Charles Potter To Debut New Supercharged Shelby GT500 In LDR

Shelby mustang

Realizing his naturally-aspirated combination wasn’t as competitive as he would have liked, West Columbia, South Carolina’s Charles Potter discussed the situation with Bumble Bee Racing’s Jeff and Patrick Miller who recommended Potter simply swap the drivetrain into his Ultra Street Mustang and stuff a roots-blown Hemi into his 2012 Mustang Shelby GT500.

Doing this changed a lot of things for Potter and his racing program, not the least of which was going to be driving a much quicker and faster car.

Shelby mustang

“I can’t thank Jeff and Patrick Miller enough for putting this project together,” Potter said. “They have really outdone themselves. We’re going to run local shootouts with it and then try to run Limited Drag Radial in October.”

Potter, who owns the mom-and-pop speed shop, CPR Performance Parts, noted that the roots combination doesn’t carry a big weight penalty and should be competitive in the class. The Millers built the salvage title Mustang body into what it is today, and they assembled the Hemi and Fowler roots blower engine combination. which was machined up by Honeycutt Machine. The Millers will also perform the tuning duties, as well. Backing up the blower combo is a Liberty five-speed/Bruno transmission setup.

supercharged Shelby mustang

Potter headed to the track recently to shake down the new build, and the first outing resulted in a couple of 330-foot hits followed by a transmission seal failure. He returned the following week and faired far better.

We got in a few 330 hits and a few 1/8-mile passes,” Potter said. “They were great passes. I’ve only been 4.40s and 4.50s, but this went considerably faster. We have only made two full 1/8-mile passes and the car is really fast.” Potter was of course shy about sharing the elapsed times, but was quite happy with how the car performed.

“Tim Shealy and Calvin Gunter have helped me out since the early ‘90s,” Potter told us. “Without them, I wouldn’t have endeavored in such a project like this. Patrick and Jeff [Miller] have helped me get to the track and back home and keep me straight. Also a big thanks to Honeycutt Machine.”

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Steve Baur

A lifelong automotive enthusiast, Steve Baur attended the University of South Florida for journalism and has worked as a technical editor and editor for numerous automotive publications for over 20 years.
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