Horse Sense: According to Liberty's owner/president Craig Liberty, when pro-shifting a transmission such as Fred Felt's, the entire synchronizer section of the gear is removed to make way for Liberty's through-hardened steel Pro Ring. The Pro Ring is welded on the factory gear and has one-third the teeth of the factory synchronizer, which results in a larger air gap. Then Liberty modifies the synchronizer slider according to how many teeth are on the Pro Ring in order for the two to mesh together. Of course, pro-shifting a transmission removes the synchronizing function of the tranny, which makes it less streetable. However, for around $300, Liberty can pro-shift a T5 or Tremec equivalent to make it competition-ready. Pro-shifting makes powershifting much easier.
Editor Turner recently stated his disbelief that there's now a Skinny Kid-built chassis and a Glidden-powered car in Real Street. Skinny Kid chassis are usually reserved for the likes of the Pro 5.0 and Outlaw elite-and fast-crowd, with a few Hot Street racers thrown into the mix. If you're facing a Skinny Kid-built car in the other lane, 9 out of 10 times that car's ready to rock and roll at the drop of the hammer, and you better have done your own homework to even have a chance of keeping up. Likewise, any car with a Glidden-built powerplant under the hood is a threat to win on any given Sunday. However, even with the influx of big-name chassis and engine builders into Real Street, Fred Felt is keepin' it real by proving the little guy is still capable of mixing it up with the best.
Initially, Fred's LX was supposed...
Initially, Fred's LX was supposed to be painted red with silver graphics. Instead, it exited the paint booth wearing DuPont Chromalusion Blue Steel Prism. Besides the paint, the only other deviations from stock include a Cervini's Stormin' Norman hood and a Cobra wing hangin' out on the back hatch.
Fred has owned this '87 LX hatch since December 1999, when it had basic bolt-ons and ran 13.50s. "Some tuning, suspension work, and slicks netted a best of 13.16 at 103 mph," Fred says. Soon after, performance started to deteriorate. Fearing the worst, he freshened up an '86 5.0 short-block and dropped it in with his existing E7TE heads. With the new short-block, and on BFG drag radials, the combo proved worthy by running a best of 13.06 at 104 mph.
At this point, Fred and his car experienced their first taste of heads-up racing, NMRA-style, at the '00 Ford Motorsport Nationals at Maple Grove, Pennsylvania. Entering the Factory Stock class, he qualified fifth but lost to Joffre LaFontaine in the second round.
After Maple Grove, Fred wanted to give the LX a new look, so he brought it to his brother Dave in South Carolina to have it painted. "The plan was to paint it red again with some graphics," Fred says. Dave, along with Randy Kinsley, prepped the body and applied the new paint, although it ended up being anything but red. "What came out was a color-changing beauty," Fred exclaims, or more exactly, Blue Steel Prism from DuPont's line of Chromalusion hues.
"With the paint done," Fred continues, "it was time to put some power under the hood. A Paxton Novi 2000 supercharger bought for a previous Renegade project car was installed." Fred also ditched the speed density in favor of a Pro-M mass air conversion with a Bullet 75mm meter and added 42-lb/hr injectors. Subsequent trips to the strip resulted in 11.80s and a lot of head-gasket troubles. So, with the '01 Reynolds, Georgia, NMRA race fast approaching, Fred decided to install another stock engine and race in Factory Stock. "My Real Street debut would have to wait," he says.
Getting serious after Reynolds, Fred added a complete Aeromotive fuel system. "I didn't want to take any chances with the new class-specific engine," he explains. That engine was lowered into its new surroundings just two days prior to the '01 Ford Motorsport Nationals. After a few shakedown runs at Englishtown, Fred loaded up the car for Maple Grove.
During test and tune at Maple Grove, it was discovered the car needed to be revved past the factory 6,200-rpm rev limiter. Tracking down Autologic's Mike Wesley solved that problem lickity-split. Simply getting rid of the rev limiter improved the car's times by three-tenths and enabled Fred to qualify in the fifth spot. "Qualifying fifth raised a few eyebrows," Fred says. "So did the working A/C and the stock clutch fan." The car ran its first 10-second pass in the first round at Maple Grove with a 10.94 at 124 mph, but it wasn't enough to take out Ed Curtis behind the wheel of the Evil Twin.
In the search for more power, Fred took the LX to Crazy Horse Racing for a batch of dyno tuning, which revealed an overly rich mixture and a bad distributor. Fixing both problems netted a 50hp improvement, which resulted in a new problem-a lack of traction that would haunt Fred the remainder of the '01 season. Even so, he finished 10th in Real Street points while attending only three races.
 An '87 block forms the backbone...  An '87 block forms the backbone of Fred's current Real Street powerplant. The rotating assembly consists of an Eagle steel crank, Eagle H-Beam rods, and Speed-Pro pistons and rings. Of course, the top end of the engine follows Real Street practice with Trick Flow Twisted Wedge heads and a Trick Flow Street intake. Although Fred's engine is similar to many others in the class, his belt-driven power adder of choice is a Paxton Novi 2000 supercharger, making him one of the few running a Paxton in Real Street. With a best time of 10.42 at 130 mph, he's not lacking for power. |  Due to slow editorial types,...  Due to slow editorial types, it's taken us a while to get Fred's Real Street car in the mag. In between the time we photographed the car and now, there's not much left of the hatch-except for the hatch and front bumper cover-after an impromptu street test. During the test, one of the rear slicks lost air pressure, which caused a series of events that ended with Fred on his roof. After transferring the powertrain into a shell his brother Dave owned and a one-race paint waiver, Fred continued on and won the Real Street championship for 2002. |  If you think you need fancy...  If you think you need fancy racin' seats to get into Real Street, Fred proves otherwise by sticking with his factory LX buckets. Although he utilizes the factory tachometer, an Auto Meter shift light makes sure there's no shifting before its time. |