In today’s world, NHRA Pro Stock is a category that’s in flux. The racing is incredibly tight, the refinement in the race cars is beyond compare in the rest of the sport, and the costs to compete have skyrocketed. There’s a select few teams capable of making the “full pull” to all of the NHRA national events these days and make a legitimate run for a title. Back in the late 1960s when the class was starting to form up, that was not the case and it was an amazing time. One of the meanest players in this burgeoning collection of brilliant engine builders, chassis men, and drivers was Ron Hutter. These days Hutter is still known as one of the best engine builders in the land and back when he was a kid in the late 1960s, his reputation was on the rise. The four man team of Hutter, Carver, Novak, and Valerio were in the first pack to of pro stockers to plunge into the 9-second zone and it happened to be their “Canned Heat” 1968 Camaro. The front end of the car, as it was last raced is for sale on eBay because header maven Jere Stahl had it stored in his York, PA shop for all these years. Talk about a cool bunch of panels!
We’re still flummoxed as to why nostalgia pro stock has not become “a thing” yet. Maybe it is guys trying to figure out which era of pro stock is most suited to be revived. Maybe it is because we’re wrong and there isn’t huge demand for it yet, and maybe guys are afraid because it will draw all the old dogs back off the porch and it’ll escalate out of control in a hurry. We suspect it is probably the first as there are pockets of guys out there now running cars in the style of the late 1970s, but not a bunch. We’d love to see some of the cars like Canned Heat recreated and raced as close to what they were as possible in the era before the Lenco. That seems like the logical break point for us, but who the hell are we, right?
The pack rat in us wants this stuff to go to someone who will keep it as is and the racer in us hopes that these pieces get bolted onto a car and actually pushed through the wind at high speed again. The decals, lettering, and entry stickers are awesome. Can those somehow be preserved? Let’s hope so. This vintage fiberglass is cool and while it isn’t like modern ‘glass pieces for first generation Camaros are in short supply, you’d have to agree that this stuff is WAY neater than anything you’d get out of a catalog today.
SCROLL DOWN TO SEE THIS AWESOME VINTAGE NOSE FROM THE MEAN “CANNED HEAT” CAMARO –
Curious if the rest of the car is still around.