Pass after pass, Andy was craving a 9- second timeslip but he couldn’t break out of the 10s no matter what he did. He realized it was time to either increase the boost, the nitrous, or both! Despite knowing an overdose of either could end badly, Andy upped the nitrous shot to 100 and made a white-knuckle pass down the track. Unfortunately, he still didn’t reach his goal. The second pass on the 100 shot proved to be too much stress for the engine, resulting in pure carnage. "After 200-plus passes and sending the rods through the side of the block, I thought to myself,
This engine owes me nothing--time to upgrade!" Andy exclaimed.
He immediately ordered a Ford Racing short-block with forged internals to keep any potential failures at bay. He also switched to the Kenne Bell liquid-cooled 3.6L supercharger, this time running 25 psi. Steve Lee at Thunder Autosports handled the install of the engine and supercharger, and once again, Jon Lund brought it all together. With the increase in boost level and recalling the bad memory of a grenaded engine, he decided not to install the nitrous. Andy felt confident he could achieve the 9-second objective he had been after for so long with boost only.
Andy was determined to eclipse his previous best time and dip into the 9s. All of the conditions were right in South Florida that day as he blazed down the track, launching with a 1.47 60-foot time that ended with a best time of 9.99 at 139.92 mph. Andy had finally reached his goal of owning a 9-second, full-weight, six-speed street Stang with a stock clutchquite the impressive achievement. I drove the car to the track, made back-to-back runs, officially ran 9s, and drove it home. Andy proclaimed.
What’s next for Andy and his seriously fast GT500? Reinstalling the juice and shooting for a mid-9-second pass is definitely on his to-do list. We’re confident we haven’t seen the last of Mr. Speranza. Look for him crawling the streets of Palm Beach County--beware of King Snake.