Brent & Michele Wharton - 67 Chevy II, 67 Pontiac Firebird, 55 Chevy newfire3.jpg (13418 bytes)

  The car belongs to Brent and Michele Wharton. It was purchased in San Antonio Texas in the summer of 1987. We brought it home on a tow dolly since the 6-cylinder engine was in the trunk and the 3-speed transmission was in the front seat. We started out by replacing the front fenders, trunk lid, and rebuilt the entire front suspension. We then took all the emblems and door molding off of the car. We drug the car to Artie Lund in San Antonio from Spooks Rod and Custom to paint. He put 2 new quarter panels, and removed all the remaining chrome from the car. He completed the show quality paint job in 1988. We installed a 12-bolt posi-traction rear end with 3:08 gears, a Doug Nash 5 Speed, and a 383 Chevy stroker. The engine is a 350 four bolt main block bored 30 over with a 400 crankshaft, a competition cams magnum 305 camshaft (525 Lift), 1.5 aluminum roller rockers on ported heads with 2.02 valves, Weiand team G single plane intake topped off with a rejeted Holley 750 double pumper, Hooker headers, and HEI ignition with a Accel super coil. The engine was balanced and blue printed. With the first 4 gears being under driven in the Doug Nash 5 speed, the drive ration in the first 4 gears is equivalent to a M-22 rock crusher with 4:88 gears while the 5th gear is 1 to 1. The interior includes Pro Car bucket seats with the remainder of the carpet and upholstery being replaced with stock pieces. I hand made the dash which has all Cyberdyne digital gauges. Over the last 4 years we have continually updated items on the car. They included an MSD 6AL system, MSD Pro Billet distributor, a blaster coil, Crane Fire wires, and installed a Kenwood AM/FM CD player with 4 speakers. The most resent modification occurred in the spring of 1999, it was the realization of a life long childhood dream. We installed a polished Weiand 6-71 blower with 2 Holley 600 CFM carburetors. This required us to change to a short water pump and move the alternator to clear the blower. The fuel system was upgraded to include 1/2" fuel line from the tank to the max pressure fuel pump and regulator. We plumed the remainder of the fuel system with Russell fittings and ProFlex braided stainless fuel lines. To prevent detonation we installed a MSD Boost Timing Master. We topped the carbs off with a Street Scoop air cleaner. Since there is now an abundance of tire frying power, we added a set of South Side Machine lift bars and a set of sticky Mickey Indy Profile SS tires. As always, in our eyes the car is not near complete, we still see lots of room for improvement. We attend the East Coast Hot Rod Power Tour 1999. We won the East Coast Hot Rod Power Tour Holley Dyno Challenge at Daytona Beach, the car produce 357.7 HP and 383.8 TQ at the rear wheels on their chassis dyno, we beat a Big Block Chevelle by 1 HP. We had a great time and really enjoyed it. We attended the Hot Rod Power Tour for 2000 at Taladega. Holley graciously gave us the award for the best use of Holley product at Taladega. In route to our Hotel that night, our power tour was cut short by a Flex fan that took out our radiator. We missed the first night at Panama City, but my brother was more than understanding and loaned us his 96 Viper GTS to finish the last day a Panama City. After returning home, we replaced the radiator with a Be Cool Radiator, installed an electric fan, added a Harwood fiberglass cowl induction hood which I painted, and replaced the upper Blower drive pulley with a new pulley to increase the boost. We removed the small 2" exhaust with turbo mufflers and installed a free flowing 3" exhaust system with 40 series Flowmaster delta mufflers. This greatly increased the breathing ability of the car. We attended the Hot Rod Power Festival at Commerce GA and put the car back on the chassis dyno. After just arriving at the show with driving over 100 miles to get to there, we put the car on the dyno. The car produced 391 HP and 377 TQ at the rear wheels at 6,000 RPM. The HP was still increasing, however, I did not want to rev the engine any further in an attempt to see a few more horses, I wanted to drive home not push it. We were happy with the power increase over the last time we ran it. There is one thing that we are extremely proud of, the 67 Chevy II is driven routinely on the street to include to back and forth to work, but that's what cars are for, to enjoy!!
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