Ken Quartuccio’s gorgeous C7 Corvette is a build that came to life as a collaboration of the best in drag racing to create a purebred winning machine. With such a high-level build there were some new car blues expected, albeit very minor with the caliber of craftsman who turned wrenches on the Corvette during the build. But the car seems to have been vaccinated from the typical early trials, as every time Quartuccio has put his Corvette in the beams it has not only won, but it’s done it on radials against a field of slick-tire cars — and that has got a lot of people’s attention.

When Quartuccio rolled his dazzling C7 Outlaw 10.5 Corvette out of the trailer for its first official race at the PDRA Firecracker Nationals everybody knew the car was a great build, but there were still some questions as to how it would run in competition. Quartuccio answered those in assertive fashion by tearing through the field at Virginia Motorsports Park, and then repeating the same performance at Cecil County Dragway during their Outlaw 10.5 race, going undefeated at both events.

This level of success right at the start for Quartuccio and his team is something that was expected because of the preparation and arrangement of pieces he had done before the car was ever fired.

“I knew we were going to be good right off the bat. I put the best people in place with this car that have amazing track records to help make that happen. I figured the weak link of this project was going to be me, to be honest. I thought I would struggle getting up to speed and learning to stage a turbo car. I kept an open mind and learned as much as I could as quickly as I could and it showed.”

Now that he’s made some laps in the Corvette and been able to adjust to the turbo car, Quartuccio has begun to appreciate his new ride and how it drives. “With the Camaro, I had my hands full the whole time, shifting it, having to really drive the car, pedaling it because it always wanted to wheelie, there was a lot going on. This Corvette just drives like a dream — you let go of the button and it goes nice and straight. It’s really so much fun to drive, it really feels fast in there as I go down the track — much faster than the other car.”

Getting a handle on the car and having his team gel so quickly has been a huge part Quartuccio being able to pick up back-to-back wins with his new car. That success has been a double-edged sword for Quartuccio, as many in the Outlaw 10.5 community have taken issue with a car on radials coming in and dominating so quickly in a class designed around bias-ply, slick tires.

“The radial has been allowed in 10.5 for like three or four years now but nobody had ever taken advantage of it. When we built the Corvette, we built this car to run Outlaw 10.5 but with the idea in mind that we were going to run the radials on it for the class. This isn’t a traditional Radial vs The World Car; the engine is in the correct location, the wheelbase is correct, the overhang is correct for 10.5 because their rules are a lot stricter. We planned on running the radial in 10.5 per the rules from the start and obviously, people are flipping out. I don’t think they’re going to change the rules, I think guys are going to start switching to the radial since we’ve turned so many heads,” Quartuccio says.

Another key part in Quartuccio’s early trips to the winner’s circle was the testing he did with the car, and the support he has received from several companies. Before he brought the car out to its first race he tested hard for two days with the Pro Line Pro Mod teams on a slick tire-prepared track to start gathering data, and then tested at Virginia Motorsports Park before the PDRA event.

“Jamie Miller has really helped make all of this happen, along with the Pro Line team. They have been great to work with, as have FuelTech, M&M Transmission, Menscer Motorsports, and so many others. It has been a true team effort and collaboration to bring this car along so quickly and I’m happy this is working out,” Quartuccio says.

It will be interesting to see how Quartuccio’s victories on radials in Outlaw 10.5 will change the class. The hard work and effort his team has put into the Corvette has paid off and they will only get faster as more data is gathered each pass Quartuccio makes going down the track.