(Words and photos by Greg Rourke) – A short while ago Bryan showed us a 70 Chevelle which someone helpfully whacked the middle out of for reasons unknown. Back on the late 60’s and early 70’s, this was the style. So was rampant drug use…coincidence?
Here we have something so wrong, it’s right. I should hate this car, but I don’t. We have a 56 Chevy wagon with a couple’a two-tree feet (NOTE: “Couple’a two-tree” is a standard unit of measure in Chicago. “Borrow me a couple’a two tree bucks” we’d say. No time to explain now, back to the story) sawed out of the center. What’s also wrong is it has a glass 55 doghouse on it, and a teardrop scoop that is traditionally a 60’s Ford adornment. I’m always amazed at the welding skills of the knuckleheads who did these vertical chop jobs, and this one is no exception. The roof was smooth as a babies behind.
I had to bother the guys who were at Cordova one Friday night for test and tune. They were a couple of graybeards just out having fun. They found the car in California where they were told it was cut up, and was being used as a sand racer. They were looking for something unique to race, this fit the bill. They really wanted me to see the engine, so they hit a switch for a pair of liner actuators to tilt the hood. Pretty slick. They were running a fairly basic LS motor with a few proven mods that put the car in the high 10’s. The blue bottle had yet to be filled, but they predict bottom 10’s when they finish lining it out and add the chemical squeeze. And speaking of lines, this car went down the track as though it was on one, not the squirrely on and off the throttle I was expecting. The mods they did on the chassis to make the switch from sand to asphalt were done correctly. Of course the car lifts the wheels at will, as well as on the one-two shift. They built this car to have fun with, and they felt thrashing on the car between rounds wasn’t fun, so they went with the low maintenance LS motor, the easy tilt hood, and even electric tilt on their trailer deck.
These guys were have as much fun as any other 5 racers combined. With a car so wrong that it was right.
(editor’s note: Greg Rourke has succeeded in finding the only one of these things ever created that I feel is remotely cool!)
Check out the photos of this shopping cart wheelbase freak –
‘Just a Lame Boulevard Cruiser’…..? Really…? ;-(
As long as those two guys are having fun with it, that is all that matters.