Rat Fast

All too often the average enthusiast finds himself purchasing exotic race pieces only to be disappointed with his car's performance. The key to building a ride that performs well is to understand the basic principals and apply them properly.

Frank Gearin wanted to go fast at the dragstrip and cruise the highway without spending money on an overdrive transmission. To accomplish such a tall order, Gearin and his friend, Brett Benson, came up with a plan. They went looking for a '69 Nova that would provide them with a chassis capable of accommodating a big-cubic-inch motor.

In order for the Nova to cruise the freeway at reasonable engine speeds, the two decided that a 3.55 ring-and-pinion would be the steepest gear they were willing to run. That meant the Nova needed lots of torque to overcome the tall gears. The simple solution was lots of cubic inches starting with a 0.100-inch overbore on a 454 block. A factory 4.00-inch stroke crankshaft combined with the new 4.351-inch bore pushed the displacement out to 476 ci. With this many inches, it's only natural to expect outrageous seat-of-the-pants torque. Once the 10:1 compression flattop pistons were installed, Benson bolted on a set of intake-matched and bowl-blended World Products oval-port cylinder heads. World's Merlin oval-port iron heads are capable of flowing plenty of air while offering ridiculous amounts of bottom-end grunt. To further enhance the torque curve, Benson added a solid, flat-tappet Engle camshaft sporting 0.560-inches of lift and a relatively short 242 degrees of duration at 0.050-inch tappet. Topping the engine off is an Edelbrock RPM Performer dual-plane intake manifold and a mechanical-secondary annular discharge 830-cfm Holley carburetor.

The next task was adding a suitable transmission capable of handling all that torque. They accomplished this with a TH400 and a 10-inch 2,800-stall converter connected to the narrowed 12-bolt rearend. When the accelerator hits the floor the 26x10-15 Hoosier Drag tires do their best to produce consistent 1.80 60-foot times.

The idea of owning a naturally aspirated 11-second street machine is absolutely exciting. Whether it's a Z06 Corvette or a big-cubic-inch Viper that wants to challenge this Nova to a game of acceleration, Gearin's confident that his Rat-powered Nova has what it takes to be king of the road.