Jim Denaro Xtreme Fords

XTREME MAGAZINE Issue #22

Jim Denaro started drag-racing back in the early '90s at Eastern Creek Raceway driving a TC Cortina. At the end of 1997, Jim purchased an unfinished drag car in the form of a TD Cortina, upon closer inspection, there wasn't much that was salvageable, so he basically had to start from scratch. It is the same TD you see on these pages, and it has taken 12 years to complete with almost all the work being completed by Jim himself.

Jim was still running the TC at the old Eastern Creek drag strip at this stage, but with that being closed at the end of the year, the new project was put on hold and he kept racing the old car interstate until 2007. running the best time of 10.4@129.5mph. That's when Jim sold the car, but those 10 years allowed Jim to source most of the parts required for the new car and now it was time to get serious about finishin it off.

Jim got some door skins imported from the UK to make it look like a fair dinkum two-door. The front clip is fibreglass and has been extended one and a half inches. The bonnet and boot are fibreglass but the rest is all steel, while all the galss was replaced with 1/8 polycarbonate and flush mounted.

AIR SHIFTER
Jim's Cortina is equipped with a Precision Performance Products KWIK SHIFT 11 air shifter. The advantage of using this particular shifter is that it provides positive locking shift gates and optimum control, dead-on rpeatablility in shifting and long-term repeatability in shifting and long-term reliability.

     Jim says the main reason the chose this shifter was consistency because even two-hundredths of a seconde can cost you a race. This shifter won't let you miss a gear or go into the wrong gear on a reverse-pattern shift. They are suitable for street and race cars and with standard or manual valve body bodies. They are quite versatile and can suit a number of applications.

     They are also very light and conpact and are compatible with a trans' brake. The air shifter is powered bya a CO2 gas cylinder (as pictured) that discharges compressed CO2 and ensures lightning fast and reliable gear changes.

     In this application, Jim shifts gears manually during the burnout, then he loads the car up on the trans' brake at the start line and once off and running the air shifter is activated by pre-determined engine revs. In other words, it works as a full automatic during the run changing gears on its own at a certain rpm.

BUILD PROGRESS
Jim tells us a bit about the build:
     "During the years with the car in the garage I did some research about building a full-chassis race car and built a jig, sourced the "moly tube from Andrew's Race Cars (ARC) and set about putting a chassis together.
The idea being to build a bracket car that would be consistent, yet if I wanted to step it up at a later date it would handle it.
     The next 12 months were spent doing all the little things, which seem to go on forever and then get all the paintwork happening, polish everything and put it all together. During the paint process I had Michelle Tilbury from Airbrush with Attitude come in and do the headlights, blinkers and highlights."

NUTS AND BOLTS
Jim got his spray gun out and applied the clear over base two-pack Custom Deak Blue pearl metallic paintwork by Protec and boy has it come up beautifully.
     With the paint and panel sorted, it was time to turn attention to the Dart-block Windsor 302ci V8, now displacing 307 cubes with a Scat 4340 crank and Carrillo H-beam rods working with SRP pistons, and it has an 11.7:1 static comp" ratio.
     The cast-iron heads have been ported and polished and feature Ferrea Stainless 2.05in intake valves and 1.5in outlet valves, Isky Tool Room springs and titanium retainers. They"re covered by sheet-aluminium valve covers.

A Comp Cams roller cam' was fitted as well as Jet Engineering pushrods and Jesel Shaft rockers with a 1.8:1 intake and 1.6:1 exhaust rocker ration.
A Danny B-belt drive, Barnes six-stage oil pump and dry sump oil system are also part of the package.
     The electrics are taken care of with a MSD Billet distributor, duel couls, and MSD 10 spark amplifier and MSD leads.
     A Magnaflow 500, four-port return fuel system has been installed which provides enough fuel for the race motor from the custom fuel cell that sits in front of the radiator.
     Slurping down the methanol is a 950cfm HP Holley carb' feeding the Edelbrock Super Vicotr intake manifold which helps the Windsor produce 560 flywheel horsepower and 411ftlb of torque on the dyno. This has been good enough for a personal best time to date of 9.71 @ 138.13mph at WSID for the quarter.
     Backing up the stout combo area a set of four-into-one extractors with stepped 1 5/8 inch primaries into 1 7/8 inch secondaries and a three and a half inch exhaust system.
     The 302ci is supported by a revers-pattern C4 auto that was built by Dominello Transmissions and sits behind a 6500rpm Dominello converter. The C4 also has a Dominello Billet trans' brake and a Precision Performance Products Air Shifter.
     There was no question on which way to go with the diff' which Jim built himself. He went with a nine-inch diff' with Romac full-floating Mark Williams alloy centre, lightweight full spool and gears, 35 spline axles ana 5.66:1 final drive ratio.

Jim fitted Sandtuff Competition struts at the front and a four-link suspension setup at the rear with wishbone track locater and Santuff coil-over shocks. There is also a custom anti-roll bar and up front Jim used a shortened Torana steering rack.
     Slowing things down after a run a re cross-drilled Wilwood discs with Wilwood single-piston calipers at the front and cross-drilled Romac discs with Outlaw rour-piston calipers on the rear.
     The Weld wheels measure 15 x 4 inches at the front and are wrapped in Moros DS2 front runners that measure 25 x 4.5 inches in size. The huge 15 x 14 inch Weld's on the rear are wrapped in Hoosier drag tyres that measure 32 x 14.5 x 15 inches.
     In the office you will find a full race-spec interior that has been custom built by Jim. The Sparc steering wheel compliments the Kirkey race seat and brushed alloy interior scheme with Ford log door trims, while a DJ Safety seatbelt keeps Jim firmly in place for the nine second ride.
     A Racedata data logger and LCD digital dash provides Jim wht valuable racing information both during racing and post-race.

THE MOMENT OF TRUTH
Jim says, "I put the engine together myself with the help of some friens to make sure of the finer points. We used only quality parts so it would stay together and handle some abuse.
     We hit the track late October 2009, and I was pretty nervous, but once I had driven it around the pits I felt a lot more comfortable and it did everything expected of it. Over the next few meetings getting over some teething problems and with some dyno time it started running in the 9.7 to 9.8 zone, so I am extremely happy with its performance so far and I'm sure there is more left in it.
     As far as the whole buld goes even through it was painful at times, the end result is definitely worth it. The performance and predictability on-track and the positive reaction from racers and spectators off the track is great.
     In the last few years I have gotten more involved in race car fabrication doing some roll cages, dragsters and repairs.

Tim Nielsen from 1320 Web Design and myselft have a website www.shiredragracing.com.au in which you can check out the progress and results of our race cars. Tim helped me with all the race car wiring and putting my design vision of the graphics on the computer so I could get some vinyl maskings made.
There are a number of people I would like to thank including Dominello Racing Transmissions and Converters, Tim Nielsen 1320 Web Design, CJ Signs, Shire Race Engines for the cylinder head sork and advice, Geoff's Race Engines for his help and support, Rod Andrews from Andrews Race Cars, Neale Bagnall Smash repairs, Fuel2Race racing fuels for therir continued support, and all my family, friens, crew and fellow racers who have helped me along the way".
FUTURE PLANS
Since completing the project in 2009, Jim has participated in a few meets in the 2009/2010 racing season in Super Sedan, coming away with a few quarter final appearances. Jim's plans are now to participate (and be a consistent performer) in the 2010/2011 championship ans has no plans of slowing down.