Sometimes Too Much Is Just Enough.
Doug Holmes’ monster twin hair dryer Chevelle began after he balled up his first ’70 Chevelle at Detroit Dragway in 1993. After the dust settled and the bruises healed, Doug decided to build a safer car. Now “safe” is a relative term when you’re talking a monster 604ci Rat. But that’s just Doug’s way.
It all started with a full round-tube, chrome-moly chassis from Chris Alston’s Chassisworks. The 108-inch wheelbase supports a four-link rear with a Chassisworks 9-inch, and an aluminum center spinning 4.10 Richmond Pro gears. Mark Williams rifle-drilled axles spin the Monocoque wheels and Hoosier slicks. Up front, Stelleto rack-and-pinion steering, a set of Strange struts and brakes with twin 25x4½x15 Goodyear Front Runners. Puttin’ the whoa on all this falls to a Wilwood master and four-corner Strange discs.
While you might expect this Chevelle to run a ’glass nose, the reality is that this is a completely fiberglass ’70 Chevelle from U.S. Body Source with the superb body work and jet-black paint performed by Jeff Hall from Warren, Michigan. Kirky aluminum seats occupy the interior along with liquid-filled Auto Meter gauges. Safety equipment is all by RJS.
OK, we’ve teased you enough. Let’s get down to the real reason we’re here—the motor. Kurt Urban performed all the machine whittling on the iron Merlin block. The Cam Motion camshaft lifts the 2.25-/1.88-inch titanium valves inside a set of CNC-ported Dart 360 aluminum heads. Moroso manages the dry sump and oil pan system while Howard Stewart cools everything.
The flash is provided by the induction system combining a pair of 90mm throttle bodies fed air by a pair of Innovative Turbo Systems hair dryers. On the exit side, a 5-inch exhaust by Kooks of Islip, New York, duct the exhaust through Flowmaster mufflers. Huge injectors squirt fuel into a Hogan fabricated intake tweaked by a Dave Henninger–tuned Fel-Pro EFI system.
So far, the brand-new Chevelle has run a mildly boosted 7.07/200.00-mph pass that is far from optimized. High 6s are easily within this monster machine’s capability—all in the name of wretched excess.