Vengeance Racing made quick work to get Project SALT ready for its first standing half-mile event in Indy, debuting at the 2025 Indy Airstrip Attack. Only two months ago it rolled into HPX under its own power for the first time in maybe 15 years. 

Back in 2011, the idea was to go 200mph using a 370-inch, LQ-based iron block with a single turbo. At that time, there were only full-mile events. And we believed that with a modest budget and 1,200 horsepower in hand, we had the hardware to do it. Fast forward to 2025, and these events are few and far between. Vengeance Racing is a big player in these events, and had already planned to head to Indy standing half-mile with SALT in tow.

But first, HTR Performance calibrator Howard Tanner would have to make some power pulls with a combination so old that many of the parts are discontinued – forget injector data, what cam does this thing even have? After dialing in a base tune in the Holley EFI software, Howard got the 2002 Trans Am up to speed on the hub dyno. It screamed to 1,121 horsepower at 6,825 rpm and 887.9 lb-ft of torque at 6,500 rpm with just over 20psig of boost on Ignite Orange E85. Considering this engine made 1,206 horsepower and 1,034 lb-ft of torque on the engine dyno, that was impressive given the technology Tanner was working with.

For a refresher on the combination, it starts with a 6.0L iron block with 1/2-inch head studs. A Lunati forged rotating assembly with Diamond pistons rounds out the bottom-end. Up top, it has a pair of Trick Flow 235cc cathedral port heads, massaged by Total Engine Airflow, and bolted to an Edelbrock intake manifold. A solid roller camshaft with T&D shaft-mount rockers commands the valves, which are generously fed by a Turbonetics Y2K 88mm turbo.

Fresh off the trailer, the 2002 Trans Am went 185.72mph in Indy standing half-mile with Ron Mowen behind the wheel. A firmware glitch spoiled subsequent runs over the weekend. Kudos to Mowen for stepping behind the wheel of a build this old, which doesn’t exactly inspire confidence. It’s one thing to go 250mph in a fresh build that has been gone over with a fine-tooth comb in the last 6-12 months, and quite another with what was a 10-year build when we first re-started on it in 2019.

Leaving the event, Ron felt our time machine had another 5-10mph in it – given a little more seat time (essentially revving it out more and tightening up the shifts). The question remains, do they bring it to Texas or start making upgrades to hit 200mph in the 1/2-mile? My vote is Texas. You?