by Bill Evanoff - xs_tork@usa.net photography by the author Click on image to see larger version. 18 Supercoupes Descend on Columbus, Ohio Thunderbird Supercoupes descended upon Columbus, Ohio over the Labor Day holiday. The Supercoupe Club of America participated in the Performance Ford Club of America "Expo '97" by holding their second mini-meet at the end of summer event. Expo '97 caters to a wide range of interest by offering quarter mile drag racing, a large swap meet, a car corral, judged showing, non-judged showing, and car club mini-meets. The show started at 9:00 a.m. on Friday, August 29th. Club members from as far away as North Carolina, New York, Missouri, and Virginia who had already been on the road since Thursday afternoon slowly started arriving by mid morning. Several members took advantage of the easy drag strip access by running their cars down the quarter mile. It seemed unanimous that the track wasn't offering much in the way of traction that day for the street tired SCs. Times ranged between mid 14s to mid 15s with everyone complaining about too much wheel spin. At the end of the day we broke up into small groups and hit a few of the finer steak houses around the small town of Reynoldsburg. Upon returning to the Lenox Inn late Friday, it was immediately apparent that Saturday would be a big day. The parking lot was FULL of classic Ford street and drag cars. As I entered the gates of the National Trailways facility on Saturday morning, I was amazed at the crowd. The visitor and show car parking was filling up fast, the swap meet area was bustling, and the tire smoke and screaming engine noises coming from the drag strip was non-stop. I was the tenth SC to pull into our groups line of parked cars. I laughed when I noticed that the lineup of cars went...red/black/red/black/red...and so on. This happened by accident those already there told me. It wasn't planned. The morning was mainly spent meeting and greeting the many new SCCoA members who has shown since Friday. Everyone loved talking shop and learning about the numerous new speed parts that were actually installed on many of the SCs in attendance. Headers, duals and raised/enlarged outlet adapters (SC tops), and lowering springs were very popular modifications. The next most popular items were larger intake pieces such as mass air meters and throttle bodies. Several members had installed SCCoA (or Spearco) intercoolers and Griffin radiators. They made the front of the engine compartment spectacular looking with their buffed aluminum appearance. Custom stereos, custom intake ducting, altered interior and exterior appearances, and aftermarket wheels were also popular. Although customizing was evident, numerous SCs remained in their factory fresh, and beautiful stock appearance. It was amazing how many new looking, high mile, early model SCs were in attendance. A total of eighteen SCs finally arrived Saturday. The vast majority were painted either Bright Red or Black. Only one Titanium and two Oxford White cars broke the color barrier. That evening a pizza party was held at the Lenox Inn pool for all the members and many attended a cruise night nearby after the pizza was polished off. Sunday was similar to Saturday in attendance and enthusiasm. About the same number of cars were present but several new cars were there while several others dropped out. The highlight of the day was Neil Frisbees quarter mile run. Neil knocked off a 13.1 second run last year at Columbus and wanted to retain his crown as the fasted SC in America. One could easily tell that Neal was serious about this car. Virtually every component known to exist in the SCCoA parts list was present on his car and many items that were dreamed up by himself. One of the most ingenious and obvious items was his dual tank intercooler with a dry ice reservoir attached to it. Prior to his run, Neil loaded up the reservoir with dry ice and supercooled his intercooler. The smoke rolling off it looked impressive and the intercooler slowly developed a mild frost from the ice. (Side Note: Another member had been amazed on Saturday that just cooling down his stock intercooler with a bag of ice had resulted in a .7 second drop in his ET (15.6 to 14.9 seconds). Obviously any method of reducing the charge temperature on your SC will make a lot of power. That's why an intercooler fan is an inexpensive power adder.) Neil prepped his car meticulously. He ran a set of Mickey Thomson DOT slicks, 60HP shot of Nitrous and prayed nothing broke. He made a flawless run of 12.4 seconds @ 112 mph! Neil retains his crown for another year. I have heard of club members saying they have seen other SCs run faster, but nobody had yet to verify any of these claims. Neil welcomes all challengers. Unfortunately, Bill Hull, the SCCoA president, was planning on being present with one of the Coy Miller prepared engines but it didn't happen. Coy is approximately. 85% complete with Bills engine and they still want to perform dyno testing and tuning before it is installed in Bill's '91 SC. If you remember, Bills previous best was a 13.5 before he decided to let Coy improve it. Everyone agreed they had a great time in Columbus and were looking forward to meeting again next spring in Carlisle Pennsylvania. The SCCoA welcomes and encourages everyone to organize an outing elsewhere in the country. So far, I have seen a possible outing in Dearborn Michigan at the Henry Ford Museum. Lets start more opportunities for SCCoA members to gather throughout the country.