Drag Racing Online

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This is the engine that powers Rieger’s S-10. An Olds tall deck rocket block allowed Ken Duttweiler to make a 427 cubic inch engine. A pair of Turbonetics turbochargers pack the air into the engine through a Motec fuel injection-equipped Hogan intake manifold which sits on top of a pair of Edelbrock/Chapman Chevy style canted valve heads. The valve train and camshaft are by Comp Cams. A Weldon fuel pump supplies the fuel which is fired by an MSD Ignition system. Burnt gases exit through a set of Hedman Hedders.

One of the few visual clues that this truck has some power under the hood are the twin openings in the hood that direct air in the turbocharged small block Chevy that is under the hood. The engine is a "small block" in name only. The small block is actually a 427 cubic inch twin turbocharged Ken Duttweiler-built engine built using an Oldsmobile aluminum "rocket block" and late model Chevy style canted valve heads. Motec fuel injection feeds a pair of Turbonetics turbos. Just how much horsepower and torque the small block makes is information car owner Bob Rieger and engine builder Ken Duttweiler won’t reveal, although the 393 cubic inch engine they ran last year made 1680hp and 1400lbs of torque. In pre-season testing for the 2000 NMCA season with the 427 mouse motor between the rails the little truck has already recorded a 6.67 at over 207mph.

If you look at it objectively, Rieger’s S-10 truck is almost exactly what NHRA’s Pro Stock truck class needs. It is closer to a stock piece of Detroit iron than anything that NHRA offers even to the point of having a small block engine, fuel injection, mufflers, five-speed manual transmission, and working doors, windows and radio. It is easily capable of running in the six-second zone at over 200mph. And if all of this is not enough, how about the fact that the engines can be built for less than $50,000 and can make as many as 70 laps without requiring any maintenance other than running the valves and changing the plugs. Try that with the small block carburetor motors currently being used in NHRA Pro Stock trucks.

Ah well, chances are you aren’t going to see that happen anytime soon at the NHRA. So if you want to see Bob Rieger’s flamed six-second, 200 mph truck or one like it you’ll have to go to an NMCA event unless the powers that be suddenly come to their senses.

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