Few of us know what it’s like to break a world speed record. Fewer still have the skill to build a car and then jump in and drive it faster than anyone else has on the planet.
Vengeance Racing has the technical skill to build a record-breaking car, and it’s owner, Ron Mowen, has the skill to drive it.
This article is the fourth of five articles devoted to the racing side of the business for Vengenance Racing in Cumming, Ga.
What follows is an edited transcript from the upcoming Vettes of Atlanta podcast, adapted for this article. Enjoy!
What’s It Like To Drive?
ROD WORLEY – Editor – Ron, you’re Vengeance Racing team has put out a ton of great videos, but I didn’t see that many videos of you setting the world record with Fat Man?
And can you describe to us what it’s like to drive a world record-breaking car?
RON MOWEN – Vengeance Racing – Well, there are a couple of videos out there of Fat Man obtaining some world records. They’re about three years old, so you have to search for them a little bit. We took the car apart three years ago to get it to the stage that it’s at now.
Fat Man was the first Corvette in the world to break 200 miles an hour in a half-mile land speed competition. We held that record for almost a year.
We then lost it and took it back, running 204.6 miles per hour with a manual transmission. A lot of folks don’t understand half mile racing.
They think you’re just talking top speed, but you’re talking top speed, limited to a half-mile. When I ran my 204.6 miles per hour pass, the back tires were still spinning about 30 to 40 miles an hour faster than the front tires in fourth gear at 160 miles an hour.
We run on unprepared surfaces, typically on airport runways, that aren’t maintained very well. They’re covered in concrete dust, things of that nature.
So it’s a challenge to do this. But we ran 204.6 miles per hour to reset our world record. We held that for a while.
Retaking The World Record
ROD WORLEY – Editor – It’s the nature of world records that there is always someone gunning to take your spot. What did you do to retake the world-record?
RON MOWEN – Vengeance Racing – You’re right, Rod, eventually we got beat. Someone with an automatic transmission equipped car that just plain put the power down a little bit better. So we went ahead and converted the car to an automatic transmission.
I took the car back out and ran 217 miles per hour and took back our world record. At that point, I wanted to increase the car’s safety.
So we decided to take it apart and do a full cage in it. As with anything, you know, this is the reason I own Vengeance Racing.
Racing is in my DNA; it’s in my blood. It’s who I am.
The cage went to a full chassis to a full back half four-link set up. That’s why the car has been down for so long. It has evolved tremendously from a streetcar to a dedicated race car.
Back when we were running in the half-mile, it was still a streetcar. We’d come back to the shop afterward, change the wheels and tires, take the parachute off it, and drive it to dinner.
Now it’s going to be a purpose-built drag car with all the safety aspects incorporated into it that I want to protect myself. It will set the standard for our customers to follow when they’re going for that performance level.
We’re building this car to be the pinnacle of Corvettes. I want this to be the badest Corvette in the world.
I want it to showcase what Vengeance Racing is capable of, and what our vendors and manufacturers that we work with are capable of achieving.
Fat Man Configuration Today
ROD WORLEY – Editor – I’m sure the car has to be continually evolving to stay on top. What components are you using now, and who’s in charge of the build?
RON MOWEN – Vengeance Racing – It is still an LS based Corvette. It’s got a Noonan billet block, billet head combination in it.
The machine work was done by Late Model Engines out in Houston, Texas. Alameda does all of our machining and assembly of short blocks for our production and even our shop’s race side.
We’re going to power it with a set of precision 94-millimeter XPR twin turbos. These turbos are capable of producing over 4000 real horsepower on full tilt.
Engine management will come from Pro EFI, which we use for all of our race shop builds. RPM transmissions and Pro Torque converters will handle the drive train, with a Strange rear end backing it up.
I want to eight-mile, quarter-mile, and half-mile the car. So it’s going to be a multipurpose vehicle.
But again, to showcase our talents, specifically, Jey Clegg, our shop foreman. He’s building the car start to finish, outside of the chassis work by JSC Racing Fabrication in Pennsylvania.
So Jey is building the car turn-key, he’ll wire it, he’ll plumb, he’ll do everything.
In the end, it’ll be a showpiece for our shop that I’ll get back into and hopefully set the world on fire.
Future Goals Set High
ROD WORLEY – Editor – What are some of your performance goals for Fat Man when you take it back to the track?
RON MOWEN – Vengeance Racing – Our goals for the car? In the eighth-mile, I want to run a 3.99. There have only been two LS vehicles in the world that have ever broken into the three-second barrier in the eighth-mile.
For the quarter-mile, I don’t have any goals. In the half-mile, I do want to run over 250 miles per hour.
The best I’ve been was 217 in the half-mile. That series has evolved in the rear-wheel-drive world into the mid to low 240s.
So I would like to run 250 miles per hour plus and take that world record back as well.
Fat Man? Where Did That Come From?
ROD WORLEY – Editor – I don’t think many people know the backstory of the car’s name. It’s unique, where did it come from originally?
RON MOWEN – Vengeance Racing – That’s true, Rod. There might be some people who don’t know the car or understand that name.
We were racing the half-mile series, and the car’s owner was a gentleman named Randy Hunter.
Randy was a great, great customer of ours. His wife wouldn’t let him drive it in a half-mile, though she would let him quarter-mile race it.
She felt the half-mile speeds were excessive. So I had the opportunity to drive it for Randy in the half-mile events.
Randy had a unique sense of humor, as does my shop foreman Jey. One day we were standing around joking that we’re dropping bombs all over the country. Everywhere we go, we’re just obliterating the competition.
At the time, the car was atomic orange in color. It’s white now, but it was atomic orange back then.
The name Fat Man came from the atomic bomb that they dropped on Hiroshima. They had Fat Man written on the bomb’s face.
So it’s not because of me, the driver. It’s actually because of going around and dropping bombs on the competition.
As corny as that sounds, it was just something we called the car in-house that eventually stuck.
Randy sold me the car about four and a half years ago. We raced it for a little bit after I bought it and then took it apart.
Inspiration To Succeed
ROD WORLEY – Editor – How long did you hold the world record?
RON MOWEN – Vengeance Racing – We held the world record for the half-mile for just over a year, then lost it. The next time we went to the track, we got it right back.
Shortly after Randy sold me the car, he was involved in a plane crash and lost his life. So that was motivation as well for keeping the car and taking it to the next level.
It’s a way to honor him and the fun times and camaraderie we had in competing with the car. So Rod, that’s the story on Fat Man.
When Speed Is What You Need
Every tuner talks about horsepower and speed. Yet, only a small handful know what it takes to build a world-record-setting Corvette.
Vengeance Racing has proven it can deliver the reliable horsepower you’re looking for from your LS engine. They have years of proven experience, and the walls of their Cumming, Ga facility are covered with world records to back it up.
Articles We Recommend:
Why Vengeance Racing Is The Right Choice For You
Vengeance Racing And World Records
Vengeance Racing Kicks Competition To The Curb
Inside Vengeance Racing’s Amazing Race Support
Vengeance Racing Is SERIOUS About Racing
Vengeance Racing – Prepared To Win