A pair of Chute Metal parachutes help slow the car after a 200+ lap.
Since he is an engine builder by trade and a dedicated racer by choice, it isn’t unusual to find out that Carl built or assembled every part and piece of his fuel altered.
He hand fabricated the round tub 104-inch-wheelbase chassis. Same with the cast iron, punched-out, 392 Hemi that now displaces 408 cubic inches and burns a fuel mixture of 80 percent nitromethane and 20 percent alcohol, and no data logger of any kind.
A lot of race car owners call their cars “nostalgic” when in all actuality they aren’t anything close to what they are supposed to be. They are built with mostly late model internal parts and are much more of a show car than a real race car. Cannonball’s altered is as authentic as it can be and still pass current NHRA tech and safety inspections. It has an all-iron motor, short wheelbase, small blower, small mag and small tires, and it handles just the way that has made this type of cars fan favorites for forty years.
Strange brakes help supply the stopping power. A Ford nine-inch stuffed with a set of 4.10 gears handle the horsepower. Note that the wheelie bars aren’t too low.
The iron Hemi was machined, balanced and assembled by Carl in the Sterling Engines shop. It is filled with the usual hi-po nitro parts. The aluminum rods are by Howard and the piston are from Arias. The valvetrain components include Missile aluminum rocker arms, Crane Cams, Manley spring and retainers and Manley valves. The iron 392 heads have been massaged by the folks at Donovan. A 6-71 Mooneyham blower spinning 25 over crankshaft speed is topped by an Enderle injector and “Bugcatcher” hat and fed fuel from a 175-4 Hilborn pump. A Vertex mag supplies the spark.