Small tire racing continues to grow in popularity globally, and seems to be on fire in Australia with more cars running insane numbers at each and every event. With cars rolling on everything from 8.5 inch tires all the way up to a big old 315 Mickey Thompson radial, people can’t get enough of these exciting cars.

Dale Gridley is building a gnarly X275 legal 1965 AP6 Chrysler Valiant that has seven-second quarter mile aspirations and he plans to keep it on leaf springs when it hits the track and the street.

Gridley’s build starts with a four door Valiant, which is something you don’t see many of, let alone in heads-up racing. Providing power for this massive Mopar will be a Terry Seng-built LS-based engine from ERL Performance. A pair of 62mm Precision Turbos will provide the boosted air that flows into a custom intake from Shaun’s Custom Alloy with provisions for extra fuel injectors, since the Valiant will be guzzling lots of E85 fuel.

Preparing to run the Valiant deep into the sevens, Gridley is beefing up the rest of the driveline and suspension. A fully built Powerglide transmission will sit behind the LS engine and send power to a chrome moly fabricated nine-inch rear end that features a Strange Ultra Case Center and 40-spline Strange full floater axles that are spinning some 3.90 gears. Santhuff dampeners will help put all the power down through the custom leaf spring setup.

Gridley will have the car tipping the scales at an X275 legal 3,200 pounds while rolling on some dead sexy Billet Specialties wheels and Mickey Thompson tires. With goals of running sevens in the quarter mile, fours in the eighth mile, and keeping the car street legal, Gridley has his work cut out, but based on the quality of the parts and build those goals are very possible.