Monty Root began collecting parts to build his own fuel altered street rod when he was 16. Now 48, he says the car took too long to build, but was well worth the wait, making lots of noise and fulfilling his need for speed in short, bone-rattling bursts.
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Mike Berry / The Wichita Eagle
Power is supplied by a 565 cubic inch big block Merlin engine running an 8-71 Mooneyham blower, a pair of Predator carburetors and straight methanol racing fuel. Just how much power? "A lot," says the car's owner.
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Mike Berry / The Wichita Eagle
Huge Mickey Thompson tires dominate the rear view of the street altered; an 8-gallon aluminum fuel tank perched on a wooden rack supplies fuel to the thirsty power plant up front.
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Mike Berry / The Wichita Eagle
Keeping things authentic, Root chose a classic Vertex magneto to fire the air/fuel charge after it has been properly squeezed by the Mooneyham blower.
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Mike Berry / The Wichita Eagle
The interior accommodations are Spartan, to say the least. Formed metal seats are outfitted with a pair of race-ready safety harnesses and driver and passenger are squeezed inside a full roll cage.
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Mike Berry / The Wichita Eagle
A Walker radiator does what cooling is necessary, although the alcohol fuel naturally keeps engine temperatures down. The front axle is a 4-inch dropped Super Bell unit suspended by a beefed up set of Speedway transverse leaf springs to help support the weight of the massive cast iron Merlin block.
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Mike Berry / The Wichita Eagle
Instrumentation is pretty basic, with Auto Meter gauges set in the thin dash panel and a big playback tachometer mounted on the roll cage's down-bar. The miniature steering wheel has to be slipped off to allow the driver access to his seat.
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Mike Berry / The Wichita Eagle
Bare bones components get the job done inside the fiberglass body tub: a race-prepped 2-speed Powerglide transmission is tucked under the floor, shifted by a B&M racing mechanism. The simplified steering setup consists of a reversed Corvair steering box and a 10-inch steering wheel.
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Mike Berry / The Wichita Eagle
A fuel-altered has to have a wing and Root chose this Speedway sprint car nose wing for the job, mounting it atop the full roll cage. Note the two different widths of the side air spill plates, a giveaway of the unit's dirt track origins.
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Mike Berry / The Wichita Eagle
Weld racing wheels support a massive set of Mickey Thompson 33x19-1/2x15 tires in the back. The Positraction 12-bolt Chevy rear end is loaded with a set of 4:56 gears and held in place by a set of traction bars designed by the car owner.
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Illustrating how far back the parts collection process goes, the front wheels are Bob Glidden-signed Weld racing wheels from the 1980s, when Glidden dominated Pro Stock competition.
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Air delivery is handled by a newspaper delivery box that sits atop a pair of Predator racing carbs which feed the methanol to the supercharger at the rate of 930 cfm each.
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Mike Berry / The Wichita Eagle
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