NHRA top fuel racer, top fuel hyrdroplane racer, and all around bad ass Scott Palmer will be bringing a very unique brand of nitro racing to Jeffers Motorsports Park when he’ll make test hits in a Studebaker that’s powered by a legit nitro burning top fuel engine. While this is not the first nitro powered door slammer we do think that it is the first time someone has put a legitimate modern top fuel hemi in a door car and give it a shot. This will not be the car’s debut but it is certainly a rare appearance for the beast. The machine will be running at the Jeffers Motorsports Park Outlaw 440 event and we’re sure that it will be interesting to watch and that’s good, bad, or otherwise.
There have been other examples of cars with doors running a stiff load of nitro that date all the way back to the legendary 554 Coupe (and before). Yes, there have been the Super Chevy Nitro Coupes, the short-lived injected Don Wooten ADRL nitro door slammer experiment, and various other shots taken along the way including the car shown in the video below.
Bebo’s Bozilla was a Chevy Impala pro mod that ran a really healthy load of fuel through it. You’ll see it making a run at North Star Dragway a few years ago and while this run did not end with any concrete scarring, others did and we do not think that the car is out and about any longer. The look, sound, and way that this thing acts is so freaking cool we can hardly stand it. Jus watching it throw licks of header flame up to the roof on the way down the track, let alone seeing the thing sitting there and cackling on the starting line makes the hair on the back of our collective necks stand up.
What class will Palmer be running in? His own. No one has a class for this thing, let alone rules!
Pro Mod in all its forms is my drag racing favourite – but enough is enough as this is just a funny car with doors. But it still beats the ass off Top Fuel which I find as boring as watching F1 …..
I think the only thing that’s boring here is you pal
I do agree on the formula 1 thing though
You ever seen the shutdown at sikeston?
You will wee why they are only doing 440 feet with this thing…..
I love the idea of fuel coupes. The 554 has always held influence with me and while not a chevy guy the nitro coupes that syoer chevys had were insane,prone to fire and unstable. Ask bill kuhlmann about the fire part.
lol what shutdown?
If they are trying to find a way to slow down the Top Fuel cars for safety – I vote that they take a page from this car and mandate bodies that look like real cars.
I remember the Nitro Coupes at Super Chevy. They ran only 30 percent nitro but the sound they produced was phenomenal!
Bring them back!
NHRA killed nitro coupes, they will kill Palmer’s idea too.
Im honestly surprised it took this long for someone to stick a modern nitro plant in to a door car. Future of pro extreme right there.
Put radials on it and run RvW. Why not??
Yeah, why not.
Scott will be fine on the shutdown with years of racing at ORP. Used to love seeing him sideways at the finish line in the alcohol funny he ran. Should be interesting to say the least. I wonder if they are using a transmission or just the clutches like a fuel car. I also wonder if they are using a traction system like Davis Technologies.
Same clutch, and clutch management system that TF, and FC use.
no tranny , direct drive
How would it do on Street Outlaws?
I was waiting for that one 🙂