I remember being a young whipper snapper when Ed Bergenholtz was the first import making 9.87 seconds in the quarter mile 13 years ago. When wheelie bars were a new innovation and the B18C was king of the engine transplants (BTW they used Golden Eagle sleeves then as well ). Even though I wasn't a big drag racer guy, you kids today have to understand how difficult it is to get into 9 second realm.. Its tough, no matter what decade you're talking about.

So, I found this and it brought back some great memories.. Enjoy.

http://vimeo.com/7617404

 

Awesome video i remember reading and watching that thing when i was in highschool

 

great video and a nice way to put things back in perspective. i remember ed and lisa raced in texas many moons ago and during that time i didnt know anything about import performance. i was always into racing cars as a young child but my brother was the one that was collecting the magazines with eds car on the cover. to all you young cats, this video is before the internet as we know today or even 10 years ago. i think this video was made when Prodigy an internet service provider was created, lol!

so now lets break down the video and compare it to todays standard.
from what i believe, hondata and or other ecu modification companies werent around. you can see in the video Ed wasnt using "2 step aka launch control". i think qualife was the only lsd company out during that time, but i think the crew might have used an itr transmission instead. the IM and exhaust manifold are completely different from what we use today. ramhorn and elderbock (import wise) were none existent. in all honesty there wasnt much out there during this time.

today, we have learned quite a bit and we should know what works and what doesnt work. everything from the late 90's was trial and error with little to know support. i guess you can say we have it easy now. so, to all you new comers dont say you cant find what your looking for when it comes to b, d and h series motors.

side question:
what are Ed and Lisa doing now a days? i mean they were huge back then. i had the pleasure of talking with Lisa when i was young, she seem like a cool *** chick!

 

Man I remember those days as well. Amazing how far the technology has come to get basic cars into 10's and speed factory teetering on 7's

 

It wasn't that long ago... you kids act like a dozen years is a lifetime ago. It just shows how young you all really are and how much I need to stop playing with kiddie cars. There were quick imports even a decade before that. The problem was the "scene" was still too filled with 70's and 80's built drag cars to take notice. Other turbo cars were making a huge entrance as well like the GNX for example. When a lot of the junk vehicles started taking over in the late 80's to early 90's drag racing also started to fall off some. This let the light be on the ricers and the "Import Scene" was created. A lot of the people in the business profited off of other people's hard work. They took things that took years to figure out, mainstreamed them, and are some of the bigger companies today.

All the true pioneering was done in the 50's through to the 90's. Everything even today is just the trickle down effect. Haha, I will stop my rampage now.

 

God the good old days. I haven't talked to ed in forever.... I know stephanie eggum is pretty addicted to skydiving these days lol

 

damn man youre grouchy today

 

I get what you mean N3V3A, however, it was the lifestyle of something new and innovative into the scene since the late 70's and 80's after OPEC. The import scene was alive and thriving with young people that for the first time weren't just restricted regionally for this scene. This was before the massive theft rings, internet forums, and the nonsensical ****-talking that you see today. This was when the F&F movie series was art imitating life, before it received such a bad reputation. (damn Cohen).

You still have to remember that when the first swaps were being done was over 15 years ago. Even in your standards that's a considerable amount of time. Perhaps this doesn't apply to you, as I can hardly imagine you hanging out at 3a.m on the streets of Chicago's chinatown with a 1st gen Talon going after some swapped civic in 98' in a street race. I imagine you already having a trailer car at the races at the local drag strip that closed at 10pm on no-ET night.

It was a different set of thinking then. It was fun, energetic, with much love going through a lot of cultures. When Ed won, it was like we all won that race. Even you would have been too old then. (I imagine about 40ish by 96')

 

Now, now... I may be old but I am not dead. Even in the 90's I trailered a car or two to Doty Ave/Stony Island Ave and met up at the Shell station over on 111th...

 

Let's just say, thank you to computers and electronics... It allowed our tiny motors to do amazing things.

That's what really set things apart, from being oldschool and modern. Or else, it would be the bigger motor that wins. The ability to implement electronics and computers is what made up the current racing scene IMO.

 

Co-sign

I miss those days, before F&F era I'm referring to.