My Son's Duster and the Lil' Engine that Could

I know a few of you are Friends on FB but some aren't and I do not post on here much anymore. But, I thought I'd share some pics and videos of my Son Cory's Duster that we run in Limited 235. If you don't know, Limited 235 is a Heads-Up 1/8-mile Class, based around the 235/60/15 Radial tire or 26 x 8.5 Slick. My Son's Duster is is a Street/Strip car on Leaf Springs, a 357" Gen 3 Hemi with a Single Dominator and Switzer Dynamics Fogger, Rossler Turbo 400, Fab 9 Rear, Full Interior. Car weighs 3080lbs with him in it. Full interior. Car is street driven a bunch as well as raced. We were at No Mercy 13 this past weekend running the last Limited 235 race of the season. We ran the whole Limited 235 series this year, for the first time.

If you've never been to one of Duck's Races, be it Lights Out or No Mercy, it's a must do!! There's nothing like it.

My Son's combo is limited to an .036 nitrous Jet. Motor is 357", 5.7 block, Factory 6.1 crank - offset ground .100" and uses 2.00" Chevy journal rods, 12.5:1 compression, Ported 6.4 BGE Heads, Factory Rockers and Shafts, Johnson Lifters, Ritter Intake with Switzer Dynamics Fogger, 1100cfm Dominator Carb.

Long Story Short, we were having carb issues and borrowed a different carb from a Friend racing at the event. Made a bad call on carb jetting and timing during qualifying we nicked few spark plugs and hurt one cylinder, but it still amazed us that this thing, even hurt ran within one hundreth of it's best ever pass and bested it's mph by.6 mph. So, had we not hurt this thing, I'm sure this thing would've gotten into the teens. We sat out the rest of qualifying as our position wouldn't have changed and got lucky with a 1st round broke bye (take them when you can get them!!). The video below is the 2nd round of elims. The plan was to take each step and evaluate. If it makes it through the burnout, send it!! If it leaves and takes it, keep going!! If it don't feel right, get out and don't drive over the crank. Well, it took it and ran like a beast, even with a hurt #8 cylinder and smoking like a freight train! It ran 5.24 @ 130.6 with a 1.18 60ft. That equaled our last qualifier that was just after hurting it. Truth be told, since we hurt it, for the last qualifier and Elims, we yanked the passenger race bucket and rear seat to shed about 70 lbs. It took an act of God to do it, as my Son prides himself on it being a streetcar with full interior in a race car world. We didn't win the round but were still tickled to death what this little motor did, even hurt. It was a great learning season, figuring out what a Gen 3 Hemi's want on nitrous (a little secret....there aren't many out there that know, so we had to figure it out ourselves) and until this race, we never nicked a spark plug. So, next year, with what we know now, we'll be coming out swinging.

So, the current motor is coming out this week and we've already had a new short block in the works. We're going to reuse the existing top half. The new configuration is going to be 71 cubes bigger, at 428". With that and some more weight reduction, being that the car is 155lbs overweight for the class, we should be solid in the 4.90/5.0 range next year where most of the class is. And still drive it on the street!!

Later!!

20221028_103913 by Stephen Rimay, on Flickr

20221029_221046 by Stephen Rimay, on Flickr

20221029_201651 by Stephen Rimay, on Flickr

That thing just keeps getting quicker. Always enjoy seeing both of your cars. Hope to run into you guys next year.
Doug

There is no doubt that you guys will be in the thick of things next year!!! Great job guys!!! Can't wait to hear how the first outing goes with the new combo.

Super impressive job.
Does a good job driving the car too.
Be fun to see next year when you can bring a gun to a gun fight!

Wow, very impressive....Thanks for sharing. I also do not have FB....Never will.

If your into trying carbs, I would suggest an SV1 on your application....The NOS guys swear by them around here. They say they are able to get it up on a tight convertor where standard carbs won't...

STEFF,

That’s a bad HotRod! Tuner, car setup and driver have their stuff together. It’s also great that you get to run on a top shelf prepped track versus a slip n slide track, especially on that 235. Thanks for sharing what you’ve been up to with your son and Duster. You two have put in the effort to get after it, and results are incredible. Dig the car, setup and watch the videos when I come across them. The new setup will be flying and wish you both all the best next season. Again, nice job!

win or lose....it doesnt matter, there are NO better times than you are having right now !! Enjoy the experience and be happy you guys are having a great time. The ET's and wins will come because the kid seems to keep at it, and you are there fully supporting the dream ! ! Keep on doing it !!!

Those Gen 3's seems to always impress me, when i hear Gen 3 first car comes to mind is the turbo Volare car (can't think of that guy's screen name) they are fast

Again nice work guys! Very impressive!

Steff….will you guys have the new mill for Lights out?

Very nice!!!
Congratulations

Impressive for sure.

Like I said on FB, that's bada$$! Flyin' for sure!

Just curious, Caltrac or Assassin bars?

Hey John!! Caltracs, Calvert Monoleafs, CJ Race Cars Sliders, Menscer/Leaf Spring Nation Shocks and a Rhodes Race Cars Anti-Roll Bar

Thanx Everyone for the Kind words!

Yes! That's typically the first race of the new Limited 235 Season.

Thanks for sharing…. Very cool stuff for sure!

Sounds like a good weekend of racing and some good takeaways for next year.

Really great work!