Bantam Roadster Is an LS-powered Tribute to Drag Racing History
1932 Bantam Roadster is a tribute to the legendary Altered drag racing class and hosts a Magnuson supercharged LS engine
The Altered class was an NHRA drag racing class that was done away with in 1976. Many people referred to Altered cars as a “poor man’s dragster.” They were essentially stock fuel, and alcohol class cars with parts removed that would disqualify them from those respective classes. Many of the cars appear to be short rail-type dragsters with exposed engines and frame assemblies forward of the body. While the class was killed off years ago, it hasn’t left the heart of drag racers and racing fans.
For example, Dragzine recently brought this Altered tribute car to our attention. It came about when owner Tim Kish set out to build a reliable bracket racing car. However, he wanted it to be a bit unique. The result is this highly-modified 1932 Bantam Roadster.
An LS by chance
Though Kish is a fan of Mopar, he was offered this Lingenfelter 405 cubic inch LS for a great price. He considered a late model Hemi engine but found the LS to be way more affordable. Additionally, he was chosen by Magnuson to show off their LS3 Hot Rod kit. Though, it did require a bit of modification to fit.
“To make the kit fit, we are running intake port adapter plates with the plans to upgrade later to true LS3 heads and a bigger cam. The Magnuson LS3 Hot Rod kit uses the same Eaton R2650 TVS rotating assembly, blower housing, and 109mm throttle body as the COPO engine while using an LS3 manifold rather than the LS7 of the COPO. To simplify the packaging and reduce the environmental variables for bracket racing, we opted to remove the massive intercooler core provided by Magnuson in favor of relying solely on the cooling properties of the methanol fuel we’re using,” says Kish
Additionally, the LS is mated to an ATI Powerglide transmission with a Coan Engineering torque converter. This combo makes for an easy to run and maintain bracket car.
It runs in the family
Kish got into drag racing because of his father, who was actually competing in the US Nationals when he was born. Though he started his racing career early in life with a Dodge Neon, he has graduated to bigger and faster things. He, like his father, competes in the Super Stock class. However, the drag racing lineage doesn’t stop there. Kish’s children race as well, and that is what sparked the idea for the Bantam build.
“My kids both run junior dragsters; NHRA doesn’t run juniors and Super Stock together at any events in Division 3, and with IHRA’s class racing program going away a few years ago we decided we needed to build a bracket car so we could all race at the same events. My kids are old enough now to do their own between-round maintenance, so that helps make it all work. We wanted to build a lightweight, low-maintenance bracket car, and since I’ve always run unique combinations, a dragster wasn’t something I wanted to build. The engineer in me likes to be different, so going with an altered made perfect sense,” says Kish.
Big engine, small chassis
Currently, the car is set up to run top ET bracket racing in the 1/8th mile. Though Kish says as they get comfortable with the setup, they made add power and run it in the Jeg’s Super Quick series. That series uses a 4.5-second eighth-mile index. Super quick, indeed!
Overall, this Bantam Roadster is an awesome little brute. It is super cool to see someone keeping the old-school stuff at the front of their mind. Putting modern tech to a classic idea always results in some pretty fascinating things. We hope to see this thing in action in person someday!
Photos: Dragzine
