(Video Credit: TheRacingVids channel on YouTube) – Mean Dean Marinis is one of the coolest cats in the sport of drag racing. He has been one of the best x275 racers in the country for years and he’s been doing an awesome job behind the wheel of the Harry Pappas owned Corvette for seasons as well. The car competes in PDRA action, we believe some Northeast Outlaw Pro Mod stuff and this year at Englishtown, Marinis will be making his NHRA J&A Service Pro Mod Series debut. It’s doubly cool because that’s the area that Marinis hails from and even though he is a NY Yankee fan, we still think he’s pretty great.
So this car uses a typically massive engine fora nitrous car. While we’re not sure that it still has the 820ci BES mill that it did when he and Harry Pappas ran when it debuted, we can safely say that it is between 800ci and the low 900s which would keep it legal per NHRA rules. As you will see in this video the car does not use a clutch but rather a torque converter. It does seem that the torque converter cars are proliferating at a quick rate these days as the last NHRA race had more converter cars than clutch cars! A Turbo400 style transmission from ATI is behind the converter.
We love the looks and the sounds of the nitrous cars and the drivers love how violent they are. This video was made at a PDRA race so you will see a pair of sub-four second passes down the track with Marinis at the the wheel. He really has to plug some steering into the car on each of these hits. It moves a bunch and like the boss that he is, Marinis handles his job and keeps his foot to the floor.
If you love huge nitrous engines and killer door slammers, this video will be your jam.
