Organized drag racing and land speed record racing have had a distant yet intertwined connection to one another throughout history, as racers and their machines have crossed over and tried their hand at the other.  But more than anything, both are about speed and the rush that it creates, and that’s where they are ultimately linked.

Credit: Marshall Hall

Eric Yost, who has been a force to recon with during Hot Rod Magazines’ Drag Week over the last few years, recently took on the opportunity to cross over into the world of land speed record attempts.  At this past weekend during the annual Hot Rod Top Speed Challenge at the Maxton Mile in North Carolina, Eric turned a record-setting run of 241 MPH in the Blown Gas Super Street (BG/SS) class.

Yost, who works for NASCAR’s Michael Waltrip Racing by day, was behind the wheel of his familiar 1982 Firebird – owned by former Ken Black Racing crew chief and current Al-Anabi Racing tuner Jeff Perley, and Jason Hughes.  This was the first Pro Street car into the 7’s at Drag Week and this past year,  also holding a 7-second average elapsed time before experiencing transmission problems.

The Firebird has had a bit of a storied history, originally owned by John Meaney and driven by the likes of Mike Moran and the late Steve Grebeck. The car sports a 400 cubic inch small block Chevrolet with twin 76mm turbochargers producing around 1,800 horsepower that was originally used for land speed record attempts at the Bonneville Salt Flats and has been as quick as 299 MPH in another car.  The well-traveled Don Bailey tunes the powerplant that includes parts scavenged from NASCAR engines, including a Callies crank, JE pistons, 23-degree Pontiac cylinder heads, Edelbrock victor intake, a 9mm throttle body with Big Stuff 3 and 150-pound injectors.

Power is transferred through a Turbo 400 transmission and  a TCI converter used for the speed attempt.  A back half, mild steel, ladder-bar car, the Pontiac weighs in at a hefty 3,800 pounds, and Yost explained that ballast was actually added to the back end of the car for the speed record attempt to keep from spinning the tires. “[Jeff] Perley asked if I wanted to do something, and I thought well, we’ll give it a shot,” said Eric.

Yost determined after conferring with others that a set of tires from a Nextel Cup car would a safe and easy thing to do for the attempt, and thus a set of speedway tires from the MWR shop were fitted on the car.  A head restraint and fire system were also installed in the car to comply with East Coast Timing Association (ECTA) guidelines. “We went down in October to get certified to go over 200, and Keith, the same tech guy on Drag Week, knew it would run 184 in the quarter, so he said just start out at 150, then go 175, then you can go 200.”

“That tire was so bad, it would spin the tire at 170, I mean it was just bad, bad…no chance, never got full throttle.” Eric eventually topped 191 MPH that weekend, setting the AA/BGC record, over 20 MPH faster than the previous mark. In preparation for last weekends Top Speed Challenge, he and his crew increased the shock rate in the rear, added some ballast, built a wing for the back and an underbelly, added a front chin spoiler, and bolted on a set of Mickey Thompson 315/60 Drag Radial tires.

“So we went back down, shut the car down at 210 on the first pass and never got full throttle, and the second pass on Saturday we went 233 and I was wide open for 1.1 seconds.  And then the 241 pass, I was wide open for like 3.1 seconds.  It’s still got some left in it.” Maxton is a one-mile, standing start course that Eric explained that the goal, unlike the miles-long, running start courses like Bonneville, is to go wide open throttle on the second half mile.

He, Perley, and Hughes have discussed the possibility of taking the car to Bonneville at some point, if they can get some issues with the engine lined out that will improve its longevity and allow it to run over the longer distance. “It went through the lights around 7600 and we normally turn it 8000, 8200, so it’s definitely, definitely got more.”