1971 Chevrolet Camaro - Hometown Hot Rodding

'71 Camaro
Burnt Burner
Could you image landing this '71 Camaro as your first car? Being driven to the DMV for your license test, then driving your early second-gen Camaro to school the next day? Well Greg Meredith of Allendale, Michigan, was that lucky. The car wasn't in the shape it's in today, but Greg got a hold of this car on his 16th birthday in 1981. It started out as a father-son build, but unfortunately Greg's father passed away the next year. He didn't stop working on the car though, and transformed it into a real-life street-driven drag car.

Greg replaced the baby small-block that came in it with a Dart Little M fortified, 374-inch, blown pump-gas motor. The car still has the same headliner, door panels, and dash as it did leaving the factory. He kept great care of this car, and kept it all metal, minus the Glasstek hood for clearance. This thing is a serious drag car though; don't let the stock body and simple interior fool you. He's got all the necessary safety equipment needed to run 9s, which it does consistently. So far, his best run is a 9.80 at 140 mph-very respectable especially since he hasn't sacrificed its streetability. "Everything works. The dome light, wipers, blinkers, cigarette lighter, and even the license plate light above the wheelie bars," Greg says proudly.

Recently, he broke his transmission, but is using the time down as an excuse to make some improvements. He hopes to get deeper into the 9s with a little more boost, some water/methanol injection, and some race gas.

By The Numbers

Mothers Picture Perfect Award
This is the place to show off your pride and joy to the rest of mankind, so we figure those readers who took the time to capture a really cool shot of their hot rod should get a little bonus. Mothers agreed, and decided to come to the party with some freebies for the best picture submitted to PHR.

Each month, the editors at PHR will sift through the images and pick the one with the best composition, lighting, and overall quality. The winner will get a cool assortment of Mothers products to keep his or her ride looking nice and shiny. Mail us a photograph or, if you're a modern guy, email us a digital image. Remember that digital images need to be 300 dpi, and the bigger the image, the larger it can run. Also, be sure to include info on the car, along with your name and address. Good luck!

'66 Chevelle
Purpose Built
Herb Lumpp of Hurricane, West Virginia, made a really great decision back in 2002, trading his never-driven '76 Corvette for this '66 Chevelle. While on TeamChevelle.com, Herb started a conversation with a gentleman from Florida who was asking his advice about selling his Chevelle. Herb mentioned he had a clean, driveable '76 Corvette and they decided to trade.

The Chevelle was painted, but not very well, Herb says. It came with a non-original 396, Saginaw four-speed, 10-bolt one-legger, stock suspension, and 15-inch wheels. It lacked wiring, the entire interior, brakes, hard lines, bumpers, exhaust, and weather stripping. Herb had a little bit of work ahead of him; he had traded a perfectly driveable Corvette for a big project.

His first car was a '70 Torino GT, but every car he's owned since then has been molded toward becoming an SCCA autocross car. His previous builds had to serve more than one purpose; getting them just right for autocross and the street didn't make them particularly brilliant at either one. This was his chance to build a dedicated racer. He plans to join his local SCCA chapter and become involved in both autocross and road racing with his Chevelle.

The 396 got replaced by a tightly built 468 with all the goodies inside. Herb installed SPC Pro-Light tubular upper control arms with ATS spindles, and super heavy-duty 1,000-pound springs to control the nose. The rear got Global West's adjustable control arms and Vari-Shock single-adjustable shocks. Since there were no brakes on the car when he got it, he had to get something to fill the new Forgeline SP3P 18- and 19-inch wheels. He chose Baer's GT-plus disc system using C5 calipers and a two-piece 12.75-inch rotor.

He's got most of the interior sorted out with a ton of Fat Mat sound deadener, a rollcage, and Dakota Digital gauges. He's got a couple loose ends to tie up, but the car is ready to hit the streets.

By The Numbers

'70 Torino
List-Built
In 1970, Motor Trend magazine chose the Ford Torino as its Car of the Year. There were a lot of great models to choose from, so this was no meritless prize. Warren Douglas of Ottumwa, Iowa, found this particular car five years ago where it wasn't kept as a winner. It was rusty and if the parts were even there, they were unusable. He would have to re-create this car from scratch, using its history as a guide. A gentleman named Kevin Marti has created a database, called the Marti Report, for early Mustangs and other popular Ford passenger cars. This is where Warren was able to get the detailed option list that came on the car from the factory. Though none of the options on Warren's car survived the years, he wanted to build the car back to its original specifications. Lucky for him: this car had a long list of highly sought-after options. This would be fun!

Over the years, Warren accumulated parts to bring it closer to new. He filled the empty engine bay with a 351 Cleveland as the VIN specified. It also came with a four-barrel carburetor, wide-ratio, four-speed transmission, console, and bucket seats. The hidden headlights were a little harder to discover, but he managed. His favorite part of the rebuild was adding the once-present shaker hood and twist hood locks.

"I may not drive the Torino on the salted roads of the winter, but she is by no means a trailer queen," Warren says. He spent a lot of time and money to get this car exactly how it was, and he now enjoys the heck out of it.

By The Numbers