Shop Tour - Hardcore Drag Racing

                                                                 Wicked Willys                                                              I tried to the best of my ability to maintain a certain look when these cars ruled the strip. (J.Andrew Stepka)   J.Andrew's 1941 Willys was acquired from a guy in Long Island, N.Y. It was turned into a Pro-Street car during its long life but it was a steel body and that was all that mattered to him. The frame was built by The Willys Works in upstate NY, but Andrew had plans to turn this old Pro-streeter into a ground pounding gasser from the glory years of drag racing.         ...

       Drag Fest 2024!  

  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...

Street Machine Spotlight    Shortly after this 1971 Ford Pinto was purchased new in Ohio , it was converted to a full-time drag car, complete with a small-block V-8 and a 12-point roll cage.   The first order of business was to replace the engine. The original inline-four cylinder boat anchor gave way to a 302-cu.in V-8 & C4 Transmission with a 4000 RPM stall converter .The engine was bored .030 over and fitted with 12:1domed pistons and a roller cam shaft.. The cylinder heads were milled .080-inches equipped with roller rocker arms.       The fuel system is complete with  a 10 gallon fuel cell via a Holley Red competition fuel pump and sent to dual Holley 400 CFM carburetors on a tunnel ram intake. The rear end is a Ford H.D. 9 inch from a 68 Mustang , filled with 4.10:1 gears and a spool . When the car was on the chassis- dyno, it put 398-horsepower and 318.5-lb.ft. of torque to the rear wheels, which is enough to send this Pinto into the low 11...

  This blue flamed 1955 Chevrolet 150 Series two-door sedan has a vintage Drag Strip look, With its supercharged engine, racing suspension, and street slicks...    But it also has lights, mirrors, and wipers, that the owner says makes it street legal. The one-piece tilt front end is made of fiberglass for weight savings and easy engine access. The rest of the body is factory steel.  The engine is a 327cu.in. small block with a Weiand 6-71 Roots-style supercharger that’s topped by a pair of 500 cfm. Carter AFB four barrel carburetors. The fenderwell exit exhaust headers were made by Doug’s Headers. A Turbo 350 three-speed automatic transmission bangs the gears , and it’s equipped with a 3000 RPM converter which is controlled by a Hurst shifter . The nose ble ed front suspension was attained with parallel leaf springs and a tube axle, from Speedway . The brakes are Wilwood disc’s front & rear, and the 10 bolt rear end hangs on huge ladder bars supported b...

    This 1962 Corvette Gasser was built to resemble the car Drag Racing legend Big John Mazmanian raced in the 60's. It was a four year no expense spared build,and features the best period correct parts that could be found or they were fabricated when they couldn't . The main attraction is the all aluminum 434 CID. Chevrolet small block . It's filled with a Lunati crank, CP Carillo connecting rods and swings Ross pistons. For the top end, a set of Bodix cylinder heads, which were fully ported and filled with Manley SS valves. For stellar performance , a Dyres 6-71 blower and a pair of 650 Holley double pumpers are mounted up top.   The owner stated that the combination is good for 650 Horsepower ! And it's street driven on 93 octane pump gas .   This is a factory 4-speed car,so it was natural to keep the manual transmission , the Corvette now features Hurst linkage and a Hurst shifter , power is applied through Lakewood-housing and Centerforce clutch . The interior f...

  The 'Virginia Gentleman' is a  1967 Chevrolet Corvette that was built and driven by John Boughers . Originally the car was green with a white interior and was equipped with an automatic transmission,power windows and air conditioning. John raced the Vette on the East coast from the 1970's to the early 1980's, in 1980 the car was painted red when Champion spark plugs came onboard as a major sponsor. He won many races and was best known as ' The oldest man in Drag Racing '. The power plant was built by Justice Brothers Racing in Virginia with Carlton Philips.It's a 620 HP small block with 13:1compression. It's shifted by an ATI Powerglide with a brake. In 1985 the the car was purchased by Gino's Auto Body and raced by Gino from  85' to 1989 in the West Palm Beach area,in 1985 the Corvette won the five day championship tournament at Moroso Motorsports Park , now Orlando Speed World.  This is a time capsule that deserves to be in someones collect...

                                                                                         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....

  The room in this speed-shop is Heaven for me , because these are my favorite wheels of all time .  Ansen or E-T Slots look great on anything . Gasser's, Muscle Cars , Drag Cars and don't forget Custom-Van's. The Sprint style slot wheel came in sizes from 3 inches wide  to 14 inches wide . and you could get them in 13  to 15 inch diameters with the most rare being 16in. , those were mostly for Dragsters .   The street car wheels were made with cast aluminum , while the race versions were made in magnesium  . They were made with bolt on center caps or push in caps .    This example is a15x14  Ansen   Sprint slot wheel,with a 4- inch back space.                          Slot wheels give any street machine that racing look and just add to the cool factor !       It is very rare to find a set of 15x12 or 15x14's for sale , but about once a year I seem t...