Watch Kye Kelley’s NA Small-Block Ford Make 1,000 horsepower

Drag Racer Kye Kelley is known for building some radical rides that blaze the 1/8-mile in record breaking times. His usual choice of weapon revolves around a blacked-out third generation Camaro. We’re all accustomed to seeing his Larry Jeffers Race Cars-built Z28 with a Pat Musi engine hanging from the tubular front end screaming across our screen, but it wasn’t until recently that Kelley decided to bring it back a notch with a small tire car. The small tire car mimics his full blown race setup, but with a major change of heart.

Instead of a nitrous fed 959 cubic-inch engine, Kelley made the switch to an unlikely candidate with a powerful naturally aspirated small-block Ford. Built by Bischoff Racing Engines, the car made 1,057 horsepower on the CNC Racing Heads hub dyno with only a 150 shot of nitrous. This should put the naturally aspirated horsepower close to four digits at the crank.

Kelley and crew then loaded up for some real-time testing at US 41 Dragstrip. While the engine combination seemed to perform flawlessly, aside from needing to lean out the fuel mixture and perfect the nitrous/fuel combination, the alignment needed some attention, as the car was steering slightly left down the track. After some minor tweaks to the rear end the car was able to stay straight down the track and was ready for filming in Las Vegas.

First pass it ran was close to the number we’re trying to go on the street. Kye Kelley

This will be an interesting change of pace for Kelley who is used to piloting vehicles with nearly four times the horsepower. However, after the car has visited the dyno and dragstrip, it appears the Kelley crew have created yet another incredible car to do some damage in the no prep world.