The basics for building a bracket motor are pretty straight forward. The motor is a big pump. The more air you can pump through it the more power you will make. Ported heads, bigger valves, bigger cam, bigger carburetor, better rings, better bearings, lighter rods and pistons are all used to improve the pump and move more air. This one has a very stock lower end with relatively heavy forged pistons, original rods and original crank. We use a .560" lift cam, good lifters and good after market rockers and shafts bolted to mildly ported "915" heads. Induction comes from a new Edelbrock 750 and a classic Holley "Street Dominator" intake. Compression ratio is approximately 11:1. We're all betting on what time the car will run the first time down the quarter mile with this engine in it. My bet is on 11.95. Check out the headers we got from Jeg's. They have nice flat thick flanges and they easily clear everything. The collectors should probably be replaced for any serious applications but they only cost $109!!! This is an unbelievable bargain.

A legal Stock motor must use the original carburetor(s), unported heads, and stock lift cam. The cam for our '66 383 has a miniscule .424" lift. The "516" heads that we are required to run are not a normal choice for a race motor due mostly to their small valves which we are not allowed to enlarge. The required original carburetor is a cute little 500 cfm Carter. Dvorak will build the engine around these limitations. He promises that the Stock motor will be faster than the Bracket motor. Everything on any race car must work in harmony but it's even more important in Stock Eliminator because you can't just buy more power. You have to find it. That's not to say that it isn't wickedly expensive. It most definitely is wickedly expensive but there are elements of creativity and deep thinking involved with racing in Stock that really set it aside from other types of wickedly expensive drag racing.

This rear suspension set up is actually based on a hodgepodge of stuff we had laying around. Since a single quad 383 in a two door hard top doesn't make nearly the gear splitting power to weight numbers as our two ton Max Wedge wagon we opted for the lighter 8 3/4" unit over our now standard Dana 60. The housing is heavily reinforced. The traction bars are from Steve Hanby. The split mono leaves and Rancho shocks are from Calvert Racing. The spool and 35 spline axles come from Moser. The current gear set is a 4.56:1 set from Richmond. For Stock Eliminator competition we'll get a 4.88 and a 5.13 to really get it out of the hole and into that sweet 6500+ RPM range ASAP. Check out the disc brakes we found in a mislabeled box in a friend's shop. We're not sure what brand they are but we got them to fit.

I have been in charge of wiring the car because I've done it a bunch of times before. There is nothing to be afraid of. It always takes longer than I plan because I want it to be perfect. Stuff has to be done over and over again to achieve perfection. This time we used a Painless Wiring switch box that we had kicking around. By putting it between the seats in the console area we were able to eliminate all wiring from under the dashboard. Messing around under the dash is always a pain and it's even worse with a roll bar. I have to pull everything back out again to install my carpet kit. Now you can start to see why this takes so long to get done!