There’s a love-hate relationship between racers and rulebooks that dates back to the beginning of racing. Often viewed as a necessary evil, the rulebook levels the playing field while virtually placing a ceiling on performance potential. The popular Sport Front-Wheel Drive class (SFWD) lists specific restrictions, especially when it comes to turbocharger size and tire size. This prevents deep-pocketed contenders from overpowering the field and running away with victories. It also prompts research and development into other areas of racecar setup. In the end, racers push rules to the limit to further shave time and increase their competitive edge.
Text and Photos by Richard Fong
Spectating, Serving, Selling
For Rolando Blanco and Allan Jimenez, the SFWD class was their passion. They followed the racing activities of their SFWD hero and inspiration, Felix Medina. Medina held the class record and won several NHRA SFWD championships. Their fanaticism and admiration landed them an opportunity to have Medina as a mentor as well. Blanco and Jimenez apprenticed with Medina’s racing program and learned volumes from the experience. A few years later, they partnered up and took their love of the sport to a business level, opening their shop, Dynamic Performance in 2006.
Show Me What You Can Do
There’s no better showcase for a shop’s capabilities than to build a competitive demo car. Taking their experience and applying it, they each campaigned a car in the SFWD class, but soon found themselves spread too thin. They decided to sell the demo cars and consolidate their efforts into one solid performer, this 1997 Honda Civic EK.
Setting The Bar
They built and competed with the Civic EK at all of the east coast venues where SFWD was the premier heads up class to race in. In October 2010, the Civic propelled them into the limelight. With a 1,887cc overbored B18C1 engine putting down 840 horsepower, the team recorded a best effort of 8.94 seconds at 173 MPH. At this performance level, they continued to compete throughout 2011. The Civic ran steadily, delivering consistent 8.90s and 9.0s. Going quicker, however, became a problem. The Civic had hit a ceiling where the growth curve had flattened and, no matter what they tried, they could not improve on its best effort.
Back To The Rack
Doing the same thing over and over while expecting a different result is madness. Rather than succumbing to frustration, Blanco and Jimenez took a step back. Making more power was the only solution. With specific turbocharger sizing as a limiting factor, extracting more power required innovation that still conformed to the SFWD rulebook. They put together a new plan that called for a rebuild and some revised strategies.
Off The Shelf Mill
Since the demo car showcases the shop’s capabilities, building it with custom and one-off components would be expected. But they quickly point out that this project was built with off-the- shelf components, to demonstrate to customers that it is not necessary to employ custom parts to be quick, fast and competitive. The new engine retained the use of Golden Eagle sleeves and the same 83mm CP Pistons as the previous setup. However, Blanco and Jimenez linked lightweight GRP aluminum rods to the pistons on one side and an LS crankshaft on the other. This combination increased stroked by 1.8mm over the GS-R crank, bumping the engine’s displacement to 1,926cc.
