Dyno Joe Cram and his Motovicity-sponsored '06 Saleen Mustang hit the National Muscle Car Association (NMCA) West drag racing event in Pomona, Calif., and toured Magnaflow's facilities in Rancho Santa Margarita.
His race weekend at the 3rd Annual NMCA West Coast Shootout May 16-19 was another mixed bag of inconsistent weather leading to inconsistent ETs. Cram's practice runs in the relatively cool Thursday/Friday sessions net him some consistent 10.68 runs. By qualifying and race time Sunday, warmer weather started adding to his times.
"We adjusted weight as much as we could, but the weather and track temps changed enough that we couldn't pull enough weight from the car," Cram said.
He also noted the change in track etiquette between Texas and California. "Courtesy staging" in Texas means waiting for each driver in each lane to stage before advancing to the tree. In California, Cram says, there's no time for that.
"I'm still doing my burnout and the other guy's already at the tree," he said. "That's the thing about California, they're all laid back out here until they go racing, then they're all in a big hurry."
By round three, "gentleman Joe" was eliminated after running a 10.67, down from his earlier runs at 10.58.
After the race, he packed up his car and headed on over to Magnaflow's headquarters in Rancho Santa Margarita for a private tour and to have their techs look over his car's exhaust system. Magnaflow is also a sponsor of the Dyno Joe Saleen Mustang.
While at Magnaflow, Joe got a close-up look of their R&D and manufacturing facilities - which included the company's "black-ops" room. He also got a first-hand look at the handcrafted assembly process.
"We watched this one guy working a weld on an exhaust tip. He just fussed with it to make it perfect," Cram said. "It makes you think if they're that fussy about that, how much other effort goes into the rest of the exhaust systems they're making."
After the tour, Joe took some needed time off to travel the California coast and stop by a vineyard or two along the way, before heading back to Houston to get ready for the upcoming NMRA race in Norwalk, Ohio, June 14-16.
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