Rare Yenko Nova vs Supercharged Studebaker Challenger R3 – 1/4 mile Drag Race Video – Road Test TV

A rare 1970 Yenko Nova — one of only 175 built with the solid-lifter LT1 350 — lines up against a car most fans would never expect to see at a drag strip: a supercharged 1964 Studebaker Challenger R3 known on the Pure Stock circuit as “plain brown wrapper.” One car carries a legendary tuner’s name. The other carries a Paxton supercharger and a reputation for embarrassing far more famous machinery. Detailed specs, a genuine underdog story, and a finish line that does not care which badge looks better. Watch to see which one gets there first.

There is a reason nobody bets against a Yenko when the tree drops. Don Yenko’s dealership built some of the most feared small-block Chevys of the muscle car era, and the Nova sitting on this line is one of only 175 ever assembled to his exact specification. Its opponent looks, at first glance, like a mismatch: a small, boxy Studebaker that most fans would not even recognize, let alone expect to see at a drag strip. But this particular Studebaker has a name among the people who actually race these things, a supercharger under its hood, and a reputation for embarrassing cars that never saw it coming. One of these two is about to learn a lesson about judging a book by its cover.

The Yenko Name Behind This Nova

Don Yenko’s Chevrolet dealership in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania built some of the most respected performance cars of the late 1960s by taking Chevrolet’s existing muscle and pushing it further than the factory would. This particular Nova is a 1970 model powered by the solid-lifter LT1 350 cubic inch small block, factory-rated at 360 horsepower, backed by a Muncie four-speed and a 4.10-geared posi rear end. Chevrolet and Yenko built only 175 of these Novas to this specification, which puts it firmly in the same rarity conversation as far more famous muscle cars from the era, even though the Nova nameplate rarely gets the same recognition as a Chevelle or Camaro. Even by Yenko’s standards, a Nova built to this exact combination is considered one of the more desirable small-block Yenko products, prized today less for outright horsepower than for how usable and reliable the combination proved to be on the street as well as the strip.

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Meet the Studebaker Nobody Saw Coming

The car lining up against it is George Krem’s Studebaker, a regular at the Pure Stock drags held at Mid-Michigan Motorplex in Stanton, Michigan, where fans who follow this specific corner of drag racing know it by nickname: some call it “baked beans,” others “plain brown wrapper.” It is not the only fast Studebaker on the circuit either — fellow racer Ted Harbit campaigns a red supercharged car nicknamed “Stude Tomato,” and the two cars reportedly travel to events together on the same trailer alongside a third, cream-colored Studebaker. What looks like a curiosity from the outside is, within this niche corner of drag racing, a known and respected competitor with real history behind it.

What’s Actually Under the Hood

According to detailed specs shared by fans familiar with the car, this Studebaker runs a 304.5 cubic inch R3 engine, originally a 289 block bored and stroked to Studebaker’s R3 specification, fed by a Paxton supercharger and a Carter AFB carburetor rather than a more modern setup someone might expect on a serious drag car. Power goes through a Powershift automatic transmission, a swap from the car’s original T-10 four-speed, into a Twin Traction rear end geared at 4.56. At a scaled race weight of roughly 3,300 pounds, the car has been dyno’d at 365 rear-wheel horsepower at 5,830 RPM, running a best pass of 12.85 seconds at 111 miles per hour — all on street tires, not dedicated drag rubber.

A Genuinely Rare Engine Family

Part of what makes this car remarkable is how few R3-specification Studebaker engines exist at all. By most historical counts, barely more than a dozen R3-equipped cars ever left the factory — nine 1964 Avantis and a single Lark — with maybe fifty more R3 crate engines sold separately for hardcore owners to drop in themselves, a number small enough that R3 cars are arguably rarer than most muscle cars people consider elite today. That scarcity, combined with the Paxton supercharger’s ability to make a small, unassuming engine genuinely dangerous at the strip, is exactly why Studebaker’s forgotten performance cars keep resurfacing in drag racing circles decades after the company stopped building cars entirely in the mid-1960s.

The Sound Before the Surprise

Fans who have watched Krem’s Studebaker race in person describe being caught off guard every time, blown away by both the speed and the distinctive whine of the Paxton supercharger spooling up before the car launches off the line. That combination of an unassuming shape and an aggressive supercharged soundtrack is part of what makes Pure Stock drag racing at events like Stanton’s so appealing to purists — the cars look close to how they left the factory, but the engineering hiding underneath tells a very different story than the sheet metal suggests.

Yenko’s Small Block Against a Supercharged Underdog

On paper the Nova should have the advantage: a purpose-built, factory-backed performance package from one of the most respected tuners of the era, against a decades-old sedan platform with an aftermarket blower bolted on top of it. But drag racing rarely respects reputation over results, and this particular Studebaker has made a habit of beating cars that looked far more intimidating on paper, the Yenko Nova included, according to viewers in the comments who recognized the car from previous events at the same track.

Why Pure Stock Racing Still Matters

Events like the one this race was filmed at exist specifically to keep cars like these on the track instead of behind glass in a museum. Pure Stock rules typically require entrants to remain close to factory specification, which means the Studebaker’s supercharger, gearing, and drivetrain choices all had to fall within a defined rulebook rather than an anything-goes build sheet. That restriction is exactly what makes a 12.85-second pass on street tires so impressive, and why regulars at these events treat cars like Krem’s with the kind of respect usually reserved for far more famous muscle cars from bigger manufacturers.

A Rivalry That Keeps Finding New Fans

Every time footage like this resurfaces online, it introduces a new group of viewers to a corner of drag racing history that rarely gets mainstream attention: Studebaker’s brief, strange era of genuine performance engineering before the company folded. The Yenko Nova will always have the bigger name and the deeper collector following, but races like this one are exactly why enthusiasts keep insisting that judging a muscle car by its badge, rather than what is actually built into it, is a mistake worth avoiding at any drag strip. Krem and Harbit have kept this small corner of drag racing alive for years, and every fresh video of their cars racing seems to win over another batch of viewers who had no idea Studebaker ever built anything capable of running twelves.

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