One of my favorite race cars to ever appear at Pikes Peak is Layne Schranz’s 1997 Chevrolet Monte Carlo. Ok, whether it was really a Monte Carlo or a stock car that got real Monte sheetmetal up front us up for debate and honestly, it probably was a stocker in it’s lifetime give the rear-drive setup and the way it screamed up the route on the way to the summit, but all the same, it looked like a real car and it sounded pissed! The 1995-1999 Monte Carlo was a yawn as a street car, a two-door Lumina that had all the excitement factor of pudding skin, but in racing, Chevy was killing it. NASCAR took to the Monte Carlo’s aerodynamic shape and ran with it, and every V8, RWD conversion we’ve ever seen looks and sounds right. GM had a sleepy body, it’s just a shame that they sold it as a front-driver. Imaging a 1990s Monte Carlo, with room for an LS1 and a six-speed.
Or, don’t imagine. This fifth-gen Monte-bodied race car is a full tube chassis setup and the only thing we know for sure about it is that there is some kind of 350 under the hood. That doesn’t explain a hell of a lot, does it? What we’re seeing is a retired stocker that has been converted to run on dirt. We see beadlocked front wheels. We see a cage that should still be useful. We see two pipes that should be screaming at onlookers, and we see potential by the truckload. Building a nasty race car out of this is almost too easy. Put headlights and taillights in. Throw in whatever engine will make the inspectors happy. And plate it. It’s not too farfetched…it’s been done before, in older and newer cars. Everybody says that they want that raw driving experience. Well, here you go…put up or shut up.
Facebook Marketplace Link: Unknown year fifth-generation Chevrolet Monte Carlo hillclimber
