Big Chief Talks About His Nitro Breathing 1970 GTO Known As “The Crow” And His Pontiac Power Plant.
Justin “Big Chief” Shearer has been quiet lately, but that doesn’t mean he hasn’t still been hitting the street and the strip in his wicked twin turbocharged GTO known as The Crow.
When the powers-that-be at Discovery Channel put up a whopping $200,000 purse for the Street Outlaws’ second trip to historic Bristol Dragway, Big Chief dusted off The Crow, put some fresh fuel in the tank and headed east to try to defend his crown as the winner of the inaugural Street Outlaws Bristol Bash. With that kind of money on the line, it’s safe to assume everybody from the 405 as well as the other street and no prep racers that were invited would be pulling out all of the stops.
Big Chief sat down for a few moments to talk about his car and the trusty Butler Performance Pontiac-built engine under the hood. As most fans of the show know, the new Crow is an older pro mod-style chassis but was built with a steel body, which is required to compete at these events. The car does have a lightweight fiberglass nose and fiberglass doors, which are allowed within the rules, to get some weight off the front end to help with weight transfer. The featherweight nose also comes off easily between runs to allow Shearer and his team to get to the engine for maintenance.
The 482 cubic inch Pontiac engine has been in each of Chief’s three cars that we’ve seen on the show. It has evolved with the cars to go quicker and faster, which is certainly a requirement as the cars on the show and on the street around the country have evolved into all-out drag cars outfitted for street racing use. With an estimated 3,000 horsepower, Chief has more than enough power to get the job done. As he points out, there may be combinations out there with more power, but his years of tuning for the street allow him to make the most of his while others may struggle finding that balance between power and traction.
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