Do I gamble when I go to Las Vegas? Not since the night I drank so much Everclear that I barely remember getting hit by a taxicab. I’m not much of a gambling man to begin with…I get twitchy over penny-ante poker. I don’t want to gamble in Las Vegas…there are plenty of other methods of losing my ass without one-armed bandits, card dealers or betting pools. Nothing wrong with it if that’s your bag, but if I’m going to take a risk, I’m going to take one more calculated than my inebriated brain attempting to channel my inner Rain Man at a blackjack table.
Cheap car hunting…now that’s more my style. Las Vegas is in the desert, there’s plenty of population (read: plenty of cars in the area) and the pickings tend to be pretty decent. So, since I’m sitting in my hotel room after another day roaming SEMA, why not see what’s out in the market? This 1974 Chevelle looks like a good shot. It’s a basic Chevelle Malibu, plain bench interior, no vinyl top, derby cap Rally wheels, and is claimed to be a one-owner machine. Judging from the pictures, I’ll concede that it’s at least a one-family car…the stock stereo is in place and while everything has some age to it, nothing looks overly worn-out except the tires, which would be trashed in half a second for new hoops. 
A pre-smog Chevelle with a clean body, no hack-work, and a modest price tag? Sounds like a solid bet to me. I’m seeing a blank canvas ready for a revitalization program for this Colonnade A-body.
Horrible looking and performing daily drivers, awesome looking NASCAR racers.
Had one years ago. Actually, aside from it needing to go on a serious diet, the honest and venerable pre-emissions nonsense, 350 chevy was a strong performer and responded well to basic bolt ons. Headers, carb, intake. If it weren’t for the new gen muscle doing everything better, Id enjoy driving one again.
Congrats! Every year I\’ve done SEMA hopping to score, as you have. Get back home, 1800 hundred miles to see what I missed.
Had a \’73 similar to the one pictured here that was a FBI ordered, but never took delivery. Has a factory blueprinted 350 that was super fast for the period.
I HAVE OWNED OVER. A DOZEN CARS ON THAT CHASISS. I CURRENTLY OWN 1975 BUICK CENTURY ITS NOT AS CHERRY AS THAT MALIBU BUT IT IS KOOL.IRON V6 350 TURBO.331 POSI,A ND BUCKETS ON A CLOUMN SHIFT. I WILL BE DOING A LOO S OR 455 MANUAL CONVERSION.BEST ONE I EVER HA DC @ 1970 CUTLASS BUILT 400 4SPD AND THERE IS NO BETTER FEELING THAN GRABBING GEARS AND JERKI N.V G FRONT TIRES IN 6500LBS
I had same year same color.. 4 door. I’d love to take that home.
I just picked up 74 Laguna with Edelbrock intake, carb . Headers and cam. What really caught me was the swivel buckets. Looking forward to putting it back into service
Interesting, now if only there was an interesting motor in that interesting car…. 🙂