Spicy Sleeper Granada Hits the Street/Strip to Prove Impressive Performance

(Pat)>> You're watching Powernation!

(Frankie)>> Today on Engine Power we take the Spicy Sleeper Granada on the street, down the strip, and up to the Intergalactic Ford Fest. Plus, Anthony Smith shows us why he loves the chaos of no prep racing. [ Music ]

(Frankie)>> This is an exciting day. We are out of the shop in Engine Power because we are taking our 1977 Ford Granada sleeper out on the street. This was built as a street car. So, it wouldn't be much of a street car if we didn't take around town and cruise it, right?

(Pat)>> Correct, we are downtown, and there's a lot of question on how streetable a car is with a giant carburetor on it that makes a whole bunch of power at high r-p-m. Well, that's how it starts, right? Single plane manifolds and giant carburetors are always a source of people saying, that will have terrible street manners.

(Frankie)>> Well it really depends on the tune-up of the carburetor, and we talked about this before. Just because it's a large carburetor doesn't necessarily mean that it's going to drive poorly. It's definitely a factor of having the carburetor adjusted right, having the idle adjusted right, and the transition circuit adjusted right, and on this one we've got her pretty dialed in. So, this thing runs and drives very, very nicely.

(Pat)>> It has great throttle response. It has great transition from idle to throttle. It has everything that a street car would have. Granted, it makes a lot of power. Now the way that this thing is setup it doesn't start to come on like really good power until 5,000 r-p-m.

(Frankie)>> But that makes it drive really nice cause with that performance automatic C-4 that we put in that has a relatively tight converter, which we did because it's a street car. If we were taking this to the dragstrip as a pure drag car, we obviously would have put a much higher stall in it, but this one's about 2,600 to 2,800. So, it drives really nice on the street. It drives like a modern car would. It doesn't sound exactly like a modern car, but we've quieted it down a good bit with the exhaust, which was really cool because it's so quiet for what it is, and then when you open it people are just shocked.

(Pat)>> I am so tempted to open the headers right now. It'll scare everybody. We are in street traffic. We are idling through traffic. We are at operating temperature. The thing is idling right now in gear. [ engine idling ] ( )>> What yeah?

(Frankie)>> It's a '77. ( )>> I had a '75.

(Frankie)>> You have to open them now.

(Frankie)>> This thing is so comfy. We didn't want to mess with the car too much to where it has a really harsh ride, or it looks weird, or anything like that. We didn't touch the outside, but all we did really for the rear end we got new stock leaf springs, and those QA-1 double adjustables, and some traction bars. So, this thing rides relatively nice. We didn't really mess with the front end too much cause we wanted to keep that soft, plush ride, and it still has it.

(Pat)>> The big thing on street stuff is what has to work? It has to have good cooling because you're sitting around a lot. It has to have good metering of the fuel because if it's coughing, and choking, and spitting, and sputter, then it just makes it a pain to drive.

(Frankie)>> The big thing is sometimes people forget; we make dyno pulls at wide open throttle but when you're driving on the street you're not using any of that. So, if the engine makes considerably less power at 2,500, well when are you at 2,500 and full throttle unless you're leaving a stop light, which the engine blows through that almost immediately anyway.

(Pat)>> People are liking it too, look! What do you think it's gonna do if you stop it? You think it's gonna cough or you think it's gonna take off, like this! [ engine revving ]

(Frankie)>> I think it's gonna take off.

(Pat)>> I wouldn't be afraid to drive this car anywhere. This is a daily.

(Frankie)>> 100 percent!

(Pat)>> The throttle, I'm not saying it's overly sensitive but if you give it input it does what you want.

(Frankie)>> The brakes work good too. Having that all around disc setup is way better than the drums. They were okay, but they definitely were not great when the car came in. That's a huge upgrade.

(Pat)>> This car is sporty but classy! [ engine revving ]

(Frankie)>> Alright already! So, it runs great on the street but how about at the strip? Up next, we'll show you!

(Frankie)>> Our '77 Granada sleeper is definitely a street car, and we've put some serious street miles on it, but we wanted to take it to a drag strip. So, we are here at Etheridge Motorsports Park, which is a great, local eighth mile all concrete track near us. It's a beautiful day, we have a beautiful facility. What more could you ask for?

(Pat)>> I know what we could ask for. Drag strip runs! We are gonna run this car in several different configurations. The first one straight off the street. Street tires, closed exhaust. Hell, I'm even gonna leave it in drive, and then we're gonna change things up. Some slicks, open up the exhaust, and definitely hit it with the spray. They don't pay us to look cute. Let's make some runs! [ Music ] [ engine revving ]

(Pat)>> We're gonna leave it right in drive and just floorboard it. [ Music ] [ engine revving ]

(Frankie)>> Heck yeah, that wasn't bad!

(Pat)>> That was about as nice as I could do it.

(Frankie)>> 9.90.

(Pat)>> It got in the nines! I'll take that!

(Frankie)>> For street tires, it didn't spin. It wasn't horrible.

(Pat)>> I wasn't expecting much.

(Frankie)>> It's not gonna launch hard with the converter.

(Pat)>> This pushes it really hard at 2,000. I was foot braking it and trying to be really easy on it.

(Frankie)>> Where'd it shift in drive?

(Pat)>> It shifted really low. It was under 5,000.

(Frankie)>> Well that's no good.

(Pat)>> What if I roll it out and manually shift it?

(Frankie)>> I think that's the first step is manually shift it, see what it does there, and then we can start throwing slicks on it.

(Pat)>> Is it messing my hair up, the helmet?

(Frankie)>> Yeah! [ engine revving ]

[ engine revving ]

(Pat)>> Was that any better?

(Frankie)>> That was way better. A little smokey. I think that's just the stock valve covers and the stock breathers. I don't think it was too bad. The only thing better than a day at the track is a day at the track with your buddies. Tommy from Detroit Muscle brought their newest project, an '83 Hurst Olds. With an Olds 455 built by Joe Mondello and Engine Power that puts out 506 horsepower and 539 pound feet, street tire traction was definitely hard to come by. One of the things we're gonna be doing to take our car from street mode into strip mode is changing out the rear wheels and tires for a set of slicks. We went to Summit Racing and we found these Hoosier QuickTime Pros. They're a 26 by 9.5. So, they're the same size as the tire we have on there, but they're gonna work way better here at the strip.

(Pat)>> Now they're still a 14 inch wheel. That means we can still retain our stock hub cap, which adds the extra stealthiness. I even took the time to remove the white lettering from the tire to add to the sleeper effect.

(Frankie)>> I don't think we're fooling anybody. [ Music ] [ drill humming ] [ Music ] We mounted and balanced this set back at the shop. So, all we have to do is swap them out. With the added traction we're ready to open up our exhaust cutouts for a major horsepower increase. [ engine revving ] [ Music ]

(Pat)>> It was significantly better.

(Frankie)>> Way better! We know that the engine picks up like 120 with the exhaust open. I'm kinda expecting that, but that was pretty good.

(Pat)>> Two things. One, raise the rev limiter.

(Frankie)>> For sure!

(Pat)>> Two, the converter is so tight it's shifting out of second gear by itself at about 4,800.

(Frankie)>> I didn't know if that was you or the transmission.

(Pat)>> It's a street transmission. I'm not saying that's a bad thing.

(Frankie)>> Street car, not a drag car.

(Pat)>> If this was a true race car you'd have a trans brake in it and a manual valve body.

(Frankie)>> Floor shifter.

(Pat)>> This is a fast street car, and we haven't hit the spray.

(Frankie)>> And opening the exhaust was huge, a whole second!

(Pat)>> So what's the next plan?

(Frankie)>> Unless you think you can pick up some e-t somewhere. Obviously, we can't do anything about the second gear shift. I think we move on to spray. We'll open up our twin 10-pound NOS nitrous bottles that will feed the 125 horsepower shot out of our nitrous plate system. [ engine revving ] [ purge spray hissing ] [ engine revving ]

(Tommy)>> Boom!

(Frankie)>> Way better!

(Pat)>> That was a slight improvement.

(Frankie)>> Still had the second gear early shift, but 7.02!

(Pat)>> That's dangerously close to the sixes. I think with a little fetzering on it I think we can get it in the sixes. I hit the rev limiter again. The car was actually skating off.

(Frankie)>> It was walking back and forth.

(Pat)>> That was a little concerning, but I thought it was probably a teen, but that's pretty good.

(Frankie)>> For the first time taking our 3,800 pound street car to the track we think 7.02 at 97 miles per hour is a huge success. We've got several ideas on how to make our sleeper Granada even quicker down the strip, but for now that's a great day at the track. Up next, from all Fords to no-prep we've got plenty of drag strip action.

(Pat)>> It's always a great time when we can get out of the shop and see a little sunshine, but what makes it extra special is we are at one of our favorite spots in the world, a racetrack.

(Frankie)>> We brought our 1977 Ford Granada sleeper to Beechbend Raceway Park for Holley's Intergalactic Ford Festival, and it contains everything and anything Ford powered. There's a ton to see, and even more to do. So, let's get started. You can describe Ford Fest in just one work, action. No matter which direction you turn you're gonna see a Ford powered vehicle do something cool. The NMRA brought their 24th season to an exciting finish as the World Finals heat up at the dragstrip all weekend long. With 10 different classes competing it's the biggest all Ford race of the year. If you believe that racing should be a contact sport the Ford Festival 50 is for you. This year's three-eighths mile circle track race drew a big crowd gathered to witness a field of Crown Vics giving it their all for the checkered flag. Professional racers Vaughn Gittin Junior and Chelsea DeNofa competed alongside Kentucky's best, with Chucky Balmer coming in first. Vaughn Gittin Junior also took the show off road where he and Loren Healy ran neck in neck in this year's Off Road Mayhem. A short course event that let both of them open the throttle on their Ultra Four 4,400 competition Broncos. Just like Holley's Ford Fest itself the off-road course keeps growing bigger and better.

(Craig)>> There's a spot and place for every single person. No matter what your taste is at this show, big or small, early or late model it's all here. All sorts of wacky, crazy stuff, and then you have people's daily drivers. You see people drive in from all over. There's so many great people at one spot, and it's a great community for sure.

(Pat)>> Normally when we go to a car show we try to find something that I like and Frankie likes and we'll go talk to the people. Well, there's no one around this one, but it turns out we both like this one.

(Frankie)>> This is a 1977 Country Squire Wagon, which I like wagons, you like wagons, and this one has a real motor, big block Ford. This is still a street car, it looks like, but I like how there's some racy touches. The switches on the dash, the racing belts, but he's still got American Racing cool wheels on here and he didn't really touch the outside. Allegedly this thing's from a junkyard?

(Pat)>> In the window it has a picture where it said it was saved from a junkyard. It was gonna be either that or a demo derby car. I think they made the right decision in putting it back on the street cause this thing's cool!

(Frankie)>> I'll bet it's comfy too! Well, it's not the fastest vehicle here, but this truck's that's parked next to our Granada had a great story. So, I had to grab the owner to actually talk about it. So, tell me where you guys found this, and what your crazy idea was to get it here to Ford Fest.

(Craig)>> So this is a 1969 Ford F-250 Crew Cab. It has a big block and a four speed in it. We actually pulled this thing out of 114 Ford truck collection in Chattanooga, Tennessee. After 21 years of sitting, we had the wild idea to come out here, Monday morning pull it out of that field, try to fire it up for the first time. Spent a week building the thing and actually drove it 165 miles here. Had to smash the rockers cause they're a shaft rocker setup, get them to loosen up. Once we got it rolled over, fired up, there's no throttle, no brakes, no nothing! We did a whole new ignition system and cooling system to make sure we would make the drive. Our fuel tank was completely rotted and corroded. So, we bypassed it and bought an entire spool of fuel line. Ran it all the way to the front. We have two five-gallon fuel jugs in the bed with a T-fitting and hose clamp so we could clamp off one tank, run five gallons of fuel, switch tanks. We had my buddy out the back window while we're driving switching tanks.

(Frankie)>> Why is Ford Fest the place to be and why did you pick this kind of vehicle to do that with?

(Craig)>> To show no matter how rough a vehicle looks from the outside you can park next to show cars, and you can show people that no matter what you got, big or small. It could be a $100,000 dollar show car or it could be a truck like this. As long you can get it running and make the work happen people will enjoy it.

(Pat)>> Now out of all the Fords that here, and there's a bunch of cool ones, this one is my absolute favorite, a De Tomaso Pantera. The owner of it, Jason Johnson from Johnson's Horsepower Garage. Tell me a little bit about this car, and why you have it.

(Jason)>> I've always wanted a '72, and my buddy in California had built this to look like a '72 and it's a '74. Got rid of the bumpers, polished the wheels. I just love the color. Blue's my favorite color, and it has a Ford powered transplant, mid-engine. It's the best of both worlds. It's early GTish. It's so ahead of its time for the look. It's like a muscle car meets sports car.

(Pat)>> Now it's got a Windsor in it, it looks like?

(Jason)>> Yes, it's a stroked one, a 427 stroker. It's probably close to 550 to the back wheels.

(Pat)>> What do you think about the Ford Fest?

(Jason)>> I love the Ford Fest. There's a lot of people turning out for this show. A lot of people that like the same kind of things I do. This is the sport I love. I born doing it.

(Pat)>> You brought a lot of great Fords, and we really appreciate man, thanks!

(Jason)>> Right on, thanks!

(Frankie)>> It's called the Holley Intergalactic Ford Festival, and based on the quality of rides, races, and events to explore it certainly lives up to the name. Up next, no-prep drag racer Anthony Smith shares the secret to his success.

(Pat)>> Being that we are gearheads and hot rodders it is always great when you have the opportunity to get a cool car in the shop, and it doesn't get much cooler than this one. Anthony Smith is the owner of this one, Hercules. Now he is here to tell us a little bit about it and a little bit about yourself. So, tell us how you got into racing.

(Anthony)>> Started at a very young age, going to races. Got in my cousin's car and make a hit in a '64 Corvette. The G-forces, the adrenaline is like, I've got to do this. I started building motors at a young age. I mean I was 15 years old building peoples motors that raced that was 30 and 40 years old.

(Frankie)>> You have your own shop, and you've even built the engine in this car. You have several engines for this car as well.

(Anthony)>> This is actually a small block 427. This is a good combination for the small tire, no-prep deal. This one we had on a dyno in Wisconsin, and we got 1,270 to the rear wheel, and I think it could have got 1,400, 1,500 if it had the right converter. It's a 23 degree 427, AFR head, Dart block, all the good stuff. You've got to have something pretty durable to put boost on. F-1-X-12 Procharger, made 30 pounds is as high as I make.

(Pat)>> What's the appeal of the no-prep to you?

(Anthony)>> It's adrenaline! You can feel your heartbeat cause you don't know if the car's gonna go, what it's gonna do. You definitely don't want to tear your stuff up or nobody else's stuff and try your best to make the best pass. The no-prep is so challenging on tuning a car. The more testing you do the better you're gonna get at it.

(Pat)>> So when you go to a regular dragstrip after that does a regular dragstrip seem a lot easier?

(Anthony)>> Yes! Like last year I got to doing some radio racing, which I ain't gonna say it's easy, but I'm letting go of the button and it's going straight. I'm like, well that wasn't very fast. I get back, look at the ticket, and I'm like dang! That was fast! The no-prep ain't as easy to do that. So, it's more of a challenge. Everybody likes a challenge.

(Pat)>> No-prep usually means no times. So, I don't know if you want to divulge any times on that.

(Anthony)>> Well...

(Pat)>> Leave that question right there.

(Anthony)>> I don't mind telling you. It will run, on no-prep tracks, it's run low fives, high fours with this small block. Once you get in them four second range them next few tenths get harder and harder to get.

(Pat)>> That's what r&d is all about, and speaking of r&d you've partnered with Hot Shot Secret, and you are actually one of their r&d cars. They're powered by science.

(Anthony)>> We've been running it for several years now. Ain't seen no bearing wear. Even ring wear's very minimum, and that's where most of it usually is, any of the wear. It's an amazing product. We've got it in everything. We've got the Adrenaline R-5 in the motor. I've got the Nano-Shift in the transmission. The rear end oil too. We actually run it in our tow truck too.

(Frankie)>> All of these fluids contain Hot Shot's Secret FR-3 synthetic oil additive. It's a blend of three great lubricants, including a carbon nano lubricant that helps fill microscopic surface irregularities and increase the oil's sheer stability and film strength for increase protection and reduced wear.

(Anthony)>> The FR-3 they've got in their oil. The oil's almost perfect, and then they stick this FR-3 in there and it glorifies it.

(Pat)>> Anthony thank you for bringing out Hercules, and thanks for talking with us. Always great to talk to another engine builder.

(Anthony)>> I appreciate the opportunity to be here.

(Frankie)>> Any time!

(Anthony)>> Thank y'all!

(Pat)>> Total Seal is one of the leaders in producing high performance piston rings for virtually any application, and to be a leader you also have to be an innovator, and their latest innovation is something special, gas ported piston rings. Instead of putting the gas port into the piston, which means drilling into the top ring land, which could weaken it, Total Seal puts the gas port in the ring itself with a machined groove, and that has several benefits. First and foremost is improved cylinder seal. Gas pressure gets behind the ring forcing it out onto the cylinder wall and improving the cylinder's sealing. Better sealing means improved horsepower. Two, it results in a stronger piston because that top ring land has not been drilled into. And third, the ports are self cleaning, unlike ports that are in a piston that can become clogged when running with carbon and be ineffective. If it takes a piston ring, Total Seal can make it for you. To find the right ring for your application consult the experts at Total Seal.

(Frankie)>> Edelbrock is well known for their metering rod style street carburetors, but they recently came out with their VRS 41-50 carburetor that is geared towards performance and racing. It has a mounting flange that will bolt to any 41-50 or 4,500 intake manifold flange without any adapters, and it also has a bunch of manifold vacuum hookups for street applications. It has oversized fuel bowls with internal baffles that have clear sights for easy float level adjustment, and even has external fuel bowl drains for quick jet changes. The four circuit body is available in 650, 750, 850, and 950 c-f-m sizes with the 750 and up coming with annular discharge boosters. Between the jets and the air bleeds it is very adjustable, which is great for racing. Edelbrock kept the street guys in mind though with an integral throttle position sensor mount for a standard three-wire GM t-p-s. If you want to learn more about this carburetor or get one for yourself you can find it at Edelbrock. For more information on anything you've seen today go check out Powernation.