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Race fever had its grips on Ray Rubio long before he began racing at age 19
P
uerto Rico is a hotbed for drag racing, not to mention a hot rod community rich in history and culture.
During Rey’s childhood he would watch his family race some fast cars at both Salinas and Carolina Speedway in Puerto Rico and in 1999, Rey built a wicked small block powered Camaro of his own that ran deep into the 9-second zone on a small shot of nitrous oxide. He campaigned that car for the better part of 4 years, improving his skill both on and off the track. Afterwards, it was time to start a family and Rey decided to sell that car and focus on his lifelong dreams of opening his own business. 34
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Story and Photos:
Eddie Maloney
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It’s quite the challenge keeping a jet-black vehicle looking so good. However, our confidence was high when we found out Rey owned a body shop.
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The American dream is real, and Rey was bound to achieve it, so while raising his family and still dreaming about the future, he decided to uproot his family and move to Florida. After moving to Kissimmee, in 2006, Rey opened his first business, Rujams Services of Florida. With being so close to Orlando Speedworld, the thought of racing never left his mind and as he worked hard to build a business he was able to continue to stay close to the sport he loved while prioritizing his family and business interests. “I wanted to return to racing really bad, but I decided to take a different approach knowing my 3 sons were also eager to race. I decided I wanted to build them a race car before I got back into one. We started that journey in 2016 when my oldest son Oscar and I decided to buy a 1983 Toyota Starlet and power it with a Mitsubishi Starium engine. After about a year of building up the chassis and suspension I was able to see my first son drive down the track. After some time, he was able to race faster than I ever did with an 8.13 @ 164 mph,” said Rubio.
CANTON RACING
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In true Pro Street fashion, Rey chose to keep the Colorado as factory appearing as possible. Factory door panels, dash, power windows, and all functioning street equipment.
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That Starlet is currently being equipped with a 13b Rotary engine and Rey and Oscar hope to run much faster in the not so distant future. It was after Oscar raced the Starlet that Rey’s other sons, Rayan and Josthien, looked at dad and said, “hey, we want to race too!”
Rey purchased two Honda Civics, a 1992 Hatchback for Rayan which is powered by a K24 Turbo engine and the one for Josthien, a 1997 Coupe that is also a K24 (naturally aspirated). “While having all my sons racing made me very proud, the stress level was intense.
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ProStreet
When all 4 doors are open and the interior is being shown people are blown away by how factory it is, not to mention the quality of the race parts install. The truck can still seat 4 comfortable or 5 with the removal of a few bottles etc.
BILL MITCHELL 1 6TH
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The Colorado features a full chromoly roll cage, currently certified to 7.50. Rey plans to upgrade a few bars for a full 6.0 certification soon.
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The Colorado is powered by a Pat Musi built 732 cubic inch big block Chevy complete with 2-stages of nitrous.
TOTAL SEAL
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a monstrous power plant lurks beneath that elegantly styled hood!
My youngest Josthien, had never even driven a car with a manual transmission before! I was nervous yet supported and taught him the ins and outs of driving a stick. Once he got proficient, we allowed him to go a little bit faster each time out.” Rey enjoyed building three race cars with his boys, but now it was time to get himself back into racing. He had been attending
T EASY WEIGH T CHANGE OU
some of Orlando Speedworld’s premier events and although he wanted to compete in all of them, he set his sights on racing in the coveted World Street Nationals and a number of the Sport Compact/Import races Orlando had to offer. While he had the imports covered with his sons racing, he wanted to have something else to compete at the World Street Nationals.
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The Colorado is currently running a fairly mild (very mild for a Musi engine) 2-stage fogger system with plans for more as progress continues.
ERSON CAMS
RM RACING 6TH
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He learned that his longtime family friend in Puerto Rico, Jose Juarez, was selling his 2007 Pro Street Chevrolet Colorado. “Jose was the original owner and builder of the truck, and I just knew I had to have it!” After buying the truck from Jose, Rey shipped it from Puerto Rico to his shop in Kissimmee, Florida and started doing a few cosmetic
RPM UP CLOSE
touches to the paint and body, but, since he owns a body shop, he thought why not just paint the whole truck. The truck maintains its original body except for the cowl hood and is now finished in a black base with a PPG clear high-gloss completed by none other than Rey’s own company, RJ Bodyshop.
BAER 6TH
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RPM MAGAZINE FULL PAGE TARGET MARKET RPM POWER FULL
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MAHLE HALF
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Rey Rubio Matos’ Nitroused 2007 Chevy Colorado Body & Paint:
Interior:
Chevy Colorado factory full size Pickup Truck body. Fender flares molded and painted. Painted black base with a PPG clear high-gloss by RJ Bodyshop.
Custom OEM appearing dash cluster with RPM and MPH, Oil pressure, Fuel Pressure and Water temp gauges. Two Kirkey aluminum seats with covers, each has its own 5-point safety harness. Quick-release steering wheel.
Chassis Modifications: Chassis was built to be a complete road legal race car. Square tubing in frame with a 7.50 certified full Roll-cage.
ET & MPH:
Suspension:
1/8th-mile: 5.21@133 (One system of nitrous) ¼-mile: 8.93@120 (No nitrous and shutting off early)
Front is Strange Struts and rear is 4-link/coilover with braced 9-inch rearend.
Engine: Pat Musi 732 cubic inch big block.
Induction & Fuel Delivery: Twin Holley Dominator carburetors.
Power Adder: Two nitrous systems, first kit is 350hp second is 400hp.
Transmission: Turbo 400 with trans brake.
Special Thanks: To Jose Juarez of course for building the truck and keeping it in such amazing condition for so many years before giving me the opportunity to purchase it. My crew at RJ Bodyshop for doing such an amazing job at giving the truck some love and bringing the paint and body to another level. My sons Oscar, Rayan, & Josthien, and my wife Maricelis for supporting me in the purchase and maintenance of the truck. Finally, my close friend Jomar Gomez for being able to drive this beautiful machine down the track for the first time.
Brakes: Wilwood Brakes all around.
WEINLE MOTORSPORTS 6TH
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AFR CARD
After seeing how everything turned out (Rey credits his team at RJ Bodyshop), Rubio fittingly gave the Colorado the name “The Black Queen”. And a queen she is, sporting a completely street legal trim in addition to power windows, doors, moon roof, a factory dashboard, door panels and all functioning street equipment. It is registered and insured in the state of Florida,
we can safely say however, that the Pat Musi nitrous fed 732 cubic inch big block Chevy backed by a turbo 400 transmission did not come from the factory. The 7.50-legal chassis includes frame reinforcement and an extensive roll cage. Suspension wise, aftermarket Strange struts were used up front and out back a 4-link/coilover setup suspends a fabricated 9-inch.
THE WORLD OF EXTREME STREET & STRIP IS A CLICK AWAY RPM POWER 6TH
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T
he Chevy Malibu belongs to a longWorld list of models on at the GenRey’s Colorado debuted at the famed 2021 Street Nationals Orlando Speedworld Dragway in the Heavy Street class. some mechanical eralWith Motors platform issues they takreen care of for 2022, the truck will see bottom 7-second quarter-mile hits. ferred to as the G-Body. Like the Fox Body Mustang from Ford, the architecture has a solid straight-line potential, albeit a bit on the heavy side. Produced as a “family car”, the two-door models have similar dimensions, and suspension configurations as a Mustang and the drag racing community gravitated towards them for strip use, making them a hot commodity these days. Carlton Thornton grew up around his father Wayne’s 1970 Chevy Nova; “It was a stock 307 with 4.56 gears and posi. I think it only ran 16s, but did the best burnouts!” Thornton said with a smile. Lucky for Carlton, his dad moved on to a 1979 Malibu (the car they now call “Death Row”) and frequently attended street nights at a local drag strip. At first, the Malibu took its share of losses,
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The entire truck is show quality including the interior which, as we said, retained much of the factory equipment except for gauges and controls relating to racing, and the seats being replaced by lightweight race buckets. But make no mistake, the passenger seat gets used as this big inch nitrous brawler is every bit a street machine! In November of 2021 Rey’s dream of competing at the World Street Nationals came true. He hired veteran driver Jomar Gomes to take the wheel and entered The Black Queen in the Heavy Street category. Jomar made a few easy runs on the truck since it was its first time out, but they qualified firmly in the field. Unfortunately, in round 1 of eliminations, they had some mechanical issues and couldn’t make a complete pass. Rest assured, The Black Queen will be back in action soon and should see easy low 7-second passes this year!
MOSER HALF
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