Innholdsfortegnelse for Volume 2, Issue 18 - June 2022 i All Chevy Performance

The boys at Born Vintage Hot Rods know how to put their own brand of styling “seasoning” on every build that rolls through their shop. One of the latest projects, a ’69 Camaro, is no exception with just the right amount of spiciness. That attitude comes from many elements, but the custom tube chassis equipped with Heidts IRS is the backbone of the build. A built LS7 backed by a TREMEC six-speed offers up the go while Wilwood brakes bring the slow. The stance will be nice and low thanks to that tube chassis. A set of Forgeline VX1S monoblocks tuck into the fenders and are finished in a satin charcoal. Custom-machined hood vents now face forward and act as mini scoops. All these subtle little bits add up to…

“Hey, there goes Jailbait Tina!” Those were the words photographer John Jackson humorously blurted out while at GoodFellows Classic Cars in Phoenix to shoot this gorgeous yet brawny ’66 Chevelle. It wasn’t because there was an underage girl behind the wheel, but due to the front license plate that reads JAIL B8. The story of the plate goes back to when Tina’s husband, AJ Schwichtenberg, owner of GoodFellows, had a ’62 bubbletop with that California plate. As AJ tells it, “I wanted to get that same plate for the Chevelle I was building for my wife, Tina, but the Arizona DMV wasn’t having it.” AJ kept the original and put it on the front of the Chevelle, which got Jackson’s attention as Tina was moving the car in position for…

The LS engine has long been the king of high-output budget builds. Grab a junkyard truck engine, add a cheap turbo, and make quadruple-digit power. We start our supercharged 1,200hp LS build with a short-block capable of considerable, reliable power on a budget. There are millions of forum pages dedicated to the topic of LS budget builds, so tread lightly. The sloppy fans will tell you the true budget LS is one that goes straight from the junkyard in between the fenders of your hot rod. There’s some truth to that, as the LS features many architectural improvements over its predecessor, the small-block Chevy. Advancements include a Y-block design with six main bolts (four vertical, two horizontal), extra-long head bolts, a taller deck, better flowing heads, larger cam journals, and…

From the day of the first dead car battery 100 years ago, resuscitating a flat battery requires a set of jumper cables, a secondary power source (like another car), and sufficient room to place the cars close enough to connect the cables. Even then, the effort was not always successful. Often, cables were either too short or featured such tiny cables that amperage just didn’t flow, and the inert battery remained flat. Worse yet was the feeling of helplessness when you’re standing there with jumper cables in your hand and no one offers to help. All of that should now be placed firmly in the past. With the development of powerful lithium-ion batteries, a sharp engineer came up with the idea to build a portable battery pack that could fit…

Pro Street got its start with the idea of implementing features from a Pro Stock drag car into a vehicle that could be driven on the street. After about 20 years of evolution and innovation, the Pro Street movement lost a lot of its popularity, largely because of the lack of actual performance associated with these fat-tired freaks of nature. However, a dedicated following has kept Pro Street alive and, if anything, it’s gone back to its radical roots with excessive horsepower and tire-torching capabilities. This incredibly brutal ’71 Camaro Z28 is a fine example of modern Pro Street goodness, as it boasts giant rear tires and four-digit horsepower to match the aggressive drag car appearance. Jay Breitmaier owns the Camaro; he bought it from a friend a few years…

Electronic Fuel Injection (EFI) systems can be a daunting mystery of sensors, wires, and components to those of us with a more “analog” background. Tuning by turning screws or swapping jets might seem second nature to some, but when it comes to fuel maps, electronic sensors, and laptop tuning, it starts to seem more like rocket science. But a familiarity to the science behind how an EFI setup works isn’t completely necessary to understand the gist of such a system. A basic understanding of the sensors involved and what they do and how they communicate with the computer (ECU) to provide the necessary fuel requirements can go a long way to gaining a grasp of how a modern EFI system works. Like a carburetor measures and delivers fuel to a…

Joey Dean has always been a big fan of ’66 Chevelles. In 2009 he came across a rust-free Chevelle wagon from California and he instantly fell in love. It was something different and he knew right away that he had to have it. Joey has always enjoyed building things that were unique to what the other guys were doing. “I started as a youngster with Legos, erector sets, and model cars. I graduated to garbage picking bikes and rebuilding them and then moved onto go-karts and minibikes. When I went to the 1974 New York Auto Show, it was a big mind-bender. It all was influential and still inspires me when I build my hot rods today,” Joey states. Like many of us, Joey’s love of all things Chevy commenced…

Being an enabler is typically considered a bad thing when it comes to unhealthy addictions, but if it’s your pops and grandpops doing the pushing, it’s likely to be something positive. In the case of John Griffith III, he pretty much had little choice in the matter when it came to the horsepower addiction. “I inherited the affection for power from my father and grandfather,” John admits. “It started with motorcycles in my early teenage years, then naturally grew in the direction of muscle cars soon after.” That passion gripped John pretty hard, so he aimed that spirit toward building something vintage. He was particularly fond of the attitude associated with a classic Chevelle. “My dad’s friend, Rob Concato, built a ’67 for drag racing back in the early ’00s…

1. THROTTLE BODY TRIO FiTech’s 3x2 throttle body system is a great way to fuel your muscle car. Now you can finish the system with a trio of classic air cleaners. These all-new, D-shaped air cleaners deliver great looks with a high-quality cast-aluminum finned top and sturdy base designed specifically for FiTech’s unique 500-cfm throttle body. The assembly measures 7.125x4.75 inches and only 4 inches tall for added hood clearance. An efficient cotton/gauze element is included to ensure only clean air enters the throttle body. For more information, contact FiTech by calling (951) 340-2624 or visit fitechefi.com. 2. LS TO L79 Lokar’s new GM L79-style intake kit, part of their LS Classic Series line of products for Chevrolet LS engines, emulates the look of a classic L79 engine found in…

The collector car market continues to grow year after year, making a lot of the cars we know and love harder to obtain. While spit balling one night, The Installation Center owner Craig Hopkins and friend Bill Crabtree were hanging out after a long day’s work and started discussing this very topic. In the background sits a derelict ’78 Chevy Camaro. Hopkins looks at Crabtree and sees the wheels turning. Hopkins asks, “What’s the scheme?” This is where it gets good. Crabtree suggests, “Why can’t we take that old Camaro and turn it into a steel bumper car?” Hopkins, with his vast experience, immediately knew that this had to be done. Why not? The ’74-81 Camaro is vastly more available than that of the ’70-73 cars. Anyone who has restored…

Automotive tastes come in various forms and are often influenced by those around us. For many of us, once that interest is ignited, a lifelong journey begins. In Lou Jasper’s case, his late Uncle Joey ignited his passion for all things automotive. He recalls, “When I was about 5 years old, he pulled into our driveway in a ’71 ’Cuda. It had a 440 with a six-pack and I thought it was the greatest car.” By 15 he was wrenching on a 400 small-block to drop into a ’77 Chevelle, however, at that age his mind was set on something smaller and lighter, and he eventually landed a Fathom Green ’69 Camaro. “It looked good from about 20 feet,” he explains. “It had rust in the quarters and floor and…

As time moves forward it tends to distance itself from historical accuracy. In the vintage muscle car world [we] have a plethora of documentation through good old-fashioned magazines from the early days of hot rodding, but while the images hold visual truth, the spoken words of those present at the time tend to become a bit distorted as the stories get passed down from generation to generation—not intentional, it’s just a natural progression, or regression in this case. As the history of vintage muscle cars remain anchored in time, it further distances itself from its origin. This separation can sometimes lend itself to muscle car terminology becoming a bit askew. But let’s keep in mind that while muscle car modifications shift, so should the definitions. So, we’ve reached out to…

Seen by many as either a pint-sized Camaro or a grown-up Vega, the Monza was a product of GM’s response to the 1973 OPEC Oil Embargo. When the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries decided to deprive Uncle Sam of oil for mainly political reasons, Americans panicked as the price of gasoline (and all other petroleum-based products, from home-heating oil to plastic spoons) jumped dramatically. All over America, lightly used SS 396 Chevelles, Z28 Camaros, and virtually every other type of high-performance V-8 machine was rendered nearly worthless. By 1975, tens of thousands of people traded in SS454 Monte Carlos, 409 Impalas, 327 Novas, and the like as partial payment on Honda Civics, Volkswagen Rabbits, Chevy Chevettes, and other compact and subcompact offerings. In most cases, trade-in allowances were well below…