It is easy to see why Nutting lost his mind when his eye caught Scott Carey’s 1964 Chevelle on the side of the road in Massachusetts. From the fresh, clean lines of the stock 1964 body to the aggressive but not over the top stance, this thing speaks right to any gearhead who love muscle cars that turn.

Scott didn’t really plan on making this car into what it is today. The reality is that he found a perfectly barn patina’d Chevelle for sale in PA that was a 32,000 mile car with virtually no rust, a bench seat, a six cylinder engine, and an owner who was more into gassers than muscle car stuff. Scott planned on leaving the patina and cruising the car, but when he decided to do a little work to the body, he ripped the entire car apart and the process began. Body guys just can’t help themselves.

While lots of snooty people like to down talk the styling of muscle cars, the fact is that many of them are really beautiful and we think the 1964 Chevelle is in that group. There’s a really clean simplicity to the lines on this car and the fact that it began life as a stripped post car adds to that. There’s nothing really distracting from the clean lines and shape of the car.

We’ll get into more details down the page, but Detroit Speed components anchor the suspension front and rear. You can see the big Baer brakes peeking out from behind the wheel, and American Autowire is handling the electron flow.

Schott Octane wheels are on all four corners of the car. These wheels are a nostalgia style look harking back to magnesium pieces from way back. One of the things we really love about the car is that it is not “over-wheeled” and “over tired”. The wheels are 18″ diameter all around but the tire size is different front to rear. Up front there are 245/40/18 BFG RIvals and out back are 275/35/18 BFG Rivals.

This is a factory 1964 paint color for Chevelles. The code was 912 and the color is called silver blue. It looks great and really pops in the light.

While shooting these photos early one weekend morning in the late fall we just kept coming back to how “neat” the car is. There’s not a hair out of place on this thing.

The interior is again a study in function, coolness, and hardcore. The factory dash has been filled with Dakota Digital gauges, you can see the racing style pedals down there, the shifter for the Tremec transmission is coming up through the floor and you can just make out the down bar from the RideTech Tiger Cage.

The seats in the car are an interesting story. Scott really wanted to keep a bench in the Chevelle because it was a cool look and he had seen other guys use a bench with custom bolstering so that is what he did…for a while. The car worked so good that even with the custom bolstering, Scott was hanging onto the wheel for deal life while on the race track. Scott upgraded to these Recaros and added the RideTech belts for safety’s sake.

Panel gap? Perfect. Stance? Just right. It isn’t laying frame (which no car that you want to handle should really be doing anyway). Scott drives this car all over Massachusetts’ horrible roads and has no issues.

Another look at the great interior.

A man’s gotta have some tuned when rolling down the road and we like that this modern radio didn’t require Scott to hack up the cool factory dash.

Note the cool cup holders positioned between the Recaro seats that keep Scott and any joy-riding passengers locked into position. Good seats are essential to any car that’s worth its salt on the autocross or road course.

Lots of actively raced pro touring cars have been stickered to death but Scott went the more subtle route. The decals call out companies whose products are on the car. They’re present but not gawdy.

The exhaust is one of the things only us hardcore gearheads would notice. Both Nutting and I reveled in the goodness of the exhaust. It is tucked up and fitted amazingly well. Good exhaust guys are valuable to anyone putting together a car on this level.

The engine in the car is a 416ci LS3 that was originally built by Mast Motorsports. While hammering on the car at an event in Pittsburgh during the 2013 season, the motor spit the bit. Scott sent it to Golen’s engine service in New Hampshire and those guys rebuilt it and freshened it up. It sounds gnarly and makes more than 550hp. The transmission is a TKO -600 five speed.

Note the AC compressor and cleanliness of the LS3 install in the car. Again, this thing is meant to be used and it was built right.

Cry about the LS engine if want but this 416ci mill makes scads of power and has propelled this car to impressive finishes at a bunch of events at locations spread from the east coast to the midwest.

This subtle DSE badge lets all the followers know why they’re back there. The Chevelle uses DSE Speed Kit 3 components front and rear. Scott really likes the way that these components make the car drive and the proof is in the pudding as far as results go.

So damned clean!

The DSE Speed Kit 3 components are combined with JRi coil over shocks to get the stance and performance on the track that Scott wants. Control arms, sway bars, spindles, steering box are all from DSE. You should have heard the sounds of the Chevelle echoing off the old warehouse.

The stoppers are Baer 6Ps all around. They’ve survived the track exploits that the car has had and Scott reports that they’ve hauled him down out of trouble at speed as well!

A built 9″ Ford rear end packed with 3.73 gears handles all the punishing horsepower and torque from the 416ci LS engine.

Want to get the real measure of a build and the level of quality that is behind it? Look in the trunk. Nothing has been left to chance or forgotten about here. Again, neat as a flippin’ pin!

We dig the packaging here. It leaves the vast majority of the trunk floor open for use. This is a car that gets road tripped and driven so that is an important factor.

Scott Carey’s Chevelle is great and we’re glad to have had the chance to shot photos of it and feature it here. Scott is a great guy and someone who really enjoys using this car for the purpose intended…thrashing corners and hammering down straights. Functional pro touring cars really spin our cranks around here and Scott’s is an embodiment of all that is good about corner carving classic American muscle cars.
Keep scrolling down to see the rest of Dave Nutting’s bitchin’ photos from our fall photos shoot. Dave was crying alligator tears when Scott drove off into the morning sun when the shoot was over. (Ok, I may have been a little misty, too). This is one cool car.