After finishing second in points at Cecil County Dragway and fourth in points at Atco Raceway in the Outlaw 10.5 class during the 2012 season, northeast player Steve Gorman decided that it was time to make a few changes in his program. After discussion with Jason Enos and the team at Victory Racecraft, Gorman decided to drop his car off to have a complete revamp done of the race-winning machine. Victory has assembled quite the team of craftsmen in Jamie Miller, Billy Gilsbach, and Timmy Baptista, and they quickly went to work disassembling the car in preparation for a new powerplant.

Gorman made the call to ProLine Racing Engines for one of their famous 540 cubic inch 481X engines, to be motivated by a pair of Precision Turbo 88mm Pro Mod turbochargers and running on alcohol, in an attempt to take advantage of the weight break afforded to those units – the car can run at 2800 pounds given the rules. A two-speed Rossler transmission will be in the tunnel, and the Victory Racecraft team is hard at work re-configuring the car to get the engine location correct to take advantage of the added power. 

As the engine location will change, it’s up to Miller and Gilsbach to redesign all of the tubing to not only make the car perform properly, but also easy to work on at the track. Victory head honcho Enos explained, “Steve’s car was good for 4-teens last year, but we think 3.90’s will be no problem with this new setup. We’re happy to have the chance to work with Steve to improve his car for the new combo. Jamie tuned the car all last season, and we’re looking forward to getting it done. Since the 481X is capable of producing an estimated 4,000 horsepower in this configuration,we are redoing a section of the floors, adding a double framerail, new trans tunnel, headers, turbo piping, as well as new tanks for the alcohol and dry sump tank.”

Stay tuned – we’ll bring you more updates on Steve’s car as they become available – the team is shooting for a May completion date if all goes well.