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Mike Jones Iroc Camaro

 There are fast cars that look the part and then there are the fast cars that are so discrete that they often remain under the radar of even the keenest drag strip groupies. Mike Jones IROC easily passes as your typical small tire 10 second street car until he unleashes the 540 BBC built by Steve Morris Engines (topped off with a F2 Procharger) on the competition.

Little 10.5*29.5 Mickey Thompons have produced short times in the 1.20 range for the 3,275 pounder bruiser. You ask how fast it is….how does 7.90’s at over 174 mph sound !!!  One of the coolest things about this “sheep in wolf’s clothing” is that it still has the stock interior intact and Mike has no plans to cut this car up. Actually, he is looking to go to 10.5*28.5 Mickeys next year and turn up the boost beyond the 17 pounds that he yielded 7 second ET’s this season.

Not only is this car brutally fast but it has also been known to do some 300-400 foot wheel stands at will. Check out the trailer from our Best of 2009 DVD  and you will see exactly what we mean. This is one impressive car for sure.

Steve Morris  (of New Era Racecraft) is one of the premier engine builders in the country and when he sets his sights on having one of the baddest street cars in the country you can bet that it will be a contender.

The “Detroit of iron” of choice…none other than a Caprice station wagon. You may ask, “why build a 4 door station wagon?” Well, when you have over 2,220 horsepower of Procharger big block Chevy weight and girth are not a major concern. Besides that….when was the last time you saw a 3500 pound station wagon with stock suspension and drag radials run 7.51 @ 193 MPH !!!

No wheelie bars…no problem when you have 4 feet of overhang out back. Steve has been know to hang the front skinnies 300 feet out before getting the monster to settle down (and still can produce a low 8 second time slip).  If you are walking through the staging lanes and see the wagon sitting there (with all four doors open) you’ll just have to stop and take at the “4 doors of fun” station wagon from the New Era Racecraft. Different is GOOD !!!

Bob Kernwein 1988 Mustang GT 

I must have been born under a luck star because when I turned 16 my parents took me to the local Ford dealer and told me that I could pick out a car for my birthday. I thought that the 5.0 liter Mustang GT looked pretty cool and said “how about this Mustang ?”. They reluctatntly agreed and I drove that car home (I’ve got the coolest parents in the world) !!!!

Once I had the car at home I began, like most kids, to  try to make it go faster.  By the time i was a senior the car was pretty quick had even done a little street racing (even though I probably should not have). In May of 1989 I had my dad go with me to Great Lakes Dragway for my first time to a drag strip. I had all the bolt on stuff and stock suspension stuff on the car with a little hidden NOS dry kit. It ran 12.10 not bad for my daily driver. 

When I went to college i worked the whole summer to buy more go fast parts for it. By the time I graduated college it had a aftermarkey cam, heads, intake, injectors and a cage in the car and went 10.70 (all with still a stock untouched short block from Ford). Now that i was working I decided i wanted to go faster and wanted a bigger small block. I had Bob Alexander from Performance Transmission(217-935-5352) build me a 372″ yates headed cleveland motor with NOS– That got me into the 8.90’s.

Bob

The whole Fastest Street Car scene was coming on strong in  1994 and my friends and Dad went to Memphis and saw some of the baddest guys in the country (most which were from Chicago area). I decided then that I need more money if I wanted to run with the “Big Dogs”. Fast forward a few years-new motor from Fast Times Motor Works. We race that motor every where ( Byron, Da Grove, St louis, Memphis, Orlando) and it was fast having run 8.40’s. However the heavy hitters like Spiro, Samuels, Scavo were in the real low 8.0 range… engine transplant time again. 

New engine builder Pete Robertson (CPS racing Engine- 708-479-7383) who ran the Modified Super Stock series just started a 10″ tire program with the Modifieds and they raced more local tracks so I was on board for this new group. Pete built me a new 398″ yates headed windsor motor and redesigned everything in the car-fuel system, ignition, and started to help me understand more about a NOS motor than what I already knew. Pete was instrumental to me and helping me go faster.  In 2002 I won the Modified Super Street Series and went as fast as 7.86@179.87. 

At this point the writing was on the wall that all cars 8.50 and faster were going to need some major chassis updates to be legal.  I enlisted my friend Eric Miller of Next Generation Race cars of Streator Illinois(815-672-9226) to build a killer baby promod style 10″ tire car. Eric built me a a perfect work of art race car. It is 25.2 legal (6.0 and slower under 3200#’s) chassis with my original mustang gt. The car is ultra-low, clean and smooth body lines for aerodynamics. The tubes are all laid out nice and clean and precision tin work and carbon fiber inside the car makes it look awesome. Eric built everything on the car himself, rear end housing, designed his own four link brackets, parachute handles, door release handles, nos valve handles etc. One look inside and all you will see is Quality! 

I now have 2 motors for race car 1 was a used motor I bought with the blue thunder heads and its a tiny motor 392″  and the other is a 427″ brodix neal headed small block that Pete built for me. We went out the first race and had some good test passes 8.20’s spinning the tires to a 1.13 60′ and burnt a piston in the semi finals. Oh well, new car blues.  Pete freshened the used motor and changed some stuff to his liking and we went testing at Rt 66 a few weeks ago.  With a small jet in the nos fogger we went a 1.14 60′ and a 7.74 @ 178.86–not bad for only 8 passes on a new car and motor. once we get it all dialed in we expect low 7.50’s @ 185 mile performance. I would like to thank Eric Miller of Next Generation Race Cars for all his help, Pete Robertson of CPS Racing Engines, Gil @ Speed Wire Systems, Bob Alexander from Performance Transmission and my wife Jamie for the countless hours of dealing with my speed addiction.

Tony Crisostomo 1979 Z-28

 A lot of guys these days say that they have a real “8 second street car“. “Ya’ I drive it all over the place and it runs at 180 degrees all day long…blah…blah…blah”. Well Tony’s Z/28 actually does get driven all over the Waukesha area (a suburb of Milwaukee) and does run at 180 degrees in the middle of summer, has DOT tires, a comfortable interior including a killer stereo system, and runs 8.70’s at over 154 mph when the NOS Cheater plate is flowing !!!

Tony’s brother bought this car new and it has evolved over the years from a small block screamer that was cable of 11 second quarter mile times to the 8 second stormer that you see here. The goal has always been to build a car that actually can be driven for hours at a time so he chose a Miezere electric pump and a Be-Cool aluminum radiator to keep the 1,000 hp combo happy during the dog days of summer in Wisconsin. The 540 BBC has all the good parts in it including a Callies crank, Ross pistons, Oliver rods, Lunati SOLID cam (yes a solid cam), Dart aluminum heads, topped off my a 1050 Holley Dominator.

Gebhardt’s out of Jacksonville, Illinois did the chassis which includes a 9″ inch rear end, Aerospace brakes, wheelie bars, and parachute (to stop this 3,600 lb beast). Tim Jakus helped with the engine program and made the whole deal work on the street & strip. If your ever in the Waukesha area and see a silver Z/28 Camaro cruising next to your car you may want to think twice before trying to run him off a stop light. This car is loaded for bear and the bottle is always on…..do you feel lucky  ???

Max Chevy Magazine  Feature- Paul Tadin’s 1967 Chevelle

8.40’s @ 170 mph on 9″ slicks

OK, you see this pretty black Chevelle parked at your local Saturday night hang out and take a look under the car. It has a mundane stock GM suspension and a nice pair of aftermarket shocks. Then you notice that the thing has FOUR mufflers under it (two of which are cheap 3″ turbo style muff’s). The hood is closed but you see that it has 396 flags on the front fender so you assume it is a big block.

Then Paul Tadin fires the thing up to head home and you hear some serious hardware idling under the hood. Mind you the exhaust note is really minimal (with those 4 mufflers trying to tame the beast within) but the gig is up, this is a nasty street machine !!! You ask your buddy what he thinks it runs and he immediately tags it is a 9 second car. Close but no cigar…this 3600 pound street car has run 8.48 @ 170 MPH through the exhaust on the 9″ skinnys. Check out the video !!!

Back in the 80’s muscle cars were relatively cheap and plentiful. If you had a couple grand in your pocket you could find a hard charging street machine without too much trouble. In those days you could find a decent Super Bee, Camaro, Torino or Nova in the local newspaper or even just sitting on the side of the road with a “For Sale” sign in the window. Tim Jakus, one of my buddies back in high school, always seemed to have a couple of cool Chevy’s to cruise around in. His first car was a 1969 Camaro 350 convertible that was all decked out with a 350, side pipes, cowl hood, and Z/28 stripes (it was a real looker).  It was found sitting on Chevy dealers used car lot and bought for less than $4,000.

His other car had a little more teeth and was often found prowling around the streets looking for a little stoplight-to-stoplight racing action. The gray 1968 Chevy II /Nova was brought back from Utah in 1985 and came complete with a 1966 vintage 360 hp 396 rat motor. Purchase price for this ride was only $2,000 (how would you like to go back in time to make this deal). This car was owned by someone in the Air Force and it was geared for the open salt flats of Utah with 2.53 gears. Needless to say this thing had a great top end. The next mill was a angry 461 BBC that propelled the leaf spring car into the 9’s. Then things got serious and a 540 found its way between the frame rails quickly followed by a full tilt 632 ci BBC that natually aspirated made nearly 1200 horsepower !!!

One day while cruising around he spotted a Z/28 Camaro (with a Rally Sport front end) parked at “Wild Bill’s” used car lot. Under closer inspection it turned out that the 1972 “Z” had long since lost the 350 LT1 but received a 396 big block in it’s place !!! This was no stocker 396 but was a 12.5-1, solid lifter, hooker header equipped street racer complete with a 4.11 rear end and Borg Warner Super T10 manual transmission. The price for a ticket to ride was…you guessed it $2,000. This was one rare piece since only 2,575 Z/28’s were produced in 1972 (how many that were also RS equipped is unknown).

Since Tim lived at home he did not think his parents would appreciate having another Bowtie parked in the driveway so he stored it all summer at the local grocery store parking lot (can you imagine how long that Z/28 would last sitting around unattended today). We would drive over the pick up the Camaro on weekends, fill it up with race gas, and head out to Hwy 100 (one of the local hot spots). One night while cruising “The Highway” the green 67’ Buick GS of Dave Senderhauf pulled up to the Camaro and they wanted to race. We knew this Buick had sucked the doors off many hard charging street cars but thought that he had finally met his match with the “Z”.

We made the turn around and both cars slowed to about 10 mph and the Buick nailed the loud pedal first. Tim opened all four barrels of the Holley and grabbed for second gear as that Buick’s cheater slicks grabbed the pavement and jumped a car length on the Camaro as it put on a tire spinning freak show into third gear. The 396 was screaming past 7,000 rpm in third as the radial tires finally got traction and he rowed the Super T10 into fourth gear. He was  making up ground quickly now but it was too late to come around that Buick. The race was over and we were “educated” on the value of traction. Shortly therafter we started running M&H soft compound tires and then changed over to Mickey Thompson drag slicks. Traction was no longer an issue…

A couple of years ago the 68’ Nova was finally sold and a state of the art 1969 Chevelle became Tim’s new ride. Metz Performance built the car , Authentic Auto (Cudahy Wisconsin) did the paint job and Mike Duke from Indianapolis provides the power to make this door slammer run in the mid 7’s at over 180 mph.

 Many things have changed over the past 25 years. Technological advances in engine design, and displacement, have allowed real world horsepower output levels in excess of 1,000 horsepower to become almost commonplace. Collectors have scooped up many of the rare cars and placed them in storage  as “investments” (what a shame). Those days of cheap muscle cars are over but the thrill of driving them will always be timeless. If you are lucky enough to own one be sure that you get out there and drive it !!!

Spanky’s Haulers  

Pat Spangenberg (owner of Rod & Competition Specialties) is known for the cool street rods that his shop builds. There is a new kind of “street rod” that they started playing with a few years ago when a certain puke green 1966 Impala was added to his corral of cars.

Take a 4,000 Impala with stock suspension and 10” tires, add 540 cubic inched of BBC (that makes 961 HP) and toss a fogger on the top (with the “big boy” 400 HP jets in place) and you have a recipe for 8.77 time slips !!! The legendary green beast is the test mule and gets plenty of street miles in between the 100 drag strip passes over the past couple of years. She aint pretty but she sure is fast !!!

The “white car” is a true work of art. This 22,000 mile original was put  together about 10 years ago and started out as a genuine L72 (425HP 427) with a bench seat/4 speed stick and some steep gears when it left the General’s assemble line. Every detail has been attended to and it is now one of the nicest B-body cars in the country. A very healthy 615 BBC now resides where the old 427 used to be many years ago. Still maintain the stock suspension this baby is a handful when you hit the single stage fogger.

“Top Gun” just about says it all. Having watched this street racing legend over the years Pat set his sights on owning this bad boy and when he had the chance jumped on it. Now this was back in the late 90’s and he had a street/strip car that was capable of running deep in the 10’s.

 Kelly Landry was the original owner of the Nova and had every conceivable combination between the fender wells (including a blown BBC) that he ran with a 5 speed. This car was often seen cruising around the Milwaukee area (sometimes as late as 2am in the morning…I wonder what he was out doing at that time of the night?).  Oh, the good old days….

The “First Car” happened to be a Camaro that was a original “MO” code 1968 Z/28 !!! Yep, hiding behind those groovy side pipes and spoked wire wheels was a real collectible muscle car. Dig those shackels man….

Pat’s Dad had a bunch of cool cars back in the day. This late sixties/early seventies street rod was the one that a heavy hitter on the streets of Milwaukee. Powered by a bullet proof 327 that could spin to big RPM….this baby was light weight and could clean the clocks of  many of the street bruisers of the day.

Contact information:  Rod and Competition Specialties #262-781-9044 

Brian Hansen- Owner of 10″ Wide Racing (“Motor Head” from the start)

I was born in 1966 and showed an interest in hot cars at an early age (it probably has something to do with our family car being a Dodge Super Bee with the “Drag Pack” option.

This picture was taken in 1970, standing next to our new 1969 Dodge Super Bee, with my mom and sister Kim.The Super Bee coupes quarter mile time was in the low fourteens at over 100 MPH (and was tested at the local “proving grounds” near our house).

                               Nice “Family Car” complete with roof rack and trailer hitch !!!

Our other daily driver, a 1965 Mustang with a 6 cylinder and “three on the floor”. Not a muscle car at the time but would be nice to have now and put a nitrous assisted big block Ford in it.

Early Car Interests
It was not long before I started talking about the kind of car I would like when I got my drivers license. I was always talking about a V8 that I could hop up (of course)
My interest in hot cars was “nurtured” by Art Lutzke, the automotive teacher at Waukesha North High School. He was an avid hot rod enthusiast himself and a great mechanic. During my high school years there was a 1968 HEMI Road Runner that lived in our auto shop (and we got to help work on it during class). Pretty cool stuff…
I did ask my parents to save the 1969 Dodge Super Bee so that it could be my first car when I got my license. Needless to say, they did not think that was the kind of car a 16 year old should have for a first car. They were probably right…

Brian’s first “Hot Rod
Shopping for this car was quite an experience. I wanted a V8 and my parents said whatever I bought had to have nothing larger than a 6 banger.

Well, I ended up “reluctantly” choosing a sort of “clapped out” 1968 Chevelle with a 6 cylinder engine and a 3-speed stick shift. The motor sounded sort of sick and smoked a lot. This did not bother me because I already had “other ideas” on what I was going to do with the car.

It was not long before the modifications began. I found a heavy duty 6 cylinder truck block and began working with a local engine builder to make a 6 banger that would scream. This replacement engine featured a huge solid lifter cam, ported & polished cylinder “head” with larger small-block Chevy intake & exhaust valves and two carburetors.

The engine also featured split headers with dual exhausts that sounded pretty wild. The end result was a “fire breathing” six banger that once beat a 1968 Olds with a 455 CI V8 in a street race. They could not believe that they were beat by a six cylinder!

The 3 speed on the floor was quickly changed to a Muncie M21 4 speed (complete with Urst shift) out of a 1966 GTO. I had to scrape up the $75 for the complete package but I thought it would be worth it to have the 4 speed (those were the days).

My Second Car – The “Cuda”

The Cuda’ had a stock 340 Magnum and an 727 automatic transmission. I was the third owner and the purchase price was $1,000 in 1987. I spent a little over $4,000 to restore the car to original. The car was gorgeous !!!

The Cuda was drag raced in the Muscle Car Nationals at Great Lakes Dragaway in 1988.

“The Blue Nova” 10 Second Street Racer

In 1989, I bought a 1968 Chevy II Nova that already had a 427 CI big block V8, a modified Turbo 400 automatic transmission and a 9” Ford rear end with traction bars.

The car had a roll cage and a 5 point racing harness (it had everything that a good “street car” needed). My friends Bob Hood & Tim Jakus thought I was nuts for wanting a 10 second street car.

The car was driven to the track and ran low 12 second ¼ mile runs through the full exhausts as it was bought (3700 pounds). But that was only the beginning. I added a nitrous oxide system during the spring of 1990 and got the car in the tens (through a full 3” exhaust including tails pipes).

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Then the fun really began. I had to go faster. A set of Merlin BBC cylinder heads, a bigger Lunati cam and a 250 nitrous plate system was installed in the same old short block.

In this configuration, the car ran 10.47 second quarter at 123 MPH through full exhausts. The trap speed was limited by lifter pump up at 6,400 RPM and 7,200 RPM was needed to get to the end of the track.

Then the quest for more speed continued — One of my friends Bob Hood sold me “take off” parts from his car. A big lift solid lifter cam was installed. The car ran the quarter mile in 11.70 @ 114 MPH on horsepower (no nitrous). For a few months, he went to their “test-n-tune” highway and tried out more modifications that included a Nitrous Works 325 HP NOS system. Now the car was a “real animal”! I was ready to go to the home track, Great Lakes Dragaway in Union Grove, WI and make a pass before winter set in.

I knew that the car could 60 ft. mark in the 1.40’s and thought that it could maybe I could get the car in the 9.90s. I put in a 325 pills in the Nitrous Works plate and staged the car at the starting line. The lights came down, matted the throttle and simultaneously pressed the “magic button”. The car stood up and planted the Mickey Thompson 11.5*29.5’s on the sticky starting line and I was off!

I watched the tach hit 7,200 RPM and clicked the shifter into second and heard a loud bang and the car immediately unloaded the suspension. The engine was still running so I pretty sure that it was a tranny, convertor or rear end. It turned out that the trusty Turbo Action 9″ race convertor had given up the ghost from too much action !!!

 Then, I got married , sold the car and the money was used towards the down payment for a house. I know the current owner of the Nova (Brian Chelf), who lives in Iowa. It currently has a SBC with a F1 Procharger and still sports the leaf springs suspension with Cal-Trac bars….it has found a good home.

 Current ride 1967 Impala 396

It was not long before I got the itch for another car. I found the pictured 1967 Chevy Impala 396 Sport Coupe advertised for sale in one of the local papers and located near our house.

The elderly gentleman, who owned the car, was the original owner! He was a retired policeman from the Chicago area. The car had been kept in a climate-controlled garage since it was new!

Genuine original one owner 74k mile big block 1967 Impala as we bought it in 2000. Not very fast but very cool.The Impala has all of the toys (power windows, seats and even Comfortron air conditioning) and they all still work – quite rare for a 1967 car. The interior is bright red vinyl and in perfect condition, and amazingly, still smells like new! The big block 396 runs nice but is not this is not race car at 4400 pounds!!!

The next car…

Someday I would like to build another fast street car. Hanging around guys like Pat Spangenburg and Kevin Ribbens who have “big cars” that are capable of running in the 8’s has “influenced” me and I think I’d build a Impala, Biscayne or Caprice. Nick Scavo’s 1965 Impala (now owned by Joe Penze) was also a big influence in my facination with making 2 tons of fun run in the 8’s. 

 The engine of choice would be a 540 BBC with a F2R Procharger (so that I can still run a flat hood or small cowl hood). Stock suspension and 10″ slicks of course !!!