How important are smaller sanctioning bodies like ORSCA and the Big Dog series to you these days?
Fulton: Very important, I mean, that’s where most of my business is now that we’ve diversified. I’m also starting to sell a lot of my stuff overseas. I’ve sold a lot of stuff to the Kingdom of Dubai, mainly because I don’t try to cheat them. Everybody else seems to try and overcharge them or they send over their worn-out junk. I don’t understand that, though, because all you do is get them mad at you and kill the goose that lays the golden eggs.
So, what do you see as the biggest challenge to drag racing right now?
Fulton: Well, people get racing wrong. They think it’s about speed, but really it’s about competition and nitrous has produced some of the best competition ever seen. So we have to decide whether it’s about speed or about racing.
Drag racing has become too much about power. I mean, five years from now everybody is going to have 3,000 horsepower, but what are they going to do with all that power. When everybody has that much power it means it’s gotten completely away from competition and it all adds up to big dollars that often kills classes in the long run.
Are you not part of the problem then with your big, high-horsepower engines?
Fulton: Well, I’m just trying to capitalize on the insanity that’s out there.
Are your big motors based on a Chevy design?
Fulton: They sure are, but I’ve had them lengthened and we spread the bore centers out for a bigger bore. We’ve gone from a 4.840 stock big-block to 5.200 bore centers.
With thinner bore spacing the bores come together and there’s no room for a head gasket and there’s no strength, so you spread the bores out so you can have a head gasket and more strength around the bores. Well, first thing you know you get those bores to their limit and it becomes a never-ending thing. And we’re using billet material now for the block itself which is a lot stronger so I can push those limits more than I could before because the material is more stable.
You already have an 870-cubic-inch engine available, but you’replanning on bringing out an even bigger one soon. What can you tell us about it?
Fulton: Well, bigger ain’t always better, but bigger ain’t bad. And a lot of people want it, so I’m just going to take the one I’ve got and push it out to 904 inches. It just takes a bigger bore, basically. I’ll just have to push the bore up to pretty much its limit. I mean, you can make a longer block and bigger bore spacing, but I’ve really watched that in the construction. I’ve made it where it would fit the cars right. If it’s too heavy or too big it doesn’t do anybody any good. I’ve got the curb weight of it pretty good to where it’s about all you can do without sacrificing strength.
Are you often recognized at the track? How do people react to you?
Fulton: I’ve kind of kept it a lot like Elvis. You know Elvis is still alive, but has anybody seen him? I mean, most places I go to people don’t know who I am and that’s good for me, that’s fine with me. But my name has been around racing pretty heavy, especially the last 10 years, so a lot of people do know me, racers and fans all over the world and I get reactions from some that are really kind of ridiculous. But most of them don’t know what I look like—they’ve heard of me, all of em’ have heard of me—but I’m kind of incognito and I like it like that.
It must be gratifying to have the name recognition, though.
Fulton: Oh yeah, it’s gratifying in more ways than one. It’s been good. I’ve had a really good year this year.