SouthworstRacing #737
General Information
- Ownership Status
- Currently Own
- Year
- 1989
- Fox Body Model
- LX
- Transmission
- Manual
- Mods - Handling
- Stock k-member, Panhard bar, strut car
- Mods - Power
- Modest head and intake work.
- Mods - Exterior
- SouthworstRacing colors (Blue, orange, and red)
- Mods - Interior
- Gutted, with full cage
- Background & Plans
-
Our story…
Bought ‘85 GT for $500 in 2011, it was a 4bbl 5.0L that was running quite rough. We slapped a 2-bbl carb on it, plugs, wires, disty, and built the 737-100. We won a race at Laguna Seca (Dec 31, 2012 with ChumpCar). Then, in Feb 2013, we had a [former] driver wreck the car (rolled 3 times entering T7 at Sears Pt).
So, we began building the 737-200, started in Apr 2013 by sourcing a 1989 4-banger automatic coupe (if we say this, does this mean we have to claim a “swap value” since the car didn’t come with a 5.0L V8? Maybe we should just say it was a blown 5.0L, so we took the engine out of the -100 and dropped it in -200) from a salvage yard in Redwood City for $350.
We took all the usable pieces/parts off the 737-100, which amounted to the driveline [engine, trans, rear-end (with new axles, as the original ones got bent in the wreck)], springs, our phb, gauges, and steering wheel. Then sent the -100 off to the crusher.
We striped the car, took it to Evil Genius Racing for a cage, built a fuel-cell cage ourselves, added our own sub-frame connectors, and started swapping over the driveline...
But, since we had the engine out of the car, and with an unknown history prior to our ownership (before 2011), we decided to inspect the internals, bore it .030, and call it good for another couple years.
We also made a decision to add ABS (for those rainy days at Sears Pt. and Laguna).
We ran it in this configuration for the 2013-2014 seasons.
Then, prior to the 2015 season we made a choice to switch to fuel-injection, sourced some old Explorer and Mustang EFI parts to throw in the -200.
Next, we had one of our teammates (John Griggs) build us a torque-arm, so we slapped that on.
At the end of last season (2017) we came across a set of used / take-off aluminum heads (from a Griggs Racing customer), and changed over from our “stock” Ford cast-iron heads to the aluminum heads.
We’ve run several races since switching to the AFR heads, and we’ve blown a head-gasket in the first two races (while leading in one, and running 3rd in the other). This is not an ongoing issue/problem with these heads, it was an assembly problem on our part!
In July of '22 one of our original pilots, and more importantly, a great friend, quick driver, and awesome teammate, Marc,
unexpectedly passed away. We were deeply, deeply saddened by his passing, and have struggled with the reality that he’s gone. Thus, the 737 has been moth-balled since his passing.
That said, we hope to resurrect the 737, for at least one more flight, in Marc's honor!
We've got multiple overall wins in the 737, along with several podium finishes over the years, racing with LDRL, ChampCar, and LeMons.
