Smothers Supercars

09/09/2026

If anyone has a nice, small truck for sale, shoot me a pm….

09/08/2026

09/08/2026

'70 Road Runner Tribute Cold Start

Would you drive it? 🤔

Does your hot rod need work? 🔧
Visit: smotherssupercars.com to learn more!

09/08/2026

Looks like a critter got locked in the shop last night….😳🤦‍♂️

09/07/2026

Pro Mod drag racing has been pushrod territory for decades. Hemis making 4,000 HP on nitromethane. Big block Chevys on methanol with roots blowers the size of a suitcase. Pushrod valvetrains that get torn down and lash-checked between every round. The overhead cam engine was never part of that conversation. Too complex. Too heavy. Too many moving parts. Too unproven at four-digit power levels. Then Modular Motorsports Racing in Brooksville, Florida, machined a Ford Coyote block from an 800 pound slab of solid aluminum billet, bolted factory Ford cylinder head castings on top of it, and ran 5.67 seconds at 265 mph in a door slammer. The modular Ford world record. From a DOHC V8 with hydraulic lifters. The pushrod conversation just got a new participant.

The block starts at 800 pounds of 6061 aluminum billet. Haas VF-6 machining centers remove approximately 700 pounds of material over countless hours of CNC programming, leaving a 100 pound block that preserves factory Coyote bore spacing and deck height in MMR's tall-deck configuration at 10.5 inches. Bryant billet crankshaft. Bill Miller Engineering billet connecting rods. Manley forged pistons with .912 inch wrist pins at .250 inch wall thickness. Total Seal piston rings with a tool steel top ring. 358 cubic inches from a 3.700 inch bore and 4.165 inch stroke. Twin 94mm turbochargers feeding approximately 10 to 10.5:1 compression on methanol. Custom COMP Cams camshafts designed to spool turbochargers that are enormous relative to the displacement. The one-piece billet timing cover alone starts as a 300 pound block of aluminum. It requires more machining time than most complete engine builds.

The cylinder heads are the detail that makes this engine remarkable. They are factory Ford castings. At 4,500 HP. Not billet heads. Not custom castings. Factory Ford Coyote heads, CNC ported by MMR to nearly 400 CFM of intake airflow, converted to dry-deck configuration with the deck surfaces completely welded shut to eliminate coolant passages, sealed with .072 inch copper head gaskets with stainless O-rings and receiver grooves. Titanium intake valves. Stainless steel exhaust valves. Titanium retainers. Proprietary Manley valve springs. And the valvetrain retains factory roller finger followers and hydraulic roller lifters. No valve adjustments. Between rounds at a Pro Mod event, while every pushrod team in the pits is checking lash, adjusting rockers, and tearing down valvetrains, the Coyote team changes oil and goes back to the staging lanes. The most sophisticated valvetrain in Pro Mod is also the lowest maintenance.

Mark Lutton started the billet Coyote program in 2016 at MMR. First fire in 2017. Nearly a decade of continuous development. In a class where Hemi and big block Chevy programs have had fifty years of development, the Coyote has had nine and already holds the modular Ford world record. The customer version makes approximately 3,500 HP on 10.5 inch tires, running 3.90 second eighth miles with room to grow. The featured engine makes 4,500 HP at 10,000 to 10,500 RPM and survives a full racing season on nothing but oil changes between events. A DOHC engine with hydraulic lifters surviving a full season of Pro Mod at 4,500 HP while pushrod engines in the next lane are getting torn down after every pass. The architecture everybody said was too complex for drag racing just proved it was too durable to require the maintenance that simpler engines demand.

09/06/2026