Mike Finnegan and David Newbern both made it through Drag Week 2018 but not without hurting a lot of stuff. In fact, David’s 1971 Nova finished the week with a different engine than it started out with and the need for more help to make it a whole car again. Thanks to some generosity from a fellow hot rodder, Newbern has a 540 cubic inch big block with a TKO 5-Speed behind it, now resting in place in the Nova. His goal is a 10 second ET, with the wheels up, at Drag Week 2019. So that means that this thing needs to have some work done to it as soon as possible. September will be here before you know it.
A new carb from Quick Fuel, and some other fuel system enhancements from Holley, should get the car much closer to up and running. A few other tweaks and he’ll be Drag Week ready. Watch the video to see what Newbern and Finnegan are up to, how they get this thing together, and what else they are thinking about in preparation for testing and driving and ultimately racing cross country.
Is there anything else you think the boys should be doing to this thing before it heads out on Drag Week?
If Finnegan turned a wrench on that motor… even if it’s just a carb stud… you might want to bring a spare…well… everything with you. His motors and any motor he works on tend to blow up
Finnegan could take the race car to the track in his Chevy pickup / box truck. That way, it doesn’t matter if the race car runs or not because the box truck won’t run for very long and will probably break on a hill in rush hour traffic leaving the entire mess stranded and in everyone’s way, missing the race entirely.
Sad.