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Being my first ever time to watch a roundy-round race I wasn’t sure what to expect. But there are a few things i will say… Yes, the beer is expensive, yes the mullets are everywhere and yes this is an very American sport. Big tracks, big cars, big horsepower and big sound…

You cant really appreciate how freaking HUUUUUGE Daytona is until you’re in the stands and realize how far away the back strait is…

When we got there they were still having Practice for the cup cars so we got to see a few guys running in the low-mid 180mph range by themselves. I don’t even think the VDUB guys are this low when rolling yet!

But, Then the ARCA race was up. Sadly tho, Travis Pastrana was not in this race. These cars sound pretty good and are a good warm up to the big event

And some might not admit it… but we love the wrecks and the ARCA cars didn’t fail to deliver

After the ARCA race the stands really started to fill up as the big dogs were about to come out… I couldn’t help but get a snap of the sky over the stands…

as much as we enjoyed the ARCA race, they arent the reason we went to Daytona
Micheal Waltrip clicked off a maximum speed of 206mph, even after the drop in restrictor plate size from tire testing, thanks to the new front bumper design and E15 fuel.

And to leave you with something to think about… Whether or not you LIKE NASCAR…

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Digglers 88 GTA goes 9.44@139mph… on a stock LT1 shortblock with a 17 year old nitrous kit!

Every Friday night I usually meet up with some other local domestic guys who are big GM guys and as usual we were talking about how can we squeeze some more power out of a car or how can we make it work better at the track. Well we come up to talking about my buddy Digglers Turd-Gen GTA and how he did this past Thursday at our local 1/8th mile track. The topic was  on how the car was doing fairly well and that they had managed to keep the front end from jumping way up in the air as the car had previously done. Next thing I know we’re talking about taking the car to Darlington to run it in the 1/4 mile and how I need to come get some shots of it. So we figure out a time for me and Russ Ethridge, who himself holds the Bolt-on 6-speed LS1 GTO record and held the bolt-on LT1 record for a number of years in Shon Herron’s car, to show up at Digglers house so we can get the car loaded up and head out.

Most people wouldn’t think too much about a 88 Pontiac Trans-Am GTA at the track but this GTA is one that will surprise you. It’s not your typical “Turd-Gen” F-body.  The first thing you realize is that its got a weird intake on it and that its got a crank trigger. “SoulGlo” is powered by an LT1 which came from the 4th Generation Camaro and Trans-Ams and C4 Vettes. Even more surprising is its no longer plagued by its notorious Optispark nor an OEM ECU. This LT1 has a Single-Plane intake and 4bbl throttle body atop of it and a Megasquirt EMS, that Diggler built himself, along with a single plate kit.

With this fairly “mild” setup most people don’t expect much, but we proved those in attendance at Darlington International Raceway wrong. After warming the car up and doing a quick check of the car Diggler pulled the car into the staging lanes. Nothing had changed since the car was at Greer on Thursday night. We were expecting the car to pull the front tires maybe 6-8″ and carry the car out and set back down smooth as usual. The track decided we were wrong. I’ll let the photos do the talking.

Yes, that is the HOOD of the car you see from behind, Diggler tried to pedal it and keep the car from slamming down but some times you just cant react fast enough. The car slammed down and put a slight dent in one of the header primaries and knocked the car out of alignment and I’m sure emptied Digglers bowels. All three of us were not all that happy with what just happened and we were just hoping that our day didn’t end as soon as it started.

After some looking around we decided to try to eyeball the drivers side suspension back into spec. Out comes the tape measure and some desperation to fix the alignment and a wrench to shorten up the travel limiters in hopes that we can keep the front end down this time.  We all agree that the car needs to run again and hope that it doesn’t blow up on the top end, considering the 200 shot on a stock shortblock.

You might not believe this but with our parking lot alignment quick limiter adjustment and some KILLER air, the DA was 97 feet, Diggler managed to bust off a 9.65@137mph which took the fastest stock shortblock LT1 record but as with anyone who races we knew there was more in it as we had brought an .082 jet with us for the plate as a “this is going to get us the record or blow it up” last grasp… we’re hitting it with 210hp now once fully progressed… Here is where we screwed up tho, we started fiddling with the FJO trying to keep it at the same ~175hp hit that we had on the previous pills and during this they announce that the track will only be running for another 15 minutes or so and we get in a hurry. Next thing we know we’ve stupidly added a 3 tenths of a second delay before the progressed hit even began. Even with that screw up the car lazily went down the track to a 9.44@139mph… on a stock LT1 shortblock with a 17 year old nitrous kit!

-Cone

Specs:

• 1988 Pontiac Trans-Am GTA
• Stock LT1 shortblock
• Off the shelf 236/248 Comp cam
• TH400 Transmission
• Nitrous Converter
• 9″ rear-end
• 28×10.5×15 Hoosier slicks
• 17 year old nitrous kit
• Megasquirt EMS

Check out more of Digglers car here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/roadconetuning/sets/72157622854489572/

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