1965 Chevy Chevelle - Seven Cars: 9,565 Horsepower

Fifth Place
Mark Gjavenis
'65 Chevelle
540ci Big-block Chevy
1,233 rear wheel horsepower

Dyno Max Power Tour 1965 Chevy Chevelle 540 Chevy Big Block

It doesn't get much simpler than a blow-through supercharger and a carburetor to make killer power. Mark made over 1,230 rear wheel horsepower with this combination. "It scared me when I drove it home," he said. "But it was fun!">

Mark's ProCharger-equipped Chevelle was another of the four cars that qualified from the Car Craft Summer Nationals in St. Paul. Like Jesse Nelson, Mark's car has appeared as a full feature in the Apr., '07 issue. Back then, the 540 was sporting a smaller supercharger, but after qualifying at 908 rear wheel horsepower, he stepped up the program with a more powerful F-2 blower. Along with some tuning, this was worth a solid 330hp over previous pulls. The big-block still sports a blow-through carburetor and was one of four ProCharger-equipped cars in the competition. Mark, Jesse Nelson, and Jesse Gese are all from the St. Paul area. One of Gese's friends, Tom Vollbrecht, works for Elite Custom Aluminum Coaches and Transporters. Tom worked out a deal with a customer to borrow a new stacker trailer that allowed them to haul all three cars at once to Vegas, saving them some serious coin over towing separately.

Engine: 540ci big-block Chevy
Block: Dart Big M block, 4.500 x 4.250 bore and stroke
Crank: Callies Dragonslayer 4340 forged steel
Rods: Eagle 6.385-inch H-beam rods
Pistons: JE forged pistons with 9.4:1 compression
Cam: Comp hydraulic roller with 254/256 degrees of duration at 0.050 and 0.647-inch lift
Heads: AFR CNC-ported 355cc rectangle port heads with raised exhaust ports. Valve sizes are 2.300/1.88 stainless steel valves.
Intake: Edelbrock Victor Jr. 454-R with a Demon 850-cfm blow-through carburetor modified by C&S Carburetors to use E85
Supercharger: F-2 ProCharger that Mark cranked up to 22 psi of boost. Jakesperformancefabrication.com built that trick blower belt guard.
Ignition: Mark uses an MSD-6AL along with a MSD Multi-Function Controller (PN 8977) to control in-cylinder timing
Fuel: E85, 105 octane
Exhaust: Scott Davison built the custom 2 11/44-inch headers that come apart in seven sections with 4-inch collectors and then Scott and Mark built the 4-inch, x-pipe exhaust leading back to a pair of Dynomax Ultra-Flow welded mufflers with turn-downs.
Transmission: Coan Powerglide with a Coan 3,800 rpm converter
Rearend: Ford 9-inch with 3.89 Richmond gears and a Detroit Locker with Strange 31-spline axles.
Rear Tires: M/T 275/60R15 drag radials