[1]Shane (center) and his father (left) discuss the chassis upgrades with Rickie Jones
One of Street Outlaws most likable, if a bit quirky, stars has followed the path blazed by other cast members and upgraded his car to keep pace with the 405 Top Ten list. Shane McAlary tapped the team at Rick Jones Race Cars [2] to build what Shane equates to a “Sportsman” chassis for his newest Vega-bodied hot rod. McAlary, who’s admittedly competing on a much smaller budget than some of the others on the show, took delivery of his rolling chassis just two short weeks after dropping it off at RJRC — a blazing turnaround for any major chassis work project.
[3]
[4]
Close-up views of the Rick Jones-fabbed rear of the new Blackbird Vega.
Shane found immediate success on the his Discovery Channel series with his ProCharger-fed small-block-powered Vega, racing up the list and reaching as high number five in the most recent season. He also did well when the 405 cast took on out-of-town teams. An as-yet unaired incident necessitated repairs to the car, and McAlary decided to go ahead and upgrade the chassis to help propel him past the middle of the list and on toward number one.
The chassis would likely fall short of the Pro Mods that have been appearing in Street Outlaws cast members’ trailers, instead falling more along the lines of a Super Gas-style chassis or a well built bracket car. But don’t let that fool you, as Shane has a knack for doing more with less and is confident the same alcohol-fed ProCharged small-block that pushed him to number five will take him farther up the list in this new chassis, especially with the upgraded solid heads from Brodix [5] that should allow him to push the tune-up with confidence as he seeks out the top spot.
[6]The next couple of seasons have already been filmed, as is common in the television world, so it remains to be seen for most of us just how high the original Blackbird Vega made it up the list. Hopefully Shane and his trusty mannequin co-pilot Bob will return to action and take the list by storm yet again with his new RJRC-built hot rod!