2007 Southern California Powerstroke Shootout
One of the big draws of the event was Stroked Lightning, a longbed F-250 that was chopped into a shortbed, had a four-link rear suspension, slicks, and a built motor with a Turbonetics T-72 turbo-all in the name of trying to be the first Power Stroke in the 10-second range at the dragstrip. | 
Stroked Lightning features a 6.0L Power Stroke motor, T-72 Turbonetics turbo, custom injectors, and a custom exhaust. The Power Stroke blew the O-rings on its ported heads right before the event, so Gene threw on a set of stockers and still made 490 hp at the wheels on his only pull. | 
What makes it all come together is an upgraded turbo with a custom wheel, programmer, exhaust, and injectors. The truck also had nitrous, but it wasn't used because the owner was worried enough about his stock head gaskets at a non-nitrous'd 450 rear-wheel horsepower. | 
The SoCAPS guys were nice enough to let our Dodge make a few laps, and the Ram set a fast time for the 2WD class with a 56.5-second run on its third try. This sent Ford owners scrambling for their keys with a vow: "We'll run the course till midnight before we get beaten by a Dodge!" It wasn't long before Desert Wheeler, which had the fast time in 4WD, unlocked its hubs and ran 55.2 seconds, putting the Dodge safely in second place and taking the win for both classes. | 
Brad Lewis from Turbonetics was on hand and was not only nice enough to provide lunch but also helped serve it. Gene Feldhans, the owner of Stroked Lightning (barely visible in the blue shirt), was the lead chef and cooked up some fabulous tri-tip and garlic bread that won't be soon forgotten by anyone who ate it. | 
The story behind Stroked Lightning was one of the more interesting tales of the event. With his truck in pieces just a few days before, Gene made a mad thrash to get it running, finally finishing it at 3 a.m. the day of the event. After waking up at 6 a.m. and driving to Sunrise Ford, he jumped on the dyno and set the high horsepower number for the meet. | 
Not many diesels will make you hungry when they run, but this one will. Running on used vegetable oil, the owner of this Ford uses three Chinese food restaurants as filling stations, in addition to brewing his own biodiesel. Total fuel savings comes in at almost $300 a month. | 
A trick fuel system is used where the vegetable oil is run at a higher pressure than normal. Why? Well, used oil can clog filters at the worst possible time, so if a clogged filter ever drops the pressure below normal, a valve will open and the fuel system will switch over to biodiesel automatically. This will spare drivers a side-of-the-road filter change. | |
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