Blackbird Performance

09/08/2026

It was an unusual but productive Labor Day weekend for Blackbird Performance , as we were not at Indy, and the Big Go, this year.

Instead we got some time to visit with family and friends, and squeeze in some more progress.

As exemplified by this owner, at Blackbird Performance, we like putting old industrial/manufacturing assets, back to work right here in the good ol’ USA!

The Master of Machining, Justin Small, and I went on a rescue mission deep into the Nolichucky River valley in TN and brought home a new recruit, a Fanuc 5 axis, Robo Drill. We made our highly limited loading resources work and got it home, safe and sound.

The exhaust artist, we’ll call him , the ‘Tig’, completed another, just beautiful set of headers, these for the ‘Asphalt Hustler’.

09/05/2026

It is with great sadness and the heaviest of hearts that we share, the world lost a great crew chief, and even more importantly, a great human, grandfather, father and husband, John Briggs.

John had a heart event a couple weeks back and was battling his way back after bypass surgery but so very sadly, he passed away last night.

I will not ever forget how John came by the booth, back in our first PRI as Blackbird Performance, and with his sharp inquisitive mind explored the idea of running the G3 Hemi in Super Dirt Late Model against all the well proven, predominantly Chevy based engines. What seemed like a long shot, turned into a proven reality because of the driving force of this man and the Briggs Race Team.

Today, we are on our knees praying for this family and team, asking God for their comfort in this extremely difficult time.

God Speed John, you will be so greatly missed.

09/01/2026

A story 45 years plus in the making, a G3 Hemi powered dream that we could not have ever imagined at the beginning of the Blackbird Performance journey. A story that only Bobby Bennett, a consummate story teller, could tell this well.

Check out Competition Plus latest on another Blackbird Performance project, this one extremely near and dear to our heart.

Don worked with Justin at JRO Design on a scheme inspired by the drag racing he remembers without directly cloning a famous car. The colors carry a Sox &

08/27/2026

New Product Announcement !

Bolt On Stainless Muffler (304, the good stuff) for 6.4l Hemi powered 2014 - 2026+ Ram 2500s

Huge improvement in your Ram 2500 truck’s Hemi powered soundtrack, rust proof, less restrictive and a lot less weight.

If your heavy duty, big 6.4l Hemi powered Ram 2500 almost complete lack of a Hemi soundtrack disappointed you, we feel you !

At Blackbird Performance, Jena and I both have 6.4l Ram 2500s and while we have been very impressed with them overall (mine has about 50k miles on it, her’s about 10k so far), the almost complete lack of a Hemi V-8 soundtrack was disappointing.

Like many of you, we like to see, feel and hear our G3 Hemi powered dreams. So we worked to develop this awesome, bolt on (like 30 minutes) beautiful, functional and made of 304 stainless steel (not 409, that still corrodes), muffler. Then we installed them on both our trucks and man, WOW!, what a difference. Not obtrusive, not offensively loud, but you can hear the Hemi heartbeat at a background sound level, while having normal conversations and when you get with it, inside and outside the truck, you now get a constant, very pleasant reminder, you ‘got a Hemi in it’.

Assembled and welded together here in the good old USA, and with a couple on the shelf, you can get yours today for an introductory price of only $649.

Give us a shout, we can still hear you but now we can also hear that marvelous 6.4l Hemi in the background.

08/27/2026

New Product Announcement !

Bolt On Stainless Muffler (304, the good stuff) for 6.4l Hemi powered 2014 - 2026+ Ram 2500s

Huge improvement in your Ram 2500 truck’s Hemi powered soundtrack, rust proof, less restrictive and a lot less weight.

If your heavy duty, big 6.4l Hemi powered Ram 2500 almost complete lack of a Hemi soundtrack disappointed you, we feel you !

At Blackbird Performance, Jena and I both have 6.4l Ram 2500s and while we have been very impressed with them overall (mine has about 50k miles on it, her’s about 10k so far), the almost complete lack of a Hemi V-8 soundtrack was disappointing.

Like many of you, we like to see, feel and hear our G3 Hemi powered dreams. So we worked to develop this awesome, bolt on (like 30 minutes) beautiful, functional and made of 304 stainless steel (not 409, that still corrodes), muffler. Then we installed them on both our trucks and man, WOW!, what a difference.

Not obtrusive, not offensively loud, but you can hear the Hemi heartbeat at a background sound level, while having normal conversations and when you get with it, inside and outside the truck, you now get a constant, very pleasant reminder, you ‘got a Hemi in it’.

Assembled and welded together here in the good old USA, and with a couple on the shelf, you can get yours today for an introductory price of only $649.

Give us a shout, we can still hear you but now we can also hear that marvelous 6.4l G3 Hemi in the background.

08/22/2026

Last year, Kevin Burnett and his Rocky Mountain Rocket dragster led the way putting a Supercharged G3 Hemi powered in the top half of even tough Top Dragster fields and went rounds.

This year, he shifted gears, put back in a very affordable Supercharged G3 Hemi package (kind of between our Race Spec 1,000+ and the Race Spec 1,300+) and went back out in Super Comp. He was determined to see how well one of these deals would run and if you could easily throttle stop it. Once again, leading the way, as 3 passes in, he had it dialed in, then later went rounds.

On an altitude adjusted 9.05 index (~5,000’ DA) he went 9.049 on his third attempt, at well over 181 ish.

If you are a super class racer looking for big top end speed, with consistency, durability and affordability, you might seriously consider how well this $20k ish engine, that can do this a long, long time, does the job.

Check out the two different relatively simple systems these guys have used to make this work.

Big thanks to Kevin, for proving it was very doable and sharing with all !

08/22/2026

Another methanol burning Race Spec 1,000+ headed to a proven early model Challenger race car of Cecil Stanford and son. These supercharged Hemis sure do like their alcohol.

Pretty cool and affordable, reliable 1,000+ HP bracket engine and in many ways, even cooler on methanol.