Everyone that participates in the sport of drag racing enjoys going fast and is always looking for opportunities to go faster. John Odom’s pilgrimage of horsepower has moved at an accelerated pace, thanks to his need for speed. Odom has unleashed the world’s most radical Nissan GTR on the competitors of Discovery Channels’ No Prep Kings (NPK) series.

Most racers get their first experience of driving when they’re just about to earn their driver’s license. Odom got a jump on his career behind the wheel a few years before he was old enough to drive, thanks to an old station wagon and being the first one home each day.

“I liked cars from a young age and I liked to drive fast. It didn’t matter what I had, I tried to drive the wheels off it. I remember when I was 12 my dad was given an old station wagon. I saved my money so I could buy gas and drive the car. I would get home before my parents and drive the car on the gravel roads behind our house. I would learn to drift and just drive the car,” Odom says.

Odom continued to tinker with cars as he got older, but he decided to focus on building a business empire. That focus paid off, and Odom now owns one of the largest development companies in Idaho. The extra money Odom had access to allow him to get back into the car game.

“The first car I purchased to modify was an M-series BMW X6…what a mistake that was. I basically was trying to make a 5,000-pound brick faster by putting bigger turbos on it. The next car I purchased was a GTR and it wasn’t fast enough in stock form. I added a COBB tune to the car myself and then tried to find other ways to make it faster. Eventually, I started working with Brad Jepson and his team at PPC in Salt Lake City, Utah to improve the GTR’s performance. That lead to a full bolt-on setup being added to it, and that’s what put me on the path that I’m on now,” Odom states.

Would you be shocked to learn that even after the bolt-on upgrades the GTR just wasn’t fast enough for Odom? Well, that’s exactly what happened, so Odom threw open the modification floodgates on his GTR and went to town. The Nissan was gutted, received numerous upgrades, including a bigger set of turbos. Odom was able to pilot his GTR deep into the 7-second zone at over 200 MPH after the modifications were complete. He even went on to win at TX2K and other big GTR events.

Odom’s GTR performed well enough to earn him an opportunity to be a part of a show hosted by JJ Da Boss. The performance that Odom put on on the show caught the attention of NPK producers, and that led to another opportunity.

“About a year after being on JJ’s show I got a phone call to run my car at the NPK race that was held here in Idaho. I didn’t win a race but had a lot of fun during the event. The producers asked me to run with the NPK series the rest of the year and see about racing the following year, too. I finished the season and never won a race, but I was hooked. I was also introduced to Jim Howe and his team, we became friends and things took off from there,” Odom explains.

The friendship between Odom and Howe is what led to this wild GTR’s birth. Odom began asking Howe questions about building a car, and the duo ultimately partnered up for the 2022 NPK season. Howe even gave up his spot at David Monday Race Cars so Odom’s GTR could be built in an expedited fashion.

The GTR that David Monday Race Cars built for Odom is truly one of a kind. Odom brought a running and driving GTR to David Monday to use as the base for the race car. The final product still uses the majority of the OEM Nissan body panels. A 521 cubic-inch BAE HEMI topped off by a PSI supercharger was built by Howe for the GTR. A five-speed Liberty transmission and Bosshog converter send the horsepower generated by the blown HEMI to a Strange Engineering rearend. The engine is controlled by a Haltech ECU.

“I didn’t really have any intentions to go no-prep racing until I got involved with the NPK events. I got the bug after being around it for seven races. You have the ability to build a car to win, and I wanted to do that after losing last year so much. We wanted to build the baddest no-prep car in the country. As long as I can drive it and earn some points, I think we’re going to do well this year,” Odom says.

Odom’s trip to becoming a part of the Street Outlaws universe has been an interesting one, to say the least. The gravity of this opportunity hasn’t escaped Odom, and he’s thankful he gets to be a part of the show.

“I can’t thank Sam Korkis and the Street Outlaws team enough for letting me be a part of the show. The entire staff and crew are great to work with. I need to thank David Monday and my teammate Jim Howe for making this happen. Jim’s done so much for me and I just can’t thank him enough. Trace and McKenzie that helps with the race team, and my company are a big part of making all of this happen. I also need to thank my son Hudson, and my family for their help and support during this endeavor, as well. Without them, this wouldn’t be possible,” Odom states.

John Odom’s GTR is probably one of the coolest Nissan-based products you’ll ever see. Odom has jumped on the opportunity to be a part of the NPK series with both feet, and could really turn things upside down behind the wheel of his GTR this year.