Shop Tour - Hardcore Drag Racing

   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 brackets at Lions Dr

  This 1977 Chevrolet Nova Super Sport is a Street Racer Special. It features a big block 427CI V8 with large amounts of compression.   Fuel is mixed by a Holley 750 CFM. double pumper mounted on a vintage Weiand Team-G single plane intake manifold.   It's running a full roller valve-train by Comp Cams with over .500 lift. Spark is handled by a full MSD ignition system, 6AL Box,Pro-Billet distributor and 8MM wire set.   Connected to that 427 is a heavy-duty Turbo 400 three speed automatic. Hard launches are courtesy of a 4000 RPM torque converter & trans brake, that's controlled by a Cheetah shifter. The chassis was back halved with ladder-bars which hangs a 12 bolt rear end filled with 4.56:1 gears and a spool. A set of three way adjustable coil over shocks keep the rear tires planted. The front features old school 90/10 drag shocks and six cylinder coil springs. For rolling stock ,huge Cragar wheels- 15x14 in the rear and 15x5's up front. Traction is not an issue.