The two agreed on a 1967 Chevy II and found one on eBay in Texas. It was just a shell but it was a good rust-free body. They bought it sight unseen and shipped it to their friend Chris Watkins at CNA Performance in Kansas City, Kansas, to start fabrication. Jay’s initial intention was to mini-tub the Nova and make a normal street car, however, bench racing began once it hit the fixture table, and a new game plan emerged. They would build a twin-turbo Pro Street/Drag Radial car with the idea of Drag Week in mind.

Being a unibody car, CNA Performance started the back half from the firewall using round-tube chromoly. They kept it a stock-suspension-class car utilizing AFCO sliders on Smith Racecraft split monoleaf springs with adjustable mounting points in the front to alter ride height or pinion angle. Traction is controlled by Smith Racecraft Assassin traction bars and antiroll bar, dampened by AFCO double-adjustable shocks. The 3.25-geared rearend is a Ford 9-inch using a Strange Pro centersection, mini spool, and 35-spline axles.

CNA custom-built the chromoly 8.50-certified rollcage and front subframe outfitted with Speedway tubular A-arms, spindles, and rack-and-pinion steering to accommodate longer AFCO double-adjustable coilovers. Meanwhile, the braking system is an all-Wilwood affair with discs at all four corners. They sit behind Billet Specialties Comp 5 wheels mounted on 315/60R15 Mickey Thompson ET Street tires out back and 26×6 Sportsman S/R in the front.

To run Drag Week these days the engine has to be very versatile. It must be civil enough to make the drive between races, yet outrageous enough to turn low e.t.’s. This car achieves it by using a Holley Dominator kit, a flex-fuel sensor, dual fuel tanks, twin turbos, and lots of cooling systems. CNA built two fuel tanks, one 12-gallon to run pump gas and one 5-gallon for race gas with two Aeromotive pumps per tank.

Jay employed Liberty Machine and Hot Rods in Liberty, Missouri, to assemble a 327ci LM7 running 10:1 compression. The rotating assembly consists of a GM crank with King bearings, Eagle H-beam rods, and Diamond forged pistons with Hellfire rings. Comp Cams supplied the springs and hydraulic roller cam, while the aluminum GM 799 heads (hand-ported by Don Burlington) house stock rockers with a trunion upgrade, stainless intake valves, and Inconel exhaust valves.

Air ingested through two 62/66 Precision turbos makes its way through piping inside the car to a liquid-to-air intercooler above the rearend plumbed to a heat exchanger with an electric fan and an ice tank that can be filled for quarter-mile passes. The cooled air travels back through the cabin into an Edelbrock Super Victor intake manifold where it meets fuel and spark supplied by the Holley Dominator kit. The mixture leaves in a hurry through the turbos and custom-fabbed exhaust piping by CNA. An aluminum radiator and Meziere water pump keep it all cool.

An Ultimate Converter Concepts 3,600-stall converter transfers power to a B&M-shifted Turbo 400 assembled by Edgar Transmission in Bonner Springs. A 4-inch aluminum driveshaft built by PSP connects it to the rear. Altogether, the setup is good for 1,200 hp at 7,000 rpm on race gas but it also gets 19 mpg on pump fuel!

After three years of fabrication at CNA Jay blew it back apart and sent the body over to Ken Ussery and Robbie Woods at Ken’s Custom Paint and Body in Basehor, Kansas. They ended up replacing one rear quarter and hanging two new fenders before adding a fiberglass front bumper, steel 2-inch cowl hood, and Ring Brothers’ door handles. Once prepped, Ussery hit the paint booth, laying down the eye-popping Ultra Sonic Blue 2.0 paint on the body and black on the roof, bumpers, and trim. It took them only three months to complete, start to finish.

Now it was time to put it all back together. Luckily, Jay found a wiring expert in Kevin Umshive who came to his shop to work his complicated magic. Umshive designed the wiring so almost everything runs off the glovebox-mounted Holley ECU—fans, water pump, fuel pumps, and so on—he even fabbed the horn to double as a bump box when the transbrake button is pushed. It’s crowded under the dash, but somehow, they found room for a Vintage Air system.

Bodywork and Paint: Ken Ussery Custom Paint and Body
Paint: Ultra Sonic Blue 2.0/black
Hood: Steel with 2-inch cowl
Grille: Stock
Bumpers: Fiberglass front, GM rear; folding license plate with parachute mount behind plate