Steve Barton's Racing Engine

It’s not every day you get a chance to wander around inside a national drag racer’s engine, so today won’t count as just any old day. That’s because Ford Performance Solutions has had us over to see Steve Barton’s new 360-cube Street Bandit engine bolting together.

Steve has been a fixture in Fun Ford Weekend Street Stock (now called Street Bandit) since 1996—his ’88 LX coupe doing the 10-second thing on motor alone, and with only 306 inches at that.

“I was runner-up for two years in a row in the ’96-’97 Street Stock class at the Fun Ford Weekend,” Steve tells us. At the ’98 World Ford Challenge, he also pedaled the car to a semifinal round appearance in Street Stock and went on to take the Street Stock Fun Ford Weekend championship title that year as well. In 1999 Steve runner-upped in Fun Ford, but this year at our press deadline he was 220 points ahead in his quest for a second series championship.

These are all fairly good results for a basic, rules-conforming car built mainly from standard-stuff parts such as a ’68 302 block, Crower Sportsman rods, and ported Trick Flow Street Heat heads. The combination even wore a Weiand dual-plane intake for years, but all that has changed with the ever-faster racing pace. Having enlisted Ford Performance Solutions for his new engine, Steve has definitely stepped up the hardware in search of winning power. That power, Troy Bowen at FPS tells us, is not horsepower at this point, but midrange torque. He says others in the class are making considerably more horsepower but are not really going any faster.

His plan is to pump up the midrange cylinder pressure, which will accelerate the heavy, 3,200-pound FFW Street Bandit car better than screaming high-rpm action. To keep costs in line—and make use of available technology—Steve and FPS went with a combination of Steve’s existing valvetrain, atop a used set of Winston Cup titanium valves and a Winston Cup crankshaft, all in a brand-new, 8.700-inch-deck, S302 small-block from FRPP. Using a slightly wider 4.100-inch bore and an rpm-friendly 3.400-inch stroke, the combination displaces 360 cubes. It seems to have done its job of providing more displacement with a small increase in external bulk and just moderate weight gain.

Of course, without a power adder, building middle-of-the-tach muscle means working out in the traditional hot-rod gymnasium. Towering intake manifolding, deep-breathing cylinder heads, plenty of compression, and camming are necessary, and FPS has put them in Steve’s engine.

We’ve put it all on film for you, and Steve has since put it on the track. To date, the new combination has gone 10.20 in three passes in front of an ailing C4 automatic. Steve is looking to eventually land in the 9.90s with the right weather and a healthy automatic.

Steve’s other concern has been mph. He needs to pick up from the current 134-mph posting, and FPS was grinding up a new camshaft as we went to press. In addition, Steve was moving to a 4-inch exhaust to help the top end. Whether this will be enough against the now Edelbrock Victor–headed competition remains to be seen, but nevertheless, the 360 combo remains an interesting step up from the usual 347 fare. Steve is hoping it will put him into the 9.90s, making him the first automatic car to get there in Street Bandit. We’ll be watching!

Horse Sense: Who says racing is expensive? Steve Barton has spent $26,000 this year racing in Street Bandit but has won $27,000 so far. Should he win the championship, which looks likely, he’ll take in another $10,000 at year’s end.