Engine of the Week is presented by
Over the past couple years, the buzz surrounding drag-and-drive events in Sweden, as well as some of the Swedish competitors themselves, has been swarming. As such, we were excited to see guys like 2022 Sick Week champion Stefan Gustafsson, LS-powered Volvo drag racer Mikael Borggren and Michael Westberg in his LS-powered S10, make passes at the 2023 Sick Week event in Florida.
We got a chance to chat with Michael Westberg on day two of Sick Week where he set a new PR-pass of 6.40 at Bradenton Motorsports Park, picking up right where he left off from 2022 Drag Week. Michael’s Chevy S10 features a 400 cubic inch twin-turbo LS Next engine.
“I started building the truck myself in 2016, and it was finished in 2017, just days before the first drag-and-drive event I competed in,” Westberg told us. “I went on to win my class and finished in the top three overall. From there, I started evolving it and evolving it and now this is where it is at for the moment. It’s still the same body and the same chassis, but I’ve changed some parts along the way, like the engine.”
Currently, Michael has a 400 cubic inch LS engine in the S10, which was built by Stefan Rossi of ACE Racing Engines in Torrance, CA. The LS engine features a Dart aluminum LS Next block, a Callies crankshaft, GRP aluminum rods, custom pistons, Brodix cylinder heads, titanium intake valves, Inconel exhaust valves, a solid roller camshaft, Crower rockers, Crower lifters, and twin 86mm Precision turbos, all controlled by a FuelTech FT600.
“We ran 52-lbs. of boost during the 6.40 pass,” Westberg says. “That’s probably 2,500 horsepower. We’ve probably got another 10-lbs. of boost in it if we need. That 6.40 pass wasn’t the best 60-foot we ever had. It was 1.05 and we had 1.02 yesterday. If everything goes right, maybe we can run a 6.29.”
The S10 also features a Turbo 400 3-speed transmission and 36-inch Hoosier tires. Now, a 6.29 pass never came to be, but Michael did finish Sick Week with five days of fast passes – 6.56 at 209 mph in Orlando, a 6.40 at 210 mph in Bradenton, a 6.46 at 218 mph in Georgia, a 6.45 at 216 mph in Gainesville, and a 6.43 at 216 mph in Orlando for an average of 6.46 at 214 mph – enough to give Michael the 2023 Sick Week overall win, just beating out fellow Swede Stefan Gustafsson.
Westberg says the truck and its LS engine performed great all week on both the track and the street, and he credits his time competing in Swedish drag-and-drive events for getting him to come compete here in the U.S.
“We’ve got a pretty good drag-and-drive culture in Sweden,” he says. “We’ve got one big event every year, which was new in 2017. I’ve been doing it every year now. I won my class once and I won the whole thing two times (2019 and 2021) before coming over here.”
With his stellar performance at Sick Week this year and at 2022 Hot Rod Drag Week, we have no doubt more will come from Michael Westberg. However, his S10 has since been sold, so we’ll have to see what new ride he’ll be competing in next. Whatever it ends up being, his LS engine will be coming along.
Engine of the Week is sponsored by PennGrade Motor Oil, Elring – Das Original and NPW Companies. If you have an engine you’d like to highlight in this series, please email Engine Builder Editor Greg Jones at [email protected].
