OSCA rules also permitted Easy Street entries a naturally aspirated option up to 550 cubic inches, which allowed 33X10.5W slicks at a minimum of 2,800 pounds, so Carinci bought an ex-Steve Schmidt NHRA Pro Stock Hemi, dropped it in, “and basically dominated the class,” he states.
“I was the first to run a seven-second pass in the class and I had three rule changes thrown at me that season, but finally won the championship when it was all over,” Carinci says. “Then they changed the rules to the point that I couldn’t run the class anymore with that combination.” Faced with little choice, he decided then to step up to Super Street, although that required making significant changes to his ride.
“The car that I built, which was a perfect ’70 Cuda remember, I basically got the sawzall out after one season of racing and started dissecting it,” he says. “That’s this car now.”
Only the roof, quarter panels, rear valance and part of the firewall remain from the original car and it currently carries a 500 cubic inch (or a 530 c.i. spare) Pro Stock Hemi with two stages of nitrous up front between the factory front frame rails. Carinci isn’t entirely without passion for preserving the past, though, as he reinstalled as ground-effects panels the original rocker “gills” that used to attach flush along the bottom of the body below each door on only 1970-year Cudas.
He also went to considerable effort to replicate the original rubber, molded front bumper that also came only as an option on the 1970 version of the car.