Vinnie dragged the Nova halfway across the state to Dave Steffey’s Racing Fabrication in the subtly rolling hills of bucolic Eustis. Dave is the ultimate fabricator whose day job is tending to the Ruby Tuesday Rolex Porsche, doing the exactly what he does at his shop—making cool stuff out of raw stock from his own mental blueprints. Dave back-halved the car, strung a 12-point rollcage, put ladder bars underneath, and fixed big Dana 60 where the 12-bolt used to be. He narrowed the housing 8 inches, stuffed it with a Detroit Locker, and fitted it with 4.88s and monstrous 40-spline axle shafts. Chassis Engineering coil/overs compose the rear suspension. Dave instilled torsional resistance with custom frame connectors and put a driveshaft loop between them. Before he sent it out into the cold, cruel world, he affixed an Ed Quay Race Cars wing to the deck lid and installed the custom wheelie bars. Although the parachute is genuine, Vinnie’s never pulled it. Steffey whipped up the release lever, mounting hardware, and the extended tachometer bracket from scratch.
The front of suspension is original but carries refurnished parts that resist deflection with polyurethane bushings. Moroso trick springs and 90/10 shocks get the nose up, jack the weight rearward, and settle back down in quick succession. Rollers are skimpy 26.0x7.50 Mickey ET Fronts on 4-inch Weld Pro Stars. The brakes are stock discs. The 15x15 Weld drive barrels carry 31.5/16.50 ET Streets and shroud big Ford drum brakes. Steering is completely manual and there isn’t an anti-sway bar in sight.
In a fit of overkill, Vinnie had the 532ci Rat processed by Steve Schmidt Competition Engines in Indianapolis. Schmidt founded the motor on a Dart Big M Sportsman casting with a 4.563-inch bore and a 4.0-inch stroke Eagle 4340 arm. He filled the holes with JE 10.5:1 pistons on Eagle 4340 connecting rods and completed the union with Dart Pro 1 CNC heads hosting 2.30/1.88-inch Manley stainless steel valves. Schmidt port-matched the Dart single-plane intake manifold to the heads and tapped its runner bungs for a blast of nitrous oxide. Comp Cams supplied the entirety of the valve train in league with its solid roller camshaft and Schmidt installed it with a double-roller timing gear.
