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1971 Chevrolet Vega Funny Car news, pictures, and information | ||
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Similarly, the original engine is long gone. Powering the car is a nitro-burning Keith Black 426 cubic-inch Chrysler Hemi supercharged V8, as it did back in the day. The original Logghe Brothers chrome moly tubular frame was intact, though it presented a challenge of its own. 'People welded all kinds of tubes and brackets onto it over the years,' the current owner recalls.
The Vega-bodied dragster was the first in a series of 'Motown Shaker' funny cars that ran from 1971 through 1982, when Bergler retired from racing. He was later inducted into the Michigan Motorsports Hall of Fame. In the early seventies, the Vega's Hemi generated 2500 horsepower, modest by today's standards. But the car was quick. Its best quarter-mile run, set in 1973, was 6.14 seconds at 240 mph.
The car was sold in 1973. In 2006, a subsequent owner offered to sell it back to the original (and current) owner. Although retired from active racing, he had gotten hooked on NHRA Reunion events, and so his original funny car came back to where it started, undergoing a restoration.
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