NASCAR ‘Dale Truck’ Getting a New LS7 Transplant
When a NASCAR prepped LS1 isn’t good enough, why not throw in a high compression LS7?
If you’re a fan of YouTuber Cleetus McFarland, you’re already familiar with one of his more awesome projects – the NASCAR “Dale Truck.” McFarland acquired the former race pickup and proceeded to take it on a road trip and even drag race it. Because somehow, in the state of Mississippi, this thing is totally street legal. Well, with working lights, that is. But now it looks like old Dale’s getting a brand new engine to replace its original LS1.
Why mess with this lumpy lump of NASCAR goodness, you ask? Well, why not? This lightweight, caged, race-prepped pickup is already fast. But why not make it faster? And as McFarland so eloquently notes, “how much better would it sound with a high compression LS7?” We’d guess, probably better. So while we’re typing this, McFarland has the brand new mill under construction at Texas Speed and Performance.
The very same shop that build McFarland’s aluminum, twin-turbo, 427 cube Corvette go Kart dubbed Leroy. And as much as they’ve thrashed that car without any problems, it makes sense to stick with the same builder. Heck, they’ve done dozens of burnouts, autocross, drifting, and made multiple 8-second quarter mile passes with it already.
The debate over power adders raged on for a while. But in the end, McFarland wants to retain the NASCAR truck’s heritage with naturally-aspirated power. Something that “revs to the moon” and makes “a ton of N/A power” with lots of low-end torque, specifically. Hence, a high compression LS7. Even better, they’re going to tow a trailer between a couple of drag strips to test it out.
The idea, however, is to not specifically modify this NASCAR truck for drag racing. In fact, they want to continue to circle track it. Sounds like a fun, killer project to us, so stay tuned.
