Race Technology for the Street

Fun times on the dyno at Dez Racing.  

Yesterday, I spent the day at Dez Racing for a tech story and we had some fun. In addition to working on the car for the story, there were a couple of Fox-Body Mustangs that rolled into the shop for tuning. I admit it, I drooled and stared quite a bit. Kind of like Homer Simpson in the midst of beer and food.

First car to show up was a black LX that was super clean, I mean right out of the showroom clean. It was a black hatchback with a stock black interior. Somehow, whoever did the cage managed to get it high and tight against the body because it was not intrusive on the passenger or driver. The car had the typical Weld Racing wheels with 28x10.5-inch slicks out back and skinnies in front. The car was flawless and had just the right stance.

The owner rolled it off the trailer and on to the dyno. It rumbled nicely through the Flowmaster mufflers. This was a serious ride. Dez popped the  Cervini hood and revealed the magic under it. A stroker 302 engine of unknown dimensions, over hte exhaust I thought I heard Dez say it was 356ci.  A Vortech YSi-trim supercharger, mounted on the driver's side, was bolted to the engine. This was not your ordinary boulevard cruiser.

Then the owner started to unravel the specs. But the one thing that he kept referring back to was the NMRA EFI-Renegade class. The class is really neat and is modeled after what a serious street car would run. We are talking long runner intake manifolds, 8-rib pulley systems to drive the blower, non-intercooled large street blowers like Vortech YSi-trim and ProCharger F1R, hydraulic roller cams (.550-inch lift maximum), 302-based engine combos with weight breaks for engine sizes, and an accepted cylinder head list that shows off-the-shelf standard style aluminum heads. The racers have pushed those parts to the edge and thanks to them, street enthusiasts are utilizing those parts and tricks.

The black LX featured Edelbrock Victor Jr. heads and a .550-inch lift cam that Ron Sharp of Roush Engines prescribes for his EFI-Renegade customers. The owner went to say that he also runs an 8-rib pulley set on his blower because "that is what those guys run." The C4 transmission is strong enough, thanks to continual development to make it live in the mid 8-second NMRA cars.

Dez whittled away on the keyboard of his laptop, setting the proper drivability parameters inside the DFI Gen 7 fuel management computer box. A few dyno pulls resulted in an easy 690 rear wheel horsepower. There was a problem though, the owner didn't put large enough vents on the valve covers. Too much crankcase pressure blew out the valve cover gaskets, ending the dyno session.

The next car to show up for tuning was 1990 Mustang  GT, this one was driven almost 30-minutes to the shop. It was a blue GT and featured a similar combination to the aforementioned black LX. This one was a 332ci combo with a R302 block, Canfield heads, Vortech YSi-trim blower, and all the bells and whistles. Dez tuned the Anderson Ford Motorsport PMS hand-held tuner. The GT pounded out 725 horsepower at 25 psi of boost—through SHORTY 1-3/4-inch headers! 

Those two cars are in my mind, the quintessential 5-liter Mustang, both were low 9-second capable, supercharged, super clean, street driven, and not too over the top but definitely way above average. I had a blast just watching them make dyno pulls. If I were building a serious street/strip car, it would look like those cars. You just cannot go wrong with a supercharged and stroked 5-liter combination. I thought it was neat that both guys both referenced the EFI-Renegade ranks for the source and inspiration of their combinations. The trickle down effect is very much real.