Building a 1,200-hp sports car for acceleration races is not very difficult these days – as long as you have the money, at least. Keeping the license plates on is another challenge entirely! We are therefore glad to see Shawn Robert White succeed in both of these goals.
The man took a 1970 Chevrolet Chevelle and fitted it with a humongous Beck Racing Engines V8 – a non-turbo mill with 9.2 liters of displacement. That’s 0.8 liters above the Dodge Viper V10, in case you were wondering. The nominal output was formidable – 900 horsepower (671 kilowatts) – but Shawn apparently wanted more. He ended up fitting the engine with a nitrous oxide injection system for another 300 hp (224 kW), and upgraded the transmission to the FTI Stage 5 Powerglide spec.
He left the body and the cabin relatively stock, but swapped the rear wheel pair for a 22-inch model… The one that is 22 inches *wide*, to be precise. The word “roller” comes to mind, as in “steamroller”.
NHRA has already certified the chassis of the elderly Chevelle for conformity with the 8.5-second standard.