Andy Warren is many things: he’s a friend to BangShift, he’s a five-time NMCA Nostalgia Muscle Car champion (his 1971 Chevrolet Caprice is a dominant force in the class) and he’s a good old boy from Elizabethtown, Kentucky who is more than happy to help a friend out who asks. So when Christian Damgaard asked a favor, it didn’t surprise us that Andy took it on. It’d be a stretch for most people, but given the circumstances, we aren’t surprised at all. You see, Damgaard is the guy who ran Hot Rod’s Drag Week last year with a green-flamed 1971 Impala that he had shipped over. It’s a beast, but apparently Damgaard wanted to try a new flavor of GM product to go along with the Impala and his 1969 Chevelle. So this is where Warren and his friend, Ben Snodgrass, come into play. This is the project Chevy that will (hopefully) be at this year’s Drag Week. Damgaard gave Warren a budget of ten thousand dollars and some basic desires: it has to survive Drag Week, has to be able to be driven down to Florida to be loaded onto a boat headed back to Denmark, and oh yeah, it has to run at least a 10.99 in the quarter. Meet “Malibuuhoo”.

Warren found the Malibu grandma-fresh, with stock paint and a surprisingly clean interior, and already LS-swapped, and made a deal to take possession of it from Mark Thomas, the previous owner/builder. The Malibu was already a really neat build, but in order to be legal for Drag Week and to hit the numbers that Christian wanted, some work had to be done. For example, the stock 7.5-inch rear axle was still in place. While playing a game of “When Will It Break” might sound like fun to some, it wasn’t going to fly in the Malibu, so a Quick Performance 9-inch Ford unit with a True-Trac locker and disc brakes found it’s way underneath the car. Fuelab pushed in a twin-screw fuel pump, filters and a boost reference regulator that will work with the Comp Performance Group/FAST LSXR intake, injectors and injector rails. And yes, we mean boost: The 5.3L LS mill is being treated to a CX Racing 76mm billet wheel turbocharger, along with plenty of piping, flanges, and the wastegate, and Tru Boost supplied the boost controller, boost gauge, and a water/meth injection system. Brian Tooley Racing supplied the double valve springs, pushrods, and the Stage 3 truck camshaft, and AEM LS truck coils will light the fuel.

Warren is notably pleased with finding such a clean A/G-body Malibu for Damgaard, and the work that Snodgrass has been putting into the car has been nothing short of monumental. Many late nights have been spent buttoning up the Malibu to make sure that it’s ready for Drag Week, and we hope to have another update between now and then. The Malibu was within a few days of testing and tuning when we laid eyes on it, so we hope to have some more information before everybody meets up at Cordova International Raceway in September!