Pump Gas Drags: The Real Story!
 

Gentlemen,

Thanks for the support. Here is the scoop as I see it and a little information on the car as requested previously by a few interested people.

The Race: I broke the 472 2 months prior to the haul to Memphis. After many long nights of thrashing we made our first full pass in test-n-tune. 9.10 over 150. Next pass broke the sprag???? Yes, I said more 4 letter words in one hour than the previous 20 years. The premise of the race is 93 pump gas, tags, lights, insurance, mufflers, etc, drive it 34 miles through Memphis and race it as driven with the winner using the average of their 3 passes. No tuning allowed! ANY problems whatsoever... you are out! So after staying up all night to build the trans and make it to tech with 20 minutes to spare, I babied it first pass. Oops! Oh yeah, it was decided 2 weeks prior to the event that wheelie bars (in my opinion, not a "street car item") would be allowed. without them the winning car did not stand a chance! There... got that off my chest. Hot Rod put on a fun and special event to be proud of. The T/A performed marvelously. Buy the September issue to read about the struggles we overcame just to compete. Consider we were a tenth behind a car that weighed 2800 lbs with a motor "they" say can't make the power! Fellas, we got'em on the run!

The Car: 3520 lb race weight. Minitubbed, caged, 4-linked, Moser 9" rear, stock front frame with QA1R shocks and springs, 2 13.5" dual fans (street driven in Phoenix), reverse cooling package, 2" Hedmans, 3.5" full exhaust, Borla 16" XR-1's, ATI T400 with Griner brake, ATI 10" fuel and blown converter, 3.50 Richmond street gears and spool, Denny's shaft, IAII block (the finest block I have ever seen), Crower billet crank, Crower billet rods, Ross custom dished nitrous pistons, Edelbrock RPM WP heads with over 100 hours of home porting, Victor with over 40 hours of home porting, Smith Brothers push rods, Comp springs and retainers, BOP Engineering Belt driven top secret cam, MSD digital 6, 8252 coil, BOP Engineering belt driven distributor (one of my favorite pieces... all timing issues went away!), 1200 ProSystems carb, 2 NOS Big Shot plates, 10" Welds with 29X13.50 DOT Hoosiers, all built in my garage by a bunch of amateur street racers.

X-Factor: The chassis has been together for 4 years. Much effort and redneck engineering has been spent making it work. I have learned every part of the car so well I know how it will react before it happens.

At the PGD's it went a best of 8.79 @ 161.1. We brought it home and with just driving tweaks we went 8.62 @ 162.8. No wheelie bars. No race fuel. No problem! It has rested ever since while I contemplate running in Hot Rods Drag Week.

Thanks again for your support. It is much appreciated!

Robin Roberts

I know how the last minute thrashes are, Good Job, and it would be really cool to see it in Drag week, but with gas prices I hope you have deeeeeeep pockets. you should bring it to Memphis in Oct you are sure to get a feature spot there as well they have a 30 mile cruse and all I dont think any of those cars in Pro have made it into the 8s yet

Robin, congrats on a fine performance with your Pontiac, you did all of us some good with your car. Also i like your mechanical skills.

I think many on this board logged into the hotrod.com forum to find out what happened as soon as the info was available. To here that you got 2nd place and were so damned close to taking the cake was pretty cool. You're making us pontiac nuts proud. Way to go Robin, that is one hell of an accomplishment and you really are THE MIGHTY T/A. Watch out next year.

Congrats Mighty T/A --your a great inspiration to all us Pontiac Fans .

Congrads, to you Mighty T/A,

Just lastnight I picked up a issue of HotRod, Looking for your car. Do you have any pics. of your new IA2 in the car? If so can you post some? Thanks

Great job Robin. Will you be at Pontiac Heaven next April?

Yes!

Look forward to seeing you.

Awesome Robin - U my Pontiac Hero

Great job Robin. Call us for some heads to go with that IA II. We have Tiger heads that will support pump gas.

So what street car weighs 2800lbs? That 34 Ford? Kind of like comparing apples and oranges. You definately had the baddest REAL STREET CAR there. Jim

Kick A$$ Mighty T/A. I've been watching this series. Very temped to try it myself next year if i can get the funding.

Hot Rod Playing Favorites?
 

Good Job Robin!


How many other cars were running wheelie bars?
I am sure the 34' ford/chevy started installing them right after last years event.
Letting everyone else know that they can run them 2 weeks prior to the event is BS.

And now they are saying no wheelie bars next year?


Also the article in the magazine stated that the owner broke the rules when he approached, and touched the car after the water box. That should have disqualified him.
The fact that they said he did not do anything to enhance the performane should not matter. HE DID BREAK THE RULE!




Todd

Nice job, I see you run Borla muffs also, don't ya just love the sound.

What pills do you have on your two plates? If its double top secret ya don't have to spill the beens.

You should try to come to Norwalk or VMP,its a blast! I know its a hike but I need somebody new to play with Ken and Ray are gettting to old and slow. ;-)

What is the bore and stroke,how long are the rods and what is the static commpression.

Hot Rod screws the pooch again. How can you allow wheelie bars on a "street" car? If your car can put it on the back bumper then you should learn to drive it to compete in this class, PERIOD. You won. That's all from me.

4.5 stroke. 6.7 rods. High 10's compression. A real llama on the motor!

Lil Jack! Yes, the Borla's are very cool! I'll make it out East someday, way too busy this summer. Then we can see about some friendly competition!!! 2 175 Big Shots (it's only single top secret) to balance manifold pressure.

Is the bore and stoke and rod length "secret".

I believe he just said what the stroke and rod length were

Are you using both kits off the line or just hitting the second stage on a timer?

Robin,

Your dedication is what this sport is all about. You do us all proud. Now how about a pic of that engine?

.2 delay off the transabrake for launch on the first stage. Second stage in second gear off a shifter button has netted the 8 second passes. With more refinement and driver tuning we'll blow right past the chassis cert :D I have not even ran the car for a month now... too hot! September 11 is a goofy "Imports Vs. Domestics" at Speedworld with $1000 to win for street car. Imagine that, more money to race a ricer than PSCA???? What has racing come to? If it is not brutally hot I might push the systems up.

great job robin!!!!!!!!! Hey lil jack this hasnt been our year! so far we had a lifter stick in my Ia 2 block we fixed that problem ,then went to test it out on the motor and blew all the teeth on the ring gear fixed that,then ran 2 passes on motor and ran great! then we made a nitrous pass and it started smoking the tires when we hit high gear and the car went sideways and hit the guard rail destroying the right side of our beutiful car so now were gonna fix that and we will be looking to come out and play again with you! We know the car is gonna run good because it went 5.30 sliding sideways in the 1/8 mile we just got to get the body work done first ! BOY WHAT YEAR THIS HAS BEEN!!!!! Joe(Pontiac)Deyton the only real OPS STREET CAR!

Ross pistons
 

You stated that you had custom dished pistons. Did you have them made for your application (4.5 stroke and 6.7 rod)? Or, did you go with a 6.7 rod because of deck hieght? Did you end up at 0 deck? What cc head do you run? Sorry so many questions, you just described the motor I am building. Except for the rod legnth, I have 6.8 rods and 4.5 stroke crank.
I am looking into pistons for my IA2. Looks like I will end up with Ross pistons. I am now thinking of having them coated. Do you think it is a waste of money? I also heard it was a good idea to coat the combustion chambers.
I will be running a fogger with a plate.
Just curious also to what rings your runing and what gaps? Thanks in advance@! Lugnutt

6.7, 6.8... I don't think any difference would ever be found. I did it because I wanted the ring stack down in the cylinder where the valve notch would not burn through. Piston is down the hole .005 and the heads started 72cc but we opened them up and we were in too much of a hurry to cc them???? Ross is good stuff if you order it right (tell them what you want) and I don't and won't coat anything. In my opinion the minimal gain is offset by the possibity of flaking off and causing problems (I work for Detroit Diesel, we quit coating "stuff" several years ago because we could not stop the problem), you have to finish to win! I use C&A Zero Gap 2nd rings (the ones everyone else hates and can't make seal) as I have for years gapped as recommended on the paper. Good luck with the engine, you'll enjoy it!

Thanks for the info, Robin. Looks like lugnutt and I are building the same engine (IA2, 4.5 stroke, fogger, plate) and I had the same questions.

Are you running aluminum or steel rods? How high are ya spinning it?

I love to watch the video of your 8 second run :)

Crower billet steel. 7200rpm.

The video is good. Did you hear it burble as it was coming up the track? My thumb slipped off the button. Yep! Coulda been faster....

Hey Robin, Give Steve Barcak a call, he said he was trying to get a hold of ya!!

Hi Robin,
Good talking with you today. You have done a great thing for all Real fans of Pontiac power with your accomplishments. Congrats! You may not realize it but, you and people like you are the ones influencing people outside the Pontiac world towards considering using Pontiac power in fast applications as well as Pontiac people too. All us Pontiac guys feel so proud to see a Pontiac powered Pontiac do so well in a highly visible event.
I wonder how many people outside the Pontiac hobby who go to the drags and see some of the bigger names and legends in the Pontiac world who run chevy power and think " well if these big name Pontiac guys are running chevy power there must be a reson not to run a real Pontiac".
Then they see you go out there and run in the PGDs and run damm good with a REAL Pontiac!! Yes, you are promoting the use and interest of Real Pontiac power. God Bless you!
Thank you for that. Thank you for your support and sponsorship of Pontiac Heaven/Musclecar Heaven in '05 and in April '06 too!
We will set up some sort of challenge to any street Pontiac for Saturday and Any street anything on Sunday too.
I already can't wait! It is gonna be a good time for sure. I wonder how much faster you can get that car by then? Hmmm. I am sure you will not be resting on your laurels! If you ever need any other parts and if I can help you in any way, just ask.
Steve Barcak www.pontiacheaven.org

Congradulations Robin. Way to represent! After reading Hot Rod's coverage of the event, the thing that struck me was the fact that the owners of the #1 and #3 finishers had drivers for their cars. How streetable is that? I think that is more B.S. than allowing wheelie bars IMO. I also find it intresting that neither Robin or any comments made by the participants posting on Hot Rod's forum have called them out on that. To me that's a bigger violation of the street theme than allowing wheelie bars which I also agree should be banned next year. I hope Hot Rod changes the rules so you have to drive what you build and own.