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1973 Ford F100 - 9.42 @ 143 mph
Wheels up launch, October 01, 2011
This is my 1973 Ford F-100 tube chassis
race truck. This truck has a 557" big block Ford with over 1050
horsepower, a Hughes Turbo-400 and a Ford 9" with 4:56s and a spool.
It's called "Iron Gladiator". Built for the Pro Class, it's heavy
(3,850#) so we run 9.70s, around 135 mph in the heat of the summer days. Our home track is Woodburn Dragstrip, Woodburn Oregon.
They are a good bunch of guys, hope to see you there.
Visit them at
www.woodburndragstrip.com
Spiderman did the custom graphics
and original artwork on the "Iron Gladiator". He did a fine job, I highly recommend him. Give him
a call at 503-956-2013.
Here we've got the truck up on
a set of Longacre wheel scales and Steve is setting the 4-corner weight
distribution aspect. The truck weighs 3,850 with my oversize ass in it.
Rich is in the seat because he weighs about the same as I do. 53%
of the weight is on the front tires, 47% on the rear tires. Pretty good
for a pickup. To achieve this we set the engine back 10 inches and moved
it up 8 inches.
The truck's
cockpit. The ignition box is an MSD 7AL-3 CD unit. The button on the
steering wheel controls the
Turbo 400's trans-brake and allows those consistent 5,500 rpm launches.
The 1050 horsepower 557 cubic inch
Ford pushed the 1973 Ford F-100 to a best of 9.52 @ 140.5 mph. This
pickup is NASTY!!!
Smokin' up the Hoosier 32 x 13.5 drag slicks. Long, smoke filled burn-outs
were our trademark for the day.
The truck launches straight, wheels in
the air. We switched to Goodyear, D-5 32 x 14.5 x 15 slicks and our 60 foot times,
which were in the high 1.40s, dropped to 1.31s. The 1/8 mile is 6.12 @ 113.88 and
the best 1/4 mile is 9.52 @ 140 mph. I went red on this pass by 0.002 sec.
but this was a "Test & Tune" pass so it didn't matter. Most of the rest
of my passes were around 0.085 green. Pretty good for an old raisin like me.
Controlled
wheel stands equal weight transfer!!
This truck launches HARD!!
The Turbo 400 is built by
the fine guys at Hughes Performance in Phoenix Arizona. On our first
pass a driveline failure destroyed the transmission. Pete Nichols at
Hughes Performance had the transmission picked up from our shops and
they repaired it for no charge. I had it back in a week. In my opinion
you simply could not find a better group of guys than Hughes
Performance!
We took out a 2-speed Power-Glide.
With the 3-speed our 60 foot times dropped to 1.32 and our 1/8th mile
times dropped to 5.99. In the summer heat our 1/4 mile times were 9.68,
now we are running 9.52 @ 141 in the heat of the day. Ooohrah! ! ! !
Nice overhead shot.
The first three pictures on this
page and the two
pictures above were taken by Mr. George Adams, the official Woodburn track photographer. We are a
huge fan of his work. We highly recommend a visit to his website:
http://www.nwdragracing.com
UPDATE: April 15th, 2012 we ran 9.42 @ 143 mph. Fastest
pass the truck has made!
UPDATE: May 12, with new Goodyear Slicks, we pulled several
1.29 second 60' times!
This is amazing considering this Ford weighs 3,975 # with me in it.
Ooorah!
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