Originally Posted by
trickedout
If you think the top pros run a stock motor your kidding yourself. I was at silver State this weekend and watched first hand tebo and his pit crew wrenching on his motor because the pinch was soooo tight. His pit man had to hand tebo the car up in the drivers stand because he could not get the piston out of the pinch. i watched tebo pry on the motor with a BIG flathead and I thought for sure it was broke. It was crazy to watch and its hard to explain but it is no ordinary Orion motor off the shelves. I later talked to someone close to that team that said his motor's are all unique and hand matched with a TRIPLE pinch job. The guy said they were around $1000 and not just a joe blow can get one. They do not use just a regular starter box as well. I watched another Pro driver starting his car and his starter box spun so hard and fast that it engaged his clutch. It was awesome. Orions are great motors but people dont think you are actually getting the same more tebo runs...
I've talked with Jared on a few occassions and he is a very truthful person.. I've asked him straight up what engine he was running last year after the NEO '11 race and US Nats when I ran into him at his father-in-law's (Steve Hale) place Real-RC in Pleasant Hill mo.. He told me then he was running the same engine he ran at NEO '11 and he also ran it at the Nats.. I believed him then and would believe him now.. He also told me and few other guys the screw coming loose in his steering servo at the nats cost him about $15k.. It was round 2 of the Missouri State Series.. Also on that day he let a kid that blew a motor in his last quilifier run his buggy in the sportsman main, knowing he still had to race in the Expert Main.
All that said, Jared is a team driver, he gets paid to race for Team Orion, part of his job is to race experimental engines. Alot of the components in these engines make it into the production motors we all run today. In other words what Jared races from race to race may not be the engines we can currently buy, but I would bet money, it'll be the engine you can buy next year..