1000bhp AWD Burnout Monster- the NASROD | American Tuned Ft. Rob Dahm

To the rest of the world, Texas is an American state. To Texans, Texas is a state of mind. It's where cowboys meet horsepower, and where we meet the Nass-Rod, a fusion of junkyard elegance and modern muscle car tuning. Jesse. How's it going, Rob? And it is an honor to meet you and talk about this car. And so, for the people that don't know, Jesse, what are we looking at? This is the Nass-Rod. It's a Nass-Car, open-wheel inspired rat rod. I think there's a lot more that could be used to describe it, though. There's a lot more than meets the eye, and I think for me, looking at it, there's a lot going on here. What are we looking at? So basically, it's a Steve Morris 500 cubic inch LS. It's got a T56 tranny. It's four-wheel drive, Duramax front differential, run-of-the-mill stuff. Oh, yeah. No big deal. That's something that blew my mind, is that this thing is all-wheel drive. Yes. And you've got parts from, I'm guessing, tons of different cars, different manufacturers? Oh, yeah. Yeah, it's basically a whole stirring pot of everything aftermarket. It's got like a mud truck transfer case. It's got a regular nine-inch out back, Corvette suspension parts, Trophy truck steering rack, like literally just every bit of everything I could find to work. You did basically everything you see here in-house? Yeah, everything here, yeah. I got a buddy up the street that does a little bit of machine work. He turned down some bushings and stuff for us, but other than that, you know what I'm saying? Like, it's all redneck math. That makes me wonder. I was told this thing makes 1,000 horsepower. Is it because it has nitrous? No. It makes 1,000 horsepower naturally aspirated. Yeah, it's 14.5 to 1 compression, solid roller, 800 plus lift camshaft. That's incredible. And you've got methanol? Yeah, I run it on methanol, absolutely. Yeah. You said earlier there was something that we had to do with the axles. Yeah, so notorious for this car, brakes, axles, the steering angle plus the horsepower and torque in four-wheel drive. Just likes to, you know, I think they're a little short. I got some longer stubs from Driveshaft Shop, we're going to swap those in real quick and see how they do. Perfect. Yeah. Jesse's crew gets right to it, and within minutes, the axles are already off and the new one's ready to be fitted. With how much Jesse thrashes on this car, it's no surprise that I am standing here holding these axles. These are solid steel pieces of machinery meant to put power from the drivetrain to the front wheels. With how impressive the front drivetrain is on this car, it's no surprise that he still has to replace these fairly often. Without these in particular, the car is stuck in rear-wheel drive mode. Now, it is a four-by-four vehicle, so power is being sent to the front, it's just not making it through the current broken axles. So this little bit of work is going to allow us to be able to do anything from four-wheel drive driving to maybe even four-wheel drive burnout. You're not supposed to have the balls falling out. We're missing a ball. Oh, I found it. It's in there. Two balls. Broken. It goes in here. If you see, there's supposed to be balls that hold this, and that's what makes it move. But it's missing one here and here. I have them both, so I'm going to try and fix it. Hopefully, it's that easy. I am Stacey, and I am the secretary here at Jesse's Performance. Jesse is my husband, and here we build some seriously cool s***. Jesse's shop in Fort Worth, Texas, is a menagerie of muscle. A combination of restomods and modern classics in various stages of high-horsepower tune. The Nostrad came to us the beginning of last year. Jesse bought it from a buddy up in Wyoming, and he told me, it only is going to need a motor. It already has a rear end and everything, so I was like, okay, yeah. So, 45 days later, it became the Nostrad. Jesse and Kyle stayed every night since then, trying to figure everything out. It's very hard. It is very hard to be married to somebody like Jesse. He works all the time. We do not have a normal life at all. He works his first shift from about 10 to 6, and then from 6 to about 2 to 5 in the morning, he works second shift. So, he is always thinking about cars. Everything we do is about cars. I don't mind because I am also into cars. That's kind of how we met, but I'm not as into it as he is. I like to go home and watch TV and stuff. So, when Jesse finishes a build, I get super excited and super proud. He's very modest. He's very, very humble. He'll never be like, yeah, I'm such a bad ass. So, I'm his hype man. I am like, you are amazing. This is so cool. It's just, it's so cool. It makes me so proud to see, because I do all our social media. So, when I'm scrolling and I see somebody has posted it, like I told him I was going to make him famous 10 years ago, and then here we are. I think I want to ride along. Okay. Yeah. We can do that. Yeah. I'm still shaking, but not out of fear. Shaking out of shaking. I have earplugs in, and that was still loud. Yeah. You know what's neat, though, is I've never been in an NA car that powerful, because I'm expecting like a turbo to kick in, and it's just like this linear on feeling. Yeah. It's really, isn't it crazy? Yeah. This thing revs so fast that like it's just like, ra-da-da-da, ra-da-da-da. You know, it's there. The crazy thing is, though, I don't think probably like thinking on this, like I don't think it's any rougher or least enjoyable of a ride than this car was new. Like a 34 Ford truck. That's a very true statement. Yeah. Because they rode like s*** too, you know what I'm saying? Yeah. At least this one makes cool sounds doing it. You know, I think since everything is good to go, you want to give it a whirl? I can't not. Yeah, right? My mind's telling me yes, but my body's telling me no. Well. But I'm going to do it. I'm going to get in. All right. They say some people who stay overly calm in the face of extreme chaos go on to develop post-traumatic stress disorder. I'm sure I'll be fine. I think it's dirt here. Oh, the clutch. Yeah. Wow. Yeah, yeah. Lost pedal. She just doesn't like me like she loves you. Yeah, I guess. Oh my god, that thing's just a riot. That's aggressive. That was very aggressive. I love it. How far are you pushing on the pedal, do you think? I sneezed on the pedal. Because I was like, okay, he's really getting the pedal. I get in there and it's like, whoa. Yeah. Like, it's like. Yeah. Jesse takes the NASRod for a quick burn to see if he can diagnose the problem. And then this happens. Okay, so what does it look like broke? It looks like the pinion gear broke. And it snapped off at the yoke at the pinion there. Because the pinion nut's still there. I can put it in four-wheel drive and get it on the trailer. I was going to say, you could probably take that, you know, that u-turn off and then go into front-wheel drive. Yeah? I'm not saying I'm a bad luck charm, but this happens around me a lot. No, this happens around me a lot too. Okay, we shouldn't have been hanging out. Yeah. It's all right. I'm good with it. He is not afraid to break ****. I know, I respect that. Yeah. Yeah, we'll just fix it. He doesn't get mad when anything breaks. No. Jesse's very cool looking tow rig shows up, and we put the Nassrod on the trailer, plotting whether we should cut our losses or double down. Of course, this is Texas, and so we stay in the game. The plan is, you guessed it, front-wheel drive burnouts. Yeah, I'm nervous right now. Yeah? And I don't even know why. I know that feeling. Yeah. I don't usually get nervous to perform, but that's when I know my **** is going to perform. I don't know. This is uncharted territory for sure. I'll try that again. I'll try first gear now. I'm going to strap it to the forklift now. Jesse's not the give-up type, so we play a little Texas hold'em with a forklift. All day, we finally got a burnout. All day, we finally got a burnout. The axles work. The Nassrod may have NASCAR in its name, but there's no race to win. Just an onslaught of power, sound, crazy fun, built out of imagination, and as Jesse says, redneck math. If you don't have your degree, best to leave this kind of thing to the professionals.