Drag Illustrated Issue 131, April 2018 | Page 71

because they’re noisy and rough on parts, but I had a buddy that went racing with me and he kept saying ‘turbo, turbo,’ and with all my bad luck I just gave in,” he recalls of when and why the switch occurred. His R & R Speed & Machine Shop-built 436 ci engine, topped with SB2 NASCAR heads, was blessed with boost, as a single 106mm turbocharger with a 94mm reducer was installed. Having had a personal best in the low 5.20-second zone while on nitrous, Stack hoped for a big change with the new boosted setup. As expected, he clocked the first-ever four-second EZ Street elapsed time in October of 2006 when he ran 4.97 at 153.55 at an ORSCA event in Albany, Georgia. “It was quite an accomplishment at the time because I was the first car to go 4s on radials,” he adds. Stack’s momentum continued, and he had an awesome season in 2007, traveling extensively and winning lots of races. AMERICAN BADASS Shane Stack proudly carries the American flag on the “Thrillbilly”, the 1986 Monte Carlo he’s driven since high school. Wanting to keep evolving, he decided to rebuild his Monte Car- lo in 2009. With the popularity of the radial tire movement picking up and cars getting progressively quicker or faster, he knew he had to do something to stay competi- tive. As such, Stack switched from a single turbo setup to twin 91mm units from Turbonetics. Towards the latter part of the year, a quick change to a set of Precision turbos, though, meant even more changes for Stack. “The motor couldn’t handle the power from the new turbos, and we broke two engines right away,” he bluntly states of how his bullet couldn’t handle the PTE ammo. Stack found himself picking