“It won’t stop pulling,” is what we thought as Scott Miller put a heavy foot on the accelerator of his immaculate ’55 Chevy sedan on the way to the photo shoot. A grin was quickly plastered across our faces as the big-block Chevy engine belted out an impressive roar and pushed us firmly into the bench as it climbed onto the freeway.
When you’ve bought and sold close to 100 cars over the last two decades, the one you hang onto the longest must be pretty special. After taking a ride in Scott’s 210, we see why he hasn’t let this one get away. Although Scott’s been wheelin’ and dealin’ fixable Craigslist.com finds for the last several years, he’s managed to keep this ride for the past five years, despite many offers. You could say the Upland, California, resident falls into a special category of gearhead; one who, despite having an indomitable passion for cars, doesn’t get too attached to one in particular, as he is constantly buying, fixing, building, selling, and trading vehicles that may have been misdiagnosed or just poorly maintained. “I don’t get married to any one of my cars,” Scott says. “For me it’s more about the journey, not necessarily the destination.”
For the owner of Swifty Sign in Rancho Cucamonga, California, pedaling cars is only a hobby, but as a guy who is constantly scouring the Internet for his next build, Scott is always in the midst of a “car journey”. As we type this, he’s sourcing parts for a few Ford hot rods, like a ’64 Mercury Comet A/FX clone, a ’66 Mustang hardtop, and a ’59 Ford F-100 pickup—but we won’t hold that against him.
As a no rust-specimen, this 51,000-original-mile Tri-Five was coveted by Scott for a while before it was actually his. “I knew about the car since the late ’80s,” he says. “A friend, Mike McCarty, had it for 20-plus years before he eventually sold it to me and the construction began.” Over the following two years, Scott’s 210 was taken from an empty metal shell, to a fully functional cruiser that has enough grunt to make you smile every time you get happy with the throttle. At 3,600 pounds and a 115-inch wheelbase (same as a Chevelle), you would think this car would feel heavy or sluggish, but thanks to a well-planned powertrain, including a badass stroker big-block, this Tri Five is an animal on the street. We have to admit we’d be way less interested in this car if it had a ho-hum small-block underhood, but instead the 496ci Chevy that resides there sounds very angry, and after feeling a fraction of its might, we’d say this car could lay down some surprising numbers on the dragstrip. “The car has run 7.34 in the eighth-mile before, which the local track guys weren’t too happy with since it doesn’t have a rollbar,” Scott says. With all the appropriate safety gear, this car could effectively run the quarter in 10 seconds, on motor, and drive home comfortably, and we’d ask, what more could you want?