Although it's been a few years since we've brought you a Lone Star edition of the Pavement Pounders Shootout Series, we return with a vengeance to assault the quarter-mile with a bevy of late-model racers.
Our venue is Lonestar Motorsports Park in Sealy, Texas, situated alongside I-10 outside of Houston. With a lineup of some of the fastest and most diverse engine combinations on the market, saddle up as we see how fast "them Texans" can run in their Vette-eating Arrowheads.
Our first two racers have the smallest and largest cubic inches in the six-car field, with the first Bird being a high-tech L92 with Variable Valve Timing (VVT) and the second, arguably the fastest true street-based Formula on the planet.
Damon Sampson of Nacogdoches, Texas, showed up for the Shootout in his silver '00 Trans Am. Originally equipped with a 305hp LS1 and 4L60-E automatic transmission, it's now outfitted with a high-tech L92 with 376 ci and Mast Motorsports VVT. With a Turbo 400 transmission, 4.30 rear gears, and a street-friendly cam, will it take him into the 10s?
Owen Priest of Houston, Texas, is the proprietor of ARD Performance, and his '01 Formula has the reputation as being one of the fastest street cars out there. Fully equipped with air conditioning and a high-end stereo, it's bearing arms with a 472ci LSX engine, LS7-X Warhawk heads, and a 300 shot of nitrous. It takes flight when the go pedal is mashed at the line, and the converter and Turbo 400 trans apply power to the 12-bolt with 3.73 gears. Will this fabulous Formula fly straight and true onto glory?
Weather Report
The temperature at Lonestar Motorsports Park during our Shootout ranged from 90.5 to a blistering 100.7 degrees. Barometric pressure was measured at 29.96 hg and the dew point was 70.2 degrees. This track is 185 feet above sea level and density altitude ranged from 2,500 to 3,172 feet, so we'll use a factor of 0.9640 for e.t. and 1.0381 for mph for 3,000 feet to chart the theoretical best performance at sea level. This will be done on the best pass only, based on e.t.