My 22 days before Indy
 

As the title of the thread states, 22 days before Indy I was notified by the head of NHRA tech that the pistons for the 302/350 HP NA Cobra Jet combinations (which have been on the approved product list for the past 4 years) must be changed. Two weeks prior to that they changed all the cylinder head casting numbers around, deleting some and adding others...at that time it made half of the motor legal and half illegal
:confused: Still to this day I don't understand. The 2013 350 HP NA Cobra Jet only came with 1 style cylinder head. That means 1 part number for the left and one for the right! I have been threatened, harassed, and criticized since Gainesville by the Michigan Mafia. Mike Pustelny, Charley Downing, and the self-proclaimed :rolleyes: "God father of the Cobra Jet" Jim Ronzello. The self-proclaimed God father who was never once on Ford's payroll for the Cobra Jet program. For someone who wasn't in the actual program, he sure does have a massive amount of Cobra Jet parts and BIW car's in his garage. Maybe that is why Mike Dellihanti is no longer with Ford Performance :eek:

After showing up to Indy with my New Pistons and Out of the box Cylinder heads we started to make head way on getting the car down the track. On the 3rd run we wound up going 9.38. With what I had left in the tune up and RPM launch change I figured it would go in the 20's. That is when we were told the motor was sealed and that the next morning we would have to bring the car to the tear down barn and pull a piston. This was the 3rd complete tear down we faced in the same year. Even though I could have turned it up and run faster it still wouldn't have been good enough to win class in FS/C. I jumped 2 classes to stay away from the Michigan Mafia, because of all their threats leading up to this race and at the event. One of them was in E and the other in D. So we decided to race in C. I should have added 300lbs to the car and ran E because that would have put us in the 9.60's. The fastest E car was going 9.94.

I guess the moral behind this story is if other competitors don't work on their ***** and make it fast that you aren't allowed to do it either. So as I am following Wesley to the big NHRA tech trailer to get the certified scale to weigh my piston and rod as I stepped inside, sitting right on the tech director's desk where the computer was I saw a hero card and it made me understand why I was there...That is when I was also told there was numerous phone calls and emails from the Michigan Mafia to tear me down for the 3rd time this year. So I took a picture with my Rod and Piston in front of the hero card. Gotta love it!


https://scontent-lga3-1.xx.fbcdn.net...d2&oe=5E11FADB

Re: My 22 days before Indy
 

Nice hero card. Jimmy should be proud.

Re: My 22 days before Indy
 

That makes me wonder why they didn't extend the same courtesy to Gary Summers???

Re: My 22 days before Indy
 

More like the Michigan Crybabies? There's always a backdoor in the automakers factories!

Re: My 22 days before Indy
 

Wow,you can not make this Bull **** Up.
Sent PM

Re: My 22 days before Indy
 

Somebody must have poked the bear.

-or-

When you're already in a hole, stop digging...

Re: My 22 days before Indy
 

Jim, I believe you are giving way too much credit to the MICHIGAN MAFIA....Also, it’s never a GOOD idea to run 1.20 under in order to be factored into the next class ....REGARDS .......

Re: My 22 days before Indy
 

I thought you were going to say "wrong section" of this site?

Re: My 22 days before Indy
 

I would like to say the same but the facts are the facts. Back in the day, when Daddy Warbucks 2 was running fast, Jimmy made it very clear that he was not happy and pushed us around then. When Roy Hill went fast he bitched and moaned about him. We have taken Daddy Warbucks 2 apart 9 times in competition. We have now taken the NA Cobra Jet apart 5 times. Jimmy has told me himself, that it was because of him. I understand he builds and runs the same combinations we do. We just wish his motors were as fast as ours so we could just race heads up instead of having to pull pistons out constantly.


As for going .120 under the index we did not try to do that. We put an extra 140lbs in the car and did not believe the air was so good. But when it happened we accepted the beating we took from the Michigan Mafia and decided to go to FS/C.



Jim D'Amore

Re: My 22 days before Indy
 

May 25th:
June 28th:
"But now we are trying to make the car a natural D car which we will do by years end." http://classracer.com/classforum/sho...492#post591492

June 28th again:
"We are trying to make a D combination so we fit in a class" http://classracer.com/classforum/sho...499#post591499

June 28th for the 3rd time:
"Or you can let us go on our way to make just the 14 a Natural D car" http://classracer.com/classforum/sho...507#post591507

June 29th:
"the car needs to be a natural D car so we can go up to C" http://classracer.com/classforum/sho...534#post591534

And now September 5th:

Re: My 22 days before Indy
 

Yes you are correct I said those things. At the beginning of the season two of the Michigan Mafia racers hit the index with the 2014 350 HP NA combination. Then we hit the index, it was decided to make the car a natural D car. When we went 1.20 under that wasn't intentional. It was the first run off the trailer with extra added weight in the car. We will live with the HP on that combination. Do you run this combination in NHRA competition? You seem very concerned about this...I've never seen your name on any qualifying sheets.

Re: My 22 days before Indy
 

. Jim, might be a good time to update the weather station ?? ......REGARDS .....

Re: My 22 days before Indy
 

How would you infer concern? Those were 100% your comments, not mine. No I'm not concerned at all, I'm entertained. :)

Re: My 22 days before Indy
 

Kristofer, I think you misunderstood my question...you seem very concerned about the combination of the engine in NHRA competition. In your avatar your Mustang doesn't show it to be in NHRA competition, looks more like a street race. My question to you is, have you ever raced NHRA competition and if so have you used this combination? Just curious why you are so interested.


Thank you,


Jim

Re: My 22 days before Indy
 

Yes I own one. No I haven't competed with it at this time. You of course already know that I own one as a couple of months ago I started a thread about the cylinder head casting numbers being revised, then expressed concern about the Mahle piston legality with photos of the original and then some having the same part number placed on them yet they had domes so huge that they even had to have a relief for the spark plug and wouldn't even fit into the chamber of a legal head. You claimed everyone was attacking you and got that thread locked. Everyone else was wrong, you were right. Except now here you are with different pistons and different heads, so I guess not.

EDIT: Per Ken Jim did not cause old thread to be locked.

Re: My 22 days before Indy
 

Bad ***, it will be great to see you at an event with this combination. No the pistons and heads are still in the 14 motor, we switched to the 13 motor so we could run in C. The 14 motor is still legal as well, it has always been. We just switched back to the original 13 combination so we could run in C. That thread you are speaking about was locked because of Personal attacks by the Michigan Mafia. When do you plan on having this combination ready, its been a couple of years?


Jim

Re: My 22 days before Indy
 

Why do you use this site to air your dirty laundry. Seems to me like you need to talk less and listen more.

Re: My 22 days before Indy
 

I'm still waiting for the "Triple Dog Dare"

Re: My 22 days before Indy
 

How's that FS/C working out? Just curious. Seems like most of the C cars are running 9.0's to 9.10's? FS/D doesn't look very fun either, might need to run 9.50's in D. Now 9.70's in E would be fun? Might should try that 429 combo in C. That thing really runs. Just some ideas?

Re: My 22 days before Indy
 

Check the NHRA National Records; Don Carson has the FS/E record at 9.42@141.76, and he has run in the high 9.20s in FS/D.

Re: My 22 days before Indy
 

That was way before all the hp they have put on the car, almost 40hp.

Re: My 22 days before Indy
 

I don't know. I have everything for it except time.

Isn't this thread full of you making personal attacks on them? I'd bet that doesn't concern them though, that they just enjoy watching as you keep poking that bear...

Re: My 22 days before Indy
 

on the 14 combination we added 18 HP since day one.......

we never added horsepower to the 13 combination......

please know the facts....

Re: My 22 days before Indy
 

So this quote interested me, seeing as I've heard a lot about you guys getting HP on these combinations, and I just assumed it was true. I have no dog in this fight, but I was curious. So I went back and looked at the hits on NHRARacer.com. Here's what I saw.

2014 Combo - mid year review 2019. 385 -> 390 HP. You guys triggered it twice and had an average more than 0.85 under in FS/D. 5 HP from you guys.

2014 Combo - Reading LODRS. 1.20 under hit from you guys. 372 -> 385 HP. So there's the 18 you mentioned.

2013 Combo - end year review 2018. 388 -> 393 HP. Looks like Belles did this one.

2013 Combo - end year review 2017. 383 -> 388. Looks like you guys from 2 triggers and average over 0.85 under in FS/D.

2014 Combo - end year review 2017. 363 -> 372. Several people triggered this one, but it appears you triggered it twice, before anybody else did, including with the 1.15 under that meant 2.25% instead of 1.25%.

2013 Combo - mid year review 2017. 378 -> 383. Looks like another 2 triggers and average over 0.85 under from you guys.

The last hit prior to 2017 looks to be in 2014, and the NHRA average sheets don't go back that far so I don't know exactly who was responsible for those, but it appears you guys weren't running the car back then based on Nitro Joe's stats.

Either way, I'm showing 27 HP on the 2014 combo and 10 HP on the 2013, including being involved in 5 of the last 6 hits on this combo. Maybe I missed something, but that's what it looked like to me.

Re: My 22 days before Indy
 

wow..

I need a weather station and calculator.

you do remember a guy named Bo Butner ran this combination


I only know of 18 HP

Re: My 22 days before Indy
 

and everybody Still going 1 under

Re: My 22 days before Indy
 

I will say this about Jim D'Amore,he is honest, no one out works him and he will share a wealth of information on the new mustangs.JMO

Re: My 22 days before Indy
 

Thank you for the kind words David. You know this all started back in Gainesville, the beginning of this year. Two cars with the same combination hit the index a couple of times to be #1. He came up to me and said sorry but I had to do it. I was actually happy for him (a fellow Cobra Jet racer) to become #1. That is when I was told that he was not involved but they are going to tear us down again at Indy this year. That was all the way back in March. I never paid much attention to that statement until a Month before Indy our cylinder head casting #s disappeared from the approved product list. This bothered me because I checked with Ford and Dave Born said he knew nothing about it. I checked with Ford Parts and service, the part#s that disappeared were still available from Ford. So I contacted NHRA and they put 1 casting # back up. This made half of the motor in our car legal and the other illegal. Because there are different casting#s for left and right side. So we changed the heads to a casting # that they said was not going to be deleted. Two weeks after that approved piston #s were deleted. These were the approved pistons since 2013 when the combination was born. So literally 2 days before leaving for Indy they approved a new piston. So i was told by the "Don" that they had all classes covered especially E and D for protesting. I figured if we went to C we would know how much influence the "Don" had on NHRA. I couldn't believe my ears when they told me we had to pull a Rod and Piston after being qualifier #118 out of 160 cars. They said there was discrepancy's on the last 2 tear down cards. They brought Wesley in to make sure the other tech inspectors were right or wrong. We nicknamed the car "legal-cheater" and life goes on...

Jim D'Amore

Re: My 22 days before Indy
 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4T7Tody1AJQ&feature=youtu.be&fbclid=IwAR0j eLlrupNVrxijdrZGha8sHFxpKnAM-qT2fOL6DlUloIz74BnETFk_NA8


Great video by Evan Smith.