Of all the vehicles I have not seen run down a drag strip in person but want to, Bobby Dodrill’s Miss Misery 4WD Chevy truck is on the top of the pile. The truck was parked in the lobby of the PRI show and as soon as I saw it from the other side of the building, I made a bee-line to get a closer look. It is an awesome machine that has run deep into the four second zone in eighth mile competition. Like other four wheel drive drag racing machines of years past, it has been a handful at time and Bobby has spent his fair share of time making repairs after wall encounters, but as they say, you can’t make an omlette without breaking a couple of eggs.
The stance is totally bad ass, especially when you notice that there are slicks on all four corners of the truck. The engine is a PSI screw blown piece based off of a Keith Black Olds block that is topped with Dart Big Chief heads. The engine drinks alcohol at a high rate and we’re guessing it makes somewhere in the neighborhood of 2500 horsepower.
As you’d imagine, the driveline is one off city in this truck. The transfer case is made by a company called SCS and it is all billet. SCS is known in the pulling and mud bog world for making indestructable stuff, although their name is not very familiar to most drag racers. As far as we know, he has not had issues with the transfer case failing on the truck. The axle housings were custom built by Bobby at his shop.
Like every other four wheel drive drag racing machine in history, handling is the boogey man hiding in the closet. Feeding that much power through that much tire and having to keep it all moving in a straight line is a problem that has vexed the best minds in the history of the sport. Yes, Tommy Ivo’s car was a success that didn’t crash, but that’s mainly because it was so big and heavy that it naturally wanted to continue in the direction it was headed. It also didn’t make near the power of Bobby’s truck. There was the Hurt Hairy Olds that crashed itself out of existence, Gary Gabelich built a four wheel drive Vega wagon bodied Funny Car that crashed and injured him badly during the first time it appeared on a track in public back in the day, and there are other examples of four wheel drive drag cars that were just too evil to be tamed.
Dodrill has run (that we know of) into the 4.70s with this truck, which weighs about 3300lbs according to what we have found. Bobby was not with the truck when we came across it at PRI and unfortunately we ran out of time to get back and hang out with him at some point before the show ended. That being said, we thought you guys and girls in reader land would like to see one of the wildest drag machines in the country.
Ms. Misery is reassembled and looking like she’s ready to terrorize strips again in the near future. Stay tuned, this should be interesting!
and he has a cute wife, and – as alluded to in your article – this truck is rebuilt follow a wreck last year
Wasn’t there an exhibition drag car named, “Evil, Wicked, Mean and Nasty”, that was also 4WD? Or am I thinking of a flopper from a bygone era?
Thanks guys for the nice wright up . Iwould have loved to talk with you guys at PRI , sorry we missed you . If there is anything we could do to provide any info you would like just let us know . Thanks again for posting our truck on your great site . Bobby and Lisa
Hey Bobby, love the truck! Perhaps you could take a second and tell us what it’s like to pull the trigger on that beast. Do you put the power down equally front and rear, or do you bias one way or the other?
Yes the power is equally split between the front and rear axles . The SCS box is a gear box that is always in 4×4 and is not shiftable . We leave the starting line in high gear ( 1 – 1 ) just like a TF car . With a PSI screw and 3000 plus HP it is the only way to leave the starting line with a true 10.5 x 29.5 tire . We are now at minimum weight for our class which is 3250 lbs . Driving the truck is a lot like driving a wicked street car on a road that is still wet from a rain shower . It does not torque steer like a lot of people think but rather it tends to reach a point in the track and just starts skating around on all four tires . Now when this happens and your are at or above 150 mph it tends to make you grip the steering wheel pretty tight . Plus we have one of the most un-aerodynamic vehicles ever made . We are hopeful that at some point a day in the wind tunnel maybe in our future . But for now we have a very limited budget and are having to figure things out at a very slow pace but our sponsors understand that and have all decided to stick with us for 2012 . They are great companies and if not for them we would have never got this far with our goal of having the fastest 4X4 on the planet .
PSI Superchargers
Ross racing Pistons
JW Performance Transmissions
HEDMAN HEDDERS
Liberty Transmissions
MOSER Engineering
FIRECORE 50 Plug Wires
VP Racing fuels
Edelbrock Quikdata
J&D Performance Coatings
Vitory Circle Radios
Good-Year Tires
Once again thank you for letting us on your great web-site , Bobby and Lisa
how did you overcome the severe toe-out at rest to massive toe-in under-power tendencies that continually plagued the “Hurst Hairy Olds”, making it such an evil vehicle to drive that it ultimately forced Gentleman Joe Schubeck to walk away from the car?
I believe the hairy olds had a IFS front suspension and used a toranado ( not sure if I spelled that right ) trans axle . That set up is victim to torque steer , bump steer and like you said when under heavy power the front tires are driving towards each other very hard . With our truck we built a FAB9 style front housing ( straight axle ) and the COLEMAN rack & pinion is mounted directly to the housing and travels with the front end effectively eleminating all bump steer . The tie rods , rack and rack shaft are all very strong and keep the tires / toe in settings in check when under power . This is also another reason why we chose this year model because CHEVROLET went to IFS front suspensions in 1988 on all there 1/2 ton 4×4’s . In the OUTLAW 10.5 class we have to have stock front frame rails and stock type front suspension so we needed a body style that would allow us to use the straight axle front diff . Thanks again , Bobby
We were pitted next to Bobby and Lisa and the nights
The lights went out in georgia race. Very nice guy
Took the time to stop an talk to us, amazing truck.
Fun as hell to watch it go down the strip..