| Note: Videos at the bottom Today was a great day for drag racing! The weather was a bit warm at around 90 degrees, but it cooled down pretty quick. The 15-20mph headwind didn't help either, but nothing was going to stop these guys from running (except me as I was camera boy with my slowly failing tranny). For the first time in quite a while, we had a bunch of the higher power SoCal TTZs out at the track. Not only that, Greg Dupree pulled his TDO5-16G powered 280Z out from under the car cover with the goal of the day being a 9 second pass and getting kicked off the track (and boy did he come damn close!) On the way over to the track. We have Seb on the left, Greg in the very front (just visible), Dean (Can Ace U) behind him and Sport 500 Steve on the right. We call him that since he made the highest ever dyno on Sport 500s and he has an AUTOMATIC. That car is the sickly fast and exactly what I want out of mine. He was pulling 11.5s by the time the night wound down and that's with high 1.9 60' times! That car probably has 10s in it with SPORT 500s! Just goes to show that proper tuning, driving and the right people putting the car together can do. 
In the Tech line. Only 60 cars there when we arrived...that beats 350 last time and being turned away :( While Steve and Zo were running great, the day was mostly about watching Greg run that beast while Seb and Dean were ironing out other issues. No less than a hundred people must have came up to his car, snapped photos of it and discussed how sick it was and how impressed they were. He was like a celebrity today. I remember walking to the stands and hearing some guy in a blown Mustang yell over to his friends "Hey, that 280 has Twin Turbos in it" followed by "No way!"s and "We've got to see this!". 
...and for good reason, too. Damn that's sweet. 
The plate says it all. 
The bottle was at 1100psi just from the ambient heat of the day. Only one way to get it down to 900... 
Pictures don't do this car justice. Even though it was somewhat slow (V8 powered and in the 14s), it was beautifully done. 
Was trying to sneak a shot of the female to the left and managed to get mostly a strange angle on the Z. It'd be wallpaper if I got more of her :( PS: Yes my camber is jacked. 
The men of Specialty-Z. Seb and Greg Dupree. 
Sport 500 Steve's engine bay. Very nice. 
The Zs made quite an impression at the track. Every Z that stepped up to a race ended up winning and most were in the 11s in one way or another. Seemed like everyone else was running slower today but us. As such, it felt DAMN good to own a Z today...moreso than usual. Seb would line up against a built up Nova and waste it or Steve would be 5 cars back on some Chevy and beat it by 5 on the top. You name it, people were talking about it. People in the stands would cheer like crazy when Greg came up and the announcer had a serious hard-on for the car. He just couldn't believe it. He was the second fastest car at the event today with fastest being a tubbed out muscle car sporting massive velocity stacks out the hood and god knows what else. Of course, it was trailered out to the event and was run by an entire crew just to get 10.35s to Greg's 10.44. And he drove his 280 with the A/C on 70 miles there and 70 miles back =) 
Some of the gang helping to set up. 
ZHOUND's 11.4 slip just before I left. He came a bit later in the day and was steadily lowering his times. 10s are so close man...look at that ugly 60' (compared to what he has done) and still an 11.4! 
Sport 500 Steve's slip. He put down consistent 11.5s/11.6s with only 1.9 60's. I think with some more practice we just might have a 10 second Sport 500 car in SoCal. Bet you never saw THAT coming? Arnel is going to hate us for all the list updates :) 
Greg's 10.67 on his third run of the day. The track was still slippery since it had been freshly resurfaced and the few shakedown runs earlier in the day didn't do much to help just yet. 
His next run was even better at 10.57 
And just before I had to leave I witnessed him try his launch with a bit of boost finally (he had been launching at 0psi because of the traction) and wham, 10.44@137mph. Both personal bests. I didn't hear back from them, so I'm assuming this was the best time of the day! And he didn't even have things turned all the way up and/or launching at a full 8psi of boost as he can do. The failing Posi didn't help either. Next time they'll be seeing 9s for sure! 
And here's a couple videos on the day: One of Steve's 11 second passes. The R/T wasn't the greatest, but that wasn't the point today Sport 500 Steve Seb's car sounding like a top-fuel dragster with the LaBree exhaust. Take what you hear and multiply it by 10 in person. I still don't understand how it's that loud. He was setting the traction control in case you're wondering =) Seb Greg's 10.81 run. Look at that thing go. Greg 10.81 And finally Greg's 10.44 run. Wow. Greg 10.44@137mpg There ya have it. Drag season is in full swing and hopefully I'll have my built tranny by September. Automatic running 11s on stockers? Man, I hope! :)
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Socal Drag Day pics and video (Mr. Dupree in the low 10s!) - 
