John Davis, "Rambo", to his friends, is putting the finishing touches on what has to be one of the more inconspicuous 10-second quarter mile cars that will be prowling the Phoenix boulevards!
John was initially considering a Mustang Cobra, but in the end, went with a GT and his own plan to add some muscle under the hood. Next, Phoenix based AMP Performance was contacted to implement his plan to get this car into the 10-second range on the 1/4 mile drag strip, yet remain streetable.
Here's what provides the major boost in power to the 4.6 SOHC modular motor, an HP Performance Twin Turbo kit
The turbos are 50 mm units, each being mounted forward of the front wheel.
The massive inter-cooler is mounted behind the front fascia.
At this point, the motor uses a pair of stock 4.6 cams. The heads have been ported and polished. The stock intake manifold was swapped for a Bullet model. With only 10 pounds of boost, horsepower estimates are in the 600-650 range. As this is being written, the car is at the dyno for some final tuning.
The new generation Ford "cammers" have demonstrated the ability to stand up to quite a bit of abuse at the track. But because he was looking for the most reliable package he could build, John went with an extensive list of upgraded parts. The factory cross bolted short block received a forged Cobra crankshaft, Manley connecting rods and JE turbo pistons.
Once the car hits the street, I'll get some more pictures of the rest of the gear and update on whether or not Rambo makes it into the 10's! Some of the specifics are;
A Pro 31 spline rear end equipped with Strange axles, a locker and 3.73 gears.
T-56 6-speed manual transmission, twin disc clutch, aluminum flywheel.
For the suspension there is coil over shocks at all four corners, 50/50 shocks, driveshaft loop, frame connectors.
Rolling stock will be 18 x 9 and 18x 10 Bullet rims shod with 265 x 35 x 18 and 295 x 35 x 18 respectively.
July 2005
Well everything is finally bolted together. Next stop was some thrashing at Speedworld Motorplex's 1/4 mile track. This was the second time out. On the initial trip it became painfully obvious that the street tires, while great for generated big G's, weren't up to the task of hooking up at the dragstrip! So a set of soft compound "street slicks" for the rear and some skinny's for the front were ordered.
Well, the front tires didn't arrive in time for this outing.
Two other items were limiting the cars performance. One was the 110 degree air temperature! The other was the lack of a line-lock. Rambo discovered that for a good launch, the rear tires really needed to be heated up with a good burnout. But, without a line-lock, an aggressive burnout sometimes resulted in an impromptu impersonation of an old fuel altered! Track personnel weren't especially thrilled with the possibility of loosing their staging area at the starting line
So, the burnout was just a "hammer it and spin to the line" affair.
The first few runs, John laid down several 13 flat ET's at 112 mph. 60 ft times were in the 2.0+ second range. At the end of the night, he made one last banzai burnout. This resulted in a sub 2 second 60 footer and a 12.40 ET! The 1/4 mile speed shows that the potential is there for quicker times, even though they think they have an issue with the clutch. So later that week, the clutch was yanked and sent back to McLeod for inspection. A replacement unit will be installed along with a line-lock unit. More to come in the quest for an 11-second street car!
Click HERE to go to the video page and see a couple of his runs!
