In the half mile racing world, you see a huge variety of cars participating. You have everything from your average Joe with a bolt-on Mustang who just wants to go fast, to millionaire’s in Ferrari’s and Lamborghini’s, and all the way up to race teams aiming to break world records.
What really makes this genre of racing interesting, however, is the unique builds. Since the events often take place on unprepped, airport runways, the majority of the participating vehicles are often street cars.
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The most popular platforms tend to be modified Nissan GTR’s, Corvette’s, Hellcat’s, and other popular performance street cars. Every once in a while, though, you get something funky that comes out of the woodwork, like a 1961 Buick Skylark with over 1400+ horsepower.
Unlike others who convert ¼ mile drag cars to run a half mile setup, this Skylark was built solely with the purpose of half mile racing. It boasts a 427 cubic inch motor with two huge turbochargers on it and a built TH400 automatic transmission.
The goal for the entire project was to do 200mph in the half mile. In the video you can see that despite being its first ever half mile outing at the Shift-S3ctor’s Pikes Peak Airstrip Attack, and after a handful of 190+mph passes inching their way closer, they finally were victorious with a 200.89mph pass.
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We can’t imagine the time, effort, planning, and funding that went into this build, but was substantial.
It’s amazing to see goals attained in the motorsports world, and it is more amazing to see this very unique vision come to life. The best part about it; they drove the car home from the event. Now that is what you call awesome. Watch the video to see it in action!