Everyone knows it helps to have contacts in drag racing, it might be Pat Budd when you feel you need to tweak your chassis or Steve Johnson when you have a nitrous question. Ottawa, ON racer Bruce Perley just calls his big brother when he needs some extra guidance. Perley’s brother Jeff knows a little about drag racing, he was just crowned NHRA Pro Stock Champion Crew Chief for the second year in a row. Jeff Perley is the co-crew chief on Greg Anderson’s Summit Racing Equipment Pontiac Grand Am and he has no trouble helping out his little brother when the need arises.

Bruce had no option but get into racing when he grew up. His father Al worked for NASCAR in the sixties and brother Jeff had his own chassis and fabrication shop before he went to work for Sonny Leonard, then Kurt and Warren Johnson before ending up with the Greg Anderson / Jason Line team. Father Al still cannot get enough of racing, as he is Bruce’s full time crewman. He performs most of the weekly maintenance on the racecar, truck, trailer, or whatever needs to be done.

The speed bug bit when he got behind the wheel of a go-kart at fourteen before heading over to the quarter mile with a motorcycle as he progressed through high school. Following in his bother’s footsteps he made the switch to four wheels with a self-built ’79 Camaro. The Camaro was an original style stock suspension Super Street car that underwent numerous performance updates through the years. It was raced till end of the ‘98 season with many top qualifier positions and wins around the Ottawa and Montreal area. The team even ventured south to play with the big boys of the NMCA in ’96 when they traveled to Maple Grove. At a massive 3800 pounds the best the second generation Camaro could muster was 9.11 @ 150 mph. Perley could see he needed a new car to compete in the wild world of Super Street racing and sat down with his brother to come up with a plan.

The duo knew a talented fabricator called Danny Davis who had no problem putting together a state of the art chassis for Perley’s new project. Davis who worked for Pro Stock chassis expert Rick Jones, started the build in Illinois but family issues had him move home to California and help out at the family run company Davis Step Headers. Included in his baggage was Perley’s ’97 Firebird.

The car started off life as an original fully loaded LT1 six-speed car and received a chromemoly backhalf with funny car cage and custom four link from Davis. A Davis custom fabricated Ford 9” housing is filled with 40 spline gun drilled Strange axles to put the power to Weld Aluma Stars and Mickey Thompson 10.5 inch slicks. Strange brakes on all corners ensure the silver ‘Bird stops when required. The front suspension is a mix of FJ Smith tubular K-member with Strange coil over shocks and tubular control arms. Rear suspension consists of Penske 8100 shocks and Davis custom anti roll bar with a pair of Rick Jones Quartermax wheelie bars hung out back. Safety is high on Perley’s priority list and to that end he installed a fire system and full safety equipment from Stroud Safety. A Kirkey seat holds the 33 year-old Ottawa native firmly in place behind the Grant steering wheel.

Motivation for the project comes from a 571 cubic inch big block Chevy. Dart Big Chief heads and intake manifold top off the nitrous equipped powerplant. Induction features a custom EFI system put together by the Perley brothers with Bruce fabricating all the fuel rails and injector bungs. Engine management is handled by a Big Stuff 3 ECU from John Meaney. A custom cam, BME rods, JE Pistons, Crower crank, Ferrea valves, T&D rockers, Jesel belt drive and front distributor complete the list of engine internals. The step headers were built by Joe Roy of Bolton, ON. Hanging off the back of the Chevy is a G-Force clutchless 5 speed shifted by a Long Shifter.

All machine work and engine assembly was done by Perley himself. It helps that he is a licensed machinist with fifteen years experience and acts as foreman at the Engines Extra division of northeast Canada auto part retailer Auto Parts Extra where he has worked since 1989. With Auto Parts Extra being a major sponsor at nearby Luskville Dragway they know what is involved with a serious drag race program and they assist Perley wherever they can. “I could not work for a better company, these guys help me wherever they can. From access to the machine shop, to deals on components, they help out a lot. They are a big part of this race team”

Now comes the part where contacts in racing help! When it came time to dyno the Perley powerplant who better to do it than Greg Anderson’s teammate Jason Line. Line is a former Joe Gibbs Racing dyno operator and most people reckon he plays a big part in his and Anderson’s success. Jason offered his services when Perley was ready to see what numbers the self built piece produced, so it was a case of loading up his slammed dually and heading south to the home of Ken Black Racing and see if the motor performed to expectations. Showing the same commitment to Perley’s project as he does to the NHRA Pro Stock motors he is responsible for, Line worked through the night to complete all the dyno runs required. EFI tuning for the project comes from PRO 5.0 standout Bill Rimmer. Perley told us, “Without Jason Line’s dyno experience or Bill Rimmer’s EFI knowledge we would not have made the power we did.” Perley did not tell us how much power they made but he was smiling quietly to himself.

So far in testing the team has only made passes without nitrous. Perley has seen a best of 8.70 @ 158 short shifting to get down the track. At present there is no data acquisition system installed in the racecar and Perley stated, “With no datalogger to help us out we are slowly creeping up on the clutch tune-up. I can safely say that there is a lot left in it. Once the clutch is nailed down we will start feeding in some nitrous. That should be some fun!”

Bruce Perley would like to thank his wife Natalie, his parents, Mark, Derek, Adam, Mike @ G-Force, Auto Parts Extra and most of all, his brother Jeff. Without all of his input and wealth of knowledge this project would not be what it is today.