Last year Turbo Tim Meagher showed that the class-mandated single 72mm turbocharger is in fact competitive when not only was he able to capture the championship, but to set both ends of the record as well, with a 9.08 at 151 mph. Toward the end of the season there were rumors of 8.90 capability, but some rule adjustments may keep him from running away with the class this year.
We have yet to see a supercharger combination's full potential in Street Race. With Vortech racer Larry Hourcle busting 9.20s without an intercooler, and Mike Dez cracking off a 9.08 at the World Finals back in 2005, this may be a testament to what the supercharged combos can really do. Expect to see the blower guys make some waves in Street Race as the year progresses, as well as to catch the nitrous cars running hard, as they are now allowed a progressive nitrous controller and a larger 0.098 nitrous jet for small-blocks, and 0.070 for big-block combos. One veteran, Tim Hendricks, is rumored to be stepping up his program with the class' first big-block combo, so all eyes will be on him and his familiar green Trans Am.
Also, since this class allows a wide variety of body styles and combinations, you can bet you'll see some unique 9-second race cars join the party. There's a rumor floating around that a ProCharger'd LS1 Police Interceptor Camaro may be entering the field to take down the Street Racers in 2007, proving that this class is feeling more and more like its namesake. -Jake Amatisto
7-Second Reads
* The Internet truly does have everything. Beartraps.com is a guide to interstates and the hot spots in which you're most likely to get nailed for speeding, complete with the exit number and name.
* Toyota bumped General Motors for the first time ever when it became the world's highest vehicle seller for the first three months of 2007.
* Ferrari was named the best place to work in Europe for 2007 by Great Place to Work Institute.
* Flycell.com has a Knight Rider ringtone starring David Hasselhoff. We're pretty sure it's not audio of him on the ground eating a burger, but rather the show's theme song.
* You'll no longer be grabbing life by the horns-Dodge's tagline is now "grab life."
* Meanwhile, Chrysler's new theme will be "engineered beautifully"-which rhymes with nearly nothing, so don't expect a catchy jingle in those ads.
* According to the Seattle Times, a former Seattle police officer managed to get the highest blood alcohol reading ever recorded from a Washington-state driver. She was at 0.47; the legal limit is 0.08. At 0.40 percent, you're likely halfway to dead.
The Hemi Goes Hybrid
For 2008, both the Dodge Durango and the Chrysler Aspen will get a 5.7L Hemi hybrid powertrain. It will retain the cylinder shut-down feature (MDS), switching to four cylinders when eight are not needed. The Chrysler Group says that in hybrid form, these fullsize SUVs will see more than a 25 percent fuel-economy improvement.
Build Your Own Transformer? We Don't Know
Speaking of vehicle brands in ginormous summer movies, as you know from these pages, GM has quite a robotic presence in Transformers. We stumbled upon the Web site chevrolet.com/autobot and found it slightly humorous that the machine was getting the best of the man. We tried multiple times to check it out before this magazine went to press, only to repeatedly get the same error message.
Britain's Most Trusted Car Brand
In the 2007 Reader's Digest European Trusted Brands survey, Ford won its seventh consecutive, uh, trustworthiness (?) award. The U.K.'s online poll covered 15 countries and 38 product categories, and the people behind the award say they weeded through 24,000 replies.
Dodge on the Silver Screen
The headline on the press release about the flick Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer reads "Superheroes' car features Dodge brand characteristics." OK, not the Fantasticar's ability to go 550 mph or be airborne up to 30,000 feet. Or that it can separate into three sections, each with deployable wings. It borrows the signature grille, the Ram logo inside and out, and the Hemi.
Spectre Track Attack at Willow Springs
It pays to have friends who like to play. Spectre Performance decided to put on a track day at Willow Springs Raceway in Rosamond, California, on the big 211/42-mile course and invited some friends and magazine strokes to come along. Spectre brought its two Camaro project cars along with a late-model GTO and a few other cars that the assembled media could drive.
Besides abusing the cars on the road course, we were also there to take a look at some of Spectre's new products in action, including the new eMS-pro electronic fuel-injection system that controlled the EFI in both Spectre Camaros. Road courses can be very hard on equipment, but amazingly only one car suffered a minor mechanical setback. Spectre is already contemplating improvements for next year's event, and Car Craft is lobbying for a magazine track day face-off. We'd really like to take on the Hot Rod and PHR guys. It could be a ton o' fun. -Jeff Smith
More Info
Spectre Industries; Ontario, CA; 800/821-4868;
spectreperformance.com
The New Hotchkis Web Site
The all-new Hotchkis.net has an all-high-performance theme. You'll find handling news (sounds dirty; it isn't), technical stuff, features, product info, and an application guide so detailed you'll think you're reading someone's senior thesis. The antidote to that is the vehicle gallery, if you just want to look at photos and video.