Cajun Shoot Out

Hey, take a look at what dropped into the horsepower shop. It's that bad ass 55 Ss. We helped put together a few months ago. Now,

I know you guys are dying to get a closer look at it and you will, but it'll be a little later on in the show.

That's right. First, a quick trip to Cajun country where the only thing better than the alligators are the nine second outlaw cars that are gonna mix it up on the quarter mile strip

deep down in the Louisiana Bayou where the gators grow large and lazy.

There's something more cooking than crawfish.

It's a lazy bash of quarter mile competition

courtesy of the boys from the

Forteo NSC. A race series,

a street car series that's been dominated by the Pat

Mark

d'antoni team in Pro Street and pro outlaw respectively,

but showing no respect. And here to spoil the party for Pat is old rival, Vinny

Banno.

He's got a 7, 12 cubic inch Shafer

off engine with Nitrous and Pro Mont style split dominator

plus lots of weight to make the class.

We have weight everywhere and I'm no like guy either. So you know, it was kind of good. I didn't have to go on a diet and I could still drag race. Pat's a great competitor. Pat and I have matched, raced for years. We're good friends off the racetrack on the racetrack. I'd love nothing more than a hammer.

We raced them guys a lot in English Town, Joe. And, uh,

unfortunately for him, he didn't do very well, but

I have to say it's pretty much even, you know, and when we first started match race and we had our way with him, then he had our way with us and then we kind of both. It,

it's pretty good because we kind, we seem to kind of struggle at the same time.

I guess he's counting the races that I didn't show up to.

It's the only thing I can figure

Vinny's pro outlaw teammate is none other than pro

veteran Shannon Jenkins

who brought a raging bull Camaro loaded with his new speed tank. Nike setup,

the

place of the car is just like we're running a promo

other than

adding the additional weight

and a couple of little tweaks here and there.

And, uh, then Tony, they, they're good people. We, uh,

you know, you need a little mix. So,

yeah, we come over here great that

I

think the Alabama boys brought enough to take care of it. I think

we're

playing,

we got three qualifying shots and if I can't get this new engine to work.

We'll just put our old 707 in and

just have to beat him on a tree or beat him on a racetrack. Shannon don't ease into nothing. He raced a full board all the time.

Uh, it's gonna take everything we can muster and a good tree

to beat him

in. Round one of qualifying. D'antoni takes the first lead with a sizzling 645 at 217 miles an hour.

200 over Shannon's 647

Street Mui

also took the first lead with a 669 against a 674 for Bonanno,

who was obviously holding some back.

In fact, in round two, Vinny mashed the gas for a 662 at 212 miles an hour

enough to take the number one spot from UC who was only 200 slower

later as the sun went down and the swamp bugs heated up.

There was more than one kind of feast in the night's future.

You see on this cool evening track, Shannon

Jenkins staged up and ran an amazing 639 at 219 miles an hour. A new world record.

We stepped on it a little bit for the last run. We didn't, we didn't really know how fast,

you know, d'antoni could run and, uh,

of course, we wanted the number one spot. So we, we jumped on the motor a little bit, but it was a good laugh, you know, I got a good race track here.

Pat says we got about another six in this engine right now.

So we're not gonna show our cars until the final comes around.

I feel like, like we

maybe won a battle, but we haven't quite won the war yet.

The war might be, be

used to your old buddy. Oh, yeah, my buddy, Pat is that, that, that's two wars all bottled up. The one little dude,

you know, race day is a different story. We got it when we need it. You know that?

Well, I only know one thing Sunday eliminations that were hot and heavy in all classes.

But in pro

greet, the inevitable shootout would be NSC A champion Pat

versus old rival Vinny Bono

in pro outlaw. It would be New York's

d'antoni against the racing icon from Alabama Shannon Jenkins, a high horsepower showdown that's coming up right after the break.

Hey, welcome back to the Cajun shootout where we've got a race within a race going on here. A team from the US and Canada challenged by some racers from Great Britain.

In fact, when's the last time you saw an eight second Boxhall blasted down the quarter mile strip

and we wanted to prove a point that we can take drug race cars, three legal cars

and be faster than the,

the people who actually invented drug racing. Canadian contender, Sheldon root brought a Vega with a Turbo

charged big block of this world. Shootout.

It's a lot of fun. Uh,

everyone's getting along real great and, uh,

it should be a really fun weekend.

The Lone U Ss A entry was a beautiful Monte Carlo just completed by owner Eric Kenworth.

It's a 427 small block with two stages of Nitrous nitrous, uh, Wilson Nitrous system.

Small,

yeah. Small black. Everybody else with Big Motors.

I'm the little small black guy.

Unfortunately, for Eric, his real standing. Chevy smacked into the wall during eliminations. He was fine. But the Monte Carlo was quite a mess.

And this time, at least the badass Brits came and conquered winning the three way international match up.

But now the two shootouts we've all been waiting for

in pro outlaw d'antoni cuts a great light as Jenkins Sputters on the back half and Mark wins it with a 644.

According to our numbers, we ran the other night. This is a real pickup.

I know Shannon had a little problem to make it to the finish. But um up until the eight mile, it was plus and minus 1000 E

lane

by late Pro

street

and it's Vinnie all the way with a 665 over Pat's 674.

That's about as good as a race to get racing. Pat is just awesome. You know, I'm glad we won for my boys Chaff

Rock race engine and everybody back at the shop that really has worked a million hours to make this all happen. But to beat Pat at the first race of the season. This is Fairyland. It doesn't get any better than this

18.

Well, as promised here it is again, the 55 Ss, a lightweight retro version of the original shoe box. Now, I know a lot of you guys caught the build up of this car or at least we hope so. Yeah. Just to refresh your memory though.

Here's a little flashback.

We started with art Morrison's new GT sport classic chassis designed with new technology just for the shoe box

added a curry track nine rear end, a strange coil over suspension

WWD brakes with 13 inch rotors and six piston calipers up front

and for power, we dropped in a GM performance parts, 502 big block backed by a four L 80 E tranny from TCI

exhaust is a 2.5 inch Flowmaster system with hush power mufflers.

Then we made it a true roller with nostalgia GT wheels on BFG rubber.

After adding a front runner accessory drive, we dropped the fiberglass body onto the frame using a special two motor hoist.

We sent it to designer John Bohanan's shop where the body was fully prepped and sprayed with several coats of Viper red paint.

Finally, famous interior artist Paul Atkins took over to create a custom interior that he designed especially for the 55 Ss.

All right, let's check out how that interior work turned out.

Now you can see why Paul Atkins is one of the tops in his class in the whole country. By the way, all that brown leather came from La

Caro as well as that leather wrapped steering wheel. Those retro gauges from auto meter are their Phantom series outlined with aluminum trim from Pete's fabrications

to keep you cool while you're crew and check out the custom AC VTS from Greening auto that also match the wheels

and a painless wiring kit. Helps run the accessories like this custom auto sound stereo system.

Yeah, you can see an entire list of all the components used in this build up by going to our website, man. I've been waiting a long time for this thing to be complete and now that we all got a good look at it, let's go make a lunch run. Good idea. Where are we going? Uh Let's do Sonic. No Hooters

might as well do both. There you go.

It's amazing. Every person that goes by on this road is staring at this car. They are

to call this thing. An attention getter is an understatement. In fact, when we parked for lunch it drew drooling gearheads from up and down the street.

What do you think of the car girls?

One thing's for sure, it looks good and it's a chick magnet.

That's

exactly right.

It goes without saying this new, old Chevy was a big hit wherever we went.

And while we're putting the lid on this shoe box project, the 55 Ss will go on to turn tires and heads across the country.

Hey, welcome back to the horsepower shop.

Say if you get a kick out of rare rides, you gotta love this Camaro Indy 500 Pace car,

one of only 651 built back in 1993. Now, this one still has the factory sticker on it

15 miles on the odometer and well, the tires have never touched the street, unlike this 5 L mustang that sees its fair share of heavy street use and an occasional pass down the track. Now, today we're gonna show you how to do a couple of small projects.

They usually get overlooked when it comes to making efficient horsepower. Everyone knows a strong current to the plugs helps them make a hotter spark to burn the air fuel mix. So it stands to reason a set of high performance wires will send more spark energy

to the plugs and give you better throttle response. That's why we're going to swap out the stock wires on that Mustang for a set of Taylor's thunder bolt eight point twos. Now, these are factory replacements. These are custom made for the 302.

Now, they have 100 and 30 five degree boots, only 50 ohms per foot of resistance and they work with all ignition systems and on board computers

while we're at it we're also gonna install one of these battery relocation kits in the back of that Mustang. And of course, the obvious advantages are the weight transfer and security. However many of the racing sanctioning bodies require these things. Now, this kit comes with all the hardware you need to install it

plus heavy gauge, positive and negative cables with factory equipped terminals.

Here's a little tip for you. If you're gonna swap out the wires, you might as well put a new cap and rotor on it too.

Not to mention a new set of plugs.

Changing the plug wires is pretty much a no brainer. However simple as it may sound, make sure to only change one wire at a time. If you're not familiar with the firing order, this will save a lot of time and frustration in the long run.

Hey, you mentioned this thing has a nitrous kit on it. Should I have? Well, maybe it does. And of course, that's great for extra power,

but you gotta check out one of the plugs I just removed from the mustang.

Now that not only cuts down on the spark output,

it could eventually lead to a torch piston

with those under the hood upgrades taken care of. Now is a good time to mount the battery box. Now, since we're gonna be drilling a couple of 38 inch mounting holes, I've already lowered the gas tank so we won't have to worry about puncturing it

then we could cinch down the battery tray using the threaded rods, hex nuts and washers from the kit.

Then we can take the battery box and install a couple of rubber grommets

along with this

VW adapter.

Then after dropping the battery in place, we could secure it with this whole down frame.

Now, the box can go over the battery

and into the tray.

Then we can move on to the cables.

After attaching the red cable to the terminal, we can route it to the front, keeping it tucked into the chassis and away from moving parts

after cutting it to length, attach it to the relay on the fender. Well,

the black negative cable terminates at a solid grounding point like the chassis.

Well, that's gonna do it for the upgrades on this 89 GT. Now, as far as our budget goes, we spent 55 bucks for the Taylor Wire set,

another 70 for the battery relocation kit. So for about a buck 25 we get better spark output, better weight distribution

and hopefully better overall performance.

Yeah, the sound of success. Stay with us. We'll be right back.

Horsepower T V's Quick Tech is brought to you by

Wyotech.

You know the old timing chain and gear is something you guys have been using in your street machine probably since day one. But did you know there's a more efficient way for the crank shaft to drive the cam in your motor thanks to big time race technology that is and Chris Johnson is gonna show us how to make it happen. What do you got here? Hi, Joe. What I have here is a dodge racing block right from the NASCAR ranks are racing. And what I'm doing is actually installed

a belt drive system on the front end.

I've already installed my front cover, making sure I had no clearance problems with the block.

And I've also got my seal and my lower pulley attached. The next thing we need to do is install our camshaft adapter. But first, we need to make sure that we have a thrust washer in between it and our camshaft. What I like to do is just dab a little oil on it, just make sure it's got some lubricant for start up.

Then we can actually take it to our engine

and install it on the camshaft.

Now, these can be a little bit snug going on. They're machine, they're very tight tolerances. So you get a good fit with them.

I just wanna make sure it pushes back on your cam shaft this, so

now we need another thrust washer to go between our camshaft adapter

and our front pulley.

And then of course, we need to put our three bolts in to hold our cam shaft adapter to the cam.

I've applied a little bit of thread locker to these

just to keep them tight.

And then Joe, of course, we need to make sure that cam shaft stays in our engine. And the way we do that is with a torque plate, thrust plate

and we have some shims here. We're gonna put in behind it. And

you can see, I've applied some R TV sealer to make sure we don't have any oil leaks. And of course, uh Chris has done his homework with the micrometer to make sure he's got just enough shims to get proper inlay on the cam shaft.

Now that I've went ahead and torqued down our camshaft adapter and our torque plate. We're ready to go ahead

with our upper pulley. All right, I think I got your belt all started for you and of course, it does straight up for top bed center. Yes, perfect. Now, these are

very snug. These aren't a lot like putting on a timing chain.

You've got to kind of line your gears in here. Of course, watching your dot to dot Make sure you keep those lined up

and we have a little key at the top of the cam shaft

that we actually have to slide into. At

that point, you can hold it there

and install your retainer

and notice the big LH

that is a left handed bull

and they even tell you to torque it to 70 ft pounds once we're done here.

Ok, Joe, I've got our cam chef bolt torque to 70 pounds. Now, in addition to this extra strength Chris main advantage is accessibility up here. Right. Oh, absolutely. Um, the adjust ability of this gear and this timing set is great.

Um, with the old, uh, timing chain and gears, we had to actually use a degree bushing drill out the gear.

With this style, we simply can line up our marks and you can see there's slots that are nuts, move it, slide it back and forth

and simply tied it up. When you get the degree you want. Great

hot part and much like the ones you're about to see.

So if you've got one of those new old five Mustangs, I got two things to tell you first

fall on Jealous and secondly, super chips now has a way to get more out of your four or 4.6 L engine. Now, like most of their micro tuners, their adjustments for things like gear ratios, speed and rev limiters, but also a factory test have shown power gains of up to 15 horsepower. Now, like all of their micro tuners, it's a simple plug and play way to more power output

and the financial output. Well, just under $400 here's a hot new way to get your sports car or sport compact back on the right track. It's the fusion Z Ria high performance summer tire that was specifically designed using an advanced unity technology. Now, they have steel cords spirally wound with nylon for high speed durability and they feature this ridge guard to protect your wheels against curb damage. Now, you can get them in series ranging from 30 to 60

wheel sizes from six,

16 to 20 inches for pricing, get a hold of your local Bridgestone Firestone dealer.

Our final hot part is one for the book. Uh Literally that is, it's a book called El

Brog Made in the USA. And it's a good coffee table chronicle of the glory days of hot rodding and how a passion for performance led to an amazing industry. That's got a treasure of photographs, plus stories on legends like, well, Vic Edelbrock senior who helped pioneer the high performance movement

if you're moved to get one of these. Well, why not head to our bookstore at Power block.com?

Well, we'll be heading your way with another edition of Horsepower next week and we hope to see you then.