Performance Unlimited Blog

It’s that time of year when McHenry Community High Schools, East and West, are sending student drivers out onto the roads again. Some of them may be your progeny. For some of these young drivers, it represents an exciting crossroad as they take another step toward adulthood. For some, it’s merely an anxious experience they’re not so sure they’re ready for. Well, there’s probably some anxiety for all student drivers. A student driver, in McHenry, who is too sure of him or herself isn’t always a good thing. If they feel a little trepidation about the process, they’ll probably approach learning to drive with a little more due caution. Either way, you want your offspring to learn how to operate a motor vehicle safely. They’ve likely paid some degree of attention watching you drive. They have a rudimentary understanding of the controls involved in driving – the ignition, shifter, gas and brake pedals, the steering wheel. But there’s a difference between watching someone drive and actually d...

There's enough of this Richmond summer left that you want to make sure your engine oil is up to the challenge. Engine oil is critical any time of year but no more so than when Richmond temperatures are at a summer-time peak. Too much heat is a problem for engines – a big problem. And oil is the defensive system that preserves engines. Even in the middle of a Richmond winter, your vehicle’s engine gets hot – real hot. On the coldest days, cars can overheat. And long before it overheats, the temperature inside the engine is enough that you can bake with it. You know it gets hot inside the engine in winter because you can feel the evidence. The evidence comes to you in the form of heat from the vents when you want to stay warm. Of course, this time of year, you’re not looking for heat to keep you warm. This is another reason summer is harder on your engine. In the winter, when you turn on the heat inside the car, that heat is carried by the coolant/antifreeze through the heater coil. ...

Spring in McHenry is the season of the flashing construction sign. August is the month of those little animals that are the most precious – Children! We’ve had to watch out for them all summer as McHenry students have been out of school for Summer Break. But this is different. This is where children are out and about going to and returning from school, as well as when they’re on playgrounds and such at schools. This period of watching for children while driving comes with greater regularity, which can moderate the risks somewhat. But it also comes with frequent urgency. School generally starts in the morning and ends in the evening. The busses are busy these times of day, as well as children walking near the roads in some instances. But think about what happens when a child is trying to catch the bus at the last minute. A child running for the bus isn’t always as careful about traffic. With their focus on getting to the bus before it leaves, they may not think about you in your car at ...

Back in the late 60s and 70s, muscle cars were all the rage. The V8s that dominated the roads those days were monsters. They packed some serious horsepower under the hood and would set the rear tires spinning and smoking as the engines roared. But, for all their power, they have nothing on the muscle cars of today. Loads of power was proportionate to size; the more cubic inches, the more horses. Check out the specs on some of the top muscle cars of the era: Chrysler/Dodge/Plymouth 426 Hemi This beast came from the factory with 425 listed horsepower Torque was measured at 490 lb-ft The 1970 Cuda was rated at 13.10 seconds in the quarter mile at 107 mph You could find the 426 in the Barracuda, Challenger, Super Bee, Charger and Road Runner. Even the smaller Dodge Dart was available with the big-block hemi. Chevrolet 454 LS6 This big-block monster pumped out 450 horses and 500 lb-ft torque. It had an ET of 13.12 in the quarter mile at 107 mph When mounted in the Chevelle Super Sport, it w...