Texas Twister -- The TX2K5 Experience

I had the pleasure of transporting Chad Williams' 2002 Twin Turbo Viper GTS built by Jason Heffner to the Supra/Viper drag racing event called TX2K5. This event is held each year in San Antonio, Texas and features some of the fastest street cars in the world. The Supra crowd put on a great event and showed up with some serious cars making serious horsepower. Of course, since I own an extremely fast supercharged Viper, I was pulling for the Vipers, but the Supra guys are a class act and love to race.

Chad's Viper recently set several world records for a six-speed street car including quickest and fastest in the quarter mile. After running an 8.75 sec. ET at 168 MPH a couple of months ago in Bradenton, Florida, Chad's car has been the one to beat. One of the interesting aspects of this car is that it achieved these records weighing 3800 lbs. and still features a full interior including a custom audio system. If you look in the back of his car you can see a giant subwoofer with a custom fiberglass enclosure. After Chad set these records in Bradenton, the street tires were put back on the car and Chad drove the car to the local Applebee's to celebrate!!

After Bradenton, Chad and Jason decided to see if they could further their quest for the ultimate street car by installing an automatic transmission. The goal is to build the first 7-second V10 Viper. It's estimated that this car is making close to 2000 horsepower to the rear wheels!

At the TX2K5 event, Chad set a new world record for an independent rear suspension car and further deepened his lead over any other Viper by running an 8.28 sec. ET at 176.26 MPH. He had the highest MPH for the day, but unfortunately during the eliminations he redlighted and was out for the day. On subsequent runs, one of the turbos developed a problem and prevented Chad from making further assaults on his own record. That's racing!

It's clear that this beast still has more to give and we look forward to seeing it at Hot Rod Magazine's Pump Gas Drags in coming weeks.

Congratulations to Chad and Jason for building and driving an amazing car!

In the end, the Supras took 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place proving that they are a force to be reckoned with. The amazing part is that they make all this power with a 6 cylinder turbo engine.

Here are some pictures of Chad's car: