During the 40 years of street racing I talk about in my book, for a ten year period of time, between 1987 and 1997, I also ran a few of my cars on the legal drag strip. I ran bracket racing in the street legal classes. I ran many runs in my black 87 Mustang LX 5.0 , and a few in my 1970 Torino Cobra. But the last runs I made were in my 1996 Mustang Cobra.
The red 96 Cobra was mostly factory stock, with only minor tuning tricks, and a set of drag radials on the rear wheels. It ran very well, but on my last day at the track, a few things happened that had me re-thinking running my street cars on the track.
The Cobra was an awesome performer, but the sticky drag radials put a lot of extra stress on the drive train. The car was pretty new and still under warranty, but any damage from running on a drag strip would void the warranty. Also, when I was waiting near the start line between rounds, I over-heard the track officials call the street legal bracket racers "garbage cars" . That just spoiled the whole experience for me. All they cared about was the pro cars, dragsters and funny cars, and such. That was the last time I ever ran a street car on the drag strip.
My 1996 Mustang Cobra , on my last day at the drag strip in 1997.
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