Text by Chirag Asaravala, Images by Jim Langley

November 1, 2003 - Sacramento, CA
When November rolls around here in Northern California many racers are putting away their racing slicks until next season. However there are quite a few of us who have been waiting patiently the past eight months for the temperatures to drop and the tracks to clear of the bracket brawlers, in anticipation of the winter "test and tune" sessions. For us this is the perfect time of year, so long as the rain gods are not in session, to spend a gorgeous early Novembers day at the track, where record breaking heat is replaced with, hopefully, record breaking ET's. So on this opening day of test and tune FordMuscle packed up a pair of project cars and headed on up to Sacramento Raceway.

Not all of the staff at FordMuscle are as thrilled about test and tune as I am, but we do all share one common goal - the chance to take advantage of the ET-favorable low 60 degree weather conditions. On this

Victor's '67 burgandy coupe now houses a 532cid stroker.

day two 1967 Mustang coupes would be out looking for new records. Victor Silva is piloting the burgandy coupe, which as of several months ago, is housing a 460 based 532cid stroker. If you recall, we introduced this project car almost one year ago to the day (see Project 460). At the time this car was running a Ford Racing 460cid crate motor that was previously in our 1969 Mach 1 project car. Since then Victor built up a stroker 532 and transferred over the Cobra Jet heads and Victor intake manifold. The results have been impressive, with routine passes in the low 10.1's. On this day Victor was gunning for his first 9 second pass. However he'd fall as short as once can get without meeting the mark. A string of consistently 10.0 ET's shows why Victor spends most of his weekends in the local Craftsman bracket series, however the 9 second slip will have to wait for another day. Victor's best today would be a jaw dropping 10.03 at 134 mph!

On this day I'm running my white (actually Diamond Green) coupe, aka Project '67. This car is home to the 331 stroker project motor we built up a while ago (see "Build a Stroker" in the Tech Department.) Even though this engine first saw the track exactly a year ago today, the 331 is still

Project '67 needs a roll bar if it's going to pass tech inspections in the future.

just barely broken in, having only seen three track sessions and less than a dozen passes, due to the unusually long and hot summer this year. Today's outing was a stellar one, with all seven passes producing 11 second ET's. In fact, other than the last run of the day, each run was slightly faster than the previous. The last outing the car left off with a 11.72 ET on an unbelievable 1.55 60ft. There were several folks in the stands and in the pits wondering how a stock leafspring car on 8.5" slicks in able to hook so hard. The only change today would be a set of Competition Engineering rear drag shocks, set to 50-50. The old Monroes were thrown in the tool box just in case the Comp's didn't yeild similar or better results. Fortunately today the car would show once again that its ability to leave the line is no fluke. Although I had to launch at a higher rpm, the car stuck a 1.54 on its way to a new best of 11.69.

I'm shooting for a goal of 11.50 out of Project '67. I think there was still a little bit of ET on reserve today - for instance, I ran the heavy and friction challenged Cragar front wheels as opposed to the nearly half as hefty skinnies. I also had a mind lapse at the gas station and pumped 12 gallons into the tank, which meant a good 50 lbs extra was being pulled down track. Nonetheless the outing was successful, and we're hoping today's optimal weather is a sign of many more to come between now and next February.