As much as I’m sure it pained Derek to do, retiring the Independence Chevelle from competition was the right thing to do. The patriotic A-body put on plenty of good shows, but being very honest, between the wall taps and the car’s structural rigidity, if he didn’t retire it to the garage that car wasn’t going to be much longer for the world. Naturally, the question every has for him is, “What’s next?” What car is going to step into Independence’s role now that the Rusty Chevrolet is retired?

We don’t know if this 1971 Chevelle is that car. In fact, we’d wager it won’t be. But what it will be, even without one sentence spoken, is a potential drag-and-drive beauty. Derek is the third owner of the car, the second one having bought the car in 1977, and the Chevelle has been squirreled away since the late 1980s. Under the hood is a rowdy small-block, the body is impressively nice, the interior is Street Machine-style cool down to the electrical panel, and the winning point (to your author, at least) are the Cragar SS/T Super Trick mags at all four corners that just need to be polished up a bit to really stand out.

There’s also the things like missing wipers, a sketchy four-wheel drum brake setup that isn’t thrilled to be working again, a fuel tank with indigestion, and other little tiny tidbits. But compared to some of the beauties that Derek has driven home over the years, this Chevelle is still right at the top of the list!