Ultimate Hybrid: Vinny LaRosa’s Chevy Powered 1971 Duster

Any form of racing brings out the unique nature of each individual who participates, and drag racing is no exception. At tracks across the globe, you’ll find racers from every walk of life piloting a wide variety of cars that fit their personalities and what they do at the track. Massachusetts native Vinny LaRosa has a nitrous-huffing 1971 Duster that’s unlike most Mopar machines because the heartbeat under the hood comes not from the Chrysler assembly line, but rather, from a big-block Chevy powerplant.

Vinny’s enjoyment of all things mechanical was engrained early on, and it grew into more than he could ever imagined as a child. “I got into cars at a very young age. It really is just in me as a person. My automotive background is pretty well all self-taught, and I even went to trade school for it while I attended high school. I’m a very mechanical, old school-type of person at heart,” Vinny says.

Over his life, Vinny has owned a number of quick street cars, including Fox body Mustangs, GM F-bodies, and even old school iron like his 1971 Buick Skylark. The love for anything car related even runs through the rest of his family, as he restored a 1995 Formula Firebird for his wife, and has a stable of Junior Dragsters that his daughters pilot. No matter how you look at it, racing is a family affair in the LaRosa household, for sure.

Having that desire to make passes at the drag strip is ultimately what united Vinny with the Duster. It all came down to being at the right place, at the right time, with the right car. He was working two jobs and wanted something other than a street car to play with at the track. “I purchased the car back in May of 1995 from a good friend of mine. I traded him my 1987 Buick Grand National and kicked in some cash to pick up the Duster,” Vinny tells of how he acquired his Mopar.

After the purchase, Vinny had found his version of racing heaven in the form of the classic Duster. The car was a perfect fit for what he wanted to do, and it matched his personality to a T. It was different … the Duster was one of the few Chevy-powered Mopars around. The car even was campaigned as a famous drag car in the 1970s known as the “Feather Duster.” At this point, Vinny was ready to make the car his own and race it as much as he could.

“The first time I took the car out, it was able to run in the 12.20s, no problem, with the small-block Chevy it came with. I got the car home after that first weekend and made some adjustments to get it a little quicker. The next weekend out, the car was running in the 11.40s all day. I was totally hooked, and ready for more racing,” Vinny says.

Because the car was running the way he wanted it to, Vinny could enjoy his love of racing, and since it was still a street car, he engaged in the occasional stop light-to-stop light combat with the Duster. It didn’t matter to him, if someone wanted a race, they were going to get it. As Vinny did more work to the car, it saw less street action and gradually morphed into a bracket racing workhorse at the drag strip.

Soon, Vinny was racking up the victories at the track with his hybrid Duster and was making a name for himself in the Northeast.

“I won Mopar Day at New England Dragway with my Chevy-powered Duster from 2007 through 2009. I also made it down to the final five cars in 2010. I even won at a Fun Ford event with the car, too,” Vinny says of his track exploits with the Duster.

Even with all that success, Vinny had the desire to go quicker and faster with the Duster, leading to a major overhaul. The trusty small-block Chevy that had lived between the fenders of the Mopar was retired from service and a plan was hatched to put some big cubic inches of bowtie power under the hood of his devilish Duster.

To say Vinny went bigger from the previous small-block is an understatement, because now the car features an all-aluminum, GM-based Brodix block that measures a beefy 632 cubic inches. The Ron Boule-prepared engine has a 4.62/4.75 bore and a compression ratio of 15.28:1. Inside the rat motor lives an impressive rotating assembly that features a Callies Pro Mod crank and I-beam rods, and JE Pistons. Keeping the monster motor lubricated is a Melling oil pump that retrieves the oil from a Moroso Top Sportsman oil pan.

With such a big powerplant that loves the laughing gas, Vinny made sure to add a set of cylinder heads that could help the engine breathe. A pair of aluminum 395 series Brodix Head Hunter heads were sourced for the engine make power. The valvetrain of choice for the big-block Chevy consists of intake valves from Manley that measure 2.40-inches on the intake side and 1.850 on the exhaust side.

Rocker arms are T&D shaft units with a 1.75 ratio. A solid roller 284/305 with .935 lift and 115 LSA camshaft from LSM Engineering gives the top end of the motor its orders on each pass down the track. Expelling the exhaust gasses from the motor is a set of custom 2-1/14 to 2-3/8-inch headers that flow to a 4-inch collector and Flowtech mufflers.

Moving the air and fuel required to feed this beast requires some serious hardware to do it right. To meet the fueling requirements, Vinny elected to use a MagnaFuel Prostar 500 fuel pump and MagnaFuel four-port regulator. Bringing the air into the Brodix intake manifold is a massive Pro Systems Pro V nitrous open hole carburetor that flows 1345 cfm. For ignition and data logging, Vinny uses a MSD Power Grid box, along with an HVC II coil, and a MSD Pro Billet distributor. A set of Taylor 10.4 mm plug wires delivers the spark to all eight of the NGK plugs in each cylinder.

Going with a giant motor would be plenty to quench the speed needs for most people, but Vinny is far from being like most people. To add some extra spice to his big-block combination, Vinny added a healthy hit of nitrous oxide. The system is based around a wet kit from Applied Nitrous Technologies that uses a single stage to introduce the laughing gas into the motor. This combination has an estimated 2,150 horsepower on tap, and has rocketed Vinny to a best quarter-mile time of 7.38 at 191 mph with a 1.17 60-foot.

To make sure all the nitrous-fed power gets to the ground, Vinny added an ATI-prepared Powerglide transmission to the Duster’s driveline. The transmission is kept nice and chilled via a Be Cool transmission cooler with an additional fan. In front of the Powerglide is a TCI flexplate and PTC torque converter with a 4500 stall speed. Vinny shifts the ATI unit with a Hurst pistol grip shifter each trip down the track.

Transferring the big-block Chevy power to the Dana 60 rearend is a 3-1/2-inch chrome moly driveshaft from Mark Williams Enterprises. Inside the Dana 60 is a set of 4.10 gears from Strange Engineering, along with a pair of their 33-spline axles and spool for added strength.

The front suspension of the Duster has been lightened and strengthened with a full set of tubular parts from Overkill Racecars. A set of coilover Strange Engineering shocks and springs with a manual steering rack round out the front end of the car. In the rear, a custom ladder bar suspension and sway bar help to keep the car planted to the track when Vinny releases the transbrake. A set of QA1 single adjustable shocks and springs are in charge of the dampening duties for the rear end of the car.

Keeping the Duster rolling is a full set of Magnum 2.0 wheels from Weld, with the rear wheels featuring a double beadlock from Champion Wheel. Bringing the car to a stop after each four-second eighth-mile pass are brakes in the front and rear from Wilwood that use four-piston calipers.

The Duster went on a healthy diet to get to race weight, with a one-piece nose, fiberglass doors and trunk. Additional aero for downforce in the rear comes from a carbon fiber wing courtesy of Andy McCoy Race Cars, and the front air dam is a Glasstek piece. All of these parts are covered by the Sassy Grass green hue from PPG that just sets the car off from every angle. The Duster maintains the factory firewall and floorboards, according to Vinny, and has a 25.5-spec roll cage built by Tube Chassis Designz in Hanson, Massachusetts.

Vinny has been competing with his Duster in the Outlaw 632 class at Donald Long’s Duck X Production races each year. In 2017, he plans on stepping his game up to run at the front of the class.

“I’m coming out in February with a set of 315 radials on the car. We will have a lot more power when we show up with multiple systems of nitrous. The suspension will also be getting upgrades so we can put the power down better. We’re about to hurt some feelings,” Vinny proclaims.

It takes a certain comfort level to strap yourself into a racecar and rocket down a drag strip at insane speeds. Racers are a different breed entirely when it comes to what level of risk they’re okay with. It’s just part of what they do. Vinny is the kind of racer that feels at ease behind the wheel of his 1971 Duster; it’s an extension who he is, and racing is what he loves to do.