Blown funny cars are nothing to write home about these days, but twin-turbo setups are quite rare. That's mostly due to NHRA regulations, but turbo cars also tend to be slower than supercharged ones off the line. Still, former Altered racer Scott Pareso is giving twin-turbocharging a shot.
This Camaro-bodied funny car showed up at the track during Funny Car Chaos at Texas Motorplex. It packs a steel, big-block, 8.8-liter Chevy V8 with Holley EFI and a pair of Borg Warner turbos. It also runs on methanol fuel instead of nitromethane.
It's not really an innovative recipe. Drag racers have experimented with similar layouts back in the day, but they weren't as fast and reliable as the supercharged ones. But it's great to see builders are still trying something different, much more so if they show up at the track to take on the big boys.
So how quick is this twin-turbo rig? Well, it's mostly a five-second car. Scott runs a 5.13-second test pass and then he manages a 5.16-second sprint during qualifying. A second qualifying round saw Pareso run the 1/8-mile in 4.99 seconds, his quickest pass for the day. Unfortunately, that wasn't quick enough to outgun the nitrous funny car on the other lane.
Scott didn't make it past the qualifiers, but Living Nitro reports that it was mostly due to ignition and transmission problems. So there's a big chance that this twin-turbo funny car will run faster in the future. Will it be as quick as blown nitrous funny cars? The general consensus is that turbo cars lose a couple of tenths to fully spool, a big setback compared to blown dragsters, but maybe they have a few tricks up the sleeve.
It's not something you'd see at an NHRA event, but it's a cool take on funny car racing. Sure, you could say that technically it's not a proper funny car, but more like a Pro Mod and Top Alcohol hybrid. But some innovation would be welcome since NHRA classes are way too regulated and limited nowadays.
Ask Ciprian about cars and he'll reveal an obsession with classics and an annoyance with modern design cues. Read his articles and you'll understand why his ideal SUV is the 1969 Chevrolet K5 Blazer. Full profile
Would you like AUTOEVOLUTION to send you notifications?
Google News