Bob Curran’s ’96 Corvette

The interior of Bob’s...        read full caption The interior of Bob’s Corvette is all business. The steering wheel and dash may be factory pieces, but the chrome-moly rollbar, Kirky seats, Auto Meter gauges, and Simpson parachute handle are definitely not dealer options.

A nitrous-armed small-block...        read full caption A nitrous-armed small-block sitting between the bars of a tube front end should be enough to alert the average enthusiast that there is some serious power on board.

Bob’s Vette is capable...        read full caption Bob’s Vette is capable of reaching the 60-foot marker in 1.23 seconds. Isn’t life great when your car hooks so hard that it can pull the front wheels 30 to 40 feet out from the starting line?

It’s doubtful that the...        read full caption It’s doubtful that the engineers at GM ever intended the C4 to be equipped with a parachute, but it’s necessary when the Vette runs consistent 160-plus mph passes.

Imagine bumping into a guy who’s reading the newest issue of Chevy High Performance . As the two of you begin talking, you discover that he has a C4 Corvette that he thinks is pretty fast. Meanwhile, you’re thinking how your Rat-powered ’69 Camaro would clean his clock. The guy says something about his Vette running in the 8-second zone. An 8-second, eighth-mile car is no slouch, but still it’s no match for what you’ve got at home. Then he mentions that his Vette has run an 8.41 at 166.07 mph on DOT tires in the quarter-mile. Immediately, you think either this guy has one of the fastest Corvettes in the country or he’s pulling your leg. Before you can call him on it, he invites you to his local track.

The weekend arrives, and you walk the pits looking for this Vette. As you are about to give up, a blue ’96 Corvette with a white stripe fires up and makes you jump. Bob Curran hops out of the car and introduces himself and the crew. It turns out that Bob is one of the best NMCA EZ Street racers around. His Vette not only holds the NMCA mph record of 165.48 mph, but it consistently runs in the low 8.40s. If that’s not enough, you notice that the engine is a small-block. Bob’s EZ Street terror sports a Fast-Times built 331ci Mouse motor equipped with a Dart block, billet crankshaft, Bill Miller 6-inch connecting rods, and 14.5:1 forged pistons. Creating a combustion chamber above the pistons is a set of Pro Action cylinder heads guiding 2.05/1.65-inch intake and exhaust valves. The Pro Action heads have been extensively worked and are now capable of flowing 355 cfm on the intake side. On top of the heavy hitting cylinder heads is an Edelbrock Victor Jr. intake manifold, an 850-cfm carburetor, and an NOS crossbar plate nitrous system capable of delivering 400 additional horsepower.

Bob is definitely making enough power to back up his quarter-mile claims, but we all know it’s not that easy to put power to the track. A TH400 transmission with a 9-inch stall converter and a Hipster transbrake shock the ladder bar–mounted 9-inch Strange rearend with enough torque to really make the 3.5-inch wide Mickey Thompson ET Streets work. If all goes well, Bob’s Corvette carries the front tires 30 to 40 feet out on his way deep into the 8-second zone.