Naturally-Aspirated Shootout - Natural Causes

James D'Amore III
Freehold, NJ
'06 Saleen S281

We had stroker pushrod engines as well as stroker modulars at the shootout. Either way, cubes ruled, and the extra displacement that JDM Engineering's Jim D'Amore III was afforded in his Three-Valve-powered Saleen got him into Fourth Place. Jim had previously run well into the low-11s in decent air, and was looking for a bunch more with the air being even better. That wasn't the case, however, as a converter that was a bit too tight caused a bog off of the line, killing e.t. in the process.

"With the old converter, I was able to footbrake the car to 3,000 on the starting line," Jim III says. "At that engine speed, the car ripped off some great 60-foot times, and that was when I ran my best. We switched to another converter, but it ended up being way too tight, and I could only stall the car to 2,500. I tried everything short of standing on the brake pedal, but it wasn't holding anything more than 2,500 before it started to slide."

Either way, Jim used the common steps of ported heads, big cams, and cubic inches to rip off a best elapsed time of 11.30, with a trap speed of 118 mph--not bad for 298 cubes, all of which were driven to and from the track without even a change of tires.

Having run the car in the FFW Street Stang class, Jim has seen his fair share of success on the track. He said it best, though, when we asked him what he likes most about his Mustang. He said, "To quote the great Ricky Bobby, I just want to go fast."