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DA
DANA NA HARDHARD
Story by Neil Van Zile • Photos by Mike McCarthy, Neil Van Zile & Primetime Video & Photo
The Merriam-Webster Dictionary definition of the word “engineer”
includes the following:
ENGINEER
A designer or builder of engines
a) A person who is trained in or follows as a profession a
branch of engineering
b) A person who carries through an enterprise by skillful or
artful contrivance
c) A person who runs or supervises an engine or an apparatus
Based on that definition, Dana Machine, LLC in Weymouth, Mass. all, it turned Dana into a lifelong fan
Hard has always been an Engineer, and to top it all off, he is the owner of the Blue Oval. More importantly,
in every sense of the word. To of three semi-professional funny it drove him to eventually walk away
begin with, Dana is a builder and cars – two Mustang-bodied nitro- from a high paying engineering
designer of engines. He is more powered machines and a 1948 Fiat career to start his own engine repair
interested in the engines than the altered on blown alcohol. and rebuilding business.
cars that they come in. Dana also
holds engineering degrees from two It all started when Dana was about For a hundred bucks, you don’t
different colleges. He has been in 15 years old. He scraped up $100 get a car that runs well. As soon
the business of building automotive and purchased a 1959 Thunderbird as he was able, Dana removed
engines for more than 45 years powered by a 430-cid Lincoln motor. the engine from the T-bird,
as owner of Custom Automotive That car started two trends. First of disassembled it and took all of the
SPRING 2021 Nitro Madness Magazine 61
