It’s not often that a car comes out of the gate with a new combination and makes a run at the class record. Just don’t tell that to Chris Groves!

Groves, from Albuquerque, New Mexico, took his freshly revamped Fox body to the Radial Revenge Tour event at Tulsa Raceway Park earlier this month and almost immediately blasted into the 4.30 zone — a feat accomplished by only a couple of X275-legal hot rods. Not only that, but Groves blitzed the 30’s using a Vortech 105mm supercharger. Don’t think Groves’ performance was a product of dumb luck, though. These numbers are a product of a well-built combination and a hard working team that made the most of what they’d built.

The heart of Groves’ Mustang is a Pettis Performance 435 cubic inch Windsor powerplant wearing a pair of BES SC1 heads and a slick billet intake built by Jared Thompson. “We ran Total Engine Airflow heads and a Marcella manifold for five years prior to swapping to the new combination this winter,” said Groves. “The old heads and manifold were setup to turn 9500 rpm. We ran a bigger supercharger that allowed the motor to spin that high, but X275 rules don’t allow the big supercharger.”

Vortech spent some time testing with Groves at his Dyno Edge chassis dyno facility to learn what was needed to improve overall durability with their supercharger transmissions. Vortech took what they learned and made some changes that have led to problem-free boost for Groves. Fuel management is handled by a BigStuff3 controller and an MSD Grid ignition system.

Behind the engine, a Neal Chance Racing Converters torque converter sends the power rearward to a beefy Mike’s Transmissions-built Powerglide to wrangle the torque and send it to the Mickey Thompson drag radials. To stiffen the chassis, a Wolfe 25.3 roll cage was installed by John Hammill of HamFab Inc. in nearby Edgewood New Mexico. Underneath, Jason Lee of PTP sent a full set of Lyons Performance upper and lower torque boxes to help with flex and eliminate a known weak link in the Fox body chassis. Groves wanted to thank local 8.5 racers Ricky Daniels and Craig Stringfellow for helping with the install. Josh Lindsey and the shock nerd himself, Mark Menscer, helped with the suspension and shock setup, and Ron Booth of M&F Auto helps Groves go racing.

Trackside, Groves relies on his engine builder, Jason Pettis, to help keep tabs on the tune and, well… everything else going on with the car. “Jason is one of the most organized guys I know. He takes a lot of notes between rounds, from tuning changes to weights to tire pressure, weather conditions, shock settings, travel, all of it written in a notebook,” Chris said. “He’s the same way when building engines. We’re both pretty OCD and we’ve bonded over that and actually become good friends. He’s a very smart dude.”

Knowing all of this, it should come as no surprise that with only three passes under their belt with the new setup, Groves stuck the 275’s to the tacky Tulsa tarmac and ripped off a 4.39 at 164 mph, making him the third racer in the class into the 30s and the first to do so with a Vortech blower. Surprisingly, it came with “only” a 1.11 short time, and so there could be a bit left in the tank if they can get the car to leave a tad harder without losing traction. With offseason rules changes reigning in the performances a bit in X275, Groves is only the third man to eclipse the 4.40 barrier. And with that, look for this sleek black Fox body to be near the top of the ladder in X275 for the foreseeable future.

“Vortech Engineering is proud to have Chris Groves and his crew part of the Vortech Racing team.  Their efforts have been instrumental in helping Vortech to continue to provide the most efficient, reliable, and powerful compressors in the racing industry,” stated Jimmy Martz, the Director of Global Sales at Vortech, in response to Groves’ impressive outing