Shop Tour - Hardcore Drag Racing

  Mark McGuire has been a truck driver for over 40+ years, currently he hauls heavy equipment. In the past he did a 10-year stretch driving a transporter for Dick Simon racing and he was also on the pit crew. Mark was just a child when his father was drag racing and said that's how he got hooked on racing. Mark was just 19 years old when he bought his first race car, it was a 1969 SS Chevelle dirt track car. He was lucky enough to land a sponsorship from a local California radio station 99.1, which helped with expenses.  He had fun, but after three races he realized that asphalt was for racing. He went on to race circle track cars for the next 30+ years, from street stocks to super late-models.      The Nova wagon didn't start out this pretty, this is a before photo of what this killer looked like in a previous life.           With help from Gilbert "Mel" Meltvedt the car was transformed, the Nova was named "The ...

          A Funny Car for the street ?   In the 1960's funny cars were making their debut at the drag strips across America, and by the 70's they were the most popular class in Drag Racing. They had flashy paint jobs and covered the 1/4-mile in less then seven seconds! During the 60's & 70's many racing fans saw these ground pounding machines at the track and wanted to capture the same look for the street.  Craig Cochran had the idea and the skills needed to adapt a funny car for street driving. It had to have a flashy paint job, killer bodywork and plenty of horsepower.     The build started in 1971with a fiberglass body that was a mixture of a 1970 Camaro & Corvette, it was molded by Karr Manufacturing of Monson, Mass.  This car is street legal, its complete with head lights and tail lights. The exhaust system looks like came off a funny car, but they're hiding Sanderson baffles that are made from stainless ...

        Ford had the Cobra Jet's, Chrysler had their S/S Cuda's & Darts and Chevrolet had their COPO program. These were all drag strip terrors, the public ate it up and rushed to their local dealer just to get a look at these monsters. Dealers themselves started building their own versions like this Camaro here.   Campaigned in NHRA competition by Dick Arons and Gordy Foust for Berger Chevrolet in 1969. It featured the factory L78 396 with 375 HP. backed up with a 4-speed transmission and heavy-duty 12-bolt rear end. Later the car was equipped with an L72 427 CI V-8 for use in Super/Stock competition. This Camaro was the SS/E class winner at the 1969 NHRA Spring Nationals in Dallas, it was also raced at the Super Stock Nationals in York Pennsylvania and at the"Big Go" U.S. Nationals. The Odometer only reads 210 miles as it was only used as a drag car its entire life and the mileage was put on a quarter mile at a time and was never tagged for the street. In ...

      In the 1960’s the Chevrolet Nova was sold as an economy car. Most of them were built with tiny 4-cylinder engines or with the larger boat anchor inline six. They were compact and lightweight and the racers of the day took notice.       Like this example here, the owner built his idea of what the Gasser’s and A-F/X cars of the day looked like. The inline six is long gone and in its place is a fresh Merlin big-block packing 496 cubes and an original Hilborn mechanical stack fuel injection system feeds all those thirsty cubes.  For street-ability the injection system was converted to electronic and it’s controlled by a FAST ecu. Other goodies include ported aluminum L88 cylinder heads with stainless valves and Crane roller rockers. An MSD ignition system including a Pro-Billet distributor and Blaster-3 coil light the fire. For a little pizzazz period correct polished and finned valve covers top off the heads.       Backing up th...

  This 1967 Chevrolet Chevelle is powered by a 496 C.I. big-block with Brodix aluminum heads and forged Eagle rotating asembly. A full roller valve-train from Comp lets the boost in . A Holley Dominator Cpu. controls the fuel injection system .  The fully polished Weiand 8-71 supercharger pokes through the hood and it's topped off with a Big & Ugly injector hat that draws your attention to the big Rat motor . Backing up the big- block is a 4L80E equipped with Trans- brake and 3200 stall converter.  Power is sent to a Mark Williams Ford 9- inch rear end with 4:88 gears and a spool. This car was built to be street friendly.  On super unleaded, this Chevelle produces 600 H.P. to the rear wheels but will make 1,000+ horsepower tuned on race gas.  Stopping this beast is 4-wheel disc brake system by Wilwood .   Other upgrades include a 10 point roll cage, along with five point race harnesses keeping the passengers safe.   The transmission is co...

  Robert George is from New Zealand and races this cool old school 1974 Camaro Z28. The original steel body was outfitted with fiberglass doors and front clip from Hairy Glass .  In race trim it only weighs 2350 pounds.   It features a full Chris Alston tube chassis with a Mustang II front end. Out back a set of ladder bars mount to a Dana 60 filled with 5:13 gears & a spool.  QA-1 shocks handle the bumps front and rear.   This is Robert's office. More high quality tin work is through out the interior. An old school cable drive Moroso Tach. sits on the dash , and only a trio of gauges is needed to keep an eye on things.       For power an LS7 454 fills the engine bay. It breaths through a big Holley Dominator carb. And it's filled with old school speed secrets. Dress up items include vintage Moroso valve covers.  The horsepower is sent to a TH-400 transmission with a trans-brake and a high-stall torque converter.     Here is a...