OK- my best ChebbieCraft story. Around '79, I helped a buddy a bit on a fake '69 Z/28 project- started as his neighbor's wife's 307/ Powerglide stripper, stretched the fenders a bit, added a (lame) big-block with a potato cam, fancy paint job and Z emblems- perfect "awesome" car by ChebbieCraft standards. So they're going to do a "Cars of Napa Valley" story, so we assemble a few hotrods at Cantrell's house down the street. "Rick" had what was known simply as "the red car", an original 427 Cobra that "Mark" took car of in his Cobra shop, and was a pretty rapid piece, had a strong 447 stroker in it, and after Mark tore up one of the rear fenders in a minor contact situation one night in Vallejo (!), an old aluminum smith had widened the rear fenders 6", and it had 15" wide wheels on the back with roadrace gumballs- gawd, it was badass looking- and could back it up. So we think the red car is coming. Saturday morning, here comes fake-Z guy with Niel Britt from ChebbieCraft in tow. Rick and Mark aren't there yet, so we work up the line, start with Cantrell's mom's 69 Boss 429- Britt yawns, yeah, nice white Mustang, yeah, 429... Then, we think, on to the big artillery- he didn't even look at my original black 406-6V XL LOL- after a little popping and spitting from the Tecalemit Jackson injectors, Cantrell backs out original race GT40 #P1009, beautiful Guardsman Blue with white stripes, race 289 with open exhaust, extensive race history, early race car etc. Yeah, that's cool, looks like a kit car.. By now we can see where this is going, gonna be a waste of time- no Chebbies in stock. To kill time, we show him dad's 54 tudor with the side-oiler medium riser, Shelby Dominator intake, 65 Shelby rearend, 3.91 Detroit Locker, LTD disc brakes, original olive drab- ultimate likker car right there- another yawn. About then wee hear Whoop- BAAAaaahhh... Whoop- Baaa.. in pulls Rick and Mark, but in a blue 289 Cobra. Seems Rick had just swapped the red car with the gent who had bought his 289, which was a late USRRC/ FIA spec race car, one of the ones with the big fenders, upgrade suspension, pin-drive wheels, Webers, and in a real road race, more than a match for most 427 cars. So Britt smiles, yeah, another Ford, nice looking car, sounds good blah blah.. So hey, Mark, why don't you take him for a ride? Now Mark can shoe a Cobra pretty well, and has an extremely low instinct for self (and sheet metal) preservation, a 427 car of his own that was, at the time, receiving a Cammer setup, and a wicked mischievious sense of humor. That little grin came out, sure, c'mon... Off they go, Mark smiles and winks, Britt smiling, yeah, never been in one of these things, kinda neat for a Ford. Around the corner they go, where there's a straight stretch with no houses, and we hear Buhwaah.. BuwaaAAH-AHH-AHH.. BWAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH.. Couple minutes later they pull back in, Mark's still smiling that little smile, and Britt is white as a sheet, one hand on the cowl, other on the door in a death grip- gets out of the car trembling
We all start laughing knowing Mark took him sideways a few times, and he finally breaks into a grin, trying to regain his cool, yeah, that was pretty cool, that focking thing is pretty fast. So he half-heartedly take a couple pictures, says thanks, but sorry, I'm looking for Camaros and Corvettes, they sell magazines- bye. Sure enough, the 307/ Powerglide fake-Z/28 was on the cover of ChebbieCraft, and no mention of any of the other cars, except one blurb about a GT40 in a henhouse
