NMCA Auto Show - LSX Shootout

One of the unfortunate few to fall victim to the rigors of the street cruise was Sean Falls (of LSXtransport.com), whose 9-second '98 Camaro would have been a strong contender with a Procharged 347 LS1 under the hood, but became the victim of--of all things--a loose alternator wire. Though he did make it back to the track, the crew had to pop the hood in the lanes and so the F-body was DQ'ed, though the Brown Meadows, NY native was still allowed to make passes anyway. It was a shame, too, because his was one of the nicest-looking cars at the event.

The True Street event attracted its fair share of clean daily drivers as well. As an example, here's Gary Taillon's 2002 Camaro that was brought all the way from Baton Rouge, LA. Sitting behind its Futral-built, AFR-headed 346 was an FLT tranny, and this car was no lightweight, weighing in at more than 3,700 pounds. Despite the portly race weight, Gary's proved to be one of the most consistent cars at the event, with all runs being within 0.021 of his 11.345-sec. ET average.

Here's one of the top dogs, the 720 rwhp 1998 Camaro of Linda Massingill, co-proprietor of the School of Automotive Machinists (Houston, TX). Sporting LS7 heads atop an LS2 block, an ERL deck spacer allowed this engine's 4.500-inch crank to supply 500 CI of motivation--yet still remain streetable with a 10.5:1 compression ratio. Like the other SAM car at the Shootout, this one was built by the students of the school. With two runs in the mid-10s and one in the mid-11s, Linda ended up finishing with the 6th overall fastest average, though unfortunately with no awards.

Joe Huneycutt working on his 2001 Camaro. Joe's 9.14/145 put him in the running to win All Motor, but a broken rod sent him home early.

Ken Quartuccio, owner Gary Gonzalez, Rob Weber, Sean Gustafson, and Brian "Madman" Jeffery perform some maintenance on the BigStuff 3-controlled 440 LSX from East Side Performance.

Jersey (and Bowery) boy Bill Maloney had a wicked fast Vette at Memphis, but his '97's trans problems kept the 8.5 ET C5 out of contention.

Driver/tuner Wade Stevens and car owner Andre Avigdor pose in front of the 402-powered Firebird that took them to the semifinals in Drag Radial. The 98mm turbo car ran a best of 7.91 at 177.

After racing ended Saturday, Brian Reese of Comp Cams and his wife Karissa hosted a joint Comp Cams/GMHTP party at their house in east Memphis. The beer flowed like water, we stuffed ourselves with BBQ, and along with a great group of LS racers and vendors, GMMG's Matt Murphy brought along several of his and customers' GMMG Camaros. Shown are GMHTP editors Scott Parker and Chris Werner, never ones to turn down a turn a drink. Thanks, Reese family!

Yes, the Nitto crew was there with a huge display, including some of those cool Invos and the Extreme Drag drag radials. Yes, the tire is the only thing we notice in this photo...