I’m been thinking more about those F.A.S.T. (Factory Appearing Stock Tire) cars that run these ridiculously low e.t. and fast top speeds with cars that appear to be bone stock.

It’s really the ultimate in sleeper car technology. The rules say you have to look stock, but they don’t care about what you do inside the engine. So my first thought was, “I have a ’66 Chevelle that would make a great F.A.S.T. big-block car.” A 454 block is a legal replacement for the 396 since it is externally similar. The engine must use stock cylinder head, intake, and exhaust manifold castings. A good thick-wall block could handle a 0.100-inch overbore (4.350-inch bore), and with a 4.250-inch stroke, we could build a 505ci big-block that would externally look like a 396. Extrude-honing the exhaust manifolds is popular, and I think Wilson Manifolds probably has some ideas on how to radically port a factory 375hp 396 aluminum intake manifold to flow like gangbusters. In fact, it might be possible to completely open up the manifold from underneath and turn it into a single plane while appearing on the outside like a dual plane. Then we'd concentrate on things like the cylinder heads, compression, and camshaft. I’ll get into that in the next blog. This sounds like fun. (Photo: Mike Roe Photo)