A race where Ranes (center) paid pro racers to come to his local track in Alaska

Ranes car in its new owners shop

A true crime of greed and corruption that could very easily end up as a made for TV movie has unfolded in Alaska.

It starts out with a welder just trying to make a living.  He ends up welding hidden compartments in trucks for over-border marijuana smuggling and starts a makeshift business to do so and launder the money earned.  It ends with murder and 30 years behind bars.

Thomas Ranes Outlaw 10.5 Drag Race Mustang, among many of his  other assets have recently become available via police liquidation.  We won’t try to quote a police PDF for the whole story, read it for yourself..

PDF #1

PDF #2

Look stock and haul ass.

Speak softy and carry a big stick..whatever the term, these cars were built to not turn any heads until they have to.  The age old reason why sleepers came about was to lure unsuspecting competition into thinking your car was much slower than it was.  These altercations usually took place on the street, with many dollars on the line for the winner.

This Nova runs 9.20 by way of a twin Rotrex supercharged LSX Chevy small block

1970 Chevelle, daily driver that runs 11.00 with help from a basically stock escalade engine with twin turbo’s hi-jacked from a Buick Grand National.

67′ Chevelle known as “Honk if parts fall off”.  8.95 in the 1/4.  Turbo SBC.

Historically, Chrysler has had some unique block related history.  When I found out they had just come out with three new aluminum blocks for the 3rd Gen Hemi I was (considering the circumstances) quite surprised.

I am sure the drama goes back further than I know, but the first block-snafu was associated with the very first running prototypes of the well known 426 Race Hemi.  Chrysler was building a ringer that would win NASCAR, and they had a very tight schedule to work within as they planned on debuting the engines at the 1964 Daytona 500.  Normally these things would have R&D time measured in years, not months like the case was back then.  The block issue was core shifting due to the casting process at the foundry, and the problem took so long to sort out that the final blocks that did not have core shift problems were actually driven to Daytona in the backs of pick-up trucks.

When the race happened Chrysler swept the field with 1st, 2nd and 3rd place victories.

The second block related history lesson happened in the late 1970’s when Chrysler was (for the first time) on the brink of bankruptcy.  While time waited for Lee Iacocca to come save the day, there were still employee’s in charge of racing operations that had obligations to fulfill, but that was hard, considering there were no blocks at all to build engines with.

It was so bad that former Chrysler employee Dave Koffel (now engine builder and B1 heads owner) had to buy used Challenger T/A’s and AAR Cuda’s so Chrysler could pull the 4-bolt main 340 “T/A  block” engines for use in their NHRA Pro Stock cars!

So considering all the bad that has happened to Mopar in the past year, you have to hand it to them for coming out with three 6.1L based aluminum blocks.  One is a direct replacement for the iron block SRT8 6.1L.  The other is designed to fit a crank and pistons that will net you 426 cubic inches, and the last is a rough piece with more meat on it so you can go as big as 468 cubic inches, all while weighing 100 lbs less than an iron block.

If you are heading to SEMA this year, stop by the Mopar booth and check them out.

The last time auto makers commonly underrated actual horsepower levels was back in the muscle car days in the 1960’s and early 1970’s.  Initially everyone wanted more power than the other, but after a few years, all that meant was your cars were hit with larger insurance costs and the consumer notion that it would be considerably worse on fuel.

Chrysler Corp was the poster boy for it as most of their engines were all well known to be underrated (especially the 426 hemi) but Don Yenko Chevrolet dropped Corvette LT1 350’s into mundane Chevy Nova’s in 1970 so buyers could pay the standard insurance rate that you would be charged for a normal 350 powered Nova.  Except the Yenko Nova’s had 360 horsepower and could destroy most of their big block powered brethren.

Today it seems quite rampant all over again, but the reasons why are different.

The late model BMW 335i coupe with its twin turbo 3.0L inline 6 cylinder is rated at 300 horsepower and 300 lb-ft of torque, yet the car runs 0-60 times in 4.8 seconds and the 1/4 mile in 13.3 seconds.  Its “big brother” M3 with a 414 horsepower V8 runs 0-60 in 4.2 seconds and the 1/4 in 12.7 seconds…hmmm.  Sounds like the 335i has closer to 360 HP, but it’s rated lower so it doesn’t interfere with M3 sales.

Chrysler is still at it too, this time with the new variable cam timing 5.7L hemi.  The engine is rated at 390 horsepower when it is put in the Dodge Ram, yet only rated at 372 hp when put in the Challenger R/T.  Independent tests have resulted in the engines producing 400 horsepower at the flywheel, so why pay extra for a Challenger SRT 8 that only has 25 more ?  Unlike the BMW’s where the M3 has still held an advantage over the 335i, in the Mopar camp its not common for Challenger R/T’s to run quicker acceleration times than the SRT 8 model.  However, next year the SRT will make you forget with its much more powerful 6.4L hemi.

And now the newest player, Audi with their new 333 horsepower, 325 lb-ft of torque supercharged S4.

VW / Audi tuner APR just strapped one onto their all wheel drive dyno and pulled 331 horsepower and 336 lb-ft of torque at the wheels.  Drivetrain losses amount a lot more through all wheel drive than front or rear drive, to the tune of about 20%, making the new S4 a true 400 horsepower German super sedan.  Just don’t tell the guy that paid thousands more for an RS4 with 20 additional ponies.

SpeedFactory has been a top notch tuner of the latest Hemi cars from Chrysler and this latest iteration should solidify them as one of the best.

SpeedFactory replaces the factory iron 6.1L Hemi block with an aluminum piece from Mopar Performance and punches it out to 7.2L, or 440 cubic inches.  The stock 6.1L heads are then put aside in favor of CNC ported aluminum offerings from Mopar Performance.

The short block is filled with forged internals and the fuel system is upgraded to supply adequate fuel to withstand the air/water intercooled boost from the Vortech V3 centrifugal supercharger system.  The results are 700 horsepower and over 250 lbs shaved off the front end.

SpeedFactory will be offering this upgrade to customer cars.