Resurrecting '90's Nostalgia Top Fuel Dragster

[Calkins]

Hello from Northcentral Iowa!

In March of 2022 I bought myself a project. A 1997 Hal Canode built front engine Top Fuel dragster rolling chassis. It has been bought and sold many times over the years, but it was only raced for about one full season. The car was originally ordered and campaigned by Dale Suhr of Waterloo, Iowa. It made it's first pass during testing on August 10, 1997. It's last pass was September 27, 1998. I originally planned on building a weekend warrior. But, over the past year and a half, I decided to rebuild it into a Nostalgia Top Fueler that would have ran in the late 1990s to early 2000s. Blown Nitro iron 392, direct drive, and similar era parts. 6.00 @ 250 is the end goal. (I have crewed on these cars in the past, and have a great support system from the teams still running in that class) The best pass I have found while Dale owned the car was 6.44 @ 217.60 at Great Lakes Dragaway, Labor Day weekend in 1998. It probably ran better numbers at Indy and Columbus that year, but I have yet to find run info for that. Keep in mind this was Dale's first year running and tuning a blown Nitro car. He ran a similar combo in the next chassis, and was down into the 6.20s, before switching to a Donovan with aluminum heads. In 1997, the class ET record was 6.04. So, I should be able to achieve my goals, given the advances in parts in the past twenty five years.

Anywho, I am still tracking down some key parts before it heads to the chassis shop for a clean bill of health, some safety updates, and some personal changes. I am still a good two or three years away from making noise.

1998 - Indy.jpg

Day One - Picking Up Car In Ohio.jpg