Under Construction April 2010 - 1966 Pontiac LeMans, 1968 Biscayne Wagon, and 1972 Dodge Charger

'68 Biscayne Wagon
Track Buddy
The way most racing teams function is there is a tow-rig with some crew, but everyone not contained in the rig's walls will catch the next flight home after the race is over. Not Jason Line. Jason is the 2006 NHRA Pro Stock champion, and drives the Summit Racing Pro Stock GXP car. He took the more adventurous route and teamed with crew chief Rob Downing and crew member Pat Topolinski to take on the 44-hour drive from The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway to the KB Racing shop in Mooresville, North Carolina. They took his latest ride, a powder-blue '68 Chevrolet Biscayne station wagon. "The first car I ever drove was a '68 Impala, and for some reason I've liked them since then, so it was a natural choice for a project car," Line says. "I actually have a '68 Biscayne wagon back in Minnesota with a 427 in it, but it's completely rusted out, so I was looking for something with a good body that I could transfer the drivetrain into."

Jason asked NHRA announcer Alan Reinhart to help him search the state of Arizona for a project since his hometown state's cars have major rust problems. The guys don't get a lot of days off, but through a lucky schedule of West Coast races, they were able to plan some road trips. Reinhart went to check out a lead Jason found, and the car checked out OK. The next item on the list was to drive it to Las Vegas where Jason could take the keys and bring it home. That's how the 2,200-mile road trip started. There were several issues along the way, keeping warm being the biggest. They had a spare set of points, wires, coolant, and some other emergency repair items but nothing catastrophic happened. The road warrior got between 12 and 16 mpg, a fair mileage for a car of its age and size. They traded driving shifts, and made it home in less than two days.

The guys had such a blast that Jason decided to do a complete overhaul on the wagon to make it the best Biscayne he could imagine. Jason obviously has a close relationship with Summit Racing, so it was a no-brainer to turn to the pages of their catalog to dream up his build. He chose all Hotchkis and Moog suspension components and a disc brake setup from Summit. To take over power duty, he's building a 557ci big-block Chevy starting with a GMPP block, Trick Flow heads and intake, COMP valvetrain, and a Summit carburetor. Sounds like a gas guzzler, but a small powerplant just isn't an option for Jason.