Shawn Zubler Preparing For East Coast Outlaw 10.5 Wars

After a couple of up-and-down seasons, including a rough crash in 2008, Shawn Zubler seems to have finally found his groove, and is preparing his killer ’99 Pontiac Trans Am for the Outlaw 10.5 wars on the East Coast. Zubler, who competes regularly at Atco Raceway, Cecil County Dragway, and the Shakedown, finally figured out some of the issues that have been plaguing him over the last couple of years. We actually caught up with him while he was in the middle of scaling the car, but he was happy to talk to us about his plans for this year.

“We made the engine just a little bit bigger, it’s now 549 cubic inches, with the same set of 91mm turbochargers on it as before. I had a big boost leak in the exhaust after last year, so we fixed that problem using a smoke machine to figure out where the leak was. I’ve also done a lot of refinement in the overall package – we moved a lot of weight from the back of the car forward,” says Shawn.

“We also took the Lithium Pros battery out of the back and moved it up next to the fuel cell, which allowed me to take the 25 pound weight bar out of the nose. We also put the ice box on top of the intercooler instead of leaving it in the hatch. Just by moving it forward, we were able to remove six gallons of water from the system, which is about another fifty pounds. Last year we were running at 2,980 pounds, but we can be 2,900 under the rules,” he explained.

The car is built from a Montana Brothers Race Cars chassis that Shawn picked up partially-finished a couple of years ago, and then put the finishing touches on at home in his garage. His brother, Brett, was a huge help in getting the car completed initially and remains an integral part of the team to this day. For 2013, Zubler also added a new set of wheels on the front along with carbon front brakes, all part of his effort to optimize the chassis and place weight where it will be most effective.

The plan to optimize the car will allow him to have the weight in the car where it will be most effective, rather than just where it was. The car remains legal for NMCA, although Shawn isn’t sure whether he’ll be making the trek to their closest race. As he lives in the Philadelphia suburbs, the closest NMCA event is at Norwalk, which isn’t exactly on the beaten path for him with so many other quality events close to home. Last season, the car turned in a best pass of 4.20 at 185 MPH towards the end of the year – and that was with the boost leak. The car has been consistent 1.05-1.06 short times on a good track, and his first event is at Cecil County this coming Friday, so he’ll have a good gauge on 2013 shortly.