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There’s a reason the “beaten path” is there: because many people have walked it and it works.
In the drag racing world the beaten path exists because of the known outcome it provides, which are consistent results that can lead to victory. Rick Wetherbee has been there and done that during his racing career, owning your standard drag racing vehicles like Camaros and Mustangs and has enjoyed success running those types of cars. But growing tired of the norm, Wetherbee set off a new path, building a boosted beast the likes of which the drag radial world has never seen in the form of a twin-turbochsrged 1996 Chevrolet Impala SS.
The Impala made it’s debut at Lights Out V and drew a crowd anytime it was in the lanes or on the line.
This monstrous car is part radical radial tire warrior, part street car, and everything the beaten path is not.
Wetherbee has been around the radial tire racing game for many years and always had top level equipment. The Dunlap, Tennessee native campaigned an EZ Street Mustang at one time, and many people also would recognize Wetherbee from his days of racing the former Steve Kirk-owned red Outlaw 10.5 Camaro with twin turbos under the hood. Between these fine small-tire rides and his other muscle cars and dragsters that he’s raced, it’s safe to say Wetherbee has wheeled just about everything with doors and some stuff without.
With years of racing traditional race cars under his belt, Wetherbee was ready for a change. “I really wanted to build something that was a street car but different from the usual Camaro and Mustang stuff I’ve had — and the Impala was it,” said Wetherbee when asked about his choice of cars. Building this big block animal for track duty-only wasn’t in the cards, though, and Wetherbee was going to go even further outside the norm and build this car to be street legal for another purpose: Hot Rod’s popular Drag Week competition.
Construction of a radial tire car is a complex process, but adding the extra wrinkle of making it street worthy, let alone capable of surviving Drag Week, is a tall task. Wetherbee opted to go with Chris Terry Racing for the construction of the chassis and sourcing of other parts.With that, a plan was hatched and the process of building a radial tire street car worthy of Drag Week glory along with being able to run in other small tire classes like Outlaw Drag Radial and Outlaw X275 began.
Starting with a car that’s literally the size of a boat requires some serious chassis work to run deep into the four-second range in the eighth-mile. The Chris Terry Racing team created a masterpiece when it comes to the underpinnings of this Impala. The original framerails remain on the car and have been implemented into the custom 25.3 certified chassis the car wears to make it a true double-framerail ride. All of this was built in a way that allows the intercooler piping to run under the car with the chassis and give it a very clean look.
Chris Terry Racing added a spot for the second fuel cell in the trunk along with the extra water tank for the Impala’s Dragweek duty.
The only non-OEM parts on the body of the car are the Street Trends front and rear bumpers and the Glasstek hood. To build something of this caliber, of course, takes time, and the year-long build time was well worth it, as the final product is a car that is extremely clean and well built.
The custom touches throughout the interior of the Impala are full of design detail. Inside the car, Chris Terry Racing added as much carbon fiber as possible to help cut weight and make the car easier to work on. A stock-appearing dash is home to the RacePak display and even still has all the HVAC vents, along with the custom fiberglass dash by Glasstek. The Impala keeps the stock door panels and even has functioning power windows so Wetherbee can get his time slips without any issues. The complex wiring was executed by Paul Hartman and is so clean it almost looks factory stock.
The interior of the Impala is clean and flawless. Plenty of carbon fiber to help get the weight down on the four door radial tire warrior.
On the horsepower front, Wetherbee has armed the Impala with a serious 540 cubic inch big block Chevy that’s stuffed with the best parts around. The rotating assembly rides on a Callies crank that features a set of GRP rods and Wesico pistons, while ProLine Racing spec’d out a custom grind cam for the twin-turbo combo that works well with a set of Dart Big Chief heads. Feeding all of the boosted air into the engine is a Brodix 4500 intake manifold modified for EFI and a 105mm throttle body.
The engine, a 540 cubic inch big block Chevy paired with a set of 91mm turbos, produces ample horsepower to push this big four-door ride into the four-second range.
Pumping fuel into the big block is a set of Billet Atomizer 225 injectors and a Waterman cable driven fuel pump. The fuel supply comes from a trick custom fuel system plumbed from the trunk that includes a removable second fuel cell for added capacity. The beefy cooling system that helps keep the Impala ice cold for those sunny day cruises is also in the trunk and includes a secondary rear mounted radiator, and biving the spark is an MSD Power Grid/ ProMag 44 setup that takes its orders from a BigStuff 3 computer.
Plenty of room up front for the big block and big turbos in Wetherbee's ride. Notice the stock frame rails remain in the stock location -- no Pro Mod business here.
The master plan for the build called for boost, and the Impala brings that courtesy of a Chris Terry Racing custom turbo system, with each side of the motor wearing a massive 91mm Garrett GT55 turbo. Keeping all of that boost in check is a MSD 7562 boost controller, Precision 66mm wastegate, and a Tial Q-series blow off valve, while a set of in-house-built headers flow into the hot side piping and 2.25″ primaries to 3.5″ intermediaries, with intercooler duties handled by a Precision PT4000 unit.
Keeping up with the bulletproof nature of this build, Wetherbee put a built-to-the-max PTC Powerglide transmission and torque converter behind his motor. A gargantuan Wiles 4″ carbon fiber driveshaft transfers all of the power back to the Chris Terry Racing chromoly fabricated 9″ rear end that’s filled with a Strange spool and gun drilled 40-spline axles.
Turning a 1996 Impala SS into a street legal, small-tire race car that can run Drag Week isn’t something that has a laid-out set of instructions, so building a suspension that can perform takes some thought. Since there are no off-the-shelf parts available, Chris Terry Racing built their own front and rear control arms along with a rear anti-roll bar. Santhuff shocks are used at all corners of the car to get every ounce of power to the ground.
We’re still trying to shake the car down and get a feel for what it can do, but it’s not bad for a street car that has a title, plates, and full insurance right? – Rick Wetherbee
In it’s first season, Wetherbee has coaxed the big and bold Impala into the low five-second range in the eighth-mile, with plenty more on tap. “We’re still trying to shake the car down and get a feel for what it can do, but it’s not bad for a street car that has a title, plates, and full insurance right?” said Wetherbee with a smile. The car has some serious potential, as the elapsed times indicate, and should be a mid-four second player after everything is lined out.
Moving away from the path that so many others have walked allowed Wetherbee and Chris Terry Racing to dream up and fabricate a truly distinctive race car. The quality and unique nature of this car is evident by the sheer amount of people who stop and admire it at the track, and when you mix in the fact this car is 100% street legal with tags and insurance, the distance from the beaten path becomes even more apparent.
Nothing screams badass more than a street legal, outlaw small-tire car that is Drag Week-prepped and has four doors.
