Pete Farber has to be the only Outlaw Pro Street driver who can say he went to his high-school prom in the same vehicle he’s now racing. Farber’s blown, Hemi-powered Dodge D100 pick-up has been in the family since it rolled off the dealer’s lot in 1972.
“My father bought it brand-new and it was our first road-service truck,” says Farber, 32, who grew up around all things automotive at the family-owned and operated T.J. & Sons Auto Repair and Towing in Gardner, MA. “It was actually a red Warlock when it was new and we used it for doing jump starts and whatever else came along.”
By the mid-‘80s, the truck had pretty much reached the end of its service life and was relegated to rust away in a field behind Farber’s home. There it sat until about 1988 when Farber was 14 and asked his father if he could bring it back to life. “We dragged it out, fixed it up, drove it around the yard and eventually made it road-worthy again,” he recalls. “And it’s been a humungous snowball ever since.”
After starting out with the stock small block up front, Farber says he soon swapped in a 440, added dual-quad carbs, then a supercharger, and set about cruising the highways and byways of upstate Massachusetts. “I took it to a bunch of high-school proms; when I got married my wife and I left the wedding in it; we’ve done everything in it, everything.”
In recognition of its escalating performance, the decision was reached a little over two years ago to turn it into a racecar only.