Innholdsfortegnelse for Volume 1, Issue 7 July 2021 i All Chevy Performance

Getting a car for free sounds cool, right? That’s exactly what Jason Scudellari thought when his buddy Evan Perkins, who was the editor of Hot Rod magazine at the time, offered him a 1963 Nova at no cost. Perkins was looking to start the restoration project but his day job and a busy family life left little time to get the thing going, so the car sat stagnant for a few years before he offered the car to Jason. “I’ve never been one to say ‘no’ to someone offering me a vintage car for free no matter what condition it was in,” Jason says. “That was before I actually saw the car in person. When [Perkins] trailered that rust bucket to our shop, I took one look and wondered what…

There comes a time when every gearhead wants more from their engine. Sure, we vowed we’d leave it stock. Then we threw the entire catalog of bolt-on parts at it. And still, we want more. The high-flow intake manifold helped. The big-tube headers did too. But when it comes to truly awakening an engine’s power potential, it’s time for a camshaft. If the cylinder heads are considered the lungs of the engine, the camshaft is undoubtedly its brain. Not only will it determine how much power and torque an engine will make, it controls at what point in the powerband they occur. Camshaft choice will also dictate idle quality, piston-to-valve clearance, and many more variables. That means choosing the right camshaft for your application is immensely important. Due to the…

For Ray Thompson the Camaro bug started in 1975. But it wasn’t just a subtle itch that needed a good scratching, it went much deeper. “When I took a ride in my buddy’s insanely fast 1969 Camaro that had 4.88 gears, it would actually lift the front tires off the street. From that moment I was hooked.” Ray continues, “A few years later I had just turned 16 and saw this 1968 Camaro in a Sears parking lot in November of 1978, so I left a note on the car informing the owner I was an interested buyer. In February 1979 he finally called me back and was ready to sell. I gave him $600 and became a proud young Camaro owner.” Originally, the car was armed with a 396…

It was March 2020 when California and much of the nation was pretty much shut down due to the pandemic. We were encouraged to do nothing beyond shopping for essential items like food, water, and apparently hoard toilet paper. Binge-watching streaming shows like Breaking Bad (some for the second time), Ozark, and a show about some strange girl who plays chess really well was pretty much it for excitement. After a few months of being cooped up, Jason Scudellari and his buddy Hek Valdez couldn’t take it any longer. They weren’t into playing trivia on Zoom and a jigsaw puzzle wasn’t their thing. They just wanted to get out and drive their vintage trucks—Jason’s a supercharged LS-powered 1969 Ford F-100 and Hek’s a 1964 Chevy C10. They got the idea…

1. PREMIUM CAMARO QUARTERS Auto Metal Direct (AMD) has completely re-tooled and now offers premium quarter-panels for the 1969 Camaro. The new premium versions focus on areas that have troubled these quarter-panel reproductions in the past, like the door gap, tail panel seams, deck filler, and decklid intersection, to name a few. Save money with less labor costs to get your Camaro back in the game. Like all AMD parts, these quarter-panels arrive EDP-coated to help protect against rust and corrosion prior to installation. For more information, contact Auto Metal Direct by calling (877) 575-3586 or visit autometaldirect.com. 2. LATERAL X SUBFRAME CONNECTORS Performance Online (POL) Lateral X 1967-1969 Camaro and Firebird subframe connectors stiffen the unibody, reduce chassis flex, and strengthen the chassis. It’s completely bolt-on with no cutting,…

NEWS FLASH: Enthusiasts are still building big power from old-school small-block engines. With 436 ci, natural aspiration, and EFI, the project engine we’re going to discuss in this story spun to 7,300 rpm and lit up the dyno with 708 hp and 614 lb-ft of torque. That was with a comparatively small camshaft and a pump gas–friendly compression ratio. Those peak numbers are impressive, but perhaps more so was the fact that its glorious, neck-tugging torque came in immediately in the powerband: 451 lb-ft at only 3,500 rpm. That’s only 19 lb-ft short of the factory LS7 engine’s peak torque of 470 lb-ft, which occurs at 4,800 rpm. Comparing this small-block, which was designed and built by John Lohone, of Michigan-based Valley Performance, with the vaunted LS7—the naturally aspirated king…

On a chilly Carolina night, the sky is dark with stars hiding behind tall trees. There’s little noise—cicadas are dormant in wintertime. A single glow from an open garage door is like a bug zapper attracting local gearheads. A sudden blast of noise from the garage echoes off the trees, like a dam giving way. It’s the roar of a 900hp open-header-big-cam small-block. The sound is followed by the sweet, stinging smell of race gas. It’s a sensory overload on this cold night in Greer, South Carolina, outside Tom Joseph’s shop, Southern Rods and Parts. They offer a variety of parts, including A/C kits, carb screens, and front suspension conversions. Between the shelves of inventory lays the R&D shop with a customer’s C10 and Tom’s dragster and 1932 highboy coupe.…

When it comes time to sorting out the exhaust system on that muscle car or street machine, most of us are concerned with two things: sound and performance. But finding that aggressive tone without resulting in so much excessive drone that your fillings fall out can be a challenge. Larger mufflers tend to provide a more mellow tone, but there isn’t always the room to mount such a can underneath that A-body. And choking down that 572ci big-block with the wrong muffler is so counterproductive we don’t even need to mention that one! So, like many things in our hobby, designing the right exhaust system to match your vehicle often comes down to a compromise between what you want, what will fit, and what the engine wants. For a lot…

Everyone loves a Camaro. Ever since Chevrolet decided to give the Mustang some competition in the ponycar segment, the Camaro has brought a sporty vibe to Chevy showrooms all over the globe. In our junkyard exploits we’ve encountered some unusual Camaros. Here’s a rundown of some highlights, with special attention paid to unique numbers.…

If you just quickly glance at this project, all you’ll see is a slick, low-slung, bubbletop Impala. There’s a lot more here though, and the guys at Big Oak Garage have put in some major hours to make it subtly more aggressive than stock. Side profiles are really important when creating the illusion of flow and motion with a car. While a stock Impala has many lines from the side that sweep upward, this version now has all parallel or converging feature lines. This is thanks to a reverse wedge cut that runs from front to back. There’s material added to the rear and none added to the front, which creates an appearance of forward motion. The roof is also built from scratch and tapers downward at the windshield. That…

Henry Fisher is into cars; he’s been in the used car business for over 51 years and building show-quality vintage cars and trucks for well over 20. His stable leans heavily toward the classic truck scene, which includes a 1972 C10, 1972 Blazer, a 1968 C10, and a slew of other sweet muscle cars and pickup trucks—all built from the ground up and all with LS power. He digs the style of classics yet enjoys the reliability and performance of late-model engines. So, how did this A-body come about? While attending an auto auction a few years back with his grandson, Garrett, a 1968 Chevelle came across the auction block and Garrett got all wide-eyed for the numbers-matching classic. “It was a true SS 396 car, and after winning the…

For the student of internal combustion, you’ve likely heard the oft-repeated line that an internal combustion engine is nothing more than an air pump. The reason that’s a cliché is because it’s true. The more air an engine can capture in the cylinders and then squeeze into making cylinder pressure, the more horsepower and torque it will make. The title for this story might lead you to believe this is a treatise on valve seat angles. But it’s not. This story will instead focus on a far less popular but equally important topic of valve angles. We’re going to use the small-block Chevy family as our point of reference for this story because this engine has been around for over 60 years and has experienced a huge transition in valve…

Every car guy on this planet has heard about barn finds and amazing discoveries of true survivors. This 1957 Chevy Bel Air isn’t one of those cars—it lived most of its life outdoors, in the Southeast, so you know where this is headed. It didn’t take long for the top to start leaking, which led to the demise of the floorpan, trunkpan, and most of the other panels. After years of neglect, the car was dragged out of the field and taken to Automotive Sandblasting & Restoration (ASR) in Friendsville, Tennessee, for a much-needed makeover. Alcoa, Tennessee, resident, Robert Carter is the owner of the car and also operates ASR, so building a car of this condition wasn’t new territory. Rusty cars are the norm in Tennessee, but this convertible…