The NMRA has held two Terminator vs. Shelby GT500 Shootouts to date, one at last year’s World Finals (Bowling Green, KY) and one at this year’s inaugural NMRA event at Maryland International Raceway. Both times we watched Joe Logan score a victory in his Vortech supercharged 2003 SVT Cobra. The double victory has the GT500 crowd up in arms and some of them are taking matters into their own hands for the next round of Terminator vs. Shelby GT500 Shootout, sponsored by VMP Tuning, which is being held at the NMRA World Finals October 4-7, 2012 at Beech Bend Raceway (Bowling Green, KY). Dave London is one guy who is done sitting on the sidelines watching the Terminators run amuck in the shootout. He has Evolution Performance putting the finishing touches on his 2008 Shelby GT500 with one goal in mind—run deep into the 8s and take the fight to the Terminators.
The staff at Evolution Performance is well versed in GT500 performance upgrades and most know the shop by its former flagship car, a black GT500 that ran in the 8s. First order of business is horsepower and Evolution dropped the engine off at L&M Race Engines like it does for most of its serious projects. The 5.4L engine has been specially massaged for life in the 1,000-plus rwhp world. The heads were ported and custom camshafts and valvetrain were built specifically for the supercharged combination. In fact the joke around the Evolution shop is that the engine is a Hybrid 5.4L due to all of the little tricks L&M built into it. The engine component most noticeable is the massive Kenne Bell twin-screw supercharger. The positive displacement blower carries a 4.2L capacity and with Kenne Bell 3.6L-equipped cars already in the 8s, we expect very quick times for Mr. London. Lund Racing handles all of the ECU tuning at Evolution Performance and is very involved in this project. As for dyno results, Fred Cook of Evolution Performance told us it made 1,*** rwhp and 1,*** rwtq. Yes, he would only tell us it made over 1,000 rwhp and rwtq but not exactly where in that realm. And making the dyno achievements that much more impressive is the car runs a Transmission Specialties TH400 automatic transmission. There are rumors of a Shelby GT500 coming from the Las Vegas area that has been in the mid-8s. Tommy Passallaqua has already committed to Team Shelby GT500 and he ran 8.60s at 160 mph at last year’s shootout. Make no mistake about it, this year’s Shootout is going to be wild as racers are looking to set car-specific records like overall quickest Terminator and Shelby GT500, quickest supercharger car, quickest Roots-blown combination, etc. As individual glory and SVT drag racing history is being made, the racers will also be side-by-side fighting with each other on the 1/4 mile for an overall class victory.
