**Update 12/29/05**

Well my dad has been going with me to LACR for the last couple months and has now decided that he wants a car to race with. He has been looking around and found a 1983 Camaro Z28 with a blown engine. My dad already has a 350 that should make around 420-430hp so the blown motor doesn't matter to him. The only clincher is that my mom won't let him buy the car.

So I'm buying the car and he is going to proivde the motor and we'll race each other. We are going to make it a dedicated strip car, so it will never be registered or see the street.

The car is the ugly brown on brown with t-tops but it is an L69 car so it came from the factory with 3.73s and a posi. It also has a 5 speed. We should be able to pick it up next week so I'll try to get some photos and post them.

**Update 01/07/06**

Well I bought the car today. Here are some pictures I took of it on the trailer.

That's my dad on the trailer. As you can imagine he's excited to get his motor in the car and get it to the track.

**Update 04/29/06**

Well I've been running in the California 12.5 the last couple months and also racing on Friday nights at LACR. My trans is starting to shift real poorly from 2nd to 3rd so I pulled it last night for a rebuild. I ordered a B&M rebuild kit from Summit and I'll rebuild the trans as soon as it comes in. I'm also replacing the stall converter with one from the Converter Shop in Chino.

**Update 05/05/06**

I picked up my converter today from the Converter Shop. Instead of buying a new one they rebuilt my old one. It is a Hughes 12" 3000 and the Converter shop said they were able to flash stall it to 3200 but I'll have to see. When I first got it (about 10 years and 200,000 miles ago) it would brake stall to about 2300 and flash to 3000. Just before I rebuilt it, it would only brake stall to about 1900 but it would still flash to 3000.

**Update 05/11/06**

Here's some video of some runs I made at LACR. The 11.52 is my quickest time at LACR.

LACR Runs

**Update 08/28/06**

My brother finally finshed my trans. Well almost, he had to get a new gear for the governor but I installed the trans this weekend and I'll install the governor tonight if he got the gear. As soon as it's running I'll be taking it in to have the rollcage installed.

**Update 09/01/06**

I just found out that the gear that I need for the governor is no longer made. My trans is a '64 TH400 which was the last year they made that style of gear. My brother is going to check with 2 more tranny shops to see if he can find one and if not he's going to see what we need to do to make the newer style work.

**Update 09/26/06**

I got the gear and put the trans back in the car. I was going to take it to Auto Club Raceway in Fontana on Saturday but when I drove the car on Friday to make sure everything was working it started to make a noise that sounded like detonation. I did a compression test today and all cylinders were between 215 and 210psi except 5 and 7. They were both at 30psi so I pulled the head on that side and saw that the gasket was gone between the cylinders. I'll post some pictures later.

**Update 09/30/06**

Here's some pictures of the damage. I've clearanced the heads so they won't touch anymore and I'm putting it back together tonight.

In these two you can see where the piston and head were touching. Not all pistons touched but I did clearance the same area on all combustion chambers.

These are more of the piston and head. Also some with the damaged head gasket.

**Update 10/18/06**

I got everything put back together and took the car for a test drive but second gear is shifting soft. I pulled the trans back out again last night so my brother can take a look at it. I'm trying to get it running for the street races on 10/28 at California Speedway. I challenged an 811rwhp Supra to a race then but I don't know if he is going to show. I'm hoping to have the Chevelle done so if he shows I don't have to race him in the Cobra.

**Update 03/05/07**

Well a lot has happened with the Chevelle in the last few months. I did take it to the track back in Oct but I only got to make one pass because I ran too fast for not having a roll cage.

The car was running really well and my plan was to run the car hard 3/4 track and then hit the brakes so I wouldn't run faster than 11.5. On my first run the car spun a little out of the hole and then I hit the brakes at 3/4 track. I ended up running an 11.43 at 93 so they kicked me off.

In January I installed the roll cage and put a new floor in. I also decided to hook up the NOS so I scheduled a dyno session to make sure that it wouldn't run lean on the bottle.

The day before the session I went to pull 6 degrees of timing out and I found that the stop tab for the mechanical advance was sheared off. I bought a new MSD Pro Billet distibutor along with an MSD timing controller. The timing controller allows me to pull out timing with the turn of a knob. As soon as I changed it the car felt like it was down on power. I took the car to the dyno and on the motor it only dyno'd 420rwhp and 396rwtq. On the bottle it made 520rwhp and 480rwtq.

I took it to the track that following weekend and on the first pass, on motor only, it only ran an 11.57 at 117 which confirmed the power loss. When I went to make the second run the Mallory ignition box went out so I couldn't start the car.

I then purchased an MSD 6AL and installed it. After installing it and setting the timing at 36* I took it for a test drive. I jumped on it in second and it blazed the tires. I quickly shifted to third and at about 4500rpm something broke in the trans and I lost second and third gears. I pulled the trans and took it to my brother and he found that the governor gear broke.

I found another trans that a guy had for sale for $200 so I went to check it out. Turns out that it was a TCI th400 with a full reverse manual valve body and a transbrake and came with a B&M Holeshot 3000 convertor so I bought it. My brother has it right now and is rebuilding it so it. He had to order some parts so it should be done in the next couple of days.

** Update 04/07/07 **

I installed the trans and it works great. The B&M converter flashes to 3600rpms which puts me at peak torque at launch. However, I'm only running a 26x8.5 slick so hooking out of the hole is now a problem. I took the car to the track today and ran a best of 11.218 @ 121.15 with wheel spin in first and that's not even launching off the transbrake.

Here's the video. The white Cobra is also my car. In the races of the Chevelle against the Cobra I'm driving the Cobra and my brothers driving my Chevelle.

Cobra vs Chevelle

Here are some random shots of the cage and new shifter.

** Update 08/21/07 **

Well I finally ran the car on the bottle with a 150 pill. My brother and I made 5 passes on the bottle but the car spun on all the runs. The best was the second pass that I made and even though it spun in first gear it was still biting the track. Here's the time slip. Next up, bigger tires!

** Update 10/28/07 **

I got a set of 28x10.5x15 M/T ET Drag slick and went to the track yesterday. I was only able to make two passes. The first pass I ran a 10.35 at 128. On the second pass a pulled two more degrees of time out and ran a 10.18 at 130. My buddy video taped both runs so when I get the video from him I'll post a link to it.

Here are the time slips.

Here's the video.

Chevelle run 10/27/07

**Update 01/06/08**

Back a couple of weeks ago I noticed when I moved the Chevelle out of my garage that there was some water mixed with the oil in the valve covers. Fearing that I had a blown head gasket I did a compression test and found that all the cylinder were between 220-225 except 7 which only had 155. I pulled the intake and found that it was leaking at the rear water passage. I then pulled the head and found that the head gasket looked fine. So I found the cause of the water but not the low compression. I then filled the intake runner with carb cleaner and it leaked right pass the valve. I then tested the exhaust side and it was fine. So I pulled the intake valve and found that it was slightly concaved on one side of the surface. I then pulled the intake valve from cylinder 5 and put it in cylinder 7 and filled it with carb cleaner again. It sealed fine so I ordered a new intake valve from Summit Racing.

While I was waiting for the intake valve to come in I decided I would paint the car black so that it didn't look so bad. I also decided to add some stripes. It cost me $60.00 to paint it and it didn't turn out to bad for a spray can pait job and it looks 10 times better than it did in primer grey. Here's some pics.

My 6 year old acting silly.

I also made an aluminum instrument panel to clean up the interior a little. Here's some pics to show how it turned out.

**Update 03/26/08**

I went to the races last month and raced my nephew on his GSXR750. I told him I would run him on just the motor without using the nitrous. I beat him but just barely. Here's the video.

Chevelle vs 1997 GSXR750