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Halsey sets new nitrous record
At last weekend’s Shakedown at E-town, Jim Halsey (seen above in near lane with Rickie Smith) became the first driver of a nitrous oxide-injected Pro Mod to run the quarter mile in less than six seconds.
Halsey drove his Tim McAmis-built Firebird powered by an 800+ cubic inch Gene Fulton-built wedge motor to a series of sub-six-second passes and won not only a $2,500 bonus but went on to collect the $20,000 first prize money for winning the nitrous Pro Mod class.
Halsey’s first in the fives feat was an upset of sorts as most experts (including Agent 1320) thought that Mike Castellana, who had already recorded a six-flat ET in his Reher-Morrison-powered ’68 Firebird, would be the first in the fives.
Although not a lot is known officially about the new Fulton engine that powered the pass, the Agent did a little preliminary detective work and came up with this information on the five-second nitrous combination. The engine uses a five-inch bore center block and Gene Fulton-designed cylinder heads. According to reliable sources, the nitrous system is based on old NOS designs that have been modified to Fulton’s specifications and are essentially a Gene Fulton-designed system at this point.
The heart of the tune-up appears to be the fact that the engine has more compression than nearly any other combination and filling the cylinders/combustion chambers with mass quantities of gasoline and liquid nitrous oxide are a big part of making power. This is the same basic premise that is applied to a supercharged, nitro burning engine to make massive horsepower.
A big, big tip of the Agent’s fedora to Jim Halsey, Gene Fulton and all of the folks on that team that are responsible for that barrier-busting performance at E-town in a car that is probably an IHRA-legal class car and absolutely an ADRL legal car. Well done!
We’ll have complete coverage of the Shakedown event as well as a driver Profile of Jim Halsey in the new in Wednesday’s new October issue of DRO. (Todd Dziadosz photo) [10/6/2008]