Cumberland, MD. – Certain cars can stand out in your memory the more you see of them. The “Drag Addict” car of Rich Shepherd is just such a car. Already an eye-catcher with that popular stance you get with a ’38 Chevy coupe gasser, the fact that you tend to see it at almost every event around really makes it stand out.

The car has a drag racing background, and Shepherd gave some details of its’ history. “That car came out of Somerset, PA. Back in the late 60s, Doug Black built it and drag raced it at Keystone Raceway. The car sat from ‘74 till I bought it in ’07, and then I did what you see today. I got the car running in 2014 and it’s got 35,000 miles on it since 2014, with the cheater slicks and the way you see it right there.”

As mentioned earlier, this car just seems to appear everywhere any kind of car show pops up. And not on a trailer, either. To do that, you have to have a durable setup, able to take to the streets without any worries. Does Shepherd see it as durable? “Very durable, yeah. Beat the h*** out of it. I broke it a bunch to get it to the point where it’s durable. You find the weak links and you fix them.”

At the heart of any hot rod, especially one that sees a lot of time on the street is the engine. And the “Drag Addict” is no different. According to Shepherd, “It is a 427 small block. It’s a Shafiroff Ultra Street 427. It’s a Dart SHP block with Dart Pro 1 heads, 10.5 to 1 compression, hydraulic roller, very streetable. Takes a beatin’. It makes 550 horsepower and 560 foot pounds of torque through a Tremec six speed and a ‘62 Olds rear with 4:11 gears.”

One of the things you’ll also notice when you see Shepherd’s car, is that he’s never alone. The car is always accompanied by several of his group who go by the name of the Right Coast Gassers. As Shepherd would explain, “We got about 5 or 6 of us that kind of run together. Most of us are just street-driven Gassers that go to all these events and stuff like that. My dad is 79 years old and he’s been in a hot rod his whole life and got me into it so he pretty much started it. We have 5,6,7,8 of us that just kind of run together and all that. What started the Gasser thing, when I bought this car back in ‘07, I wanted to go this route. Then my dad jumped on board and built his ‘57. Then Leonard Beal with the “Soul Stripper” ‘54 Chevy. Then we got Dave Steele with the “Quick Fix” ‘57. Then John McGee with his Studebaker pickup truck. My ‘56 Chevy, the “Munster Mash.” My wife paid me the money to build it for her, so I built it on her dime, so that made it a lot easier.”

So you think you like Hot Rods? Go to Frosty’s Hot Rod show next year and you’ll see a ton of them. Hang around Rich Shepherd, and you’ll be around the best!

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