June 19-21, 1986: Supercar Showdown, Quaker City Dragway, Salem, OH . . .
Friday June 20, 1986: Getting familiar with the track. Friday was spent at the track - Quaker City Dragway in Salem, OH. Aside from the magazine shoots, driver's meeting, and tech inspection, drivers were given the opportunity to get acquainted with the starting line. Some car owners had never been on a drag strip before, myself included.
The Supercar Showdown was created to answer the question, "Who made the fastest muscle car ?" Timed quarter mile passes are great. But they don't really answer that question. Showdown organizer Chuck Green decided to use a Head's-Up "Run What You Brung" format, meaning cars were not divided into classes. You raced whoever was next to you at the starting line, just like you did on the street.
The 1980s was a bleak time period for the automobile industry. Power was down substantially compared to 1960s levels. My 180 hp 442, while impressive for the 1980s, was nothing compared to the powerful machines from the muscle car era. This extremely rare 1970 AMC Javelin SST Trans Am edition, (1 of 100 produced), and its 325 hp made short work of me by half track. My first ever quarter mile pass on a drag strip resulted in a not-really-that-impressive 16.83 seconds.My final pass was during the eliminations where I would face a 429-powered 1970 Mercury Cyclone. Like the 'Cuda and the 442 Pace Car earlier, the 360 hp Cyclone would finish the quarter mile almost 3 seconds ahead of me. The upside to this is that my time improved once again, this time to 16.58 seconds !