One of the oldest traditions in drag racing is giving your racecar a name and persona to make it stand out in the crowd; this dates back to the golden age of drag racing and is still alive and well today. Chris Taggart took that classic idea to the next level when he created the “White Zombie” 1967 Nova at his shop in Brandon, Mississippi that runs in the Dirty South No Prep Racing Series. This No Prep Nova may be a new car, but Taggart plans for it to be a factor in the Big Tire series points title in the DSNP series this season.
The Zombie is based on a GPS Racecars 25.5 certified chassis that Taggert and his team at Tags Hot Rod Shop modified to become a double-frame rail car to get a 25.5 certification. The paint was done in-house, and graphics were done by Robby Grant, with clear coat being laid down by Joey Baroni.
Under the hood is a 632 cubic-inch Reher-Morrison engine that uses a pair of 14-degree Musi Racing Engines heads. The big hit of nitrous for “The Zombie” comes from a Nitrous Express system that’s matched to a pair of Williams Carburetors and intake. ARC provided the bottle brackets with built-in warmers for the Nitrous Express bottles, while a full RacePak system is used for all of the car’s data logging needs. Behind the big Reher-Morrison engine is a BTE Racing Powerglide transmission and torque converter to help put the power to the ground.
Taggart and his team are still trying to figure the Zombie out, but they’re confident they have the car almost where they want it.
“This car is a new build and we still don’t have a lot of passes on it so we’re trying to figure it out overall. We plan on running all of the Dirty South races and trying to make a run at the championship with this car and our other car, Swamp Thing. Ken Clark is driving the White Zombie in the DSNP series for us — he’s a little green in the seat, but he’s picking up everything quick,” Taggart says.
After the some additional testing, Taggart plans on turning on more kits of nitrous and seeing what the Zombie can really handle.
“I believe that when we roll into the gates at San Antonio this car will be a major contender in the Big Tire class. We have found some of the issues with the car and we’re getting the 60-foot times where they need to be, so now we’re ready to throw some big power at it.”
The White Zombie Nova will be a player for sure at the Dirty South No Prep event at San Antonio Raceway May 12-13th for sure. You can see this car in action, along with the rest of the No Prep starts of the Dirty South No Prep Racing series right here on SpeedVideo.com. This broadcast is brought to you by presenting sponsor Scoggin-Dickey and Royal Purple.