Just getting back from Mopars at the Strip
It is easy to get jadded at these events, you see a $250k Hemi Cuda then another and another and so on. After a while a 440 six pack car that would knock your socks off in the lot at your local grocery store doesn't even get a second look.
Best of show saturday night at the Carraige House (sp?) Casino was a 70 Hemi Cuda EB5 Blue with matching EB5 blue interior and a 4" wide tape stripe in light blue that I had never seen before on a Cuda. By itself the interrior would be hidious, but in that car SWEEET!!
Anyway, before I get to my less than impressive first pass in the new motored 16V GLHS, lets talk about the Dr Gas (portable) Dyno results. There was no line up at the dyno after my first 1320 pass on Friday morning and it was only $60. for 3-4 passes so I figured what the heck. I should mention that I was still wearing the 7.5" M&H slicks though we did air them up to 30 psi for the rollers. AFAIK it's pretty well agreed that a soft drag slick will cost you ~30 HP on the rollers. I made six pulls and the AF was way out of whack due to the larger injectors that were installed at 2am before leaving on Thursday night. At the end of the sixth pull after playing with the fuel pressure and upping the boost from 14 to 18, I picked up 114 WHP
First run with the AF way richer (off the chart) than 10:1 it put down 270 WHP after fuel pressure tweaks and 18PSI boost the 16V motor put down 384WHP and 354 FT lbs. Unfortunately, the spring inside the external wastegate wouldn't go any higher than 18lbs as I had hoped to see 26PSI for the session. I'll add another spring for the next session and the numbers should start to get interesting.
On Saturday there was a pull off for the Cummins guys and the top numbers I saw were 521 WHP and 980FTlbs. That torque is definately impressive. The dyno operator and I hit it off (he has a very clean Spirit RT) and he let me review the 5 or 6 highest HP runs and what size CI motor they had and still the little 134 cubic inch S motor laid down the highest HP/liter at 2.86 per CI.
On the 1/4 mile track at LV Speedway there is traction, plenty of traction! With the borrowed 7.5x23 M&H's launched at 3900 rpms the car left hard for about three feet till all the energy was gone out of the 11lb aluminum flywheel and I fell on my face for a 2.4 60'
the uninspiring numbers are:
R/T .084
60' 2.41
330' 6.23
1/8 9.15
MPH 86.28
1000' 11.63
1/4 13.72
MPH 109.96
Yes, MPH is enough for a *much better* time, I need my own slicks, a bit taller, and some seat time. BTW the run was made at the same settings as the above mentioned first dyno run of about 270 WHP. The next run I tried to make with the 384WHP level made the Rev Lok clutch very unhappy and that was the end of any meaningfull passes for the weekend.
To let off some steam I entered the burn out contest on Saturday evening. The street tires still had about 1/2 tread but they were on the car the whole 6 years during the 16V motor build in the garage and they were ready for replacement anyway. I Pulled into the water box after a few big block cars to the announcers usual 'hey folks it's a little four cylinder Shelby up next' Using second gear and about 4000 Rpms I side stepped the clutched and very quickly bounced off the 7200 RPM limiter before I could correct and get the revs to settle in at about about 6500. From there it was just hold it and watch the tach and temp gauge. Fully engulfed by acrid smoke after about 15-20 seconds the crowd started to get on their feet and excited. 30 seconds later the smoke was so thick that I couldn't even see the lower half of the grandstands
I had fully intended to spin until one or both tires let go but the temp gage shot up sharply at about one minute and ten seconds into the display and I wanted to finish off with a long burn past the start line to let the folks know that the S had the power to make it happen even on a dry VHT prepped track so I let the E Brake go and let the Quaife continue to spin both well past the 30 foot point before I let out of it. It may have just been my imagination but I think the fans were louder than they had been all day.
They definately were not expecting that kind of fury from the 'little four cylinder Shelby' the announcer told them about. Post burn out inspection showed that the alt/water pump belt got chucked during the burn which explains why the temp shot up sharply. Steel cords are hanging out of both tires so they were gonna let go any second. It also shows rubber and rubber dust EVERYWHERE! Since I was foolish enough to leave the windows down during the contest so I could pump the crowd with 2.2 and thumbs up symbols, there is fine rubber pieces all inside the car as well. And the smell in the interior even after leaving the windows down on the 300+ mile trip home is overpowering! My wife is also real pleased the way the garage smells tonight while she is sorting laundry
As it turns out, the organisers didn't want a four cylinder car to win the contest so they gave the certificate for two new tires to a big block 440 Challenger, even though a half dozen or so folks came up to me afterword and said they thought I'd won. My buddy does have the digital video of the run but we're not real sure how to get it hosted, anyone?
Though there were only about a dozen FWD turbo Mopars at the event, it was a damn fun weekend and I met up with some great people
Alan
87 GLHS 16V Maserati
TurboDodge.com 
Who needs sleep anyway?
Sorry you had to witness those. I did hear from some folks that the external gate sounds wicked at speed though 
