C5 Vette Kart “Leroy” Receives Upgraded Axles In Hopes Of 7 Second Run
C5 Vette Kart “Leroy” Receives Upgraded Axles In Hopes Of 7 Second Run
Considering how much power this car makes, it’s amazing that stock axles held up this well.
Launches are hard on a lot of components and interestingly (astonishingly) enough Cleetus McFarland’s C5 Corvette, “Leroy,” has made every single run thus far on stock axles. Somehow, they’ve handled countless weekends at the strip paired with an engine known for making over 1,200 horsepower.
Rather than just wait till one breaks, a new, upgraded set was ordered as a performance upgrade, but also a safety precaution. After all, if one of those axles were to snap, it would quite easily pitch the car off line and that would spell disaster.
G-force supplied the axles, which are actually quite similar in thickness to the stock units. McFarland explains why they stood up so well, saying “these [stock axles] are so thick, they almost look the same thickness as the Gforce ones.” Rather than just toss the old ones away, McFarland will use them as a back-up set should something go wrong with the new pair.
At the same time, a bit of convenience was added with regard to the engine management system. Due to the way the ignition switch is wired on the C5, it makes the Holley digital display cut out, then re-cycle itself back on. Since that’s essentially the dashboard and all the gauges, you can see how it could get quite annoying. A small plug-and-play module keeps that connection constant, making Leroy thoroughly ready for the next quarter-mile thrash.
As an added bonus, McFarland had a special section of this video dedicated to un-wrapping some fan mail. As you can expect, Dale Earnhardt plays a key role in the items gifted, but there’s also some surprises as well. A tiny turbo to blow up? Why not? “Leroy” on canvas print? You bet!
