Our story begins in the year 2000, when we purchased a 1979 Chevrolet Z-28 from Doug Jennings of Wichita Falls,Texas for $200.00. The car was buried behind his house in six foot tall brush. We had to practically dig the car out. The car had no motor or transmission, old tires, a cracked windshield, and was filled to the roof with old car parts. I knew I had my hands full. At first, we decided to build a very mild street car that I could take to the track and race on the weekends. I started collecting parts, starting with a bare 396 big block Chevrolet engine, which I purchased from D & R Salvage for $300.00. It took approximately six months to collect all of the components to put it together and we hired Patrick Keagan to build it. It took him a few months to complete and during this time, we purchased some tires and rims and replaced the broken windshield. I also purchased a Turbo-Hydromatic 350 transmission.

Once we completed the installation, we took the car out to Texoma Motorplex in Walters,Oklahoma for the maiden voyage. The engine only lasted for five 1/8th mile passes before blowing up and only ran in the mid 10's. I was devastated. This was however, the beginning of what would launch my quest to learn as much about Chevrolet engines as I could, so that one day I would be able to build my own motor. I read everything I could get my hands on about high performance Chevrolet motors, and figured even I could build a motor that could last longer then five passes.

I found another 396 big block motor at an estate sale and purchased it for $200.00. I was able to salvage a few parts from my blown motor, but decided to upgrade a few items as well. I decided to go with a bigger camshaft, forged crankshaft, forged pistons, and ARP bolts throughout. My new motor was a complete success. The car ran 7.91 on it's first pass and I was hooked!

As time went on, we continued to upgrade. I purchased a new intake, a bigger carburetor, traction bars and headers. Unfortunately, after these modifications, we learned that as we started getting better traction, weaker parts would break. We twisted the driveshaft into two pieces. I went to Oklahoma City and had a custom shaft made by Drive Train Specialties (DTS) for $165.00.

I told my wife back when we started this project that my goal was to run in the seven second range. I figured that after watching other racers that this would be a speed that I would be satisfied with, but I was wrong. Speed is addictive and I soon realized that I will not be happy until I own a funny car!

We purchased a Nitrous Express System for the car and the car ran 7.10 in the 1/8th mile. We continued to upgrade various components and decided to have the car painted. Since the car was 21 years old when we bought it, and since we were going to try to keep it street legal, we decided to name the car "Barely Legal". We had Roger Hennessee cut the decals for the doors as well as our track number H396 which stood for Hall's 396..

We ran this motor for two years before deciding that a bigger motor would be needed to accomplish the speed and power that I was craving. We purchased a 454 cubic inch big block Chevrolet motor from a friend, and decided to upgrade a few more parts. We installed a bigger camshaft, new Venolia forged 13.1 pistons, as well as a new 1050 cfm Dominator carburetor. We also upgraded the fuel system to 1/2 inch line.

The Texoma Motorplex had been shut down by this time, so we had to find another place to race. We choose Wichita Raceway Park (WRP) in Wichita Falls, Texas to be our new home track, since it was the closest track around.

Our first pass at the new track yielded a 6.71 1/8th mile pass, but we couldn't get any traction. We decided that it would be much safer at this point to back-half the car and install some new components. We also opted to purchase some new aluminum racing rims and tires, a Richmond full spool, Moser axles, a Ford 9 inch housing, a S&W Racecars 4-link setup and QA1 coil over shocks. We had Fred Werner of Neverlift Chassis back-half the car and install a new certified 7.50 roll cage. We also upgraded the engine again with a full roller camshaft and lifters and bought a set of rectangular port heads and had Manley monster valves installed. We also traded the Dominator carburetor for an Alcohol 925 cfm S & S carburetor. The car ran a 6.40 @ 110 MPH in the 1/8th mile on it's maiden voyage. I was suprised that the car did not run any faster with all the chassis upgrades and the bigger cam and heads, but I would soon find out that the car had only lost a total of 20 pounds after all the tubing that was added for the roll cage and back-half. Today, the car weighs in at 3730lbs before I get in it, making it probably the heaviest back-halfed car in the region. Our future plans include purchasing fiberglass doors which will lighten the load a bit.

We are currently upgrading engines again. I am building a 512 cubic inch stroker big block Chevrolet which should yield approximately 800 horsepower. (Visit the equipment page to see all the goodies we've installed).I have also purchased two new nitrous systems. This should put the car at 1360 horsepower. I have also upgraded the transmission with new Red Line clutches, had it milled to accept an extra cluch and steel, installed hardened input and output shafts, installed a hardened drum, a transbrake and a Neal Chance Nitrous Torque Converter. We will continue to upgrade in order to stay on the leading edge with the competition. Look for us at car shows and racing events all over the Texas/Oklahoma region.