Heres some proof, more to come.


http://www.cpts-test.com/lngnfltr/


Heres another article from Car and Driver



The Steering Column



BY CSABA CSERE
April 2004

I first met John Lingenfelter in 1987 at our "Gathering of Eagles" top-speed shootout (C/D, December 1987), where he was tending to a 700-hp Camaro owned by Mike Burroughs. John was at the wheel during the car's first lap around the Transportation Research Center's 7.5-mile high-banked oval in East Liberty, Ohio, when the car's 8.9-liter Keith Black V-8 lost oil pressure.

John promptly shut it down, strapped the car onto his trailer, and hauled it to his shop in Decatur, Indiana, about two hours west of TRC. After an all-night flog to tear it down, repair the failed cam bearing, and reassemble the engine, John and his crew were back the next morning, not even looking tired. The Camaro promptly averaged 216 mph in two perfect passes—good for a solid second-place finish in the field of six. It was the first time we witnessed John's infectious grin.

As we came to know John, we realized that he burned with an internal fire that could only be harnessed by intense competition. A drag racer since 1968, in the '70s he won 11 NHRA National events in his class. Compared with rebuilding engines between runs at a pro drag meet, having a full night to rework an ailing Camaro must have seemed luxurious.

In 1989, we sampled a couple of John's massaged Corvettes. The 5.7-liter version put out about 320 horsepower—this was in the days when a stock Vette developed 245—while another had been punched out to 6.3 liters and developed about 350 horsepower. Both cars not only proved John's power claims but also drove smoothly and reliably.

Many hotted-up cars we drove in the late '80s hesitated and hiccupped at less than full power. In contrast, John's Vette even accepted full throttle at 750 rpm in sixth gear during our 30-to-50-mph test—and turned a quicker time than a stock Vette. And unlike many tuned cars that require constant ministrations to keep running, John dropped off his cars and left them for a week, confident they wouldn't spew parts and fluids the instant he turned his back. They didn't.

One reason was that John was more than just another talented wrench twister. After earning a degree in mechanical technology from Penn State in 1965, he spent eight years at International Harvester's engine department before striking out on his own. When the switch from carburetors to fuel injection in the '80s confounded many tuners, John took full advantage of the new technology because he understood that the more precise control of the air-fuel ratio provided by fuel injection would simultaneously promote both power and refinement.

John kept up on the competition as well. Whenever a hot new BMW, Ferrari, or Porsche appeared, John would be on the horn digging for details and angling for a test ride. When the Corvette ZR-1 appeared, John got his chance to work his magic on four-valve DOHC engines.

Shortly after the ZR-1's introduction, he found 80 additional horsepower in the motor and delivered a car to us for a test. It ran to 60 mph in 4.1 seconds and stopped the quarter-mile clocks in 12.3 seconds, about a second quicker than a stocker. John was delighted, but not surprised. That's because he never sent us a car he hadn't tested beforehand.

John also made sure we got the best out of his cars by occasionally tagging along on our test sessions and trying a pass or two himself. Sure enough, my experience testing 1000 or so street cars was no match for his NHRA-honed ability to launch a powerful traction-limited car, and he'd always slice a 10th of a second from my best time. John never rubbed it in, but from the grin on his face when we compared times, I knew he had internally chalked up another win.

When it came to high speeds, he was absolutely fearless. He was present when we measured the top speed of his ZR-1 Corvette at Firestone's high-speed oval in Fort Stockton, Texas. At 190 mph, with no guardrails and only a single banked lane, that track felt plenty exciting to me from behind the wheel. You couldn't have paid me enough to sit in the passenger seat for those laps. Yet John insisted on riding with me during the 191-mph top-speed runs to monitor the oil temperature—and, I suspect, to ensure that I extracted every last possible mph from his car.

It's not well-known, but John was behind the wheel of Reeves Callaway's Sledgehammer when that tricked-out Corvette went 255 mph at TRC in 1989. John's shop had also assembled the Sledgehammer's engine. That same year, he built a 1400-hp twin-turbo Pontiac Firebird and took it to Bonneville, intending to break 300 mph in a stock-bodied car. He didn't make it, but he achieved a best one-way run of 298.

In 1998, John returned to drag racing, competing in the then-new Pro Stock Truck class. When that class was eliminated in 2000, he switched to the Summit Sport Compact class, driving a turbocharged four-cylinder Chevy Cavalier with nearly 1000 horsepower.

On October 27, 2002, John lost control of this car at the Pomona, California, event and hit the retaining wall at some 190 mph. He was hospitalized there with critical injuries to his head, spine, and internal organs. After several surgeries, he regained consciousness and recovered sufficiently to be flown home to Indiana. At Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis, doctors concluded he needed additional surgery. During preparations for this procedure, John had a bad reaction to a drug he received and went into a coma. He never recovered, and this past Christmas day, he died.

Whenever John would show up with his latest machine, we'd ask him what it would do. He rarely said more than, "It runs pretty good." Then the car would take our breath away with its performance.

You ran pretty good too, John. You blew us away with your ability, your energy, and your unbridled passion for speed. Rest in peace, my friend.

 

Gentlemen: You are welcome to disagree on the facts of this issue, but you must do so with civility and not personal attacks/hostility. Thanks in advance for your cooperation.

Jim Willis
Corvetteforum.com

 

John and Reeves were both involved with GM on testing levels. If John did get the call to drive then why not. You don't just say no to a high level GM project, especially if he did think he could learn something or see something new.

 

While someguys have their facts down, most in this thread (with the exception of guys like SurfnSun) have their head in the clouds when it comes to facts & reality


This thread was answered here:

 

Heres some more reality. You guys must think all these magazine articles are false. They all say it was a LPE motor including John himself. There must be some conspiracy going on against Reeves. Here's a link to another article written on the Sledgehammer. ENJOY!!!


http://www.allvenuesystems.com/image...r%20HotRod.pdf

 

JL said it best himself when he said
"the people that were there know who did what, and I'll leave it at that"


As to the original question on why nobody else has gone 255MPH in a Vette, I think that's obvious....................

Ed

 

You know the reason I started this thread and granted some of the discussion has been informative entertaining...but I was merely impressed at the fact there was a SBC TT C4 that achieved such a feat during that generation, and it has taken so long for other FI setups to catch up to that performance level (800+hp). I just was appreciating the engineering.

No matter who drove or whose engine it was really didn't matter to me...I guess the reason it is signficant is because back during this time there were not many platforms such as the LSx or a kit to support what the Sledgehammer achieved.

There are a few people on this forum that have posted video of driving 200mph with their FI setups....I'm sure if they had a little more hp and a little more room that they would drive to 250mph.

It was funny reading last month's Road and Track ans seeing what cars could reach 200mph in the shortest distance.....most of them didn't even achieve it.....I guess that magazine is to scared to let some privateer show what their car could do for less money and hp then what one of their tuners paid to be in the competition.

 

Wow...apparently YOU didn't read the article. It states that LPE provided 2 motors...one for development and one that is SLATED to be run in the car. That doesn't mean that it actually was.

The real problem here is all the LPE fans have a hard time accepting that someone other than LPE could build something faster.

You can pull all the magazine quotes in the world and it doesn't mean crap. None of those guys were there...most of them wouldn't even know where to find the numbers on a motor. Until proven wrong I'll stand by my statement that LPE doesn't even know the numbers on the motors they provided so how would they know if their motor made it or not?

 

I remember reading these articles in the eighties. I was working for Accel at the time (1981-'93) and I introduced Accel's "Lingenfelter Signature Series" of intake manifolds and camshafts together. I was purchasing engineering time, manifolds, cams, etc. from John. I actually didn't meet Reeves until later when I went to work for Callaway's engineering department from 1993 to 1994. Before ultimately returning to Callaway, I worked for Moroso for 6 years and kept in touch with John as we attended the same industry events and I worked the NHRA racing circuit. LPE was also a good Moroso customer. I know Jeff Smith, who wrote the April '89 Hot Rod article shown in this thread. I've met Csaba, but I can't say I know him personally like I know Jeff. I have the highest regard for all of these folks so I don't know why there would be conflicting info.

I never asked John about this; at the time, I assumed the articles were accurate so it just never came up. I can only report what Reeves and others who were at Callaway at the time have told us when these threads came up a while ago. (I'm absolutely certain Reeves wouldn't be inaccurate about John's participation.) Again, it's no reflection on John or LPE's ability to build engines. LPE's record speaks for itself. However, the two LPE engines prepared for the record failed on the dyno and a Callaway-built backup engine was used for the trip to Ohio and the record run. I don't know the circumstances of the failures; but my guess would be an unforeseen component failure rather than any problems with machining or assembly.

 

TURBOZ06, sorry, I will believe MCV and his truth before your opinion any day.



Thank you for posting this, putting to rest, any doubt

 

GM did NOT fail with the turbo cars - they abandoned the turbo project and handed over to Callaway all their research and offered for Reeves to continue the project. It is true that trying to turbo the stock L98 was a pipe dream at best - Reeves did what was necessary, which was to rebuild and forge the L98 and make it robust enough to actually withstand and be reliable as a turbocharged application.

LPE did loads for corvettes in the 80s. To imply that they didn't is criminal!!! Ever heard of the 383 with the superam???? How about stuffing 454s into C4s? John did this and much much more for the corvette hobby in the 80s. In the 90s, he pioneered the quest for power with the LT5, and put twin turbos on it in the mid 90s to the tune of 1000 rwhp, which is where the research to do this for C5s really came from.

Finally - lets talk about coefficient of drag. The regular C4 was not terribly slippery at 0.33, but the aerobody was appropriately named - giving a cd of only 0.26, and being insanely stable at high speeds it was truly one of the biggest reasons John drove it to 254 mph - requiring him to be at WOT off the banked turn at over 200 mph in OHIO - some BIG *****, that Reeves didn't want to do - and I can't blame him!

Oh yeah - the engine that Reeves built wasn't 880 hp - the version in the sledgehammer NOW is 880 hp, the engine that propelled the car to 254 mph had 1350 hp and just as much torque.

 

Apparently YOU did'nt read the WHOLE article youreself. What did you read, the first sentance that says Callaway? If you read on page 4 in the yellow box with the heading " men behind that magic" it says John Lingenfelter was the driver, engine builder. Just incase you get confused, that is what his involvement was in this project, not his profession. Believe me LPE knows the numbers, gimme a break.

 

And here's the #2 Callaway cheerleader working his way up to #1. If Callaway told you he invented golfing, you'd be right there with you're pom poms jumping up and down believeing him.

 

First of all, at that time you did'nt work for Callaway and you know John was a modest man and would never claim something he did'nt do. It's funny how this stuff comes up now after John passes on. Not too long ago Reeves was trying to claim that he drove the car to that speed and got caught and had to backpedal out of his story. Theres still alot of people alive that still know the truth and will speak on behalf of John. We don't expect you to say anything different then what you're coached to say, otherwise you'll be looking for a new job. The next thing were ready to hear is that Callaway invented the turbo and his #1 and #2 cheerleaders will be right there ( with their pom poms ) to cheer him on.

 

Here's a quote from a very close person to John.

John raced a 1962 2wd International Scout with a turbocharged 4 cylinder. It was and old orange Indiana & Michigan meter reading vehicle. I have a picture of it at home. I will forward. My recollection is that we went under the record at a points meet at Milan Michigan in the fall of 1969 or 1970. The scout would pull the wheels of the ground as it left the line. It was quite unique and fun for a while. Also John proved what he wanted, that he could make this unique combination run under the national record.


Nevermind asking what he was doing in the 80's. He was messing with turbos back in the late 60's early 70's while Reeves was probbably in kindergarden learning his A B C's.

 

I do know that John was a modest man. We worked on Accel projects together and we spent time together socially; I had the utmost respect for John. I considered him a friend and I think he considered me as a friend. I don't think he would ever have claimed to do something he didn't do. At the same time, I don't think that Reeves is a liar.

Could you please produce where or when Reeves claimed to have driven the Sledgehammer to reach the 254.76 record, then had to backpedal? I've never heard him make that claim. He's always indicated that John drove the car to the record speed. Could it be that some people assumed that he did and then wrote about it, as they might have assumed that the engine in the car was John's?

I'm not being coached to write anything. I'm just reporting what I know to try to set the record straight. (And none of that ever was critical of John or LPE's engines.) I'm trying not to take this personally, but if you knew me, you'd know that I believe that there are some things more important than "the job".

 

then I will ask where are the 14 cars?
I have seen a picture of 1.
read the rest burned to the ground.
And all that seems to remain are the engines out of the car with the TT set up.


uhh... yeah
I have a superram (2 actually), ordered from LPE. I read johns book.

the main point I was making...... what did LPE do TURBO like in the 80's. it was answered with a year after he made a 1400 hp f body.

I know he TT'd a ZR1 in the 90's. Yes, I snoop through the Zr1 section every once in a while.

the point I was making... simple really. I wanted to know if john was already doing turbo stuff when the sledgehammer was born. Thats all.

 

The article did'nt seem like they were assuming. I will find that article and post it up for you as soon as I can.

 

where did this come from?

 

Same family, golf however, has little to do with the car company.

To say Callaway invented the game of golf, would be an overstatment. They simply provided the tools to perfect it