It’s hard enough these days to find an Oldsmobile-anything in drag racing, but it’s even more rare to find one with actual Oldsmobile power under the hood. But that’s exactly what American Racing Headers’ owner Nick Filippides has done, and he wouldn’t have it any other way.

Filippides’ brother, George, purchased the 1964 Oldsmobile F-85 you see here for Nick 28 years ago, for the low price of just $500. Nick has had plenty of Oldsmobiles in his adult life — 16 of them, in fact — but this is the only one that he’s kept for the long haul. He has raced the car since virtually day one, converting it to a full-blown race car in 1991. He put a 455 in it then, with the goal of having the quickest Oldsmobile-powered street car in the country. He later achieved that very goal, going as quick as 9.50 at 142 mph.

The car was featured in a number of magazines at the time, largely in part to that feat, but when the business was founded and took center stage in his life, Nick “mothballed” the car. It sat, collecting dust until 5 1/2 years ago, when he pulled it out and decided to “construct the baddest Oldsmobile ever built.

Nick took the car to MI Performance in Long Island, New York, where the car was transformed into an all-out race car from nose to tail. “He took it apart and started building the chassis. We were able to source an original Oldsmobile NASCAR engine block — a 350 block that was unmolested — from Bill Trovato. In the process of going through all of that, we were fortunate to run into someone that had the ability to build me a set of billet cylinder heads. There are only two sets in existence, and I own both of them. Having those sets prompted me to have Wilson build me a nice intake manifold.

Through an existing affiliation with ProCharger (with son Louis’ familiar LSX Camaro), Nick stuck an F-1X blower on the car with a Chris Alston’s Chassisworks CDS gear drive. The engine was stroked to 440 cubic-inches, and with the well-built NASCAR block, Nick believes it will hold up well to the abuse they’ll be throwing at it.

MI Performance added this trick mechanism underneath the rear wing that connects to the original trunk lock, and key allowing, allowing the trunk to be opened without having to reach underneath.

Rodney from RPM Transmissions built a three-speed Turbo 400 for the car, and paired it with a ProTorque converter. A Holley EFI setup manages the ignition and fuel injection, while the fuel is delivering via an Aeromotive system.

“We’re hoping to go deep into the sevens with it. We’re not exactly sure what it weighs, since it’s a brand new car. We rushed to get it ready for SEMA and PRI. But, we’re hoping to go 7.20s at over 200 mph with it.

Everything on the car forward of the firewall is fiberglass, and the bumpers front and rear are both fiberglass, although the chrome finish makes them a dead-ringer for the original polished steel bumpers. MI Performance blended the original, very classic factory dash into the interior that’s littered with aluminum and carbon fiber. Underneath, the car rides on Santhuff suspension components all the way around.

Jason Oberly of Oberly Airbrush Studio applied the striking eagle and american flag theme down the car’s flanks.

“The ability to have the heads built didn’t happen until this year, so if we’d had the car done two years ago, we would’ve had something different,” Nick says. Option B would have been a 455 block, he tells us, with a different set of cylinder heads. “It would’ve been nothing in comparison to what we have here, but there’s no way I’d stick a Chevrolet in this car. I’ve been an Oldsmobile guy from day one, and I’ve had to take the brunt of a lot of jokes because of it. I’ve always gone fast with an Oldsmobile, and there were a few bumps in the road in the beginning, but we figured out how to make an Olds stay together and make power.”

Nick is planning to run in a Big Tire Outlaw-style category.