Jeff Lutz Breaks in New ’57 Chevy for HOT ROD Drag Week
The Street Outlaws and street-car racer makes new build’s first public passes with sights set on 5 seconds.
Jeff Lutz wants you to know that you’re living through the Golden Age of Horsepower. Well, not in words so much; Jeff speaks softly and has a big heart. But his latest car, a bright-yellow ‘57 Chevy, debuted August 11 at Beech Bend Raceway and it speaks volumes.
Car Craft Magazine teased it a bit with some black-and-white photos a few days prior. However, Lutz unveiled the car at the Tri-Five Nationals and Car Craft’s John McGann filled in the technical details. The paint is gorgeous and the car, headed for HOT ROD Magazine Drag Week next month, will be the third monstrous ‘57 Lutz has made his name in.
It’s not all looks, as you might have guessed from the video above. On a “break-in” pass, we reckon Lutz ran quicker than 7.0 seconds. Like the Mad Max ‘69 Camaro Pro Mod that Lutz won Drag Week ‘16 in, this new build runs a twin-turbo 540 cubic-inch Big-Block Chevy with just 9.0:1 compression. However, Lutz has upped the turbo size from 88 millimeters to 98 millimeters.
That setup? Yeah, it’s good for a peak of about 3,500 horsepower on methanol. Lutz famously engineered his Drag Week cars to run dual fuel systems several years ago. This runs the same setup with a separate ECM and fuel tank. On the street, the engine runs happily on regular old Toyota Corolla-grade 87 octane. Remember what we were saying about the Golden Age of Horsepower? That’s simply astounding.
The ‘57 wears a few steel pieces from a well-used Chevy 210 as well as aftermarket steel fenders. However, a tube-frame chassis and cleverly used carbon fiber mean an as-raced weight of 2,360 pounds. In other words: 1.5 horsepower per pound.
Golden. Age. Of. Horsepower.
Drag-racing an LS engine? Talk about it on the forums.
To date, nobody has run a five-second pass during HOT ROD Drag Week. However, we figure Lutz just might have the bright-yellow bullet in his revolver this time around. After that, it’s just a matter of surviving 1,000 road miles throughout the week.