NMCA Drag Racing Event - Street Fighters

People love to quote chapter and verse about how fast their street cars are. You know 'em-and you may even be one of them. These Internet jockeys whip out handy dyno numbers and e.t.'s at the slightest provocation, clogging up message boards with enough virtual hot air to launch a Saturn V rocket. This story isn't about those people, it's about a class of racer-the street fighter-who practices what he preaches. He does it on the street, at the track, and with just one machine. This is NMCATrue Street.

Sponsored by Popular Hot Rodding, MSD Ignition, and now Hedman Hedders, NMCA True Street is exclusively for licensed, registered, and insured street cars. And unlike the "street car" drag race run by another well-known magazine-the race you have to kiss butt to get into-this one is for anybody, as long as he or she has the stomach for hardcore racing, real street miles, and a kinship with like-minded street fighters.

True Street kicks off with a 30-mile driving loop that puts all cars through a grueling cruise that simulates city and highway driving. Drop out or break, and you're done. After returning to the track from the cruise, all cars are sequestered in a special pit area, where they are not allowed to pop hoods, tune, or perform work of any kind. We allow tire pressure checks, refueling, and hooking up nitrous bottles, but that's it. Then all cars are brought to the staging area, where they must complete three drag-strip passes back to back. If your car pukes, overheats, throws a belt, deflates a tire, or otherwise requires repair, it's out of competition with a "DNF." When all runs are completed, the e.t.'s of competitors are averaged, and ranked from quickest to slowest. The guy with the quickest three-run average is crowned the king, and the cars averaging closest to, but not exceeding, the 10-, 11-, 12-, 13-, 14-, and 15-second index breaks are also awarded $100 prizes.

At the Superbowl of Drag Racing in Joliet, Illinois, this past July, Paul Ferrucci of Waterbury, Connecticut, bested a field of 77 fellow competitors to win the 6-foot trophy, a $250 cash prize, and a gold and diamond Nitto Tires "Superbowl" ring from the NMCA. Paul's average was a blistering 8.643 seconds-absolutely amazing for a street car. In Joliet, we selected nine cars to profile in this story. When we chose them, we didn't know who would win, or even finish, but there was something about each one we were drawn to. Some were obvious ones, like Paul's Malibu, but we also wanted a broad cross-section of typical street cars. Many of these street fighters are cars like yours, or otherwise might be within reach with more time and money. Here are their stories, along with the results of the Joliet race.