When most of us think of Drag Radial in the NMRA,  the first names that come to mind are Jason Lee and Enzo Pecchini.  Well, let me introduce to you a new name in Drag Radial, stepping up to the plate with a turbo combo in his new updated ride is Brian Tuten!  You may recognize the Tuten name from the NMRA's SSO class, where Chris Tuten races the only turbo car that shows up to every event.  The Tuten Brothers from The Muffler Shop of Columbia SC have been very busy over the last few months putting together the new Drag Radial car.  Brian missed the first event in Bradenton FL because he didn't get the car back from Team Z Motorsports until February. 

  The nitrous car Brian ran in EFI Renegade last year had a lot of issues blowing up motors.  Sick of burning up pistons and since the chassis needed to be updated because he was going faster than 8.50's, he decided to go to Drag Radial.  "A lot of our customers are asking more about Modular stuff so we decided if we are going to change the whole car we mite as well change to 4V modular with a turbo and see how it works.  So far its making good power, It's really working good.", said Brian.  The only thing original from the Renegade car is the outer sheet metal.  Everything else, underneath and including the cage is all new.  

  Brian thinks the mod motor is a good motor because it has less moving parts and the 4V heads flow phenomenal.  "We haven't explored going with the bigger cubic inch mod motor, right now we are running the stock 5.4L stock bore and stock crank". Brian says.  "I will try the big bore maybe before the year is out when I feel this combination is at a limit.  I do want to try that big bore, see how it works!"

  Being in a push rod motor dominated class there is only Brian and Dave Guy running a modular motor.  While Dave has put up great numbers Brian doesn't know if running the mod motor is an advantage or not.  Brian says the reason he did it was to get knowledge of the motor, "thats the main reason for using the 4V mod motor, we got people wanting to do stuff like that".

  Pressed for time trying to finish the car for Atco, the brothers just did some baseline dyno pulls to get an idea of what the boost would be.  They haven't gone for the max numbers because they know it's a new car and are going to have a whole lot of new chassis blues.  Once he learns the tires they will strap the car back on the dyno and try and get more power out of it.  "Right now we are just trying to learn the tires, which is a big problem right now".

  Brian admits the turbo car is a whole lot different.  "Nitrous usually have a hit right when you let go of the trans brake and take off.  Where the turbo car gets out about 60ft and starts pulling in the seat, it doesn't stop pulling till the end of the track.  It's a totally different driving experience.", says Brian with a big smile on his face.

  With the car this stout everyone needs a little help and Brian had some of the best in the country help him out.  Brian would like to thank Dave Zimmerman from Team Z Motorsports, Tim Matherly at MV Performance and Carmon Torque Converters Service, and definately his brother Chris for helping him get down the track.

 With the 2 Tuten brothers running in very fast classes, there's know doubt about it, fans will be Ruten for Tuten! For years to come...