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The Discovery Channels’ much-talked-about Mega Race, pitting the Street Outlaws’ Justin “Big Chief” Shearer and his new Pontiac GTO against the Richard Rawlings-owned, Gas Monkey Garage Dodge Challenger driven by NHRA Pro Stock star Alex Laughlin, is less than two weeks away, and the anticipation for this unique contest is building with each lead-in episode that airs.
[2]During the latter part of this, the ninth season of Discovery’s Fast ’N Loud, Rawlings and the Gas Monkey Garage crew have been feverishly working to construct and shakedown a legitimate, all-out drag racing machine after agreeing to the race with Shearer (the Mega Race will also include a ‘skills competition’ between former Fast ’N Loud star Aaron Kaufmann and Street Outlaws’ FarmTruck and Azn). Gas Monkey’s Dodge Challenger, as we’ve gotten several glimpses of throughout the build, is a legitimate, all-out drag racing machine, with a jungle-gym of a tube chassis situated under its steel bodywork and a potent Brad Anderson-headed Hemi with a supercharger between the fenders.
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Left) The tube chassis before its steel quarters, roof, and deck lid were mounted and the rest of the car assembled. (Center) Driver Alex Laughlin with GMG's Richard Rawlings at their Ennis test session,
The Gas Monkey crew has documented the build-up of the Challenger on its blog, highlighting the many steps along the way as they built up arguably the wildest machine to ever roll out of their Dallas, Texas facility. You can check out the blog update featuring a host of build images here [5], along with a more recent update on their televised test session at the Texas Motorplex here [6].
Now the question is, who’s your money on in this one? Rawlings and Laughlin certainly have the power and the car to go toe-to-toe with Chief’s twin-turbo Pontiac mill, but can they overcome the sheer degree of drag racing experience the OKC bunch has?
Photos courtesy Gas Monkey Garage [7]