Projects 1955 Chevy Southeast Gassers Build

Dang im sure sorry to hear about your Dad Zak...He and We are all proud of you !

 

Zak I'm heartbroke reading that....not only did you lose your father and mentor but thats one more gearhead gone. The pics of this 55 start to finish clearly show he was a hell of a fabricator and engine builder, at minimum. Probably much more than that. Thank God he had you, now you gotta carry the torch. Dude I love the rusty square body suburban and the open trailer. That's what hot rodding is. Not this $500k motorhome pulling your $100k enclosed trailer with your $100k 11 second bracket car shit. Thats why I liked watching this 55 build so much. You and your dad always put money in the right places.

 

Haven’t posted a whole ton on here since loosing my father, but I have been working on the 55 improving it, and racing some this season. With the help of my buddy kelvin we got the body work repairs finished up, and all back green, lettered, and with a small tribute to dad on the trunk. Also finishing up swapping the car over to a Gforce from the Jerico DR4, and have a new 10” advanced clutches setup in the car. Lastly I also have put magnesium American front runners on it too.

 

Looks great!

 

Excellent build.

 

Sorry for your loss Zac. Keep on keeping on. Looks good.

Thanks,

jim

 

Zak. I admire you and all you do with your race car program. The tribute to your dad is absolutely perfect. Carry on brother.

 

Haven’t updated in a while on here, it was a rough time learning to race on my own and carry on without dad but I finished the season out and it started to get easier. Over the off season I sold the Anglia I was building, and have used that money to buy motor parts to really try to be competitive this season in C gas. I’m dropping down to c gas and will be running an iron head 285” small block Chevy with my injection. So I’ll be most likely the lightest car in the class @ 2615lb with driver. The motor is going to be by far the trick-est piece I’ve ever had, but also will be a stock GM block and factory GM 292 turbo iron heads. Really hoping we’ll make some finals this season and maybe a win or two if everything works like I hope it will.

 

Good to see you posting again Zak.

 

Thanks for the update! Glad your in there swinging still. Go Zak!!!! Lippy

 

Yep! Keep going Zak, we here are on you side, watching , and pulling for you. The engine goodies are real nice. That Chevy will haul the mail and then some.

 

Also a few pictures from the finals at shady side.

 

Haven’t posted on here in quite a while!
Been battling engine issues and waiting on machine shops the past 6-8 months really, so haven’t had a lot of updates as far as performance, just been plugging away with a 283 placeholder in the car and making passes. Have had some updates in life outside of racing though, met (again) and got married to my wonderful wife Frances that first seen me at shady side in the 57 back in 2017, and hopefully I’ll have my good motor together and ready to go by mid season.

 

It was good talking to you in Ringold I am going to try to make it to Knoxville as well.

 

Congratulations on getting hitched Zak. Nice to see the 55 is still in action. Good luck with the rebuild of the main motor.

 

Quite a few updates. Ran Knoxville with the fresh combo I built, back to a big block for now, just a backyard motor I stuck together but ran good for the first time out, gotta tune on the clutch and get the combo figured out a little bit yet but definitely a fun weekend.

Also a much bigger update, me and my wife learned we are expecting a baby in late November. A beautiful baby boy. Going to name him Ronnie after my dad.

 

Congrats. Good to see you at it again.

 

Congratulations to Both of You, Great to see the Homegrown back on the track!!

 

Congratulations Zac, that’s great news for you and your wife. It’s a great idea to name him after your dad. On another note, it’s good to see you making progress and competing in the 55.

 

Just saw you running at the Knoxville Dragway. Beautiful car. I look forward to seeing your car when I go, love to look for the locals. I hated the rain had to put a damper on the rest of the races.

 

A few pics of the engine build and assembly. It’s nothing super exotic just a fairly sporty big block.
The TR2 tunnel ram is headed for the car next, just got to work it up some, fix a few stripped holes, and most importantly got to come up with some type of hood scoop because this thing is tall in comparison to other tunnel rams I’ve had on the car, and the injection I ran on it before.

 

I like compression. Even on my blower motors. It’s like a spice that makes everything taste good. Smell good too.
Real deal Harland’s are hard to beat also.

 

Explain the pan to me. I’ve seen those with kick outs but never one with the stock style rear sump. Gotta be a reason. How much power is it worth. That was a pretty complicated arrangement to build as compared to some pans I’ve built or are my eyes playing tricks on me?

 

I noticed the pan too. Counting/spacing of bolt holes

 

The pan is an old Moroso steel pan, I’m guessing much like a T sump pan, they welded the kickout to a modified stock pan. Which also the sump is seamed so it’s had extra depth added too. It has a windage tray, scraper, kick out, trap door, and baffling in it. It retains good oil pressure from burn out to turn out even under braking on the top end. Just an old pan I traded for but it seems to work real well. It’s only got a few pan bolts on the kickout side and front so it’s a pain. But the kickout thankfully ends at the sump so a small diameter flywheel/start position clears.


Had some clutch tuning to do for the big block setup so made a few changes, added some base and counter, and went to the local drag strip Friday night. Car responded very well, went a pretty respectable 6.07 for track conditions (not a very smooth or good track). I think it should run a 5.9X at a good track fairly easily, and that’s all I really hope for. Not enough to be a heavy hitter in A gas, but not bad for a backyard built motor by a hillbilly. Lol

 

Thanks for the explanation. My memory is pretty solid and I cant ever remember seeing one like it.. Nice times / what does it weigh?

 

No problem sir, and thanks, car weighs around 2640 with me in it currently. It has some ballast weight on the car.

 

Dang thats a narrow track, must be exciting when the tires lift.....

 

It certainly does have a high pucker factor to it....

 

It’s a skinny track for sure. Dad rolled his altered at this track in the mid 80s running 5.30s. Hard tail car and started bouncing on the top end.

it’s a very cool vintage little track though.