Absurd Dragster Has 8 Cylinders, 2 Tracks, 1 Blower. Why?
In its earliest stages, motorsports existed to prove that the automobile was a viable object. Now, it has evolved into an endless quest to answer questions that do not necessarily need to be answered, though we are all the better for knowing the answers. Case in point, this ridiculous supercharged V-8 rail dragster with twin snowmobile tracks instead of big slicks. What reason could this thing have to exist?
No race car needs to exist, so I’ll just move right past that question and embrace the absurdity. The chassis was built by Mike Bos Chassis Craft out of tubular steel and was further modified by Dave Klock. The front features pushrod suspension hidden under the fiberglass body and the rear suspension is a traditional solid-mounted arrangement. The cockpit appears to be standard dragster fare as well, with a snug roll cage, large tachometer, steering yoke, sequential shifter, and two pedals.
That shifter and skinny pedal are connected to a small-block Chevrolet and three-speed automatic transmission. The 350-cubic-inch V-8 wears a B&M supercharger topped with dual Holley carburetors and a Hilborn-style air scoop, plus upturned headers that keep the exhaust way from the tracks that flank the engine on either side.
That’s right, tracks. The setup here borrows a lot of parts from snowmobiles that were configured to take power from a Ford 9-inch differential sitting in the dragster chassis. This arrangement seemed dubious to me until I started talking to a few “sled head” friends. I’m not a snowmobile guy, despite living in North Michigan, and it just seemed unlikely that these tracks could handle the power that a small-block can put out, especially a blown one.
Hagerty’s own Greg Ingold set me straight. Modern snowmobiles, he pointed out, are not much more than superbikes with tracks instead of slicks. Supercharged or turbocharged four-cylinder sleds can make power numbers that require commas. Plus, look at the engine setup again; that 350 is nothing radical. The blower pulley is a decent size, so it’s likely not putting a ton of boost into the cylinders, meaning this rig is not the quickest, as evidenced by a 16-year-old video clip found on YouTube:
This thing does one thing better than any straight-laced snowmobile or dragster could ever do: Draw attention. The dragster was built as a promotional item for Bob Weaver Motorsports in New York, and we’d say it’s working. At the time of writing, the current bid on Bring a Trailer plus the cost of a paint job is far less than you would spend to create something that would grab this many eyeballs. It’s hard not to call this wild dragster a deal, whether you’re looking for the most absurd shop art or a fun novelty on the frozen lakes. Honestly, I’m curious how it would do in a mud bog.
This dragster didn’t need to exist, but here it is—and wow, is it awesome.
