Additionally, the Atchison team has its own pistons made up, specifies its own camshaft profile, and Atchison says all fuel system and blower technology is done in house. “I mean, everything that we’ve made work on this combination is in-house stuff. We run our own pushrods and make all our own rocker arms; the list just goes on and on.”
Atchison says his success with the Chevy-based motor is certainly attracting a lot more attention from competitors now than when he started out, but there’s still reluctance to change in many quarters. Again, he attributes this to the relative ease and availability of proven hemi power and components.
“[The hemi] is more or less a cookie cutter set up and you’re ready to go,” he says. “Not to say you’ll be competitive, but you can be out there. But if someone says they’d like to run a different combination, we’ve got it all sorted out and those guys who have those combinations and want to stick with them and run them hard, we’ve got all the parts and pieces to keep those motors alive.”
For the chassis, Atchison works with Scott and Mike Weney at S&W Race Cars. “We’ve got some specs that we’ve gone with,” he says, “not to say other cars don’t have them too, but of course I’ve specified engine location and things like that. And with the Funny Car wheelie bar placement is important and the way the chassis is loaded because unlike a Pro Mod or Pro Stock it’s all solid, there’s no suspension. So I guess in some cases we have worked with that, but it’s not anything that’s not obtainable by anyone else.”
This year, Atchison’s ride will sport a new Monte Carlo body, also mounted by S&W, that he says will have a smaller canopy, making it more closely resemble a nitro Funny Car.
“S&W has been working with Rousch Racing and GM on that and they’ve produced a body that they’re claiming will be worth three miles an hour more than what we had on the car last year,” Atchison says. “I guess we’ll find out soon enough.”
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