It’s always awesome to see father-and-son teams working on a car at the racetrack – there have been many of them throughout drag racing’s history, perhaps none more notable or visible than the championship pairing of Don and Tony Schumacher in NHRA Top Fuel. While this team isn’t on the Schumacher level, there is no shortage of drive and will to make things work in this particular ’85 Cutlass from Canada.

Initially we didn’t think the video was going to turn into much after seeing the battered G-body’s flanks, but the cool time-lapse portion of the video kept us watching to see what they’d come up with when it was all done. There are a couple of things we wouldn’t necessarily do, but after a car’s been sitting for eight years like this one has, you’re bound to cut a couple of corners in the effort to return it to full duty. 

We were especially tickled to see the muffler modifications required to get the driveshaft to work in the first iteration of the car, but after further investigation we realized that there were more videos detailing some of the car’s history over the last couple of seasons. What started out looking like a typical rat-rod type build with a freshly-spray-painted 454 big-block engine and Turbo 400 transmission quickly morphs into a cleanly-installed brand-new engine making a ton of power, and some awesome dragstrip action. A new 652-horse 470 cubic-inch (.070-over 454)  monster was topped off with a set of cast iron Merlin heads before being stuffed into the car and let loose on the dragstrip. Cool videos of said action after the jump.

New Big-Block engine dyno action!

Burnout with the new engine 

And what you’ve all been waiting for – the big-block powered G-Body on the strip!