Grudge and no prep racing have taken the nation by storm over the past handful of years, thanks in large part to the colorful cars and characters that make up this exciting sector of the sport, and of course, to the popularity of the show Street Outlaws. One car that’s become particularly well-known of late has been the Old Cutlass known as ‘John Doe’, piloted and owned by Scott Taylor from Mississippi.
For Taylor, his drive in racing is motivated by his late father, interestingly, though one simple text message. The last text that Scott’s father sent him was about the television show on Discovery Channel, and how he wanted Scott to show the Oklahoma City boys what Mississippi could do. Like many sons and daughters, Scott was motivated more than ever by his father’s wishes to put his unique talents to the test behind the wheel of the one and only John Doe.
The 2015 season was a very successful season for Taylor in the ever-growing no prep game, including a runner-up to Justin ‘Big Chief’ Shearer during Outlaw Armageddon and a win at Border Wars, pocketing $21,000. The popular Cutlass was previously powered by a big cubic-inch, nitrous-huffing monster with a single carburetor and one nitrous fogger system from Nitrous Express — unique from many cars with the same engine combination that have dual carburetors and multiple stages of laughing gas.
Like a lot of racers rolling into the new year, Taylor is stepping his game up. Another big-inch powerplant from Russ Miley Racing Engines is going between the frame rails but he’s trading in his nitrous bottles and menacing nitrous purges for a pair of quiet, yet powerful, 98 mm turbochargers from Precision Turbo.
Mike Murillo and his team at Murillo Motorsports were instrumental in Taylor’s move to turbochargers, and are performing much of the conversion work at their shop in Texas. Kooks stainless piping will fill the engine bay, pushing significant amounts of boost through the big-block Chevrolet platform. Big Stuff 3‘s engine management system has been installed to be the brains of the operation and keep the alcohol-burning bullet happy. Backing the huge powerplant will be a Powerglide transmission from the trusted individuals at PTC.
Scott was quick to thank his wife, Heather, and their five year old twins, Sophie and Scotty, for their support on and off the race track. One fact about Scott that many don’t know is that he also owns and operates Taylor Towing, Taylor Trailer Sales, and the Hub City Dragway in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. A busy man with a lot on his plate, he’s still looking to push his race team to new heights in 2016. He was also very thankful for his crew (Chris Hyatt and Lloyd Gray) and the numerous companies who assist in helping to put John Doe at the top, including Bendpak, Jesel, VP Racing Fuels, Optic Armor, Wiseco Performance and Stroud Safety, just to name a few.
Be on the look out for Scott Taylor and John Doe when the new Street Outlaws: New Orleans episodes kick off in less than a month on Discovery Channel.
Photos courtesy Scott Taylor