4BangerRunner
New member
Saw this in the Guam newspaper "Pacific Daily News" ......
Rarin' to go as fast as possible
Drag racer 'goes for broke' in trying to build a truck to beat
Toyota Hilux owner Jeff "JJ" Toves would say that in the end, his truck's time at the drags was well worth the year it took to get it there.
After all, there aren't too many people who can say their four-cylinder ride can break the 12-second barrier in the quarter-mile.
But Toves can say it, and say it with authority. Though he and his team aren't ones to brag, the timeslips tell all there is to know -- after a bunch of 12-second runs, driver Ernest "Junior" Borja drove the 1989 Toyota Hilux to its best time ever, an 11.9 run, making it the first four-cylinder truck to go sub-12s.
Even better was the crew's performance on Feb. 12, as the truck consistently ran 11.9s before going even faster -- a near-perfect run of 11.87 seconds, hitting the finish line at 108.18 mph. It was the fastest time of any four-cylinder car yet.
Toves, waiting in the pits, heard the time over the public-address system. He whooped and shouted and screamed and high-fived anyone who looked at him.
"If I could backflip, then I'd backflip -- but then we'd have another earthquake," says the good-natured Toves, who could never be mistaken for someone skinny. "I was so happy."
Toves' truck has had a short but storied past when it comes to racing. Toves bought the truck secondhand from his cousin, drove it around for a couple of months, then parked it as he prepared for its transformation. He asked his two buddies, Chuck Cruz and Borja of OPM Performance, to design and build a truck with one purpose: to go as fast as it can, one quarter-mile at a time.
"My goal was to go for broke. Whatever possible we could find to go fast, I was prepared to do it," he says. "I asked them to get the parts. Whatever they wanted, we got."
As Cruz and Borja ordered parts, Toves busied himself with stripping the truck and doing all the bodywork and paint. He had about $5,000 saved, which Cruz and Borja did their best to use up quickly. But they also got what they paid for: an LC Engineering Stage 5 Toyota 22R motor (in parts), Weber sidedrafts, MSD ignition, MT drag slicks, a NOS Pro Fogger boost system, LC flywheel, A.C.T. clutch and more.
Sounds simple enough for a good mechanic to drop in a motor and get things going, except that the OPM crew built the performance engine from the bottom up, handling each bolt, connecting rod and piston ring with loving care. Although OPM specializes in the Toyota 22R, they said anyone could build what they did.
"Everything we got, we got off the shelf at Racers Edge," says Cruz. "The parts were nothing special, anybody has access to them. We just put the motor together and tuned it."
Besides the technical aspects behind the truck, the OPM team worked on the necessary fabrications to keep the truck light. No more bench seat, no lights (except for one taillight for night races), no more 13-gallon gas tank, no alternator, no air-conditioning system. The fuel cell was relocated to the bed, the crew built a new dashboard with gauges and switches and they even changed out the rear stock brakes to disc brakes.
Once they broke out the truck in late 2004, times started dropping immediately. The first run was a so-so 14.4-second run, all motor, which was tuned down to a very respectable 13.53.
"It was unbelievable. We only knew of one other truck doing times like that," says Toves. "But we wanted to go faster."
The nitrous oxide kit was already installed, so they decided to break out the bottle at the drag strip's grand opening on Jan. 22. The first was a 12.8-second run using an 80 shot of gas before Borja slammed out an 11.9 time a couple hours later. The capacity crowd freaked. For Toves, it made the money he spent worth it.
"Our goal now is just to be consistent," he says. "One day, we will explore going into the 10s. That will probably take another $10,000. It's really all a matter of how much you're willing to spend."
When he's not working on his car, Toves enjoys off-roading and hanging out with his friends. He gave his thanks to his sponsors: Ambros, Shimbros, Racers Edge, Hansen Helicopters, Chuck's Steakhouse, KISH 102.9, KSTO, Guam Music, Johnny Cool's Towing, KTWG, the guys from OPM Performance, John Shimizu for shop use and his mom, Zina Toves.
Rarin' to go as fast as possible
Drag racer 'goes for broke' in trying to build a truck to beat
Toyota Hilux owner Jeff "JJ" Toves would say that in the end, his truck's time at the drags was well worth the year it took to get it there.
After all, there aren't too many people who can say their four-cylinder ride can break the 12-second barrier in the quarter-mile.
But Toves can say it, and say it with authority. Though he and his team aren't ones to brag, the timeslips tell all there is to know -- after a bunch of 12-second runs, driver Ernest "Junior" Borja drove the 1989 Toyota Hilux to its best time ever, an 11.9 run, making it the first four-cylinder truck to go sub-12s.
Even better was the crew's performance on Feb. 12, as the truck consistently ran 11.9s before going even faster -- a near-perfect run of 11.87 seconds, hitting the finish line at 108.18 mph. It was the fastest time of any four-cylinder car yet.
Toves, waiting in the pits, heard the time over the public-address system. He whooped and shouted and screamed and high-fived anyone who looked at him.
"If I could backflip, then I'd backflip -- but then we'd have another earthquake," says the good-natured Toves, who could never be mistaken for someone skinny. "I was so happy."
Toves' truck has had a short but storied past when it comes to racing. Toves bought the truck secondhand from his cousin, drove it around for a couple of months, then parked it as he prepared for its transformation. He asked his two buddies, Chuck Cruz and Borja of OPM Performance, to design and build a truck with one purpose: to go as fast as it can, one quarter-mile at a time.
"My goal was to go for broke. Whatever possible we could find to go fast, I was prepared to do it," he says. "I asked them to get the parts. Whatever they wanted, we got."
As Cruz and Borja ordered parts, Toves busied himself with stripping the truck and doing all the bodywork and paint. He had about $5,000 saved, which Cruz and Borja did their best to use up quickly. But they also got what they paid for: an LC Engineering Stage 5 Toyota 22R motor (in parts), Weber sidedrafts, MSD ignition, MT drag slicks, a NOS Pro Fogger boost system, LC flywheel, A.C.T. clutch and more.
Sounds simple enough for a good mechanic to drop in a motor and get things going, except that the OPM crew built the performance engine from the bottom up, handling each bolt, connecting rod and piston ring with loving care. Although OPM specializes in the Toyota 22R, they said anyone could build what they did.
"Everything we got, we got off the shelf at Racers Edge," says Cruz. "The parts were nothing special, anybody has access to them. We just put the motor together and tuned it."
Besides the technical aspects behind the truck, the OPM team worked on the necessary fabrications to keep the truck light. No more bench seat, no lights (except for one taillight for night races), no more 13-gallon gas tank, no alternator, no air-conditioning system. The fuel cell was relocated to the bed, the crew built a new dashboard with gauges and switches and they even changed out the rear stock brakes to disc brakes.
Once they broke out the truck in late 2004, times started dropping immediately. The first run was a so-so 14.4-second run, all motor, which was tuned down to a very respectable 13.53.
"It was unbelievable. We only knew of one other truck doing times like that," says Toves. "But we wanted to go faster."
The nitrous oxide kit was already installed, so they decided to break out the bottle at the drag strip's grand opening on Jan. 22. The first was a 12.8-second run using an 80 shot of gas before Borja slammed out an 11.9 time a couple hours later. The capacity crowd freaked. For Toves, it made the money he spent worth it.
"Our goal now is just to be consistent," he says. "One day, we will explore going into the 10s. That will probably take another $10,000. It's really all a matter of how much you're willing to spend."
When he's not working on his car, Toves enjoys off-roading and hanging out with his friends. He gave his thanks to his sponsors: Ambros, Shimbros, Racers Edge, Hansen Helicopters, Chuck's Steakhouse, KISH 102.9, KSTO, Guam Music, Johnny Cool's Towing, KTWG, the guys from OPM Performance, John Shimizu for shop use and his mom, Zina Toves.
