Video: “Mad Man” Frankie Taylor Testing The Hairdryers

Back in December, former ADRL Pro Extreme champion Frankie Taylor dropped a bit of news that had everyone both scratching their heads and taking bright-eyed notice at the same time. The longtime supercharger racer from Texas, the current class record holder with the combination, let his intentions of at least attempting a twin-turbo combo in Pro Extreme known. This new of course gained attention because if anyone can break through and make the turbos work in the blower-dominated class, it’s the Mad Man.

Owning two similar Jeffers Pro Cars-built race cars – the plain black Corvette that won the Pro Extreme title and his colorful Corvette that was campaigned in Extreme 10.5 last season – allows Taylor the ability to try the new combination without fully committing to the switch and abandoning his trusty screw blower or swapping back and forth between the two. The popular racer has been making laps of late at Houston Motorsports Park near his home with the 526 cubic inch Hemi powerplant bolted up to a set of Bullseye Power turbos on alcohol.

Concrete numbers from testing of the turbo combo haven’t been overly publicized, but a couple of videos have have popped up on the internet of the Mad Man, including one in which a 4.87 elapsed time with a 1.0X short time is recorded, lifting some two seconds into the run. This, with a rumored 10-11 pounds of boost and ample timing pulled out to get a baseline tune-up. In the video above, those with knowledge of Taylor’s testing report a boost reading of 59 pounds (!) at the point at which you see the flash of flame from the left side intake to turbo tube being blown off. No doubt that Taylor’s goal is to get this “underdog” combo into the 3.50’s and keep the parts inside at the same time, and we can’t wait to see what not only he, but Mike Moran and others can accomplish this season with the hairdryers.