'63 Nova
Patrick Tibbett
Santa Barbara, CA
Cruiser Deuce
Patrick purchased this cherry '63 Nova back in 2001 when he was just 16. The paint was already complete, but since retiring from the Air Force in 2007, he's been able to dedicate more time to the little deuce. The front suspension features a TCI front clip with 2-inch dropped spindles, disc brakes, and rack-and-pinion steering. Out back, a 10-bolt rearend houses a set of 4.10:1 gears, hardened axles, an Eaton posi unit, and CalTracs bars. Powering the cruiser is a 10:1 compression 350 that's been bored 0.030 over, with stock rods and pistons, a Comp Cams 292H cam, Dart Iron Eagle heads with roller rockers, and an Edelbrock Air-Gap intake that's topped off with a 750 Demon carb. Patrick's choice of exhaust includes a pair of Hooker Super Comp headers which couple to 2 1/2-inch piping with 40-series Flowmaster mufflers.
'68 Camaro SS
Jimmy Stanford
Athens, AL
By The Numbers
For all the modified cars we entertain at CHP, and especially Camaros, it's refreshing to enjoy a complete numbers-matching restoration as an indicator of how far our hobby has progressed in the last 40 years. The brash red is GM074 paint under five coats of urethane clear. Jimmy's SS has logged only 85,000 miles since birth. He restored it in '05 without being influenced by the world around it. An original SS package, it came with a 300hp 327 engine backed by a Powerglide. It's been under Jimmy's wing and tutelage for 13 years now, and it won't be going anywhere any time soon.
'72 Nova
Mark Panzarello
North Fort Myers, FL
Panzarello's (Lightweight) Panzer
Reducing mass is like adding horsepower. Mark replaced steel parts with fiberglass ones, in this case lightweight front fenders, cowl hood, and deck lid. He painted the Nova DuPont Hugger Orange, mini-tubbed the framerails, and stuck a 15-gallon fuel cell and a 12-bolt Posi with 3.73:1 Richmond Gears between them. It's bigs an' littles rolling stock: Wheel Vintiques Rallyes, 15x4 front and 15x10 rear (the rears with 6-inch backspace), to accommodate those tall 275/60s. Mark enriched the drivetrain with a Turbo 350 sporting a JW 3,800-stall converter and a B&M shifter. The Panzer is powered by a 500hp 468 four-bolt main fat-block turning a steel crank and Wiseco mini-dome forgings. The ported and polished heads receive nourishment from an Edelbrock Performer 2.0 intake. Flowtech headers extract the unburned hydrocarbons and push them through 3-inch Flowmaster mufflers. All is not quiet on the home front.
'84 Monte Carlo SS
Todd & Lori Briggs
Casey, IL
Best Motor Forward
Todd opines: "We have been working on the Monte for 10 years now and enjoy driving as well as showing it, even with gas at $4 a gallon! But like all projects, it'll never be really done." We say hoorah and hoist a big beer for the Briggses and their progressive attitude. Todd took a relatively popular car and did the time to make it just as cool as anything else out there. It's powered by a 333ci little-block straddled big time by a B&M Mega Blower and Edelbrock quads. The transmission is a modified Turbo 350. It passes torque to the 3.42s in the original 10-bolt. The paint is OEM Metallic Blue enhanced by a pearl-infused clearcoat. Todd pilots copious ghost flames from a custom interior setting swathed in blue tweed.