Richard Poe e-mailed that he and Ted Harbit were planning to take their cars to The Muncie Dragway for Test & Tune night Wednesday, July 9th, in case I wanted to drive over for the evening. It's only 82 miles from Co-Operator Central to The Muncie Dragway, so you bet!Well, as much as we are used to Ted setting the pace, it was "Richard Poe who stole the show, though," last night: For the first time in his and its life, Richard Poe and his 1963 R1/4-speed Super Lark broke into the 13-second bracket, posting a best-ever [u]13.969 ET</u>![:0][
][:0][8D][
)] Yes, folks, you read that right: Under 14 seconds in the quarter-mile for a legally-stock R1 Studebaker Lark running through full exhaust with street-legal mufflers, original air cleaner installed as intended, and DOT-approved, street-legal B.F.Goodrich P235/70R15 Drag Radials on the rear wheels! [:0]
On that record-setting 13.969 run, he posted a 97.91 Terminal Speed. That's not a record speed for Richard; his R1's personal terminal speed record remains 98.34 MPH. There was a slight headwind last night that may have kept the Grey Brick from posting a record MPH. However, he changed to P235/75R15s later in the evening and upped the evening's best Terminal Speed to 98.07.
Richard set another personal record last evening as well, much to Ted and my and everyone else's astonishment (including Richard's!): He posted a PERFECT .000 Reaction Time for the first time in his life.
On that .000 RT run, he was running Ted in Ted's R2/4-speed 1963 Lark Custom, The Stude Tomato. Ted had a poorer .190 Reaction Time, still not bad. But Ted posted a 2.347 60-foot time on that run, versus Richard's unusually-good 2.093 60-foot with the R1.
Now, when you factor Richard's .000 Reaction Time with his better 2.093 60-foot, it meant he and the R1 were considerably ahead of Ted and the R2 until almost the eighth-mile...in fact, in that race, Richard's 330-foot time was 6.024, well ahead of Ted's 6.149. Sadly, Richard missed the shift to third on that run, limiting his 1/8-mile time to 9.376, which fell behind Ted's 9.126. Ted was making a good run (no problems or burps), but Ted said afterwords, "Really, if Richard hadn't missed third gear, he would have beat me on that run!" That's an R2 Lark with Ted Harbit driving, against an R1! [:0]
Richard is becoming unusually competitive at the line with excellent Reaction Times, which is going to play well this fall at The Pure Stock Drags. Not only did Richard post a .000 last evening, he also posted RTs of .033 and .001 in other races. Most guys are happy getting under .100, so Richard routinely tickling .000 will serve him well 'come fall.
Ted and The Tomato ran mid-13s all night, posting a 13.472 ET in one race, and a Terminal Speed of 106.53 in another. The Tomato has been giving Ted fits, refusing to get close to 13.000 as it has in years past. He installed a new blower last evening and that was responsible for runs under 13.500, he said. Compression and leak-down check out OK and the car seems to be running as good as ever, so there's some sorting out to be done before Stanton in mid-September.
But for now, we barely have 1 full second separating the best R3 and the best R1 at The Pure Stock Muscle Car Drags...that's competitive![}
]Other "sights and sounds" at Muncie last evening included a Dodge Ram Diesel pickup
We've got to quit saying, 
BP
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