Tuesday, March 26, 2013

1,320HP Twin Supercharged ’68



In the days before the popularity of pro-touring, gearheads would build muscle cars solely for the drag strip. Known as pro-street, the trend was about taking a car and making it as wild as possible, utilizing mountain-like big-blocks and compressing massive amounts of air down the chambers through the use of a roots-type supercharger, all the while maintaining at least some streetability. The trend took the country by storm and held the title as the thing to do from the late ‘70s through most of the ‘90s.
Thankfully, times have changed and now it seems that everyone wants to take corners more than just race in a straight line when it comes to building the street machine of today. However, it’s pleasing to see that there are a few holdouts among us and Mike Ramsey is one of those gentlemen.

Mike’s been restoring classic Camaros and Novas for years but until now, never undertook a Chevelle project. It was his wife actually, who convinced him to find a ’68 Chevelle to build for her as she has been a
fan of the car since she was a teenager.

Amazingly, Ramsey found this legit Super Sport example sitting in a field sans drivetrain. Having restored nothing but matching number cars in the past, Mr. Ramsey was ready to try something new. After gaining his wife’s approval, Mike set about his project by tearing it down to its bare essentials and set the empty shell onto a body rotisserie.

Once the old paint was sandblasted off, Ramsey decided to do it right and simply replace every body panel that was not up to his standards. That meant ordering new sheet metal through Ausley’s Chevelle Parts. Once the initial body work had begun and the new panels had been collected, the Chevelle was sent off to the body shop.

http://www.streetlegaltv.com

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