Carl Tasca and his lead wrench Ralph Porier have done it again and this video proves it. Last Wednesday, Tasca jammed the shifted through all the gears in a near picture perfect lap at New England Dragway in Epping, NH to stop the clocks at 8.06/170mph in his Mustang Cobra Jet. This is the quickest and fastest lap (by a BUNCH) recorded by a Cobra Jet drag package car.
The Mustang is equipped with the same 5.4L engine and 4.0L blower it was equipped with when it was delivered to the legendary Cranston, Rhode Island Ford dealership. There’s no nitrous, no trickery, and nothing has been altered with respect to the blower or engine. Ralph Porier has spent lots of time tweaking the clutch setup in the car and optimizing shift points, the rev limiter, etc. Don’t believe us on the rev limiter stuff? Watch the second half of the video below closely and pay close attention to where the car is when it clips the rev limiter. Which is set at….well, if we told you that we’d probably be killed. We’re working on permission to publish a copy of the time slip from this blast.
The air is stupid good at New England Dragway this year. There are two test sessions left before the place closes up for the winter. Will they find six hundredths before then?
As the observer of many test sessions where the ET’s were miles apart from what the same car had previously done in competition…. I learned to ask “are you running at the same weight as you would in sanctioned competition?” Usually, the answer was a feet-shuffling, “Not really” For some reason, lots of racers don’t test at weight. Not saying that’s the case here
According to Ralph, the car was legal on this run. Ralph is the crew chief on the car (and one of the guys who hand built the original Tasca KR8 Mustangs and Thunderbolts before Ford adopted the programs).
We were there… We ran a 7.50 with our TS car.. the track had teeth, The Tasca gang were just plain ol “gettin after it”
I have said this from the first time I met Ralph almost 25 years ago.
He has forgot more about drag racing and making a ford run good then most will ever know.
Congrats to all involved and they will get in the 7s.
“Ford Pride” as Bob Tasca Sr always said, will live on in the Tasca family. The performance of a Tasca/Poirier tuned car will always leave you wondering. Bob Sr is smiling…..