Here’s something we can guarantee is absolute unique in the drag racing canon and, indeed, we aren’t that sure that it will have appeared in the mind’s eye of many racers, but then Wayne Allman has a habit of delivering something out of the ordinary from the depths of his Intergalactic Custom Shop. In the case of the aptly named ‘Mental Breakdown’ this is the chimera offspring after the mating of a top alcohol dragster chassis (with drivetrain intact) and a steel VW bus. The result? Seven-second passes at over 180 mph with more to come.

Jon Webster didn’t have too far to travel from his Webster Race Engineering shop (it is located just outside the gates of Santa Pod) to test his new creation, a blown Chevy-powered slingshot appropriately christened ‘Hephaestus’ after the Greek god of blacksmiths, sculptors, metallurgy, fire and volcanoes. The first time Webster put the hammer down saw the front end snap sharply skyward, bouncing off the abbreviated wheelie bar and coming down to earth in a heavy fashion leaving Webster’s bell rung and the car side swiping both walls before coming to a halt. Fortunately damage was largely cosmetic to the car and Jon was back out a couple of weeks after the mishap, with a longer wheelie bar fitted.

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