Larry Larson dips into the fives

24 November, 2014

Following up on his street-legal Chevrolet S10’s overwhelming success during the 2014 Hot Rod Drag Week, where he ran a 6.16 at 219.61mph, beating Andy Frost’s 6.403 at 229.31mph, Larry Larson has gone one step further and dipped into the fives — a 5.950 at 244.43mph, to be exact.


Larry Larson achieves a 5.950 at 244.43mph during 2014 Hot Rod Drag Week

Larry Larson achieves a 5.950 at 244.43mph during 2014 Hot Rod Drag Week

At the Las Vegas-based Street Car Super Nationals, the team had managed to iron out the ignition issues bothering them earlier on — that 6.16 was run with the engine lacking top end.

On the Friday morning, November 21, the team ran a 6.058 at 241.50mph, which was bettered that evening as they ran a 6.043 at 242.67mph. Heading into Sunday morning at number 10 in the Outlaw ProMod class, the team would go on to run their first five-second pass in the wild Chevy S10, becoming the world’s fastest street-legal car for the third time during the course of the event.

Because the S10 is still a relative unknown for the team, it looks as though there’s a lot more potential in it that is yet to be tapped into. The team hopes for a 5.80 at 250mph and given their recent performance it’s highly likely that we’ll be seeing it sooner rather than later.

Not one to take a challenge lying down, 2013 Drag Week champion Tom Bailey has announced via social media his intent to run a 5.50-second pass, stating, “The goals are simple — 300mph in the standing mile, and [a] 5.50 quarter mile”.

With this much excitement so soon after Drag Week, we can’t wait to see what 2015’s event holds — could we be seeing the world’s first 5.50-second pass in a street-legal car?

Merry Christmas from NZ Classic Car magazine

The Classic Car magazine team is taking a few weeks’ holiday from the work computer and heading to the beach for some kickback time.
Merry Christmas, and have a wonderful summer holiday to all our readers, followers, and fans. Enjoy this special extra time with the family. We will be posting archive articles again in mid to late January.
Have fun, be good and be careful out there.

Two engines instead of one?

Popping two motors into a car is not only complicated, it doesn’t always end well. Donn Anderson recalls early attempts, including John Cooper’s ill-fated original Twini Mini built 58 years ago

For a boost in performance, better traction, and perhaps improved handling to some, two motors seems an obvious solution. It would also eliminate the need to develop a larger engine replacement from scratch, but would that outweigh the not inconsiderable technical difficulties?
The idea of using a pair of engines dates back at least 86 years to the Alfa Romeo Bimotor single seater racing car that was officially timed at 335km/h, or 208mph. Taking a lengthened Alfa P3 chassis, the Italians fitted two supercharged straight eight 2.9-litre and 3.2-litre engines, one in front of the cockpit, and the other behind the cockpit.