If you can believe it, this is a relationship built on bacon…and almost destroyed by it. Ok, that sounds like a horrible line from a soap opera but it kind of happened. See, Gary Putnam went on Drag Week 2014 with a car he had finished shortly before the event and he had a co-pilot in the experienced Mark Sussino. Mark races a car like a Monte Carlo but way more important. So important, Pontiac gave it a French name. Grand Prix. Anyway, they were a good team. Mark had survived some Drag Week action in his own car and Gary needed a good right hand man for the trip. They swapped transmissions early in the week but after that the drama was minimal..until me and Freiburger showed up.
On a little two lane road in the middle of nowhere, Freiburger and I happened upon Mark and Gary with the hood of the car off. We pulled over to see what their situation was and as it turns out it was nothing big. They plopped the hood on and then offered us bacon. Seriously, Gary pulled a big bag of bacon out of the back seat like Cheech and Chong would have pulled a bag of leafy greenness out of theirs.
We consumed the bacon, got back in our soulless rental car and headed off with the boys behind us. Small problem. No one pinned the hood down. We saw the hood fly off and achieve a height of about 1,345ft before it began to float down. As it was floating we saw the big rig. Amazingly the hood floated like a leaf onto the grass and while it was cracked and not perfect, it was intact. BangShift stickers were added for strength. It was a win all around.
Gary took 2015 off to bring his car up a notch and the man who welds very important stuff for a living has done an amazing job of making his car even better. We’ll let him tell you below.
Gary sez:
Returned home from Dragweek 2014 with a second place finish in Super Street big block power adder And a severely beat up car.
Item broken or damaged:
* completely trashed T400
* radiator….. From hitting an armadillo
* hood…… Forgot to fasten on side of the road
* (1) lifter on the way back to Tulsa
* camshaft…. As a result of the lifter failure
* 12 pounds of bacon.
The engine went back to Marc Brown at Advanced Engine Machine in Salina Kansas. The bad lifter sent some debris thru the engine but the filter caught most of it. Marc bushed the lifter bores and installed larger (.937″ dia.) crower lifters. With a damaged lifter also brings about a damaged camshaft. Sooooo it was that pivotal moment where I had to decide to put another blower cam in the engine or go ahead and make the switch to turbos. My decision ultimately sealed the deal for me to not be able to compete at Dragweek 2015. For some silly reason I thought I could build headers and do all the turbo fab work in roughly 5 months and be ready for DW15…….. And work 55hrs a week on the time clock at work……..I failed miserably. I’m in much better shape now to be ready to rock and roll DW16.
My buddy Brad Umsheid from Paints Unlimited in Salina Kansas fixed the broken hood that flew off the car after I forgot to fasten it after stopping along side the road and having a bacon snack break with our friends Brian Lohnes and David Freiburger. He also repainted the nose after it got burnt a few times from the exhaust.
I upgraded the cooling system with a 3″ larger radiator from C&R. During the turbo build I was worried about underhood heat from the turbos sitting right above the radiator. Before taking the car back to the paint shop I cut an air opening in the nose in front of the radiator. I made an aluminum frame that is sized to the hole I cut in the nose. This allows me to take the panel on or off depending on if the radiator needs more air or not. While testing this a couple weeks ago, on a 90 degree day , removing the panel showed a water temp decrease from 203 down to 174-178. I believe valvetrain failure and engine overheating are two of the biggest fears for any Dragweek competitor.
The old blower combo had 5″ exhaust coming out each side of the nose. With the turbo setup, I wanted to get the exhaust back behind the doors so I have each turbo feeding 4″ tube, thru a Borla muffler and exit out the side in front of the rear tires. It is much better to drive now and the interior communication isn’t a screaming contest anymore.
I switched to TBM (The Brake Man) brakes, added a second parachute, and installed a 10lb fire system from Fire Bottle.
I have a little bit of wiring left to do and plan on being on the track testing next weekend. The 2 fastest cars in my Dragweek class (Frank Saponaro and George Galimore) already run 7.50’s and .60’s. I have a lot of catching up to do but I have 2 months to go.
The turbo and all its plumbing are true works of art and when the car is pensioned off for something faster it should be shown in The MOMA in New York!
badass work Mr Puuutnam! See ya soon!
It’s a Ponti Carlo … And the massive hood keeps the hp contained !
Pootnam TTF!
Garys attention to detail is amazing.I went and visited him last fall to check it out.Everything is about accessibility and function. He mounted the radiator in 3 different locations before settling on the one that worked best.His awesome wife told me that the house smelled like bacon for three days after her frying was done. He better bring 20 pounds of Wrights bacon this year.Bet the house will then smell like bacon for 4 days. Beep,Beep.Who is Mark? I thought some guy named Mike owned the champagne express?