This Malibu Comes From A Rich Family History Of Racing
https://www.dragzine.com/image/2018/...9-1440x670.jpg 0 shares This Malibu Comes From A Rich Family History Of RacingBy Todd Silvey October 14, 2018The McGees have always been a racing family. Sons Rob and Ron McGee grew up with father, Ron McGee, Sr., while competing in the IHRA Top Sportsman class for many years. Racing for the family trio came to a stop when both Rob’s father and brother were lost shortly after being diagnosed with Lou Gehrig’s disease. Though Rob took a hiatus from the drag racing for a while, he did actively enjoy quad runners and off-road racing. Ultimately though, he was drawn back to the dragstrip because of another hardship.https://www.speednik.com/files/2018/...45-960x440.jpgA few years ago, Rob’s wife had a stroke that left her paralyzed and unable to speak. At that point, he thought it was time to get back into automotive racing. This was also the opportunity to bring his son, Devin, into the sport, thus making a McGee team whole again. “We went back to drag racing, and have been racing for the past five years,” Rob says. “We had a tube-chassis ’96 Monte Carlo for the first couple of years. We tried running the Top Sportsman field at Eddyville Raceway Park and qualified, but we were always on the bump. We knew we needed to build a car that could make the field every time.” |
With their second of two 632 engine combinations they have put in the car, their best time of 4.82 was recorded at their local Eddyville Dragway, while spraying nitrous for 3 1/2 seconds. They use a Ron’s Terminator injection and an NX Stage-6 nitrous plate system enriched with alcohol.Rob had learned to bend rollcages when racing off-road. Since you need to rebuild them a lot in that sport, he purchased a bender and got pretty good at it. He decided the only way he could afford to build a good car, was to build it himself.“That’s how this ’81 Chevy Malibu came about,” Rob says. “We found a body style that was something no one else had and was cool. We started building the car in September of 2016. I initially told Devin, it would take about two years to complete the build. We worked in the garage a lot of nights until 1:00 or 2:00 in the morning. It went smoothly, and we finished early.”Rob had never built an entire car on his own. He had helped with pieces and parts on the family race cars, but constructing an entire car from scratch was a new experience. Rob did relay that having Devin working beside him was an added incentive.
https://www.speednik.com/files/2018/...54-960x634.jpgThe all-custom aluminum interior was also a McGee project. They added a fiberglass dash and Racepak digital dash for gauges. “Devin is outstanding,” Rob says. “We have always spent time together in the garage. He is computer smart, and figures out and bends pipe well. He has no interest in welding, so he will bend all the pipe, notch it, and help me fit it, but when it comes to welding, he’ll just walk away.”Devin remained fully involved with working on the car and wanted the best of everything for the project. “His hands were on every inch of this car while we were building it, “Rob says. “I wanted to try to go cheap in a couple of places, but he told me we weren’t just building a race car, we’re building a show car. Everything I wanted to go cheap on, he was dead set against.”
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