Although the SuperNova's factory-style disc brakes are equipped with stock 11-inch rotors and SSBC Super Twin aluminum replacement calipers with EBC Green Stuff high-performance pads, we expected the rest of the combination would prove to be a braking worst-case scenario. After all, conventional wisdom says a big-block-powered car with no front sway bar, 90/10 shocks, stock rear drums, and shod with skinny 165R15 Volkswagen tires on the front and full slicks on the rear should be a nightmare to stop. In fact, the first time we hit the brakes hard at 100-plus mph, we half-expected the car to swap ends. But we, and the folks from CHP and Baer, couldn't have been more surprised when the car just hauled itself down with no drama. There was no trace of rear-wheel lockup, no flat-spotted tires, and our best 100-0 stopping distance of 418 feet combined with our 0-100 mph acceleration was good enough to finish Third overall in the competition, a mere 9 total feet behind a brand-new Z06 Corvette! For the complete results of CHP's 0-100-0 Shootout, check out Chevy High's July '03 issue.-Matt King
Project Car UpdateIt's hard to believe that it's been well over a year since we've reported any news or updates on our first bottom-10-second project car. Hey, time flies when you're having fun, and well, in short we're always having fun. To recap, our '89 Mustang LX first graced the pages in the Feb. '02 issue when we entered our inaugural heads-up race with the Pacific Street Car Association. With no testing prior to the event and a relatively short six-hour tow to Speedworld Motorplex in Phoenix, Arizona, our first Friday night test-and-tune session lit the boards with a 10.08 at 137 mph pass. The following day we managed to qualify fifth in Limited Street with a 10.24 at 135 mph run before being booted by track officials after they realized we didn't have the NHRA competition license needed to run the kind of mph we were producing (honestly, we were only expecting to dip into the bottom 11s). What's more amazing is that we did this with a 0.040-over factory 302ci small-block with a stock crankshaft, rods, replacement TRW pistons, a custom Comp Cams hydraulic camshaft, out-of-the-box Trick Flow Twisted Wedge heads with a Comp Cams valvetrain, a Paxton Novi2000 supercharger pushing 22 pounds of boost, and a factory computer with a custom-burnt chip.
Since then, we've had a flamed paint job applied by Same Day Paint & Body in Newhall, California, displayed the car in Car Craft's booth at last year's SEMA convention, and returned to the track on a number of outings. Our most recent adventure to LACR was on March 9th, where we went to join in on the fun at Sal's Mustang Day 5 event.
The first run of the day was interesting with a 12.76 at 132 mph pass on a red light. Don't fret, we have an excuse-the so-called Pro tree turned out to be a sportsman and the LX simply pushed through the beams way too early. The second pass didn't happen because the electric fan decided to go south and skyrocketed the engine temperature close to 240 degrees F. But the final pass of the day made the trip worthwhile: a 10.32 at 135 mph-and with a density altitude of 5,100 feet! Our former best at altitude had been a 10.56 at 132 mph, We certainly don't recommend pushing this kind of horsepower on a stock-block 302, but what can we say? So far, our little 308 has continued to brave insane amounts of boost levels reliably. We're also getting ready to pull our 8-second 408 out of the back-half car, do a once over on the internals, and then stuff it into our '89 LX. While our goals are to reach bottom 9s on a stock suspension car with DOT tires, only time will tell.-Henry De Los Santos