NHRA Super Comp has long been the land of big-block Chevrolet engines, as achieving the 8.90 index with room to spare has been a hallmark of the super-competitive index class. So when Aeromotive‘s Steve Matusek decided to drop a 358-cube former Roush/Yates NASCAR engine into his company’s dragster, all eyes were focused on the team at the recent NHRA Kansas Nationals at Heartland Park of Topeka. Aeromotive employee and driver Bub Miller ran the rail to an 8.898 at over 164 MPH – just .002 off the 8.90 index, on only the fourth pass on the car.

We caught up with Steve to get the rationale behind the move. He explained, “This is a former Cup engine with some history behind it. Roush Yates freshened it for us a few years ago and built a sheetmetal intake for it. The engine has been sitting for a little while, but we finally got it together, stuffed it into the dragster, and away we went. It’s an oddball combination – there’s a 7-inch converter in the car, it’s got a 5.29 rear gear in it, and it’s just a completely different setup than anyone else runs in that style of car.”

The reasons for designing the combination differently was to keep the car consistent on the throttle stop, which is critical to Super Comp racing. 

“We had to figure out on the dyno what combination of parts would work to keep this thing happy, and I think we nailed it pretty well. Anybody can buy a big-block Chevy and put it into a dragster, and we just wanted to be different. We’re pretty pleased with it so far,” he said.

Matusek feels that the engine should run forever, given the fact that it’s designed to be a high-revving piece to run 500 miles at a time. Of course, he doesn’t do anything without a reason, and the engine will be used as a testbed for Aeromotive parts and pieces that may end up on a speed shop shelf near you. Currently the engine wears a carburetor, but Matusek says the team will eventually add fuel injection to the program to continue its development.