Weapon X: Follow Along As An Awesome Plan B Drag Week Build Takes Shape


Weapon X: Follow Along As An Awesome Plan B Drag Week Build Takes Shape

(Words and photos by Robert Williams) –  (Editor’s note: This is the first in a series of build stories that will follow the construction of Weapon X, a 1977 Nova that will compete in Hot Rod Magazine’s Drag Week event. Multi-year competitor Robert Williams is building this car as a stop gap as his much loved and well known Pork Chop Express Camaro gets a far more serious chassis installed not it. He did an awesome job relaying this story, so it will be told in his own words)

To familiarize yourself with what the Pork Chop Camaro is, here’s a photo of it in action –

 

And now…the beginning of the Weapon X story –

I acquired this 1977 Nova from fellow Drag Weeker (and Black Hat Gang member) Chris McNeely back in October of 2015, with the intention of building it into a twin turbo BBC powered Drag Week car. It was to have replaced the Pork Chop, but events conspired to change that plan. Last year, I converted the Pork Chop over to EFI, and ran it at Drag Week 2016 N/A to shake out the bugs with intentions (there’s that damn word again!) of running the nitrous the following year in the shark tank now called Street Race Power Adder.

What happened instead, was that I ran Ultimate Iron, finished 3rd, and had a hell of a lot more fun doing that.. BUT.. the aggravation of having a high-strung nitrous engine made me rethink things, and that’s when I decided I would be back in 2017 to run Ultimate Iron with twin turbos. I came to that decision after talking things over with my wife, who told me to make the Pork Chop faster, since “everybody knows that’s your car”.

Can’t argue with your wife when she employs logic like that! With that plan being set into motion, I took the engine and trans out of the Pork Chop and sent it to Dan Neumann Race Cars for a 25.5 update.

After some time, my projected ET goals for Pork Chop made me realize that what I needed to do was have Dan rip the entire mild steel cage out, and put in a new one all in 4130 moly, rather just than adding C/M to the existing cage. Once I made this decision, we decided on doing a 25.3 cage instead, giving me plenty of upgrade room, power wise but  this would come at a cost of time. I didn’t want to rush the build, or go into Drag Week with no testing on a potential 7 second car, so it was “Plan B” my ’77 Nova, if I were to bring a car to this year’s Week.

When I picked the car up from Chris, he had already gutted it, started on mini-tubbing it, and had a Fab9 9″ Ford housing hung on ladder bars already set in place. The front subframe was completely rebuilt, with new poly bushings, ball joints, steering gear, and Moroso “Trick Springs” installed.. saving a ton of nasty “grunt” work already. The body was completely rust-free (find a 4th gen Nova with no rust!), so it seemed the logical choice for “Plan B”.

The Plan:

The “Weapon X Project” was designed with interchangability between it, and the Pork Chop Express.. for a number of reasons, primary being that with the multiple changes I’ve done to Pork Chop over the past couple of years, I had a lot of surplus “like new” parts just laying around. If it’s one thing I can’t stand, it’s to waste time, money, or materials so why not use what I have on hand already?

Think of it like the AK-47 or AR15 rifle platforms with their modular design.  The second generation F-body shares a lot of interchange with the 4th gen X-body, so it’s a natural fit. so in the case of the Nova, we designated it: “AK77”

Power will come from a 439″ big block Chevy engine that I redid for a different project. The only thing that I’m doing to it, is pulling the hydraulic flat-tappet cam out, and slipping in a Crane solid roller that’s more boost friendly. Fuel system is the Pork Chop’s old fuel cell, fuel lines, pump, etc. with Holley EFI for control (even using Pork Chop’s ECU!).

Power adder will be twin turbos, again, like Pork Chop but with a difference: cost.

I had bought a “Far East” twin 76MM setup to try on a BBC car here, but plans didn’t work out for that particular project, so I had a brand new setup just gathering dust.. The concession to cost will be the water/meth system from Holley, and the Treadstone intercooler.  So, why not see exactly how much power we can squeeze out of an eBay setup, with a decent management system controlling it!

Pork Chop is “donating” its old gauges (part of its weight loss program) to Weapon X, and I’m borrowing the wheels/tires as well while it’s in jail.. Weapon X will roll on 315 Pro radials, just like Pork Chop, and everything is the exact same, down to wheel offsets/backspacing.

I’m using the “Fail Safe” TH400 and the converter from Pork Chop, as both these items will be replaced with stronger and more appropriate items.

Even the 9″ center section I built for Pork Chop, I’m reusing. The idea is to build a potential high 8 second car for cheap (relatively speaking), while wasting nothing in the process.

My goal is to have the car constructed by early June.. that’s right. 90 days! I have to have it ready or near ready by June, because that’s when I take my wife on HOT ROD Power Tour (gotta keep her happy!), and I want to use the remainder of the time leading up to Drag Week for testing.

We WILL be at Drag Week with Weapon X, ready to do battle in Ultimate Iron, I assure you!


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5 thoughts on “Weapon X: Follow Along As An Awesome Plan B Drag Week Build Takes Shape

  1. Gary

    Dam i thought i was the only one doing a 4th gen bigblock turbo car …crap !! Cant wait to see it finished though !!

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