1955 Pro Street Studebaker

The chassis for this car came from Chassisworks on the West Coast. It was a "kit" that they pre bent all the tubes for, etc so when I went to assemble it most of that work was already done. With a friends help, we had a rolling frame in less than 15 hours! That was pretty good since the Camaro I built took me about 6 months to get to that point. The front has tubular A arms from Chassisworks with their Econo Coil overs all around. Spindles are Mustang II with an Wilwood Pinto clone rack for steering. The wheel base on the car was shortened 10 inches and the engine was set back 10 inches also. When the car was finished, 54% of the total weight was on the rear tires.

The engine started out as a 400 GM block with all 5 main caps replaced with steel ones and the three in the center are 4 bolt. A NASCAR shop out in Western North Carolina did that work. Crank is a Cola 4" stroke along with a set of Carrillo rods. BME pistons with a full .100 DISH make the compression low enough to run pump gas. The cam is a Comp 268*/272* with .660 lift in at 106*. Heads are Brodix Track 1s with a mild port job. Intake is a Holley Pro Dominator with dual alky 750s by George Rupert or either a pair of out of the box 750 HPs, depending on what I want to run. An 8 quart Milodon pan, BBC oil pump and pickup along with a remote dual oil filter setup complete the oiling system. Hooker headers with 3 inch Super Trapp mufflers complete the exhaust.

The second and most reliable of the engines built for this car is a Bowtie block built very much as the original 400 GM block. I used the same heads, cam, intake and carbs, etc on the Bowtie and ran that in the car until I stopped racing it about 7 years ago. That engine was the quicker of the two.

The tranny is a PowerGlide I built myself with a TCI 1:96 low and a GER converter. That converter only lasted about 15 miles and took another transmission with it when it went south. I was not a happy camper. So, I then went to TCI and bought a 9 inch nitrous converter. Yeah, it has a NOS Cheater system on it but it wasn't used with that GER junk. Anyway, the tranny has a TCI/Perry shifter with a Dixie Air Shifter that is RPM activated by the MSD ignition

In the trunk is a NOS Cheater system! It was never used with that GER junk converter, but I have used it with the TCI 9 inch nitrous converter. I never used it on a regular basis, just occasionally to see what it would do!

Out back there was another Herb McCandless Dana 60 rear with a ¾ ton posi and a 5:13 Richmond gear. Moser axles finished that end out. The driveshaft was fitted with 1350 Spicer joints and NONE have been replaced to date. I broke the spider gears in the posi unit back in 1998 and replaced it with a spool. Yes, the car is street driven and the addition of the spool didn't have that much of an effect on drivability.

The car has a full set of Autometer gauges including in dash speedometer and tach. Right now it has just a little over 6k miles on it.

Also in the dash is a Craig Pioneer tape deck that feeds two amps, one in the trunk and another under the dash for 300 watts of stereo power. 6 speakers, including two Bose in the rear make up the sound system.

The car has heat and A/C also but I did leave the cruise control off. Yeah, I did buy one for it, just never installed it!!

The last item on the dash is a Dedenbear Reaction Time Delay box that is used for racing.

The ignition system is all MSD with a 7AL-2 with a Pro Power coil, MSD Crank Trigger, MSD Billet distributor, an RPM activated shift, two setp and also a timing retard for the NOS system. There is an overhead Switch panel from Chassisworks.

The interior has full carpet along with sound deadening insulation all around. Both the race seats have custom seat covers with the Studebaker name embroidered in the head rest area.

Oh, and there is NO back seat! No room for it with the engine setback and the shorter wheel base!

Wheels: Weld Pro Stars all around with 15x3.5s up front and 15x15s out back.

Street tires: M/T 21.50s on the rear and Michelin 165 SRx15 Z rated up front.

Rear Race Tires: Over the years I" ve="ve" run="run" m="m" />Ts and Goodyears on the rear with not much difference except the M/T DOT streets, which were crap. They worked well on the street but not at the track.

We were married on October 12, 1996 at the Super Chevy Show held at VA Motorsports Park. The wedding took place in the BF Goodwrench tent!! The ceremony was performed by Tom Ratliffe, the chaplin of the Super Chevy Show. A few friends and family attended. An hour after we were married, my husband was doing a timed trial for the race the next day. We even got our picture in the Super Chevy magazine!