’65 Chevy II
Brian Pennick
Summerville, SC

Before we knew it, 45-year-old Shay Campbell (Huntsville, Alabama) had turned our Camaro Q&A sheet into a quick about-face. Now he was acting like the curious one. “I’ve seen your byline for years, and you say you’re 67? Hell, then you should be writin’ about vans, about the inevitable van come-back,” voice lilting like a kid who’d dropped a thumbtack on a nearby chair just before an unsuspecting fanny hit the seat. Smooth, affable, felt like we’d known him for years, but it had only been a few minutes.

’69 Camaro
Mike Lewis
Hiawatha, KS

Nicholas Short owns Competition Race Parts, a company that is situated fortuitously in the heart of Cup Racing Land, also known as Charlotte, North Carolina, and environs. CRP Racing, as it is called, is actually in Harrisburg, a bedroom of the Big C. CRP wields a serious fabrication sword, capable of complete chassis and suspension construction, as well as safety cages and track-day exhaust systems. CRP builds and preps race cars. It goes much further, of course, but heed the constant: at the bottom of their CAD/CAM hearts Nick and his compatriots are demon-tweak racers.

’68 Camaro
Bill Vermillion
San Diego, CA

Before the advent of the GM A-body intermediates, the precursor of the fabled muscle car, there were only big sedans and coupes, creatures of the T-Rex faction if you will. They displayed all the fabulous qualities of American automotive technology. In a word: big. They had the biggest engines, and they tromped asphalt with monstrous feet. Where do you think the phrase “big as a Buick” came from?

’70 Chevelle
Chris & Pam Perry
Burkburnett, TX

As a rule, cars that walk the fine line between hot rod and custom car seldom do either camp justice. Like multi-fuel cars that run on everything yet don’t run well on anything, they often fall short in one way or another.

In hot rodding parlance, 38-year-old Chris Sanders has got himself a “reacher”, a first- attempt rookie that is well on its way to becoming whole. He says that he had previously never had a “hot rod” and that his ’73 Z aspires to something greater than a limited budget could muster in 2005. He paid $500 for the original, a bona fide Z28, plus a parts car, but it wasn’t like he stumbled over a screaming deal.

’70 Chevelle
Jim Oltman Jr.
Elkhart, IN

Back in the ’60s, and even on up into the ’70s, it was the NHRA drag guys who took advantage of the affordability, and more importantly the weight benefits, of racing an unlikely candidate down the quarter-mile in the Stock Eliminator class—a station wagon.

’70 Chevelle SS
Bruce & Michelle Silence
Seymour, IN

’72 Novao
Penny Craig
Mulberry, FL

’76 Nova Concours
Ben Sanderfur
Nashville, TN

’66 Chevy II
John Gyves
Oceanside, CA

’71 Camaro
Phil Simpler
North Pole, AK

As the economy continues to worsen and inflation continues to rise, doubtless there will be less and less discretionary income squandered on things clearly unnecessary for day-to-day survival. Yes, survival.

By all indication, the depression we are plagued by hasn’t slowed the high-end car-building business by a fraction. Gerry Kerna’s ’62 Chevy II is proof of that. Indeed, the number of these specialty shops has seemed to increase manifold over the past two years. Check the pages of past CHP issues to see if we’re lying. Shops no one’s ever heard of are rolling out the most sophisticated hot rod machinery on earth. In essence, it’s a return to the guild-craft days of old and things of substance produced by hand, and hooray for that. To say that RPM Hot Rods is typical of the genre would be a deception. No two shops or their methods are the same, and that’s the beauty of it. They make things in America with individuality and pride. That’s the ticket. In any case, it’s refreshing to see anything other than a ’69 Camaro, the indisputably predominate Pro Touring vehicle, so any other variant is like a meat cart to a starving wolf.

By huge numbers, baby boomers (those who are born between 1946 and 1964) represent an irrefutable bulge on government flow charts, as if a python had swallowed a pig. Brad Grainger boomed into this world in the final year of this epoch. He came by his car proclivities quite naturally at 4 years old. He can recall sitting on his dad’s lap in his Uncle Don’s ’66 SS Chevelle, the engine howling and Don furiously flat-shifting the Muncie into next Sunday.

Drag Week Contender’

The circle for the most complete Pro Touring car draws tighter by the day and Chris and Lynda Jacobs’ ’66 Chevelle is proof positive. Chassis builders dedicated to the genre went from adjustable shocks, tubular suspension members, frame connectors, and the stiffening agent of a rollcage, to complete front and rear subframe assemblies and enlarged tubs to house the biggest available tire and wheel combinations, and now to complete perimeter frames, including suspension members. The latest and the greatest development is the inclusion of a bulletproof independent rear suspension system.

’68 Camaro

’64 El Camino

’69 Chevelle

The old saying about things not being what they seem to be is never more prevalent than it is in automobile restoration. You take possession of the churl, begin picking at it, and soon there is more shrapnel on the floor than you could have gotten from a couple thousand-pound bombs. You didn’t do this before you laid the money down and very soon your plans take change for the fantastic. What was going to be a cool short, a daily driver that didn’t need too much to make it presentable, instantly becomes a major project, one that will seriously rearrange your bank account as well as your psyche. Twenty-three-year-old Corey Dotzler has just completed one such upheaval, eyes bright, hair still smoking, toes tapping out a wild tattoo.