Our RX-7.COM car driven by Ari Yallon was entered into the Street 8 class which is for street legal cars running a muffler, DOT legal tires, as well as other rules to keep all out race cars from competing in the class. Joining us in the Street 8 was some very strong competition from the Supra camp. Coming all the way from California was the 1000HP Supra of Under Pressure Research and Development (UPRD) driven by professional driver Rhys Millen. The UPRD Supra represented the very best money could buy and was a heavy favorite in our class. The other threat was undefeated Street 8 champion Chris Rado in his low-10 second Supra. Coming out from Pennsylvania, Chris Rado was an easy favorite due to his experience and history of dominating the Street 8 class.

Qualifying
In the first round of qualifying Ari took an easy run to get familiar with the track conditions and the lack of traction due to the slippery street tires required for our class. In the second round, Ari felt comfortable with the car and blazed through the lights at an amazing 10.014 @ 141.50 MPH capturing the 1st place qualifier position and setting a new record for the Import Street 8 Class. Even the event announcer was in amazement of Ari's unexpected performance and stated over the intercom "We'll need to check to make sure that car's running street tires!". Well we were, and #1 qualifier position was ours.

Street 8 Competition
In our first round of Street 8 competition we faced a daily driven Supra. Ari took it easy knowing his performance advantage and cruised to a 10.225 @ 141.04 MPH to take the win and advance into the next round. Also advancing were MZM's Red 3rd generation RX-7, Chris Rado's Supra and the UPRD Supra. This was it, RX-7 vs Supra in an all out battle for bragging rights! In the semi-finals we were lined up against defending champion Chris Rado, who had defeated Ari in Pomona last year. Looking to even the score, Ari stormed off the line to defeat Chris's ailing Supra with a 10.294 @ 140.18. Unfortunately, Chris Rado's Supra had been experiencing clutch problems throughout the day and could not put down a run comparable to the performance potential of his car. Hats off to Chris and his team for the amazing display of sportsmanship, they were a fun group to race with.

For the finals we were lined up against the high tech UPRD Supra driven by professional driver Rhys Millen. No stranger to high HP cars, Rhys had been progressively getting faster and faster as the day went on so Ari was in for a close race. As the pro-tree flashed green, Ari got the jump of Rhys and pulled ahead into the lead. By the 1/8th mile, Ari had a comfortable lead but the UPRD Supra slowly began to catch up. It was not enough though as Ari crossed the finish line first with another 10.010 @ 142.63 MPH setting a new world record for the Import Street Class.

Even with Ari's impressive victory in the Street 8 class, our day was not quite over. We had come too close to running a 9 second pass to just pack up and go home. Luckily, Weyland Jung and the other great people at IDRC allowed us to make an exhibition pass using our standard drag slicks. Aiming to bring home the fastest RX-7 with stock drivetrain title home to Texas, we needed to run better than the 9.95 time run by Peter Farrell late last year. With little time to allow the car to properly cool down after the finals, we quickly swapped to the drag slicks and rushed to the staging lanes for our shot at breaking the record. Confident of the car's potential, Ari calmly pulled to the line and prepared for the run. Shooting off the line, the car pulled the front wheels off the ground and flew past the 60' mark in only 1.376 seconds. Running straight and smooth, Ari shifted his way down the track and through the traps at a record breaking 9.626 @ 144.74mph, greatly surpassing the old record. That time also bested the fastest Quick 8 time of the day and made Ari's RX-7 the world's fastest RWD Quick 8 car. Due to licensing requirement problems, the track officials tried to stop Ari from making a back-up run. After sitting at the line for a long time begging the track officials to let him back up his time, Ari was finally allowed to make another pass. Launching hard, Ari unfortunately missed his 3rd gear shift and ended up running a 9.93 @ 141 MPH. Still ahead of the old record but not a true sign of the car's potential.

Many questions have been asked about how we achieved such a large step in performance from last year. As we keep no secrets, here is some explanation of the changes we've made. First of all, the chassis work performed over the winter has made a remarkable improvement in how the car launches and goes straight down the track. The car is easier to drive, which makes us faster, and the 60' times have dropped into the mid 1.3 second mark. In terms of HP, we're still using the same motor from last year but have slightly upgraded the GReddy T78 Turbo. With careful tuning afforded to us by the incredible adjustability of the new Haltech E6K and our in-house Dynojet dyno, we've been able to push the HP to remarkable levels by safely running more boost. Due to the lack of time needed to tune in the nitrous with the higher boost levels, we're currently only using 50HP of nitrous which actually turns off once the turbo builds a pre-determined amount of boost. The nitrous helps with the launch and turbo spooling between shifts. In the near future we will be tuning the car to use the nitrous throughout the entire run which should further reduce our ETs. With the current setup, we feel the car can run 0.2-0.3 seconds faster with only minor changes. On the 9.62 run we actually topped out 4th gear before the end of the 1/4 mile so with an adjustment to allow for the needed higher trap speed, we'll be able to take more time off our record. Make sure you don't miss an event as we fully expect to go faster and faster at each event this year!

Thanks to everyone that helped us set up for the event and the great people at IDRC. The Houston RX-7 Club, all of our friends and customers that came to support us, and everyone with a RX-7 that ran at the event.

Thanks also to our sponsors, GReddy, Rotary Performance, and Haltech.

NEXT EVENT: ID Drag Wars on April 30th, 2000 in Dallas, Texas.

Click here for complete event listing and previous event coverage!

Car Specs - Ari's 1993 RX-7

1/4 Mile: 9.626 @ 144.74 MPH Engine: RP Street Port 13B Engine Transmission: Stock Mazda 5-Speed Turbo: Modified GReddy T78 Kit Boost: 1.75 bar w/ GReddy Profec B Nitrous: 50HP used below 1 bar of boost Exhaust: GReddy T78 Kit Downpipe, Custom GReddy Large Diameter Racing Exhaust Intake: Custom Cold Air Fuel: RP Competition Fuel Pump (Intank) RP Large Secondary Injector Kit Haltech E6K Sunoco 116 Octane Gas Pulleys: RP Triple Race Pulley Intercooler: GReddy Front Mount Ignition: Jacobs Rotary Pro Pak, Rotary Ultra Coils (Leading), and Wires NGK Racing Plugs J&S Knock Sensor Clutch: Bönez Racing Clutch Stock Flywheel Suspension: Tokico Struts, Suspension Specialties Springs Cusco CF Rear Strut Bar Brakes: Bönez Brake Kit w/ X-Drilled Rotors Rear End: Stock Mazda Assembly w/ 4.3 gear KAAZ Mechanical L.S.D. RP Custom Axles RP Drag Launch Kit Wheels and Tires: Weld Drag Racing wheels Mickey Thompson ET Drag tires (26x10.5x15) MT ET Street (26x10x15) for Street 8 Chassis: Custom Chromoly NHRA Legal Cage, 5-point Harness, All glass, dash, stock gas tank, headlights, front carpet retained. Fully streetable.

Videos

Other Car Pictures

Steph's 9.0 Second Tube Frame Civic Russ's 9 second Supra

Chris Rado's Supra

Craig Paisley's Supra UPRD's Supra

MZM's Turbo II

Aaron Imler's RX-7

MZM's 3rd Gen. RX-7 Fred Swain's RX-7