(972) 530-3335
311
E. Buckingham Rd. Garland, TX 75040
Lower Level Showdown
Noble, OK - October 1, 2000
 The
Lower Level Showdown is an annual Truck Show/Import Drag Race held
at Thunder Valley Raceway in Noble, OK. We woke early Sunday morning
for the 3-4 hour drive from Garland to Noble. Upon arriving at the
track we began to set up and later realized that there were no other
RWD Imports besides the two cars we brought-the RX7.COM car and Steve
Kan's '93 RX7. As a result of the lack of competition, we were automatically
handed the win after running one pass. It seemed as though the rest
of the day would be a relaxing, fun day at the track. Several "test-n-tune"
passes were made and exhibition runs. Unfortunately, at the launch
of our fourth run, the RX7.COM car's rear end broke. After
getting the car back to the pit, the team quickly worked to replace
the rear end. The car is so powerful that the stress on the rear end
fractured the carrier housing. Surprisingly, the Kaaz differential
was not damaged. It took the team only 1 hour and 25 minutes to replace
the rear end. During this time the event organizers proposed that
the spectators would like to see us race against the domestic RWDs.
The domestic RWD class is a no-holds-barred class. It would be like
racing in the outlaw class. Knowing that we would be the underdog,
we still accepted to give the crowd a good show. In light of our new
competition, we left off the exhaust to give us more power during
the re-assembly of the car.Once the car was back together we were back on the track. Ari and the RX7.COM car raced a Mustang and unfortunately we weren't quite fast enough. Steve later lost to a Mustang also. Ari then ran a bye run at 9.87 @ 142.63 mph. Our day wasn't over yet though. What we think was a Plymouth Belvedere (we're not sure, we do know it was some sort of Chrysler product) challenged us to a grudge match. Old school vs. new school...rotary vs. piston...big motor vs. tiny motor, of course, we took up the challenge. We had an impressive time against the "Chrysler thing" with our 10.05 @ 143.03 mph to its 9.78 @ 140.56 mph. With a better launch, we could have took him but the track was quite slippery. Also the "groove" of the lanes were forcing the car back and forth down the track. In spite of it though, we did well. Hats off to the domestic crowd for being such great sports and letting us participate. Everything considered-the lack of RWD import competition, the rear end, and the domestics- we still had a blast. At the end of the day we packed it up and headed south to Garland. RX7.COM would like to thank our friends who traveled up to Oklahoma to support us at this event. Also, we would like to thank the event organizers for making us feel at home and putting on a good event despite the class turnout. We look forward to next year's Lower Level Showdown. |
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Event Pictures
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Left: The team replacing
the rear end. Right: Dan, customer and supporter of RX7.COM, helps out by cleaning the exhaust while we had it off of the car. |
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Left: A view of the broken carrier housing while still on
the car. |
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NEXT EVENT: ID World Import Challenge - Houston, TX on October 7 & 8.
Click here for complete event listing and previous event coverage!
Car Specs - Ari's 1993 RX-7
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