I like FAST. In fact if you were to ask me to nominate a “scene” or “build style” or “fad” or whatever which most appeals to me then its not trad street machine, street freak, gasser or any of those things which do get me all full of grin, but its the somewhat subtler magic of the FAST cars which really makes me feel the most admiration.
“WTF is he talking about now” I'm sure some of you are asking.
Factory Appearing Stock Tire racing is what I am talking about. “FAST”
What this started out as was some guys wanting a race class which gave an opportunity for those guys with unmodified muscle cars to have a bit of a thrash with them and not be outclassed by all those high end prostreet style cars which were all the rage about the time FAST was first kicking off.
Well, over the years this has grown up. Big style. You see, as soon as you start printing a rule book that is when you find guys who will look at the rule book and say “right, how can we interpret this to our advantage?”
FAST requires you to look just like a stock car, sound like a stock car (in terms of exhaust note, volume, idle quality, etc.) and run on the stock tyres which were for your car when new. You need a full interior and all that stuff.
What has happened is that the top dogs in this game are now acting like the factory teams were back in the early 1960s. Sneaky tricks, stuff not mentioned in the rules, pushing what the rules permit. It not uncommon to find massive strokers, massively reprofiled runners in the intakes, heads, etc. custom cams with profiles so secret you have to swear a blood oath to get the business to grind it, custom ported manifolds for the exhausts, and the old Polyglas cross ply tyres these guys run have special compound rubber to aid traction. I mean, you have a 2 ton 40 year old car which can run put 600 BHP down to the pavement via a cross ply tyre which is stock fit to a 6x14 steel wheel... something is up there... Think of it as ultimate sleeper, if you can call a classic muscle car a “sleeper” in any sense of the word really, but you get the idea.
And they are fast. There are various stock appearing classes and sanctioning bodies but the quick cars are running low 10s. The problem with these cars is not making them run but finding places who will let them run. Most tracks mandate roll cages for cars running faster than like an 11.5 and the class rules say the only safety kit theses cars are allowed is a lap belt! There is talk that in 2011 a “stock” muscle car will make 9s. That will really put tech inspectors into a spin at the tracks...
I love the detail on these things. I've seen ones where the “Brake” warning light has been repurposed as a shift light (because you aren't allowed to add even any instrumentation – its not looking stock then) I've seen ones where stuff like a line lock or trans-brake has been incorporated and the horn ring is wired in to operate it... its sneaky, its ingenuity, and I think it rocks.
Now some peeps there will be thinking that this is the sort of flat cap stuff which stiffles creativity, but you would be wrong. Its just a different type of creativity to make things look restoration correct and yet perform so that it can yank the front wheels off the ground on the equivalent of 195SR80x14 tyres...
Now over here in the UK we have no equivalent. We have a couple of “king of Street” type classes at the MoparNats or whatever which are modification restricted but its far from the same thing. I like to see people take a similar approach with regular street cars. A modified buy OEM thing. Stuff which ticks the box is when you can't tell how or why a car is modified but it is well outside of the parameters of the original car in terms of performance etc. I was always impressed by an old V8'd FD Victor I saw where if it wasn't for the fact it had 5 stud wheels you'd never have known it had a V8 in, even underneath all the original handbrake linkage had been reworked to fit the new axle, everything else was pretty much looking and working as stock. There was a Mk3 Cortina I saw at a recent event much the same. If he'd stuck with 4 lug wheels the effect would have been 100%.
graphics, flames, chops, rims, all that is all very well, and I do like, yeah, I do. But there is something so sneaky about making a modified car look stock which really does it for me.
Anyone else?
Further reading:
FAST home page
FAST forum
Car Craft blog on FAST
And of course Google...
“WTF is he talking about now” I'm sure some of you are asking.
Factory Appearing Stock Tire racing is what I am talking about. “FAST”
What this started out as was some guys wanting a race class which gave an opportunity for those guys with unmodified muscle cars to have a bit of a thrash with them and not be outclassed by all those high end prostreet style cars which were all the rage about the time FAST was first kicking off.
Well, over the years this has grown up. Big style. You see, as soon as you start printing a rule book that is when you find guys who will look at the rule book and say “right, how can we interpret this to our advantage?”
FAST requires you to look just like a stock car, sound like a stock car (in terms of exhaust note, volume, idle quality, etc.) and run on the stock tyres which were for your car when new. You need a full interior and all that stuff.
What has happened is that the top dogs in this game are now acting like the factory teams were back in the early 1960s. Sneaky tricks, stuff not mentioned in the rules, pushing what the rules permit. It not uncommon to find massive strokers, massively reprofiled runners in the intakes, heads, etc. custom cams with profiles so secret you have to swear a blood oath to get the business to grind it, custom ported manifolds for the exhausts, and the old Polyglas cross ply tyres these guys run have special compound rubber to aid traction. I mean, you have a 2 ton 40 year old car which can run put 600 BHP down to the pavement via a cross ply tyre which is stock fit to a 6x14 steel wheel... something is up there... Think of it as ultimate sleeper, if you can call a classic muscle car a “sleeper” in any sense of the word really, but you get the idea.
And they are fast. There are various stock appearing classes and sanctioning bodies but the quick cars are running low 10s. The problem with these cars is not making them run but finding places who will let them run. Most tracks mandate roll cages for cars running faster than like an 11.5 and the class rules say the only safety kit theses cars are allowed is a lap belt! There is talk that in 2011 a “stock” muscle car will make 9s. That will really put tech inspectors into a spin at the tracks...
I love the detail on these things. I've seen ones where the “Brake” warning light has been repurposed as a shift light (because you aren't allowed to add even any instrumentation – its not looking stock then) I've seen ones where stuff like a line lock or trans-brake has been incorporated and the horn ring is wired in to operate it... its sneaky, its ingenuity, and I think it rocks.
Now some peeps there will be thinking that this is the sort of flat cap stuff which stiffles creativity, but you would be wrong. Its just a different type of creativity to make things look restoration correct and yet perform so that it can yank the front wheels off the ground on the equivalent of 195SR80x14 tyres...
Now over here in the UK we have no equivalent. We have a couple of “king of Street” type classes at the MoparNats or whatever which are modification restricted but its far from the same thing. I like to see people take a similar approach with regular street cars. A modified buy OEM thing. Stuff which ticks the box is when you can't tell how or why a car is modified but it is well outside of the parameters of the original car in terms of performance etc. I was always impressed by an old V8'd FD Victor I saw where if it wasn't for the fact it had 5 stud wheels you'd never have known it had a V8 in, even underneath all the original handbrake linkage had been reworked to fit the new axle, everything else was pretty much looking and working as stock. There was a Mk3 Cortina I saw at a recent event much the same. If he'd stuck with 4 lug wheels the effect would have been 100%.
graphics, flames, chops, rims, all that is all very well, and I do like, yeah, I do. But there is something so sneaky about making a modified car look stock which really does it for me.
Anyone else?
Further reading:
FAST home page
FAST forum
Car Craft blog on FAST
And of course Google...