We got some immediate and grateful response from readers to the recent story in Hemmings Muscle Machines, illustrated with the photography of Mike Sopko, on bygone drag racing at U.S. 30 Dragway outside Gary, Indiana. (HMM #90, March 2011). Hands down, the craziest car in that story was No Big Thing, a tiny Vespa sedan stuffed at the time with a 427-cu.in. Chevrolet L-88 big-block, running in a sub-12 second eliminator bracket. The little monster was built and raced by a local guy named George Brugos.
A couple of weeks later, a letter and photo package arrived in the mail from Dave Heacock of Valparaiso, Indiana, also in U.S. 30′s neighborhood. Thanks to Dave, we know that No Big Thing is still with us, demonstrated by this shot he grabbed at a 2009 car show in Westville, Indiana. Today, it’s owned by Charlie Poague, and has a 454 in it to replace the earlier L-88. Look at this, and imagine trying to run it even on a half-track, half-throttle pass, although Dave assured that NBT is still fully functional. To put things in perspective, a stock Vespa 400 (they were imported from 1958 through 1961) used an air-cooled 393cc two-stroke twin with 20hp, weighed 850 pounds dry and rode on a 66.7-inch wheelbase.