BUILT IN A WEEK – RUNS EIGHTS

BUILDING an eight-second car is serious business. Nobody wants a car falling apart around you at 150mph+. But building an eight-second car in another country and in just a week is insane. Something like that takes serious commitment and good planning; well, we guess one out of two isn’t bad.

Harry Haig, Terry Seng, Shannon Jennings and Ryan Jones doubled down on the commitment side of things to push this twinturbo Chevelle out the door. They flew in to Kansas a week ahead of Drag Week to strip the ’69 SS Chevelle down to its bones and then back up again into a genuine eight-second monster. The only thing done to the car ahead of time was the rollcage; the boys had to fit the new engine, trans, diff, suspension, rewire the whole car and convert it to EFI. It was a mammoth task and the guys got very little sleep during the week, but they made it to Columbus, Ohio in time for Drag Week registration and then headed back to the pits to finish building it.

Most onlookers thought it was a gutsy move; others thought it was all a bit of a joke, but nobody was laughing after the Chevelle ran 9.06 on Day One of Drag Week. Then the rusty SS proceeded to go quicker at every track until Day Five, when the insane track temps hurt the small-tyre combo's traction.

But the team achieved their goal. They built the car in a week, finished Drag Week, and averaged in the eight-second zone for the whole event. The boys reckon that their average of 8.95 is the quickest of any Aussie car to finish Drag Week. That’s pretty amazing.