After racing junior-dragsters for seven years, Shawn Finn bought a 69 Corvette at the age of 15 and was driving it on the streets near his Brooklyn, New York home soon after.
It was fun for a while, but because he had racing in his blood, he decided three years ago to turn the car into a track terror, and began by outfitting it with a 25.3 chrome moly cage.
He then installed leafsprings and CalTracs, as well as Afco coilover shocks massaged by Menscer Motorsports in the front and Santhuff's shocks in the rear.
For power, he obtained a Bowtie block, and then hired Weston Machine to finish the lifter bores and to balance the Crower crank and the rest of the rotating assembly for the 421 cubic-inch small-block Chevy. Meanwhile, he ported a set of SB2 heads and delivered them to Visner Engine Development for a valve job, and then placed them on top of his masterpiece with an M&M Competition Engines cast intake.
He chose a Holley 1250 CFM carburetor to feed fuel to the engine, and a Turbo 400 transmission with an A-1 converter to help the car, which still features a stock dashboard and door panels, lay down all of its newfound power.
When the last nut and bolt were in place in April of 2016, he took the car, which rolls on Hoosier frontrunners and Mickey Thompson 29x10.5 slicks, to tracks near his home to test, and so far has 22 passes under his belt. While he has stopped the clocks at a best of 8.68 and 157 mph, he hopes to achieve 8.50s at this weekend's 11th Annual Nitto Tire NMRA/NMCA Super Bowl of Street Legal Drag Racing, July 28-31, 2016 at Route 66 Raceway in Joliet, Illinois.
I'm looking forward to meeting the other guys in the class, hanging out and having a good time, said Finn, a firefighter in the city of New York. I hope to get a good understanding of the class and what it takes to run in it so that next year, I can make some changes to the engine, get 200 pounds out of the car and try to be more competitive.
He chose a Holley 1250 CFM carburetor to feed fuel to the engine, and a Turbo 400 transmission with an A-1 converter to help the car, which still features a stock dashboard and door panels, lay down all of its newfound power.
When the last nut and bolt were in place in April of 2016, he took the car, which rolls on Hoosier frontrunners and Mickey Thompson 29x10.5 slicks, to tracks near his home to test, and so far has 22 passes under his belt. While he has stopped the clocks at a best of 8.68 and 157 mph, he hopes to achieve 8.50s at this weekend's 11th Annual Nitto Tire NMRA/NMCA Super Bowl of Street Legal Drag Racing, July 28-31, 2016 at Route 66 Raceway in Joliet, Illinois.
I'm looking forward to meeting the other guys in the class, hanging out and having a good time, said Finn, a firefighter in the city of New York. I hope to get a good understanding of the class and what it takes to run in it so that next year, I can make some changes to the engine, get 200 pounds out of the car and try to be more competitive.