Jeff Smith's Blog

’55 Chevy

Posted August 18 2008 05:00 AM by CarCraft
Filed under: Editorials

My Old ’55—Part I

Early ’60s gassers are near the top of the fashion hit parade right now, which brings to mind the ’55 Chevy I bought in 1974 right before I attended Iowa State University. Long-time (and I do mean long) readers may remember I used this ’55 in some Car Craft how-to articles as early as 1979. The car was originally an AHRA drag car I purchased from a friend for $500 with no motor, trans, or rearend. Back then you could build a ’55 from scrap parts. I rounded up a 0.060-over 283 short-block, a set of 461 iron heads, a tunnel ram with a 750-cfm Holley, and a rusty set of headers and managed to make it run. Eventually, it had a Muncie four-speed and a set of 4.88:1 rear gears. The California Highway Patrol didn't think much of the mailbox scoop and made me take it off. This photo was taken in 1974 when I was a lot skinnier.

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Reader Comments:

1. Did the car have a starring role in "Two-Lane Pepto-Bismol?" (not to be confused with "Two-Lane Blacktop")

Too bad the Pepto '55 didn't get an Ed Roth-style swap of an FE Ford . . . .

(Yes, Ed Roth swapped an FE into a '55 Chevy in a swap that appeared in a popular 1960s book on hot rodding. It was likely a lot faster and quicker than an iron 283 with a tunnel ram).

Maybe GMPP could find/recreate the Pepto '55, swap in an LSx (with a tunnel ram), and run it against PHR's overhyped "Project X." (It would be the least the General could do for Smith's three decades of loyal, obedient, proselytizing service).

dr511scj_1 - Posted August 18 2008 02:24 PM

2. Is that a mullet I see in that photo?!

FE motors were heavy (they were iron too, and a lot of it!), so unless it was making a ton of power, it'd take a lot for it to beat a 283 with the right intake and cam combo. Since most hot 283s were at least .060" over and running solid lifter cams that let them rev to the moon.

Jeff, do you still have the car? The 210 Sedan was a good looking car!

55_Hardtop_Guy - Posted August 20 2008 05:57 AM

3. That would explain why Chevy won so many races with SBCs in the NASCAR Grand National series during 1962-1968 (the time span when Ford's FE was being factory developed for serious racing during the legendary "Total Performance" era)

Oh wait. Chevy didn't win much of anything, despite the high-winding miracle of the "hot" 283.

But then there WERE a lot of 427 Cobra owners who ripped out that heavy FE and plugged in a .060-over, solid-lifter-cam "moon-shot" 283 . . . you see 'em at Barrett-Jackson all the time.

Or not.

(Most of these same nostalgic, high-rpm Mouse motor believers will, in the next breath, bag on 281-cube 7,000+ rpm DOHC Ford Modular motors as "too small." Go figure.)

And that's not a mullet. That's a rare Bell AFRO-HELMET crash hat. Bitchin.'

TurboTed - Posted August 21 2008 11:30 AM

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