Photo by Marshall Hall

With the recent advent of the NHRA 25.3 chassis certification, there are a slew of cars being built or updated to the new spec. This Trans-Am owned by Chris Crawford is the latest project out of NRC Motorsports in Aiken South Carolina. Crawford dropped the car off for a custom roll cage and to narrow the rear end, but that quickly snowballed into a more extensive project.

Photos: Chris Crawford and NRC Motorsports

These guys were highly recommended for the speed and quality of work. I must say, that is all true. They have stepped up with excellent work, and being able to work around some issues with my torque arm system and previous parts selection. – Chris Crawford.

In a posting over at YellowBullet.com Crawford detailed some of the work that is to be done. Originally from Traverse City Michigan he made the move to Wilmington North Carolina a couple of years ago. Purchased about ten years ago, the car was born a plane jane 1994 refrigerator white Formula. Chris then rebodied it as a ‘02 WS6 with custom House Of Colors paint. What started off as an eleven second driver, eventually ran into the ten second zone on a small shot of nitrous. Last year he made a switch to a 88mm turbo set up on E85, earning a new best in the 8.80’s with the 370 ci. engine in street trim.

Stepping up once again for 2010, the car is being turned into a serious strip machine with the aforementioned 25.3 chassis and a new 427 ci. The C5R mill will be from Virginia Speed. The C5R intake was massaged by the renowned John Marcella and will be fed with a larger PTE 106 mm turbo. The power will then transfer through an ATI converter and Superglide 2 transmission, back to the Midwest Chassis Fab 9” rear. The long term goal for the car is to set the LSX Drag Radial record and run down into the 6.0-7.0 range. Normally found at Jacksonville NC, Rockingham, ZMax and Carolina Dragway tracks, Crawford is also looking to run select events on the East coast when the car is all finished up.