>ECTA’s 2016 Top Speed Challenge Winners <
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07-01-2016, 04:47 AM
>ECTA’s 2016 Top Speed Challenge Winners <
ECTA’s 2016 Top Speed Challenge Winners
Written by Brandan Gillogly on June 27, 2016Contributors: Alex WongWhat Does a 200-mph Street Car Look Like?
View All 25 PhotosFor casual auto enthusiasts, the term “200-mph street car” might conjure up an image of a modern exotic that costs as much as the average American house. Those familiar with drag racing might imagine a rowdy Pro Mod–style car that competes in HOT ROD’s very own Drag Week competition. If you’ve been to a standing-mile event, however, you might have a different opinion on what a 200-mph street car looks like.
HOT ROD has been sponsoring the Top Speed Challenge with the East Coast Timing Association (ECTA) since 2005. At that time, the ECTA was running at Maxton, North Carolina, but since 2012 it has been holding events at the Wilmington Air Park in Wilmington, Ohio. The Challenge is open to street-legal vehicles in two categories. Rules for the Real Street class mandate a single carburetor and natural aspiration, while Super Street covers everything else from multiple carburetors to fuel injection and forced induction. To be legal for either class, the vehicle must have functioning lights, signals, windshield wipers, a radiator, and an alternator. For a car to even think of competing for the Top Speed Challenge title, it has to be capable of 200 mph.
New for 2016, the ECTA requires that vehicles not only be street legal, registered, and insured but also complete a driving circuit of 20 miles to prove their road-worthiness. Over three days of competition—Friday, Saturday, and Sunday—more than 100 competitors lined up to make pass after pass, including a dozen in our street-legal shootout. When the final results were tallied, these two cars stood at the top of the HOT ROD Top Speed Challenge.
Nosnhoj Racing Mustang: 222.11 mph
Doug Johnson and his son, Pete, showed up in their newly built 2006 Mustang, fresh out of their friend Bobby Smith’s paint booth. The two had been competing in the NMRA, and as costs began to climb, they decided to move to land-speed racing. Pete bought the used GT six years ago and was issued paper license plates from the dealership, good for 30 days. Pete commuted in the car until the plates expired and then began to gut the car.
The plan had been to build the car for Bonneville, but with Speed Week rained out the last two years and counting, they transitioned the build for standing-mile action. Pete built a chrome-moly chassis from the firewall back, setting the ride height at 2 inches. He also fabricated a torque arm suspension that locates a fabricated 9-inch housing with Strange 40-spline axles.
2/25At first glance, you could easily dismiss the car as a Pro Street build that’s all bark and no bite. This photo proves otherwise. The build quality is amazing, and not only in the spartan kind of way that we expect to find in race cars. The car looks like it’s made to win trophies at a car show. It could, if it ever slowed down enough for judging.
M&M Competition Engines built the long-block. The 351-based engine uses a 9.5-inch deck Dart block with GRP rods, gas-ported Diamond pistons, 225cc Trick Flow heads, and T&D shaft rockers. Induction is via twin S480 Borg-Warner turbos from Apex Performance Turbos in Oxnard, California, that use billet compressor wheels and T4 exhaust housings. Pete custom-fabricated the turbo plumbing that shoves atmosphere into the Windsor through a 105mm throttle-body and an Edelbrock Victor intake. Eight 225cc Billet Atomizer injectors pour on the E98 fuel based on a Holley dominator EFI. Matt Bell at Redline Motorsports in Bloomington, Illinois, turned Pete on to the Holley Dominator ECU and put in an initial tune. Pete took it from there.
Doug has driven the car at two Ohio Mile events, and he says he feels completely comfortable behind the wheel. Although he does admit, “I’m still learning how to drive it.” Pete said the plan is to tweak the aero package before they add more power. A 440ci Windsor is waiting if the 9,500-rpm, 358ci mill won’t get them where they want to go.
The entire build of this car was done in Pete Johnson’s garage and he did a lot of the work himself. However, Pete wanted to credit several of his friends who helped with fabrication and assembly, especially on the final four-month marathon of final welding, nut-and-bolt checking, and testing. Pete wanted to make sure to thank Dave Hansen from Speedway Motors, Rick Devito, Joe Ivans, Cody Williams, Travis McCann, and Mary and Kathy Johnson.
“We’re just having fun, trying to make something consistent.” — Pete Johnson
3/25The 351-based engine displaces 358 ci and uses twin 80mm turbos that Pete plumbed up himself. It produced 1,489 hp at 7,000 rpm and maxed the dyno’s speed before they could get a final horsepower number. It’s bolted to a Powerglide from Proformance Racing Transmission and uses a Neal Chance lockup torque converter. Doug shifts it at a conservative 8,100 rpm for now.
Rydin Decal Firebird: 229.24 mph
This Firebird, known by the Rydin Decal team as “Lucy,” is the fourth Firebird the team has campaigned in land-speed racing. Third-generation Firebirds are among the more stable and aerodynamic cars of their era, and they’re a common sight at land-speed-racing events. This car in particular was built to compete in the NHRA’s Super Gas drag-racing class in the 1990s, but Mark Weiler—a longtime drag racer—saw the quality of its construction and had a feeling it would work well in land-speed racing, where he had been competing after transitioning away from the quarter-mile. The decades-old build needed only minimal updates to its cage and safety components to be land-speed ready and has been a staple at the ECTA’s Wilmington events.
Powering the third-gen is a 569ci big-block Chevy built by Chris Seidle at Seidle Motorsports in Ridgeway, Virginia. The CNC-ported Sonny Leonard/Brodix heads use a Pro-Systems SV1 single-barrel carb. As the car is launched, an Induction Solutions nitrous fogger system progressively pours on an additional 400 hp worth of fuel and laughing gas for the big-block. After breaking several Turbo 400 transmissions, the Firebird now uses a Bruno’s Automotive Products converter drive that puts a torque converter in front of a G-force three-speed manual transmission. Driver Jay Bell admits they have some work to do in determining the best gearing, but he’s happy with the change so far.
Last year, Lucy ran a best of 237 mph, but this year the team decided to try a different aero package. Bell told us it’s a very smooth ride, but with added drag from their full street aero package that includes side mirrors, the team scored a 229.24-mph pass on their second run. Without any 200-mph-capable Real Street competitors on their heels, the team pulled into the pits and sat ready to defend their best time.
4/25Notice the side mirrors. That’s not a common sight on a land-speed race car that’s trying to have the smallest frontal area as possible.
5/25The 569ci Chevy big-block is just the kind of powerplant that a naturally aspirated, single-carb class calls for. With almost 1,000 hp on the motor and a 400hp shot of nitrous oxide at the ready, the engine has powered the Firebird to multiple Top Speed Challenge victories.
6/25Mark Weiler’s jacket shows how long he’s been in the fast street-car game.
Teamwork
It turned out that these two land-speed-racing teams had met before, back in their NHRA drag-racing days. “Mark Weiler and the Rydin Decal team were just fantastic guys to be around when we were drag racing,” Doug told us. When the Mustang needed a bit more speed, the Rydin team stepped in. “We didn’t know how much we didn’t know,” Doug admitted.
7/25Jay Bell, the Rydin Decal team driver (left) and Mark Weiler (right) celebrate with Doug Johnson and his son, Pete, as Doug wears his new 200-mph Club shirt.
Player 2 Has Entered the Game
It wasn’t until Sunday morning that Mike Reichen showed up with his 1994 Mitsubishi Evo in tow. Reichen was a previous HOT ROD Top Speed Challenge winner in the Super Street class, and his turbo four-cylinder sedan has modern aero and AWD traction in his favor, helping out on the top end and at the start, respectively. In conversation with other racers, who may have been a bit worried they were about to get upstaged, Reichen claimed to have a few bugs in that tune and that he wasn’t sure the car was capable of a 200-mph pass. Nobody was quite sure whether he was being humble and honest, or just sandbagging. On his first pass Sunday, what seemed like a solid launch was followed by bangs and pops at top end of the track, and Reichen rolled through the traps with a149.10-mph pass.
8/25While it has a bit of aero work showing, Mike Reichen’s Evo is still what we’d qualify as a sleeper. His first run of the year wasn’t as good as he’d hoped, but we’re sure he’ll be back to put up a fight.
Last edited by BeachBumMike; 07-01-2016 at 04:52 AM.