Shop Tour - Hardcore Drag Racing

                                                           This Chevelle has been featured in 2 magazines and won over 100 awards ! The low profile hood scoop that is on the car is functional and feeds a built 402 cubic inch engine that was Dyno tested at 475 horsepower. All that muscle is backed up with  a TCI 700-R4 that is rated for 650 horsepower, so it can handle whatever the big-block can throw at it. The engine features a Holley 750CFM Double-Pumper and a full roller valve-train by Comp . The B&M shifted 4-speed automatic transmission features a 2,400 stall converter . Power is then sent out to a narrowed 12-bolt rear end with an Eaton posi and 4.11 gears. Ladder bars & coil-over shocks  keep the rear- end planted.      The interior features racing style bucket seats with harnesses...

  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...

    The Wicked 1 is a 1948 Anglia two-door sedan owned by Gerard Milidantri from Suffern, New York.  He’s a general manager of an aerospace company that overhauls turbine engines and on the weekends he runs the Anglia at South East Gasser events.   The club brings back  Drag Racing from the late sixties and the cars must have period correct parts that you could buy up until 1967 and no later . No modern electronics , no automatics, no electronic fuel injection . Only open headers & a 4-speed , perfect for wheels up launches. We caught up with The Wicked 1 & Gerard at Island Dragway in Great Meadows , New Jersey.   This Anglia was hand-built in Pennsylvania in the late sixties by a fellow named GK Bernard. It was later purchased by SEGA emcee Quain Stott .   At a SEGA event in 2019 it was the first time Gerard had seen the Anglia, and it made such an impression that he sold the his Corvette and decided to pursue SEGA racing. In 2021...

  Don't let this happen to you , make sure the person selling/building your parts has experience ! Published on December 3, 2021 By, Mike Salemme     I want to share some thoughts about the job market in the automotive industry today. This is a story of what happened to me this week .   It concerns me very much not only from a Technicians view but also from a human safety view as well . Cars and trucks are deadly weapons and when I work on a car before and after a repair I think to myself is this car safe to return to a customer ?  When you bring in your car/truck for service do you consider how much experience the Technician has and do you feel comfortable about it . How much experience do you think a person should have before you trust them to work on your car ? I would say I would want a technician to have at least 5 years behind them to do just an oil change on my car . (That would never happen because I do my own repairs) .   Or do y...

                              Street Machine Spotlight   Even though this 1962 Plymouth Savoy Max Wedge is a clone it holds true to the originals.    With an original 56,000 miles, It was built with no frills at all.  The interior features an excellent original cloth & vinyl interior, a Hurst shifted 4-speed & rubber floor mats - no carpets and no radio or heater.    Under the hood it's very clean and highly detailed.. The engine was built by Krammer & Krammer Ent. ,a 440 big- block with dual quad Holley carbs mounted on a reproduction cross-ram intake manifold. On the Dyno it made 517 H.P. The rotating assembly was balanced & blue printed with Forged pistons & Crankshaft.. Hardened valve seats were also installed in the 906 heads to run on today's unleaded fuels .   Here is a view of the spartan interior, no frills here . Just a bench seat and a 4-speed...

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...

                              At any given weekend in America in the 1980's you could find a car like this at a car show, drive- in or just cruising the streets showing off .  The trend of Pro-Street started taking shape in the mid 1970's after the Street Freak movement, these cars were considered more street friendly because the rear tires were tucked in and they had some sort of exhaust system.   Don't think for one minute that these cars were slow by any means . They were just as powerful as before  and you could say that they were getting even more horsepower .  In the 80's builders were looking for the next new big thing to put into their cars , blowers & nitrous oxide , if one kit wasn't enough then three must be better , who needs two carbs when you could put on four of them . Later on there were multiple turbo's . And the ...

  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 ...

  Durring a ban from NASCAR during the 1965 season.  The  Plymouth AFX program was created to maximize the potential of the 426 Hemi engine in straight line acceleration competitions. The AFX class was  Factory Experimental , the A was the largest engine displacement class.  The Plymouth engineers found that if they could alter the weight distribution to create more traction for the powerful 426 Hemi engine, it would result in quicker elapsed times.  By the rules, there was no rule as to where the wheelbase needed to be located.  So the Plymouth and Dodge engineers moved or altered the wheelbase forward under the body for two reasons 1. to move the weight of the Hemi engine closer to the rear axle and 2 to put more weight over the rear tires. Smith was an Illinois racer who had a sponsor association with Learner’s Sales & Service, one of the largest Imperial sellers in America. That and his success in 1964 had gotten him one of ju...