The thousands of fans who packed Auto Club Famoso Raceway for the 2008 Bakersfield March Meet, were treated to the unbelievable sight of nearly thirty Nostalgia Funny Cars, overflowing the staging lanes! One entry however, stood out from the field and brought more than one old timer to his knees; John Powers’ authentic-to-the-letter reproduction of his 1977, Powers Steel Camaro!

The original car was built and raced from 1977 through 1979, and, to say it was ahead of it’s time would be an understatement. “An aerospace engineer named Jerry Merle, who worked for Air Research, collaborated with Dan Geare in designing the car. Dan was a tremendous innovator himself and he and Jerry came up with things that had never been done before. Among others, it was the first car to have side rocker panels that went to the ground” says Powers, who goes on to tell about another aerodynamic feature on the car.

“We had what we called a ‘cow catcher’ on the front of the car; the nose was really pointed to split the wind. Don Garlits was the first one to figure it out; he said he was coming up the return road when we made a run and saw the dirt blowing off on both sides of the track. After that, he did the same thing on his own car!”

The original car had a Steve Plueger Chassis, while the new version is by Victory Race Cars, which was “cloned” from Steve’s original design. Powers lives up to his name, with an SSI blown, 396 inch BAE Hemi under the Camaro body.

The body is yet another story, as they couldn’t find one. That is until the “Shadow” himself, Jeff Gaynor, turned one up in New York! The body was purchased and shipped to Phoenix, where Rick Conley made a “plug” out of it and laid up a new and lighter version.

The thing that really got to those of us who remembered the original car, was the fact that John insisted on duplicated the original paint and lettering as close as possible. Doug at Squeege’s outdid himself on the paint, and the names of the original driver, Denny Savage, and Crew Chief Dan Geare, are just where they were!

Powers is just getting started however, as he’s nearing completion on a reproduction of Johnny Loper’s Plymouth Arrow Funny and another FC Classic that’s yet to be announced!

Photo by: Darrell Conrad