In May of 2017, Orange Juice was beginning to come together again. The reason the project was taking so many years to complete was that Vasser was building his business.

“Throughout the years of building the Nitro Dave corporation, I was never able to afford to keep my hot rods very long,” Dave said.” I always had to sell cars off to turn a profit and reinvest back into the company. A fast-growing company comes at a great expense of time and financial strain, despite the perception that all small business owners are loaded.” Dave admitted the over-the-phone purchase of the fourth-gen F-body was a bad decision and because the car was so poorly built, the amount of money and time he has invested in it has turned it into a project that will never be profitable. According to Dave, “This is the longest I have ever kept a car. I guess you could say I’m married to it and we have a love/hate relationship.”









The rear hatch is from VFN Fiberglass and the windows are Optic Armor drop in glass.


The car was finally assembled in Waco, Texas and A lot of people threw their talents at the build to help Dave out. Jonathan Cornelson of Mohawk Racing was kind enough to loan Vasser a Henson Race Engines 434 cubic-inch LSX engine. John from CID Heads supplied a higher-performing intake manifold for the engine, while Rodney from RPM Transmissions built a new Powerglide. Dave contacted Joe from ProTorque, who then built a billet bolt-together converter for the car. Robin from Holley supplied a Dominator ECU. Davis Technologies provided a state-of-the-art traction control device, thanks to Shannon. Eric from Midwest Chassis supplied all the front suspension, andTom from Mickey Thompson supplied new drag radials. It was time to hit the track.









Orange Juice exists to highlight David’s company, Nitrous Outlet, which means this LS-powered Camaro is juiced to the max with a Nitrous Outlet dry single-stage, direct-port kit fed by a Nitrous Outlet 12-pound carbon-fiber bottle installed with a rollbar mount, heated billet bottle bracket.




In September of 2018, Orange Juice made its debut at No Mercy 9 held at South Georgia Motorsports Park. The debut meant Dave was driving an untested car.”We battled ignition issues all weekend and ended up burning a valve,” he explains. Allen Martin from Texarkana Nitrous and James Livingston pulled the head off Orange Juice and drove it to Voss Racing in Florida where they did a fresh valve job. Allen and Aaron Cashwell spent all night putting the car back together while Dave fell asleep watching. The guys finished reassembly as the first round of eliminations was called to the lanes. “Unfortunately we were eliminated first round due to our ignition issues,” Dave shares, “but, the amount of testing and technical help we received over the weekend saved us months getting the car figured out.”

After No Mercy, Dave landed the perfect partnership with the School of Automotive Machinists and Technology (SAM Tech). Moving forward, Orange Juice will be used as a marketing and teaching tool for both Nitrous Outlet and SAM Tech. In the event that the engine is hurt, it will be removed and taken back to SAM Tech; The students will review the computer logs to see where the engine became unhappy, then disassemble it to access the damage and repair it. For the first compilation with SAM Tech, Allen Martin pulled the engine and Dave drove it to the school. The students pulled the engine apart, changed the crank to a center weight crank, changed the pistons to be more nitrous-friendly, and softened the chambers on the heads.









Orange Juice is worked on by students at the School of Automotive Machinists and Technology (SAM Tech). The students look at engine data and then disassemble it to access any damage for repairs.


With a fresh engine, the team had a new goal in sight: to be ready for Lights Out in February 2019 at South Georgia. Allen Martin got Orange Juice ready and the team was able to head to XRP in Ferris, Texas, to test the weekend before leaving for Lights Out. Unfortunately for Orange Juice, the testing did not go well: The car went up on two wheels and came down hard, crushing the oil pan and bending the lower control arms. The car never made a full pass. Midwest Chassis next-day-aired Dave a set of lower A-arms, and his fabrication shop rebuilt the oil pan. The following weekend they towed out to Lights Out. Again, Orange Juice and Vasser were at one of the largest races of the year with a truly untested car. The team went into qualifying with no real test passes. The reality was, neither Orange Juice nor Vasser had made an actual full pass down any track since 2011. The good news is that at the event they were finally able to accomplish three full passes down the track.