ABOVE: We purposely chose
an AWD Territory because
we didn’t want to deal with
traction issues as the car
became lighter. The AWD
drivetrain is plenty tough;
there’s more than a few
full-weight turbo Territorys
running 10s and even 9s on
the quarter01: We ran out of time to
do all the cutting that we
planned, so we’ll remove asmuch as we can, replace
the fuel pump and fix
the fire damage before we
head back to the track for
more fun02: The massive fireball
from the nitrous backfire had
Scotty heading for the other
side of the wall. We suspect
that the 14-year-old fuel
pump couldn’t feed both the
244hp Barra AND the 125hp
nitrous kit!ABOVEWe purposely chose much as we can replace0201GAINS
STOCK:
2130kg; 16.64secREMOVE LOOSE ITEMS:
2069.5kg; 16.62secREMOVE SEATS:
1940kg; 16.33secREMOVE DOORS & HATCH:
1757.5kg; 15.92secREMOVE ROOF:
1661kg; 16.20secREMOVE EXHAUST:
1631kg; 15.70secREMOVE BONNET/GUARDS:
1547.5kg; 15.29secREMOVE WINDSCREEN
& QUARTERS:
1475.5kg; 14.98secADD NITROUS (75HP):
14.17secTOTAL WEIGHT LOSS:
654.5kgTOTAL ET REDUCTION:
1.66sec N/A; 2.47sec with nitrous
HOT GOSSIP
SYDNEY CUSTOMS
THE Hot Rod & Custom Auto Expo is on again
at Rosehill Racecourse, 26-27 May. A cool
new feature of the event is the Nostalgia
Lane hall – a haven for lovers of traditional
hot rods, customs, drag cars, lowriders and
bombs. Each of the clubs, sponsors and
vendors participating in Nostalgia Lane will
award their own trophies to their favourite
cars. Cool deal! Other features will include
the Mooneyes dragster, pinstriping by Hiro
‘Wildman’ Ishii and freestyle motocross demos.
And if you can’t enter your car for the whole
weekend, get there nice and early and park in
the outdoor show ’n’ shine. For more info visit
hotrodandcustom.com.au.ROCKET MAN
GRAEME Cowin has been recognised for five
decades of dedication to drag racing with a place
in the Australian Motorsport Hall Of Fame. Only the
third drag racer among the 72 current inductees,
Graeme joins Ash Marshall and Jim Read in
representing the quarter-mile brigade. “We have
some pretty famous names on that list, so to be in
that company is certainly amazing; I’m honoured,”
said the Sydneysider, a former truck driver who
went on to found leading performance-parts
brands Rocket Industries and Aeroflow.
Among his achievements as a racer were his
pioneering trips to the States to compete in the
NHRA in the 1980s; becoming the first driver
outside North America to crack the five-second
barrier, which he did with a [email protected]/h
at Calder in 1993; and winning the 1995 Australian
Top Fuel Championship.NEXT!
THE June mag will be a cracker! We’ll have all
the action from Street Machine Drag Challenge
Weekend in Queensland, nostalgia drags from
Meremere, NZ (starring a group of Aussie
gassers), and the formidable team of Geoff
Seddon and Simon Davidson returning to Lake
Gairdner for DLRA Speed Week. Plus more
feature cars than you can poke a dipstick at,
and much more! On sale 17 May.