(Words by Scott Brown) – I found this car about two years ago in a storage unit in Austin. The old girl had been sitting for 10 plus years. After getting it to my shop, we looked the whole thing over and found that it was pretty much a rust free car.I The interior was trash, the passenger door had been hit at one time and repaired but not done very well.  It also did not have any driveline in it.

I knew that I wanted to do something different than a traditional small block with this car. After a lot of reading I decided on a 5.3 L v8 and a  4L60E  combination from a `02 Truck. I had read where people were putting turbos on these basically stock engines and making good horsepower and the idea sounded good to me so we went in that direction, specing the engine for boost.

The camshaft is a custom grind ftom Comp Cams and the valve springs are PSI brand. I had a valve job done, studded the heads, and used LS9 headgaskets. A used an LS1 intake and 80lb injectors top things off. I wanted to keep everything under the hood, and keep the fender wells. With the help of a couple friends we mounted a 72mm Magnum turbo up front . I spent 3 months of weekends and a lot of evenings after work to get the car running for the Lonestar Round up…. and made it.

I wanted to try and see what the car would do at the track. I went  to a couple test n tune nights and got the car down to 12.20s . Low boost levels [8 lbs] and a setup where I could drive to the track and have fun.  The first Saturday night that I went, I entered in the street class and won!  Naturally I wanted to go faster but the rear end which was a 10 bolt from a Camaro was very weak. I had Quick Performance build a 9 in Ford with a Detroit Locker and 3.50 gears. We had it narrowed to enough so that I could fit a 235/60 drag radial in the wheel well and keep the fender skirts.

I then added a Methanol injection system from Alky Control.  Circle D billet 2900 stall converter and started raising the boost.  Casey Rance of SWG Performance in Belton Tx has been very helpful in guiding me in the correct direction with this, He has done the tuning on this setup to get me to a best ET of 10.79 @ 128 mph  on pump gas, methanol injection, and 14lbs boost in a 3620 lb car!

Earlier this year I heard about Drag Week. I watched all the archived videos and decided I would like to give the event a shot.  When the day was finally announced that registration would open for DW, I saw that i was also going to be in Baytown, Texas spectating at the Spring Nationals. I talked my wonderful wife into sitting in front of a computer on that Saturday with all my info in front of her.. hoping she could get me in. At 11:04 she called and said “You’re in!”  I was like.. oh wow! Then a few minutess later I saw where it sold out in 8 mins!! After getting in, I got to reading and found out that I needed to do a bunch of stuff to get my car ready. Thins like a roll bar legal for 11.49 and faster, upgraded brakes, interior stuff, and a lighter safer front end.

Roll bar and seat belts will be done by the next week. Interior was done soon after by Philip Cato. The front suspension, designed by Scotts Hotrods in California was setup and welded in place by Scotty Baccus of Tejas Steel Work and is under the car and we are tweaking on it to get it perfect.  Brakes are Wilwood up front and G Body GM disc on the rear. I went with a TCI Outlaw shifter.

If you are wondering how the car got its name, a friend named Chris Neal one day started giving me a hard time about having an old car that looks kinda beat up and needs a paint job [he drives a new Vette].  I told him that old cars are fun and that no one has one like this around here. During the conversation he started calling it Dirty Capone. Well after a while the Dirty name dropped and everyone started calling it Capone..

I will be running in the Daily Driver class with Charles Wickham as co-dog/driver for the week..

SCROLL DOWN FOR PHOTOS AND VIDEO OF SCOTT’S CAR IN ACTION….IF YOU ARE RUNNING DD THIS YEAR, HERE’S A CAR TO FEAR!