Shot To Palookaville!

Success story: Unorthodox big-inch small-block Nova signals a return to family hot rodding

- Ro McGonegal

Despite what you might surmise, this is a genuine success story. Despite a long, arduous journey finishing the car, it wouldn’t be a real project unless adversity prevailed, at least for a while. Dedication is what saved the day, and relatively speaking, the results were spectacular.

Jarod Wenrick’s storyline is familiar. His dad was a hot rodder who loved street rods and Jarod helped him build them. That routine was anything but routine. He learned. He saw his dream unfold before him like a map. Unlike so many other kids, he was able to interact with a caring father on a level field, working right alongside him and being consulted, offering his opinion without fear of being rebuffed. Jarod picked a 1951 Ford, personalized it, and finally took it to the dragstrip. What a great way to live.

Now, the tape jumps way into the future. The circle came complete. It was Jarod’s turn to show his son Jaran what he had learned and what it meant to him. “I bought the car in 2013 in Colorado as a roller,” said Jarod. “It was a nitrous racer with a leaf-spring rear. My son and I converted it for X275 and powered it with a turbocharged small-block. We spent over a year fabricating and doing the work ourselves.”

Then adversity rose up and bellowed. On its initial pass at Kil-Kare Raceway (Xenia, Ohio), the Nova left the line but lost traction almost immediately and went head-on into the concrete. While Jaran’s dad walked away unblemished, a big part of him, that part you can’t see, was ruptured.