Innholdsfortegnelse for Volume 1, Issue 6 June 2021 i All Chevy Performance

Together, the Van Nuys and Norwood assembly plants pushed more than 243,000 1969 Camaros out of their collective doors. Mark Stielow hasn’t quite yet turned all of them into Pro Touring powerhouses, but with his latest build—dubbed Apex—he’s getting closer. In reality, the white, LT5-supercharged 1969 is “only” his 17th first-gen Camaro. Even still, he must be using up what’s left of the nation’s strategic reserve of 1969 models. This one started as an original, rust-free California black-plate car and its build consumed much of his stockpile of long-cultivated takeoff parts. “I used my last good, original grille on this one,” Stielow says. “The original parts are definitely getting harder to come by these days.” It has been 52 years, after all, since the iconic 1969 models were built, but…

It wasn’t long ago that a trick roller camshaft in a small-block Chevy was high-end, drag race tech that looked good in glossy magazine pages but was yet out of reach for the average hot rodder. Boy, how times have changed. These previously exotic grinds have trickled from “can’t get it” to “can’t afford it,” all the way down to “Yeah, my Silverado came with that.” And whether we’re talking classic big- or small-block or late-model LS/LT, roller camshafts are here to stay. Today, they’re a practical, readily-available upgrade to any big- or small-block engine. DEFINING A ROLLER CAM One of the misnomers that has long plagued the hot rod world is the word roller. While always referring to wheels riding on steel roller bearings (as opposed to bushings or…

In 1974 ABBA and The Beach Boys ruled the airwaves, a 55-mph speed limit was imposed nationwide in order to save gas, and a portable television could be had for around $264. Strangely enough, today you can buy a 50-inch 4K Smart TV for about the same price. While those shenanigans were happening, Rich Williams was in high school using his auto shop class as a means to paint and perform engine swaps on his 1964 Mustang. There’s no telling if Rich’s auto shop teacher allowed music during class, but there’s a good chance The Beach Boys would have been part of Rich’s soundtrack while wrenching on cars. Fast-forward to 2004 and Rich, now in the home building business, took those roots of painting cars and performing engine swaps over…

Gear ratio is one of the easiest ways to improve acceleration if your goal is a quicker car in the quarter-mile. Or, a gear ratio change can be used to establish a desired engine speed for a better highway cruiser. Or, you may be looking at what effect a rear tire diameter has on highway cruise rpm. These are common questions that come up when bench racing or planning your next project. While it’s common knowledge that a 4.10:1 rear gear ratio is better for the dragstrip than a 3.08:1 rear gear, the questions relate to how to accurately determine the exact result these changes might have on other aspects of building a street car. If all we wanted to do was build a car for the dragstrip that accelerated…

1. MINI FORCE BE WITH YOU The popularity of the Force Fuel Sump System has spurred the demand for an even smaller version to fit cramped engine compartments. FiTech now offers the new Force Fuel Mini. Like the other Force Fuel Systems, the Mini is fed through a low-pressure mechanical (or electric) pump, saving the need to modify the entire fuel system. The reservoir of the Mini is equipped with an efficient 255-lph pump and internal regulator to provide a consistent 58 psi of fuel pressure for your EFI system. To make installing the Mini easier, its mounting bracket is designed to be installed in four positions. The Force Fuel Mini is supplied with a high-pressure fuel hose, AN fittings, a liquid-filled gauge, 10-micron filter, and a return line bung.…

One of the most innovative developments on the automotive aftermarket suspension scene was the introduction of coilover shock absorbers. Among the first to offer billet aluminum coilovers for street performance and drag racing was Aldan American. Forty years later they’re still producing quality products that are made entirely in the U.S. The obvious advantage to coilovers is that wrapping the springs around the shock absorber makes an extremely compact suspension system, and there are other advantages as well. Tuning the suspension by altering the spring rate is simply a matter of swapping the replaceable coil springs. As coilover springs they are available in a wide range of spring rates, finding the right one for any application is easy, quick, and affordable. In addition, altering ride height is just a matter…

As a kid, Steve Aguilar harkens back to the days when young hot rodders in his neighborhood were wrenching on Tri-Five Chevys, old Pontiacs, and ’60s-era Chevys. His best friend had a 1966 Chevelle loaded with a 396, and that was all it took to get him hooked. With a long history of being into muscle cars, in 2012 he got a hankerin’ to seek out a 1967 GTO as a project to take him back to the good old days when he stumbled across a really nice 1971 Z28 Camaro. “The car was in a Porsche shop in Costa Mesa, California. It was in great shape and well documented,” Steve says. After driving the car a few times, the lack of power and handling capabilities left Steve wanting more.…

Horsepower and comfort don’t exactly go hand-in-hand. In order to make more horsepower, you sometimes have to sacrifice comfort, and to be more comfortable, you may have to sacrifice a little horsepower. In our younger days, those comfort sacrifices included stripping all of the seemingly unnecessary accessories off the front of the engine—it just seemed like the right thing to do. The air conditioning and power steering system often went to the scrap pile in an effort to save weight and take some drag off the engine. But there’s a time in every car guy’s life that he needs a little more comfort. That’s the point we’ve reached with this 1964 Chevelle. It’s a cool cruiser with a mostly original 283ci small-block, but we’ve been fighting the original manual steering…

Ever since the late, great Bill “Grumpy” Jenkins shocked his NHRA Pro Stock competitors with a home-brewed V-8 Vega in 1972, horsepower junkies have appreciated the Vega’s blend of mini-Camaro styling, low mass, and open-up-and-say-V-8 engine bay dimensions. In this installment of Bowtie Boneyard we’re in Santa Teresa, New Mexico, at Joe Duran’s Bow Tie Pro-Formance where we stumbled onto a very unassuming 1973 Vega station wagon with a special surprise. Let’s dig in!…

The crew at Painthouse are no strangers to building high-end custom cars. They find their way into the finals of SEMA’s Battle of the Builders and take home big awards wherever they go. This latest project is being given the same treatment as many of their other builds, so you’ll probably be seeing it at the biggest events once it’s complete. Providing a foundation for this build is an Art Morrison chassis. Between those rails there’s a ZL1 Camaro engine along with an eight-speed transmission. With this combo, the project has been dubbed the ZL Camino. Custom design touches are numerous but subtle on this build. Era-correct hubcap wheels have been designed and will be machined in 18- and 19-inch sizes to clear a modern brake package. The front grille…

California Car—two words put together that add value to just about any classic car, especially those seeking out a solid foundation for a ’60s muscle car build. That was exactly the case with Jon Henson’s 1965 Chevy II Nova. He was no stranger to the car as he had been helping his friend, Shannon Gaither, wrench on it for about 11 years. “I actually went with [Gaither] to look at the car and talked him into buying it, as it was in amazing condition,” Jon says. “It is a native California car with no rust, original paint, original trim, and sheetmetal, the windows sealed tightly, and the doors closed with a distinct ‘thud’—the perfect blank slate.” After years of the duo putting in work and the car nearing the finish…

When it comes to safely securing the human cargo in a pre-’70s Chevy, it’s rare to find an option that improves upon the basic lap belt. Vehicle designs of the time were more based on styling than safety, so when it comes to upgrading the restraint system in a vintage Chevy, one’s often faced with some daunting decisions. Such was the case when Jason Scudellari was bolting together a 1963 Chevy Nova for his wife, Randi. The lack of B-pillars in the hardtop meant even something as simple as mounting a traditional three-point shoulder restraint was out of the question. One of the motivations behind the build was to take it to track days and autocross events, pushing the supercharged LS engine through its rev range and around the course.…

Creating a good father-son relationship requires more than passing a football in the backyard. It takes a lot of time and a lot of patience to form this sort of bond. Randall Matheson found the perfect way to spend quality time with his son, Dave, and the end result is this flawless 1968 Camaro RS/SS. Randall is a longtime Camaro lover and owned his first one, which happened to be a 1968 RS/SS, at the age of 16. He sold the car in the mid ’80s when he got married and his new bride promised that one day they’d have another one. As it turns out, she was right and the 1968 Camaro on these pages was bought after 20 years of marriage. Randall lives in Jonesborough, Tennessee, and found…