photos by: Dom Domato
Justin Cyrnek’s S197 Has Been Making Waves All Over!
Green with Envy. It’s what the other racers were at this year’s Outlaw Street Car Reunion, when Justin Cyrnek and his venerable Harlequin-Hued SN197 blistered the eighth mile on just his third pass with a record-breaking 4.56 at 160 mph. “The whiners demanded a tech teardown,” Justin said of his tcompetitors. Yet despite their babbling about boost and blow off valves, the Verde Vroomer’s hair dryer blew right through inspection with highlighted—er, flying—colors. Word around the pits is a grudge match is in the offing.
Indeed, one of the most entertaining classes to watch at the 2017 OSCR is MX235. The small tire drag racing segment is en fuego, as it takes teeny tubes to the extreme, limiting racers to options like a 235/60/15 radial or a 26 x 8.5 x 15 slick. That, on cars weighing 3,000lbs with relatively limited modifications. For instance, racers can’t touch their front suspensions, and chassis alterations are strictly restricted. Small tires need big bite, though, so limited rear redos are allowed, and take full advantage of the super glue-like radial track prep OSCR lays down.
Why so sticky? Because Engine. Racers can opt for up to 640ci, run a giant Vortech set-up, or up to a 14-71 blower. Turbochargers are limited to either a single 88mm snail or twin 72mm units, but for those looking to fill some block cavities with a cold, dense charge ‘o laughing gas, nitrous use is virtually unlimited.
Now, Justin’s no newbie with a credit line—his car began its journey from the showroom floor and rapidly escalated into a streetable 9-second beast. “Streetable, at least, until we put in a certified 8.5 second cage and a ‘chute,” chuckled Justin. Probably not such a good idea to let a built motor stuffed with aluminum rods and Diamond slugs idle in rush hour traffic on the Dan Ryan, either. But the madness had a method: Justin’s Stang, then dubbed “The Green Goblin,” was the first Coyote to howl into the 7s, setting the record at 7.92–yes.
So why the foray into MX235? “Turbos were getting popular,” Justin deadpans, undoubtedly recalling the two long years the car sat idle at Larry Jeffers’ shop going from fast frog to posthaste prince.
Justin is forever changing up the his mill’s mechanical melange, but we can tell you the current mod motor-based bullet was built by Tony Schroeder and the crew at AES Racing Engines in Elk Grove, Illinois. They stuffed the 351 cuber with BME rods, Diamond pistons, and topped it with heavily worked GT heads, machined and assembled in-house at Modular Motorsports Racing. An MMR custom sheet metal intake bridges the valley and Smallwood Race Development spec’d the bumpsticks while Comp cut’em.
The coup de grace is a Forced Induction-sourced GTR 88mm turbo plumbed into a full 3-inch system replete with a ProCharger blow-off valve and Precision PT3000 aftercooler. 550lb Billet Atomizer 3 injectors feed the boost like a binging bulimic and spent gases flow out of a set of Larry Jeffers custom headers. The whole shebang was tuned with Holley EFI by none other than Matt Bell at Redline Motorsports in Bloomington, Illinois.
A super trick Proformance Racing Transmissions’ “Doug and Dave Special” TH400 is spun up by a 258mm Coan billet converter before twisting a carbon driveshaft into the ubiquitous Ford nine inch rear, stuffed with 410s, 40-spline Strange gundrilled axles, and their lightweight brakes hanging off custom brackets.
The Kelly Killer’s suspension consists of Racecraft springs all around, its trusty K-member, a combo of Santhuff struts up front and Penske shocks out back doing the dampening duties, while stout RC upper and lower control arms keep the launch in line during 1.15 second 60-foot times. Rolling stock includes Weld skinnies and their beadlocking rears clamping the MT3052RC class-legal wrinkle walls. The Brake Man front stoppers do a fine job of hauling the beast down from its best run of 4.44 seconds and 168 mph at the end of the eighth.
Even after becoming the Baron of Boost, the Sultan of the Small Slick, and decimating MX275, Justin had Jeffers swap the 88mm Garrett turbo for a Forced Inductions’ “Jose-Special” 94mm unit and promptly hung the hoops for 200 feet on an aborted 4.51, 161mph test hit. That’s right—he shut it down half-track and still matched his quickest ET!
Can you say ‘Outlaw?’ Justin sure can. Though he and the Pistachio Pony dominated the Battle of the Titans 26” tire event in Michigan—this, only after shredding the field with a 4.887/131.60 at the Street Car Super National radial small tire event at the NHRA Midwest Nationals in St. Louis, despite the track being prepped for top fuel, rather than radial rides—Justin is currently rolling without a specified racing class.
That said, Justin was also recently featured at the St. Louis NHRA national event by invitation only. He was one of eight cars invited to run at the big show.
In fact, word has it that this industrial machinery magnate from Plainfield, Illinois, still isn’t satisfied in his quest to build the fastest, baddest S197 around: when the snow flies, so, too, will the front end of the Chartreuse Showpiece, which will soon sport a tube frame and one-piece carbon fiber front clip.
Oh, did we mention the addition of an MMR billet block? Justin did. The question is, will he finally be content with a car capable of 4.30s in the 1/8-mile?
Survey says…see ya in ‘18!
TECH SHEET:
- CAR: 2013 Mustang GT
- OWNER: Justin Cyrnek
- ENGINE BLOCK: MMR; billet (engine built by AES Racing)
- PISTONS: Diamond
- CONNECTING RODS: BME
- CAMSHAFT: COMP Cams/Smallwood Race Development
- CYLINDER HEADS: Ford GT
- COMPRESSION RATIO: 12.1:1
- INDUCTION: MMR intake manifold
- POWER ADDER: Forced inductions GTR88, ProCharger BOV, Precision waste gate
- INTERCOOLER: Precision; PT3000, 3-inch tubing (hot and cold)
- EXHAUST: Turbo manifolds; built by Larry Jeffers
- FUEL DELIVERY: 550cc Atomizer injectors
- TUNING: Redline Motorsports, tuning by Matt Bell
- TRANSMISSION: TH400; built by Performance Transmission
- CONVERTER: 258mm; Coan, billet
- SHIFTER: M&M
- DRIVESHAFT: Carbon Fiber
- REAREND: 9-inch; 4.10 gears, spool, 4.10 gears
- SUSPENSION: Racecraft K-member, springs (front/rear), removed sway bars Santhruff struts, Penske shocks
- BRAKES: The Brake Man/TBM (front), Strange (rear)
- WHEELS: Weld
- TIRES: Mickey Thompson
- HP/TQ.:
- 1/8-Mile E.T.: 4.44 at 168mph
Abandoned in the Transportation section of a local bookstore as a toddler, Adam found himself pouring through Hot Rod, Car Craft, Motor Trend, Adam eventually found himself behind the wheels of various race cars, creating content for Muscle Mustangs and Fast Fords, and CARtoons, and piloting his very own Cobra Jet Mustang that he campaigns in the FS/AA class.
