MARK Arblaster’s Valiant Hardtop POR440 has finally hit the strip for the first time. While it may look like junk, Arby’s Valiant is packing some serious gear including a Powerglide, 9-inch rear end and of course the turbo LS engine under the nose. Displacing just 5.3-litres, it’s an iron block truck motor that was pulled out of a rig with nearly 200,000 miles on the clock, but these things are built tough as nails and are renowned for being boost friendly. So Arby strapped on an 80mm turbo, upgraded the cam and did some mild top end work and she made 680rwhp on 18psi.

Keeping it alive is a Haltech Elite 2500 ECU; with so many sensors plugged into it we’re confident the 5.3 LS is in safe hands. With everything from coolant pressure sensors to a tailshaft torque sensor, if anything gets iffy Arby will know about it and the ECU with either adjust its tune to keep things safe or drop into limp mode.

At the track Arby was hoping to run anywhere in the nine-second range. First pass was a 10.1 with a soft launch and hitting the limiter before the end of the track, so the boys whipped out the laptops and raised the limiter. Second pass was a 9.99 @ 142.57, which Arby was pretty happy with but he’s confident there’s plenty more in it. We’ll see just how far Arby can take it when he brings his POR440 Valiant on Street Machine Drag Challenge later this month.