|
THE STORY BEHIND IT ALL
by Phil Luyer - Dec 2007
Tony and Gillian Argentino's 1936 Chev drag racer is known as "The Hitman", and is a theme car that represents history from America, which now resides here in Perth. With its curvy shapes and vivacious body, the car represents beauty, charm and character, all whilst the tough supercharged and injected alcohol burning engine provides plenty of power for this wild machine.
Tony has been racing on and off since he was 17 (23 years) starting out in Super Street. He then moved into the popular Modified bracket, and then decided to step up into Supercharged Outlaws
when it
started in WA a few years ago.
Tony also learned a lot about blown vehicles after crewing for the Hudson Family on their big red truck quite a few season ago
.
Tony and Gillian are probably best known for racing their previous car, a 1934 Ford 3 window coupe Altered. Gillian explains: "
At the end of the 2006/2007 race season, we decided it was time to retire the '34 because we knew we were pushing our luck to try and force over 1500 horsepower through something that was never really built to take it. It was a tough decision to make due to the history of the chassis (ex Sheehan Hearse). Just the thought that the car would never have come to fruition if it weren't for Steve Igglesden was enough for us to seriously think about putting it on the Kwinana Performance roof as a billboard, because we were just so attached to it. But like all things, the world unfortunately revolves around money, and money it was that we would need if we were to buy another racecar".
So with the vision of a new car on the horizon, Gillian was looking around on
www.racingjunk.com
for a new hotrod style body to go on an Altered chassis that they were seriously looking at buying when they found
Terry Hall's "Hitman" car, and knew straight away that it was just them all over. The added bonus was that the car had run 6.30's from
running the Pro-Mod and Super Chevy Series
in America, so the Argentino's knew that the chassis could handle anything that they could ever afford to throw at it.
The car is a 1936 Chevy Master that has been moulded in carbon fibre, and it has a chrome-moly chassis.
Originally, Terry was selling the car as a turnkey deal, and as much as Gillian and Tony would have preferred to purchase it complete with an aluminium Chevy and Lenco, finances would never have allowed it without a mortgage over the house, so they asked if he would separate the engine and gearbox combo, and so the deal was done to
purchase the car as a roller. The team are now using the engine and gearbox from their old '34, and it is a 442 cubic inch iron block Chevy, which is built and maintained by Tony. Induction comes from a 14-71 Littlefield hi-helix retro supercharger. The driveline has an FTC Converter with a 2-speed Powerglide, and the rear end is a Mark Williams modular rear with Strange Ultracase 4.56 gears and 40 spline axles.
"When Terry agreed to sell the car as a roller, we were starting to get a little excited that this might just be something we could do, but the price was still a bit high. So we asked Terry if he would strip every conceivable gadget out of the car like all of the computer gear and the Lenco gear, and again he agreed. So that is when we finally had a set price, even though whilst still a tad high, was actually achievable. I think we had already fallen too far for the car as well to back out by that stage".
Once the finances were finalised, so then began the arduous task of importing it from Vermont USA. "You could not wipe the smile of Anthony's face all the way to the wharf for the opening of the container in Fremantle two months later. Unfortunately though, the first thing that we saw when the doors were opened was an inadequately packed racecar by the handling company in New York, and we were heartbroken to see some body damage. However, our spirits lifted quickly as in the grand scheme of things, we had just taken possession of what we had always thought was a bit of a dream. The car was everything Terry had said it was, plus some. The man builds an awesome racecar and we will be forever grateful that he allowed us to buy the "Hitman".
The best part about it all is that we are still in regular contact with him, and he takes a very keen interest in how we are doing. It must be killing him to know the drama's we are having with the suspension and probably thinking he can sort them out in a flash but not being able to physically do it. We would love to fly him out one day, but he assures us that there was no way he was getting on a plane!"
The car was in fact pretty much Anthony's wish list in terms of the chassis, body, steering, braking and suspension, and the Argentino's always wanted to race a Chevy with a Chevy, and now it was really going to happen. But getting a handle on the suspension proved much more daunting than ever expected.
With previous experience in show cars and some Super Street racing before racing Outlaws with the '34, it's only when trying to put big horsepower through a sedan that you really get an appreciation for what goes into tuning the suspension for the racetrack. "All of those years watching the likes of Zap struggling to get his power down onto the racing surface has really given us an appreciation for what he, and others like him have had to overcome to achieve the levels they have. A whole new respect if you like, and we can now say that until you race a sedan that is starting to push big horsepower that you can really understand.
With the drag racing season now in full swing, the team have already achieved a personal best time of 7.21 seconds @ 299.8 km/h, which was huge considering that the team thought they would be chasing mid sevens for a good part of the season. "You are constantly learning with these supercharged beasts" Gillian explains. "They can surprise you and bite you in a split second if you are not careful, or knock out a PB when you least expect it, but one thing that's for sure is that you never stop learning with them".
So how does the new car compare to their old '34?
Like chalk and cheese according to the Argentino's!
The '34 chassis had a very short wheelbase, was built in 1986 from mild steel, and had been through many changes. Along with its rear only brakes, no suspension, and one little parachute, it was hard to drive at the best of times. The "Hitman" however has four-wheel brakes, a longer wheelbase, two big parachutes and suspension. "Some in car footage posted on youtube
www.youtube.com/dragsvideos
and the Outlaws website
www.superchargedoutlawswa.com.au
has seen some people pass comment that Anthony pulls the chutes late, but trust me when I say that those two chutes pull the car up so quickly that he does not need to touch the brake very often, if at all".
So in all of the experience with getting the new car here into Perth, the Argentino's explain that it has been nothing but a positive encounter. "We have heard some horror stories with importing cars from the USA, but other than one incompetent handling company, we cannot speak highly enough of the exercise. If you're thinking of doing it, just do your homework first as best you can, and speak to people who have done it to get their advice, and a list of what paperwork is required. We could not afford to buy the "Hitman" and fly over to see the car or oversee the packing, but
Jackie Pilkington was more than helpful with giving us a copy of all the documents that we would need with the correct wording to get it all happening. Clyde Carstairs looked over the photos for us as far as engineering issues go, and then put us onto Robin Judd who advised us to make contact with John Scialpi in the USA to make sure the car was real. Then we also sent all of the photos and details off to ANDRA just to make sure that the car would be class legal.
Obviously, it was still a risk to rely on photos, but we had no other choice. So we just crossed our fingers, and asked people as much as we could, and without the helpful advice of people like above, we would probably have never done it".
As far as racing aspirations go from here for the "Hitman", the Argentino's want to run a six-second pass, and they are also very passionate to run their first 300 km/h pass as well, which so far has always eluded the team. Of course, a gold Christmas Tree is still missing from the trophy shelf, and they would also love to run at the first meeting in Melbourne when their track gets building approval, as the Argentino's have a very large family base there.
Other than that, they just want to be good consistent Competitors.
|
