Competition Plus.com - Drag Racing's Internet Magazine

Making History the Hardcore Way
LS1-powered Trans Am from Michigan Smashes Seven-Second Barrier …
Story and photos by Brian Wood

A major factor in the drive to succeed in the sport of drag racing is the desire to earn “bragging rights” over the competition. While this is true throughout the entire spectrum of the sport, it seems to manifest itself most strongly in the ranks of “street-legal” competition. Perhaps it’s because this type of racing is quite often just a step or two removed from the true stop-light to stop-light action so common in the recent past. Participants in this illegal brand of heads-up activity were often fierce local rivals, and there was nothing else on the line except status among their peers, or in other words, bragging rights.

The Hardcore Motorsports team – car owner Ronnie Duke is third from right.

With most of this type of racing now under the auspices of sanctioning bodies such as the National Street Car Association and others, the cars are safer, the racing is better and the cars are quicker and faster than ever. To paraphrase an old saying, however, you can take the driver off the street, but you can’t take the street out of the driver. As a result, the desire to be the “big dog” has never really left the collective consciousness of those who paid their dues on the boulevards and back roads.

Since General Motors introduced the latest in their long line of street and race-proven small block engines in the late 1990s, the battle for supremacy on the drag strip has continued to escalate, with the all-aluminum version of the “Gen III” V8 designated as the LS1 now fully engaged in the front lines of many quarter-mile skirmishes.

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The Hardcore Motorsports Trans Am looks surprisingly like its daily-driven brethren, but don’t be fooled; the heart of a beast lies just under the skin of this beauty.

The LS1 first appeared in Pontiac Trans Am guise in 1998, replacing the 305-horsepower LT1. GM’s new corporate small block actually made its debut in the 1997 Corvette in a 345-horsepower version, but in T/A trim it was rated at a base 305-horsepower with the WS6 Ram Air version good for 320-horsepower.

Predictably, soon after the first examples of the LS1-equipped ’98 Trans Am hit the streets, shelves at speed and performance shops began to fill up with a wide variety of go-fast components from the aftermarket performance industry. As had happened with all previous small block engines from GM since 1955, the LS1 was embraced by hot-rodders and drag racers almost immediately, and the drive to wring maximum performance from the new 5.7 liter piece was soon underway in earnest.

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The 385-inch C5R small block under the hood of the 2002 Trans Am uses a ProCharger F2 supercharger and intercooler to generate nearly 1,500 horsepower.

One racer interested in taking the LS1 to the limits of its capabilities and beyond was Michigan’s Ronnie Duke, who under the banner of 1BadLS1 Racing, Inc. began to build a succession of bigger and badder Trans Ams. Eventually Duke began to look for a small shop to house his racing operation, but he ended up with a very large shop, and a couple of new business partners, Bill Wells and Nevie Richardson, who together started Hardcore Motorsports in Flint, Michigan.

Today the facility houses a 10,000-square-foot retail showroom and a 40,000-square-foot technical center, making it Michigan’s largest full-service speed shop. The retail store at Hardcore Motorsports provides racers and auto enthusiasts with products from over 500 top manufacturers, while the technical center houses a fabrication shop, a machine shop, engine and chassis dynamometers and a general mechanical area. The technicians at Hardcore Motorsports can provide anything from bolt-on performance components to complete turn-key street and race cars.

As mentioned, earlier on Duke built and raced a succession of LS1-powered Trans Ams, the first of which were based on modified production block and heads. Most recently, he and the crew at hardcore Motorsports have carried out various stages of modifications on five late model Trans Ams for in-house research and development purposes as well as for an all-out assault on the LS1 record book.

A long period of trial and error testing with both nitrous-injection and supercharging ultimately led the team to realize a long-sought goal when in 2003 one of their cars, a 2002 T/A convertible, made the quickest run by an LS1-powered street car with an impressive blast of 8.52-seconds at 163 mph. The mark stood up until November of 2004, when the twin-turbo-powered 2000 Pontiac Firehawk driven by Matt Harlan eclipsed the record with a run of 8.29, 170.95 at the Thunder Racing Southern Shootout in Belle Rose, Louisiana.

The testing went on day and night as the Hardcore Motorsports team crept closer to the intimidating seven-second mark in Bradenton.

Ironically, Hardcore Motorsports had one of their cars on hand that weekend as well, and driver Jason McNeil wheeled the black T-Top car to victory in Modified Stock Power Adder, logging a best pass of 8.88, 154.00 in the process. As satisfying as the win was, however, Duke and his team were not very happy that their record had been taken away, and they immediately began to make changes to the car in an effort to climb back to the top of the performance mountain.

Over the years, as they coaxed more and more horsepower out of the tough little small block, the shortcomings of the stock LS1 components began to make themselves known. The convertible which set the record in 2003 and the T-Top car which won in Louisiana were both cranking out about 1,000 horsepower with their 408-cubic-inch LS1 powerplants and ProCharger F1 superchargers. Once it was determined that the combination was near its practical limits, however, the team decided to begin developing an engine program based on the C5R block and heads, which are basically the Gen III version of the venerable heavy-duty Bow Tie components produced by GM Racing.

Jason McNeil, driver of the Hardcore Motorsports Trans Am, prepares to take another shot at the LS1 record books.

At the same time, the T-Top car was subjected to extensive chassis and suspension modifications to accommodate the 1,500-plus horsepower the new C5R powerplant was projected to make. It’s interesting to note that the car the Hardcore Motorsports team was now grooming for stardom came from rather humble beginnings. As one of five, the car started out as a basically stock daily driver and occasional Telegraph Road street racer. Later, it became the team’s parts car. Over time, however, as a variety of high-performance components were tried and then removed from its stablemates, the “Mule,” as it’s now known, began to put on considerable muscle, leading up to its successful outing in Louisiana.

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The next chapter in its competitive life story saw it outfitted with a 385-cubic-inch C5R bullet, which produces its approximately 1,500 horsepower at 8,000 rpm with a ProCharger F2 supercharger at about 30 pounds of boost. The potent EFI-equipped powerplant features a sheet metal intake fabricated by Hardcore, as well as headers and exhaust system which were also fabricated in-house. The team utilizes a Big Stuff 3 engine management system and a unique ice water intercooler system, which is located under the hatch in the back of the car. This equipment was also completely custom-built by Hardcore.

The hatch area of the T/A is filled with part of the Hardcore Motorsports-fabricated ice water intercooler system.

The car’s chassis also underwent extensive upgrades, and now features a tubular front engine cross member and tubular control arms with a race-style strut front suspension and rack-and-pinion steering. The rear suspension is a Hardcore Motorsports-fabricated torque arm with lower control arms and wheelie bars. It utilizes a nine-inch Ford rear axle assembly with an aluminum center section from Moser, which houses anything from 3:90 to 4:56 gears.

Transferring all the power to the rear end is a Rossler Turbo 400 transmission, and either a Neal Chance adjustable or Hughes Performance torque converter. Weld wheels are used all around, as are Mickey Thompson tires, the big 29.5/10.5-15W slicks on the rear providing plenty of bite for the powerhouse T/A.

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In the driver’s cockpit, a combination of a Hardcore Motorsports-fabricated roll cage and Simpson harnesses secure driver McNeil, who moves through the gears by way of a B&M shifter. Auto Meter gauges monitor all critical operations in the cockpit, and at the end of a run he deploys a ‘chute from Stroud Safety.

Pontiac Pro Stock driver Greg Anderson was an interested visitor to the Hardcore pits during the team’s sessions in Florida.

The updated C5R-equipped T-Top car was ready to roll in late November of 2004, and the Hardcore team loaded up their race rig soon after and headed to Florida’s Bradenton Motorsports Park, one of the more popular winter testing destinations for professional racing teams. There was no hiding the fact that the team was there for one reason only, and that was to take back their title as “World’s Quickest LS1-Powered Street-Legal Car.” All of their efforts paid huge dividends when McNeil paced the black beauty to a record-smashing run of 8.11, 168.95 to convincingly bring the title back to Michigan.

They impressed a lot of people with the car’s outstanding performance, including NHRA Pro Stock Champion Greg Anderson, who spent a lot of time talking with team members and checking out the car. Pro Street Champion Annette Summer also took time out from testing her new turbocharged Pro Mod car to spend time with the team, as did Troy Coughlin, who was also in Bradenton to test a Pro Mod car. In addition, Darrell Makins, of Summer’s team, spent a lot of time with Hardcore GM Jim Stewart working out calibration issues.

The passenger seat in the 2002 T/A has been replaced by the ice water intercooler system so crucial to the car’s outstanding performance.

In fact, a number of other people and companies also chipped in to make the weekend the triumph it was, including Kinetic, who built the 385-inch C5R long blocks used by the team. They built one in three days after one was lost on the dyno, allowing the team to be in Florida on time. On top of that, Hughes Performance built three custom torque converters and shipped them overnight, allowing the team to stay on track and meet its goal. Another contributor to the team’s breakthrough performance was Moser Engineering, who assembled and shipped two third members overnight to insure the success of the test session.

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Now you’d think they’d all be well-satisfied with the results of their latest venture, and there’s not much doubt that they were, at least for a while. It wasn’t enough for Duke, however, and upon their return to Michigan the Hardcore Motorsports team were soon working day and night reconfiguring the sleek black hot rod for another attempt on the seven-second barrier.

Arriving back in Florida on January 19, the team immediately set out to stake their claim as the first to accomplish the feat that so many others aspired to. After some preliminary passes to sort out the car’s many new or updated systems, McNeil lined up for his shot at the history books, and in a flash he had it – the Trans Am lit the Bradenton Motorsports Park scoreboard up to the tune of 7.94 at 176.53 mph, and another vaunted performance barrier lie in ruins. Proving the power and repeatability that the Hardcore Motorsports crew had built into their car, McNeil backed up the big run with a lap of 7.96, 175 the following day.

With the crew looking on, Jason McNeil launches the “Mule” on the pass that resulted in the first-ever seven-second posting by an LS1-powered car.

“Becoming the first Gen III small block-powered car to run in the sevens is certainly a great achievement,” said Hardcore Motorsports Marketing Director Gary Penn. “Ronnie Duke set the goal for this team and everyone rallied around that goal. The end result of 7.94 at 176 miles an hour didn’t come without a tremendous effort from each and every member of the team, believe me. We tried earlier to run the first seven, but came up a little short, so in the four weeks between then and now the car was completely rebuilt. A new roll cage, engine, transmission, rear axle and intercooler system were just some of the changes and modifications made. All the hard work paid off, however, and now Ronnie Duke and the Hardcore Motorsports team will go down in history as the first to run in the sevens.”

Duke was naturally thrilled with the record-smashing accomplishments of his car and his team, saying “I couldn’t be more proud of the Hardcore Motorsports team. Without them I could never have pulled this off. Now, together we have become the first in the sevens, and it’s a fantastic achievement – something I have been working towards for years. We didn't do this alone, however, ProCharger, Kinetic and Hughes Performance have all greatly helped the Hardcore team to step up its program and we owe much of our success to their great people, products and expertise."

Numbers don’t lie – the scoreboard at Bradenton Motorsports Park announces to the drag racing world that the run for the “sevens” is over.

Now that the black cruiser affectionately known as the “Mule” has written the latest chapter in the LS1 story, its drop-top stable mate is now awaiting re-introduced to the automotive world after being out of the public eye for nearly a year. The big moment will come at the AutoRama show in Detroit in March of 2005. Since its last visit to the two-lane blacktop, the car has been totally redone to show quality condition, with many carbon fiber components, including a lift-off convertible top. In addition, all metal on the car is either chromed or highly polished, and everything is topped off with eye-popping paint.

Don’t be misled, however. In spite of its dazzling fit and finish, this car’s life on the show circuit will be very short lived. Now stuffed full of the very best in high-performance racing hardware, the sleek blue convertible will soon take over where the “Mule” left off, pushing the boundaries of the GMs aluminum small block even further. Within a matter of weeks after its AutoRama debut, the car will take to the track in an effort to once again make its mark in the LS1 record books.

Essentially outfitted with the same basic drive train as the T-Top car, the lighter convertible has some very unique new feature. It has been constructed so that in the space of about an hour, it can be converted from a torque arm-suspended car to a four link-suspended car. It is also designed to accept both 10” and larger rear tires under its carbon fiber tubs.

Production of the Pontiac Trans Am ended in 2002, of course, but thanks to people such as Ronnie Duke and the folks at Hardcore Motorsports, thousands of T/A fans around the world are still able to, at least vicariously, relive the thrill of dropping the hammer on one of the best factory hot rods ever built as it continues to conquer the world of high performance.