Don Bowles has the prototype car and if he gets his wish, he’ll have a class to race it in.

The vision, according to the former NHRA class racer, focuses on the late model production vehicles powered by engines purchased directly by NASCAR engine suppliers.

His 2008 Mustang carries a 358-inch Ford engine built by Roush-Yates and weighs in the neighborhood of 3,300 pounds. That’s about 100 pounds lighter than the factory GT model and did we mention that it covers the quarter-mile in just a tad over nine seconds?

Don Bowles has the prototype car and if he gets his wish, he’ll have a class to race it in.

The vision, according to the former NHRA class racer, focuses on the late model production vehicles powered by engines purchased directly by NASCAR engine suppliers.

His 2008 Mustang carries a 358-inch Ford engine built by Roush-Yates and weighs in the neighborhood of 3,300 pounds. That’s about 100 pounds lighter than the factory GT model and did we mention that it covers the quarter-mile in just a tad over nine seconds?

Bowles has a vision of introducing the major American manufacturers back into drag racing in order to stir a bit of yesteryear excitement similar to the days when he class raced against some of NASCAR’s finest.

“The idea is to bring the musclecar back like the sixties,” Bowles said. “I had one of the first 427's in '63 and then a Thunderbolt that I got in the end of '63 for '64. The high-riser and it was a good car until they got the Hemis perfected. At the end of the year, we were outruning the Hemis at the beginning of the year, at the end we need a two car length head start to hold them off. They got faster and faster. That was fun racing. I raced Richard Petty, Fireball Roberts when they were boycotting NASCAR.”

Bowles says he’s not the only one thinking along the lines of NASCAR engines in today’s modern muscle.

“I got a call from Petty, not from Richard, but from one of his people back in the spring, they were looking to take the NASCAR motor from the new Dodge Charger to do the musclecar thing, since GM didn't build their 7-liter because of economics and criticism about fuel economy,” added Bowles. 

Bowles is lobbying the NMCA to make the concept a reality and in the meantime he adds that NASCAR suppliers such as Hendrick and Evernham are looking for ways to get involved.

Stick or Automatic? Bowles is open to anything and everything in that department. If Bowles has his say, let them both run, with no weight break afforded.
 
He would just love to see the concept turn into reality. Back in his Modified eliminator days, a 9.19 was a potent run.

“It would have been faster than Modified Production, it would have been Pro Stock,” he said.

That made Bowles smile.

 

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