Ever heard about that time we drag raced a Ford Tempo? In our idiom of race everything, we did, and it wasn’t as slow as walking!

Read on to this throwback post from 2009!

08-26-2009

It’s green, it ain’t mean, it isn’t much to look at, and it certainly isn’t worth writing home about, but we’re doing it anyway. How’s that for an introduction to an idea for a silly project?

Behold Jesse-Jesse’s kind donation to the Kijiji Spec (That’s K-Spec!) drag program:

I suppose donation is the wrong term, something like “willing to go along with” or “be party to” works better. Anyway, Ford Motor Company’s wildly popular Tempo just got… …noticed again. Keeping in line with Jesse’s mantra of no matter how unsuitable, take everything down the strip, and Grand Touring Concept’s of anything can be hot-rodded, we bring you the K-SPEC drag program.

Taking a select (AKA running) example of the Ford Tempo, we obtained the fastest, most modern version, the top of the range, 1994 Tempo GL. We ensured it was equipped with nothing less than the potent (for a Tempo) 3.0L Vulcan V6, the consistent FLC-ATX 3-speed automatic transmission, 2 doors for lower curb weight, and just broken-in 280,000km mileage for peak potential. This car was sure to be a contender in this one-horse race.

Actually the entire thing above is total BS, Jesse had it lying around and we thought we’d try to drag it, and then (try to) make it faster. Footnote: (Without actually spending *any* money)

Before making something faster you have to establish a baseline, and on 8:05 PM, Car Number 4023 made it’s first of 5 passes at Edmonton’s Castrol Raceway Park.

Jesse-Jesse narrowed his eyes against to low setting sun, and prepared for what likely wouldn’t be one hell of a pass. The lights dropped and stomping the mild whirring noise pedal, he cut a .240 reaction time, the sixty foot was gone in a scant 2.833 seconds. With no hint of burning oil or coolant he eventually crossed the traps with a 18.188 @ 76.07 MPH. K-Spec drag racing, a much better past time to waiting in a doctor’s office! Or rather, we had our baseline.

With his trademark enthusiasm, Jesse figured he could do better with colder air, so we waited a little and he made 4 more passes. The second last run was a surprising improvement to 17.618 @ 77.77 MPH, low 12’s were going to be easy! We’d already dropped over half a second and picked up 1.7 miles per hour with only telling Jesse to drive faster. Once we started modding the times should simply drop like the resale value of a Pontiac product, oh I did just go there…

Let’s talk horsepower here, you know, real stuff. Fresh from the factory our updated Vulcan engine, with it’s reduced friction pistons, a strengthened block, roller camshaft and other changes, thumped out 141 Horsepower and 160 ft-lbs of Torque. This seasoned example was surely putting out more than the “detuned” factory trim so we had to see what we were working with.

To figure our horsepower out for certain, naturally the next step was to, you guessed it, the internet. (Who said dyno? Those things cost money!)

So, using the online ¼ mile drag calculator java program we can get some cheap-as-free results.

The drag calculator over at Dragtimes assured Flywheel horsepower rating or our money back, but we had to supply the numbers.

Quarter Mile times were 18.188 and 17.618.

Trap Speed supplied from the timeslips were 76.07 and 77.77MPH.

Let’s see, the infallible Wikipedia says that a Ford Tempo has a curb weight 2723 lb (1235 kg) and our Driver might weigh 175 lbs for a total of 2898 lbs

With the numbers ready, the computer internet dyno began to spool up and everyone in the internet dyno cell was deafened as the display spat out our results:

Run #1 = 97.38 HP @ Flywheel
Run #2 = 105.57 HP @ Flywheel

Clearly the internet dyno must load heavier than a MD-600, but we can at least see the difference mod for mod, provided we always use the same internet dyno. Summarizing above, you can plainly see that telling Jesse to drive faster resulted in a whopping increase of 8.19 horsepower over stock, that friends, is massive.

Satisfied that we had a built on a Wednesday ringer, we planned for the next session.

Part 2:
09-03-2009

Back at the Grand Touring Concepts R&D facility (actually Darren’s garage which may have an adjustable wrench and a hammer) We goons set to work on extracting more horsepower from the wild Tempo.

Using some spare parts Jesse’s had amassed, we set to work with a grinder mounted flapwheel to build a better inlet assembly. A high performance (junkyard) MAF was carefully milled (locked in a bench vise and attacked with a grinder) to accept a proven (again used) K&N conical Airfilter, we had specially chosen (of the 3 we had in a box) for this car. We retained the bottom part of the airbox assembly to act as a heat shield against the awesome under hood temps.

Grand Touring Concepts is kind of new to the FWD game but we understand this arrangement is called a “short-ram” intake, I guess it sounds better than exposed hot Air conical filter to folks not in the know. If my Dentist office reading of popular sport compact magazines indicated anything, we should behold outstanding gains from this modification.

So there it is; the GTC Exposed Short-Ram Conical Intake System (ESRCI) PN#X30V6 not on sale near you. Look for our booth at SEMA 2011.

As with all performance parts that “claim” to “add” horsepower, we needed to prove this part before K-spec marketing can ever begin. With that we’re back to the strip…

On 7 August, Jesse was set to deliver a faster time with the newfound power provided by the experimental Grand Touring Concepts ESCRI. The K-spec Tempo made a grueling 7 passes, battling hot air temperatures to finalize gains made with the ESCRI. At 10:21pm a 17.640 @ 78.13 MPH was posted, followed by a 17.634 @ 78.17 MPH twenty minutes later. Late in the evening at 10:51 pm we had our best run; 17.607 @ 78.05 MPH, the ESRCI was a success, production can start immediately!

Working on our promotional material we needed to visit the online dyno with our new results so our HP gains could be advertised with the product.

Using the same weight number as the last test, (we are very certain that Jesse did not starve himself for the sake of going faster) we awaited the results…

The best run worked out to 106.4 HP at the flywheel with the other 3 posted runs supporting the findings.

ESCRI 106.4 HP minus Stock 97.38 HP equals 9.02 BHP, which is nearly a solid 10 horsepower gain. This modification system is clearly worth more than the $300 USD plus shipping that our PR department plans on charging.

Here are our performance tables so far:

Stock (Booo!)
97.38 BHP – 18.188 @ 76.07 MPH

Waiting for cooler air (Super Tuning)
105.57 BHP – 17.618 @ 77.77 MPH

Super Tuning + GTC ESCRI (Super Awesome, tell your friends)
106.40 HP – 17.607 @ 78.05 MPH

Disclaimer:
(Actual testing of ESRCI with Super tuning versus Stock with Super tuning may result in a net gain of only 0.83 Horsepower…)

With these awesome successes, we know we have to keep pushing forward in order to keep ahead of the currently non-existent (and likely never existent) competition.

Setting the bar a notch higher, we’ll see you next time.