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Performance World - Drag Car Highlights
Mark Ackert - March 23, 2008
 The cold winds of winter always take a back seat when the Performance World Custom Car and Truck show comes to the International Centre in Toronto, Ontario. Entering its 44th year, the show always brings out the best iron, firbre glass and now carbonfibre for eager spectators to see. This year, drag cars were amongst the top when considering such things as paint, detail and overall engineering. One of the most impressive cars in the show was the 1933 Willy’s Pro Mod of Aaron Pilatzke. After selling his streetable 33 Willy’s, Pilatzke purchased this Pro Mod with the intentions of restoring it back to its original state, the Tin Indian which was once owned by well known drag racer Johnny Rocca. The car is rich in history which is one of the reasons the car has always been so appealing to Aaron. Congratulations to Aaron on his Best Engineered and 1st place in Pro Mod awards. The crew from HitMan HotRods, who had a hand in the Tin Indian build, were on hand promoting their shop that is located nearby in Cambridge.  Ernie and Frank Pompilio were also on hand displaying their beautiful twin turbo Super Street 67 Mustang in the VP Racing Fuel booth. The team, who are part of the 6 second club, are ready to take a shot at the championship in OSCA Super Street action in 2008. Steve “Splash” Damianidis was showing off his new streetable 69 Camaro. While this car won’t see any action on the strip like his 7 second EZ Street Camaro, Splash plans on turning this thing loose on the street to have some fun. One ride that has quickly become a favor ite with Ontario spectators is the Bad Ass blown Altered of Tim Martin. After achieving their goal of a 5 second pass last season, Tim has put the Altered up for sale so he can concentrate on his newly acquired 63 Corvette Pro Mod formerly owned by Ed Hoover. Although most of the drag cars on display came from Ontario, a couple of notable cars came from the United States. Randy Jewell, driver and co-owner of the RJ Pro Fab Top Sportsman Camaro was at the show as well as another US racer, Denny Terzich who has what is billed as the fastest street driven car in North America. Denny won a contest for Hot Rod magazine where his best time of 7.64 would beat out all his competitors and crowned him king of the streets. OSCA Super Street competitor Sandra Grella was showing off her recently acquired 2004 Ford Mustang.  After taking the 2007 season off, Sandra and Mike found this car and couldn’t pass up the opportunity of purchasing it. Future plans for the car are under wraps right now but one thing is for sure with this new MPW Stang, whatever combination is stuffed under the hood, it’s gonna fly. There was a large contingency of Jr. Dragsters at the show competing this year. Frank Cesario was promoting the sport as well as showing off the Jr.Dragster his son, Marc Anthony races. Bill Peace was another competitor debuting his car at Performance World. This LowDown Hot Rods built 63 Corvette is going to be a head turner with its blue flames over glossy black paint job. Scott Wildgust, Jack Brohman, Al Hinds, Paul Bhawan, the list of names goes on and on for drag racing competitors at the show this year. One standout at the show this year was the beautiful girl that goes by the name Jersey. She was signing autographs at the Street Concepts booth and walking around interacting with the crowd promoting her new website, jerseydiary.com.
With all the new cars having been built, this should be an exciting year for Canadian drag racing. This show was a perfect example of how drag racing is having an influence on car builders. Blowers and wide tires have always been a part of the street rod culture but now it’s been taken to the next level. Some of these hot rods are pushing the limits, which will only help this side of the industry grow as the hardcore compete to have the wildest and fastest rides around.
All photos by Mark Ackert
Additional Photos from Performance World can be viewed: Here
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