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 ...

    Back in the 1980's the Pro/Street trend was running hot across America and by the 1990's it was across the whole world. No car was off limits and people dared to be different. The builds were over the top, the cars had eye popping paint and mile-high air-induction systems. It wasn't about how much horsepower you had under the hood or sticking out, it was about who could outdo the next guy at the car show.   Other build styles were still going on at the time like traditional hot rod building and simple street machines were still prowling the streets. But Pro/Street was its own special thing and it still is but with a modern twist.  All the major car magazines featured Pro/Street builds from cover to cover and all the readers drooled over them. I know I did and dreamed to own one day. Car Craft, Hot Rod, Popular Hot Rodding & Super Chevy magazine were the go to publications each month to get your horsepower fix ! I recently came across this 1988 Chevy Bere...

  Quick Look  The owner of this 72’ model took this Duster to the outer limits and beyond. The Duster is show and go with perfect panel gaps and a custom pearl white paint job with airbrushed graphics.  The engine compartment is bursting with horsepower and eye appeal with a stroker small-block now stretched to 408 cubes, it was built by Big Al's Toy Box in Connecticut. It sucks in the atmosphere through an 8/71 Blower Shop billet supercharger with dual QuickFuel 650 CFM carburetors topped off with a polished Enderle injector hat. The internals are filled with the best parts and pieces like an Eagle crank, H-beam rods, forged pistons and ARP fasteners keep it screwed together. The engine is making 14 pounds of boost making close to 900 Horsepower, so a heavy-duty 727 TorqueFlite transmission with a PTC 3,500 RPM stall converter sits downstream. The narrowed Chrysler 8 ¾ rear end was filled with Moser 35-spline axles and Richmond 4.56 gears that can take the abuse with ea...

    A street racers dream... Wow! This Nissan has the best of both worlds, a high powered American V8 under the hood and a body with unique Japanese styling. This 1991 Nissan 240 SX S13 Coupe started out as a stock street car then it was turned into a super street-sleeper.   The builder of this 240 SX didn't cut any corners, the work is top notch and only the best parts were used. Under the hood resides a Chevrolet 327 C.I. small-block that features a Weiand intake manifold and a big Holley Carb.      The top end includes Vortec aluminum heads with 1.7 roller rockers, their covered with polished valve covers for some contrast against all that white paint. An MSD ignition system gets the sparks flying and big custom big tube headers dump into a full 2.5 inch exhaust system.   Backing up the hot small-block is a turbo 350 transmission with a shift-kit and 2500 RPM stall torque converter. The chassis was completely worked over with a tubbed out 9-i...

  This wicked Willy's is powered by a 1957 Chrysler 392 Hemi   stroked to 427 C.I. The induction system features a GMC style 6-71 blower with dual Holley Dominator's carburetors , mounted up top is a rare Don Garlits Street Catcher scoop , it's made in Australia  by Al's Blowers.  A set of vintage Top Fuel iron heads keep the combustion gasses flowing. The exhaust  fumes exit trough  stainless steel ceramic-coated headers. A high flow electric water pump and dual cooling fans keep things cool .   All the Hemi's horsepower is sent through a heavy-duty TH 400 with a billet case and 4000 RPM converter. Then it makes it way down to a Ford style 9-inch rear end filled with 4.30: gears and a  Detroit Locker differential. The interior is filled with classic bucket seats and a hand formed center console covered in black leather.  A billet Ididit polished column & wheel keeps the wheels pointed straight, modern touches include power locks ...

  When this wild 1982 C10 went through a frame off restoration It was fully customized. Those touches include a powder coated frame, a tubbed bed with a wood floor and chrome hold down strips. At the rear a ZR-1 Corvette style rear roll pan was fabbed. Then the C10 was covered in Omaha Orange by PPG. The interior features a factory bench seat covered in grey factory fabric but it was upgraded with the Silverado option ,with pull straps, map pockets & chrome trim.     The factory dash bezel’s were fitted with Auto Meter Ultra-Lite gauges, And for control a Grant leather-wrapped steering wheel.   For the main attraction, we have a 502 big block with a polished 8-71 Weiand blower sitting on top of an intercooler.Boost is limited to 10 psi for the street but when it was dyno tested,it made 850 HP at 6,600 RPM with 794 lb.-ft at 4,300 RPM. The spent fumes exit through Hooker Super Competition ceramic coated Headers and 3-inch exhaust pipes.   Gears ...

                                                                                         I came across this, radical for its time 1972 Ford Maverick, and I wanted to share it with my readers.     When Roger Tausch's blown 1972 Ford Maverick rumbled through the Indiana State Fairgrounds over 35 years ago during the Street Machine Nationals, it caused tons of excitement among fellow Street Machine enthusiasts !   You see most blower cars at the time were Chevy's and very few were Ford's or even Ford powered. Roger's car appeared in the November 1980 issue of Car Craft, It was a fantastic debut for Roger and his  Supercharged 302 powered Maverick....

  In April of 1977, Hot Rod Magazine showcased a Mustang II they named ‘Sudden Death’. Ten years later in 1988 another Mustang II was busy earning a reputation on the streets of Northern Kentucky. That Mustang earned the name ‘Outcast’ . When Steve McNew was just 17 years old and working at a fast-food joint in Northern Kentucky, he purchased his first car, a 1975 Mustang II. It was a ratty, rusty, high-mileage heap that he paid $500 for at a small cash lot. The Mustang II wasn’t popular then and still not popular now, but Steve knew it was just right to build a fast street racer and also hang out with his friends who met regularly to race their Nova’s, Chevelle’s ,Mustang’s and other muscle cars of the day.  The Mustang II is almost half the weight of those monsters and with the right combo, it would hurt a lot of feelings. Each week when Steve drove up, his   friends would always joke and say, “Here comes Steve in his little outcast of a Mustang”, and the name ‘Ou...