Beauty and the Beast

"I also used a four-link drag-style suspension--but with a twist. The rod ends are Art Morrison stainless steel, but they have urethane bushings. Because I like to go around corners fast and I needed the axlehousing to pivot from the top, I'm using a Panhard bar fitted with the same bushings. The twist? The brackets for the four-link have lots of holes for adjustment to aid in >> traction at the dragstrip. I added two holes for the upper bars on the chassis to allow all four bars to be parallel with one another. This, in turn, allows the axlehousing to pivot in any direction based on road surface and not bind up the rod ends.

"I cut ½ inch off the bottom of the oil pan because I wanted the drivetrain as low as possible in the chassis (better CG, roll center, cornering), because I had to fit the supercharger under the stock hood, and because it's possible and I can weld. Making and raising the floor 2 inches also helped in building the headers, exhaust system, and the transmission crossmember so they all fit my nothing-lower-than-the-body requirements. See how it all works together? "Rollcage tubes into the roof--I haven't seen it done like this before, but it's the only way I wanted to do it, and it fit NHRA's 'cage requirements better.

Where the tubing passes through the roof, I had to have a way to close it from the elements and to allow for body flex, that's why the rubber seals. You can't do that effectively if the tubes pass through glass and I didn't want a plexiglass rear window."

Now we're on the Hot Rod Power Tour and in the pits at Red River Raceway deep in Louisiana. We've just returned from the photo shoot. Katherine is sitting in the truck chatting me up and I'm in another car listening with glee to its nasty rumble. Just before we part ways, she flattens the loud pedal. The motor howls as good as any pro-built race engine and she's off in a thunderous rush. In the rearview all I can see is her license plate. It reads GRLSCAN2.

Additional photos by Ro McGonegal and Jim Rathbun