The 5.30 class train kept on rolling with a stopover this past weekend in Commerce, GA. Since the Montgomery rain out, we’ve had the benefit of exactly 2 test passes at our local track, which didn’t tell us much of anything other than the fact that it’s dusty there…and that we had a vacuum pump pulley alignment issue. Not exactly the wealth of test data that we were looking for going into Atlanta.

Upon arrival at the ATL, and straight outta the trailer, our times were off significantly. However, persistence pays and we finally cashed ours in with a killer Farrow Motorsports tune-up getting the all steel hot-rod near the top of the field in qualifying. Eliminations on Sunday saw us make it all the way to the Semi-finals where our good fortune finally ran out against Brian Farrar, and his “Shim-a-ditty” ’57 Chevy. Although a tight race, Brian took the stripe by a few thousandths and would go on to easily win his final round match up against Blaine Aldridge.

EG & Waterhead, gettin’ ready to get down

It’s still very early in the season, but initial indications are that if everything keeps going our way, then we’ll be a serious contender for the title come the end of November.

Ever wonder what it’s like to ride shot-gun in a drag car? Click the video below to find out what it’s all about…

Next on the to-do list is a little road trip over to “The Rock” or Rockingham, NC for the IHRA Nitro Jam in a couple of weeks. My good buddy Army Armstrong is rolling out his brand new ’67 Nova Nitro Funny car in the Prostalgia class, and said that if I play my cards right as a crew member…then he’ll toss me the keys on Sunday for my first attempt at a licensed pass in AA/FC.

http://www.ihra.com/article/5968.html

Thanks again to Coker Tire, Dart, COMP Cams, TCI, ZEX, Royal Purple, and Holeshot for all the help this season…we couldn’t do it without you.

God bless,

EG

“Honey, you’re never going to believe what I saw at the race track today…”

I met Bobby at the ORSCA event held in Montgomery, AL last November, and I immediately took a liking to his style. He’s pretty much been the man when it comes to making huge horsepower and mud racing. However, after conquering that world, he felt compelled to do what any true-bloodied outlaw innovator does…look for a new challenge. So, he decided to “give this drag racing thing a try.” I’m sure glad he did. Check out his site:

www.msmisery.com

At PRI Orlando, the topic of tires came up. I told him that 4wd drag trucks aren’t exactly our specialty, but if he’s up for it…so am I. Look for Ms. Misery to be wearing some Phoenix test sneakers sometime in 2010.

Click for video of Bobby testing his 4×4 Outlaw 10.5 Truck

EG

Ps- I just got back from the IHRA Nitro Jam in FL, look for the full 411 in the next few days.

Well, it’s official. Johnny and the outlaws at ORSCA have finalized their classes for 2010, and there’s a new 5.30 E.T. index class. Here’s the rulebook (don’t worry it ain’t that long):

1) No throttle stops
2) Car must have doors

Man, you’ve gotta love anything goes outlaw racing! Now, all we’ve got to do is change everything we’ve ever learned about car set-up and racing in the 6.0 class. I’ve had several people question the wisdom of making a change this late in the game (racing starts in 7 weeks). But then again, nobody’s ever accused me of being smart to start with, waiting for ideal conditions is rarely an option… and I’ve never seen a statue made of a critic either. So here goes:

The two primary differences in the classes are that 6.0 required the car to weigh 2,800 lbs and run a 10.5 inch tread width tire…there are a few other rules regarding appearance, safety, etc., but the weight and tire were essentially the limiting factors in performance. Welp, you can throw all of that out of the window for 5.30. Since weight equals horsepower, the first order of business was to get rid of everything non-essential, and lighten up everything else. Since the car didn’t exactly have a CD player and air-conditioning to start with, the weight savings challenge on what was a fairly lean race car was a formidable one. Out came the entire drive train for an evaluation and preliminary game plan for more power…more on that later.

Rather than ruin the paint job that my buddy Chad did for my birthday a couple years back, and gut the car’s all steel body, we decided to keep the shell intact and convert the bolt on stuff. Namely the bumpers, grill, rear deck lid, all went to fiberglass, and a new light weight rear spoiler that is a one-off aluminum set up was installed (courtesy of Mr. Randy Petet, and his bad-to-the-bone Porsche Outlaw 4.70 car that the wing was formerly attached to). Also on the Jenny Craig program; new steering rack, battery (yes, you can even get a light weight 16V battery), and a re-designed 2 gallon fuel cell. Initial weight savings to the chassis – about 150 lbs.

The next order of business was to get what’s left of the car over to my buddies Greg and Josh at the Honest Charley Garage for some touch up paint/body work. My sled got worked over like a borrowed mule last season and was in dire need of some touch up work/cosmetic surgery and the guys at HCG were gracious enough to lend a helping hand.

At the body spa.

Hmm...wonder what I should put in here?

No junk in this trunk!

As for power, here’s this keyboard crew chief’s theory: The car will need to run a 5.15-5.20 E.T. to be competitive in the class, therefore at 2,550 lbs, on a Phoenix PH455 17.0/33.0-15 tire we will need to generate 1,100 horsepower. That’s a lot of donkeys. So my buddy Steven and I disassembled the engine, and took the internals to our friend Lance’s machine shop where everything was magna-fluxed, mic’d and tested. Lance is a trip, we went over to his place out in the Georgia countryside on a Sunday night, opened the door, and he’s in there grinding away while rocking out to the Blues Brothers “Sweet Home Chicago”…on 8-track! When asked to see his music collection, he opened up a 4’x8’ steel file cabinet packed full of slammin’ 8-track cuts. Talk about soul!

Everything on the engine bottom end came back in fine form. Now it was decision time…should we take the existing, heavy-Chevy iron block, bore it out to .100 over, use my existing 4.25 crank and make a 505 cu. In. power plant? A 505 would leave us a little light in the loafers with about 900 h.p., and we’d need to rely heavily on the n2o to make the additional HP, needed to run the ET, plus it’s heavy, HV (that doesn’t really mean anything, I just thought that since we’re on initials I’d through that in there ☺…).

OR…….step up to the plate and build an all-aluminum, king dog, 565ci big block using a DART block, heads, intake and my crank. You know where this is headed…the thought of an engine weighing 150 lbs less and making 200hp more, really isn’t any kind of decision at all. As we speak/write, somebody in Detroit most likely shoveled out their driveway this morning, headed into work at DART, and is behind closed doors doing final prep work on an all aluminum Big “M” block, 4.600 bore, with Pro-2 CNC Ported 380 Aluminum heads and a port matched single plane intake. Kinda brings a tear to my eye just thinking about it…

Next on the list will be getting the behemoth big block breathing. Just like DART, COMP Cams is the best in the business at what they do. A call to their tech guys resulted in a cam, lifter, timing belt and shaft rocker system combination that ought to get us somewhere north of 1,100hp on motor…and just for additional insurance, we decided to go with one of their ZEX nitrous plate kits, good for another 500hp, that’s 1600hp total if we lean on it!! I get the feeling that we’re headed into Wiley E. Coyote territory here…and I couldn’t be happier about it. More updates on project 5.30 as the pre-season progresses.

Memphis says...”King dog what? When do we get to eat around here”

Speaking of being shot out of a land cannon, my good buddy Army Armstrong is coming down from frozen Pennsylvania next week, and picking me up for a road trip to West Palm Beach, FL where the season opener IHRA Nitro Jam will take place. Army will be driving the “Texas Jungle 2” nostalgia nitro funny car, owned and operated by Henry Gutierrez of San Antonio TX (see June 2009 blog archive). I can’t wait to see mi amigo’s from TX, the Trevino’s, Big John Dunn of Dunn & Gone, some 1/8th mile burnouts and get to a warmer climate.

Texas Jungle in Action.

Before I wrap it up for this time around, I’d like to give thanks to the good Lord above, who makes all things possible, and to Coker Tire, Dart Machinery, Comp Cams, Farrow Motorsports, and everyone else who’s working hard to make project 5.30 a reality.

Thanks for reading,
EG

October 3rd – Southern Outlaw Heads Up Last Friday morning my mood reflected the weather outside…rainy, cold and dark. I’m not going to get into everything, as this aint a self-help column, and I’m a drag racer….not the Unabomber. Anyways, it had been 4 weeks since I’d gotten to race, and it appeared as if this particular evening’s qualifying session was also in jeopardy due to rain. To be perfectly honest about it, I didn’t really care whether it got rained out or snowed out for that matter. Although the weather did come around, and qualifying did happen, I finally just decided to sit it out and see how I felt about things Saturday morning. (more…)

Hang ‘em high

Cooler temperatures, college football, and red-hot racing…it just doesn’t get much better than this. Frustrated by the inconsistent tune-up and lack of results for the end of July and August, we decided to do some extensive trouble shooting in an effort to get back on track. The fuel system and carburetor were taken apart, cleaned, and re-jetted, electronics were replaced, valve lash was set, and upon checking the timing….the culprit was found. My distributor had somehow loosened just enough to take approximately 10 degree’s of timing out of the engine. I was relieved and amazed to learn that I hadn’t been totally lost on all of my settings…the car had just “detuned” it-self by about 150 horsepower. Now I had the answer why I’d been hitting myself over the head with a hammer and flushing $100 bills down the toilet for the past 4 weeks with no results. It’s the little things that kill… (more…)

…well, I have a race result, and unfortunately it’s not a very good one.  On Friday, May 22nd my crew chief Steven Farrow, his trusty assistant Lee “Golden Gallon” Hitchcock and I made the journey to Baileyton, Alabama (home of the Tater Hauler) for an outlaw style 6.0 – Modified Class, “Heads Up” race.  The drive took as about 2 ½ hours across some of the most beautiful terrain that the Southeast has to offer. (more…)