Shop Tour - Hardcore Drag Racing

  ******* Update 2024 , Ida will be joining the NHRA tour in the USA ******  Driving a Top Fuel Dragster.  Shop Tour was the first news outlet to bring Ida's story to the United States two years ago! Ida is cool and confident behind the wheel of her Top Fuel Dragster, in her first FIA event of 2022 she set a new European record of 3.782 seconds making her the first team to make a 3.7 second pass in Europe.     Ida Zterström is from Aland Islands, Finland and even though she is under 30 years old she already has had an amazing career. This is her twentieth year competing in a Drag Racing category, as she was licensed to race junior dragsters at just eight years old.   When Ida was only three weeks old she would travel with her family to different race tracks. She grew up in her fathers workshop and at the racetrack. Her father raced in Pro-Stock and Pro-Modified and also worked with other race teams.  He was her biggest influence and encouraged h...

   Richard Bays has spent a lifetime in motorsports,and he is widely known as being part of the Drag Racing Fuel team Bays & Rupert. Richard’s thirst for racing came in 1966 when he was running a foreign car repair shop, he was in his early 20’s at the time.  He worked mainly on Volkswagen's and he was one of the pioneers of VW performance. At night he was street racing his own home built Hot Rod and gained quite a reputation in the tuning department. What started out as his daily driver soon turned into a Drag Strip terror. Richard started with a 1958 Fiat 600 that needed an engine. He made adapters and installed a Porsche engine. Why not, his shop was full of go fast parts. He said he chose that combination because it was different. Bays won so many street races with it, that the spectators would make side bets and they would frequently win betting on him.     He called the car a street sleeper and a Corvette killer. In 1966 he also raced it in ET ...

  Street Machine Spotlight ! Dodge had some tricks up its sleeve when it introduced the Dart. In 1963 Dodge built the Dart on the compact A-Body platform for the fourth generation, engine options ranged from a 225 C.I. slant-6 to a hot 340,and there was the GTS version that featured the 383 big-block. Even Dodge super-tuner MR.Norm built a Hopped-up street special called the GSS that was built with the 440 HP engine.         This Dart features a 340 small-block that has been stroked to 408 C.I. and it's backed up with a 727 automatic transmission built with a 3800 RPM stall converter and a stage-2 shift kit,giving it firm shifts that chirp the tires.     The chassis features heavy-duty torsion bars up front with disk brakes and the rear was upgraded with Cal-track bars with S/S leaf springs and factory drum brakes. Hooker headers and a 3 inch exhaust system let the engine breathe. Other features include a Holley 950 CFM carburetor and Edelbroc...