So I was showing Mr. Kinsler some of the E-town pics this afternoon and he says, "I remember when I was running mid-tens in Jersey."

 

The good old days.. Thanks Scott for sharing..

 

Hey Scott, how old is Mr. Kinsler today? Does he still get out to the track these days?

 

Ha ha, nice! Good ole' Island.

 

70 and you bet.

I think he did a vintage event in his GT40, I know he raced "speed-buggy" at Waterford this summer.

("speed-buggy" was hand made by J.K. Jr., all tube chassis w/Katech 550 hp LS7 - it's 100% street legal, plated & insured)

 

That thing looks like it's a BLAST to drive!

Thanks for sharing.

 

That's awesome !!

 

Oh it's a BEAST, for sure.
It's JK Jr's car and it typically doesn't have those truck mufflers on it, but JK Sr. thought it was obnoxiously loud with the burns stuff. It may not look pretty, but some really high-profile engineers helped with the layout and it's just ridiculous. No point in going on about it, you'd have to take a ride.

 

I can only imagine how fast that car is. I saw a dragster out at ORP with a bone stock LS7 in it and it went 8.30 on its first pass, and it shook the tires so he got out and back in it. That thing can't weigh more than that.

 

Speed-buggy is around 1900 lbs. Jr drag raced it but I don't remember his times.

That a6gcs ended up having a significant role in the history of the company.
In 1965, Jim took the blower off the SBC, added twin turbos, intercooler, and fuel injection. And daily drove it to his job at GM. That's when he got the attention of the racing R&D engineers and they asked him to go work in their department.

 

Man that thing is perfect ls7 go kart
65 running around with an SBC tt/ic with FI... Dear god that's ridiculously impressive!

 

Is the Kinsler family looking to adopt a 27 year old? lol

 

That's what started it all, and it's a perfect segue for the remainder of the mini-story:

In 1965, KFI didn't exist yet so Jim had been using all Hilborn stuff on his cars, which was pretty much your only option for fuel injection at that time. Well, it was never quite good enough for Jim, and he and Stuart (Hilborn) went back & forth for a couple years until one day Stu told Jim, "this is as good as you're ever gonna get," which provoked Jim to reply, "fine, screw it, I'll do it myself." Jim quit GM and in 1967, KFI was incorporated.

 

I have seen plenty of the Hilborn stuff growing up at TRACO & Engle for sure...