Even more road test ringers....

This subject has sparked a lot of interest so here's some more Road Test Ringers.  #1. 1979 Z/28 Camaro. In the late '70's the Mecham Brothers had great success marketing the "Macho T/A". In addition to cool graphics and some suspension tweaking they also had Hooker Headers and real dual exhaust ( with two catalytic converters instead of one ) a re-jetted carb and a re-curved HEI distributor and the "Shaker" hood scoop opened up. These mods were said to add 50-70 hp. Hot Rod's July 1978 Macho T/A test car ripped off a blistering 14.29 e.t. Nearly a full second quicker than the 15.20 ran by a stocker on the same day at the same track.  Anyhow nearly a year later Popular Hot Rodding had on the cover a blurb about their new Z/28 test car that ran "low 14s" right off the showroom floor. It was right off the showroon floor-of Mecham Chevrolet-Pontiac in Glendale, Arizona-the home of the "Macho T/A." The Mecham brothers had decided after the phenomenal success of the "Macho T/A" ( they were selling 300 cars a year and couldn't keep up with demand mainly because of the positive reviews from the buff magazines ) that maybe they could do the same thing with a Z/28. So this Z/28 had the full "Macho" treatment-Hooker Headers and dual cats with no mufflers, just resonators,a custom-jetted Q-Jet and a re-curved HEI distributor and an opened hood scoop. It was a "Macho Z" prototype.  Predictably it ran a string of  14.3's-substantially quicker than Car Crafts bone-stock tester which ran a 15.21 and Car and Drivers which ran a 15.60. For whatever reasons-Chevy dealers weren't as interested in selling hotted-up Cars as Pontiac was-and this was the one and only "Macho Z" know to exist. But it wasn't a stock test car!!!  # 2. 1987 Buick Grand National. High Performance Cars magazine had a drag race between a new Grand National and a 1970 LS6 Chevelle. The LS6 won the "shootout" running a 13.49 and a 13.61 vs the GN's 13.85 and 13.90. Huh?  Back in the day-Car and Driver, Road and Track, Motor Trend, Hot Rod, everyone tested '86-87 GN's and most of them ran 14.30's. Which back then was blisteringly fast-L98, 4-speed 'Vettes were running about 14.60-and LB9 Z/28's and "5.0" Mustangs were running low 15's. So how did these guys run 13.85?  Well, first they decided that since GN's were tire fryers-and since the Chevelle had drag radials on it-in the interest of "fairness" the 215/65R15 Goodyear Radials that came stock were swapped for some 235/60R15 M&H Drag Radials. And the tank was filled with 100 octane unleaded racing gas ( Which-duh-on a Turbo'd, intercooled engine with a knock sensor that backs up the timing when itn senses detonation-would certainly run way better than 87 or 91 octane pump gas! ) And the owner of the car had installed a 160 degree thermostat instead of the stock 195 and installed a fan switch that kicked the fan on at 185 degrees instead of 220. He had obviously figured out the car ran much faster when cold than hot. Oh, and they put wet towels on the intake manifold between runs.  Think that might make a wee bit of difference over one running street radials,at 220 degrees on 87 octane gas?  Yeah!!! About 4 or 5 tenths in the 1/4!!!  But that kind of pushes the envelope on "Stock" I'd say. Wouldn't you?  Which Brings up....# 3. 1989 "5.0" Mustang. I said in an earlier post that most stock '87-93 Mustangs ran between 14.72 and 15.29 in 1/4 mile testing by various buff magazines. So how did Car Craft run a blistering 14.05 with their stock "5.0" test car? It was stock....except for the 225/60R15 Goodyear Gatorback radials being swapped for some 235/60R15 M&H Drag tires,the 2.73 axle ratio being swapped for some 3.55:1's, a K&N airbox and filter being added and a Flowmaster "Cat-Back" exhaust sytem. I mean if your going to nit-pick..... # 4. 1992 Mitsubishi 3000 GT VR4. This one rivals the Royal Pontiac '64 GTO for sheer balls in cheating. Mitsubishi advertised their twin-turbo, all-wheel-drive sports car as running a blistering 13.75 in the 1/4 mile "under controlled conditions with a professional driver".  Since showroom examples and test mules tested by the magazines were running mid-14's you may wonder how this was accomplished.  The "Contolled Conditions" were these-they filled the tank with 100 octane racing gas, disconnected the knock sensor,disconnected the rev limiter,and lowered tire pressure to 15 psi. Then the "professional driver" popped the clutch at 6,200 rpm and powershifted at 7,000 ( 500 rpm over the redline on the tach ). This gave them the quick time-and blew the $5,769 transaxle after three runs.  Gee, I wonder why my neighbor who had one and waved that ad in my face and was running pump gas and 35 psi in his tires,with all the electronic nannies enabled, and tried to launch about 3 grand, couldn't outrun my Hurst / Olds from a light?  Needless to say he was more shocked than I was...... Mastermind