ONE thing Drag Challenge events are never short of is characters, and Victorian fella Noel Inman happens to be one of them. His ’22 Ford Centre Door uses a fibreglass body on a modified model A chassis, with an E-type Jag rear end that’s been beefed up with custom-built 32-spline driveshafts.

The engine is a bottle-fed 302-cube Ford backed by a modified C4 transmission with a 4500rpm converter, and Noel was somewhat disappointed with his initial 10.8-second pass; not because it was particularly slow, but because the car didn’t wheelie high enough for the fans.

“I went in Boostane Outlaw Blown this time because I thought that with slicks I’d be able to get the wheels up easier,” laughed Noel. “I’ll have fun until I get kicked off the track and then I’ll go to the next one and do the same.

“With nitrous it makes 426rwhp, and 346rwhp naturally aspirated, but it weighs 1250kg because it has stuff like air-conditioning, electric windows and a fair bit of strengthening underneath. It’s a street car, but I race it on Sundays. Or Saturdays, or Fridays or any day I can race!”