Low Drag - Drag Racing

Paul Cangialosi with Csaba (Editor of Car & Driver )

Tony informed me that Car and Driver magazine's editor was interested in doing a piece on the car. The test date - July 26th, 2000 at Moroso Performance Park in West Palm Beach Florida. The track is a one hour drive from my house. I frequent most of the HSR Vintage race events there with the Team Predator Cars we sponsor. The weekend before the Car and Driver test Tony and myself do a little testing of our own. The below paragraph sums up what we did.

With the car cold you actually don't need to use chokes in Florida. Just hit the gas once and push the start button. Give it a few minutes to cough thru the carbs and warm up and the Low Drag E actually drives without any bucking or carb spitting for a non choked cold engine. As we exit my development the security guards are perplexed as to what this thing we are driving is. With Tony driving we take some side roads to get to I -95 and do the stop and go traffic thing and Tony is impressed as to how docile the car is. We enter I-95 heading North. I take notice that Tony now has this car up to 95 mph on the entrance ramp. The acceleration was smooth and not to loud. We cruised I-95 to Boynton Beach and the car ran cool and to me didn't ride as harsh as I though it would. The nostalgic racing bucket seats really work your back and the 3 point shoulder harness makes me feel like some assistant rally navigator. Tony is playing with the acceleration characteristics of the car and we are hitting over 100MPH from 60 very easy. Traffic is starting to materialize so he backs down on the throttle. We don't want to do anything stupid......yet.

We switch seats in Boynton Beach and I take the car back. Traffic is moderate on I-95 and I'm just doing 65 mph and checking mechanicals. At I-95 and Linton a clear shot of no cars allows me to dump the clutch at my first light. I drop it at 3000 rpm and ease off the throttle to let the Dunlops hook. I hit second gear around 4500 RPM and 3rd about 5000. I honestly don't remember what RPM I hit 4th out since I was looking for cops and other cars. I pass by my development and missed the entrance. I remember saying "shit I missed my entrance" and Tony saying "yeah at 130mph". Tony seemed a bit pale and his finger nail impressions hopefully will come out of the dash. I do a few more of my American Muscle Car Mentality Tests just to make sure nothing falls out of the car when Car and Driver gives it more abuse. One nifty little trick is to do burn outs like I used to with my 396 SS Chevelle. Rev it up to 4000, slide in the clutch while slightly holding the brakes. This is a mandatory test again to prepare it for Car and Driver.

The Low Drag gets worked on the skid pad at Moroso Performance Park, West Palm Beach Florida. The Sand Cranes are used to seeing mostly drag race 5.0 Liter Mustangs and are very curious about this Jaguar.

I am very impressed with the extensive and thorough testing Car and Driver does. I cannot give you these results. The final results will be published in the December 2000 issue. Which may be on some news stands by the time this web page is published. I can tell you that the Low Drag was subjected to 12 quarter mile drag race passes. A load of various braking tests, skid pad tests, and about 20 laps around the race course.

Some laps were done with the air conditioning on. After the testing, Csaba, Tony, and myself headed for a lunch run with Csaba driving the Low Drag. We talked mostly cars and it was again a real pleasure talking to a real car enthusiast. After lunch Csaba and myself took the Low Drag on a one hour run up to Stuart Florida to do a photo shoot.

The below thumb nail gallery has more interesting shots of the Low Drag at Moroso. Click on each thumbnail for a larger picture.

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