Lords of the Turbine

Enough Spool To Make You Drool: John Gullett, Chuck Samuel and Joe DaSilva

Sauron molded three golden turbines, each from the finest exotic metals forged from the fires of Mount Doom in the land of Mordor. They were to be distributed amongst the different people of the middle earth in accordance with their need and desires. The first was given to King Gullett from the sunshine land of Turbonetics. The second granted to Lord Samuel who resides near the City of Wind in Precision Turbo country. The last of the golden turbines was offered to Lord Joe DaSilva, the crazed Canadian from the outskirts of Toronto.

Now, this is no fight to save the destiny of mankind, but the ferociousness of these battles was fiercely fought. And, if you're not much of a Lord of the Rings fan, you probably really think I'm weird about now. The turbocharger offers an enticing power level. The horsepower achievable has taken the competition to a whole new level matched by only the Pro Street and Pro Mod classes. The three Warlords of the Turbo Kingdom mentioned earlier each use a different turbocharger manufacturer: Turbonetics Inc., Precision Turbo Inc. and Innovative Turbochargers. Let's examine what makes of the competitors a champion at the premier level of Ford Mustang drag racing.

GULLETT/FRAZIER RACING

John Gullett's story is that of every boy who's dreamed of drag racing fame. A 5.0 Mustang given as a birthday gift that would evolve over nearly a decade and a half to become the first Pro 5.0 Mustang to surpass the 200-mph mark. His familiar graphics laden, green '88 GT would be subjected to more facelifts than Liz Taylor, as evolution would require multiple chassis transformations going from Saturday night Steak & Shake to Pro Stock-type performance levels.

After struggling to keep competitive in an ever-changing field of hungry competitors, John decided it was time to make the switch to a much safer, purpose built racecar. The new '01 Mustang is a far cry from his evolved street car. Parker Chassis, of Columbus, Georgia, updated a Tim McAmis Pro Stock chassis, doubling the framerails to handle the 2,000-plus horsepower levels it would now have to withstand. Paul Holman of Middleburg, Florida, fitted and painted the Mustang skin and carbon fiber panels with the glowing purple tint.

When you're the first to surpass the 200-mph plateau, it's no secret that you have plenty of horsepower. The aluminum Ford 9.5-inch, 351-engine block would easily handle the 398 cubes required to reach the horsepower levels we were looking to achieve. Crewchief Brent Frazier would accept the matriculate task of seeing that the machining was perfect and dividing each gram equally for optimum harmonics at 9,000 rpm. The forged steel crankshaft and BME aluminum connecting rods engage the Probe Racing pistons to a 10.5:1 compression ratio.

The low compression ratio leaves plenty of room to unshroud the massive 2.25 intake and 1.65 exhaust valves in the C-3 Yates Racing heads specially prepped by Chapman Racing Heads. The Jesel rocker arms needed only to supply .650 of lift for the peak 420-cfm of intake and 350-cfm of exhaust flow that Chapman has exposed. Comp Cams assisted them in finding the exact camshaft specs to coincide with their power band mapping. The oil system on one of these beasts can become very demanding with revs to 9,000 rpm and turbocharger shaft bearings that can exceed 60,000 rpm. A five-stage dry sump unit from Barnes will fulfill the applicable oiling needs of this application.

John and Brent went shopping at Wilson Manifolds and chose one of their custom-built sheetmetal (aluminum) pieces with airflow offered via an Accufab 105mm throttle body. The raw fuel is introduced to the intake via a set of 160-pound injectors from Young's Performance and a beltdrive fuel pump from Aeromotive makes sure a constant flow at around 90 psi is accessible.

The turbocharger of choice is a 106mm Thumper from Turbonetics. Gullett utilizes an electronic fuel-injection system from MOTEC, which comes complete with each plug having its own coil. The MOTEC system is highly recommended by Ken Duttweiler, who specializes in fuel/boost/timing mapping programs. The Gullett/Frazier team's capturing of the 2002 FFW Pro 5.0 championship will attest to that.

Reloading at all the proper speeds is handled by a Lenco four-speed transmission, that is engaged via an AFT clutch. The combination has rewarded Team Gullett with e.t.s in the 6.50s at over 216 mph and the undisputed 2002 Pro 5.0 season championship of the Fun Ford Weekend series.

CHUCK SAMUEL AND KEVIN MARSH MOTORSPORTS

Back when the Flowmaster Fastest Streetcar Shootouts were popular, a kid named Chuck Samuel was getting serious attention from the media and competitors alike. The reason being that he was re-writing the Super Street record book in a purple '92 Camaro. He was an elite part of a team from the Fast Times Motorworks in the Chicago area. The feared Fast Times logo was present on many of the top cars in the field.

After conquering the Super Street competition in 1995 and 1997 he moved up to the series quickest Pro Street class. Samuel set the record in 1999 with the first twin-turbo entry the class had seen. The state-of-the-art Pro Street '98 S-10 blistered the quarter-mile at 6.77 at 206 mph.

Shortly thereafter, Samuel hooked up with Kevin Marsh and the team topped 200 mph with a new LX. Marsh had a longtime association with Samuel as a friend and business partner, so in realizing the needs of today's top Pro teams and recognizing Samuel's reputation, nothing less than a first-class effort would be acceptable.

He purchased a 2001 Pro Stock Mustang chassis from Jerry Hass and the car was upgraded to meet Pro Mod status--both the rear suspension and the driver's compartment. A Strange 9-inch rearend with 40-spline, gun-drilled axles and driveshaft withstand the stresses of a typical launch. The lightweight disc brakes and front struts are from Lamb with a set of Koni electronic double adjustable shocks to optimize rebound on both the front and the rear.

A new powerplant would start with a Ford Racing 351 block that would boast 375 cubes at completion. A co-owner of Fast Times Motorworks, Samuel machines and builds racing engines from the ground-up every single day for all classes of the heads-up, bracket and street performance competition. The rotating assembly features a Sonny Bryant crankshaft, and a set of aluminum connecting rods and pistons of the finest forgings from Bill Miller. The balance is kept neutral through an AFT flywheel and an ATI harmonic balancer. Comp Cams is employed for the bumpstick and that's all Chuck will say about that.

Inquiries about the actual flow numbers from the Brodix BF-202 cylinder heads quickly returns us to Comedy Central. However, we do know that Jesel aluminum rocker arms are utilized to actuate the intake and exhaust valves, which are manufactured by Victory 1. The retainers, locks and springs are also made of the finest stock from the Victory 1 catalog.

Choosing an intake manifold was easy--a Billy Glidden/Edelbrock signature small-block unit was used. We will note that the entire valve job and porting results of both the heads and intake were provided with the intricate attention of flow-bench artist Samuel himself without the assistance of any CNC-porting techniques.

Steve Grebeck Racecraft designed and built the headers and exhaust system. Chuck says that Grebeck was instrumental in locating the Precision turbocharger and intercooler to optimize the inventive location of the air intake system the new car employed. The success Grebeck displayed with Precision Turbo also perpetuated an ongoing relationship with Precision to supply their turbochargers.

Once they got the bugs worked out they were able to claim the quickest and fastest runs ever made by a Ford Pro car. Samuel and Marsh participated in a Pro Stock test session at Indianapolis Raceway Park the weekend before the coveted U.S. Nationals last year and ran a pair of 6.44s followed by a 6.46 at over 220 mph. The team of Samuel and Marsh had a runner-up finish in the FFW 2002 Pro points race and at the start of the 2003 season held the Pro e.t. and mph records.

DASILVA, WOLFE AND SPETTER RACING

Canada is known for its cold and snowy climate, but anyone who's been around Joe DaSilva or his brother Paul during a race knows the Canucks are anything but cold. They would loan you the parts right off their racecar if you needed it to make the finals. The DaSilvas have traveled from Toronto to Tampa just to be a part of Mustang racing, no matter how competitive they were at the time.

"I remember when we were the number 10 car in the field, and we were everybody's friend, but now that we're number 1, we're nobody's friend. I liked it better being number 10," said Joe.

Joe DaSilva sat out the entire 2001 racing season after capturing the 2000 NMRA Pro 5.0 Championship, the first title of his career. Battered from battle and after hearing tales of the new cars from Grebeck/Halprin, Branden Switzer and Don Walsh at the World Ford Challenge, Joe decided to get his team back to the chassis shop. DaSilva, Job Spetter, and David Wolfe set a goal to come out in full force in 2002 with a car they knew could be competitive.

The steel 351 FRPP engine block went back to brother Paul to be bored and freshened up to a full 414 cubes. Even though the new thicker Sportsman cylinder blocks are quite rigid, a custom J&P performance stud girdle was added to help stabilize the bottom end during those grueling 30-pound-of-boost passes. The J&E pistons are free to fully float on the MRP connecting rods as the Scat crankshaft engages the long stroke travel. A special steel flywheel and Fluid Dampener smooth the rotation of the crankshaft on its axis to tame turbulent vibration.

A set of Yates C-3 aluminum heads was treated to the finest CNC-porting job available from Chapman Racing Heads. The Manley valves, springs and Jesel 1.6 rocker arms keep the inhale/exhale under control during those frequent trips to the 8,000-rpm zone.

The intake starts as a Hogan lower unit, and is topped off with a Wolfe handcrafted and finely polished upper that attaches to a Wilson Manifolds 106mm throttle body. The belt-driven Aeromotive fuel pump feeds the Wolfe Racecraft fuel rails that are attached to the 160-pound injectors. Airflow used to come from an Innovative Turbocharger boasting a 6-inch exiting pipe, but in 2003 Silva plans on rattling some cages again, only this time with 105-inch wheelbase and twin turbos.

There is not much mechanically or structurally that Wolfe didn't fabricate on Joe's racecar. He handcrafted the Pro Mod chassis, complete with a custom four-link rear suspension, anti-sway bar and 9-inch rearend housing. The 4.30 rear gear is by Precision Gear, Strange supplied the spool, and the 41-spline axles are engaged via a Crower clutch. Strange front struts and rear shocks keep the weight leaning on the proper pieces at the appropriate time. Running through the gears is easy with a separate lever for all of the four gear positions of the Lenco transmission.

With all of the chassis and powerplant upgrades the time had come to upgrade the electronic controller of the system to make the most of their new technology. The new ACCEL Gen 7 DFI was just what the wizard was wanted, and Job Spetter Jr. from Turbo People does all the work with the laptop. They tuned the car to a sweet tune of 6.54 at just over 218 mph to capture the Ennis, Texas, FFW finale in a blaze of glory.

Joe adopted the nostalgic paint scheme of his old '86 coupe. He told us it was the first Mustang he ever owned and every time he climbs behind the wheel of the new rig and gets a glimpse of that glowing red hood, he feels like a high school kid again.