Resurrecting The Past With This '85 Grand National...

  First, let’s “recap” on a few things: we know that there are only two ways--and two ways only--to make any car go fast; you either shave weight off of it or build more power on to it. Technology, including head and cam designs, continues to evolve as automakers spend more money on researching forced induction, all-wheel-drive systems and so on. But no matter how much research goes into these kinds of systems, it will always boil-down to one thing: there is a solid correlation, a definite and unbreakable relationship, between brake horsepower and net weight.

  With that simple philosophy of auto-performance in mind, this tux-black, ’85 Grand National enters the motorhead arena. One of around 2100 units produced, this classic turbo-Regal has only had 3 owners over the coarse of its lifetime. On top of this, the car has 96k original miles, with only 4k dumped on it since it was rebuilt, and it’s only been repainted once.

  The car also has plenty of “go-fast goodies” to keep even the most discriminating enthusiasts on the edge of their seats, including a PT70 turbo, Ford Powerstroke intercooler, ported heads with new valves and springs, an LS1 mass airflow sensor, Razor alcohol injection and a 4”, “Big Mouth” cold-air intake, all enough, according to the owner, to “break the rear tires loose at 60mph.”

  With all of the write-ups that have been done lately on LS performance within the market, it’s refreshing to finally see that there are gearheads out there who still appreciate that phase of American performance when America most learned-and-borrowed from Western Europe and Japan, finding more efficient ways to create street/track power.      What’s even better than this is knowing that not only are rodders/muscle enthusiasts resurrecting the past, but they’re using the performance tech of the Millenium to make the past that much better.

Josh Straub's GMC Syclone

  Imagine, if you will, a time in which we lived just a few years back. It was a time, during the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, when a production V6 was faster than a production V8, much to the dismay of many traditional performance enthusiasts. But for those of us who were progressive enough to see where automotive technology was heading even that far back, it was an exciting progression in performance tech that would inevitably become precursor to the electronic, fuel-injected trend that has currently gripped the high-performance end of the auto market.

  GMC’s turbocharged, all-wheel-drive Syclone was the fastest production sport truck of its time, and very few, if any, production trucks have matched its record. With around 285bhp, an amazing figure for a stock V6 of the time, the S-10/Sonoma truck could keep-up even with some of the fastest of the era, including the ZR-1 Corvette and Porsche’s 911 turbo. But what becomes of the world’s fastest production truck when it’s buffed-out to a low 11-second track runner?

  Turbo performance guru, Josh Straub, holds the answer with his rare-and-fast, 1991 GMC Syclone. Under the hood of this mini beast, the original 4.3 V6 sat and ran for up to about 130k miles, but finally spun a bearing at around 140k. Once that was done, the factory block was replaced by a short block from RPM, along with a 4-bolt crank, forged SRP pistons with Eagle H-Beam rods, a 67-mm, PT6780H turbo, Vortec heads, a Comp cam and a trick, air-to-air intercooler.
     The most common problems that Straub has encountered with the radical turbo setup are issues of air/fuel mixture; at boost ranges between 19-23psi, Straub’s AFR, as recorded in DataMaster’s dyno test, ran relatively lean at a ratio of around 14:1. These readings were also caused, in part, by faulty wiring when hooking-up the dyno, so the exact ratios are unknown, though minor engine knock could be heard under certain running conditions.

  Motors with radical turbos are usually prone to be finicky, especially past the 20psi threshold, but don’t think that Josh’ quarter-mile times still aren’t impressive. So far, Straub has run a best time of 11.39 @ 116, and while he was running-against this ’03 Cobra in this drag race video, he ran a best time for the day of 11.45 @ 117.8, obliterating the late-model Mustang.

  Turbo-6 performance is making an aggressive comeback, and if that’s true, then Josh Straub is their chief pioneer.