Mike Finnegan Announces New Secret Drag-and-Drive Build Nearly 1 Year In The Making
Mike Finnegan, who is well known in the drag-and-drive community, has spent time on both sides of the event structure at Hot Rod Drag Week over the year.
Doing the epic event as both a pit reporter and a participant, Finnegan captured the A/Gasser title in 2019 with the category’s first 8-second average.
Since then, Finnegan has tried to participate on a couple Hot Rod Drag Weeks, and although BlaspHEMI, his ’55 Chevrolet gasser, has failed to deliver a complete event finish since 2019, Finnegan has continued to revamp the combination in an effort to return to his winning ways.
Finnegan also spends a good bit of time working on projects, and revealed that he has a new one in the works!
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Despite already having the ’55 Chevrolet, Finnegan purchased a second car for drag-and-drive duty, a 1961 Cadillac Coupe DeVille. “I've owned this car for several years now,” said Finnegan. “But building a really fast Cadillac Coupe De Ville is a project I've wanted to create for over 10 years.”
“After watching several standing-mile racing events at airport runways I decided that someday I'd create a stock-appearing Caddy that could run 200 mph and 8 seconds in the 1/4 mile.” The build on that car was announced in 2020, and the Coupe DeVille will be powered by a Nelson Racing Engines twin turbocharged big block.
In January this year, Finnegan released a video on his YouTube channel, Finnegan’s Garage, on the build of a LS-based 400 cubic inch engine from ACE Racing Engines for big power numbers and a ‘mystery project car.’
You might remember the name ACE Racing Engines from building the engine for Sick Week Presented by Gear Vendors Overdrive 2023 overall winner Michael Westberg.
More details came about on the mystery project car on the most recent video Finnegan released below:
Although Finnegan tried to keep the car under wraps, it didn’t take viewers long to figure out what the car was: a 2018 Lexus LC500 build that was previously owned by Brandon Wilbur.
The car is a serious build, sporting a 25.1 SFI-spec chassis, and good for runs to 6.00 in the quarter mile. It has been up for sale a couple times, the most recently in February 2023.
Because it still sports a VIN, it can be titled and used for drag-and-drive. However, the car was built to race only, so some changes will need to be made.
Written by Derek Putnam. Photos courtesy of Mike Finnegan and Brandon Wilbur.
If you have thoughts / feedback / ideas, please e-mail us at derek@sickthemagazine.com