternoon at MIR. No crazy long burnouts are needed to get this Camaro to hook.
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young age of 5 Stewart told himself he would build a race car one day. Years went by and Stewart, like many of us, got pulled into the allure of street racing and hit the late night back road action in Maryland. As they grew older, wiser and out of the street scene the boys moved on to a class of heads-up racing which at the time was called Top Street. This class permitted any diameter slick long as it was 10.5” wide. Then along came what is called a 10.5 “W” tire, which is actually not 10.5 inches wide at all… go figure. When these W tires came onto the scene cars started going quicker and quicker. The Top Street class was a blast and one which I personally raced in along with names like Randy Lambert, Rambo, Richie Stein, Derrick Whale and a host of others. This was where the Herman boys felt they wanted to be. After getting that same Nova in the mid 8’s in Top Street quarter-mile action, the thought of building a back-half race car for that and other 10.5 races came to mind. Chassis builder Gary Hood would be charged with the build of a cool 1968 Camaro and also following strict guide-
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It’s not often you see a big block these days in this style of car without a few nitrous systems on it. The naturally aspirated 615-inch Nesbitt built big Chevy was built to hold up round after round in competition. Pro-Filer cylinder heads and tunnel ram are topped off by twin 1150cfm carburetors.
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lines, including making sure that the stock firewall and stock front frame rails would stay intact in order to make the car legal in as many places as possible. That, and 33x10.5� slicks needed to fit in the rear wheel wells. It was just about then that Outlaw 10.5 started to get out of hand. Seeing this, some changes were made to the build as this class was losing its working man appeal, not unlike most heads-up classes throughout Drag Racing history. They simply evolve into a money game, and that is a game the Herman brothers had no interest in playing. Hood finished up the hot rod with a Gary Hood Race Cars 4 link rear suspension and double adjustable coilovers out back wrapped around a 9 inch Ford rear fitted with Moser 35 spline axles and 4.56 gears. Up front, since the stock front frame rails were still being used, tubular control arms and a conversion coil spring kit was installed. A nice simple build is what Gary was putting together. Inside the car you won’t find a jungle gym of double frame rails and such. A simple set-up to allow the car to go as quick as Stewart wants to go is all. This car is still a car and very reminiscent of the early Fastest Street Car Shootout and Pro Street days. Here you’ll find steel fenders and doors with rollup windows, making it stand out in the crowd of many of today’s machines. Photos: Nothing fancy or high tech inside this ride by today’s standards, but seeing a factory dash, door panels and full carpeting is very cool. The simple side of what once was a high tech Outlaw 10.5 car. That’s right, have a good look, yep that is original sheet metal; doors, door jambs, Ÿ panels, it’s all there. And how about the Body By Fisher sill plates and all the real chrome trim, you gotta love old school!
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And now, Hoosier 33.5 x 16.5 x 15” tires get the car down the track. No more 10.5’s! The big tires just make this car look so cool. The heavyweight Camaro tips the scales at 3,160 pounds. A far cry from the weight he would be racing in a 10.5 class at, as these days the naturally aspirated cars do not have any weight limits on them. If he wanted to, Stewart could hack the car up and get rid of almost all of the rear and front frame rails and jump in the water with the sharks, but I don’t think you have to worry about seeing this car cut up into something that it was never meant to be. Photos: Remember the days when 10.5 cars used to leave the starting line like this? The big tires work well for this ride and look great under it… just like the early days of Fastest Street Car Shootout racing. Lower left: The Gary Hood Race Cars built 4 link works well on any starting line. Again, looking under this car and looking under today’s Outlaw 10.5 cars is night and day. Some cool tin work inside the Camaro and of course, a passenger seat!
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When it came time to pick a powerplant for the new ride Brett Nesbitt of Nesbitt Performance in North Carolina was placed in charge. Nesbitt, who builds some of the baddest single nitrous system 632 cubic inchers in the world, would assemble this all-motor combination to run strong and last long… every fast car owners dream! 615 cubic inches was the goal and it all started from a Dart block with a 4.600 bore and a 4.625 stroke. GRP aluminum rods and Diamond pistons hook up to a Lunati crankshaft. Heads come from Pro-Filer and are the 12 degree design which flow very good numbers. A full Jesel valvetrain was also installed. Topping the engine is a tunnel ram from Pro-Filer and feeding the fuel to this beast is a pair of 1150 Gary Williams built carburetors. Lemons headers make the noise and a Transmission Specialties built powerglide and converter get the car shifted and headed for the finish line. With this combination the car has been 5.13 to the 1/8-mile, and holding his foot to the floor to the top end a best of 7.99 @ 171mph in the ¼-mile. Stewart wanted a 7 second time slip and now he has it. This car is as old school as it gets when it comes to the type of cars that started in 10.5 racing, and you don’t end up spending $150200,000 building a car to race in a class that might not be around in a few years. Stewart is having fun with the car racing in index, brackets and some Quick 8 heads-up style races around his home state of Maryland and also goes out for some kicks on test and tune days. After all, “fun” is what any sport is supposed to be about. Maybe some of us lose sight of that sometimes… but not Stewart and Lindy Herman.
Stewart’s brother Lindy races this beautiful dragster. Stewart has also taken the rail for a quick ride, 6.91 @ 191mph to be exact. Below, the Herman brothers. Stewart and Lindy. It’s been hard for the brothers to go race without Pop, but I think he would have wanted them to go out and do the best they can as much as they can! R.I.P Stewart Herman Sr.
This story is dedicated to the Herman brothers’ father, Stewart Sr., who passed away on May 4th 2013.
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GREEN MACHINE
RPM PROJECT
GREEN MACHINE
PART VI
Exhaust, Power, Nitrous Control Story & Photos By Brian Hansen Additional photos by Manufacturers
W
e’ve made a lot of progress on our 1966 Nickey Bel Air “Green Machine” Project since our last update. After the guys at Clocks Off Race Cars (Racine Wisconsin) finished welding up the Stainless Works headers, Pat Spangenberg at Rod Competition Specialty (Butler Wisconsin) installed an S&W Racecars front motor plate, Powermaster alternator and built a very trick 3 ½” exhaust system with four (yes, FOUR) Dynatech SplitFlow racing mufflers. We’re definitely getting closer to having the Green Machine ready for action!
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Above: Ron Wesley and Jason Malicki at Clocks Off Race Cars (Racine Wisconsin) took the Stainless Works HBK225 kit and built a beautiful set of headers for the Green Machine. Getting the big 2 ¼” primary tubes to fit around the factory steering box, starter and transmission crossmember was not easy, but with years of experience building headers they hit a home run! Since checking spark plugs is a pretty common practice with a nitrous engine, when Ron and Jason built the headers for the Green Machine they made sure that every spark plug could be easily reached. Just for kicks we swapped out all eight NGK spark plugs in the shop and it took less than 5 minutes! Photos, page 38: Nickey tag. In addition to building wicked late model Camaros, Nickey Chicago also converts vintage cars (1955-1977) into Nickey Super Cars through their Vintage Continuation program. Just like back in the 1960’s and early 1970’s customers can have their musclecars modified to Stage I, II or III configurations. Badges. A common practice back in the 1960’s when musclecars roamed the streets was to swap out the front fender badges with ones of a smaller displacement engine. If a car came equipped with a 427 big block from the factory, a set of 283 small block badges might have replaced their brethren. Our 427 emblems aren’t exactly on the up-and-up since beneath the hood of our 1966 Bel Air is a bored and stroked big block now displacing 489 cubic inches of Bowtie power! RPM Magazine, THE Voice Of Fast Cars WORLDWIDE
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GREEN MACHINE What a work of art! Check out the big 2 ¼” Stainless Works pipes and how nicely they wrap around the Powermaster Performance Ultra Torque starter and Canton oil pan. Having a reputable fabricator build a custom set of headers is worth the extra effort/cost when they look, and fit, this nice. Traditional muffler clamps just wouldn’t do for our project so we opted for Summit Racing V-Band Clamps to connect our 3 ½” exhaust to the header collector. Made from quality stainless steel, these clamps are designed to be durable over the long haul and keep the exhaust sealed up even under the extreme conditions encountered during racing. Rod & Competition Specialty’s Pat Spangenberg mocks up the big 3 ½” pipes for the Green Machine at his shop in Butler Wisconsin. Since the plan is to run the Bel Air through the exhaust at all times (even at the track) an X-pipe was chosen for this application to aid in equalizing exhaust pulses and exhaust scavenging. The front pair of Dynatech Split-Flow 3 ½” Roundstyle mufflers reduce the incoming thunder from the Bad Attitude Racing Engines 489 ci big block Chevy by 6-8 decibels. Out back are a pair of oval-style 3 ½” Dyantech Split-Flow mufflers that are employed to further reduce the exhaust noise by another 8-10 decibels. These bad boys use a straight through design for maximum flow with a dual-pattern core that effectively reduces sound levels. Manufactured with all-aluminized material, and filled with stainless steel sound absorbing material, these mufflers were built to last. The icing on the cake is that they are much lighter than many of their competitor’s mufflers. The round mufflers weigh in at 3.8 pounds each and the rear oval mufflers are only 7.2 pounds each.
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9:20 @ 145 mph 2010 Ford Mustang, driven by Gary Richard
ZZZ FURZHU FRP phone: (619) 661-6477 fax: (619) 661-6466
GREEN MACHINE
With only 10.5� of tire to work with, and 1180hp/1069 ft lbs of torque on tap, we knew that a progressive nitrous controller would be needed. To manage the power of the Big Block Brawler we called Randy Westmoreland at Leash Electronics for one of their new Single Stage Progressive Nitrous Controllers. With the Leash Electronics Progressive Controller nitrous percentages are easily programmable from 0%-100% and 1-3 programmable ramps can be used sequentially. Featuring a 80MZ microprocessor , and a separate timer with 12V output that can be used for triggering auxiliary relays or retards, this baby is packed with features! The Leash Electronics Relay Board is well constructed and is clearly labeled so wiring up the Leash Progressive Controller is a snap! Below: To manage the fuel pressure for the Pro Systems SV1 1100cfm Carburetor and the Nitrous Supply Annular Discharge Pro-Plate, a trio of Weldon A2046 4-Port Block Regulators allow fuel pressure to be precisely adjusted without having to use any tools. Manufactured using billet aircraft aluminum with mil-spec anodizing these regulators perform as good as they look. We used two Weldon A2046 regulators for the Nitrous Supply nitrous system (so that the fuel pressure of each system can be adjusted independently) and one for the Pro Systems SV1 carburetor.
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GREEN MACHINE A Powermaster Performance 8478 Race Alternator is securely mounted to the S&W Race Cars front motor plate using a Powermaster Pro Series 882 bracket designed for applications utilizing a front motor plate. With all of the electronics being used on performance vehicles these days having a charging system that is up to the task is critical. When it comes to top notch alternators and mounting brackets nobody does it better than Powermaster Performance. Manufactured with 100% new components in their West Chicago, Illinois factory the Powermaster alternator provides sufficient charging capacity to keep the battery fully charged even at idle. One really cool feature that the XS Volt Series alternators have is an adjustable voltage regulator that allows the user to adjust the voltage level. Since the adjustable range is between 13.5V-18.5V these alternators will work with both 12V and 16V batteries. There is nothing more frustrating than not being able to get your engine started because of starter problems. To ensure that the Big Block Brawler will always start we installed one of P o w e r m a s t e r Performance’s 9400 Ultra Torque Starters. It is manufactured with 100% new components (no rebuild OEM parts), features a stout 3.4 HP electric motor, and with 4.4:1 gear reduction it has enough cranking power for 18:1 compression race engines!
What’s next: Over the next few weeks we’ll be turning our focus to rewiring the Bel Air, installing a DJ Safety Lower Engine Containment “Diaper” and finishing installing the gauges needed to monitor the Big Block Brawler’s vitals. Stay tuned! SOURCES: Dynatech www.dynatechheaders.com (812) 897-0900 Clocks Off Race Cars www.clocksoffracecars.com (877) 247-7223 Leash Electronics www.leashelectronics.com (501) 515-1693 Powermaster Performance www.powermastermotorsports.com (630) 957-4019
S&W Race Cars www.swracecars.com (800) 523-3353 Stainless Works www.stainlessworks.net (800) 878-3635 Summit Racing www.summitracing.com (800) 230-3030 Weldon Pump www.weldonracing.com (440) 232-2282
Rod & Competition Specialty www.rodandcomp.com (262) 781-9044 44
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Trick Flow Specialties Engine and Fuel Delivery Components Deliver the Power You Need to Get Ahead on the Street and on the Track. Trick Flow produces engine parts for GM LS and LT1, small and big block Chevrolet and Ford, Ford 4.6L/5.4L modular, and Ford Cleveland series engines.
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255cc CNC Competition Ported intake runners 87cc CNC Competition Ported exhaust runners 69cc CNC-profiled combustion chambers 2.165"/1.600" stainless steel intake/exhaust valves 12° valve angles increase piston-to-valve clearance and allow the use of larger camshafts Coolant holes work with all LS head gasket and engine block combinations Stock type runners accommodate LS3-style intake manifolds and LS9/LSA blower assemblies Offered with standard and 6-bolt per cylinder mounting patterns Available fully assembled or as bare castings
1309RPCT
The Prodigy Story & Photos By Brian Hansen
Photography By Pete Ores
2500HP, 4600lbs, 1000WATTS & Air Conditioning means that Ken Ivaska is gonna be cool, comfortable & listening to his favorite tune when he kicks your butt on Saturday night at the strip in his ‘67 Cutlass 442!
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The Prodigy
T
he year was 1981 and 15 year-old Ken Ivaska was on the hunt for his first car. His older brother Greg had just bought a 1970 Road Runner with a 383 and Ken was determined to find himself a musclecar of his very own. Winter had set in when Ken’s dad took him to a car show at the Amphitheater in Chicago where he saw this 1967 Oldsmobile Cutlass 442 for the very first time. A small for sale sign was neatly placed on the dash with an asking price of $3,500. After convincing his Dad that this was the car that he needed, they spoke with the owner and a deal was struck. Little did Ken know at the time that 32 years later he would still own the Oldsmobile that sparked his ongoing interest in cars!
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When he purchased the Olds the factory 400 cubic inch engine had been replaced by a rare W30 455 power plant and was backed up by a Muncie M22 4-speed transmission. It was decked out with all of the hop-up parts of the era including air shocks, Accel spark plug wires, Sun tachometer, Hurst shifter and ladder bars. Besides being a stout performer it was a certainly a looker with its Midnight Bronze paint job and custom air brushed flames running down the side of the car. Up until the early 1990’s he drove the car on the street and occasionally raced it at the drag strip. Then Ken got married, started
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a family and focused on running his business, so the Oldsmobile was parked in a garage. For nearly 22 years the Oldsmobile sat, until 2009 when it was delivered to Roman Performance & Fabrication to be transformed into one of the most unique, and wickedly fast, street cars in the country! Engine & Drivetrain “I knew the car would be really heavy once all of the latest modifications were completed to the Oldsmobile and it would take a lot of horsepower to get it in the 8’s!” Ken exclaimed. “After speaking with Graham Jones over at Fast Times Motorworks (Des Plaines, Illinois) he suggested doing a twin turbo big block Chevy similar to the one that powered Nick Scavo’s Outlaw 10.5” Camaro to 6- seconds @ 220+mph in the ¼ mile. Of course there would be some differences between the two engines since I intended to run pump gas and drive the car regularly on the street, but Graham knew that he had a combination that would be capable of producing the power that I was looking for.”
Ken’s 442 on the trailer. Back in the 1980’s this is how the Oldsmobile was transported to the race track...with the family car! With a fresh set of Goodyear Eagle slicks Ken was ready to tear up the ¼-mile at Great Lakes Dragaway! Linda Vaughn. This photo of Linda Vaughn (Miss Hurst Golden Shifter) standing next to Ken’s Oldsmobile was taken in the early 80’s. Linda was often referred to as the “First Lady of Drag Racing” as she toured the world representing Hurst Industries from the mid 1960’s through the early 1980’s when she retired. Today, Linda still makes appearances at various car show and races around the country to greet her many long time fans. Photo page 48: Launching the big bad Olds at dusk. Check out the Mickey Thompson 10.5W slicks bite into the sticky Great Lakes Dragaway track surface.
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The foundation of the 598-inch big block Chevy is an all-Aluminum Donovan block, Scat billet crank, Crower billet rods, 9:1 compression JE forged pistons and a solid-roller camshaft custom ground by LSM. When asked about cam spec’s Graham simply responded, “big enough”. Topping off the short block is a pair of Dart CNC cylinder heads filled with 2.350 intake and 1.840 exhaust valves. Feeding the hungry beast is a pair (yes TWO) of 88mm PTE (Precision Turbo & Engine) turbochargers, a Hogan sheet-metal intake manifold, PTE 160gph fuel injectors and Wilson 105mm throttle body. Firepower comes from an MSD 7531 teamed up with FAST Electronics XFI. Exhaust gasses are extracted by a custom set of stainless 2 ¼” primary headers that dump into four (Yes, FOUR) stainless steel mufflers and exit out the rear thanks to a pair of 4” diameter oval tailpipes. The 598 big block is built by Fast Times Motorworks with all of the best parts available. Running on pump 93 octane gas the big Chevy pounded out 1,365 horsepower on the chassis dyno with only 15 pounds of boost! Crank up the boost a bit to, oh I don’t know, say 45lbs, add in some race fuel to make it happy, and this mill is estimated to produce upwards of 2,500HP! And if that’s not enough, just look at it... this monster looks like it could devour a small town!
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Photos, right: The original interior (complete with bench seat and arm rest) was reupholstered by Ed’s Auto Interior in Villa Park Illinois and looks factory fresh. Since Ken did not want clutter up the interior of the Old’s with lots of gauges and switches, Ed Romanowski came up with the idea of using the factory arm rest to house the transmission paddle shifters, electric exhaust cut-outs, license plate drop control, tail light cut-out and emergency kill switch. A killer stereo is tastefully hidden in the glove box. Tilt/Telescopic steering column, reupholstered factory bench seats and Vintage Air A/C make this arguably one of the most comfortable 8-second street cars in the country.
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RPM Quick Tech Sheet
1967 Oldsmobile Cutlass - Str eet/Strip/Show Owner/Driver: Ken Ivaska Engine Short Block: 598 cubic inch big block Chevrolet built by Fast Times Motorworks; aluminum bloc k, SCAT billet crankshaft, JE forge d pistons, Dart CNC aluminum head s, Crower billet connecting rods . Induction: Hogan sheet metal intak e manifold, Wilson 105mm throttle body, PTE 160 gph injectors. Cylinder heads: Dart 18 degree CNC Oval Port aluminum heads. Power Adder: Twin 88mm Prec ision Turbo & Engine turbochar gers. Comfort Options: Vintage Air A/C and a thumpin’ stereo system! Ignition: MSD 7531 with FAST Electronics XFI Tran smi ssio n & Con vert er: Turb o 400 by And y’s Perf orm ance Transmission/ Neal Chance torqu e converter Suspension/Chassis: Stock Susp ension modified by Roman Perf ormance. Double framerail with full tube back-half under the factory floor Wheels: Bonspeed Wheels (20x 15” rear and 18x8” front) Tires: Mickey Thompson 29x15” SR Radials (rear) for the street and Mickey Thompson 10.5x10.5W slicks for the drag strip. Weight: 4,350 pounds… without driver! Exhaust: Four stainless steel muff lers, QTP electric cutouts, cust om stainless 4” over-the-axle tailpipes Hor sep owe r: 1,36 5 dyno ed to the rear tires with 15 pou nds of boost...over 2,500 potential from engine. Performance: 8.55 @ 165mph (only 18 pounds of boost and throu gh the exhaust!)
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Mid-track charge! With over two tons to move down the 1320 it takes a lot of horsepower to push the Oldsmobile into the 8-second zone. When Ken takes OLBOOST to the track he swaps out the 20” wheels for a custom set of 15’s wrapped in Mickey Thompson 10.5x29.5W slicks. With gobs of torque at his disposable, he needs to walk the big Oldsmobile out of the hole though, even with 1.45 60’ times. With enough torque to rotate the Earth on its axis, doing long smoky burnout’s like this is no problem at all. For street use Ken likes to use gigantic Mickey Thompson 29x15” radial tires out back. As we witnessed firsthand, these tires can’t handle the power but they sure make for some nice burnouts!
So how much is this combination capable of producing you ask? According to engine builder Graham Jones, this monster should be able to make north of 2,500hp running on VP race fuel with the boost turned up to 45 pounds. During chassis dyno testing, running on 93 octane pump gas, Dan Bills at Finish Line Performance recorded a best of 1,365 hp at only 15 pounds of boost. The engine could have produced more power but the chassis dyno had enough and threw in the towel! To transfer the power to the pavement a TH400 transmission built by Andy’s Performance Transmission, Neal Chance torque converter and Gear Vendors overdrive. Rolling stock consists of 20” rear and 18” front billets with Mickey Thompson 29” X 15” SR Sportsman Radial tires on the rear. Don’t let those rubber band tires fool you though, this is no run-of-the-mill Pro Touring or Retro Mod ride. When things get serious, custom 15” wheels are wrapped with Mickey Thompson 10.5x29.5W slicks for the track.
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Bells and Whistles When Ken Ivaska first discussed the project with Ed Romanowski at Roman Performance & Fabrication there were three main goals: fit the twin turbo big block Chevy that was being built at Fast Times Motorworks under the flat factory hood. Next, it had to have a cooling system that would allow the car to be driven anywhere without overheating. And last but not least, be one of the biggest and baddest street cars in the country! It was a tall order to fill but Ed was up to the challenge. Since being able to reliably stop the 4,600-pound behemoth was crucial, Romanowski called up Rick Elam at Baer Brakes for a set of super stoppers. Baer’s Extreme+ featuring 6-piston calipers, staggered size stainless steel pistons, hubs manufactured out of 6061-T6 billet, Timken or SKF bearings and Baer Sport high-friction ceramic brakes pads were recommended for the front. Since Ken planned to run the smaller diameter 15” Bonspeed rims with
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According to Ken all trim on the car is original. It’s in such nice shape that you’d think that he replaced it with hard to find NOS parts.
Neatly tucked away in the trunk is a pair of Alpine stereo amps, subwoofers, 18 gallon fuel cell, and a Weldon fuel system. All the aluminum work was done by Jason Arrigo (Arrigo Specialty Metal Works) by hand using an English Wheel. Since Ken planned to drive his Old’s on the street even during the dog days of summer in Chicago, a double radiator system was designed (one in the front of the car and a huge one mounted under the trunk) to keep the 598 BBC cool. The chassis was reinforced using double framerails with a full tube back-half (all under the factory floor). Global West control arms and rack & pinion steering replace factory components. A Fab 9 rearend is filled with Strange gun-drilled axles and 3.50 gears.
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Mickey Thompson 10.5W slicks at the track, Rick recommended the SS4 single-caliper brake system for the rear. To keep the big Chevy happy in the summer heat, two Ron Davis custom radiators were installed. One is located in the front of the car just ahead of the jumbo intercooler and the other was installed directly under the trunk floor and measures a whopping 31”x 20”. As Ken commented, “we’ve had this thing out in 90 degree weather and have never had it run warmer than 195 degrees with the two custom radiators and auxiliary cooling fans. It’s fun to watch people’s expression when we go to park the Oldsmobile and the fan under the trunk continues to run after the car is turned off. They have a perplexed look as they try to figure out what is creating all of that noise under the back of the car!” Ken wanted to cruise in comfort so he had a Vintage Air A/C System installed so he could stay cool, even on the hottest Chicago summer nights. The factory AM radio was left in the dash but is no longer used after ABT Electronics installed a killer stereo that includes a head unit tucked away in the glove box and multiple amps/sub-woofers tastefully mounted in the mammoth trunk. This car is the complete package when it comes to a street and strip machine with its balance of power and creature comforts.
Street Racing in the 1980’s Although Ken no longer condones street racing, back in the 1980’s illegal street racing in the Chicago area was commonplace at locations like Fulton & Damon, Ogden & Kostner, Irving & Cumberland, Doty Road and by the City of Chicago Incinerators. The 442 was a pretty stout performer
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$359599 Bracket Powerglide FEATURES: 1.76 Gear set with 4340 forged output shaft and housing, Steel Clutch Hub w/ 5 clutch pack, Rebuilt Pump, Two ring servo, BTE Bracket Transbrake Valve body, Kevlar lined Band, Dyno-tested.
$84995 54
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with the 1970 455 W-30 engine combination that was in the car when it was purchased and he rarely lost a race on the street. That was until he encountered a certain 1965 El Camino owned by Chuck Samuel, who also lived in the Chicago area. As Ken tells the story, “the 442 was known in the Chicago area to run hard on the street. One night we were racing on Milwaukee Avenue and I got lined up next to this guy with an El Camino that had a set of slicks on it. As we were getting ready to race I looked over and noticed this
knucklehead was putting on a red open-face helmet. I was thinking, what was the helmet for? He didn’t need it, if anything I would need it because I was going to clean his clock. Well it didn’t turn out that way. The guy behind the wheel of that El Camino was none other than the legendary street racer Chuck Samuel. Ken continued, “he kicked my butt in a big way. His car was so loud I didn’t realize that my shifter had popped out of 3rd gear as were racing down Milwaukee Avenue. By the time I noticed that it was not in gear I had spun a few main bearings and the oil pressure gauge dropped as fast as the tach. When we passed the finish line my heart dropped to the floor because I knew that the 455 W30 engine was mortally wounded. It was at that point that I decided if I couldn’t beat em’ I might as well join em’ and ended up building my first 454 big block Chevy for the Oldsmobile. From that time one it’s always been Chevy powered!”
Special Thanks Projects of this magnitude don’t happen without a lot of help from some very talented people. Ken wanted to make sure that thanks go out to Ed Romanowski- Roman Performance and Fabrication, Graham Jones/Jeff Dagostino- Fast Times Motorworks, Vince Thornberry-Paint Spot, Jay HarrisISIS Wiring, Dan Bills- Finish Line Performance, Joe Lanute- American CNC, Rick Johnson- Gear Vendors, Ed Smith- Eds Auto Interiors Villa Park, Jason Arrigo-Arrigo Specialty Metal Works, Nick Scavo, Chuck Samuel, Mark Enwia and Mike Engstrom for everything that they did to help make this dream a reality. This car is not a trailer queen… and never will be one. Ken has always enjoyed driving his rare 442 since he first got behind the wheel 32 years ago.
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Special thanks to my wife Terrie who has always supported me through all of my projects… especially after she overheard the cost of this build!
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Both Barrels LOADED T
he newest and most rapidly growing categories in the world of hot rods and performance street and strip cars are Pro Touring, and even more recently, the Resto Mod, which in a nutshell encompass the essential elements of outrageous power, road-grabbing cornering and braking capabilities, and stock sheet metal. In other words, the concept champions a car that can accelerate, brake, turn corners, and complete a cross-country road trip with competent authority.
Cars sporting Chevrolet’s corporate Bowtie badges are most likely to be found undergoing a Pro Touring retrofit, but for John Jinnings, of Churubusco, Indiana, a small town located just northwest of Fort Wayne, nothing but a machine emblazoned with Ford’s famous Blue Oval emblems would do as the platform for his most recent and ambitious project.
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Story & Photos By Brian Wood
John Jinnings is ‘All In’ With His Radical Shotgun Torino
At first glance, Jinnings’ 1970 Torino GT is certainly lean, clean, stealthy and sleek in high-gloss black with a taught, ready-to-pounce stance. But there’s a lot more to this amazing creation, with the custombuilt, ram-air hood scoop providing a major clue. One look under the bonnet confirms it – you can add mean to lean and clean. In fact, you might as well go with REAL mean, because that’s exactly what it is. Lurking in the Torino’s immaculate engine bay is a beautiful 572-cubic-inch Jon Kaase Boss Nine powerplant, a bullet that can trace its lineage back to the Boss 429 that was available as a NASCAR homologation special in 1969 and 1970 Ford Mustangs and two special Mercury Cougars. The so-called Blue Crescent or Shotgun engine was designed and developed by Ford in an attempt to go head-to-head with the Chrysler Hemi in NASCAR competition.
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In NASCAR trim, the Boss 429 had hemisphericalchambered aluminum heads and a very bad attitude. It performed well in the fastback-style Ford Torino and Mercury Cyclone, but the NASCAR program was short-lived, and a detuned version of the Ford “semi-hemi” used in factory production cars between 1969 and 1970 never caught on. One of the reasons was that the street version of the Boss 429 as it originally came from Ford had a number of inherent problems. Rocker arms and valve springs often failed, and the engine had a tendency to run hot, making it pretty unreliable. Enter Jon Kaase, who at one time was the engine builder and crew chief for legendary drag The deceivingly stock appearing 70 Torino is powered by a monster 572cubic-inch Jon Kaase Boss Nine bullet capable of putting out 700 horsepower and 700 footpounds of torque on pump gas. Jinnings and engine builder Ken Felice did the final assembly. John Jinnings Garage... this is the 130th car John has owned or built, so why not hang a sign! This says it all. This is one Ford that is certainly “All In.”
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Both Barrels LOADED racer “Dyno Don” Nicholson. Kaase, with help from Nicholson and Ford, set out to modify the motor in an effort to develop a powerful and reliable piece suitable for drag racing. Instead of building it on the 429 block he utilized the A460 block. Through stroking and boring he was eventually able to get up to 800 cubic inches out of it for use in IHRA Mountain Motor Pro Stock competition. In the 44 years since its introduction, the mystique surrounding the Boss Nine kept the Ford faithful lusting after rare original Blue Crescent/Shotgun engines. On the legendary engine’s 40th anniversary Kaase put them out of their protracted misery, introducing a modern Boss Nine combination based on a high-nodular cast iron cylinder block that can accommodate 429, 460, 521, or 600 inches capable of 500 to 1,000 horsepower. This, then, was the starting point for All In, the car that had been on Jinnings’ “what-if” list for many years. “I had often wondered what it would have been like if Ford had dropped the Boss Nine in a Torino instead of the Mustang back in ’69,” Jinnings said. “The opportunity to find out first hand came when we found a rust-free Torino GT body up in Saginaw, Michigan. It seemed like another of my what-ifs had a chance to see the light of day.”
“I have always been a car fan,” Jinnings said when asked about his love for and ability to design and build beautiful custom hot rods. “Around 1982 I started building my own cars, and one of the first was a 1940 Ford with a 351 Cleveland engine. As far as I know it was one of the very first Pro Street cars ever built.” “During that time I drag raced off and on, with everything from a ’65 Mustang street car to a pair of really nice ’83 Thunderbirds with 427 stroker motors that ran ten-flat to 10.20. About 20 years ago I started building a car a year. I’d find something during the summer months and we’d tear it down and start a full restoration. About March or April the following year we’d drive it out.” “I build these cars strictly for myself, and I keep from five to nine here at my shop,” Jinnings said. “I usually sell off the oldest ones to make room for the new arrivals. Over my lifetime I have had many cars, with the Torino being number 130. I have about 5,000 square feet here at my shop, and we have just about everything we need to build a car. I design them in my mind and then we start tearing into them and modifying them.” With the classic Torino GT body safely ensconced in his shop, Jinnings began to map out the plan that would eventually bring the clas-
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sic muscle machine back to life. A key element in what he envisioned as a Pro Touring tour de force was the most powerful Ford engine he could squeeze under the hood.
The chassis was prototyped and fabricated by Martz Chassis of Bedford, Pennsylvania. It features coil-over shocks all around, sub-frame connectors, and a four-link rear suspension. The stainless exhaust system features cut-outs that dump right off the headers by way of a pair of trick 90degree dumps. A detail of the Martz front coil-over set-up and Wilwood brake installation shows why this Torino handles like no other.
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“I had been keeping up with Jon Kaase’s work on the new Boss Nine, and I loved his ideas,” Jinnings said. “I got in touch with him and ordered everything we needed. I used to build all my own engines, but Ken and Chris Felice at Felice Performance Engines in Ionia, Michigan, have been building them for me since around 2000, so Kenny Felice and I picked up the parts from Kaase and built the engine in his shop.” “The engine utilizes Diamond pistons, Oliver rods, a Sonny Bryant forged steel crank and a Pro
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Both Barrels LOADED RPM Quick Tech Sheet 1970 Ford Torino GT Owner/Driver: John Jinnings Engine: 572 cubic inch Jon Kaase Boss Nine big block Ford with 9.8: 1 compression, Diamond pistons, Oliver rods and Sonny Bryant forged steel crankshaft. Fuel System: Stainless steel fuel tank by Rick’s Tanks equipped with an Aeromotive A1000 in-tank fuel pump. Ignition: MSD Digital-6 Plus, MSD billet distributor. Carburetor: Pro Systems 1250 Dominator. Wheels/Tires: Budnik Spark 18X9.75, Nitto Extreme 555 street tires. Transmission: Lentech AOD with J.W. bellhousing Rear: 9� Ford, 3.50 gears & Trac Lok center section. Horsepower: 700 hp/700 ft lbs of torque on pump gas. 850 hp on racing fuel.
The build plan called for the custom interior to closely echo the showroom look of an original 1970 Torino. Among the custom touches are a very cool Dakota digital dash and a hidden roll cage. The MSD Digital-6 Plus box is in the glove box and a mega-watt stereo is concealed in the trunk.
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Painting a car gloss black can be risky business, as any minor flaw in the body work becomes glaringly obvious. With the help of his body and paint man, master builder Jinnings works hard to ensure a blemish-free final product.
Systems 1250 Dominator carb. It develops around 700 horsepower and 700 foot-pounds of torque through our headers burning 93-octane pump gas. On Kaase’s dyno, this motor is broken in with racing headers and racing fuel and makes 850 horsepower with 36 to 38 degrees of total timing. ”As for the rest of the build, I had done a Martz chassis in my 700-horsepower Mercury Comet Cyclone, so I called Gary Martz in Bedford, Pennsylvania, and asked if he could sell me a Torino chassis. He told me that he didn’t have such a thing but he prototyped the chassis on my car and now he offers it for sale to other Torino owners through
(800) 208-1755
his shop. The chassis Martz built features coil-over shocks all around, sub-frame connectors that tie everything together, and a four-link rear suspension setup.” “Bill Davis, a local guy, did the stainless steel exhaust system with cut-outs that dump right off the headers. We use 90-degree dumps so you can sit there at idle and within two seconds you’re coming directly through the headers. That will really terrorize some guys in traffic!” “We went to California for the FRP headers and utilized a stainless steel fuel tank from Rick’s Tanks in Houston,” Jinnings said. “Inside the tank is an Aeromotive A1000 pump. We used MSD ignition and
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Both Barrels LOADED a Ron Francis wiring harness. I do all of my own wiring and plumbing - all the lines are stainless steel and we mount everything to the frame using custom aluminum brackets. All the brake lines are stainless steel as well. We use Moser axles and a nine-inch Ford rear end with 3:50 gears and a Trac Lok center section. The transmission is a Lentech AOD with a J.W. bellhousing. There are big sway bars front and rear, and everything rolls on Extreme 555 tires mounted on 18x9.75” Budnik Spark wheels.” “On the interior, all of the tin work was done by Gary Martz as well, who installed a trick hidden roll cage. The rest of the interior was done by Krist Kustom Interiors, located in Fort Wayne. We wanted the interior to look stock, like the car could have been sitting on a Ford showroom floor back in 1970. The body and paint work was taken care of by Evers Collision Works, also of Fort Wayne.” The custom-built ram-air hood scoop is fully functional and was required to accommodate the big cubic inches of Ford Shotgun Hemi power lurking underneath it. The immaculate body and paint work lavished on the Torino is evident in this detail shot. Factory front and rear lighting and bumpers painted to match the GT’s body really complete the total package.
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Both Barrels LOADED “Because the Kaase motor is so much taller than stock we had a one-off ram-air hood fabricated by Terry Delong. This is a fully functioning piece, and I think it looks great.” “We haven’t had a chance to take the car to the track yet, but I believe it will run high tens if I hook it up. Top end will be interesting, because with the 3:50 gear at seventy miles an hour we’re at 2,000 rpm and the red line is 6,300. With 700 horsepower I think the aerodynamics will take over at some point. It’s the old situation of only being able to push a brick through the air so fast.” “When Pro Touring became popular a few years ago I fell in love with it. I decided that it was the way to go, so most of the cars I build now are of that type and style. At this point, the Torino is my ultimate Pro Touring machine. This is a car that you could drive to California and back if there were enough gas stations along the way. Being gentle with it we’re getting around 11 to 12 miles per gallon. But it’s so much fun to drive that it just isn’t an issue.” Just a few more of the Fords in John’s collection. Top photo, from the left: 2013 Shelby GT 500, 662HP. 1964 Mercury Cyclone packing a 438 Windsor with Paxton supercharger that is rated at 725-750HP. Lower photo, from left: 2012 Boss 302 Mustang. This was bought for John’s newborn grandson, and when he’s 16 John will give it to his mom and dad to determine when he can drive it. 1973 DeTomasa Pantera bought in 1989, and John reworked the 351 Cleveland to 475HP. 1963 Ford 300 2-door sedan Q code 427 car rated at 410 hp. It is 1 of 47 built, 1 of 3 known to exist.
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Do you have what it takes?
Story & Photos By Brian Tyler
The Fight To Be Canada’s Fastest Street Car Returns For 2013
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or hardcore Ford racing enthusiasts, the name Joe DaSilva should be a familiar one. Based out of Toronto, Ontario, Joe along with his brother Paul spent years traveling the United States in the heads up drag racing world.
The Bowtie dominates! Above, Nick Agostino would be back with a new front end after damage sustained at the Nitro Nationals in July, and would come out swinging, taking best ET and high MPH on the qualifying sheets with a 4.23 @ 189 + MPH! Below, Gen Musto would run hard all weekend in his nitrous Trans Am, and would be rewarded with the 2013 CSCN EZ Street crown.
After many successful years behind the wheel in the NMRA Pro 5.0 class, going rounds and putting the competition on the trailer, Joe has continued to fly the Ford Performance flag, operating DaSilva Racing. The 2013 Canadian Street Car Nationals presented by Matco Tools would be the most recent fruits of Joe’s labors as a race promoter, bringing out a variety of index classes, bike and sled competitors, and of course, the big dogs - the EZ Street and Outlaw 10.5 heads up classes. A very cool treat for the Saturday night crowd also included a ‘King of the Street’ shootout. Valid insurance, registered license plates and tight competition would make the fight for the King of the Street title a heated one. With 3 rounds of qualifying on Saturday, teams would have to contend with hot track conditions, and less than ideal air temperatures, but the drivers would power through and put on a show for the fans. For the fans who came to stick it out in the mid-day summer heat, Joe DaSilva would zip up the fire suit and fire up his turbocharged Mustang to light
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up the quarter mile. Having not been strapped in behind the wheel of the Mustang since 2011, Joe would show no signs of being rusty and would run it out the back door to a mid6 second, 200 mph plus pass. As the sun began to set on Saturday night, the King of the Street shootout would come to the lanes featuring a variety of Chevrolet and Ford muscle, the usual Camaro and Mustang contenders, as well as a few of the Generals finest C5 and C6 Corvettes. Running with a “clocks off” format, each pair would get down the track with only a win light illuminating the scoreboards. The winners moved on, the losers went home.
After facing off against a group of tough competitors, the final win light, trophy, and $1000 in cold hard cash would go to ‘Arun’ in his beautiful, blown C5 Z06. Other than a set of Weld Racing wheels (oh, and the Chute hangin’ off the rear) the ‘Vette looks near stock and makes enough steam to lay a serious beating on just about anything out there that comes looking to line ‘em up (at the track of course!). Taking home the title in EZ Street would be Gen Musto in his killer black and blue flamed WS-6 Trans AM. Musto would use his nitrous assisted power plant to knock down the EZ Street competition and take out the Mustang of Rob Orofiamma in the finals, earning him bragging rights as the 2013 Champ. Left: Nino Meglio and his 3rd-gen Corvette ‘LIKE2WYN’. Fans and photographers love to see some sunshine under the tires, and the candles lit on this cool EZ Street brawler. Left: After struggling with both electrical and mechanical gremlins with their Procharger-powered Firebird, Matt Glassford and Chris Fernandes are seeing some rewards from all of the hard work, including some long awaited 7 second time slips! Glassford has recently run a personal best of 7.81 at over 189mph. Below: The downside to running on the ragged edge: Team Carinci would tag the tower side wall leaving the Pontiac in need of some TLC. A tough break for a hard working Team, but these guys will bounce back. Carinci would qualify 7th with a 4.94 ET . Right: I wish my garage looked this good! Maximum Performance lets it all hang out in the pits! Be careful though, you may walk away with a little ‘turbo envy’.
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In Outlaw 10.5, the competition would remain tight. This event saw the new-for-2013 Outlaw 10.5 Association supply the 10.5 Outlaw talent. With the still new series creating a buzz both locally as well as in the on-line racing community, there was a lot of hype heading into the 3rd of 4 races in 2013, not only in the battle for the 2013 CSCN title, but as well as several racers tuning up for the Yellow Bullet Nationals the following weekend. After suffering some damage to the right side of his vehicle at the series’ previous event, Nick Agostino would be back out with
Above: Mike Papadakis does his best disappearing act with a little bit of tire smoke. Shown here preparing for a licensing pass in his twin turbo Mustang, Mike will certainly be a contender in future 10.5 series races. Below: Going rounds doesn’t happen without hard work before, during, and after each race. Having run NHRA Pro Mod and ADRL (to name a few), Team Pontieri is no stranger to the hard work required to succeed, and on this outing they would make it to the finals.
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his boosted Camaro repaired and ready to rumble. With a 14-car field lining up to take a run at the $5000 payout, you could be sure the teams would be throwing everything they had at the track, leaving nothing on the table. Sadly, when you are dealing with multiple thousands of horsepower on a small 10.5-inch tire, sometimes trying to put all of it to the track surface can lead to some pretty wild rides. Veteran pilot John Carinci would get loose on the top end Saturday, sliding his Trans Am across the track and tapping the concrete retainers. Though Carinci did not suffer any serious injury, his Pontiac would be a little worse for the wear and would be done for the weekend. With Sunday afternoons elimination rounds near complete, only two men would remain standing. The events low ET and top speed qualifier, Agostino, would face off against Tony Pontieri. Pontieri, racing out of Bolton, Ontario and well known in the Pro Mod drag racing ring, would qualify 4th with a 4.53 sec pass in his 800 + cubic inch Camaro before working his way through the field and into the finals.
Mike Dimech waits in the lanes with his all motor Shelby Mustang. You NEED to check out this car! A very cool modern take on one of the most classic Mustang designs. ‘Arun’ in his stop light killer C5 Corvette opens up the gap on this fox body Mustang. This would be one of many victories on the way to the King of the Street title.
When the burnout smoke settled in the final round, Agostino would reign victorious running a slower pass but taking Pontieri at the tree. Nick would collect the check, the fresh set of Mickey T’s and would add ‘2013 CSCN Champion’ to his list of accomplishments with his beautiful Maximum Performance built hot rod. With another year of “Canada’s Fastest” in the books, a big thank you goes out the Toronto Motorsports Park crew, all the racers for coming out, and last but not least, to Joe DaSilva. Not only for organizing this years event but also for firing up the old Pro 5.0 rocket, puttin’ the hammer down and making it the cherry on top of an already awesome weekend of drag racing in the north.
Event promoter Joe DaSilva would thrill fans running his Pro 5.0 Mustang out the back door deep into the 6’s at well over 200mph.
There is just something flat out mean about this nitrous huffing, flat black, big body Chevelle driven by Mark Azevedo and powered by a big block Chevrolet.
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Introducing Valvoline NextGen. The first recycled oil formulated from a breakthrough process that combines the latest re-refining technology with Valvoline’s special additives to exceed industry standards. It’s the only recycled oil good enough to be called Valvoline, because we hold ourselves to a higher standard. Yours. Go to NextGenMotorOil.ca and find out why it is important to recycle your used oil and use recycled oil.
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Project 4 Lug Thug By Chuck Scott
Pre Track set-up on your new race car... you’re ready to put some laps on your freshly built car at the local drag strip, but first you need to go over your chassis & suspension.
Set Up For Success – Part 1
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o you just built a brand new drag car from scratch. After the last part is installed, fluids are topped off and the final bolt is tightened there are still a few more things to do before you haul to the track and let go of the transbrake. If you want your car to work right and drive straight, you will need to set up the chassis and get a drag race wheel alignment. In this installment we will do the preliminary steps of a proper set up that you can do in your home garage before scaling and taking it for the front-end alignment. 1. One often overlooked step is to air your tires up to what they will likely be raced at. Even if you don’t know for sure what PSI you will be using, you can get close and most importantly get the left and right sides the same. I put 40psi in the front tires and 18 in the rears.
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2. If your car has an anti-roll bar go ahead and disconnect one side so it doesn’t influence the adjustments. You won’t hook it back up until the car is scaled. 3. Unless someone else is going to do all the work while you nap in the drivers seat, you will need to put weight in your seat to represent the drivers weight. Yes that is six 50lb bags of sand that is representing yours truly. Yes I know that is still 21lbs short, and yes I know I need to go on a diet. The driver isn’t the only weight that needs to be in place. Nitrous bottles, fuel, ice, etc. should be put in the car also before measurements begin. 4. Set the car’s desired ride height. Measure from the top of the wheel to the fender lip. I found that our left front was about a half inch lower than the right. When making ride height adjustments you will find that when you adjust one corner it sometimes affects the ride height of other corners too. When you let the car back down measure the other corners again to make sure they haven’t changed and adjust accordingly. To make sure the car is settled before measurements, stand in the doorjambs and bounce the suspension a few times on each side.
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5. On the RPM Project Thug Mustang, we only have ride height adjustment on the front wheels with double adjustable coilover shocks. The rear suspension has stock location coil springs instead of the typical coilovers. If the rear measurement is too far off our only option is replacing the springs. 6. Next we move to the rear end. It is extremely important that the rear end is square in the car. Even the slightest misalignment will cause the car to pull to one side on acceleration. If you have ever driven a car with an out-of-square rear, you know how unruly and dangerous it can be. When we installed the rear end in the RPM project car, we just got it close by eye and centered the wheels in the fender wells. Now that it’s go time, more precise measurements are required. On a Mustang or any opposing four link car, the lower control arms set the rear end’s position front to rear. The uppers can affect it too, but any adjustment front to rear needs to be done by lengthening or shortening the lower bars. To get the best measurement I pick a low and as far forward permanent factory mounting point on the car like the rear K-member sub-frame bolts. To keep from needing two people, I zip tie the tape measure tab to the bolt head.
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7. & 8. With our tape measure rulers in place we can measure to an equal point on each side of the rear end. Both of these measurements should give you equal left to right numbers. If your tires are centered in the wheel wells but your measurement is off more than an 1/8th inch, you may need to pick different chassis points to measure from. Sometimes the factory can be off some, or your car may be off due to a collision or prior abuse. If you don’t have a straight shot to the measurement points on your rear end, find different chassis points to measure from. Bending your tape measure can add length to a measurement. It’s also important to center the rear housing in the car side to side. You can check this by measuring from the tire’s sidewall to the outside, unaltered edge of the fender well lip. If one tire is closer than the other, the opposing upper control arms can be adjusted to center the rear side to side by lengthening the arm on one side and shortening the other side.
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9. Now if your rear end is centered and straight and your ride height set, it’s time to set the pinion angle. First take your angle measurement from the bottom of the driveshaft. Pick a spot anywhere on the driveshaft as long as it is flat and not on a balance weight. Our driveshaft measured 1.5 degrees with the rear of the driveshaft higher than the front.
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10. Next pick a flat spot on the rear end that is parallel or 90 degrees from the pinion centerline. If you don’t have a good spot to measure from, you may have to remove the driveshaft and take your measurement from the face of the pinion flange. I dropped the driveshaft and used a scrap of steel plate held flat against the pinion yoke to get a true measurement. I got a measurement of 3.5 degrees down. 11. The difference in these two numbers is our pinion angle. The old common rule is 1.5 to 2 degrees negative (or downward) pinion angle for solid bushing control arms, and 2.5 to 3 for poly bushings. I have found that a little more really doesn’t make much difference in performance. Excessive pinion angle will rob some power and wear out the universal joints faster. On a street car, too much pinion angle can also cause drive line vibration. On a hard launch the rear end will try to rotate the pinion upward. The rigidity of the control arms and the stiffness of the bushing material will dictate how much the rear end will actually rotate and how much pinion angle you will lose for that moment. The idea is to have enough pinion angle at rest to keep the universal joint from going past 0 degrees at launch.
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Now that the ride height is set (for now), the rear end is centered and squared and the pinion angle is set, it’s time to put this thing on some 4 corner chassis scales to check balance and then align the front end. Stay tuned for the next month’s conclusion to Set Up For Success.
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Getting Back on Track By Blake Robinson
Losing Weight - PART I
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hen building a car, big horsepower isn’t the only thing that will make you go fast, but in my opinion, “the more horsepower the better.” The weight of your car is also important and there are hundreds of pounds just waiting to be discarded. Everyone has heard the old adage: “every hundred pounds you lose is worth a tenth of a second off of your Elapsed Time”, but is shedding this weight really that beneficial? Types of weight on a car: Unsprung Weight: Any part that is directly connected to the road without cushioning from the springs: Wheels, tires, rotors, calipers, spindles, axles, etc. Sprung Weight: A term used to describe the parts of a car that are supported by the front and rear suspension. The frame, body, engine, driver, etc. Rotating Weight: There are several debates concerning the definition and behavior of rotating weight. Rotating weight is found throughout the car and there are components on all vehicles that are both rotating weight and unsprung weight, as well as rotating weight and sprung weight. Sound confusing, well it can be. But why question which category it is applied to, if it’s beneficial in the long run? For example. Would a powerglide transmission not benefit both rotating weight and sprung weight? Our transmission not only saved us weight over using a Turbo 350 or 400 (which are all sprung weight), but its’ rotating mass was much lighter and required less horsepower to operate (rotating weight).
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Would our aftermarket wheels not benefit both rotating weight and unsprung weight? The wheels weigh a lot less than a stock (both unsprung weight) and again with the wheels being lighter than stock it takes less power to turn them (rotating weight). We all know that when building any street or race car on a budget, funding is usually the largest limiting factor, and we must get the best bang for our buck. With this in mind we purchase items that are not just cool, but practical. For instance, the brake upgrades we completed on the front and rear of the car not only made the car capable of stopping safely, but dropped some unsprung weight off of the car as well, it was a win win situation. In some cases though, we must weigh our options, no pun intended. For instance, spending $2,000 on fiberglass parts to lose weight or buying a turbo set up to increase our horsepower. This is when a Weight to Power Formula comes in handy. When we started getting parts together for our build we had a goal of running a 5.80 index class and figured that we’d need around 900hp to get us there. We were hoping to build around a 650hp engine at the time and with the amount of weight that we would need to drop, our goal was not going to happen. With our car weighing in close to 3,400lbs we found the weight to power ratio was 3.78lbs per hp. To find this we divided 3,400 by 900 to get the rounded-up ratio of 3.78. To find out the weight loss needed to make the 650hp engine work we multiplied the new power ratio of 3.78 with our old horsepower number of 650 giving us the goal weight of 2,457lbs. That was a total of 925lbs we would have to shed
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nuts. Quik-Latch products have developed a new generation of hood fastening technology that far surpasses traditional hood pins in both style and functionality. The fasteners mount to the hood and line up with studs placed on the core support or other brackets. Once the hood is closed, the fastener automatically latches to the stud and will not release until the center button on the top of the mechanism is depressed. The Quik-Latch Minis are approved for use in competition by the NHRA, will not rust, can be painted to match your car, and are manufactured in the United States. The latches that we will be using also have an assist spring (part # QL-25-AS) that applies preloaded pressure between two mounting surfaces. The spring is placed over the mini latch mounting stud and rests against the nut which is threaded onto the mounting stud. A retainer is placed over the ball stud, which keeps the spring from coming out of place.
The Quik-Latch kit for flush mount applications, this is one very trick fastener!
from the car, or find a way to add 250hp to our engine build. So the turbo set up was our choice and we’ll still have room to crank up the boost to go even faster. Being a gearhead though, I still want to make the car as light as possible. So our first upgrade was a 4� lift-off cowl hood from Champion Hoods and Products. Champion Hoods has been making high quality bolt-on and lift-off hoods for over 15 years and have over 30 years of experience in the manufacturing industry. All of their hoods are gel coated and offered at a competitive price.
First, we marked the hood and the fenders for the fastener center line. The dot seen here marks where the outer ring should sit. John then marked the sheet metal into 2" strips, and used a Plasma Arc Cutter to make the backing plates. On our sheet metal brake, we created a mounting flange for our backing plates. Then, using a hand drill, I drilled out the backing plate mounting holes for our 8-32 machine screws.
During the test fit of our hood we were amazed to find that we would not have to trim it anywhere. We started the install by measuring out where to place our fasteners and placed marks on both the hood and the fenders to show our centerline to mark the holes. With our holes marked we began drilling the hood to install our new trick Quik-Latch Minis (part # QL-25-S) which include the latch, nut, a ball stud, two (2) washers, and two (2) adjustment
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Quik-Latch also offers mounting buckets that we will be using (part # QL-25-B) to help with flush mount applications such as our hood. The mounting bucket is recessed to allow for the clearance of the mini-latch body. We picked up a piece of sheet metal and took some baseline measurements for our mounting brackets/backing plates to establish exactly how wide they needed to be. After a quick call to John Goebel, the owner of Goebel High Performance Transmissions and the mastermind behind our powerglide transmission,
our brackets were cut to the proper length and ready to be modified using our metal brake. After making the proper bends in our sheet metal, we drilled mounting holes and fastened them to the fender using #8 machine screws and nylock nuts. The brackets were centered by using the marks we had made when measuring the hood to establish the spacing of the fasteners. The holes were then drilled trough the hood and backing plates at the same time. Once the pilot holes were drilled a unibit/step drill bit was used to create a 3/4� hole in our hood and a 1� hole in our backing plates for our buckets.
After drilling the pilot hole in the hood, I used a uni-bit to enlarge the hole to 3/4" to allow the installation of our latch. The latch was secured using the supplied nut and tightened with a 7/8 wrench. The new latch has a very clean look and remember, they can be painted to match your car. The backing plate was installed and the bucket was riveted into place. The brackets will be cleaned up and painted during final assembly. The ball stud was installed and the height was adjusted before we installed the assist spring. The completed flush mount backing plate. One down, eleven more to go!
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This is the front lip on our fiberglass nose that we will mount a backing plate to using a different method. The backing plate here actually has a mounting flange on both sides that we placed the bend inwards on to hide the mounting hardware. Far right is the button that must be pressed to allow the fastener to release. A shot of our finished product, it looks great, what a clean install.
The Quik-Latch Mini was installed in the hood and the supplied nut was tightened using a 7/8 wrench. The buckets were then secured to the bottom of the backing plate using rivets. The mounting stud was then installed into the mounting bracket and adjusted to its proper height. We then installed our assist spring and its keeper. We wanted to be sure and add some extra support between the buckets that were installed on the fiberglass nose portion of our front end. A piece of sheet metal was bent using our metal brake and placed between the buckets and the lip on the fiberglass nose. These brackets will also be tied into with metal supports when we complete the nose section. This modification
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will help support the weight of the hood and help prevent the nose from cracking. Again, after drilling the hood and backing plate, the pilot holes were again enlarged to 3/4” on the hood and 1” on the backing plate. The Quik-Latch Mini was installed in the hood using the supplied nut and tightened with a 7/8 wrench. We then installed the bucket, the ball stud, made our adjustments, and installed the assist spring. This method was repeated until all twelve (12) fasteners were installed. The clean look was a plus with these Quik-Latch Minis, and not having to ever have change in my pocket, a slot head screwdriver or a special tool to remove my hood fasteners is awesome. Next on our list was gutting the factory doors. We knew that we would never get the doors as light as a pair of new fiberglass doors, but when most of the modifications being done are 100% FREE, why not drop all the weight that we can. The doors, as they were, weighed in at a whopping 98lbs each. We started gutting the door by removing all of the handles and the door panel. All of the bolts were removed to allow for the
All of the handles were removed before we tackled the door panel. Since we were not concerned about reusing the door panels or its’ clips, a screwdriver made the door panels removal a snap. After all the bolts were removed, we removed the window and it’s regulator.
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Bubba used a Plasma Arc Cutter to remove all the unwanted sheet metal from the door. The spot welds that hold the crash bar in had to be drilled out before removing the bar. Here you can see the four dimples that we used as guides to drill out the hinge side spot welds.
A pry bar had to be used to free up the stubborn hinge side of the bar. Then Bubba used a cut off wheel to allow us to fold the crash bar after it was cut.
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removal of the window and its regulator. We placed the aluminum door panel on the door to see exactly how much material we could remove. Bill Winfrey (Bubba) a close family friend made quick work of the removal of the sheet metal by using a Plasma Arc Cutter. The crash bar spot welds were then drilled out on both sides of the door, two (2) by the latch and four (4) on the hinge side. Using a cut off wheel, Bubba then cut the middle of the crash bar to allow it to be removed. With both doors gutted and our fiberglass hood upgrade finished, step one of losing weight is complete, well almost.
The gutted passenger side door. It sure looks skimpy now compared to the original we started with. Yes, we did do a little test fit on our new door handle kit and will cover that in a future issue. Once the install of our new handle hardware, lexan windows and aluminum door panels is complete we’ll hit the scale and share our total weight savings per door.
I know, I know, you’re saying “what about the weight of those doors after hacking them up?” We did leave you hanging a bit by not providing an “after” weight, however we wanted to give the total weight of the doors for comparison only after they are completely assembled, meaning with our aftermarket door handles, lexan windows, and aluminum door panels. These items cannot be installed until after the body work is done and we just did not want to take a chance of scratching up the new lexan windows or new aluminum door panels by installing them now. The 98-pound weight of each of our Camaro factory doors was with all the factory door handles, panels, windows, etc. so to provide a weight now would be misleading. We’re sure we knocked some serious weight out of these heavyweights so stay tuned to find out just how much that is. Join us next time for our fiberglass nose install and rear hatch modifications.
Sources:
Champion Hoods & Products www.championhoodsandproducts.com/ 513-531-6640
Goebel High Performance Transmissions 190 Goebel Ln. Waco, TX 76705 877-312-2649
Quik-Latch Distribution www.quik-latch.com/ 254-681-5706