1974 Chevrolet Chevelle - Two Tons Of Fun

Even though the car is 36 years old, it never reached the level of decay and decline that most old cars do. Accordingly, the interior is mostly original. The seats are original and the front buckets have been recovered once in the original material. Keith ditched the swivel feature of the seats for more weight savings. The Rally gauge cluster that came with the police package is still mostly there and functioning. The tachometer died, and Keith couldn't find anyone who could fix it. But he noticed that an '87 IROC Camaro tachometer was about the same size and had the same sweep, so he swapped the guts to use the IROC tach with his original gauge face. Similarly, the clock croaked, and he swapped in an oil pressure gauge from an '80s GM diesel truck. There are few things in the interior that you don't see. Inside the center console is an MSD ignition retard control. Behind the glovebox door is the MSD 6AL box where Keith can plug in rpm-limiter chips. Flipping down the ashtray reveals a start button. The original rear-window defogger switch now turns the Holley electric fuel pump on and off. These are the type of cool and thoughtful details that set Keith's car apart from stripped-down race cars.

Keith's racing affair with this '74 Chevelle was incremental for many years. In the mid '90s, he was playing around with the rear suspension and the attachment points in particular. He drilled some extra holes for upper control arm mounts and ended up breaking the frame. At that point, he and his dad-who worked with him on the car throughout-decided that they needed to take the body off the frame. They ended up narrowing the rear framerails of the car 11/4 inches on each side and re-engineering the suspension mounts. To narrow the framerails, the rear crossmember was sectioned and the factory rails were simply moved closer together. That change allowed him to fit a 131/2-inch tire on a 10-inch wheel without modifying the factory wheel tubs. The new locations for the trailing arms allowed Keith to achieve a better instant center, delivering race-car four-link geometry with factory parts.

The only question at this point is, what's next? Keith has had quite a bit of success in the NMCA racing series, racking up wins from 2001 to 2008. He's thinking he might have a good recipe to compete in the Factory Appearing Stock Tire (F.A.S.T.) racing series. Just like any good relationship, time is well spent embarking on the next step in the adventure.