This is getting good. Round 2 brings a bigger parts budget - $3500. A lot more mods can be made with this kind of paper. And the baseline times are actually the times from the Elimination Races from Round 1, when they were racing to win. So the times are pretty solid.
Motorsports Authority was first in the garage with the Nissan. They started early in the morning, a fact that they weren't happy about....these guys like to stay out late and sleep in. So the mood was a little quiet in the beginning. I loved how Mike "Batman" Provost (the driver and the guy who said he was going to leave most of the mods to his teammates) started with removing weight from the car and immediately conned Bryan Lin into helping him. Hey, the Nissan belongs to him, he's been paying the note for the last few months even though the car has been impounded and he hasn't been able to drive his baby. I'm sure when he started ripping out the interior he wanted to make sure it was all going to go back in there correctly.
So nitrous is going to be the deal in this round. The tough thing for Motorsports Authority was that they had never actually installed one.
In Round 1, four hours was probably too much garage time. But in this round, four hours goes by fast. So fast that this team didn't get everything done. A wire fell out in the last 30 seconds that supplies power to the nitrous system. On Elim day, the teams can't tweak their cars before the first race. Now, they do have 15 minutes between races to tune and they could connect the wire then, but they were going to have to run that first race without nitrous.
Batman had a plan though. he was going to go to the line and bluff. he was going to purge the system to make his opponent think his nitrous was hot, and then just hope something happened to let him win. After all, there can always be surprises in drag racing, right?
So now Straight Line Racing comes into the garage with their Mustang Cobra. Sweet ride. And they're installing nitrous too. The crew was juiced to see these two cars race.
When Straight Line's parts were laid out on the table, there was some doubt about whether they could install them all in four hours. There was a lot of stuff on that table. They had a full nitrous system, a Magna Flow cat back exhaust, Handheld Self-Tuner, Fuel Pump & Throttle Body, Fuel Pressure Regulator, Fuel Filter & Spark Plugs/wires, Digital RPM Window Switch, Sub-Frame Connectors, Adjustable Rear Shocks, and a 4.6 UnderDrive Crank Pulley.
There was also some smack talk. Team leader and driver, Caleb Emberson, showed no love for his opponent's driving skills. He said he didn't think he was a "real" racer because he isn't at the track every weekend.
They stopped their time and went outside to dyno the car. But when they go the car on the dyno, they found that they had neglected to reconnect the air temp sensor. So they were worried that their car might blow up on the dyno....and in the first race. But they could purge. And make Motorsports Authority think their nitrous was working.
So both teams had the same strategy....bluff their opponent at the line. The PIPES crew were the only ones that knew both teams had basically the same problem and both teams were going to try to get inside each other's head. Fun.
In Round One, Motorsports had some problems with their burn out. They tracked water onto their wheels and spun at the start. So this time, they did several burn outs. A lot of burn outs actually. They ended up burning their clutch out.
Both teams sprayed in the second race, but the Nissan was done. The Mustang beat them by half a track and moved on to Round 3 here they will get $5000 in parts, more time in the garage and an extra crew member.
We've got two Mustangs in the competition. Can they hang?
Saturday, May 12, 2007
99 Ford Mustang Cobra vs 02 Chevy Camaro
This was a fun day in the garage. Team Venom, the Jersey Boys, rolled into town with attitude. Frank Bottini had submitted his application to compete on PIPES very early and was clearly excited to be here. This guy wanted to be here. But Frankie wasn't a seasoned racer. His car is more of a show car. But he had a lot of confidence in his car. He hooked up with some strong team members, TJ Marchetti and Steve Murrow and made the trek to Arkansas to compete.Yank Performance came into the garage with a lot of racing experience. Mike Senia runs Yank Racing and he's been on the drag racing scene for a long time, with many accolades. His team was made up of his two sons, Kyle and Ryan. They were a last minute addition to the competition when another team dropped out 3 days before the first race. They originally entered a different car, but the day of the first baseline race they had some problems and had to swap cars. Since they had already ordered all the parts they were lucky that everything fit the Camaro.
Venom had a good time during production. They seemed to have a very good time off the set, but that's anothers story. In the garage there was a lot of talk about the shift knob they ordered as part of their parts budget. That shift knob looked cool, but it wasn't going to help performance.
Yank was probably the most organized team we saw in the garage. They came in with a plan (printed out on paper) and they followed their plan with no problems.
On Elimation day, it was Yank walking away. Venom's first time was actually slower than their baseline, but I think TJ missed a gear. We hated to see the Jersey Boys go, but they were great sports about it. Frankie's Cobra was featured in Mustang Enthusiast after the show (check out his Myspace for pics). And as a farewell shout out to Venom we'll always remember them for this....
Friday, May 4, 2007
02 Pontiac Trans Am vs 06 Scion tC
Man, I wanted both these teams to win!
The Cato Outlaws, with the TransAm, were just salt of the earth people. Carlia and Joel Rickett were the kind of couple that work hard so they can race every weekend. Kris Keltner was a quiet wiz. Their garage session was fun with lots of good natured kidding and jokes.
The Fox Marketing team, with the Scion tC, were full of energy and a different kind of fun. They had something irreverant to say about everything. And they knew their stuff. After all, they all worked for ZPI Racing - they manufacture parts for the Scion.
The Outlaws had an agressive garage strategy. Their big mod was a new torque converter, which couples the engine to the transmission. With a stock convertor, step on you brake pedal hard and floor the gas pedal, the engine will only rev to 2000 rpm or so, with the 3600 stall convertor, it allow the engine to rev to 3600 rpm. 3600 means the rpm that the convertor slips to before it locks up the engine to the transmission. This all converts to the fact that Cato could rev the engine higher on the starting line and have a car that leaves harder.
And Carlia was right in there with the guys when the old torque converter came out and the new one went in. This girl was not afraid of hard work.
The Scion got tricked out.....a new exhaust, new S pipe, new crank pulley - all courtesy of ZPI Racing, of course. But also new drag radials and a new racing seat. Slick.
The team was led by Kenny Strickler.....who owns ZPI Racing. Chad Robinson and Brad Waldron did most of the heavy lifting. So to speak. They took like 270 lbs out of the car to lighten the load. The crew had bets on how much weight they would remove. Matt guessed it within 4 lbs. I think he cheated though.
It was fairly obvious that these guys know how to build fast cars and they had a long term plan. That plan definitely included being back for Round 2.
And they will be back for Round 2. They picked up almost 3 seconds from their baseline average. Evolution indeed.
Check out these team's Ride Pages and web sites on Squidoo.
And if you go to www.ZPIRacing.net tell 'em PIPES sent you.
The Cato Outlaws, with the TransAm, were just salt of the earth people. Carlia and Joel Rickett were the kind of couple that work hard so they can race every weekend. Kris Keltner was a quiet wiz. Their garage session was fun with lots of good natured kidding and jokes.
The Fox Marketing team, with the Scion tC, were full of energy and a different kind of fun. They had something irreverant to say about everything. And they knew their stuff. After all, they all worked for ZPI Racing - they manufacture parts for the Scion.
The Outlaws had an agressive garage strategy. Their big mod was a new torque converter, which couples the engine to the transmission. With a stock convertor, step on you brake pedal hard and floor the gas pedal, the engine will only rev to 2000 rpm or so, with the 3600 stall convertor, it allow the engine to rev to 3600 rpm. 3600 means the rpm that the convertor slips to before it locks up the engine to the transmission. This all converts to the fact that Cato could rev the engine higher on the starting line and have a car that leaves harder.
And Carlia was right in there with the guys when the old torque converter came out and the new one went in. This girl was not afraid of hard work.
The Scion got tricked out.....a new exhaust, new S pipe, new crank pulley - all courtesy of ZPI Racing, of course. But also new drag radials and a new racing seat. Slick.
The team was led by Kenny Strickler.....who owns ZPI Racing. Chad Robinson and Brad Waldron did most of the heavy lifting. So to speak. They took like 270 lbs out of the car to lighten the load. The crew had bets on how much weight they would remove. Matt guessed it within 4 lbs. I think he cheated though.
It was fairly obvious that these guys know how to build fast cars and they had a long term plan. That plan definitely included being back for Round 2.
And they will be back for Round 2. They picked up almost 3 seconds from their baseline average. Evolution indeed.
Check out these team's Ride Pages and web sites on Squidoo.
And if you go to www.ZPIRacing.net tell 'em PIPES sent you.
Thursday, May 3, 2007
Mazda wGM LS2 Engine vs 98 Honda Civic
Polk Performance was an amazing team, led by a brilliant guy - Don Polk. Don died from injuries resulting from a motorsports related accident after taping this episode of PIPES. He brought an incredible car to the competition. And he didn't hold anything back.
From what I have come to understand about Don, he didn't hold anything back in life either. He was loved by many, many people in the racing scene. And he was regarded with a lot of respect by even more.
Don will be missed.
Wednesday, May 2, 2007
05 Mazda 3 vs 97 Ford Mustang
SCC Racing came into the garage with a Mazda 3. Cool little 4 banger. I have no idea what SCC stand for. Anybody else know? These were military guys, or at least two of them were. In the Air Force (Salute!) Trevor Ray and Tyler Ludwig work on the giant C-130 cargo planes that haul troops and equipment. Important work....much more important than drag racing, but that's why we're here. Josh Fann is a Mazda tech that works fulltime on them at the dealership. But, as another competitor told me, techs at the dealer work on fixing things that are broken on a car....the don't necessarily work on making them go faster. But all these guys love cars and working on cars in their spare time.
One thing about these sport compacts is that they all seem to respond well to tuners. I guess the domestics do that too, but the sport compact guys all seem to put more emphasis on tuners - laptops and others.
Of course, they worked on the exhaust. Their baseline time was 13.86. And remember this is on a 1000' track. They would have an almost 2 second head start against the Mustang. I keep wondering how much this exhaust work is going to let them pick up on their time. They finished their mods with an hour and a half left on the clock. Another thing another competitor told me was that $1500 wasn't a lot to spend on an import because the parts are more expensive. It must cost a lot to ship that stuff over here because they bought an exhaust, an intake, a programmer and a shift light on their budget. But their opponent bought the farm.
Everyone on the crew was surprised at how much work Team Blue Collar was planning on doing in the garage. I'm no mechanic, but I understood from the camera men's reaction that changing out the cams on an engine is a job in itself. Blue Collar was not only planning to change the cams, but the intake manifold, new plugs, a new distributor, rocker arms, push rods, a carburetor jet kit and new tires on the back. Whew. Just typing that made me tired.
You can see more about their parts list here.
Blue Collar built this car for the competition. They took the fuel injected engine out of the car and replaced it with a carbureted engine. And that seemed to annoy some of the other competitors. Matt says they didn't read the rules well enough. You can read them yourself here.
One thing I can say....Blue Collar made the biggest mess in the garage. The PIPES garage has never experienced so much fluid on the floor.
I was excited to see this race. By this point, I was totally digging the elimination races.
I don't get why lane choice is such a big deal in drag racing. Anyone want to enlighten me?
Since the race is handicapped, theoretically both cars are even going into the Elimination Race. It's the improvement that counts. SCC Racing picked up .95 seconds. So even though they lost, they were happy.
Blue Collar picked up almost 1.6 seconds and won easy. But in Round 2, the Round 1 Elimination Race time becomes the baseline, and their new time is 10.49. That's fast. How much more can they pick up?
You can check out more about these teams on Squidoo.
One thing about these sport compacts is that they all seem to respond well to tuners. I guess the domestics do that too, but the sport compact guys all seem to put more emphasis on tuners - laptops and others.
Of course, they worked on the exhaust. Their baseline time was 13.86. And remember this is on a 1000' track. They would have an almost 2 second head start against the Mustang. I keep wondering how much this exhaust work is going to let them pick up on their time. They finished their mods with an hour and a half left on the clock. Another thing another competitor told me was that $1500 wasn't a lot to spend on an import because the parts are more expensive. It must cost a lot to ship that stuff over here because they bought an exhaust, an intake, a programmer and a shift light on their budget. But their opponent bought the farm.
Everyone on the crew was surprised at how much work Team Blue Collar was planning on doing in the garage. I'm no mechanic, but I understood from the camera men's reaction that changing out the cams on an engine is a job in itself. Blue Collar was not only planning to change the cams, but the intake manifold, new plugs, a new distributor, rocker arms, push rods, a carburetor jet kit and new tires on the back. Whew. Just typing that made me tired.
You can see more about their parts list here.
Blue Collar built this car for the competition. They took the fuel injected engine out of the car and replaced it with a carbureted engine. And that seemed to annoy some of the other competitors. Matt says they didn't read the rules well enough. You can read them yourself here.
One thing I can say....Blue Collar made the biggest mess in the garage. The PIPES garage has never experienced so much fluid on the floor.
I was excited to see this race. By this point, I was totally digging the elimination races.
I don't get why lane choice is such a big deal in drag racing. Anyone want to enlighten me?
Since the race is handicapped, theoretically both cars are even going into the Elimination Race. It's the improvement that counts. SCC Racing picked up .95 seconds. So even though they lost, they were happy.
Blue Collar picked up almost 1.6 seconds and won easy. But in Round 2, the Round 1 Elimination Race time becomes the baseline, and their new time is 10.49. That's fast. How much more can they pick up?
You can check out more about these teams on Squidoo.
Tuesday, May 1, 2007
97 Ford Mustang vs 06 Mitsubishi Eclipse
Straight Line Racing brought the Mustang and Team Torque rooled with the Eclipse. Both teams had great guys, although some of them seemed a little nerous about being on camera.
About midway through the garage session for Team Torque they told us that the car they were working on actually belonged tothe girlfriend of the team leader, Troy. I got a little worried about thier relationship when I saw how they tore that brand new car up to remove weight. I mean they took out everything they could unbolt. I'm not sure how much a plastic door panel weighs or how much it will slow you down on the drag strip, but hey...it was entertaining to watch.
Straight Line Racing's team leader was Caleb Emberson. He brought his brother'scar and it was pretty sweet. His brother found it on Ebay and bought it from a woman who had taken great care of it. Garage Kept. That's what Caleb said. Repeatedly. His team gave him a lot of grief about that.
You could tell with both these teams that they all knew each other pretty well and raced against each otheron the weekends.
When we got to the track, I was really wondering how all of this was going to go. I mean that Mustang rocked and I couldn't see how the Eclipse could compete.
Before we started racing Troy had toget out of the dog house with his girlfriend over tearing up her interior. So he did what any normal, drag racer would do....he proposed. Nice.
But they started the Elimination Race with the Mustang handicapped by 1.85 seconds. That's a long time on the starting line. But the Pony ran the Eclipse down. The Mustang picked up a full second and the Eclipse only picked up 0.57.
Which makes me wonder....I mean both teams did essentially the same thing....they added drag radials, and opened up their exhaust. They only had $1500 so what else could they do. But why did the Mustang pick up so much more?
Check out the Squidoo site for the parts list and let me know if you have any ideas.....
PIPES on SQUIDOO
About midway through the garage session for Team Torque they told us that the car they were working on actually belonged tothe girlfriend of the team leader, Troy. I got a little worried about thier relationship when I saw how they tore that brand new car up to remove weight. I mean they took out everything they could unbolt. I'm not sure how much a plastic door panel weighs or how much it will slow you down on the drag strip, but hey...it was entertaining to watch.
Straight Line Racing's team leader was Caleb Emberson. He brought his brother'scar and it was pretty sweet. His brother found it on Ebay and bought it from a woman who had taken great care of it. Garage Kept. That's what Caleb said. Repeatedly. His team gave him a lot of grief about that.
You could tell with both these teams that they all knew each other pretty well and raced against each otheron the weekends.
When we got to the track, I was really wondering how all of this was going to go. I mean that Mustang rocked and I couldn't see how the Eclipse could compete.
Before we started racing Troy had toget out of the dog house with his girlfriend over tearing up her interior. So he did what any normal, drag racer would do....he proposed. Nice.
But they started the Elimination Race with the Mustang handicapped by 1.85 seconds. That's a long time on the starting line. But the Pony ran the Eclipse down. The Mustang picked up a full second and the Eclipse only picked up 0.57.
Which makes me wonder....I mean both teams did essentially the same thing....they added drag radials, and opened up their exhaust. They only had $1500 so what else could they do. But why did the Mustang pick up so much more?
Check out the Squidoo site for the parts list and let me know if you have any ideas.....
PIPES on SQUIDOO
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