Down in Australia, where they take their drag racing every bit as seriously as we do here in the states, they just do everything a little bit different. And when we say different, what we really mean is exciting. This goes for their Pro Stock division, as well, which one might argue isn’t near as intriguing as the 500 and 800-plus cubic inch Pro Stock cars we have here in the NHRA [1], ADRL [2], and X-DRL [3], but that’s all a case of personal preference. A fact that can’t be argued, however, is just how downright impressive the Pro Stock cars that compete in the Australian National Drag Racing Association truly are.
[4]With a limitation of “just” 400 cubic inches, these small block-powered rockets put down some incredible numbers. This is in large part to a lot of crossover technology and engine development work by some of the top NHRA Pro Stock engine builders here in the states, including the folks at Reher-Morrison [5], who finds ways to squeeze mind-boggling power and torque numbers out of an engine that, while not stock by any means, is at least within the realm of a production engine in terms of sheer cubic inches. Down 100 cubes to their NHRA counterparts, the ANDRA Pro Stock class has see racers dip into the 6.90’s.
The Reher-Morrison team, working with Aussie Gerry Parente and his Parente Motorsports team on the powerplant for their Pro Stock entry, recently flogged the 400-inch bullet on the engine dyno and captured this video clip that’s perhaps most impressive because you can hear the small block bullet as it’s taken north of 10 grand, all the way up to 10,500 RPM, where it spits out a staggering 1,150 horsepower. What a frontrunner 500 cubic inch motor makes on the dyno is a we-could-tell-you-but-we’d-have-to-kill-you fact, but rumors in years past suggested in the neighborhood of 1,350 horsepower, so 1,150 from 100 less cubes is quite impressive any way you look at it.
We still miss the Pro Stock Trucks and their high-winding small block powerplants, so we’d hate to have to pick between the 400 and 500 cubic inch variants, but they’re both equally as entertaining, even if one is some half a second quicker than the other.