Back in January, we brought you the news that Shawn Ellington and Justin Shearer, better known as ‘Murder Nova’ and ‘Big Chief’ from Discovery Channel’s hit reality show Street Outlaws, would be making the swap from monster slicks to radials for the upcoming Outlaw Street Car Reunion in Memphis. Preparations for their Outlaw 275 debut made big strides this week, with Shawn making some solid hits in Denton, Texas this past weekend, followed by both cars taking to a Tyler Crossnoe-prepped Huntsville Dragway yesterday for an impromptu test session.

Street Outlaws fan Travis Davis poses with Chief’s GTO in the staging lanes at Huntsville Dragway.

Big Chief’s Pontiac GTO, retaining its Crow moniker despite it’s current white paintjob, came in with a completely fresh powerplant from Butler Performance in Lawrenceburg, TN. Having only dyno time on the Poncho bullet, the Crow laid down a 5.18 at 139 mph — respectable speed given the soft 1.26 sixty-foot time and the fact that Chief was out of the throttle for a half second near midtrack when the 275’s broke loose.

We spoke with Travis Quillen of Quillen Motorsports Engineering — a brilliant horsepower whisperer who collaborated with Butler in swapping Chief’s car to methanol and tuning it on the dyno — who says there’s a significant amount of power left in the setup, it’s just a matter of gathering data and putting it all together. Given Butler and Quillen’s reputation as absolute badasses in the Pontiac world, it’s safe to say that power will be found sooner than later!

Street Outlaws’ Shawn Ellington heat’s the Mickey Thompson 275 Radials that are quickly becoming right at home on his Murder Nova.

Ellington, who made several respectable passes in Texas last week ahead of NorthStar Dragway’s RTRA event, came to Huntsville to join Chief in the quest for data as well.

Off the trailer, the sinister Murder Nova made a solid launch before driving into pretty severe tire shake just before half track. The Midwest Street Cars team brought the Nova back to the pit to make some changes in the rear suspension and Shawn returned to the sticky Huntsville tarmac for another run. This time, the tires stayed planted and the Nova powered to a 4.47 elapsed time at 174 mph, knocking over a tenth off his previous-best radial ET of 4.60. Shearer, who handles the bulk of the tuning on the Nova, made some tweaks to the tune between passes, and on the final full pass of the day, Shawn ripped off a 4.40 at just a tick under 177 mph with a stellar 1.10 short time.

Street Outlaws’ current Number One man Justin “Big Chief” Shearer rolls out of a smoky burnout at Huntsville Dragway.

Both cars will be joining Keith Berry and several other radial teams in Holly Springs next week for one final test session before they head a few miles further west to Memphis for the Outlaw Street Car Reunion. While they will be doing battle in one of the toughest classes in radial racing, these two are out to prove they’re not just “TV cars” as many have dubbed them, but legitimate radial badasses!