Goodguys Street Machine Autocross Events - Texas Jam

Ted Parrish (Bethany, Oklahoma) is somewhat of an adrenaline junkie when it comes to cars. He brought out not one, but two corner-carving cars to Dallas—a ’66 Shelby Cobra, and a ’56 Pontiac Safari. The Superformance Cobra kit car was understandably agile, but the old Pontiac was the real crowd pleaser with its 572ci big-block Chevy, Tremec TKO tranny, Wilwood brakes, and Mustang II-style front suspension. Parrish got the car 47 years ago by trading a seat for it!

The crowd thrilled to watch a procession of street machines and street rods teeter precariously around the cone minefield. While it’s a given that well-equipped cars are fun to watch, it’s really spectacular to watch the epic failure of old stock suspensions—of which there were many.

Ted Parrish (Bethany, Oklahoma) is somewhat of an adrenaline junkie when it comes to cars. He brought out not one, but two corner-carving cars to Dallas—a ’66 Shelby Cobra, and a ’56 Pontiac Safari. The Superformance Cobra kit car was understandably agile, but the old Pontiac was the real crowd pleaser with its 572ci big-block Chevy, Tremec TKO tranny, Wilwood brakes, and Mustang II-style front suspension. Parrish got the car 47 years ago by trading a seat for it!

The entire weekend, Kevin Miller (Baldwin City, Kansas) piloted his LS1-powered ’69 Camaro to the top of the e.t. chart, only to have eventual winner Brian Finch knock him down a notch. What’s particularly cool about Miller’s car is that he built the front tubular subframe and rear two-link suspension himself on a skinny kid budget. These homemade parts were good enough to garner Second Place.

Outmanned and outgunned by many of the hot Chevys on hand, Wayne Walker (Plano, Texas) had his work cut out for him with his ’65 Mustang. Even with a full-boat Heidts suspension front and rear, Walker was hampered by a lack of practice on the autocross circuit. Keep trying Walker—you’ve got the serious hardware, try to get some more seat time!

Mark Turner racked up an 11th Place finish with his ’73 Trans Am. The second-gen F-body features a KRE-headed 461-inch Poncho motor for the true Pontiac enthusiasts, a Tremec six-speed, RideTech suspension, Wilwood brakes, and Nitto NT555 rubber.

That moaning sound you hear is Photo Editor Robert McGaffin making goo-goo eyes at the ’65 F-85 Cutlass Olds of Rocky Stephens (Covington, Texas). Rocky’s owned it 13 years and transplanted an LS1 and 4L60E out of a fourth-gen Camaro. If we didn’t know better, we’d say the paint was Ford Mustang Mineral Gray Metallic.

John Dodson loves turbocharging LS engines, and that’s exactly what he did with his ’60 Chevy Parkwood wagon! It’s run a best of 7.85/94.8 in the eighth-mile (that’s low 12s for the rest of us), but on the autocross it managed a 45.75-second lap. We’re chasing Dodson for a story on it, along with its sister car, a Carousel Red ’69 GTO.

Few cars made more laps at Goodguys than Terry Neuville and his ’68 Camaro. Like a man possessed, Neuville was determined to run the fastest lap of the event—and got damn close, with a 40.444—good for Third Place. The front suspension is a combination of Global West and QA1, while the rear is all DSE QuadraLink. Baer brakes get it stopped, and a combination of Nitto (front) and BFG (rear) rubber does all the work.

We mentioned Jeff Peoples’ ’72 Buick Skylark GS in last month’s Bangin’ Gears column, and it’s one sweet ride. Peoples built it with friend Mike Modena, and it packs a 525hp 455 Buick, 200-4R overdrive, SPC front control arms, 2-inch drop spindles, Spohn adjustable rear control arms, C5 Corvette Z06 brakes, and Nitto NT-05 rubber. Peoples ran the eighth best lap overall.

When the dust settled, the highly competitive Brian Finch of Hermitage, Tennessee, pulled out the fastest lap in the PHR Street Machine class. His Detroit Speed & Engineering–equipped ’71 Camaro pulled off a 39.557-second lap, and won him the first of five PHR Street Machine jackets. Finch says he’s coming after a few more in the months ahead. Can anybody knock Finch off his throne?!