[PatBurke]

Christmas was pretty good, thanks for asking. The combo I have now is a relatively big bore / short stroke set up, 4.375" bore x 3.600" stroke, at least for an FE. When I first built it I was required to weight 7.6 lbs. per ci. (3299 lbs at 434 ci.) with HR heads and at the time the car weighed 3320 with driver. The rules allow unlimited internal modifications to the engine but also give a big weight break (.4 lbs per ci) to MR and LR heads. Doesn't make a lot of sense but those are the rules so I had Dove build me a set of MR heads with a raised exhaust and worked on getting weight out of the car last year. The car now has to weigh 3125 with the MR's and it raced last year at 3160 w/ 80 lbs of ballast in the trunk to keep the front to rear distribution reasonable. It has FG fenders, bumpers, hood, deck lid, and doors. There's not a lot of weight left to take out but I could probably get another 40 or 50 out of the front with a carbon fiber hood (I have one that's been started) and titanium bellhousing. That would allow me to take the same from the back without screwing up the distribution. I have a 3.500" crank that I've never tried and it would make 421 ci. in the engine I have now. It would probably work well but I don't know if I feel that ambitious this winter. Lately I've been thinking about actually putting the whole deal up for sale and trying something new next year. Take some cam, valve spring , and compression out and it would make one hell of a Cobra engine. I haven't had the car down in your area much. Almost went to the NSS race at Atco in Sept. but we ended up going to Tacsa Ford day at NE Dragway instead. There is talk that the NMCA may have a race at Englishtown next year but it's probably a long shot. The closest that we usually get to you is Cecil County Dragway in Rising Sun, MD. Good luck with the trip to ERA. Talk to you later.