ASSC Racing Big Red III Drag Car: Red Fusion

ASSC Racing has become a fixture in big-time Ford racing, but the shop actually had its roots working on other vehicles. When loyal customer Tim Huston learned the shop was going up for sale, he saw a challenge worth taking--and a chance to go road racing, with his own shop for support. Of course, when he got down into the trenches, the crew at the shop quickly "suckered" him into going drag racing.

His first taste of the 1,320 came courtesy of backing ASSC employee Jim Summers' supercharged Big Red Fox-body Mustang drag car, which began its career by tearing things up at the Bradenton Fun Ford Weekend in the Spring Break Shootout class, and even-tually became one of the quickest cars on true 10.5-inch tires. That car kept evolving till it just couldn't keep up with the rule book anymore. So it was time to bid adieu to the infamous Big Red GT, but by then Tim was hooked on the thrill of watching his cinnamon stick chew up the quarter-mile.

After a call to Mark Wilkinson's RaceCraft Inc. and the exchange of a considerable sum of money, the construction of Big Red II began during a time of rule-book flux between the various sanctioning bodies. Certainly you remember the Sticker Dude tribal-flamed result that was chosen as the best-looking Pro 5.0 at WFC4. The car ran well but inconsistently, largely due to a trainload of power under the hood but undersized tires out back. The results were flashes of brilliance on good tracks and gobs of frustration on slippery ones.

When the rules finally settled down to allow all-out chassis cars, Tim had only one choice. He was already in too deep. Drag racing had become his love, and that love translated into a few more mortgage payments for Mark Wilkinson. Tim ordered up the baddest Mustang race car he could to fit within the few limits of the current Pro rule book at Fun Ford Weekend. The result is one of the most striking Pro rides we've seen in quite some time.Slathered in searing red and splashed with a kick of wildly exaggerated yellow tribal flames, the carbon-fiber body houses the best RaceCraft has to offer, including a full 25.1C-legal cage and four-link rear suspension. The four-link works with electronically controlled Koni rear shocks and Hypercoil springs to plant the mammoth Goodyear slicks mounted on Weld rims.

Up front, the balance of the suspension includes Strange struts and Hypercoil springs, which help transfer the weight to the rear meats.

Those rear tires are bolted to a Strange rear fitted with Strange axles and 4.56 gears. It's fronted by a Mark Williams driveshaft plugged into the back of a Lenco five-speed transmission. Tim and the ASSC crew are still trying to optimize the gear ratios for the engine combo, but tuning such things is the name of the game in the Pro ranks. With the new car being lighter and having more rear tire, Tim is con-fident it can handle the power much better than did Big Red II.

Of course, the chassis is new and improved, but the engine combination doesn't look that much different than it did in the last car. Tim and crew still run the 400ci small-block designed by Jim Summers and screwed together by Fast Times Motorworks. Interestingly, Tim is one of the few Pro owners who doesn't spend time on the dyno before dropping the engine in the car. He says he'd simply wear it out on the dyno trying new things before he even got the engine in the car. As such, he and the crew drop it in and tune it at the track. He also says they don't rush into a motor program; they prefer to spend six months to a year developing the next combination. The results have been good so far with a best pass of 6.75 at 208 mph, but Tim is sure the car will eventually run solidly in the 6.50s in Fun Ford trim.

A new car, a familiar engine--but the latest change at ASSC is that longtime tuner and driver Jim Summers is moving on to a racer-relations/product-development role with ATI ProCharger. Tim has enlisted former IHRA and NHRA Pro Stock shoe Tony Gillig to strap Big Red III for a shot at the glory. Additionally, Tim is going to keep the tuning in-house at ASSC with longtime employee Larry Stauner taking over that duty. Larry has been around the aftermarket EFI scene since John Meany developed the first DFI system, and Tony obviously has driving knowledge along with clutch and chassis-tuning skills, so Tim is confident the car can reach new performance heights with the new team.

Of course, the big question is about big-blocks. With a former Pro Stock driver taking over, the assumption is a natural one, but Tim is sticking with his ProCharger combination as long as it has an advantage. He says ProCharger has been great to the ASSC team, and the belt-driven bad ass under the hood acts surprisingly similar to the big-blocks with its linear power delivery--but big-blocks can't simply add a smaller pulley to dial in more power. This combo shoves a whopping 40 pounds of intercooled boost into the motor, which likely produces close to 2,000 hp based on the car's mph and the mph of other cars with 1,900 dyno'd horsepower.

So what's next? After a new car and a new driver, Tim just wants to get back in the winner's circle. As hooked as he his on the drag-racing feeling, we don't find it difficult to imagine a big red flash blowing past the finish line before all those big-blocks and turbo cars.