EMMR/South Mountain Raceway – Those of us who appreciate cars and the car culture will often pick out a car (or truck) that will stand out and turn our heads more than the others. And then, there’s the outrageous altered of Jeff Bressler. That mechanical beast will stop you right in your tracks and pull you right in like your eyes were magnetic. This car is so head-turning, a family once saw it on the trailer as they passed by and actually pulled into South Mountain Raceway just to see it run.

One of the first things you’ll notice is the huge Arias-based racing engine sitting between the frame rails. The engine really stands out because it’s so big that it makes the rest of the car look even smaller than what it is. While engines using the Arias heads aren’t strangers to drag racing, boat racing, or tractor pullers, they’re still not something you see every day. This particular engine has managed to cover all the bases in its’ life. According to Bressler, the engine’s first life was in a racing nitro boat on the Susquehanna run by Wayne Fenicle of Wayne’s Jet Shop in Mechanicsburg. Fenicle blew up that engine and it sat around in the boat shop until it was liberated when Bressler bought it. One of the spectators at EMMR remarked the Fenicle boat was a world record holder, but we weren’t able to confirm that. Regardless, it’s not often you find a race car that had a boat be an engine donor.

Thus began the engine’s second life. Bressler said, “ It’s got holes in it, already been welded up a bunch of times. I put a 4 ½ -inch stroke in it, and I put it in a pulling tractor for my daughter, who was 14 years old. We drove all the way around here with that thing! Then she grew up, moved away and I had this motor sitting in the tractor for like 10 years.”

Of course, the thing’s sitting right in front of us, so we know the story didn’t end in the tractor. This is when the engine’s third life began. Bressler’s face breaks into a big smile when he tells the next part of the story. “I thought, ‘I’m going to build something I can drive every weekend at South Mountain’ so that’s what we did.”

The car itself is built as a bit of a salute to the old-school fuel altereds of yesteryear, so it doesn’t look like a slick, high-dollar machine coming from a big name racing shop. Instead, it has a simple, shortened frame from an S10, done just like they used to build them in the old days. In keeping with that old-school, simple approach, the rear axle came from an old F250. Staying true to form, the racing seat sits in a wheelbarrow to finish off the radical look of this car. The bottom line, according to Bressler, is to “make noise and have fun.” This is something it accomplishes quite well. Wild Willie Borsch would be proud.
If you get a chance, definitely make it a point to check this car out in person. You’ll be glad you did!