Return of the Blackbird Vega

There was never a moment's thought that Street Outlaw Shane McAlary would not come back. And there was never any doubt that his return would be behind the wheel of another Blackbird Chevrolet Vega, featuring a massive F-3R-121 ProCharger force-feeding a 2000 horsepower Gen 1-style small block V8.

No one would have blamed the McAlarys had Shane called it quits after a harrowing top-end crash on a street-legal Sayre, Oklahoma "no prep" strip that Shane helped set up. The McAlarys theorize that a rod end snapped on the Blackbird Vega's third-member locating wishbone. The suddenly rear-steering Blackbird violently yawed off-course and into a gut-wrenching series of flips and rolls at over 150 mph. The crash destroyed the race car and resulted in a $40,000 air ambulance flight for Shane. Other than a severe concussion, and a few minor injuries, Shane survived the Sayre accident in reasonably good nick.

See all 134 photos

The crash was a huge setback, according to Rex McAlary, Shane's dad. Running an outlaw street racer through a family team that is mostly supported by a small ATV and motorcycle dealership in a high-plains town of only 12,000 residents was already expensive enough. Times in the "oil patch" are tough. The farmers and ranchers around Elk City, Oklahoma, have cut back on buying "toys." Competing with a 434 cubic inch, steel roof and rear quarters "VIN car" against the growing onslaught of big-money carbon fiber, mountain motor Pro Mods had already made Shane an overachieving David among a host of street racing Goliaths. But for Shane to have to start over from scratch after the Sayre crash? No one would have blamed him had he just walked away.

But that's not how the McAlarys of Beckham County are made. "We only took about a month off," Rex explained. Then the search for another Vega began. Shane set out to make the new Blackbird Vega quicker and faster than ever before. Construction took only a couple of months starting August 2016. And it would have been impossible without the strong support of Shane's friends at ProCharger, Brand Racing Engines, Quarter-Max Chassis and Racing Components, RJ Race Cars, Brodix, and many others.

Shane is an experienced, second generation racer. Rex used to run an L Stock 1957 Chevrolet back in the 1960s on long-forgotten Western Oklahoma drag strips. Years later, Rex helped Shane get started with motocross and a turn in dirt-track stock car racing. Shane also explored off-road four-wheeling in his first street vehicle, an old Blazer. An ill-advised "monster truck" prank over a trashed Impala forced the McAlarys to purchase the wreck to get Shane out of trouble.

See all 134 photos

The Impala's mildly-hopped V8 and a plate-style nitrous oxide kit went into Shane's first Vega. He picked the dilapidated red Vega to build "because it was cheap and light." Rex says the old magazines he kept of Grumpy Jenkins' NHRA Pro Stock Vega must have inspired Shane's choice.

The red Vega, which Shane still owns, was a simple, stock unibody street car, not unlike the Motion and Don Hardy V8 Vegas of the late '70s. While street racing the Vega nearly twenty years ago around Sayre and Elk City and on Route 66 in Oklahoma City, Shane became friends with Shawn Ellington, of future Murder Nova and Street Outlaws fame.

Marriage and family responsibilities led Shane to get out of racing for a time. Ellington reset the racing hook by inviting Shane to an outlaw meet featuring notorious California grudge racer Krazy Kelly. Afterward, Shane told Shawn that he could get back on track but that it would take about a year. The McAlarys started looking for a second, tube-frame Vega roller to build into a serious race car. A year later, Shane was back.

See all 134 photos

Just a few weeks before Hot Rod Magazine Drag Week 2014, Shane damaged the second Vega in a roll-over at Thunder Valley Raceway Park. The McAlarys found another roller out of Utah, and made a mad thrash to swap everything over into the third Vega. There was not enough time for all the paint work. The Drag Week announcers dubbed the car "Blackbird" due to its flat black paint and lack of graphics. The sobriquet stuck.

"We had no idea what we needed," Shane says about Drag Week 2014. The McAlarys assembled their Harbor Freight cargo trailer for Drag Week in the pits at Tulsa Raceway Park. Overcoming valve train troubles and a wrong gear ratio, Shane and his F-2 ProCharged Vega finished Drag Week 2014 tenth in the Unlimited class, running a best E.T. of 8.326 at 166.48 mph. Shane said it was the hardest thing he's ever done with a car.

See all 134 photos

Shane ran the Blackbird Vega for a couple of seasons on Street Outlaws and in no prep racing in its full Drag Week trim. But ever quicker and faster fields made it necessary for Shane to switch over to methanol fuel and cut excess weight by removing the radiator and air/water charge air cooling system. The switch to a monster F-3R-121 ProCharger unleashed more than 200 extra horsepower. The third Vega was the one totaled in the Sayre crash.

The reborn Blackbird Vega is still finding its way. An experimental foray into radial tire racing at Lights Out 8 in South Georgia was hampered by minor ignition gremlins and a scramble to add last minute ballast to make weight in the Pro 275 class. But Shane says it "drives like a Cadillac" on Mickey Thompson ET Streets. Shane and the Blackbird Vega are back: lighter, quicker and faster than ever.

See all 134 photos

Tech Notes

Who: Shane McAlary

What: 1974 Chevrolet Vega

Where: Elk City, OK

Engine: In times like these, many grudge racers would dismiss an old-fashioned small block as a long road to ruin. But McAlary's 434 cid, all-aluminum Brodix bullet, machined, balanced and assembled by Gerald Brand of Brand Racing Engines in Oklahoma City, is no pretender. A cyclone-generating ProCharger F-3R-121 centrifugal supercharger throws a 2000+ horsepower monkey wrench into the schemes of Shane's competition. A quick change Supercharger Store gear drive handles the ProCharger input rotation duties, and allows the McAlarys to adjust the supercharger drive ratio in a blazing 15 to 30 minutes. Shane remains silent when asked about manifold pressure levels, though. Four-inch Race Parts aluminum tubing, welded up by Shane himself, channels the ProCharger's gale through an Accufab 98mm throttle body, a Wilson Manifolds elbow, and into an Edelbrock Glidden intake, modified for sixteen EFI injectors by Quillin Motorsports Engineering. Billet Atomizer 700 and 225 injectors keep the raging small block better off on a libatious liquid diet of VP Fuels M5 methanol. A Holley Dominator EFI computer with stock V2 software oversees the tune. A MSD 8 ignition box with a HVC II coil, Moroso plug wires and NGK spark plugs light the mixture. 18-degree CNC-ported Brodix heads, in out-of-the-box form, house relatively modest Ferrea 2.18 /1.61-inch valves, and sit on top of Clark head gaskets, clamped down by ARP studs. The only custom pieces in the short block are JE 10.5:1 pistons, embraced by Total Seal rings and swinging on a Callies crank with Callies rods, The rotating assembly rides on King Racing bearings. The airflow feast and famine are governed by a 55mm Crower roller camshaft that Shane will only disclose is "really big." Crower also supplies the rockers and 904 lifters, featuring high pressure oiling. Smith Brothers pushrods hold up to the furious back and forth. A CV Drives belt rotates the top-secret camshaft and PAC valve springs and retainers stick around to keep the sixteen poppets in their proper places. Furo 2-inch stainless steel headers spill the exhaust fumes without mufflers, resonators, or other weight-adding falderal. A System One oil filter helps Shane keep things in the clear. A Moroso oil pan and pump round out the oiling system. An MSD APS starter powered by a 6.5-pound Braille 16-volt 15324L battery spins up the mouthsmasher mill from rest.

Transmission: If ever there was hazardous duty, it is the transmission of a 2000 horsepower drag car. Shane switched from a built Powerglide to the popular and rugged Rossler Turbo-Glide two-speed version of the venerable Turbo 400, with an internal trans brake. A Gen X ProTorque torque converter of secret specifications adds the slip. Shane reports that the rpm drop on the shift is a tight 800 revs. Shane selects gears through an original Hurst Quarter Stick shifter, with nary a pistol-grip in sight. A Reid bellhousing links up the Rossler two-speed to the Brodix engine block. A Cromoly driveshaft pipes the tenacious torque from the Rossler's output shaft to the rear axle.

Rearend: Don Dial Race Cars supplied a fabricated Ford 9-inch rear axle that handles the ProCharged Brodix fury of the Vega. 40-spline gun-drilled Moser axles team with a Moser spool and a ring and pinion of undisclosed ratio.

Chassis: RJ Race Cars and Quarter-Max Chassis and Racing Components supplied the bulk of the 7.50 certified chromoly tube chassis on 2x3-inch mild steel rails. Shane reports the wheelbase is "98 inches" with the sort of chortle one would have expected out of Smokey Yunick or Junior Johnson at the heights of their "interpretive" powers.

Suspension: The new Blackbird rides on Mustang II spindles with rod end-style tubular control arms of undetermined make. Kinetic adjustable coil-over shocks with PAC springs hold up (or down) the Vega's nose. Out back, a pair of Kinetic adjustable coil-overs with PAC springs props the Vega's tail. A Quarter-Max four-link, anti-roll bar and wishbone serve to locate the Blackbird's axle. Wilwood race brakes control the stops at both ends. The McAlarys have molded ballast weights using a 265 SBC valve cover off of Rex's 1957 Chevrolet for a mold.

Wheels/Tires: The Blackbird rolls on Weld forged RS wheels with Moroso DS-2 frontrunners. 15x15 Weld wheels with Extreme Fab bead locks are home to massive Hoosier 33.5/16-15 slicks. In Pro275 configuration, the spins class-legal Mickey Thompson ET Street radials.

Paint/Body: Moroso made the wheel tubs and Menacher Motorsports fabricated the rest of the Blackbird's tin work. Shane himself formed the Vega's windows out of sheet Lexan. Glasstek supplied the fiberglass doors, hood, hood scoop, hatchback, and front fenders. The roof and quarters are OEM GM steel, with all of the internal bracing and supports removed. Shannon's Custom Paint and Body of Elk City atomized the Axalta Coating System's Hot Hues paint in Hot Rod Black. The base coat/clear coat red stripe is a tribute to Shane's original red Vega. The headlamps are Speedway Motors street rod units with integrated turn signals. Race weight is a Team McAlary secret.

Interior: The most prominent interior feature is Bob, Shane's ever long racing companion. Bob is a retired motorcycle jacket model that the McAlarys found at the going out-of-business auction of a Honda motorcycle dealership. Shane originally invited Bob home to prank his wife, Ashley. But Ashley banished Bob to Shane's shop. So Bob took up residence in the first Blackbird. Bob survived the Sayre crash relatively unscathed, despite his refusal to wear a helmet. Shane reports that kids just love Bob. But Bob is more than just a pretty face or a silent partner. At Lights Out 8, Bob held lead shot borrowed from Street Outlaw James Goad, so that the Vega would make minimum class weight. Bob is also the McAlarys' press secretary when pressed for suspension set-up information, cam specs, and other proprietary facts. And if they ever add HOV lanes in Elk City, Bob has Shane's back. Other interior features include a fiberglass dashboard with a RacePak data system, a Quarter-Max steering wheel, an 8-gallon fuel cell fabricated by Shane, Kirkey aluminum seats, Race Equip safety harnesses and window net, and a 10-pound Safety Craft fire suppression system.

Performance: Ask Bob. At Lights Out 8, the new Blackbird ran an unrepresentative 4.40 in the eighth mile with ignition problems. How quick it really is depends on who is around and how much they want to pay to find out. Look for it at Armageddon No Prep and, maybe on the next season of Street Outlaws.