One of the coolest things about drag racing is the clean way that “records” can be followed and tracked. There are a billion of them. Unlike road course style records that can get esoteric with different layouts and conditions, drag racing records on a perfectly straight line and with a fixed distance are a known quantity. Doubly awesome are the people who chase these records, especially one like the h-pattern stick shift elapsed time record of the world. Joel Steele is one of those guys and with a TKM built Coyote motor, a pair of twin 76mm turbos making the boost, and a Tick T56 dog-box style transmission, he’s got the unit to be not only a contender but the outright record holder.
The car is pretty magnificent and the opening part of the video gives us a visual tour of it. We’re not sure we have seen a cleaner back half under a drag car in our lives. It’s like a polished jungle gym of steel tubing under that sucker!
This video was made by the 1320 Video crew at the World Cup Finals at MIR and that’s a race which delivers an insane race track and the atmosphere to back it up. You are going to see Steele gain the record while running next to the dude who was the current holder to that point.
Lastly, the clutch setup in this car is amazing in terms of how it launches. You will hear a really even application on the hit and then all the power is hitting the ground by what looks to be a couple hundred feet down course. This right here is shag nasty!
Hats off! Amazing.