Brothers Adam and Isaac Preston, highly accomplished veterans of small-tire drag racing on radial and no-prep surfaces alike, have unassumingly built what could be the single baddest doorslammer on the entire planet in their Leitchfield, Kentucky chassis shop. Their competition will get its first look at the pair’s boldly-colored, impossible-to-miss 1963 radial tire Chevrolet Corvette at this weekend’s Team Boddie $100K Grudge Bowl at the U.S. 60 Dragway in nearby Hardinsburg, and if the performances in initial testing are any indicator, they’ll really only see the back of it.

But small-tire racing is not their end game with this new endeavor.

“We’ve been wanting to go Pro Mod racing for a couple years,” Adam says. “It’s a whole different league, and we weren’t sure if we could afford it, but we knew it was where we eventually wanted to go.”

The path to that dream started with a car that wasn’t even for sale. Adam and Isaac build race cars for living as Next Motorsports Race Cars, and dedicating shop time to build a car of their of their own wasn’t in the cards, so they set out to look for a quality existing car — they considered the usual first-gen and late-model Camaros, but were aware of a 1963 Corvette built by Bill Gilsbach and formerly campaigned in Radial versus The World and Pro Modified by Don Lamana that was sitting idle. For a year, the brothers tried to buy it. After finally selling his highly competitive 1969 Camaro radial-tire car, Adam found himself with a drivetrain—an MH6 564 cubic-inch Pro Line Hemi, a pair of unused 110mm Precision turbos in a box, and a two-speed RPM TH400 transmission—but no car. That’s when Isaac came back with news that changed everything.

“We kept talking with Don, and we were off about five-grand on price. Isaac walked into the shop one day and said, ‘We’re the owners of a Pro Mod.’ I asked, ‘Did he take the offer?’ and he said, ‘No, I had to come up five grand.’ I told him not to do that, but I couldn’t help but smile.”

Once the car arrived at their shop, it exceeded all expectations. The sleek, full carbon-fiber bodied machine, formerly set up with a centrifugal supercharger combination, was flawless. “Don didn’t misrepresent it one bit. It had about 35 or 40 runs on it, but it looked like it had never made a pass,” Adam explains. “When Bill built the car, it was originally going be a turbo car; when we were looking for a car, I wanted the mid plate location to be where I wanted it for a turbo combination. So everything kind of fell in place with this thing, like it was meant to be.”

With some modifications to make room for the twin 110mm turbos, the Prestons dropped in their Pro Line Hemi, called RC Components for a set of wheels to fit 275 drag radials, and went to work. Adam wired the car with a complete Holley EFI system, and they plumbed in every sensor the company has available. The car’s performance was immediate and staggering.

“First time out, I made some 100- and 200-foot hits, then a 330, and then went all the way.” While we’re sworn to secrecy on the exact numbers, the speed is almost undoubtedly the fastest ever to be recorded on 275’s — so fast we did a mental double-take that we weren’t talking in 1/4-mile terms. “We blew right past what my Camaro ran on a 315. It’s unreal. And I believe in my heart the car has so much more. With that steel roof and quarter Camaro, the limit for the Hemi was the tire with the stock wheelbase. I just never could use the power that I had — but this car being longer wheelbase, I don’t have to run as much nose weight.”

The Corvette’s boost curve is as jaw-dropping as the numbers on the time-card. With the monster 110s—which replaced the 98s that Adam used in the Camaro—the car has already made 78 pounds of boost in testing. Adam said, “I called Eric Dillard at Pro Line and asked if this Hemi could handle it. He told me, ‘If it’ll make it, it’ll eat it.’ We think it’ll go 85-90 pounds easy. So we’re probably making over 6,000 horsepower— if you look at the dyno numbers that they make in Pro Mod with 88s, they make 5,400-5,500 horsepower, and this thing’s got twin 110s on it. Mark Micke was telling us it’s got to be making over 6,000 horsepower, easy.”

Despite Pro Mod being the ultimate goal, the brothers opted to debut the car locally on 275 radials at the no-time Grudge Bowl, just 30 miles from their home. “There’s nobody running Radial versus The World with a twin-turbo Hemi. I thought, why not us? So at first we put 315s on it, but then I bolted on a set of 275s and just sent it,” Adam says.

Underneath, the car is built to handle it all, with Ron G-valved suspension tailored for radial prep, a Mark Williams modular rearend, and a featherweight 2,500-pound curb weight with Adam in the seat. “People were already texting me, asking how light it was. Justin Swanstrom hit me up the minute we posted that we had the car,” he laughs. “Everybody’s already worried about it.”

The car’s versatility is part of what makes it so special. It will eventually transition to big tires and full Pro Mod trim, but for now, the Prestons are enjoying the car’s flexibility. “We’re both going to drive it, and depending on how this weekend goes, we might keep it in no-time trim for a little while,” Adam said. “There are just too many big-money no-time races right now that we’d be leaving on the table.”

Built with help from sponsors like RC Comp, Precision Turbo, Holley, RPM Transmissions, and others, the car is as much a community effort as it is a brotherly one. “I can’t thank all of them enough. This thing wouldn’t exist at this level without their support,” Adam says.

And then there’s the look—impossible to ignore and originally picked by the Preston kids. “I wasn’t sold on the lime green at first, I was kind of angry about it, I’m not going to lie. But the kids wanted it bright. We had Zach Jones wrap it, and I told him I want some graphics on it, something wild to go with the green. Now I love the way it looks — I think it’s so sharp. It might actually glow in the dark.”

The Preston brothers know they’re breaking new ground with their combination: a twin-turbo Hemi that they fully believe can set records on 275’s, go 3.40s and top 230 mph on 315 radials, and be equally competitive in legal Pro Mod trim.

“We’ve always wanted to try a big-tire car with wheelie bars. This car drives like a Cadillac. The longer wheelbase helps, and now we can finally use all the power we’ve got,” Adam says. “I think this thing has a big future.”