Project 40: World’s Fastest Street Rod The Original Pro Street Outlaw—Part 2: The Feature
May 2021 • Photos courtesy Lorenzini family, Marc Gewertz, Tony Thacker, video: William Teets
Presented by RatTrapRacing.com & USAutomotive.co.ukIf there is one memorable era in the history of hot rodding it is the mid-80’s trend for spectacurlarly fast, fat, fendered Fords. The movement coincided with the birth of nostalgia drag racing that left the line around 1980.
Folks were dragging out old racecars and burning up that quarter mile just for fun and perhaps a trophy T-shirt. However, racers are racers, and a battle ensued as to who had the world’s fastest street rod. In the orange corner was ‘Fat’ Jack Robinson with his giant orange ’46 Ford and in the black corner was Jerry Moreland with his wicked black ’40 Ford Tudor Sedan. These were two big fat Fords but they were blistering the strip in under 10 seconds—unheard of speeds for street cars of the 80’s.
“I didn’t really think about my age or sex, though the men probably did.” Said Mendy Fry who dominated the early years of nostalgia drag racing at age 17.
When we asked Champion nostalgia racer Mendy Fry about those times she said, “I was just 17 at the beginning of nostalgia racing but I didn’t really think about my age or sex, though the men probably did. We just hit that class and dominated at the perfect time. The effort got so much ink, I was really shocked. We kicked ass for three years.
“All those cars weighed so much and our little ’27 weighed only 1800 lbs so they changed the rules and enforced a minimum weight. My dad Ron and I bolted in 600 lbs of weight and went to tech. They said it had to be permanent and not bolted in. We didn’t have a welder so we took the jumper cable from our starter pack and arc’d every nut. When we went back to tech they argued that it was not permanent. Roy handed them a 9/16" wrench and said, ‘You try to undo it.’”
Everybody had their favorite. Sadly, Fat Jack’s big orange, driven by Dave Condit, made a sharp right turn at Baylands/Fremont strip in 1987 and was destroyed. Moreland’s Project ’40, on the other hand survived and is now owned by Gary and son Scott Lorenzini who watched the fat attack when he was just 10 years old.
The instigator, the late Bob Bauder.
Project 40 began as a dream of builder Bob Bauder. It became a possibility when customer Jerry Moreland came calling and it became a reality when they found a 46,000-mile, rust free, original paint, Arizona two-door at Pomona for $10K. From there it went to Tom Vogele’s Stanton, CA two-car garage where, Tom and Al Rocha boxed the original 1940 frame but narrowed the rear 20 inches to accommodate a Halibrand Champ quick-change located by Alston 4-bar links with Koni coil-overs. Up front, Vogele built a MacPherson strut IFS that was tied into the roll cage.
For power the team turned to Sonny Bryant and Dave Butner of BryantRacing.com who supplied a monster (for the day) 466.87 ci big-block Chevy based on a 490 ci P&S Pro Stock aluminum block otherwise known as a Yenko block. Atop the block Bryant stacked a BDS intake, an 8-71 Mert Littlefield blower and Enderle injection. C14 race gas was pumped by an electric Holley fuel pump (nobody had to stand there and squirt fuel into the intake).
First outing for the black attack was May 4, 1985 at Baylands Raceway where Moreland recorded an out-of-the-box 9.35 and the next day a speed of 148.27 mph. Pretty amazing for shakedown runs.
Smokey, snakin’ burnouts and twisted, wheels-up take offs had the crowd on their feet and they loved it all the more when it turned what were for the day blazingly consistent sub-10 times at 150 mph. Project 40 was a huge hit, championing the ‘Pro-Street’ look with its 10-inch kick-up and 14.5x32-inch Goodyears tucked under the stock fenders.
Bob Bauder’s son Danny, who was there with Scott Lorenzini recalls, “When that thing rolled out of the staging lanes it got your attention. It was wicked, loud, and nasty and Jerry could drive. In the second 1/8-mile he just hauled ass.”
Vehicle: Jerry Moreland’s Project 40
Builder: Tom Vogele
Weight: 3000 lbs without driver
Owners: Gary and Scott Lorenzini
Best performance: 9.35/165 mph
• Engine: ’84 aluminum P&S big-block Chevy known as a Yenko
• Size: 466.87 ci
• Bore/stroke: 4.31/4.00
• Horsepower: 840 @ 6500 rpm
• Heads: ’84 Chevrolet ported and polished by Bryant Racing
• Intake: BDS
• Supercharger: Littlefield 8-71 12-percent overdriven, 12 lbs boost
• Injection: Enderle
• Fuel pump: Holley electric
• Fuel: C14 race gas
• Pistons: Venolia 8:1
• Crank: BryantRacing
• Valvetrain: Milodon gear drive
• Cam: BryantRacing
• Valvetrain: Crane
• Valves: Manley 2.25 intake, 1.94 exhaust
• Ignition: MSD
• Torqeconverter: 9-inch, 3500 rpm stall speed
• Trans: TH400 by Champ Converters
• Instruments: Stewart Warner
• Steering wheel: LeCarra
• Steering box: ’72 Pinto rack and pinion
• Front suspension: Strange MacPherson SS3403 struts
• Front breaks: Stranger rotors, JFZ calipers
• Rear end: 9-inch Ford (replaced the Halibrand QC)
• Final ratio: 5.14:1
• Axles: Summers Brothers
• Rear suspension: Adjustable 4-link
• Rear shocks: Koni coil-overs, 140 psi coils
• Rear brakes: Strange rotors, JFZ calipers
• Master cylinder: Tilton dual
• Wheelie bars: Alston spring loaded
• Wheelbase: 112 inches
• Wheels: Halibrand 15x8 (front), 15x12 (rear)
• Tires: Pirelli 225-50P7 (front), Goodyear 14.5x32 (rear)