"A Cut Above The Competition"
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"A Cut Above The Competition" |
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1962 CHEVY II
Hi my name is Randy Cooper. I lived in the Abilene area for 10 years before moving to San Antonio. For 21 years I performed maintenance of gasoline, diesel, turbine engines, hydraulics, heating and air conditioning for the United States Air Force. Since moving to San Antonio I have really made some changes in my life and some have been made for me. I am no longer with my wife Elizabeth and have all the time in the world to dedicate myself to building (the future performance company that in time will be a household name) Competitive Edge High Performance with my new partner Jim Morgan. I have been building race engines for drag racing since 1978. My real love is Drag Racing. My favorite engine is the small block Chevrolet. I know horse power comes in cubic inches, but the sound of a finely tuned screaming small block can not be beat. The Chevy II above was not the fastest by any means. I can say it is one that folks in Abilene will not forget anytime soon. But I had to make a choice, go fast or take care of my family. It was really an easy one for me, as my children are a very important item in my life. My oldest son Lee and I enjoyed racing together in Abilene for years. Now it is a bit harder but we still manage to make it on occasion. He finished 2nd in Street Money in the 98 Abilene Shoot Out. (Maroon '89' GTA) Lee's wife Kathy, had her first taste of drag racing in the 99 Abilene Shoot Out. (Lee's 95 Firebird) Needless to say she is hooked. My little angel Amanda (born May 9 2001) has already picked out a Red Altered. "Daddy That's My Racecar"! Only time will tell where she ends up with at the drag strip.
After many months of neglect, I need to update a bit about what has been going on. I sold the Nova a few years back and decided to buy a rolling chassis as it would be cheaper. But then came retirement from the US Air Force and a move to San Antonio Texas. I started out selling Toyota's at Universal Toyota. But the hours were just too long to have a family life and work on getting this business up and running. SO I decided it was time for a more family and business friendly job. Now it seems it may have all been misplaced. BUT on a brighter note, I now I have all my evenings dedicated to the success of Competitive Edge High Performance and many hours during the week for our customers needs. Since the loss of my partner I have regrouped and turned my focus in the Abilene market place for a short period of time.
New From The 2000 Shoot Out
The above pictures are from the 2000 Abilene Shoot Out. Look for both cars in the 2001 Abilene Area competition at the all new ABILENE DRAG WAY PARK. We will be adding a 1974 LUV to the team for CE HIGH PERFORMANCE and all the cars will be undergoing dramatic changes in the near future! Stayed Tuned! The 95 Firebird is for sale! The Chevy II and LUV will be on the track to start with and if everything goes well, a 260 Z will be added for Lee. See you at the Races! The Coopster The Chevy II and I have finally parted ways after 8 wonderful years. It is just time to go faster! A Rail or maybe an Altered. Possibly even a small Vega or Opel GT. The Luv will be finished this season and we may have the 260 Running! Stay tuned!
Lee & Kathy Cooper's 72 LUV is FOR SALE! Please email if interested. Late model 350 with stock Chevrolet vortec heads, a small (425/435 lift) Isky hydraulic camshaft, a Bowtie dual plane intake and a 650 Dbl pump Holley with a 830 center section. A turbo 350 built by Gordon Dempsey, 3500 stall from Torco of Abilene, CEHP custom built tractions bars and a pair of 28 x 9 x 15 Hoosier Slicks. Getting things finished for the Shoot Out.
As you can well imagine, when you wait until the last few weeks to finish a project, things get hectic! We waited way too long to get started on the LUV for the Shoot Out. So for 9 days before the event, we ate, slept and breathed the LUV! On Friday evening before the race, we were visited by the local police for a noise violation so we could not even tune anything before Saturday's time trials. When we arrived for the TECH inspection, everything was OK. But the engine had a miss! Started popping around 4500 and NO THROTTLE RESPONSE! So we tried a different distributor and got some go power. It still faded early, but not until about 5600 rpm. We were not expecting an ignition problem so we were forced to use what we had, a stock HEI. After limping through the time trials, the Gamblers Race was short lived. After going out the second round, we just enjoyed the rest of the day watching the competition. We loaded up thinking we had no more problems for Sunday. WRONG!!! Sunday morning, we fired her up for a warm up lap or two down the old return road. From no where, we developed a dead spot in the carburetor. I mean a almost kill the motor at the start stumble. We changed carburetors, jets, squirters and nothing worked. It got better, but would not go away. So we talked about trying to drive with the problem and just easing into the throttle. With Lee at the steering wheel, we gave it a shot. On a 8.20 dial in, Lee ran an 8.19 and it almost died at the starting line. What a disappointment! As we sat drowning in our sorrows, we decided to beat the noise laws at the track. So armed with a set of machinists "Very Small" drill bits, I started altering the carburetor. After a few attempts, we got the primary side flawless. But still had a bit of stumble on the secondary side. After drilling out the rear squirter from a 37 to a (what seemed like) 55 gallon drum size, the stumble was completely gone and I believe we saw daylight under the left front wheel on the return road spinning the slicks all the way through first gear. But after going out the first Round of the Shoot Out Sunday, we did not get another timed run. LUV UPDATE! After getting a new ignition system and a few other changes we decided to take it to the track. First trip to San Angelo. The test and tune was Friday evening 17 May 2002. The first pass was embarrassing! It clicked off a 15.80 and almost died off the line. What a frustration. The second pass was a 15.70. Still way off the mark. So we tried a few changes. First off the BOG! We jetted up two sizes and fired off down the return road. No bog, but still not pulling hard enough. Next change was the timing. As it turned out, the dial back light we had was WAY OFF! So after cranking up the timing, then we took it for another pass. It left hard and twisted the drive shaft just off the launch. Saturday morning we set out to find a shop to make the repairs. After a bunch of coaxing and a large quantity of cash we had a new drive shaft. A complete new rear section had to be constructed to mate up to the little front loading stock LUV rear end to run the larger Brute Force u-joints. Now we were ready to get down to business. Back at the track we only needed to install the repaired shaft and we would be ready for the big two day race. We jacked it up and started bolting the drive shaft in place with 1 hour to spare before the time trials started. But we found two bolt holes (flat plate on the pinion and rear of drive shaft connected using 4 bolts) out of alignment for the drive shaft mount plate. Now what do we do? We decided to get with an official to see if they would allow us to use two grade 8 bolts and have the other two sides welded. They said yes and we found a welder with just 20 minutes to stage when the first arc was struck. We ran two passes back to back to get both time trials in before the drivers meeting. First pass was a 12.70. The second was a 12.63 and the evening was cooling down quick. So we dialed in the first pass at 12.58. It ran a 12.60 on a 12.58 dial in but we lost the first round on reaction time. That's racing!
Lee is racing the LUV with only a few modifications at this point. He shelled the rear end the first of the season and has just gotten it back together. He ran the 3 day "Big Bracket Blowout" at The Abilene Drag Strip. He finished 2nd in the non electronics class and took home 500.00. We hope to get some pictures up here soon. It is kind of hard with me being in San Antonio and Kathy driving between Lee's rounds to get a good set of pictures to choose from.
AMANDA MICHELLE COOPER Hi Friends and family, I could not wait until I purchased a new camera to tell the world of my little angel! So please forgive the lack of picture quality! She was born on Wednesday 9 May 2001 at 6:44 PM. She weighed 7 pounds 4.5 ounces. She probably will be a basketball player or a tall racer as she was 20 1/4 inches long. I just had to show her off! Amanda Michelle Cooper, Justin (Little Brother) and Amanda, Lee (Big Brother) and Amanda New Page added for the kids; |
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