Updated 5/1/99 - Scroll to bottom for newest pictures

Well, here it is! The car which I worked on for the entire year of 1997! And yes, that is a hood scoop on the front. It's not just there for looks either, it is fully functional. There's a tunnel that runs through the car (seen in pictures below) which channels the air back to the carburetors so that they only get fresh air and not the hot air off the exhaust. The car's not painted yet of course. That blue is the original paint and the black front end and hood scoop is just the gel coat on the fiberglass.

The car is owned by David Crow. He contracted me to do all the fabrication. The basis of the car is a Ron Lummus Racing chassis. Most of the aluminum still has the plastic sheeting on it for scratch protection, so that's why it looks white and curled on the edges on some pieces in the interior. David will be building the motor and transmission for the car.

So, check out some pictures of the details below.

Here's a shot of the door panels I made. They're made from two pieces of aluminum to get the "arm rest" section to curve outward from the panel. You can also see the framework that's necessary for the lexan windows that will be installed. Sorry for the darkness of some of these pictures. The car was in the shadows.

This is the dash, also all aluminum. This is my favorite part of the car. Unfortunately these pictures don't show the detail of the bead roller work very clearly, but it's got radio and glovebox shapes beaded into the dash face with DZUS buttons where the knobs would be on the real things. The guages are all Autometer Ultralites, and that's a shift lite on top of the gauge pod.

Above is a shot of the tunnel that runs from a plenum area under the hood scoop back to the carburetor "air box." I tried to make it look somewhat like a center console. You can also see the vertical gate shifter and the hydraulic hand brake in this picture, as well as part of the funny car style cage that surrounds the driver.

This is the back area of the interior where the tunnel dissappears underneath the other panels. It branches into three flexible tubes to go around the transmission and dump the air into the carb area. Removing the one large center panel allows access to the front of the transmission and the front ladder bar mounting points.

Here's a mock-up of the engine. The Scat case is empty, but it'll have a Scat 78mm flanged crank and Pauter billet rods. You can see the JayCee barrels, Pauter Big Block heads, Berg 58mm carbs, and Berg 2 1/4 inch exhaust. The bore size is 101.6, so the engine displacement is somewhere around 2525cc. Yeah, this is some serious motor! The car needs to run high 9 second quarter miles to be competitive in the VW Pro-Stock class, so that means this jewel needs to pump out about 300hp. It's got all the right stuff, so it should. The three holes in the panel between the carbs is where the air from the scoop enters. The white patches at the top of each rear fender are wheel tub cutouts, described below.

This car is all business from the back! It's got a Stroud parachute and RLR wheelie bars. The trailing edge of the wing top is adjustable and the two doors in the back are hinged at the top so they can let air escape that would otherwise get trapped in the engine compartment as it screams down the quarter mile. The wing/engine cover/parachute is removable as a single unit to allow easy access to the engine for tuning in the pits. This car is so low in the back that there was a risk of the tires hitting the underside of the top of the rear fenders. Looking at the top of the rear fenders directly above the wheels you can see the pro-mod style wheel tubs that I fabbed in order to get some additional clearance between the tire and fender.

So, there you have it. My greatest project so far. There are a lot of details that you obviously can't see without seeing the car in person. My part of the project is complete, for the most part. David and his sons will be doing all the finishing out now that all the fabrication is done. I'll certainly post more pictures as it goes through its painting and final assembly stages.

Look here to see some preliminary drawings of different paint schemes done by Allen Crowe.

Status as of 5/1/99

David's car is in the midst of getting painted and being re-assembled. The graphics haven't been added yet, but they are coming shortly.  Paint and bodywork is being done by Austin VeeDub.

Click on any image to see full size.

Painted body. Check out the fender bumps over the rear tires - too cool!	There's David hard at work. This shows the hood scoop tunnel path through the car.	Front end is not yet painted.   'Glass is being reworked for better fit by Parke Fishel.
Wing partially installed. The car is rather low, don't you think?	RLR windshield installed. Scoop was left long in back and will be trimmed to window.	David next to car to give some perspective to its overall height.

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