Hey guys, I took the boy out to the drag strip last night. As Gene can attest, his 62 Falcon Ranchero usually runs low 15's. He's got the original 302 out of my Maverick in it and my buddies old belts (out of NHRA date, but they still gave us crap for them! I explained that they were three year old 3" belts vs. the 45 year old 2" belts had to be acceptable...he agree'd but said that was the rule). I had freshened the motor up with new rings and bearings before I gave it to him but other than the intake and cam it's all stock. Well he was looking to boost his performance and he really wanted to supercharge his car. We sat down and had a talk about the subject and I suggested that maybe it would be a better idea to pick up a used nitrous kit. That way he wouldn't have to rebuild the motor (right away anyhow) to take the boost and he could have some immediate inexpensive fun that shouldn't hurt the motor. Well he found a used system here locally on Craigslist for $125 but it needed a couple of lines and the pills. I still had a set of the 75 hp pills from an old system I used to have and we went to Speedworld last night. His first pass was a 15.37 (he's run a best of 15.03) without the squeeze (bad start but it was hot and humid last night). Second pass we turned on the bottle and the kid went 15.75 (go figure?). We decided that maybe the master switch wasn't on. Pass 3 netted a 15.95 (this was going the wrong direction!). Looking over the system we decided that the microswitch that he had mounted on the firewall wasn't making contact when the engine torqued. But that still didn't explain why it was going slower. Anyhow, we rebent the mount for the microswitch, checked to make sure the nitrous was working and made another charge at it. He starts on a good run and then he shuts it down at about 1000ft and pulls over. This can't be good. The fire crew and rescue folks head down there and I hear the car start up and it starts moving. He limps it back into the pits and it's barely running. The fire girl says what a good job he did, and that most people don't pull over if they have a problem. (Actually last night I saw at least two people stage with their rear tires and the timing guy just shook his head and let them go. Amatuer night!) She said that the car was smoking on the return road as she followed him. I remind him that it's just a piece of steel and if it's blown, then it's a good opportunity to rebuilt it. Pulling some plugs, everything looks good but the plugs are black and sooty. I figured, maybe the fuel solenoid stuck or that we need to check out the carb. I pull the air cleaner off to find the mechanical choke closed almost completely. We opened the choke and it started and ran like a champ. Five minutes later the choke plate was completely off the carb and he was ready for his next pass. This time the boy goes 14.25 (traction limited)...high fives all around! We were all so excited! We decided that there was time for one more pass. He suits up (in my old firejacket and helmet) and makes a run for it. We were hoping that the last pass would break into the 13's...he ran a 13.89 at 97.54mph!!! I can't tell you how excited we all were! It was almost midnight by then and it was starting to sprinkle. So we headed home. Other than the coyote that tried to commit suicide in front of my car on the way home, it was an unevenful night. After all these years of racing, I can't tell you how much fun it is to get back to my roots and play with some old school tricks! And he's learning a ton in the process!
Well there will be no stopping now next thing you know he will be in the 12s, after all we have the need for speed. I have always wanted to see what a shot of juice would do, is this typical for an improvement?
Great run. I remember back in 94 when I first tested my 125hp kit. I went from 15.1 on the motor to 13.26 on the bottle first time out. That was fun!
This is probably typical results on a close to stock car. The better your heads intake and exhaust are, the less effect the nitrous has. Nitrous makes a motor more efficient and it's a great equilizer! As for the boy...he's searching for slicks and traction bars as I write this!!! He's got the bug...just like his dad.
Sounds like he was really enjoying it at the end. Tony, my 5 way belts are out of date. Division 7 tech has stated that they'd rather see the 3 year old belts than have someone running 12's with 40 year old stock belts. If that tech guy has a problem have him call Ben Wilson the division 7 tech guy. He lives in Tucson. I even ran the ET finals with them. Now, if he's running the pro class then he needs the belts to be updated. We had that discussion on here a while back. Or you can call Mike Rice, the division director at 626-914-4761.
Yeah, I know Don. I followed that thread a while back. It just doesn't make sense to me that they would even point it out. But I guess that he felt that he was doing his job. Anyway, I have no plans to change them. I always had an issue with that two year rule to begin with. It didn't make much sense to me. Thanks for the contact information though, I'll keep it in my records! Yes it was a ball! I thought that they were outstanding numbers. Especially when you figure that there isn't more than $3000 in the whole car!
Hey Gene! When are you going out again? I was just talking about you last weekend when I saw your name in the Speedworld paper. They mentioned you winning the races the week of those Nostalgia drags!
Not sure when I will be out next. I've been pretty busy lateley plus it's just so darn hot out right now. In the next week or so I'm helping a buddy out by doing some dyno testing with my Mav to test some 6-cylinder performance parts he sells to see what works and what doesn't. In return he has prepared another head for me that has been ported, had a performance valve job and been modified to accept a Holley 2-barrel carb. Once the testing is done, I'll be swapping the head and installing the 2-barrel.
Hey now! That's exciting! Let us know how it turns out...I'll bet a lot of 6 cylinder guys on here would love to know.
