Kimmy’s Garage would like to highlight John Schaeffer on today’s blog:
John’s journey to racing began one day as he was brainstorming with his brother, Josh. They wanted to spend time together and try for the Nitrous SBE record, all with a budget build. They purchased a stock LS1 from a local junkyard and started the process by cutting weight out of the car every free night they had after work, which meant going through several drills and cutting wheels. “We basically called it red car night, every Monday night, where we would work on the car and eat BBQ” states John as he reflects on that time.
The car nicknamed “the JUICE” made some impressive times with a 10.8 NA and a mid 10s NO spray with a heads cam and nitrous combo. After selling that motor set up at the end of the season, John had a Trans Am they raced in the Rumble series of the GM Performance Parts races and always competed in the 9.50 index class with a 408 Nitrous Combo from Nitrous Outlet. After 3 years of racing, the Trans Am was featured in the GM HIGH-TECH magazine “which is any car guys dream come true”, says John.
After watching a Drag Radial and Real Street cars racing at an event, they decided it was time to race with those classes! They began to fit the JUICE for the Real Street class. They partnered with ShoMeSpeed who helped them with tuning and acquiring whatever parts they would need and became a part of Team ShoMeSpeed.
After upgrading to an Infinity 8 ECU to help in controlling the engine management, they knew they would need stopping power. They called Aerospace Components to equip them with the best brakes for ‘lightning fast stopping power’!
The car last year produced a 8.1 @168 in the 1/4 mile and a 5.18 in the 1/8 mile, with a safe tune up on the nitrous. The car has been a family build that John and his brother started together and share in the enjoyment of going to different tracks and competitions; whether it is a NMCA race or Midnight drags.
This year they spent some time changing the set up to Pro Charger and are going to step it up and run Drag Radial and Street Outlaw in the NMCA. “Our partnership grew with Aerospace Components and we are testing the new Pro Eliminator shifter. We can’t wait to see how this improves our times at the track!” states John. They will be heading out to their first race at the LS Fest and are excited to see what the new combo does there.