Tom and his father Bob Pendergast were on-site at this year’s 4th Lucas Oil West Coast Shootout that took place at the Auto Club Dragway in Fontana, California. We got a chance to catch up with the father-son duo to learn more about this mean looking ’33 Willys that was built for the strip.

The ’33 features a 498 ci Big-Block Chevy bored 0.070 over with a 1/4-inch stroke, a Callies crank, a Crane cam, and a 4-barrel Holley carburetor. Mated to the motor is a Powerglide 2-speed transmission and to that a Ford 9-inch rearend. The late Warren Brogie, whom passed in 2003, was a talented drag car designer and builder. “He built the rear suspension on it and made the ladder bars. It has a Willys frame under it that’s boxed in, which is kind of unusual, most everybody has aftermarket stuff,” Bob told us. Mickey Thompson tires are paired with Center Line wheels.

He and his son took out the old cage and rebuilt a completely new rig which was of much better quality than the one that was previously in it. The body is all-original, barring the front-end. Bob pointed out a couple of dings and scratches including door-handle damage on the passenger side that came from the Lions Drag Strip decades ago when the Willys flipped over during a pass. Just as some obsess over the preservation of their car’s pristine paint job, the Pendergast’s do the same, except for the scars and memories that racing has imparted over the years.

Bob and his son are always at the races. They live just up the street from the Auto Club Dragway so regularly see track time. Bob’s son Tom also has a dragster, but both had attested in our interview that the door-car was the preferred between the two. Tom, who drives the Willys had a final pass of 9.06-seconds at 146 mph during the event. Bob said, “It’s just like sitting in a Lazy-Boy, it’s smoother than the dragster.” When we asked if they’d ever gotten the car on the dyno to see what sort of power it made Bob thoughtfully shook his head and pointed at the track saying, “this is the dyno.”

Soon after we’d finished talking to Bob, Tom who had left to drop off the family pulled up. We got a chance to ask the driver of the ’33 Willys a couple of questions as well. We asked about the Powerglide 2-speed and Tom replied, “Yeah, just high and low. It’s pretty common and it’s probably the most common transmission run here at the drag strip.”

He then went in depth about some of the ’33’s specifics, “The car has a 98-inch wheel base and has the original frame rails from 1933 in it still. We boxed them in and reinforced them. My dad and I put together the chromoly cage ourselves, the front of the car is pretty simple; it’s a coilover shock with a drop-axle, that’s pretty much it. It’s a simple car and as about as simple as you’re going to get. It works well and has been working well since I was about 10 or 11 years old.”

Tom had actually just taken the helm as the Willys’ new driver two weeks prior to the NMCA West Coast Shootout. He is the fifth driver in the car’s racing career. In closing, we asked Tom why he decided to move away from his dragster and to a nostalgia door car. He told us, “I like it because it’s much smoother. It seems much more violent looking from the outside, but with the suspension in the back it’s so much softer. You can barely feel when the wheels hit the ground when they first come off of it.”

It was definitely a pleasure seeing the Pendergast’s representing the spirit of classic cars at this event. There’s nothing like an old-school ride going head to head with the best of todays makes and models.