RPM Magazine December 2022

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Story & Photos: Eddie Maloney

“My husband Rick bought this 2018 Mus tang GT at the end of 2017 right off the show room floor with the in tention of him racing it. He began modifying it right away, which I was not particularly happy about. He start ed racing it that year and then wanted me to learn to race it. So, one night, at Beech Bend Raceway he talked me into making a pass and I beat his personal best time. Now Rick wasn’t too happy about that!”

Leticia may be a rel ative newcomer to the racing scene however,

get used to hearing her name because she has been getting some se rious attention in the Mustang racing world lately. If you follow the National Mustang Racers Association (NMRA), then you’ll probably recognize her with her 2018 Mustang GT competing in the 8.60 Index class. Al though she began her racing career just four years ago, her inter est in Mustangs began long before that while riding around town with her brother in his purple 1995 Mustang GT.

So, what happens when the hubby buys a new car to race and you get be hind the wheel and whoop his butt? Just ask Leticia Hughes.

Who is that face on the side of the car? “It’s the face of my tuner, Rob Shoemaker, and it has become one of the most talked about features of my car. Everyone wants to know who that guy is.”

The sleek 2018 GT is Ford Oxford White with the Blackout package and boasts all factory body panels except an An derson Composites carbon fiber hood. Lettering is by Twiz ted Vinylz and the wrap was completed by Robert Miller.

At 16, Leticia got her first Mustang; her mom’s V6 powered 1995, and never lost her love for Ford’s Pony car. Afer her initial perfor mance driving their new 2018 Mustang, it became a competition each time at the track to see who could go faster, Leticia or Rick, but the weight difference gave Leticia an automatic advan tage.

Rick ran the Mustang in a couple of events and quick ly realized he did not enjoy it as much as Leticia, so she has been the pilot for the

past 4 years. She says that she not only loves the car because it is a trick looking modded-out Mustang, but loves the competition side of it too, and her husband Rick learned that he loved teaching and working on the car more than racing it anyways, so it’s a match made in Heaven!.

“One of the key attributes that I have learned over the course of the last 4 years is that I wanted to learn all there was about my combo and the industry.”

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Inside the Mustang features most of its factory interior with 2 race front seats with harnesses and a rear seat delete, and the radio still works! The 8.50-certified cage may soon need to be updated to accommodate the Mustang’s performance gains.

Leticia felt a little behind the learning curve but worked day and night learning ev erything she possibly could. Tat work ethic paid off when she start ed her position with Suncoast Performance and became their team driver. “I did research and development for

Suncoast Performance on the 10R80 transmis sion and Pro-Loc Con verter for 2 years before going boosted. Tis led me to grow into the position that I am in now with the company. Now, we are focusing on R&D for the 10r80 transmission at a much higher power level.”

The TKM Performance Stage Two Coyote engine is capable all on its own, now add in the beefy 3.8L Whipple supercharger and the result is a solid 8-sec ond Mustang, at full weight.

Living in Kentucky, near the famed Beech Bend Raceway, provides Leticia with a pletho ra of opportunities to make a few passes down the 1320, and she shares this racing passion with a very supportive fam ily; her husband Rick and their two children.

Come the 2021 sea son, Leticia was gaining more and more experi ence behind the wheel, now running high 9’s, all-motor.

“My decision to stay naturally aspirated in 2021 was difficult, but I felt I had more to learn and prove as a racer.

I wanted to prove that I could not only hold a record, but that I could win races” In 2021, Leti cia went to the winner’s circle 7 out of 10 times and finished runner-up

twice and won a World Championship. “ Tat met the goal I set for myself,” she added “And I cannot explain how much I grew as a racer doing that last year.”

Leticia & Rick Hughes’ 2018 Supercharged Ford Mustang GT

Occupation:

Team Driver & Brand Ambassador for Suncoast Performance.

Body & Paint:

Ford Oxford White/Black out package. All factory body pan els except an Anderson Composites Carbon Fiber Hood. All lettering is done by Twizted Vinylz and the wrap is by Robert Miller.

Chassis Modifications: 8.50 Cert cage built by Billy Webb.

Suspension:

All STEEDA Suspension; S550 Mustang GT front K-member, front struts, drag springs, single adjustable rear shocks & shock mounts, Ultimate Stop the Hop Kit, and differential brace.

Engine:

Stock Ford Gen3 built Stage 2 TKM Performance block. 302 CI.

Rotating Assembly:

Stock Gen 3 Coyote, stock crank, Boostline rods and custom Wiseco pistons, spec’d and built by TKM Performance. MFP Whipple crank support brace.

Cylinder Heads:

Stock Gen3 Coyote heads race ported by Bret Barber at Air Flow Solutions, Ferrara valves, Comp stage 2 NA Cams, PAC Racing springs, RPG Coyote Cam lockouts kit, Billet OPG & crank sprocket.

Induction & Fuel Delivery:

Lethal Performance Division X triple pump fuel system with Injector Dynamics 1700X injectors.

Power Adder: 3.8L Whipple supercharger Stage 2 with PNR 7-gallon ice tank.

Transmission: Factory 10r80 with Stage 4 Suncoast Performance 10r80 kit, built by Helio Gara at Suncoast Performance/Johnnie Brady, Suncoast PRO-LOC valve body, 240mm Suncoast XPL ProLoc billet torque converter.

Exhaust: MBRP 3” race exhaust and 1 7/8” MBRP long tube headers.

Rearend:

Stock Ford 3.55 differential, Gforce Outlaw axles, QA1 carbon fiber driveshaft.

Brakes:

Baer 12” Front/Rear SS4+ 2.0 Drag brakes.

Tires & Wheels:

Mickey Thompson ET Street R 315/50/17

Mickey Thompson Sportsman DR 27x6 RC Components Comp Series Torx 17x4 fronts & RC Compo nents Street Fighter single beadlock Torx 17x10 rears.

Interior:

Stock interior with 2 race front seats and Impact Racing har ness, CM components rear seat delete, Motion Raceworks S550 parachute mount kit, and Stroud Safety single para chute.

Tuning: e85 tuned by Rob Shoemaker at Palm Beach Dyno with RTD/ Nguage Hp Tuners Software Other:

Lucas Oil Products, Lethal Performance launch controller, N2MB WOT Box, Motion Raceworks engine diaper, JPC line lock kit.

ET & MPH: “8.60 @ 163 MPH with me driving, 8.56 @ 166 MPH with my 18-year-old son Ashton driving!”

Thanks To:

“My husband Rick and my son Ashton spend most of their free time working on the car. None of this would be possible without them. I have a lot of friends that pitch in and help as well whether at home or at the track. I must give a spe cial thanks to Rob Shoemaker at Palm Beach Dyno on the tuning side, he has been there since day one of the car and the support he gives is irreplaceable. Suncoast Performance for believing me as a representative of their company and the support they give while I am pushing the limits of the factory 10r80 transmission. I need to thank Nick Purciello with Whipple Superchargers for believing in me to put this combo down the track. This year we also had support on the 10r80 R&D from Raybestos Powertrain and Whatever it Takes Transmission, Lethal Performance, STEEDA, Lucas Oil, and TKM Performance have also been a huge asset to have on board.”

Most Memorable Moment:

“My most memorable moment with the car to date was at the 2019 NMRA World Finals after falling running to my car during the true street competition on Saturday and hurting my ankle very badly. On Sunday I competed in Bracket and won after 9 rounds of competition with only wearing one shoe and having to be carried to the car because I could not walk. I was also on footbrake at this time and somehow man aged a trip to the Winner’s Circle.”

THE MUSTANG

Rick bought the car brand new for around 45K in 2017 and over the first year they did small modifications, but lef it natural ly aspirated. “ Te next two years was spent chasing records and building the car to be a max-ef fort all-motor street driven 10r80 Coyote. I held the world record for a brief time and I had com panies all over the US reaching out to support our goal, and we focused on building a relation ship with every one of them. We worked with Scott Boda at STEE DA and he helped us along the way with the build, even as we were competing for the same re cord. Building an all-motor car is not easy, I have broken a lot of parts in the brief time I have been racing.

...pushing the limits is never easy, and I pushed them hard...

Pushing the limits is never easy, and I pushed them hard.”

For the 2022 season, Leticia and her team made the decision to upgrade to a built TKM short block and add the 3.8L Whipple supercharger. Te goal was to compete in the NMRA’s new and highly competitive Suncoast Performance 8.60 Street Race class as well as several oth ers. While many competitors in her class switched to a turbo 400 transmission, Leticia vows to stick with her 10r80 and show what it is capable of. And we have no

doubt she will do just that as she won her class at the Norwalk event we met her at!

Te best lesson we can take away from Leticia Hughes’ story, aside from the fact that hard work and dedication pays off, is how to take action and help break down the gender barriers in racing. So if you’re a female interested in fast cars and fed up of letting your significant other have all the fun behind the wheel, it’s time to step up and step into the car to show him who the boss really is!

Since its inception, the NMRA 8.60 Street Race class has become one of the series’ most highly contested classes. Leticia also competed in the True Street class in Norwalk and took home the victory! Prior to the engine upgrade and supercharger install, the Mustang had run a best ET of 9.55 naturally aspirated. It’s now a mid 8-second runner in the quarter mile.

Story: George Pich

Photos: Jerry Garrison

In 2017 Jeff Anesetti’s 1972 Duster that he had since the 1980s became “Miss Behaven”. Jeff says the car gets a lot of attention, especially the girl!

or those of you who aren’t savvy to the way of the Mopar (which in cludes Plymouth Dodge and Chrysler products), let’s run through a few things.

First, they are harder to build simply because there were always less parts available for them. Sec ondly, knowing that there are few er parts, they are obviously more expensive to build. And, once you reach a certain power level, it’s not

just about getting the parts and paying for them, but also knowing the right combination of parts to make serious power and not end up with a good looking pile of steel and aluminum in the corner of your garage.

So as we have said many times before in RPM, when we see a wellbuilt serious Mopar, we snap it up because they deserve much honor for making it to where they are.

A hardcore street racer from back in the day, Jeff Anesetti has been wrenching on cars since he could hold down a job. He start ed working unpaid in a paint and body shop at 15 as he just wanted the experience. He would later do work for customers that couldn’t afford to pay and while Je tinued to build his knowledge base across the spectrum, his Mopar roots hadn’t taken hold yet, but he did come by them honestly.

His first car was actually a 1965 Mustang and he bought and sold a dozen or so cars over the next few years and by 1982, as a senior in high school, he was building his first street machine, a 1964 Ford Fairlane with a built 428 that he bought for 50 bucks! “Some lady wanted it removed from her back yard and it actually had a big tree going out of the floor. Eventually it became my first street race car, but it wasn’t pretty” Jeff

The door art is a tribute to his father who served in the Air Force. While the name and graphics are similar to nose graphics from a WWII B29 Superfortress, the spelling was slightly adjusted and the girl was modified to Jeff ’s liking…wink wink.

“I literally had gutted that car to reduce weight. I cut out the transmission tun nel, firewall and dash and removed the front passenger and rear seats and the door glass. I could physically touch the rear of the engine and transmission. If I turned my head to the trunk, I would see the marine fuel cell mounted back there. Half of the floor board was missing as well, so I was fighting debris while I was driving… Yep it was unsafe and exciting all at the same time! I am not even sure how it even held together, but it worked,” he added with chuckle.

Jeff was admittedly a squirrel behind the wheel, laying rubber and gunning it every chance he got, there was one prob lem though, while for the most part he was winning street races, unfortunately every time he lined up against a Mopar he would get beat pretty bad. “I thought it was curse at the time,” he joked, “but soon, the tables would turn, and I would be the one driving a Mopar and beating everyone else!”

If it wasn’t enough that Jeff was get ting spanked by all the serious Mopars on the street, his younger brother John was given a 1969 SE Dodge Charger with a 440 as a first car from his dad, and this definitely sparked the addic tion to street racing in the Anesetti household. Soon Jeff found himself in love with his brother’s car; “I loved the sexy and sinister body lines, taillights, and the sound of a 440 when it thun dered to life. It’s funny, he would drive my car and I would drive his!”

His brother moved on to a 69 ½ Su per Bee Hemi 4-speed (now an iconic musclecar) and that was it, the Mopar hook was set firmly in Jeff and it was game-on! Unfortunately, that car was impounded when the cops got word of a huge street race and his brother never ever paid the impound fees to get it back, so Jeff went on the hunt for his own Mopar.

Harnessing the Competitive Edge

5/8" WHEEL STUD KITS

½" SOCKET HEAD WHEEL STUD WITH BULLET NOSE

Once he sold the Fairlane, he got his hands on a 1969 383 Roadrunner 6 pack car and would eventually find his 1972 Duster. “Mopars are unlike anything else…It was as if Chrysler put all their time and efforts into pro ducing ‘race’ cars with hot racy colors, attractive bodylines and nasty pow erplants that just seemed to lure you in. For many models it was if they just wanted them off the factory line and onto the dragstrip. Tey were pow erful, fast and dominated the streets, dragstrips and even the ovals. Tis was back when the Big 3 dealers were advertising with slogans like ‘Win on Sunday, Sell on Monday’, it was all about dominating.”

...it was all about dominating...

This naturally aspirated Mopar has more tricks up its sleeve than a nightclub magician! It’s a filled 400 block stroked to a 451 and has a lightened Super Stock knife-edged crankshaft, lightweight 2 ring Race Tec pistons connected to Groden Rods and comes in with 15.3:1 compression. An .870 lift Reed cam is mated with Morrel roller lifters and the B-1 fully ported heads flow over 400 CFM and are equipped with T&D individual shaft rockers. It boasts 870 HP and 750 lbs of torque at 36 degrees of timing and buzzes 8,200 RPM WITHOUT a pow er adder, for now anyway.

Jeff Anesetti’s 1972 Plymouth Duster “Miss Behaven”

Body & Paint:

1990 Nissan Sunburst Yellow Base coat with Gold Metal Flakes mixed into the clear coat. Added carbon fibre black factory stripe along the side of the car, then added the “Miss Behaven“ decal from Vigil Graphics out of Bakersfield. This Decal was once a hand painted Nose Art or Pin up on a B-29 Super Fortress back in 1945. Added Pro scoop and hadrear wing and them carbon fiber hydro dipped.

Chassis Modifications:

“Wild Bill Hickok” Race Cars & Performance, Bill Hickok, California City, CA and BJ Race Cars, Palmdale CA 25.3 cage/full tube frame chassis and firewall was moved 4 inches back to create more clear ance. Brake pedals, transmission mount, motor mounts custom made, and master cylinder relo cated underneath on the left side near the driver side seat. All tin work, design and placement, electrical, steering, fuel plumbing, and upgrades to roll cage, was hand made by Bill Hickok Race Cars.

Suspension:

Front : 2 inch drop Mustang front end, with dou ble adjustable coilovers with rack and pinion. Soon to be changing over to a strut front end. Rear: Custom built 4 link suspension with dou ble adjustable coilovers, Pro Series wishbone, anti-roll bar kit and wheelie bars.

Engine:

Mopar 1972 400 low deck block (machined to a 4 bolt main). Stroked to a 451. Block is filled for rigidity up to the heads and has a lightened Su per Stock knife-edged crankshaft. Lightweight 2 ring Race Tec Piston at 15.3 compression con nected to Groden Rods. 870 lift Reed cam, Morrel roller lifters. B-1 fully ported heads that flow over 400 CFM , B-1 manifold, T&D individual shaft rockers, 950 Dominator carb, Moroso vacuum pump, crank trigger, Milodon billet high volume oil pump and drag pan. Jesel belt drive, Derale hi-flo racing fluid cooler and ATI Super Damper. Runs 8,200RPM and builds 870 hp with 750 lbs torque with 36 degrees of timing.

Power Adder: “No power adders, but I do have a Pro Fogger nitrous system we’d like to try. “

Transmission:

Pro Trans built 727 with trans brake, reverse manual valve body and A-1 6800 stall converter.

Rear Differential:

Strange 35 spline narrowed axles, currently us ing 4.88 with spool in ¼ mile, then use a variety of center sections for 1/8 mile - 5.33 and 5.67. Steve Chrisman Rear Ends built the center sec tions.

Brakes:

Wilwood Dyna Pro 4 piston brakes. Tires & Wheels:

Rear: Weld Wheels 16 x 16 double beadlock with Mickey Thompson 33x10.5 W, Front: SSR Star 15 x 4 gloss black with Mickey Thompson 27.5 5x4-15 ET

Interior:

Auto Meter gauges. Precision Performance shift er (C02 Air Shifter and reverse pattern). Race seats and all safety equipment is DJ Safety. GT steering wheel.

ET & MPH: 8.90 ¼ mile, 5.63 1/8 , we have not yet pushed the motor to the edge naturally aspirated.

Special reason for this build:

“Well, it’s a Mopar! I wanted to race and have a good time with my Dad along with my brother and this was a solid connection to bond with them both. Pops was always into cars, but nev er raced them or had a loud cam-smacking hot rod to play with. He never really wrenched on cars like his brother, but sure loved to be around them or participate in some way. So it was a fun way to bond with my Dad, brother, and all my buddies and now all my friends are crew staff and travel wherever the car goes, and we have lots of fun.”

Why ‘Miss Behaven’?

“My dad was in the Air Force, as a Load Master flying in planes all over the world. He loved War planes as we often we reminisced about them... along with his travels. I decided to look at Nose Art of WW2 Bombers etc, and I liked the “Miss Behaven” nose art that I found from a WWII B29 Super Fortress and wanted to build the Nostal gic look around my dad’s Air Force career com memorating the Air Force. It become special to me and him. So we modified the girl a bit and changed the spelling to Behaven. Then later my son also joined the Air Force and was assigned to the U-2 Spy Plane Wing and now works for the DOD as a fireman and I added a decal of his squad’s patch to the front fender.

Thanks To:

DALE PULDE: Dale Pulde also known for driving his “War Eagle” Nitro Firebird is a close friend of mine for many years and contributed much to this build as well as aligned me with various companies and sponsors. Dales professional Ca reer in Top Fuel is historical. Dale was also very influential on the engine build, a huge thanks to him for everything.

BILL HICKOK RACE CARS: Bill helped redesign the entire car from Cradle to grave. Literally took the entire body off the car and rebuilt everything. Bill is also a big racer and builds Pro Mods as well as drives them. So he was the one that took the car for its first pass to shake it down after the rebuild…Bill is a good friend and a wealth of knowledge.

VIGIL GRAPHICS DESIGNS: Spent countless time designing the art and decals on the car. He made all the stripes and made the girl on the side of the car come to life, and be eye popping. He ap plied all thedecals and turned this Duster into a real eye catching race car.

MY BROTHER JOHN: The best brother…. John helped strip the car down and gave it a new look and paint job. He put countless time into this car and is at every race and works on the car as well.

BJ RACE CARS: B J helped me with the initial build in the 80s and 90s and early 2000s and was the go-to guy with all of my racing. He’s an amaz ing race car and engine builder and machinist.

MY W IFE C HERI: She has really sacrificed a lot to let me have my hobbies, since a lot of her money as well as mine went into this car over many years.. So now the vacations are stacking up as payback…LOL… She has been wonderful throughout the entire process.

Most memorable experience with the car to date:

“My dad spending time with the car and attend ing the races etc. has to be the most memorable. My second was getting pictures of my oldest boy and my daughter in the driver seat when they were 7 and 3 years old holding the steering wheel together pretending they were driving, and now they actually drive it! There are just so many more good memories with this car!”

Jeff bought the Duster on a lien sale for $700. It was an all original steel shell that had been back-halved and tubbed with a built narrowed and braced 8¾ rearend, 3 link suspension, steering column and 8-point roll cage. “ Te car needed much work as it was otherwise gutted, and at the time it sat in my garage as both my brother and I ofen starred at it with a beer while just imagining it on the track.” Jeff ’s brother happened to be a cyl inder head porter at PAW and with his connections, he was able to ac quire some serious parts for the Dust er. It started with a 13:1 dual carb 340, then a more serious 440, and soon Jeff was regularly beating the Chevys and Fords on the street!

Exceptional cage and tinwork is evident throughout the interior of the Duster and a factory style dash was kept for nostalgia sake. Otherwise, it’s all race with a full array of aftermarket gauges and PPP air shifter. The cage is certified to 25.3 SFI specs.

Check out this incredible Promo Video of Jeff Anisetti’s 1972 bright yellow Plymouth Duster

Living just 4 blocks from the LA County Raceway dragstrip in Palm dale CA., Jeff heard the roar of the race track every weekend and became interested in what exactly was going on. “I went track racing once and was instantly hooked! It was only too cool to hang out with all the other racers and learn all the tricks from tuning to staging etc…Soon I had accumulated many track Champion stickers and was bracket racing every chance I got.”

Becoming more and more im mersed in the Mopar lifestyle and cul ture, Anesetti joined Mopar clubs and teams and knowing that Mopars were rare at the track and that most others guys liked to race them, Jeff became a solid bracket racer and the Duster was deadly consistent. “ Tis opened up a whole new world to my brother and I. We were never the fastest, but had stacked up many wins in bracket racing.”

With bracket racing now well inhand, Jeff has also heads-up and match-raced the Duster over the years with countless organizations, and the car itself has been upgraded 3 times to what it is now.

Barona Winners Circle - left to right Anesetti and John Anesetti

Jeff has taken many wins over the years with the Dust er in everything from street racing to brackets and match racing

right - Adam Girard (mechanic), Jeff Anesetti (Brother & Crew Chief)

By 2009, the years of thrashing had taken their toll on the car’s chassis and Jeff pulled it from duty and rebuilt it into a tube chassis car around the original steel body. Eight years lat er it was ready to go, but there was something missing. Jeff wanted a nostalgic look for the Duster and that’s when he created “Miss Be haven” and equipped it with a wicked all-motor 15:1 compression, 451-inch big block Mopar that buzzes to 8,200rpm shifs and runs 8-sec ond quarter-mile hits.

Not being one to stand still, rumor has it that a 3,000-plus horsepower 545 cubic inch BAE blown alcohol Hemi will eventually be finding its way between the rails of the Duster, which will definitely add a whole new level of naughty to “Miss Behaven”. But before that, Jeff admits that he has a Pro Fogger nitrous system he’d like to give a whirl first. “ Te love for this car just never seems to go away,” he added with a smile. “It just continues to eat all 3 kids College funds…and soon their inheritance.”

Chassis wise, Jeff credits Bill Hickok with the masterful work on everything from the cage and chassis right through to the front and rear suspension, and most anything in between including all the electrical, dash, steering, Lexan, fuel distribution and even placement of parts such as seats and shifter. Plans are to upgrade to a front strut suspension in the near future.

Story: George Pich Photos: Randy Pugh

the world of fast street cars and builds, both small tire and Street, we see a lot of Stacked power adders, empty blow turbos, engines that barely lump to the idle etc etc. Tis good, if that’s what you’re into… RPM we are not! Hey, doing build-and-cruise thing is very long as you don’t pose to be something that you’re not. We want

horsepower, and although we’ve been duped in the past, we try and keep a careful eye out for the genuine ar ticle, the real deal, the not-fake rides that roam the streets and dragstrips of the world. “You know them – they are not owned by the guy ‘talking’ about horsepower orwhat his car can do – they are driven hard by the guys and girls that let their actions do the talking.”And this Corvette, as you might have guessed by now, is defi nitely not fake! Tis wild ride can mix it up on the strip and take first place at the show, all in the same day.

What can you say about the first impres sion of a blown Vette? The Boxvette sits low, lean and looks mean with the top of the carb hat towering over the roofline.

Introducing Gary Box and the “Boxvette”

Gary is a Custom Engine Builder & Owner of Box Performance Inc. “I grew up in Westlake, Ohio in the 1960s. As a 14-year-old kid my love of cars began afer my neighbor took me for a ride in his stick shif 1967 GTO,” explained Gary. “While we were cruising, an Olds 442 crossed our path and a race ensued. As a result, my love of racing was born while the song Little Bit O’Soul by the Music Explosion was playing on the radio.”

When he was of age to get behind the wheel, Gary learned to drive stick in a ’65 Impala, practicing until he mastered it, all the time with that thought of his neigh bor’s 4-speed GTO taking out the Olds… and Gary wanted to be just like him!

The car is painted by Gary in what was to become known at the local paint supply shop as “Box Black”.

Old school mixed with new cool. The Box vette follows the rules of Pro Street with its original body, big rear buns on Pro Stars and wheelie bars hangin’ out the back, but mixes it up a bit with a slick rear wing with carbon sides.

He soon bought and built a 1966 W30 442 that he street raced regularly. “My classmates and I would race each other to win the best parking spot in the stu dent lot. A prize that I enjoyed most of my high school days,” he added with a smile.

As Gary’s reputation for building fast cars grew, people started buying the en gines out of his cars and he would just build himself another one, and so on. “I would change engines like other people changed their clothes. I would sell my en gine to someone at the dragstrip on Fri day night, rip it out and have another one in the car by the next day. I would be back racing Saturday night!”

As an adult, Gary worked full time and flipped hot rods and built engines on the side, but eventually started his own gig, Box Performance Inc. Gary continued flipping cool cars until 1999, when he broke the first rule of flipping ‘do not fall in love with your flip’. “I broke that rule when I met the Boxvette. I spotted my fa vorite year Corvette for sale, a 1965, and I picked it up for a steal. I immediately be gan the process of making it mine with plans to make it a force to be reckoned with on the street and at the track.”

Filling up at the Pumps

And just a year later Gary was taking home wins at shows and the track! Te Boxvette’s first win was the Cleveland AutoRama’s Best Engi neered Street Machine Award in 2000 and the first track win was the Ohio’s Fastest Streetcar Shootout in 2001 at Nor walk Raceway Park. “Lit tle did I know the great times that were ahead for me and this car,” he added.

and suspension, using a 4-link coilover design on the back and a strut front setup. Te engine was moved farther back in the engine bay for bet ter weight transfer and Gary built a firewall and added steel floors for safe ty. One thing was for sure right from the start of the build, this Vette would see lots of street duty, so Gary made sure he installed a 16 gallon fuel cell (mounted in the stock location) for copious amounts of cruis ing. “I completed the build with a healthy blown big block Chevy backed by a Powerglide trans and Dana rear end, and the wheelie bars and para chute finished up the Pro Street look.”

Gary Box [right] with his son Cory, who is the only other person to drive the Corvette.

Te last touch was the paint and with almost every car Gary ever owned being black, black it was! In fact, Gary used so much black paint on his cars over the years that he simply had to order the paint as “Box Black”.

Once completed, the Corvette garnered a ton of attention and car folks would al ways ask “have you seen Box’s Vette yet?”

Well that sort of stuck, and by 2010 the car became known as the Boxvette.

Te Boxvette has had many engine combinations over the years, however it has always had a big block Chevy, and Gary feels that the blower engine fits it best; it makes solid power and grabs peo ple’s attention.

Gary Reese from Gary Reese Chassis took on the chassis and cage work. Gary (Box) completed most of the remaining work in his home garage and when it came to the interior he kept the factory style dash, glove box, door panels and 4-speed console in place.

Check out this compilation of Street Videos of the Boxvette

Te current big block is a 540-cube piece built by Gary topped with a Blower Shop 1471 huffer. Forged Eagle Specialties crank and rods pinned to custom Race Tec blow er pistons rotate inside, while a custom Box grind Erson roller camshaf actuates valvetrain activities. Profiler heads are fit ted with Erson valves, Erson springs, T&D shaf rockers and pushrods from Engine

The Boxvette has only seen a Gary Box-built big block throughout its life, everything from naturally aspirated, fuel injected and blown, but we agree with Gary, the blower says it best.

The engine has three different blower pulleys with the following written on them: “Party Pulley”, “Adult Pulley” and the “Grandpa Pulley”. For our photo shoot we were treated to the Party!

Gary Box’s 1965 Strip Chevy Corvette

Body & Paint:

Car was painted “Box Black” by Gary Box.

Chassis Modifications: Chassis built by Gary Reese from Reese Chassis.

Suspension (Front & Rear): 4-link with anti-roll bar and coilovers in the back and Strange struts in the front.

Engine: A Box 540 BBC with 1471 Blower Shop blower.

Rotating Assembly:

Forged Eagle Specialties crank & rods. Cus tom Race Tec blower pistons.

Cylinder Heads: Profiler heads, Erson valves, Erson springs, T&D shaft rockers and pushrods from En gine Parts Warehouse.

Custom Box grind Erson roller camshaft.

Induction & Fuel Delivery: Twin E85 Pro System’s SVI carbs.

Power Adder: The Blower Shop 14-71 blower. Transmission: BTE Powerglide Transmission with a Hughes Performance converter.

Rear: Dana 60 reaend and Moser axles. Brakes: JFC brakes rear / Strange 4 piston brakes in the front.

Tires & Wheels: Mickey Thompson ET Street Tires and Weld Pro Star rims 32x14 rears.

Headers: Midnight Fabrications.

Interior: Stock appearing with factory dash, glove box, door panels and console. Autometer gauges.

ET & MPH: 1/8th mile ET is 4.70 at 151 mph.

Most Unique Feature(s): The word that most people use to describe the Boxvette is “Evil”. Everyone appreciates

the monster blower surge created by this build. It has a recognizable sound that peo ple love. It looks like a real-life version of the Hot Wheel we all played with as a child. It sounds as crazy as it looks.

Thanks To:

My friend, Deano Bevelacqua and my son, Cory Box both have been by my side from the car’s concept. We have shared all the work, joy and tribulations together over the years.

Most Memorable Experience With The Car To Date:

My most memorable experience is not an event but the year 2017. We had just put the car back together after upgrading the suspension, brakes etc. We had been work ing hard to get the chassis back to where it worked good again. My son, Cory was online talking smack and got us a personal invite to Dodge’s Roadkill Nights. We had not been racing for a few years and we were

excited to get back on the road. Cory was confident and told his mom to bring her big purse because we were taking home the cash! As soon as I went down Woodward Av enue, I knew this was an event made just for the Boxvette. My car lives and breathes for the street. After 20 years of driving, I know this car like the back of my hand. We never made any adjustments to the car. We never even opened the hood, we just ran and ran until we won. We got a championship mo ment with champagne and a $10,000 prize for being the fastest car down Woodward Avenue that year. This little black car from Cleveland stole the show.

Two weeks after Roadkill Nights we got an invite to be part of the Ohio Outlaws team and we went to race against JJ Da Boss and his crew on Discovery Channel’s Memphis Street Outlaws. We picked Lee Robert and his car Nightforce. We lost to Lee but had a great time in the process. We could not have lost to a nicer guy.

After that we won some Cash Days and

even By water TV. We 1964 Boxvette. classic by over him. erator have vette. drive We going Equipment month streetcar, of the ever Boxvette & Accomplishments: - M - Roadkill - Cash - Dad’s Outlaw - M - Roadkill - P A - Car Cleveland - Illinois Judges Car Challenge US out ISC World Street Cleveland P Car Challenge Norwalk Fastest Cleveland Engineered

1965 Street/ Corvette

even came in second in a Pro Mod Race. By fall, we were heading down to Edge water Park in Cincinnati, to race on Call Out We were racing against Shannon Poole’s 1964 corvette, Redbull against our 1965 Boxvette. It was a beautiful race with two classic cars. Even though we lost to Redbull a donkey Lip, we were the only car in over 2 years to come that close to beating him. After the race, we took the camera op erator out for a cruise in the Boxvette. We have the best of both worlds with the Box vette. We can play with the race cars and drive home afterwards. We ended the year with the Boxvette going on the turntable at Summit Racing Equipment Store in Tallmadge, Ohio for the month of December. The Boxvette can be a streetcar, a race car or a show car any day the week. It has been the best car I have ever owned and 2017 was the greatest year.

Boxvette Highlights

Accomplishments:

Memphis Street Outlaws Season 3 Roadkill Night 2nd Place 2018 Cash Days Winner 2017 Dad’s Race Big Tire Outlaw Series 2nd Place 2017 Memphis Street Outlaws Season 1 2017 Roadkill Nights $10,000 1st Place 2017 owered Cleveland Autor-Rama 4th in 2013

Car Craft Dyno Challenge Cleveland Autorama 1st place 2007 Illinois Corvette FestJudges Choice Award-2005

Car Craft Magazines Dyno Challenge 1st Place-2004 US Fastest Streetcar Shoot out 2nd place 2002

ISCA Outstanding Street Machine-2001 World Auto Parts Best ProStreet Machine 2001

Cleveland Autorama 1st lace of Excellence 2001

Car Craft Magazines Dyno Challenge 1st Place 2001 Norwalk Raceway Park -Ohio’s Fastest Streetcar - 2001

Cleveland Autorama Best Engineered Street Machine -2000

Now you see me, now you don’t! Check out the single big throttle blade twin Pro Systems SV1 carbs atop the big block. It’s pretty safe to say that copious amounts of fuel and air are pulled into the mill during wide open throttle.

Parts Warehouse. Te ic ing on this big block cake is without a doubt the twin Pro Systems E85 SV1 car buretors.

Te boosted mill is backed by a capable BTE Powerglide transmission with Hughes convert er and a Moser-fortified Dana 60 transfers the pow er outward to big Mickeys, 32x14s to be exact.

According to Gary, the engine has three different blower pulleys with the following written on them: “Party Pulley”, “Adult Pul ley” and the “Grandpa Pulley”. “We change pul leys depending upon how much power the car needs to get down the road,” ex

plained Gary. “At one race, we beat everyone with the Grandpa Pulley. It was all we needed to get down the track that day.”

Aside from the cage, shifer, gauges and various race necessities, inside the Corvette is intentionally factory-appearing.

Gary lines up with Joe Barry and a speeding locomotive in Michigan!

The Boxvette breathes smoke

smoke after a solid burnout. Nothing can stop the Boxvette, not even rain!

Boxvette goes to Memphis!

Gary was sure to keep the factory style dash, glove box (which inciden tally was signed by John Force), door panels and, our favourite, the auto matic shifer has been expertly in stalled in a factory Corvette 4-speed center console.

“ Te Corvette came together easy,” Gary said. “I was able to do all the work in my own garage with the help of my friend Deano Bevelacqua and my son, Cory. Cory was only 7 years old when I bought the car and he fell in love with it too. Once we got the car together, he was a constant in my passenger seat and he had to sit on 2 phone books so he could see out the window.

He went everywhere with me. To this day, Cory is the only other person who has driven my car.”

When all is said and done, in its current form the Boxvette can easily street cruise in any weather, although rain creates some unique traction challenges, show up at a show and take the win, then slam down 4.70 eighthmile hits at 151MPH at will. So if you happen to come across it on the street or track, just remember one thing, this car is no poser.

BY JAY MISENER

With our rad installed and plumbed it was time to in stall a cooling fan and our Lokar throttle cable at the pedal to get our project closer to moving under its own power.

Has it been a year? Yep, you bet it has. My famous last words almost exactly 12 months ago (November 2021) were “As I said, it’s been busy but even with life and business tending to slow down the process of building some thing for ourselves, we are still rolling along and hope to have this thing fired up in the next couple weeks. With wiring for the fuel

pumps, water pump, fan etc getting attention next, it shouldn’t be long before we have the car running and rolling on its own, finally!” Well all that has happened and more, but as we have always said, at RPM we do things in a “Real Time, Real Life” scenario, so wel come to the world of building a killer drag car while balancing work, children and life!

We chose the Derale 18212 High Output 12-inch fan. We have the same fan on our Coyote drag car and it has never let us down. Check out the clean install and perfect fit!

Now let’s get down to business.

First off, let me say that as I write this we actually had a solid day to head to the track and test this in credible build, and the results were outstanding, but you will have to wait until next month to get the skinny on that. First, we need to cover the rest of the work we did leading up the first hit on our RPM Project Homegrown COPO.

A short year ago we installed our freshly built and dynoed 440 LS powerplant and Gforce GF5R trans into our project car. I say a short year ago because this year has absolutely flown by for us be ing extremely busy in the shop and short staffed for the first half of the year. Now, with a full staff back in action there has been a lit tle more time to start focusing on the COPO Project once again.

Once everything was checked and ready, we brought our Holley Dash to life once again. Options for your dash setup are virtually endless, so choose what you want and have fun with it!

We went through the rest of the car with a final check and needed to still bleed the brakes. I had my 8 year old daughter Jaiden help...gotta start ’em young! Shortly af terwards we started it and drove around the lot. I have to say it felt really good to finally be behind the wheel actu ally driving this thing.

With the car tucked into my home workshop I have been sneaking out there to work on it afer hours and on some weekends to try and get this bad boy running and mobile.

I started by hooking up the throttle pedal to the monster 2000cfm Holley EFI throttle body using a Lokar throttle cable kit part# tc-1000u and

bracket kit # xsrk-4000. Lo kar has been the most reliable brand of throttle cables ever since I have been in the busi ness, and that’s a while now. Te quality of their products and fit is top notch.

Once the throttle body was operational, I installed the Derale fan part #18212. Now for those of you that aren’t

familiar with this particular 12 inch fan, let me tell you that this is one the best fans I have ever used. I also run the same fan with the same Honda rad on my Coyote powered Fox Body and it never runs hot, in fact I truly believe I could street drive that set up no problem without overheating . Tis fan flows 1450cfm and the way it mounts is pretty slick. It still uses the rad push-thrust but between the rad and fan there are small rubber mount ing pucks with rubber teeth to help protect the rad from having the fan rub through the fins. You will want to make sure you use a good fan control ler or relay to power the fan as it draws 21 amps. We used a relay in our Leash Electronics wiring board and trigger it using the fan wire from our Holley HP system.

Once the fan was installed we fin ished roughing in the wiring for startup. I say ‘roughing it in’ because we usually make it functional first then once we have everything hooked up and working we will go back through everything and tidy it all up. Tere’s nothing glamorous about it, just wir ing, and since it’s all hidden behind the dash we’ll skip over the boring details and move on.

With the wiring completed, fan in

stalled and the throttle cable ready for duty, we turned our attention to mak ing sure everything worked properly before the initial fire up. It’s import ant to make sure the fuel pump, water pump and fan all work and you have no leaks before you hit the key for the first time. Once everything was checked, we loaded a base start-up tune in the car to see if it would fire up. Knowing that we checked everything through the entire project, we were confident this car would start straight off the hop, but still, that first start-up always puts us on edge. Te LS came to life immediately! (Check out our Video Below!!) If you have never been to this point in a project, it’s hard to explain the feeling of accomplishment. Mobility was our next step, so I had to call in the pro…my 8 year old daughter to come out to the work shop and help me bleed the brakes. I showed her the sequence to pump the brake pedal while I opened the bleed ers and bled the air out of the system, and of course she took to it right away. A short while later we had the Cama ro driving around the lot for the first time under its own power. Tis might not seem like much but it is a huge vic tory for this project. If you have been following our Project Homegrown

COPO, this build started 5 years ago with literally a battered up 5th gen Ca maro shell that we found sitting on a skid in a local salvage yard. Ten af ter it was bodyworked and painted, in order to free up shop space at work, it was moved to my home garage to work on when a stereo that was sit ting in front of the car shorted out and caught on fire literally 2 feet in front of it. So, while all projects have their ups and downs, to say this car has had a rough life would be an understate ment. But here we are, finally ready rock with our wild COPO tribute.

Now that we had the car running and driving, for our next article we’ll head back to the shop at Misener Mo torsports to make some brackets on our CNC plasma table as well as install the interior and get the car ready to go on the chassis dyno. And then, the mo ment we’ve all been waiting for, from the chassis dyno we’ll hit the track!

SOURCES

Lokar Performance Products www.lokar.com/ Derale Performance www.derale.com

2022THE YEAR IN REVIEW

What a year its been! With so much going on, it’s been reassuring to know that you could al ways turn to the pages of RPM Magazine to escape the madness and lose yourself in a world of Ex treme Horsepower, cut ting edge performance, and memorable customs. So, it is with great plea sure that we take a picto rial journey back through 2022 and give you an other look at some of the eye-popping builds that graced our pages. In the meantime, we’d like to offer our thanks for your continued support.

January 2022

January 2022

Rod and Tina Saboury’s Blown Hemi Pro

Josh Forbes’ Big Block Nitrous 1965

Photos: David Gates

Photos: Eddie Maloney

Pro Street 1963 Corvette

1965 Chevrolet Nova II

February 2022

Allen Hurley’s Twin Turbo 1967 Ford Fairlane

Photos: Wes Taylor

February 2022

Gene Wilson’s Street/Strip 2015 NISSAN GTR

Photos: Wes Taylor

March2022

Bob Clayton’s Pro275 1967 Shelby Mustang GT500

Photos: David Gates

March 2022

Efren Santiago and Jenny De Jesus’ 1981 Turbo Toyota Starlet

Photos: Eddie Maloney

March 2022

Glenn Hamilton’s Street/Strip 1967 Plymouth Barracuda

Photos: David Gates

STICKEY MICKEYS

April 2022

April 2022

Craig Amptmeyer’s Turbocharged X275 1970 Chevelle

Chris Michael’s 1969 Twin Turbo Chevrolet Nova Grudge Car

Photos: Steven Taylor

Photos: Eddie Maloney

April 2022

Travis Mangum’s 2001 Honda S2000

Photos: West Taylor december

May 2022

Donnie Phillips 1987 Olds Cutlass 442 Grudge Race Car Driven by Chris Kenney

Photos: Wes Taylor

May 2022

Chris Miller’s Millertime Racing 1932 “HARD TIME” Ford 5 Window Coupe

Photos: Patrick Williams

June 2022

Guillermo Suarez Twin Turbo 2010 Dodge Challenger T/A

Photos: Eddie Maloney

June 2022

Rey Rubio Matos’ Nitroused 2007 Chevy Colorado

Photos: Eddie Maloney

July 2022

Mark Rogers Turbocharged 2003 Ford Mustang Cobra

Photos: Wes Taylor

July 2022

Luke Glass’s Twin Turbo LS 1966 Chevy II Nova

Photos: Wes Taylor

August 2022

Blaine Huffman’s Street / Strip 1979 Chevrolet Camaro

Photos: Randy Pugh

August 2022

Tim Donathen’s 1978 Coyote Powered Ford Fairmont Station Wagon

Photos: Eddie Maloney

September 2022

Chris Baily – Baily’s Hyperformance 2018 Dodge Challenger SRT Demon

Photos: Eddie Maloney

September 2022

Billy Brown’s Supercharged 1995 GMC Sonoma

Photos: Wes Taylor

October 2022

Stephen Eades’ Turbocharged 1978 Datsun 280Z

Photos: Wes Taylor

October 2022

Bill and Willie Maus’ Pro Street 1964 Ford Falcon Futura

Photos: Eddie Maloney

November 2022

Tater Vaughn’s Street/Strip 2017 Chevrolet Camaro 1SS

Photos: Eddie Maloney

November 2022

Domenic Figuglietti, Jr.’s turbocharged 1967 Ford Mustang

Photos: Eddie Maloney

November 2022

Phil and Debbie Quinn’s 1955 Chevrolet Pro Street 210 Sedan

Photos: Annette Bauer