Nice Do!! You may be wondering who that individual is to the left.  This is our post-modern impression of our genetic-based animalistic instincts blended with a counterbalanced and emotionally turbulent rendering of the psycho-frenetic feeling most people experience around tax time.  This is much like that feeling you get when it's 3 days before you need to drive 2,000 miles for the first race of the season, you've been awake for 48 hours straight and you're tearing through that FedEx box of last-minute critical engine items only to discover that the single most absolutely critical items somehow failed to be packed in the box that you just paid $100 to overnight. Actually, check out the 2001 Fireball Urist page for more info.  Cool stuff.

Robert Patrick.  We had the opportunity to see the 2001 NHRA event in Phoenix recently.  While there, we ran across the Pro Stock Mustang Cobra owned and operated by Robert Patrick and sponsored by Purvis Ford.  This team is making real progress in recent years..... all without any official Ford support.  We have to imagine that with just a little factory backing (wind-tunnel, etc.), we could see this Ford taking some wins this year.

Dale Earnhardt.  Nothing else can be said.  Dale will be missed.  He's been there since we first became interested in NASCAR racing back in the early 1980's.  It's sad to see anyone die unexpectedly, especially on the last half of the last lap during the first race of the year.

Patrick off to good start!!  Robert Patrick qualified in the number 10 slot with a 6.922 ET @ 199.26 MPH at the Checker Schuck's Kragen Nationals in Phoenix during the weekend of February 18.  Robert's bright-red 2000 Mustang is running quite well as basically a privateer effort (no direct Ford support).  Unfortunately, he went out in the first round against Mark Pawuk in a Pontiac Grand Am.

Rahal Serious at Jaguar!  Ford owns a significant stake in Jaguar these days.  Which means that they're interested in the Jaguar Formula 1 team.  Seems that Bobby Rahal (CART fame) has recently taken on responsibilities as Team manager for the team.  In this role, he'll have to coordinate 2 drivers, 355 employees as well as multiple outside firms for engine control systems development.  Quite a task.

New Aston Who??  You may not have heard of Aston Martin, but it's a "high-brow" manufacturer of high-performance vehicles based in England.  Ford bought controlling interest a few years back and it looks like they intend to spice up the outfit.  Although they've routinely built very fast cars (like the Vantage), Ford now is planning a new model called the Vanquish.  Target performance numbers are 190 mph, 450 hp V-12, 0-60 in less than 4.5 seconds.  All of this out of 6.0 liters (363 cubic inches) sporting 4 valves per cylinder (48 total) and dual overhead cams.  The car has a 6-speed transmission that can be shifted (with 250 millisecond shift times) via paddles on the steering wheel a la Formula 1.  Other Formula 1 type features include a totally flat under-body (for aerodynamics) and a main body structure made of carbon fiber, extruded aluminum and composite materials.  The car is due out during the second half of 2001.  No price was mentioned yet, but the old "If you have to ask....." rule probably applies.  Still sounds cool.

So, Just how much is 385??  Both the 2000 Cobra R and the 2001 Z06 (LS6) Corvette are rated at 385 horsepower.  However, a quick check of the February 2001 Car and Driver shows that they both ran 112 mph in the quarter.  But, the Corvette weighs 3126 lbs while the Cobra R weighs 3580 lbs!!!  Assuming the C&D editors weren't having a numbers "brain-cramp", a quick check with the SlowGT calculators (assuming about 200 lbs for driver and equipment)  indicates that the Cobra R is putting out about 410 horsepower while the Corvette is generating around 360 horsepower.  Some of this is due to driver ability, but.........  does the IRS audit engine ratings???

NHRA Pro Mods??  No Pro Stock Trucks??  Yep, that 's right.  NHRA is going to feature Pro Mod exhibition races at 5 national events in the 2001 racing season.  The limited exhibition race schedule is usually a prelude to a full race schedule.  If you've never seen Pro Mod cars before, they're pretty cool.  Running either nitrous/gasoline or supercharged/alcohol 500 cube engines, the cars routinely run in the very low 6-second range.  The most interesting part is that that there are usually many different types of bodies including everything from 1950's body styles to current 2000 body styles.  And they all look more like a real car than Funny Cars do.  If you get a chance, check 'em out.  Oh yeah, according to the current "Densmore Speaks" commentary on the IHRA site, this is the first nail in the coffin for NHRA Pro Stock trucks.  It seems as though the last remaining big-time sponsor for a Pro Stock truck (Castrol Super Clean) has pulled out as of the end of the 2000 season.

Fords 325 Horse Engine???  Did you know that Ford has an all-aluminum, 325 horse, 5.4 liter, DOHC engine in the lineup for 2002??  Unfortunately, as far as we know, it'll only show up in the Lincoln Navigator.  According to BlueOvalNews, the Navigator is getting the pumped up engine a year ahead of schedule due to the "high-profit-margin" status of the Navigator line.  Hmmmm, wonder just how much pressure it would take to get Ford to drop some of these engines in a few Mustang bodies??

500/500/500 ??  Cool numbers, but they really don't mean that much.... that is until you realize that they refer to "cubic inches/horsepower/torque".  According to BlueOvalNews, those are the ratings on the new 2003 Dodge Viper.  Well, actually, the all-aluminum V-10 is 505 cubic inches, but who's counting?  The new Viper will sport 19" rims, push-button starter and a 220 mph speedometer, among other features, of course.  Price??  You know the drill, if you need to ask.......

8,000 RPM Bimmer??  Yeah, yeah.  We've all seen the individuals who seem to think that piloting a 10 year old Bimmer somehow makes them look less lame, but don't blame that on the car.  We're talking here about the new 2001 BMW M3.  Styling, refinement, panache, blah blah blah.  Skip to the engine.  This is a 3.2 liter (198 cubic inch) 333 hp screamer.  For those who are counting, that's 103 hp per liter; you'd have to make 515 hp out of a 302 (with full warranty, smooth idle, emissions legality, idiot proof, fuel economy etc.) to achieve the same specific power.  Although not all that large, this little terror sports a 3.43 inch stroke (almost equal to a 350 small block Chevy) with a bore of 3.58 inches and 11.5 to 1 compression.  All 333 horses come in at a "way-too-cool-for-geeks" 7,900 rpm with 262 ft-lbs of torque checking in at 4,900 rpm.  With a curb weight of 3,450 lbs (test weight is probably in excess of 3,600 lbs) this 6-speed wonder wagon did 0-60 in 4.8 seconds with a 13.5 second quarter mile.  Unfortunately, most of the people who can afford the $46,000 probably won't see the high side of 3,000 rpm..... but if they do, watch out; you could receive a good lesson in German tail light engineering.

Competition??  According to the January 01 issue of GM High Tech Performance, this coming production year is the last for the CamaroBird in it's current form.  As an added bonus, it looks like GM will install a variant of the LS6 hyper-motor in the cars as a regular production option.  In the Vette, this engine produces 385 hp as well as mid-low 12 second ET's right off the showroom floor.

2001 Lightning.  FordEurope.net had posted some really nice photos of what they claim to be the 2001 Lightning.  Included was a beautiful full-blown Pro Stock burnout pic - about the 11th one down on the page.  Really cool, but the pictures are no longer there.

2001 Cobra.  Blueovalnews.com has posted some news and updated photos of of what they claim to be the 2001 Cobra.  The site also states that the heads for the Cobra will be farmed out to an outside fab house yet to be named.  The pictures show a very nice deep blue convertible.  The major revision visible appears to be the tail pipe tips.  They are also claiming that Ford is intending to introduce a new 5.0 liter 4-valve Cobra engine in the 2003 model which will produce 350+ horsepower and a 7,100 rpm redline.  It purportedly will be available with a 3.27 rear end ratio and will be capable of 155 mph.

Where's the Search??  Yep.  Once again, we've moved the Search function.  It now has it's own page, creatively named: Search.  We decided to move it there because of some cgi interferences.  Hope it's useful!

Can I get paid to do that??  I stumbled across a section of the Ford web site that I've never seen before.  It's called the SVT Experience and it's pretty cool.  They've posted some pretty cool videos of races as well as SVT engineers describing aspects of the SVT cars.  One particular engineer (in a video titled E-Engineers) is shown describing the fact that they take all of the SVT engineering cars and run 450 drag starts "right in a row because we know what you guys doing with the cars, so, we want to make sure they're durable".  In the same video, another engineer is shown describing the fact that they had to detune the torque output of the Lightning because of the transmission.  Gee, I wonder if they're accepting applications??

Where've we been??  As you may have noticed, new race coverage here at SlowGT has been quite slow lately.  The reason is that SlowGT is "up on blocks" at the moment.  Mike decided to make a few mid-season changes to the engine combination in hopes of picking up a few tenths on those really quick guys (you know who you are) running out there.  We're actually experimenting with some "unconventional wisdom" concerning certain engine components and we're hoping it'll pay off with some improved ET's.  [ Thursday, September 7, 2000 ]

That's Nice...  We've all seen at least one running around (I hope) and we finally got a chance to experience one.  Check out our coverage of a 2000 Lightning.  Hope you like it.

2000 Saleen S281.  We ran across this beautiful Zinc Yellow Saleen while profiling the Cobra R a little while back.  We got some pictures and video that you might like on the 2000 Saleen S281 page.  Hope you enjoy.

So, just what IS the point?!?!  Well, you know us creative types.  Give us time, and not much to do, and we start making up things to do.  Case in point:  We had to opportunity to test drive a new Ford Focus R (well, OK, the R stands for Rental car) and we decide to do what any self-respecting gear-head would do.... acceleration runs.  As it turns out, a new Ford Focus R (see above), loaded with 3 (physically) grown men, just after lunch, at 5,300 ft altitude (ambient temp at about 95 degrees) will run 0-40 MPH in 10 seconds (Wow, a 10-second Focus R), and will continue the "Rampage" to reach 60 MPH in a staggering 19 seconds (2 way average).  Just thought you'd like to know.