Carlyle Cruises His Independent Rear Suspension Corvette to a 6.58

By Mary Lendzion

After the fire in the engine bay of his IPS Motorsports designed and built ’07 Corvette Z06 in May, Mark Carlyle announced that he and his crew – Tom Willing and Jared Grabiel of IPS Motorsports, Bob Williams of All Pro and tuner Patrick Barnhill of PTP Racing – refused to be stopped and would soon return to competition.

He proved that when he debuted the car – which had been rebuilt at IPS Motorsports and PK Race ‘N Rods – at the Seventh Annual NMCA Muscle Car Nationals at Summit Motorsports Park in Ohio in August, where he ran 7.19 in Mickey Thompson Super Street 10.5W. He followed that with the Chevrolet Performance LSX Challenge Series Holley LS Fest at Beech Bend Raceway in Kentucky in September, where he ran 7.26 in JE Pistons LSX Drag Radial and advanced to the semifinal; the Xtreme Outlaw Series at Kil-Kare Raceway in Ohio in September, where he ran 4.63 in the eighth-mile in Outlaw Limited Street and won and at the Twelfth Annual NMCA World Street Finals, featuring the Seventh Annual Chevrolet Performance LSX Shootout at Lucas Oil Raceway in Indiana in October, where he laid down a record-setting 6.69 at 217.84 mph in JE Pistons LSX Drag Radial and won.

When a text arrived last week  indicating he was poised to go even faster at last weekend’s Eighteenth Annual Haltech World Cup Finals Import vs. Domestic event at Maryland International Raceway, we again took notice. In a pre-race pass, he laid down a 6.58 at 220 mph, and then, in ATI Radial vs. Modified competition, he ran 6.66 at 222 mph and 6.62 at 223 mph, among other elapsed times, stayed within the 1.12-1.15 60-foot range and re-set his previous records on his way to the semifinal.

His independent rear suspension car, which gets it go from a 427 LS engine designed by Kurt Urban, All Pro 12-1 heads, twin Garrett 88mm turbos, RPM Transmissions’ TH400, ProTorque converter and a tune designed and maintained by Barnhill.