BUGZILLA

Yes , you read correctly ... I recently had the chance to see the "Worlds fastest street legal bug" in person and at my home track . A Friday night in July started off as usual at Paradise Dragstrip , fellow racers and spectators roaming around the historic 1/8 mile track getting ready for the nights action. But my normal routine of getting my camera bag out of the trunk and walking up to the tower to prep my gear for some good late night burnout shots was put on hold when Lee Timms asked if I "had a look at that beetle" . I figured just another cool VW made it up to the track...just something cool, not completely MEAN. As I walked down the track to get a better look in the pit area I seen a crowd gathered , I knew then this "Beetle" was something really cool. As the crowd opened up a little I was...well...you could say blown away, my first thought was someone accidentally dropped a engine on top of this car , the motor was the first thing I noticed , then I finally got a good look and found that beneath this 377cid Blown engine was a 1970 VW Beetle , known as .........BUGZILLA !

The man Curtis Townsend , which also has the awesome orange "Taz" Nova had brought this small beast with him. A 1970 VW Beetle with a all aluminum alcohol fed 377cid blown small block Chevy , full tube chassis , 9" Ford rear-end , fiberglass front end and the rest being factory steel . Bugzilla is known to have made high 7 second passes in the 1/4 and low 5 second passes in the 1/8 mile with the fastest time of 4.71. Unfortunately Bugzilla only made a shakedown pass this night , a soft launch off the line and a couple of tire smoking hits of the throttle going down the track... playing it safe. I hope to see it back soon so I'm able to get a few shots of it rippin' the strip , if I get the chance...you know I'll post the pic's !!!

To view a few more pic's look in the July 8th section of this gallery....
http://www.ColePhoto.net/p76043735