LS Gun

Ok. You ready for this? I hope. Thank you.

I

think about ready to come out.

Hey, welcome to a late night in the horsepower shop. We're getting ready for a day at the drag strip and you're invited

as we take several of our favorite project cars and put them through the paces. Now, you know how it is the day before the track, always last minute thrashing. In our case, the LS gun,

you see, we plan to run a pair of these BFG drag radios on it to help it hook up. But

hey, you do the math LS one with Nitrous plus weeks stock rear end. Well, that equals a potential disaster.

That's why tonight we're swapping out that stock rear end for this brand new one from DTs. Now, this thing has a Detroit Locker, 4, 10 gears and 35 blind axles. Now we're able to use those axles because the board designed in the axle bearing is larger.

Now, this thing has

clip eliminators with push on bearings and it'll accept this Bear brake kit. We are installed. Now, we're using a two piston caliper with a 13 inch rotor that's been cross drilled and slotted. You think this is cool. Wait till you see the monsters we're gonna be putting on the front.

Look at this bear sent us a set of their

raus speed two piece rotors. Now, these are 14 inches that have been cross drilled and slotted.

Now, they also sent us the six S calipers. These are a six piston design that come with all the brass

brake lines and hardware to install them.

The Camaro stock rear axle is really easy to remove just unbolt the shocks unplug the A BS sensors,

pan hard bar, torque arm, drive shaft and brake lines. We won't be using the A BS or the traction control with the new rear end because of the larger axle, we can't fit the A BS ring but don't worry, it's not gonna hurt anything, especially with the larger brakes.

The next step is to transfer all the hard brake lines to the new rear end

now lifted into place

and attached to lower control arms

followed by the torque arm.

Next we can install the springs

and shocks,

then reattach the drive shaft

and pan hard bar

and now is a good time to start installing the front brakes starting with the mounting bracket

followed by the rotor.

Now we can slide the caliper spacer

and caliper into place.

The next step is to attach the brake lines

and bleed the system.

Finally, we can go ahead and fill up the rear end with some royal purple gear oil.

Now, I know what some of you are thinking are the stock wheels gonna fit over these monster calipers and rotors? Not a chance. That's why we got a hold of our friends at the tire rack and they sent us these 18 by 9.5 SSRS wrapped in 2 45 40 18 BFGG Force Tas

man. That's one awesome set up. You know, the whole installation only took us a couple of hours and that's not bad considering all the performance gains we did. But the real test comes at the track in the morning.

Next morning, the Camaro joined Chuck's 69 Chevelle and our project Supernova for a trip to Memphis Motorsports Park.

This track like others around the country features weekly test and tune sessions that bring in all kinds of cars and drivers, bikes and riders and anyone who wants track time to tweak their rides. Now, this is the best way to improve your performance, reaction times and comfort level at the line.

That's what

T and to is about.

We get to bring them up.

Hey, this didn't work. Let's try this and try that.

And that's where I get to be a second hand

in the whole crew

among the rides we're testing. Of course, the LS Gun. Remember when we removed the motor from the bottom

that was before adding a crane roller cam and valve train, CNC ported heads and a new fast composite intake.

Also, we bolted up a new center force 11 inch clutch. And before reinstalling that motor

set of hooker super cop headers later, we bolted up a fast 78 millimeter throttle body to match the intake and installed a small shot of Edelbrock Nitrous just for giggles. Chuck Chevelle

was in the shop several months ago when we brought in a GM 502 short block for it.

We filled it with a hotter ISK camshaft bolted on a set of high flowing RPM performer heads and then an Edel Rock air gap manifold

which was fed by an 850 CFM speed demon car.

We backed up our big block with a TCI street fighter turbo 400 trans

but the baddest was yet to come when the fast electronic engine management system went on

along with an 871 B DS blower.

Of course, the leader of the pack should be our supernova.

It started out as a rust free stock 69 that we stripped in the shop before dumping 350 engine

in favor of a GM performance parts. 720 horse 572 with a Hughes performance power glide.

We back half the car with an Art Morrison rear clip and a full rope cage.

Last time you saw it, we had it ape wrapped to make sure it looks good going down the quarter mile strip.

Well, guess what, we've made it to Memphis and soon we'll let it all hang out here during the horsepower test in two. So, hang on with us.

We're back for a test and tune session at Memphis Motorsports Park.

And today we've got the quarter mile track to ourselves to see what we can get out of the supernova. Chuck's

Chevelle

and the LS Gun Camaro.

Well, that's right. The good news is that we've got the track to ourselves today. Unfortunately, the bad news is that,

man, it's about 100 degrees out here. So the track is a little bit slick, but we're gonna sneak up on things. Try not to do anything stupid.

Why don't you get your stupid butt to work?

Yeah, they sprayed the track. That's good.

Let's check this.

Uh huh.

100 and 40. That's pretty warm.

Well, the

Chael is gonna go down the track first but we've got a few dr issues and Mike Taylor here from fast is gonna help us out with those. Now, we're gonna probably sacrifice a little bit of power for improved dr,

but hey, I think it'll be worth it,

man. You can never be too prepared when you go to a race or test in tune. So we made sure to bring a little bit of everything from a generator to an air compressor, air tanks, all of our tools. Oh, and one more thing, check this out wheelie bars for the Nova, if we need them.

Well, like I told you earlier, that track is really slick out there today, so we're gonna need all the help that we can get. Now,

normally I run these sportsmen Pros here, but

hey,

I've swapped them out for these ET streets and mounted them on the center line Convo Pros. Now, let's get after it.

We were all kind of anxious to see what kind of power this car would make. And after a few shakedown passes, the supercharged 69 was ready for a full tilt run.

You got 1159 at 122.

Oh, it's hot. Let me get out of this thing.

Oh, man.

Now time for the LS Gun Camaro,

this is the only car with a stick shift which made for a tricky situation on the slick track after a couple of passes, the best I could muster was a high

13.

But

if I didn't have to change gears, I'd be doing

well finally to make it hook up better. Mike swap the Ls Gun's sport tires for a set of Mickey Thompson ETS.

You ready to start spraying it?

I think we are. Let's

put some

spray.

Are you ready to start spraying it?

So with better track rubber and a small shot of squeeze, we made a much more respectable 11.3.

The motor's making good power, but

that transmission is pathetic.

Now for the horsepower headliner of today's test and two

and the Nova had problems of its own

running in the heat of the day and overpowering this greasy track.

But finally, after a few engine tweaks and changing the tire pressure, we kept trying

and trying.

And finally, as the sun mercifully started to set

Mike and Lenovo nailed a fairly decent 1020.

We all know there's more in it, but this is what test and tune is all about

the ongoing quest for quickness and getting her dialed in for race day.

Well, so much for testing tune. Now it's the real deal. Wanna know the secret to running a red hot drag race. We'll start with America's favorite sportsman track mix in 600 of the world's top door slammers and add a little Cajun spice. Stir it to a boil

sponsored by jegs.com, the Cajun Sport Nationals at no problem. Raceway just east of New Orleans is exclusively for grassroots racers.

It's more an appreciation for the racer. Support of Jakes more. Na,

you know,

it's round one, a two day race series for the Jegs cr,

a

special award for the sportsmen who win this race and the upcoming Northern Sports Nationals. It's all sportsman racers, which is really neat because that's where all my brothers and I started and we love racing and,

uh, it's just fun and this is a way that we can get back to them

in appreciation the country's fastest cars turned up to blister. No problems near perfect surface

and hook up. They did in every class from top sportsmen to pro wide

and all seven N hr A records were broken

in a weekend festival of Speed and Beauty.

The Mac stands were treated to 12th muscle car action with first class cars like this pair of beautifully prepared stock Eliminator 428 powered 67 Shelby

engine and white cars. Uh uh 428

with 390 Edelbrock aluminum heads.

Uh

That's why it runs c

uh the other car, like I said, it's got cast iron heads. This has the new Edelbrock 390 head, which we're very pleased with.

Uh

just, I mean, really tickled with the fact that the head is that good of a head

out of the box

but is also fantastic, is warming a pair of plastics into drag cars.

Everybody comes up and says that and

uh I mean,

well, if you just look, I mean, that's why we do it. It's so rare. They just stop by and they got a look. It doesn't matter what you love, you just got to look at them.

Spectators also just had to look at another pair of Mustangs.

The team Gotham 67 Shelby Probo

piloted by world champ Mike Ashley and his teammate, Troy pop

in

his five mustang promo.

Mike and Troy have teamed up to take these blown 20,700 horsepower hemi

powered Fords to the next level. Mike's great to work with and

we've had a lot fun together. You know, we've been to four or five races and we've worked out our bugs and he's been on my tail about this and that and,

you know, kind of teaching me the ropes a little bit and we're picking up,

we're starting to run a little better

in the finals. Brother Mike

Coughlin caught a great run,

laying down an 892 to take the win in super car.

The car was definitely right. It was very consistent. It repeated real well. The lights were good.

It just repeated after time after time and that's what it takes

in pro

Mike Ashley capped off the day and advanced his plan for a second world championship retiring Frankie Taylor with an awesome 617 run at 230 miles an hour. I did my job as a,

we won and we won last week in Las Vegas, so I just feel great. I'm happy for

Taco race fuels. Jags Jakes is a big part of my team. These guys have invested a lot in us. They've helped us a lot.

But if you want to win that Jags Crow,

you'll have to win the next round at the Northern sports.

Hey, this show is all about horsepower problem is the more you make of it, the harder it is to hook up. Well, today I've got some tips that are gonna help you choose the right rubber for your ride

for decades. Mickey Thompson has been churning out performance tires to meet the needs of enthusiasts who drive their cars as hard as they drive a bargain.

Now to make sure that you get the most bang for your buck. Let's take a look at some of their offerings.

The sportsman is the original Pro street tire and it was recently selected by Hot Rod is one of the 20 greatest performance products of all time.

Now, this thing's dot legal with a buys plot construction and a rubber compound that's gonna give you plenty of street miles, plus it's available in tread sizes up to 17 inches wide. Now, if you're gonna bolt a set of these big bologna on your street machine, well, you better have a set of tubs and an narrow

rear end and of course, a healthy engine doesn't hurt either to help back up the image. Now, here's a drag tire

with a real street tread.

The Sportsman Pro was created to meet a demand for a fat street legal tire that could also be used by weekend drag racers.

Now, this thing might look just like a regular sportsman, but it has a soft compound and a wrinkle side wall for hard launches.

Of course, the sportsman front is a matching skinny front tire and like its wide body brothers. It also features a tubeless bias ply construction and hey, you can even get it in eight ply version for a vehicle's over 3000 pounds.

The sportsman sr is a brand new radial version of the sportsman and it's unquestionably the biggest street legal radio available with a smooth quiet ride

and a long wearing compound. Now, just check out this unique flame tread design.

You can get them in 1518 and 20 inch wheel diameters like this one while the matching fronts are available in 15

and 18 inch sizes.

Hey, we ain't fooling anybody here. The ET Street is nothing more than a thinly disguised drag slick for classes that require a dot Street legal tire. Of course, it also works on the street

but it's really more at home on the strip.

It features biased construction and yields very consistent ETS and good wear because it requires very little or even no burnout to hook them up.

Mickey's ET Street Radio earned the title of world's fastest DLT street legal drag radio when

Rick head clicked off an astounding 766

at 100 and 86 miles an hour at the recent world street nationals in Orlando Florida.

Now a lot of technology went into the soft compound radio construction, tubeless rollers, even with dot Approval. They're recommended for dry traction only and work best on cars with an automatic transmission.

The ET drag is a race only tire available in a large variety of compound sizes and constructions for a different chassis and power train combos

with the ET drag. You'll get very consistent ETS

and you can use them on cars and dragsters from stock all the way up to top alcohol. Well, next we're gonna take a look at Mickey's new et drag radio. Now, trust me, this thing is probably gonna be the next new trend when it comes to drag tires. Radio construction means minimum growth and a low rolling resistance to make it considerably quicker and faster down the track.

They work best with 20 to 30% more air pressure than biased tires and door cars and dragsters with automatics will benefit most from this new rubber but don't take my word for it. Both stock and super stock N hr world champions last year ran this tire.

So there you go. When it comes to rounding up the right rubber. Well, it's easy to go round in circles, but with this information, it'll be easy to get hooked up. Here's a distributor that may get you fired up, especially if you like the retro look of a Magneto with he I technology. It's the self contained mag distributor from vertex that only needs a single 12 volt source as an internal he I coil and a specially configured control module for maximum spark energy. Now, the outside is CNC machine

and you can get it with either a bronze or steel gear. Now, they've got them for all kinds of applications for fords MO parts and Chevrolets and where the prices start at just under 700 bucks. Of course, no distributor is any good unless you have a good set of plugs. On the other end of it, these iridium powered spark plugs from Denso are eight times stronger than platinum. So they went ahead and designed a tip that only measures 4/10 of a millimeter. Now, that means the voltage requirements are decreased while the firing performance is greatly improved. Now, they also feature you groove design that enhances firing without changing the spark gap. If you wanna get your hands on a set of these prices run about 52 bucks for a set of four.

Finally, here's a way to upgrade the turbo in your sport compact from performance import trends.

It's a 38 millimeter waist gate that'll give you years of service. Thanks to 347 stainless steel alloy valves and

housing.

Now inside it's got a no

max reinforced actuator diaphragm, a stainless actuator spring and CNC machine

fangs. Of course, your kit comes with air fittings and all this hardware at a price that shouldn't waste away your budget about 325.

Well, that's it for hot parts. Thanks for sticking around and be sure to check us out next week for more horsepower. Maybe I'll have this together by then.

Yeah, you need help. Yeah, help me.