Automobile lovers watch longingly at the elite beauties that roll across the blocks at the Barrett-Jackson and Mecum collector car auctions – one after another, event after event, year after year.

But no one has anything like what Scott Palmer has. And it isn’t for sale.

It’s a ’53 Studebaker Pro Mod that could be the king of all doorslammers – it runs on nitro. It’s not a nitrous-aided car. It’s a full-blown, honest-to-goodness nitromethane-powered Pro Modified race car.

What’s more, its parts and pieces are interchangeable with his 11,000-horsepower Top Fuel dragster.

“It actually has everything out of our Top Fuel car in it. It’s a duplicate of our car,” Palmer said. He can mix and match the parts. “They’re all the same,” he said. “It’s a Top Fuel-everything … in a Pro Mod. It’s 100-percent everything out of that car. It’s the only one in the world.”

Palmer yanked the engine from the Studebaker at the 2016 NHRA race at Sonoma and defeated Shawn Langdon in the first round. And that was only his seventh first-round victory in 124 races.

Most people go golfing for fun or do something else for relaxing, go to the lake. We like to go to the racetrack.

In the following 25 races, including the 2018 Winternationals, he earned seven opening-round victories for a total of 14. So that not only means the popular Marck-Cat Spot Litter Dragster driver is improving in significant springs, but it also proves his primary focus needs to be the NHRA entry.

“This dragster comes first,” Palmer said.

It’s a unique business model for the rather nomadic Palmer, who calls Cassville, Mo., home but travels to Lucas Oil Drag Boat Racing Series events as owner of the “Liquid Voodoo” Top Fuel Hydroplane, tests the Studebaker, or takes in an evening of local-track action.

“Most people go golfing for fun or do something else for relaxing, go to the lake. We like to go to the racetrack,” he said. In the same spirit of Morgan Lucas, Shawn Langdon, and Spencer Massey, Palmer said, “I’d go every weekend if I could. There’s a lot of us that just race.”

If anyone were to ask, “do you not have enough work to keep you busy?” Palmer would explain how his three wildly different racing ventures work in sync, how each supports the others, and why what might look like Attention Deficit Disorder at work actually is a well-thought-out plan. At the heart of it is his desire “to make sure we take this opportunity and do the right thing with it.”

He said of his full-time NHRA pursuit, “Everybody told us how hard it was going to be. Don’t get me wrong – it’s a lot of work. But I painted cars, me and Rick Ducusin. We kind of are in charge of this team. Me and him painted cars our whole lives, and we didn’t do it in a fancy shop. We painted custom cars forever. I’m telling you right now, running 24 races with parts and with help is way easier than painting cars for a living, way easier. We did dirtier, harder work, for way less than we get, especially satisfaction-wise. So for doing this, if you’re doing what you love, it’s not work. This doesn’t even seem like work.

“And the plan was, I mean, I’m going to find a way to make a living racing cars so I don’t have to paint cars,” Palmer said.

The Studebaker, which Palmer described as “just a toy we built” about three years ago,” is a key cog in Palmer’s plan. He said it came about “before any of this [NHRA] full-season deal started … before we thought about running a full season, or before me and Tommy [Cat Spot Litter owner Tommy Thompson, who’s also the dominant LODBS team owner] got together and teamed up.”

It came about, surprisingly or not surprisingly, over a beer. Palmer was winding down one night with buddy Kent Longley, who owns Marck Recycling and has been a longtime sponsor of Palmer’s dragster.

The difference in our team and most other teams is the ideas we have over a beer still sound good the next day and we usually follow through.

“Me and him were having a beer one night, and he thought it was a good idea,” he said.

A lot of things sound good while having a beer with friends, but Palmer said, “The difference in our team and most other teams is the ideas we have over a beer still sound good the next day and we usually follow through. That’s why the Studebaker came to life. That was a beer-drinkin’ idea, too, but the next day we started on it.”

As Palmer spoke, he was standing just a few yards away from the lake at Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park, at Chandler, Ariz., where he forged a partnership with Thompson. “That’s where we met when we got a boat,” he said with a nod to the site of Lucas Oil Drag Boat Series events.

And that hydro involvement was quite a deal for Palmer, who confessed, “I’ve never even been in a canoe.” He said, “I had no idea how to run a Top Fuel boat, but Forrest Lucas bought the series and needed more Top Fuel boats and he’s helped us since 1998.”

Palmer hatched the idea to parlay the boat racing into a situation that would enhance his NHRA Top Fuel car.

“When we got our Top Fuel boat, we did that basically to circulate parts that we ran. We were running our boat pretty mild so we could run, you know, milder parts, parts that we wouldn’t run in the dragster. We would circulate them through the boat, make runs in the boat, buy new parts for the car. And we made that boat actually help our car program, too. And then in turn, they talked about boat racing when we ran our car, so it helped boat racing, so it worked great. And that’s how we met Tommy.”

Palmer might be one of the best networkers in drag racing, but it’s not because he’s opportunistic. It’s because he is a genuinely sociable person. And his friendship with Midwest doorslammer racer Chuck Weck, a Chicago Wise Guys Match Race Circuit regular, led to his purchase of the Studebaker. (It’s easy to see why they’re friends: each has a self-deprecating sense of humor. On his website, Weck listed under a “Team Accomplishments” tab this wisecrack: “Have you looked at this mess? If it makes it to the line under its own power, that is an accomplishment!”)

So the Studebaker was broken-in when Palmer bought it.

We’ve made a couple of 200-foot runs in it [the Studebaker]. We’ve just been testing it, but we’re going to try to run 300 miles per hour – [fastest ] in a door car – with it.

“I bought it from a friend of mine. Chuck built it out of Chicago years ago. It’s an older car. Then me and a friend of mine, we modified it, just made it where we could fit the setback blower on it.”

And for all the attention it has received – including a YouTube audience of 260,000 in its maiden test run – the car has made only two 200-foot bursts. The first was at Jeffers Motorsports Park at Sikeston, Mo., in 2016, the second at Texas Motorplex last October.

“We’ve made a couple of 200-foot runs in it. We’ve just been testing it, but we’re going to try to run 300 miles per hour – [fastest ] in a door car – with it. That’s our goal. We want to run 300 to the quarter[-mile]. I want it to run 300 miles per hour.”

Just saying that – “300 miles per hour” – made Palmer’s face light up.

A scoreboard would be able to verify that. The numbers would blare on the board. And in this digital age, the Internet easily can spread the word. But the moment he reaches his goal, likely at some small or obscure dragstrip, to whom will Palmer brag? Who’ll appreciate what he has been able to accomplish?

“Just us, so when we’re drinking beer. It’ll be our own little record,” he said of his friends. “Everybody will know it. I mean, the first time we tested that car, there was 260,000 views on YouTube. It’s wild. It’s a wild deal.”

For now, he’s taking baby steps with the Studebaker.

“I’m just trying to make some short runs to make sure it’s safe, you know? I mean, halfway safe,” Palmer said. “And I have to tiptoe, too, because I don’t want to rock the boat. I just want to make some decent runs. We’ll take it out some this year and make some eighth-mile runs. Once we know it’s safe there, then, we’ll find some place to go.”

So how does a driver find a worthy match-up against his one-of-a-kind race car?

Palmer has that covered, too, thanks to another Midwest connection.

“J.R. Sandlian, a friend of ours from Wichita, Kan., [has] a ’70 Chevelle,” he said. “We could book those cars in right now. I could go to 60 racetracks across the country.

“That was the plan before this, before we went full schedule. I call that my 401K plan,” Palmer said. “That’s my retirement plan, to go match race those cars. I’ve had offers from overseas to bring that car. I’ve only made two 200-foot runs, but I could take that car every weekend somewhere and match race it.”

… the first time we tested that car, there was 260,000 views on YouTube. It’s wild. It’s a wild deal.

That side of drag racing, as Palmer is well aware, has no media exposure and, consequently, no appeal for potential sponsors. But that isn’t going to stop him. His passion for it still is strong.

“If I wasn’t doing this,” he said, “we’d be match racing that car and running this Marck/Cat Spot Litter Dragster” 10 races a year.”