We haven’t heard much from Victor Nieblas and his Renegade race car (2004 SVT Cobra) and for good reason. He hit the first couple of races and then decided to remove the engine and have Mustang Performance Racing (MPR) update some of the older parts—most notable the engine block. Years of racing had taken its toll on the engine block and a new Dart piece was procured. MPR finished the 358ci a few weeks ago and Nieblas hit the local drag strip to break it in. An Import vs. Domestic race was being held at Palm Beach International Raceway (PBIR) last weekend and proved to be a great opportunity to crack open the nitrous bottles. According to MPR’s Tim Eichorn, the track didn’t have much stickiness or much of a groove so they set the progressive controller for a soft launch. It was so easy off the starting line that the car recorded just a 1.39 60-foot. This is a Mustang that normally runs in the 1.20s. It ran an easy 5.40 through the 1/8-mile and Nieblas shut it down before the ¼-mile clocks but still knocked off an 8.80 run at just 120 mph.
Nieblas has a target on the Renegade field at the NMRA World Finals being held at Beech Bend Raceway (Bowling Green, KY) October 4-7, 2012. The engine is built to Renegade specs, a class sponsored by Blow-By Racing. It is 358ci that is housed in a Dart block. The short-block has the usual cool stuff like a stroker crankshaft, aluminum rods, and specially designed pistons as spec’d by MPR. Topside—a pair of Ford Racing Z302 cylinder heads have been ported and polished to perfection. MPR designed a Renegade specific camshaft that fits the maximum lift rule of .550-inches on both the intake and exhaust. An Edelbrock Victor Jr. intake manifold is home to eight fuel injectors, Induction Solutions single direct port nitrous system, and a Wilson Manifolds four-bore throttle body. A FAST XFI electronic fuel injection system controls it all. Nieblas relies on a Rossler Powerglide with an Ultimate Converter Concepts torque converter. UPR provides the front and rear suspension systems.
