Dave Henderlong’s 7.3 Godzilla Budget T-Bird Flies Into The 9s at 132 mph
By Evan J. Smith
Over the past few months, Michigander and Ford employee Dave Henderlong has been on a quest. His plan was to see what would happen if he stuffed a Ford Godzilla V8 into a 1988 T-Bird and his goal was to make it run quick on a budget. He ripped into the 10s with a 100-percent stock engine and recently he’s gone 9.92 at 132 mph with basic modifications. Henderlong cracked in the 9s, just a week after attending the 24th Annual Whipple Superchargers NMRA All-Ford World Finals presented by Competition Clutch & Holley Intergalactic Ford Festival, where he ran a best of 10.23 at 129.50 mph.
Dave has taken the T-Bird from 10.80s with the stock engine into the 9s with basic drag racer tricks and he’s done so keeping it a budget-minded project. After going 10.80s he added a Callies #002 cam that’s available from Willisengines.com, and that gave him the power to run mid-10s.
Looking for more, he shaved weight, added new gears, ported heads and the payoff was huge. “We put a 4.10 gear in it to replace the 3.73, and to compliment the cam we installed a set of Willis Performance Engines mildly ported heads with stock valves. I also added lightweight front brakes and wheels. I’d been running the stock brakes with 1994 Mustang GT front wheels and tires so far, so this was a great modification,” Henderlong said.
“The gears made a big difference, as the car now launches harder (1.38-second 60-foot time) and the engine revs right at 6,400 rpm at the finish line, which is peak rpm for the Godzilla.” Henderlong also runs a Powerglide with a 5,600-rpm stall converter. The engine still runs the factory intake manifold and 2020-model year throttle body, so further gains could come from the Ford Performance intake and throttle body combination. “The Godzilla is really amazing. This is my first drag car so I’m learning how important it is to get the right gears, converter and suspension combination. It’s great on the track and you can street drive this combination, too.” Henderlong said.
“I’ve worked on Pro Mod cars, but now that it’s my own car I’m learning where to put my money to get the most performance for what I spend. The brakes were expensive, $1,100 from Stange, but it got rid of weight from the nose, and the gears are from Facebook Marketplace ($200). I probably have a couple more thousand it in, total. Two grand is hard for me to swallow, but it’s worth it if you put it in the right place and it carries over to the next project or modification. So maybe I have $12,000 total in the whole car,” he told us. “Making the car light is also important and I’ve got it down to 2,930 lbs. with me in it.”
To drop from 10.20s to 9.90s Henderlong found cooler conditions at his home track, Milan Dragway, he added VP MS 109 fuel (he’d been running 93-octane pump gas), which allowed him to bump the timing in the OBR Systems EFI. Lastly he added a larger throttle body and cut the mufflers off (as a side note, he’s still running the factory Ford truck exhaust manifolds). Running 9s in anything is impressive and Dave Henderlong is showing the world what the Godzilla can do. We can’t wait to see what he does next as this Budget Bird continues to fly.
By Evan J. Smith
Over the past few months, Michigander and Ford employee Dave Henderlong has been on a quest. His plan was to see what would happen if he stuffed a Ford Godzilla V8 into a 1988 T-Bird and his goal was to make it run quick on a budget. He ripped into the 10s with a 100-percent stock engine and recently he’s gone 9.92 at 132 mph with basic modifications. Henderlong cracked in the 9s, just a week after attending the 24th Annual Whipple Superchargers NMRA All-Ford World Finals presented by Competition Clutch & Holley Intergalactic Ford Festival, where he ran a best of 10.23 at 129.50 mph.
Dave has taken the T-Bird from 10.80s with the stock engine into the 9s with basic drag racer tricks and he’s done so keeping it a budget-minded project. After going 10.80s he added a Callies #002 cam that’s available from Willisengines.com, and that gave him the power to run mid-10s.
Looking for more, he shaved weight, added new gears, ported heads and the payoff was huge. “We put a 4.10 gear in it to replace the 3.73, and to compliment the cam we installed a set of Willis Performance Engines mildly ported heads with stock valves. I also added lightweight front brakes and wheels. I’d been running the stock brakes with 1994 Mustang GT front wheels and tires so far, so this was a great modification,” Henderlong said.
“The gears made a big difference, as the car now launches harder (1.38-second 60-foot time) and the engine revs right at 6,400 rpm at the finish line, which is peak rpm for the Godzilla.” Henderlong also runs a Powerglide with a 5,600-rpm stall converter. The engine still runs the factory intake manifold and 2020-model year throttle body, so further gains could come from the Ford Performance intake and throttle body combination. “The Godzilla is really amazing. This is my first drag car so I’m learning how important it is to get the right gears, converter and suspension combination. It’s great on the track and you can street drive this combination, too.” Henderlong said.
“I’ve worked on Pro Mod cars, but now that it’s my own car I’m learning where to put my money to get the most performance for what I spend. The brakes were expensive, $1,100 from Stange, but it got rid of weight from the nose, and the gears are from Facebook Marketplace ($200). I probably have a couple more thousand it in, total. Two grand is hard for me to swallow, but it’s worth it if you put it in the right place and it carries over to the next project or modification. So maybe I have $12,000 total in the whole car,” he told us. “Making the car light is also important and I’ve got it down to 2,930 lbs. with me in it.”
To drop from 10.20s to 9.90s Henderlong found cooler conditions at his home track, Milan Dragway, he added VP MS 109 fuel (he’d been running 93-octane pump gas), which allowed him to bump the timing in the OBR Systems EFI. Lastly he added a larger throttle body and cut the mufflers off (as a side note, he’s still running the factory Ford truck exhaust manifolds). Running 9s in anything is impressive and Dave Henderlong is showing the world what the Godzilla can do. We can’t wait to see what he does next as this Budget Bird continues to fly.
