Michigan native (and Diamond Pistons‘ Sales Manager) Mike Panetta has taken notice of the awesome crowds and high-stakes nature of the grudge racing world; he’s been part of a team with fellow Michigander Dean Mouat fielding their “Dirty Brown” Mustang over the last several years and has started on a new project with his brother, Tony, and longtime chassis builder Team Z Motorsports.

Team Z’s Dave Zimmerman and lead fabricator Justin Zombeck have come up with some innovations that will be put to the test underneath the Panetta family’s 1982 S-10 chassis. The project holds special meaning to the Panetta boys; it belonged to a favorite uncle who passed away from Amytrophic Lateral Sclerosis (Lou Gehrig’s Disease) and “is more than just another race car,” says Mike.

Scott Guadagno of Scotty’s Racing Technology is in the process of screwing together a conventional-headed big-block Chevrolet engine that will huff enough nitrous to take the team where they want to go. In typical grudge racer fashion, Panetta would disclose neither the number of nitrous systems on the engine nor the company behind the system design to us, but did say that Guadagno will be handling tuning duties.

The truck will wear 28-inch tires and use a new ladder bar design from Team Z, developed over several applications and many dozens of testing passes. Zimmerman has crafted this new package to help get the truck in the weeds without affecting the instant center; both length of the bars and their spread is very different from traditional ladder bar designs that were developed in the 1960s.

Panetta’s plan is to be the fastest conventional-headed, nitrous-injected big-block in the world on the 28-inch tire, and he’ll be doing so with additional support from companies like Pro Torque, TRZ Motorsports, Heads Up Composites, JRC Transmission, Mickey Thompson Wheels, and Mac Fab Beadlocks. The build is well underway at Team Z as you can see from the photos, while Guadagno is hard at work on engine machining and assembly.

The team has the confidence, but can they back it up with the performance on the track? If past performance is any indicator of the future, the Panetta boys will have some fat pockets — if they can find willing participants to agree to their stips.