 A shifter from B&M controls a Rossler ‘glide with a 1.80 first gear. A Biondo box is in place for bracket action. |
 The 2.5 inch custom-made tube headers dump into the collector. |
Matlock went “Old School” and chose an engine builder with roots in the Southern doorslammer tradition, Charlie Buck, to build him a 2,000-hp nitrous oxide-injected, all-aluminum 706-inch big block for this car. One of St. Louis’s most famous racers, speed shop owner Matt Johnson, who teamed up with former Pro Mod driver Tim McAmis to win the first IHRA Pro Mod World Championship, is one of Matlock’s best friends and along with Larry Loraine helps Randy keep the engine and chassis happy. The team must be doing something right as at the first ADRL race the Shoebox ran a best of 4.38/162 in the eighth mile.
Matlock’s son Cory is crew chief on the car. “It is a thrill to race against the caliber of cars and drivers they have at ADRL competition, and to qualify at my first race was unreal, but it is even a bigger thrill for me to race with my 17-year-old son crewing the car.”
Let’s see, that means that the first ’57 rolled off the line about 40 years before his son was born and one year before Randy was born but classics like the 1957 Chevy and a father and sons love of racing always stand the test of time.
A Santhuff shock and Simpson disc brakes help control and stop the car after a 180-mph lap.
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| A pair of Chuck Nuytten Dominators sit on top of a fabricated manifold. A Speedtech nitrous system is used with three stages of nitrous regulated by an NOS multi-stage controller. One 40-lb bottle feeds the system, which is activated by the driver. | |
The 706-inch all-aluminum bullet was built by Charlie Buck using a Donovan block, Sonny Bryant crankshaft and Pontiac-style aluminum heads. The engine must be low maintenance as the only info Mr. Matlock put on his spec sheet regarding the internals of the engine was that it had aluminum connecting rods, 3/8ths push rods, titanium valves and 12.7-1 compression, and made peak hp at 8000 rpm.! Mr. Buck must have sworn him to secrecy on the rest.
The ignition is by MSD (7530T) as is the coil and distributor. A set of Autolite AR 3932 plugs are fired through Moroso plug wires. Moroso also delivered the oil pump, dry sump tank and “puke” tank.