Mike Finnegan and fellow Roadkill star David Freiburger worked together to conceive Finnegan’s Blasphemi, a 1955 Chevy Bel Air powered by a supercharged 528 cubic-inch Hemi. Finnegan and Freiburger worked under the premise of ‘what’s the most ridiculous thing we can do?’ The blasphemous-to-some Chevy has a Chrysler engine between the framerails to kick the piecrust tires loose at 140 mph, yet remains tame enough to prowl the streets in Georgia.
“The EFI makes the whole thing work, makes it totally drivable,” Finnegan said. “The Dominator controls everything-”the electric water pump, electric fans, electric fuel pump, even the headlights and taillights. When it comes to wiring, I’m kind of a perfectionist, so I ripped out every inch of the existing wire and started from zero. The diagram was really detailed-”I had everything done in about two days, and it fired right up.”
The MSD 6AL-2 ignition is triggered by the Dominator, and Finnegan tracks all the vitals with a Holley EFI touchscreen and even uses it for a shift light. The engine was custom-built by Chris Thomas at Jon Kaase Racing Engines and features a Bill Mitchell aluminum block, CP Pistons, Molnar crankshaft and rods, Edelbrock aluminum heads, Bullet solid roller camshaft, Indy intake manifold, and Blower Shop 8-71 blower.
The mostly original steel body painted by Midwest Images’ Mike Cotten rests on a Jim Meyer Racing chassis with leaf springs and ladder bars in the back and an old-school solid front axle up front.
Finnegan has yet to make an all-out assault on the quarter-mile, but he’s run a 5.91 at 121 mph granny-shifting on the eighth-mile in Irwindale, California, and reached 157 mph on the slippery half-mile Vandenberg Airfield course.
“The traction was horrible,” Finnegan said. “I didn’t have the right tires for that kind of surface, and I was never at more than 30-percent throttle in any gear.”
