From the Archive: We Test the World’s Hottest Tuner Cars from 0–150–0 MPH

From the August 1998 issue of Car and Driver.

“Last year, observed and timed by the Motor Industry Research Association, Reg Parnell demonstrated the ability of the DB4GT to go from 0 to 100 mph and back to 0 again in 24 seconds.” —Car and Driver, June 1961

That sentence, which appeared 37 years ago in our report on the Aston Martin DB4GT, may not have been the first time that anyone ever quoted a 0-to-100-to-0 clocking, but it does establish the era in which this unique performance yardstick became popular.

By measuring a car’s stopping power as well as its sheer acceleration, it was a straight-line test more acceptable to the sports-car world than the conventional, single-dimensional quarter-mile drag race. In 1965, Carroll Shelby took a shot at this test and claimed that his 427 Cobra did it in an astonishing 13.8 seconds—with Shelby driver Ken Miles at the wheel.

Others have continued to rely on this three-decades-old measure of performance, even as modern cars have become incomparably more powerful and capable than their Sixties counterparts. Now, with a new millennium in sight and numerous modified cars capable of topping 200 mph no farther away than your checkbook, we resolved to bring this historical measure of straight-line performance up to date with current technology and leave the 0-to-100-to-0 test to those mired in the past.

So we’ve simply added another 50 miles an hour to the moment when the C/D test driver removes his foot from the car’s accelerator and stomps on the brake pedal. Although raising the test speed from 100 to 150 mph seems like a simple 50-percent increase, its effects are profound.

For one thing, overcoming the aerodynamic drag at 150 mph requires 3.38 times as much power as it does at 100 mph. Therefore, whereas acceleration at two-digit speeds is primarily determined by a vehicle’s power-to-weight ratio, acceleration above 120 mph is limited more by the power-to-aerodynamic-drag ratio—the factor that also limits a vehicle’s top speed.

Raising the peak speed from 100 to 150 mph also means that the brakes must dissipate 2.25 times as much energy while bringing the car to a complete stop. Moreover, it’s done in one massive thermal jolt that’s about twice as time-consuming as that produced by a stop from 100 mph.

To measure this performance, we employed our usual Datron DLS-1 optical fifth wheel coupled to an AEP-4 data logger. This is the most accurate test gear on the market, with roughly one-quarter the error margin found in radar-gun-based testing schemes. Besides, most commercial radar guns don’t have sufficient range to conduct this test.

Our senior technical editor, Don Schroeder, was the test pilot. He was instructed to make sure that each and every run would exceed 150 mph because we would be accepting no near misses. Nor would we permit a piecing together of a car’s best 0-to-150 acceleration time with its best 150-to-0 braking performance from a different run.

Tests were conducted on the 2.23-mile-long north-south straightaway at the Chrysler proving grounds in Chelsea, Michigan. Schroeder was to devote his first pass down the track to determining the best launch procedure, shifting strategy, and braking technique. That was followed by a cool-down run, and then the real thing: a full-speed 0-to-150-to-0 blast for the numbers.

Since the vehicles that we rounded up could complete the test in about a mile, Schroeder followed each run with a three-mile cool-down. That’s how long it took to go to the end of the straight and return to the starting point.

We performed two runs in each direction and averaged the faster run each way. Those cars that were tricky to launch, shift, or stop without locking up wheels suffered the consequences. Anti-lock brakes were a major benefit because they allowed Schroeder to switch instantly from mashing the accelerator to full braking.

We collected two groups of cars. The more pulse-quickening collection consisted of modified, street-legal cars from seven of the most respected tuners in the country, with power outputs ranging from 450 to 640 horsepower and brakes and handling to match.

To avoid the remote possibility that any of our highly competitive entrants might deign to set up a one-trick special biased for this 0-to-150-to-0 test, a day earlier we wrung out the aftermarket cars on country roads and rated each one’s real-world drivability with one to five stars, five being the best.

We also rounded up a group of seven fast factory-stock cars to establish some baseline numbers for this test. Finally, as if 15 cars were not enough to handle, we brought along a video crew from Speedvision, the cable racing network, to record this historic, high-speed flailing. The eye-opening results were to make their debut on Speedvision at 8 p.m. on Friday, July 10. For detailed results and specifications, keep reading.

42.5 seconds

Kenny Brown didn’t build a specialized drag-strip burner. His Mustang 289RS Cobra is a thorough reworking of a stock Mustang Cobra to produce what he calls “a car that not only is very fast, but also makes the driver feel confident.”

Brown starts with the Cobra’s aluminum double-overhead-cam V-8 and bores it out to 289 cubic inches. New pistons and rings are attached to stock connecting rods. A high-capacity oil pan and a windage tray improve oil management. The engine is balanced and blueprinted to exact dimensional tolerances for maximum performance. A high-flow cat-back exhaust reduces back pressure. Finally, a Vortech centrifugal supercharger is fitted, which operates at 11 psi of maximum boost. The result is an impressive 450 horsepower at 6550 rpm and 400 pound-feet of torque at 5500 rpm.

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27.4 seconds

In the six years since the debut of the production Dodge Viper, John Hennessey has become the best-known tuner for those who want to make their already muscular snakes even more venomous. Not only does Hennessey provide a full line of go-fast components, but he also produces complete packages of coordinated upgrades. For this test, he provided the most volatile of these—the Venom 600GTS.

The Venom makes 602 horsepower at 5700 rpm. This output is achieved through ported and polished heads equipped with oversized stainless-steel valves and a heavy-duty valvetrain activated by a hotter camshaft, a ported and polished intake manifold with oversized throttle bodies, and stainless-steel headers. To take full advantage of this deep breathing, the Venom 600 engine gets 10.5:1 high-compression forged pistons on forged-steel connecting rods bolted to a stroker crankshaft, which increases displacement from 7990 to 8423cc.

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23.3 seconds

For this 0-to-150-to-0 battle, a call to Lingenfelter Performance Engineering in Decatur, Indiana, was a natural. That’s because John Lingenfelter never fails to return our phone calls, no matter how harebrained our scheme. We’ve also road-tested nine of the highly modified GM cars he’s turned out in the past nine years. They’ve all been well prepared, easily drivable, and brutally fast.

LPE is best known for modifying Corvettes, so no one was surprised when LPE project engineer Jason Haines showed up for our test in a bright-red 1994 ZR-1, borrowed from a Florida customer. Under its hood was what the Decatur gang calls its 415-cid LT5 package. Its ZR-1 V-8 is upgraded with steel cylinder liners to allow for the enlarged four-inch bores. Custom pistons and rods, a stroker crankshaft, and ported and polished heads with a custom valvetrain and a larger throttle body complete the package. Displacement grows from 5.7 to 6.8 liters. This surgery costs $33,900, which includes B&B exhausts and yields 620 of a total of 640 hp and 510 pound-feet of torque. This contestant had stainless-steel valves and an enlarged and polished intake manifold, which added $3500 and 20 horsepower. It also had a 3.73:1 axle ratio, a larger radiator, a single-mass flywheel, and silicone coolant hoses, which added another $2354. The front brakes are LPE/Alcon 13.5-inch-diameter slotted rotors with four-piston calipers. The $3889 spent on these binders included carbon-metallic pads fitted all around.

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28.8 seconds

Any Car and Driver super-speedfest would be incomplete without one of Hartmut Feyhl’s German jato sleds. Feyhl, formerly of super-tuner AMG in Germany and now owner of Florida-based RENNTech Performance Tuning, raises the modification of Mercedes-Benzes to a high art form. His cars are blindingly fast, rock-solid reliable, and aesthetically exquisite. They are aristocratic hot rods.

We tested this SLR7.4 when it was fresh out of open-engine surgery in March 1997. The operation bored and stroked the V-12 from its original 6.0 liters to 7.4 and greatly enhanced its ability to breathe, with an enlarged and polished intake manifold and bigger valves. The engine mods are worth $50,000 and are warranted for two years. A mellifluous high-flow RENNTech exhaust adds 10 grand. Another $5000 beefs up the transmission and adds a super-duty radiator and auxiliary coolers for the engine oil and transmission fluid. The bottom line: 585 hp at 6000 rpm; 601 pound-feet at 4000 rpm (up from 389 and 420). A $10,000 Torsen differential with a 2.82:1 ratio ensures equitable distribution of that immense torque.

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31.1 seconds

Of all the Mustang modifiers featured here, only Saleen Performance is recognized by the federal government as a specialty-vehicle manufacturer. What sets Saleen apart from other modifiers is the fact that each of the company’s seven models (the S281 and S351 coupe and convertible, the S281 Speedster, the SR, and the Saleen Explorer) is built to a particular set of specifications. The cars are developed and certified for emissions durability and then sold and serviced as new cars through select Ford dealers. As such, our S351 was subject to a $3000 gas-guzzler tax and $1679 worth of luxury tax, both of which can be avoided with the other tuners by modifying a six-month-old car. But, company president Steve Saleen argues, his cars are more durable and offer stronger resale value. The Saleen parts added to the stock Mustang are warranted for 12 months and 12,000 miles, and the Ford parts retain their original warranty.

Okay, so what’s it got? Our S351 model is powered by a Ford SVO iron-block 351-cubic-inch V-8, dressed with Saleen pistons, rods, crank, heads, intake, and cam, and pressurized by a centrifugal Speedlab supercharger by Vortech. The resultant motor pumps out 495 horses at 5700 rpm and 490 pound-feet of torque at 3500 rpm.

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26.1 seconds

Let’s establish right up front that our Steeda Q test car is a race car. It was fresh from the Nevada Open Road Challenge—a flat-out race on rural Nevada roads—where it averaged 175 mph over the race’s 90-mile-long course. Steeda Autosports also brought along an emissions-legal street car, the Steeda 4.6 2V, powered by a 340-hp, 4.6-liter SOHC supercharged V-8. After a pleasant day of driving this car around, its supercharger inlet hose refused to remain attached for the test session, so it dropped out of the 0-to-150-to-0 competition.

Street-legal versions of the Steeda Q are available, with and without supercharged engines. The basic Q package sells for $12,000. Like the Saleen S351, the Steeda Q uses a Ford SVO 351 engine, equipped with an SVO GT40 intake manifold and a 65mm throttle body, SVO cylinder heads, Ford Motorsport headers, and a high-flow exhaust (our race car lacked catalysts). The suspension gets Tokico five-position adjustable shocks and a host of Steeda parts. These include sport springs, anti-roll bars, caster and camber plates, a shock-tower brace, and offset lower-control-arm bushings in front and upper and lower arms in the rear. The brakes are Ford Cobra R issue using carbon-metallic pads. A Steeda hood and rear wing, a high-capacity aluminum radiator, and forged 9.0-by-17-inch SSR wheels shod in Michelin Pilot SX tires round out the Q package. A Vortech supercharger making 10 psi of boost added another $6000 to our car and brought the horsepower to 550 at 5200 rpm, with a peak torque of 535 pound-feet at 5000 revs. The safety cage, the racing seats, and the belts rang up $2000 more, bringing the total to $20,000.

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30.1 seconds

The promotional material put out by Super Viper Systems, Inc. (SVSi), is loaded with accounts of its many victories at Viper-club drag and road races. We expected the SVSi RT/10 to be little more than a barely civilized race car. Its raucous exhaust and nonfunctional air conditioning did little to disabuse this impression. Ron Misjak, who owns Super Viper Systems, seemed to provide an explanation when he mentioned that this particular car was used by his son for track events.

But once behind its wheel, we were surprised to find a machine that was completely at home in the real world. Its 579-hp engine idles as smoothly as a stocker’s and is compliant throughout the rev range. The ride is civilized, and the car tracks and steers beautifully. In some respects, it’s more civilized on the road than a stock RT/10 roadster. But a somewhat balky shifter, the, uh, prominent exhaust note, and the racing seat and harness earned the SVSi a two-star drivability rating.

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Conclusion

Although some cars suffered mechanical wounds during our two-day flog, at the end of our tests at the track, Chrysler’s straightaway was neither littered with twisted connecting rods and fractured brake rotors, nor lubricated with engine oil or coolant. This was especially satisfying because every one of the modified machines was a streetable car in keeping with our rules. They were all shod with genuine street tires (rather exotic ones in some cases), muffled by silencers that will not attract unsympathetic gendarmes, and fitted with reasonably supple suspensions. As we had suspected, aerodynamics and gearing helped several cars improve their finishing order substantially between 100 mph and 150 mph during the acceleration portion of the test. We were also pleased to see that although every entrant delivered decent braking performance, the stopping time from 150 mph did make the critical difference in at least two contests—the Steeda versus the Hennessey and the RENNTech versus the SVSi. Finally, the convincing overall victory by the Lingenfelter ZR-1 confirms that speed contests are still subject to the laws of physics. After all, this ZR-1 had the most powerful engine, the lightest weight, and the least aerodynamic drag of all the tuners. Combined with its anti-lock brakes, it proved unbeatable. At least until next time.

It’s No Joy Ride

So, what’s it feel like—and sound like—to rocket one of these pricey tuner sleds to 150 miles an hour? And, we hear you asking, what happens when you slam on the brakes at that blurry speed?

As the test driver, I can answer those questions, but bear in mind that these tests aren’t the joy rides they might appear to be. With all the tasks the driver faces, there’s not much time for thrills.

In launching a car from a standstill, wheelspin can work to your advantage, but you must keep tight control of it with powerful cars like these. Some cars, like the Hennessey Venom, were a cinch to launch. Give it throttle until the tach shows 1400 rpm, then release the clutch pedal as quickly as possible while flooring it, and you’re banged forward with a smooth shove that doesn’t let up until the redline. Other cars are more complicated. With the Steeda Mustang, for example, it’s a delicate exercise of balancing throttle pressure with clutch engagement to prevent the tires from going up in smoke.

There isn’t much time to get it right. Bog the engine without enough wheelspin, or send the tires up in smoke, or linger too long at the starting gate, and the engine builds too much heat to generate full power.

Once you’re off, that first shift comes up quickly. You want to shift as closely to the redline as possible, but if you hit the rev limiter, your run is toast. Shift as quickly as the gearbox will permit, and the speedo needle continues its climb with just the slightest interruption. Get it wrong—for example, when the synchros or an H-pattern blocks a shift—and the gearbox lets go with a hideous crunching of gears that goes way past “grinding a pound.” And your run is, again, toast.

After the second-to-third-gear shift, the hardest part is behind you—the tires have finished their snake dance and are finally glued to the tarmac, and upcoming shifts aren’t as critical. This is when powerful cars feel at their best. If there’s any thrill in 0 to 150, it’s during these next few seconds. Even after eight years, the thrust from powerful cars like these still makes me giddy, and you can savor the roar of the engine before consequent wind noise starts to drown out the symphony. You must listen closely to that symphony, analyzing it for signs of excessive detonation, while always keeping an eye on the tachometer and other vital signs.

Up around 130 and 140 mph, there’s a lot to distract you. The wind shrieks around the windshield pillars, and the steering starts losing precision, requiring more correction. This is something to think about when you’re about to slam on the brakes, with just a few feet between the car and the weeds and who knows what.

Above 140, a mental checklist flashes in my mind: Steer the car over the center line. Move left foot over the brake pedal or over the clutch. Does this car have ABS? Brace the steering wheel. Watch the digits for 149 (the speedometer has a delay of a mile or so per hour). Watch the readout with one eye: 147.3 . . . 148.2 . . . 148.8 . . . Brake! And concentrate!

At that moment, you have to get the clutch in instantly—if not, the engine will keep the car from slowing down quickly. You also have to keep the car heading straight down the track—the weight transfer to the front wheels under hard braking makes all but a couple of the cars in this supertest squirm nervously. The Vipers don’t have anti-lock brakes, so while you’re hard on the pedal, you have to watch for the slightest shift in the chassis that tells you a tire is locking up. Braking hard at 150 is unlikely to provoke a spin. But you never forget that at this speed, any off-track excursion would put your neck at serious risk, not to mention the car.

It feels like a hot seat behind the wheel, but not because the air conditioning is turned off. You’re also on stage, with a big audience—this one included Speedvision and antsy owners who’d like their cars to perform well. And you have just four shots to get it right. Any mistakes you make will be obvious to everyone, and recorded on videotape forever.

Some joy ride. —Don Schroeder

Source: Reviews - aranddriver.com