The “pit crew” at PerformanceParts.com in Piney Flats pause at the back of the warehouse to celebrate the upgrades on this ride before it hits the track.
Once you get the smell of the racing fuel in your system, if you have ever turned a wrench or climbed in behind the wheel of a race car, you are hooked for life. Racing is a disease, a cancer that keeps eating away at your body, it’s does not easily let go!
Performance Parts Online Retail’s Dave Loggans has been doing it for years; since he was 8 years old. Dave is an ASE Certified Master Machinist who is on the phone to answer questions and help customers get the parts they need and the best performance possible out of their car or truck.
Recently Dave brought Kenneth Wilkerson’s PerformanceParts.com/TNT Race Cars’ dirt late model by the warehouse to shoot a video of a new product line that is going to be available soon. Dave does all of the precision tuning on the engine for Kenneth. While the car was at the warehouse, Dave showed and explained to us the workings of the car as well as the time and technology that goes into building a dirt late model.
Kenneth and his sons, Johnny and Jason, built the car from the bare TNT chassis to a rolling race car. They installed the suspension and did all of the sheet metal body work in their shop at home. They added the Auto Meter gauges, wired the car for the MSD ignition system and attached the G-Force safety belts.
Dave and Kenneth installed the engine in the car, a GM Performance “604” crate engine. They attached the Hedman Husler headers, installed the MSDdistributor and wires, put the NGK spark plugs in the engine, filled the engine, transmission, and quick change rear end with Royal Purple oils and grease, installed the Holley carburetor, which had been converted to accept E-85 fuel, and fired the engine. The timing was set and the engine run through the break-in period. The new R2C Competition Series Filter and base assembly were placed on top of the carburetor to complete the set up.
For all your performance needs, big or small, be sure to give Dave a call at 1-800-585-0683 or go directly to the website, set up an account and order online.
Recent dyno testing at Adrenaline Autosports, in Chatsworth, CA, on a mildly built Ford 302, fitted with stock 289 heads, revealed incredible results. Baseline numbers with a 600-cfm Holley carb and no spacer produced 218.57 rear wheel horsepower at 5500 rpm with 252.97 ft-lbs. of torque. The carb was switched to a 680-cfm QFT street carb, manufactured with a Proform® carb main body, and one pull was made with each of the three variations of Proform 1-inch phenolic spacers supplied in their Trackside Carb Spacer kit.
