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?

Travelling companion

It’s easy to see why the Morris Minor Traveller was one of the best-loved variants of the Morris Minor. Introduced in 1953, it was equipped with the same independent torsion bar front suspension, drum brakes, and rack and pinion steering as its saloon sibling but, with their foldable rear seat increasing versatility, many Travellers were used as trade vehicles, says Derek Goddard. Derek and Gail Goddard, the owners of this superbly restored example, have run Morris Minors since before they were married in 1974.
“Our honeymoon vehicle was a blue Morris Minor van — it was a rust bucket,” says Derek.

Super Leicht Gullwing

It’s fair to say that nothing much in the classic Mercedes world gets past Mercedes-Benz Club stalwart Garry Boyce so it wasn’t surprising to learn that around 15 years ago he had sniffed out an extremely rare 300SL lightweight Gullwing as well as a 1958 300SL Roadster hiding away in the Waikato. The cars were not for sale but Garry eventually managed to persuade the owner to allow him and his restoration team to take a look at the Roadster. They discovered a very distressed but largely unmolested car. The car was so original that the body had never been off the chassis, meaning most of the parts and fittings were still present and correct, as they had been fitted by the factory.