Andrew Alepa Racing shook up the Radial vs. The World/Pro Drag Radial world by blasting off a 204.91 miles per hour run at the recent No Mercy VI at South Georgia Motorsports Park to lay claim to the fastest pass in radial tire history. Days after returning back home to Texas, the speed record-holding Ford Mustang was sold and off to it’s new owner.

When news broke of the ‘red rocket’ being sold, the raging question through the rumor mill was, “What’s next for Andrew?”

One of the hottest race car platforms of 2015 has been the sleek C7 Corvette, as a number of them have popped up in the Pro Modified ranks, including the NHRA and PDRA. But, that’s the only place that has really seen the C7 market, until now. Alepa and his wife, Kim, went to their local Chevrolet dealership, purchased a new C7, and put a few miles on it and enjoyed the ‘new car smell’ before turning it over to Frankie Taylor to fully disassemble and prepare it for one of the wildest drag radial builds to date. After completely tearing the car apart, the call went to Rick Stevens at Stevens Race Cars in Santa Fe, Texas to start the long process of building the chassis around the C7 platform.

Tim McAmis Race Cars was called upon for this all-billet rear end housing that now calls the RVW C7 Corvette home.

As Alepa sat down with Stevens to get the initial plans formed and in stone, they called upon Tim McAmis Race Cars to build a full billet rear end housing for something new and unique to this build. After receiving the housing, Stevens and his talented team of fabricators pushed forward through the tedious process of getting all the chassis bars welded in and placed strategically to ensure stability and strength. Finishing off the rear end of the build is a full billet Tom’s differential supplied by M&M Transmission, a brake system from Mark Williams Enterprises, and custom valved shocks from the mastermind of shock technology, Mark Menscer of Menscer Motorsports.

With the chassis setup all lined out and under way, Alepa contacted long-time friend and horsepower making machine,

Eric Dillard from Pro Line Racing. After numerous talks with Dillard and Steve Petty, the decision was made to change things up with an all-new powerplant in the C7, as they opted for new PLR HEMI over the tried-and-true 481X that had powered Alepa’s Mustang.

Of course, the team is sticking with the Gen2 98mm twin turbochargers from Precision Turbo to supply an enormous amount of boost slamming through the engine with a FuelTech FT500 engine management system controlling it all. Mark Micke of M&M Transmission was called on once again for the bulletproof three-speed transmission setup going behind the powerful HEMI. Alepa mentioned that a torque converter has not been specified for the car as of yet but it will be from ProTorque.

With about 75% of the build completed, Stevens is waiting on a few more parts, including the carbon fiber front clip that’s being built. A local fabricator in the area molded the carbon fiber doors for the C7, which were completely custom due to the lack of molds and time for other companies to produce the products. Once all the other parts are completed and test-fitted, the car will go off to the paint shop before returning to Stevens Race Cars for the final assembly.

Pro Line Racing was on board once again to provide the power between the frame rails with a twin turbocharged HEMI.

With the sale of his previous RVW car, Alepa is pressing on time to get the car completed and tested before the huge $50,000-to-win Radial vs. The World shootout at Duck X Productions: Lights Out VII in South Georgia in February, which is the planned competition debut of this spectacular Corvette. With the 2016 season quickly approaching, Andrew and Kim Alepa have yet to name a driver for the new car, but there are numerous applicants on the table that both feel are comfortable and confident can do a great job behind the wheel of their magnificent new hot rod.