Shop Tour - Hardcore Drag Racing

    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...

  When Dodge introduced the Dodge Dart it was considered a compact car, it was built on the new smaller A-Body platform. The base engine was the inline 225 slant-6 with a tiny one barrel carburetor. The engine was weak in the horsepower department but the body had some cool crisp lines that were unique to the Dart .                                    The Dart rolls on super cool American Racing Torque Thrust D wheels, Coker Pro-Trac tires. The owner of this black beauty took this 1963 Dodge Dart to the next level. Starting with the wheelbase. The rear axle was moved up giving it the look of a 60’s Gasser, the straight front axle was moved forward five inches.   The Dart started out as a rust free California body, the black paint is so deep it looks like a mirror. The interior is a stunning bright red featuring A-100 van bucket seats up front and smooth rear panel where the r...

        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 ...

      This 1969 Ford Mustang Cobra Jet gained notoriety on the West Coast drag-racing circuit under sponsorship from Chuck Foulger, the former Ford Racing director from Monrovia, California. It was driven by Lucy Below and known as 'Lucy's Larceny'.   At Fremont Dragway it set the SS/HA class record, it ran mid 11s at 126.45 mph. The car was then retired after racing only three short years in Division 7 . Then it was sold and went through a few owners. It was featured in all the popular drag racing magazines during the 1970s.     The car was well known at the time because of its unique paint scheme, refrigerator white on the passenger side with a bright blue racing stripe outlining the fender, door and quarter panel. On the driver side the complete opposite with bright blue paint and a bright white stripe down the flanks.  The car’s distinctive paint scheme was Foulger’s idea, he reasoned that media coverage would give the impression there were tw...

  In the 1960's there were racers that won races once in a while, then there were racers or should I say teams that were feared. The team of Ronnie Sox & Buddy Martin were the ones that dominated the Super-Stock category in the 1960's, and then in 1970 they dominated again in the early years of Pro-Stock.   They won more national events then any other team at the time. The only other person that was just as good at rowing a 4-speed at the time was Dandy-Dick Landy with his fleet of silver bullets.  These 68' Plymouth Cuda's started out as a basic shell or a body in white that was pulled from the assembly line and sent to Hurst Performance. Where they transformed from a boring compact car to fire-breathing strip  monster! The bodies were acid dipped and when they were done the sheet metal was as thin as a Lays potato chip. To save weight even further the front fenders were an aluminum stamping or acid dipped steel. The glass was replaced with Owens-Corning light-w...

  This is AMX S/S # 3 known as “Patriot-1”. The American Motors  factory transformed the sheet metal from a 1969 model to represent a 1970 model, as only 1 of 53 examples were ever produced by Hurst Performance, this is a rare car indeed.  There are more HEMI S/S Darts out there now then have ever been built by the factory, how many people can say they have an original?  This is the real deal, it was purchased new by Phillip Frisbie.       The  390 CI V-8 engine features an Edelbrock STR-11 cross-ram intake manifold. Fuel is mixed by dual Holley 4-barrel carburetors with velocity stacks that are sealed to hood with gaskets allowing it to gulp fresh air from the power bulge scoop.         The interior is typical 1960's, black carpet, black high-back bucket seats and of course a Hurst shifted 4-speed  manual transmission gets the job done.  The exterior is painted in AMC factory race team colors in Red, White and Blue. ...

  Check out our new tech article page for some performance tips & tricks for your race car. If you have any ideas of what you would like to see just send me a message.  -Mike

What's in The Garage?  with mark francis !        Last month we posted the story of Mark and his Monza named "Louie the Lizard", a big tire street & strip car powered by a hot small-block Chevy. In this edition of What's In The Garage, we are going to showcase some of Mark's past and current build projects. As we learned he has a passion for the Chevrolet Monza, either in sedan or hatchback form Mark has owned a few of each and he has a few in his stable now . Each one is in a different stage in the build process . Buckle up and hold on as we take a look into Mark's Garage!    One of Mark's first builds was this 1978 Monza. Mark said that he bought while he was in high school (1986) from his best friend.      Mark tells us in his own words about his new purchase. It was a V6 roller that he blew the up before I bought it. I bought a 307 from a guy that worked in a machine shop, he built it for the NHRA Super Stock class bu...