From No-Prep Wreck to Drag-and-Drive Prep, the Thrash Is On To Get This Malibu Ready for Sick Week 2025!
It’s not uncommon to see racers cross over into a drag-and-drive event from other forms of racing, including grudge racing, heads-up class and even bracket and index racing. Even some no-prep racers have made the jump to drag-and-drive.
But Allen Thompson will go a step further as he looks to rebuild his no-prep car to get it ready for next year’s Sick Week Presented by Gear Vendors Overdrive.
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Although it wasn’t his first car, Allen knew at some point he wanted a ‘G-body’ Malibu in his life. “In 2020, I sold my ‘96 Chevy Silverado pick-up that my dad and I built for my first truck,” said Allen. “I made the decision to sell that truck in order to go buy my first drag car. I loved G-bodies, especially Malibus.”
This particular Malibu, packing a 496 cubic inch big block came up for sale, and although Allen thought his dad was going to say no to that idea, a surprising ‘yes’ was his answer.
After picking up the car and contemplating what to do with it, the world forever changed when Covid hit. “When we bought the car it was the start of Covid,” said Allen. “All the tracks were closed, which left us with no other option than the street.”
Allen was soon participating in his first cash days event, and was instantly hooked. “The rest of the year we worked to make it faster, and added nitrous plate kits and upgraded the suspension,” said Allen.
But at the end of 2020, Allen ended up hitting the wall at a local track, and brought the Malibu home to access the next stage of the build. “My dad has his own shop called Thompson Hotrods, and that is where my love for cars and racing really flourished,” said Allen. “We brought the car home to start fixing it, and before we could even get started with that, we saw what everyone else was doing at the time, and started to plan what our vision with the car was.”
The initial plan was to add a 10-point roll cage to the Malibu, but that evolved into a full 25.2 chassis legal for 6.00-second times in the quarter-mile, while retaining the stock suspension. “At the time, that was a big thing, and we were trying to build it to be a fast grudge car,” Allen said.
The process of rebuilding the car is also how the name ‘Buterface’ came to be. “When I wrecked the car, I needed a whole new dog house,” said Allen. My dad’s buddy gave us two front fenders that were in red oxide primer, and had a gold header panel. While we were fitting the front end up, I could not help but think how prefect it was, because I was in the mindset of ‘ugly grudge car.’ We had a whole list of names that just didn’t fit the car, until my buddy and dad came up with ‘Buterface.’ I was like ‘that’s perfect because, everything looked good But Er’ Face.’”
In addition to the chassis upgrades, the engine program also got some changes. The 496 big block was living on three nitrous systems: two foggers and a single nitrous plate kit. By September of 2022, the engine had changed to a 565 cubic inch bullet, and the nitrous systems remained.
A couple months later, the Malibu again ended up in a crash, giving Allen the chance to update the car once again. “After that mishap, we had to make a change to the car to make it faster,” he said. “I was trying to push the car harder than I needed to try to keep up with the others. We got tried to get away from all the steel on the car and put (fiber)glass all over.”
The weight loss attempt helped, but the struggle to keep up continued to give them fits on the engine. “In 2023, I hurt the engine 2-3 times trying to keep up,” Allen said. “I told dad after the third time we need to make a combo change to pick up some numbers. I told him if we put a turbo in it, we are building to be able to go do a drag-and-drive.”
Flashing back to when he first experienced Hot Rod Drag Week in 2014 by hanging out at one of the checkpoints in Louisville, Kentucky, Allen was now hoping to participate in an event he had once considered “one of the coolest things I ever got to do.”
After making the change from nitrous to a single turbocharger on the big block combo, Allen participated in ‘War in the Woods’ at Brown County Dragway this past July, where the Malibu would suffer its third crash.
“I thought my dream of racing was over when I had my last wreck,” Allen said. “But because of my dad and his godly given talent in fabrication, we are going to be able to save the car, and get to go do Sick Week 2025.”
Focusing on the popular small-tire eighth-mile Rowdy Radial class, the Malibu will roll into Sick Week in all steel, all glass trim, powered by a 570 cubic inch big block. A large 118-millimeter Forced Inductions turbo adds the boost, and although it’s easy to set lofty goals, Allen is trying to be realistic.
“If we can just finish it, it would be amazing,” he said. “Even if we finish the first 300-mile drive, that would be a win in our books. Because this is something we have never done before, and we are going to get in a 2500-horsepower car and drive.
“I’m mostly excited about just having the opportunity to do this with my dad, since he is the reason I am here today and have the car that I have. We built this car in our own shop from the ground up.”
Can the Thompson father and son team successfully complete their goals on Sick Week Presented by Gear Vendors Overdrive?
Written by Derek Putnam. Photos courtesy of Allen Thompson.
If you have thoughts / feedback / ideas, please e-mail us at derek@sickthemagazine.com