PARADISE RACING SEARCHING FOR 9’s ...............

We snap this shot of Louis and his baby on June 3, 2001 at the IDRC event held at Atco race way in New Jersey. I spoke to Louis after that which was July 19, 01 when he told me we got the last clean shot of the car. I asked him what does that that mean, and that’s when he told me he and the crew had a little accident while on his way to the IDRC event at English town race way in New Jersey on the weekend of June 30 - July 1, 2001.  I was relief to find out that no one was seriously injured. Everyone walked away without any lasting injuries. All body parts were fully functional. The only injuries were a few bruises, bumps and shattered egoes. The car also got its share of bumps and dents, but nothing major Louis told me; atleast not enough to miss the Pan-American nationals the weekend of  July 21- 22 at the Atco race way. The best time todate this car ran is a 10:83 @ 132mph while backing off the throttle at the 1000ft mark, Louis and the crew is hoping for better #s this weekend.

The car was dynoed with the boots set at 30psi and produced 481.8hp and 326.7 max torque@ the wheels with out the aid of the juice bottle. Here are two dynorun of the car by extreme motorsports, one@25psi&30psi. This car is a 1985 ae86 Toyota corolla GTS which was fitted with a fully worked hybred 1.8 3tc block coupled with a 1.6 liter 2tc head. The head got the full treatment from jackson auto. it got a full race port& polish job with a 5 angle valve job, over size stainless steel valves with double racing springs and a 280/476 degree schnider turbo cam shaft. The block was bored 40 over to accomidate a set of over sized (86mm) wiseco flat top 8:1 compression pistions; coupled with a set of Howard Aim aluminum rods. The crank REMAINS stock but it was refreshed with a polihed job. The stock flywheel was shaved to a conservitive 12lbs to futher lighteh things a bit. Every thing was blue printed and balanced and held together by ARP fasteners for durability and longitivity. Four mitsubichi coil pack are being used FOR SPARK and a Haltech E6K unit takes care of the timing and fuel curve. A special intake was fabricated by Racetech so that the car could run the 8 injectors its now RUNNING; they also fabricated this beautiful equal length turbo header to assist in freeing up the flow of this massive T66 turbonetics turbo by majestic turbo’s. In order to regulate the boost, a Tial waste gate was set in place, and a HKS blow off valve to get rid of the excess air. a huge Spearco IC unit (aka the deep freeze) was mounted in front to properly charged the incoming air to the motor in order to prevent detonation.

Although they are producing 481hp@ the wheels with this set up; Louis and the camp decided that a 75 shot of the pony in a bottle should amp things up a little. With all this pavement stomping power the crew knew that the old clutch & tranny wouldn’t hold up a day; so they hopped for a Clutch Master 225” 4-puck unsprung clutch with a 2800lbs double diaphragm pressure plate coupled with a G- Force clutch less 5 speed tyranny linked to a ford 9 inches rear with a Strange Engineering spool axels & center section. The car was back half with a 4-link set up. The sticky stuff is a set of Goodyear 29x12x15 slicks in the rear and 24x4.5x15 up front. If you look closely at the pics you could see the difference and improvements from then to now. This is not a high budget project by industry standards, but it could compete with some of the giants out there. Luis and the camp made sure everything was taken care of; no stones were left unturned. The car’s body got a little safer & stiffer when an 8-point NHRA approved roll cage was installed. In order to house the new cluster of gauges a custom aluminum dash and tranny tunnel was fabricated by Durham Performance, the braking system were upgraded as well. After all we can’t think about going fast without stopping that’s why Luis ditch the stock unit for a set of oversized billet disc with pads with steel braided lines, billet calipers by Aero Space. A parachute was installed for extra stopping power in the future when he hits the 8’s.

Looking back at this car and comparing it to now, I could say it came a long way from a few years ago when myself and my partner Darren saw it first in Maryland at the local strip. Luis and a member of his camp was thanking their maker Luis had all his body parts intact as well as his life due to a shattered clutch & pressure plate. When I say shattered I mean SHATTERED! The explosion was so hard pieces of debris hit a few spectators in the stands. At the time the car was running a twin cam 4age motor. The motor was fitted with 11:1 compression pistons, Carrillo rods, fully worked head with a set of 304 bump stick, cam gears, a set of 44’s mikunies which were replaced by a set of 48’s Webbers. It also had a shaved flywheel coupled with a stage 5 Clutch Master set up. The power was being transferred by a Supra w58 Tranny to a Ford 8inc rear with 462 gearing. The best time was a 12:50@108mph with a 75 shot of the pony in a bottle. Luis told me that more could be done to this set up, but he got a deal on the 2TC motor that was already built so he opted for the hemi type motor instead of the high revving twin cam. With the 2TC in its new body, the car’s best time was an 11:2@118mph using a TO4 turbo with the 75 shot of NOS. In this set up it was producing 250hp@ the wheels.

This article should have been completed since last month, but I was asked by Luis to hold off a bit since he and his camp was tinkering with a few new ideas and tricks. Are you familiar with the term “ GOOD THINGS COME TO THOSE WHO WAIT” and it did in the way of a phone call from Luis. “ I DID, I DID IT MAN” did what I asked. “ 9’s I RAN 9’s” Cool! I replied, tell me all about it! “ The first run was a 10:48@132mph, the 2nd was a 9.92@135mph with a 60 ft launch of 1.44, and the 3rd run was a 9.9001@135 with a 60ft of 1.4o31”. Luis sound very optimistic about the car and the run due to the fact the car was making less power 409.1 to be exact & 299.2ft.lbs of torque as per Extreme Motor sport Dynojet with boost set @ 25psi & no juice. Luis told me he also got his 9’sec NHRA license, and he is still fine-tuning the car by trying to run eight 870cc injectors and cranking the wick to 30 psi. Luis asked me to delay the launching of the article until the weekend of October 14&15 for the NIHRA event at English Town. On the 14th of October Luis ran the illusive 9’s as seen here on the time slip, but I wasn’t there to capture it on film.

We were on hand however on the 15th to try and capture one of those 9sec runs, but we got something more dangerously exciting while Luis displayed his awesome skills driving skills in avoiding a kissing date with the walls at E-Town. What caused the ballerina act? A blown head gasket shown here when Luis tried juiced it, causing water to leak on the track. Luis got a standing ovation for his superb driving, not only did he saved the car; he saved himself from any possible injuries, and delay of the event. Bravo, Bravo Mr. Corujo excellent driving, but I’m sure you won’t be trying that any time soon. That was it however for the day, so we decided to hold back the article until the following weekend where Luis would try AGAIN AT THE IDRC event in Maple Grove in PA.

The first run was low 10sec, but the second run almost repeat the one at E-Town, ending the run with a lousy 19.91sec run while his competitor blitz the ¼ mile with a 8.4 AT 160+MPH. The season didn’t end too bad for Luis because he still ranked # 10th on the IDRC points list without running a 9sec run.

Paradise Racing plans to tour most of the 2002 east coast and mid west events for IDRC, NHRA & IDRA.  Please stop by and say hello to us.  Attending limited events after our catastrophic accident at the beganning of 2001 season.

Paradise Racing would like to thank our sponsors:

Extreme Motorsports       Haltech sales, service, installs and dyno tuning
Jasckson Auto Machine   Head porting and flowing, manifold designing and engine programs
Speed Design                 Vinyl graphic art design and installation for car, trailer and tow vehicle.
A R Fabrication               Custom fabrication work, oil gages, tin work, lexan installation and custom paint work.
Infotech Associates         Sales & service for computers and laptops.

A personal message from Luis:

I want to thank my crew, Michael Newton and Roland Monsanto.  We also want to thank our families for putting up with the countless hours that we are away from them.

Most of all I want to thank everyone at DivisionOne for having the cojones to be leaders and not followers.

I wish you unlimited success.