“Gen 3 Hemi The World” isn’t just a cool catch phrase printed on Blackbird Performance’s T-shirts but a true-to-life philosophy behind the companies stratospheric rise in the racing community. Just a couple of weeks ago, Blackbird Performance put their money where it counts at NHRA US Nationals in Indy powering a handful of cars – including Kevin and Jamie Burnett’s Top Dragster – with a supercharged G3 Hemi.
Believe it or not, the winning combination wasn’t all that exotic. According to Blackbird’s Geoff Turk, the package began with a G3 cast aluminum block produced by Energy Manufacturing Ltd., Callies Performance‘s crank and rods with factory production car heads, a Whipple 3.8L street car supercharger and “an extraordinarily soft tune” ran a 6.53 at 204mph. Needless to say, in a field of wild big block Bowties, the modern Hemi held its own.
Callies/Energy Manufacturing are leading the industry in third-generation Hemi performance. Whether you’re looking to build your own home-brewed 426 Hellephant, compete in NHRA with a Drag Pak variant or go full ham on the street, you can do it with confidence knowing you’ve got an officially-licensed engine block from Mopar and some of the strongest cranks and rods in the business. Then, drop into Blackbird to really dial-in your combination.
In a Facebook post, Blackbird Performance wrote:
It wouldn’t necessarily be something I’d recommend…pretty significantly changing up an engine combination, adding a bunch of torque and power, just before an important big race, but once again, we find ourselves at the Big Go, NHRA US Nationals doing just that. No hiding we like taking on challenges, especially ones involving a G3 Hemi.
Very blessed to be here in Indy where the G3 Hemi powered dream of Kevin and Jamie Burnett was on a mission to make it into one of the fastest Top Dragster fields on the circuit.
The plan, simple, put the engine on the dyno just before Indy, try some new stuff to make more power for what we thought would be needed, a 6.2-6.3 something, Kevin will throw it back in the car at the track, and three passes later, we’d have it all figured out and qualify in the top 32, be ready to race…sounds simple enough.
Then, as it often goes, the plan doesn’t survive the first hit. And on that first run in Q1 the tune was way too spicy with our newly found power, lots of wheel speed, he has to lift, does a masterful job rolling back into it, and runs a 7.04 @ 196, near the bottom of the field, in serious jeopardy of being pushed out the next day in Q2 and Q3. But at the hit, before the drama, Kevin had a 0.001 RT, so at least, he’s dialed in.
Onto Q2 this AM with some tune adjustments to get it down the track and more safely on the qualifying sheet. As he rolls out of the burnout, track officials notice a drip, check it out, let him move forward and the thankfully watchful officials again notice lots of drips… coming from a tire shaking loose fitting at the fuel filter, so goodbye to the much needed Q2.
Then a couple hours later, with tight fittings, an extraordinarily soft tune (now that we know a 6.4-6.5 would likely put us in the field), Kevin, cool as cucumber goes up for our Hail Mary shot at getting in, does his job, lifts a bit before the stripe and with an easy 6.53 @ 204, plants the Rocky Mountain Rocket in the field at his first ever US Nationals.
The only real Dodge Hemi on the sheet in a sea of Big Inch, Big Block, Pro Charged Chevies, this little Hemi with factory production car heads, a Whipple 3.8L street car supercharger and built on the fantastic foundation of an Energy / Callies Aluminum block, got it done.
