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"Fireball"
This 1967
European model is owned by Dave and Keith Greiner of Proformance Motoring.
The car was affectionately
nicknamed the "Fireball" by Ron Fleming of FAT Performance.
He was at the Irwindale Drag Day when the engine,
which was installed in another car, flew across the track in
a literal "ball of fire" after colliding with the wall upside
down and backwards. The motor ended up a good 30 feet from
the chassis, with pieces of the exhaust 50 feet away!
The engine was reassembled using mostly new parts, although
some of the old motor remained. The new factory
magnesium case was machined for the 88mm Bugpack crank,
chromoly H-beam rods were used with ARP 2000 bolts,
long Century cylinders and Wiseco forged pistons. The Heads
are Comp Eliminators ported by AJ Sims with 46mm x
37mm stainless steel valves, K-800 valve springs and Manley
titanium retainers. The header was custom built by Keith
out of 1-3/4 tubing and feeds a turbonetic TO-4 turbo with a
super H intake and a P- exhaust. The carburetor is a
modified 750cfm Holley 4-barrel with a vacuum secondary. The
car has a full MSD ignition with a 7A-L box and a
boost retard module. A 900cfm Predator carburetor has also
been tried but troubles with the launch and the
automatic transmission caused us to go back to the Holley.
Yes, the transmission is a 3-speed automatic box that came
out of a VW Vanagon. It has been converted to a reverse
manual valve body, which means that it has to be shifted, but
is done through a B&M ratcheting shifter. The
Munsinger high stall converter allows the car to be power
braked to 4000rpm and launched, then shifted at 7200rpm
without lifting off of the throttle. The car is also equipped
with an NOS nitrous kit. And we have used jetting that has
given us a 50hp to 125hp boost. The car is heavy with the
cast iron gearbox housing, the IRS rear suspension and
Porsche 930 CV's. The driver and car weigh in together at
about 1950 lbs. The car has run a best time of 10.25 @
128mph at the now defunct Carslbad Raceway. But we now keep
it detuned to the 10.80 range to keep the
maintenance low. The torque converter absorbs about 50-60 hp,
but the trans has gone over 150 launches without
any breakage.
The car had gone through most of its life without a paint
job, and had been called "cosmetically challenged" when
shown in magazine coverage. The car was finally painted by
Rob at " BE bugged" in the City of Orange. The choice
of color was quite involved, Rob told me, "I have some blue
left over or I have this green." Green it was. |
