Drag-and-drive events such as Sick Week presented by Gear Vendors Overdrive reel in an extremely diverse collection of vehicles, as the class rules are generally very open. Still, it’s hard not to gravitate towards the classic muscle car, especially when some of them are put to work at drag-and-drive events and perform in some truly remarkable ways. With that, we present Dragzine’s five favorite cars from this year’s edition of Sick Week.
Shoebox Chevys became really popular in the heyday of the Pro Street movement and there is a sizable contingent of them at drag-and-drive events, as well. At Sick Week 2024, it was hard not to notice Glenn Hunter’s 1956 Chevy Bel Air, either in the pits or on track.
With its bright white and red paint and the big tires out back, Hunter’s Chevy is a combination of Bel Air flair and Pro Street styles. Hunter used to race it at Super Chevy events and in True Street classes, and jumped into drag-and-drive at Drag Week in 2010. The North Port, New York, resident has been hooked on it ever since.
Hunter’s father purchased the ’56 back in 1979 and Hunter bought it from him not long after and began building it into what you see here. He previously equipped the car with a supercharger, but has been running the twin-turbo power-adders for about eight years now.
Under the hood of the Chevy is a 540 cubic-inch engine with machine work on the Brodix aluminum block done by Merkel Racing Engines. Hunter assembled the big-block and fitted it with a Callies crankshaft and Crower connecting rods. He topped it with Brodix Head Hunter series cylinder heads with the 395cc oval intake ports, a Profiler 4500 intake manifold with a ProJay elbow and throttlebody, and a pair of Borg Warner 88mm turbochargers compress the atmosphere to make the big horsepower.
Darren Barrone tunes the Haltech Nexus R5 electronic control unit that manages the massively powerful engine, and a Turbo 400 is all that is needed to reliably transfer the torque to the big rear tires. Most of the ‘56’s original chassis has been replaced, with a late-model Corvette suspension up front and a 4-link, drag-racing-style system out back.
Hunter has clocked a best elapsed time of 6.98 seconds at 205 mph in the Chevy, and he and car chief Kenny Wessel got right to work at Sick Week 2024. There, Hunter collected 7.27, 7.38, 7.28, and 7.13, and 7.29-second timeslips in the 3,700-pound, all-steel machine, and his 7.27-second average garnered him the win in the Pro Street class. Hunter told us that the current turbochargers were maxed out, and that a pair of Comp turbochargers just arrived, so don’t be surprised if you see this beautiful, classic Chevy regularly running in the sixes.