Racing a turbo car…

Any comments, suggestions, issues…?

What I’m wondering about is that I have a good deal on a turbo with an 80mm inducer which would work great for a project I’ve been considering for a long time. The car would see a lot of dragstrip time (when I have something to run I tend to be there every week), but mostly T&T, local and f-body events, some street cruising even daily driving on in nice weather…. More built for my enjoyment then anything else.

What I’m wondering about is if I did want to race it in a specific class, will that turbo size limit me significantly? To be honest, I’m more familiar with the ford races out there. Many have restrictions that pretty much make twins and anything over 3” (76mm) illegal keeping a lot of fun cars out there from having a “place” to race unless you’re willing to go for the ‘outlaw’ classes, where most relatively low buck, “street” cars would be outrageously outgunned.

Looking at the race fliers and other goodies from the local tracks for this season, I don’t see any GM or general events that have similar restrictions. Most seem to even include twin turbos as a single power adder and make no mention of how large your power adder can be (not sure if this means that there aren’t any restrictions or if they’ve got published rules someplace else).

Depending on what group you are wanting to run with, you can find a lot out on the internet.

You can check www.nmca-racing.com for their online rule book which I know has the turbo specifications. There are several classes though.

Also check out www.fasteststreetcar.com and check out their rules for the PRO Edelbrock series.

Both organizations made several changes to their rule books this year and a lot of the changes had to do with turbos. I know with the PRO Edelbrock series you cannot run bigger than (2) 80mm turbos in the Outlaw class. Other than that, I don't know.

Good luck,
Wes

The bad thing about building per PRO and NMCA rule books is that there is really no class except open comp (PRO) or EFI (NMCA) that you can race a stock suspension car with a turbo. The next step up is SUper Street with backhalfed mid 7 second cars. Puts those of us with turbos out in the middle unless you run some type of outlaw type racing where they have a class for stock suspension or stock frame rail racing.

I built mine for those types of racing and may even step up to a thumper in a year or two to be more competitive.

Good luck Mark

Wes… I seriously doubt that I’ll be able to take on any class that allows two (2…2!) 80mm turbos…, but thanks.

Curt, yea, that’s pretty much what you told me in email when I asked you last week. And since this is more of a ‘street toy’ I don’t think that I really want to be building something running a 90mm or larger “thumper”

I guess that my question is that the next size down that I can get easily is a 72mm, but the 80 is actually a better match and better deal (the turbine housing on the 72 is larger then the one on the 80, both large enough that they won’t spool particularly fast).

Is using a turbo with an 80mm inducer going to significantly limit where I can race it over the 72?

Damn… 2 80 mm turbos…