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Story by Eric Lenore

Four time PSCA Pro Street Champ Ed Thornton and the famous black '57 Chevy that he drove have been missing from heads-up racing headlines for most of the year.  When an offer for the '57 came in from Australia, Ed and his popular crew (Shane T, Doug Stewart, Tom "Mr. Clean" Esbri, Derek Ludka and Larry Kennedy) were all wondering what their racing future would hold.  After all, the car was owned not by Thornton but by a humble guy known only as "Hal" who's interest and support of turbo door slammers led to much of their success in Pro Street in recent years.   Hal made arrangements to move another one of his cars (a white 63 Vanishing Point Corvette) to the west coast from its current home in South Carolina where Vern and Annette Summer have flogged it for several years.   Now painted beautifully in black, thanks to PSCA Limited Street record holder Luis Ceballos, Thornton and the Accufab "Black" team have holstered a new gun and it's a big one!  

The car was originally built for Hal by Jim Geese at Vanishing Point Race Cars and has all the bells and whistles of your modern day Pro Mod.  A giant carbon fiber wing and stout Mark Williams modular housing reside out back where subtlety is not the adjective of choice.   This is serious hardware for a serious machine.     The 447 inch big block with 91 mm Precision turbos that served them so well in the '57 will reside between the frame rails. Thornton and the crew were busy at work fabricating new headers and intercoolers when I arrived last week.   "It should go 230+ with our stuff in it but we still have a lot of work to do" said a notably tired Thornton.   Shane T was busy wiring a new Motec system with all the data acquisition necessary to get the car at a baseline before he boarded a plane for another long trip overseas to Dubai.   Mr. Clean was chomping-at-the-bit to show me all the various parts and features of this monster.   One can already imagine him authoritively backing up Thornton, a duty he has proudly performed for years with the '57.  

The front of the car is characterized by muscularity from all angles.  The one piece front end had to be augmented and massaged by the Summers to fit the giant turbos and intercoolers.  Nevertheless, a relatively flat hood line gives it a stealthy "sleeper" feel (as long as you don’t have the rest of the car in sight).  As Thornton says, "the longer you stare at it the more you like it".  This car grows on you and will definitely be a fan favorite for years to come.  The team would like to thank John Mihovetz of Accufab and of course Hal for the opportunity to race.  Thornton and the boys hope to use the PSCA World Finals at Fontana this weekend to test all the new systems in preparation for the Street Car Super Nationals in Vegas on November 20-23.   www.streetcarsupernationals.com         www.pscaracing.com