Words: John Gunnell
Ray Evernham’s Ghost reminds me of the Hollywood stockers we went to see race every Saturday night at Weissglass Stadium in Staten Island, N.Y. “Weissglass” – as we called it – was billed as “The Fastest One-Fifth Mile in the East,” and for all we knew, it was the only one-fifth mile track in the East.
We didn’t really go there to see who took the checkered flag; we went to see who was going to crash into another car, go flying off the track and wind up hanging in the chain-link “backstop” style fencing that protected spectators sitting at Turn One.
The big wreck didn’t always happen, but when it did, it was always near the end of the feature race and always at that same turn, right after the cars passed the start line.
The race cars were old 1930s coupes and Tudors with mostly small-block Chevy engines. The left front wheel and tire were smaller than the others, so the cars could lean into the tight curves on the short track.
Evernham’s Ghost uses a ’35 Chevy Coach body and is designed to look like those Modifieds that ran at Weissglass in the ‘60s. However, it features 2018 state-of-the-art mechanicals and electronics. What else would you expect from a car built by a NASCAR Hall of Fame crew chief and race team owner?
Safety, nostalgia and innovation team up in the red, white and blue hot rod. The vintage Chevy body sits on a rectangular 2 x 3-in. frame made of 0.125-in. mild steel tubing. It also features a NASCAR style integral roll cage made of 1.75-in. round .095-in. mild steel DOM tubing. The car is only 52.5 in. high and weighs a mere 2,650 lbs. with driver and fuel. Front and rear tread widths are 63- and 67-in. respectively.
Motivating the Ghost is a 410-cid Chevy small block-2 built by Pro Motor Engineering. It makes a peak 850 hp. Much of the drive train is super high tech, like the custom-built C & R Racing radiator and oil coolers and the Brown and Miller Racing Specialties plumbing. A Jerico Performance Products 4-speed gearbox handles shifting chores. Other features include a carbon fiber drive shaft and a Winters aluminum rear end center section with quick-change gears.
Evenrham utilized an AEM Performance Electronics Infinity 7 engine management system as well as an electronic dash, a GPS-G-Meter and Smart Coils from AEM. Brown and Miller Racing Solutions tackled the wiring chores.
Naturally, the brakes and suspension are equally high tech, using lots of PFC brake system hardware, JRI shocks, Hyperco springs and FK rod ends. Tilton supplied the 800-series pedal assembly and brake master cylinder. In all, 27 companies kicked into the build of the car, and a patriotically-colored Valvoline paint job sets off its long-nosed good looks just perfectly.
The car was a hit in the Valvoline booth at the Performance and Racing Industry trade show in Indianapolis. Valvoline reps pointed out that the car was built with a wide range of adjustability in mind, so it can be set up to run on different types of tracks including ovals, road courses, drag strips and hill climbs. Computer-savvy fans can see videos of the build of the car at www.teamvalvoline.com.
