Our 1970 Chevelle Pro-Touring rebuild is complete and delivered back home in style! The owner and I road tripped it back home to the southern tip of Florida in a 2200 mile road trip in the beginning of August. This road trip was the culmination of the most intensive build that we have done so far with Revved Automotive Concepts; not only integrating cutting edge technology, but pushing the envelope with interior styling and under hood fabrication. This vehicle truly belongs on the SEMA show floor but it is fully capable for the road.

This owner's first vehicle was a 1970 Chevelle convertible that he regretted parting with years ago. When the opportunity to purchase this "fully restored, custom built" version of his beloved vehicle came up for sale online he jumped at the opportunity. Unfortunately, within a week of receiving the Chevelle, he realized that it wasn't the high dollar resto-mod it had been portrayed as. The supposedly fresh 454 big block provided lack luster performance, the steering was loose and clunky, the restomod interior was uninspiring, and overall the vehicle didn't feel sorted. His search for a shop capable of bringing the vehicle up to his standards brought him to our website. After several phone calls discussing the direction of the project the vehicle was shipped to us.

I must start out by saying that the paint and body work on the car is stunning. The body is laser straight and the deep metallic blue has a crystal clear reflection. The black stripes set off the classic American muscle car visage; but that is where the compliments end. As soon as the disassembly began the project spiraled. The front suspension consisted of mismatched components; the steering was barely staying together. The engine block was half-silver, half-orange, and on disassembly we found the bearings in the "professionally built" 454 engine were already down to copper. The dashboard wiring was such a birds nest of butt connectors, scotch locks, and self tapping screws that the dashboard required wire cutters to be removed and the engine bay wiring wasn't much better. By the time we had removed the compromised systems we were nearly down to the shell. Sometimes it is better to start anew.

As we were beginning with a clean slate, our client decided that he wanted to go with a full Pro-touring SEMA level build. The intention of driving the vehicle back from DFW to southern Florida was laid out from the beginning. The vehicle was completely rewired with an ISIS power multiplexed network to manage the vehicle electronics. With our modern Pro-Touring theme the InMax touch screen controller fit our look. A full stereo system featuring a JVC touch screen navigation head unit drives dual JL Audio amplfiers powering the cabin speakers and a 10" subwoofer in the trunk.

The interior was to be fully modernized with a racing theme. We started with a pair of Sparco racing seats, a set of Autometer gauges, Fesler Built modern interior panels, and built the rest from there. We fabricated the structure to locate all of the components and then handed the vehicle over to Jeff Erwin at South Side Trim to flesh out the interior. The trunk was smoothed as well with a finish panel to hide the rear mounted battery and electronics. Since this vehicle is built to drive, there is a full size spare and tools sunken into the trunk floor.

A new fuel system was plumbed from the Rick's Stainless tank to the engine bay. The suspension was reworked with matching components. The driveline angles were corrected and a custom chromoly driveshaft was built by Dynotech Engineering to couple the Tremec TKO600 to the rear axle. With driveability as our main focus the rear axle ratio was changed from an overcompensating 4.11:1 to a highway friendly 3.55:1 with a True-trac differential.

The 454 was rebuilt as a 463ci with forged internals and an 8.5:1 compression ratio to accommodate boost. Since no one made a good looking pulley system to mount our Vortech V7 centrifugal supercharger to a BBC we built one from scratch. We then fabricated an air to water intercooler system with components from BeCool and a hidden engine oil cooler system to keep temperatures under control. The engine was topped with a Hogan aluminum manifold fed by a FAST 102mm throttle body. Fuel and ignition are handled by an MSD system controlled by a sequential FAST XFI programmable EFI system. The engine bay plumbing and wiring is hidden so when you open the hood all you see is business. After fabrication, the aluminum engine bay components were sent out for mirror polishing. On the dyno, our Pro-Touring beauty laid down an amazing 820 rear wheel horsepower on pump gas.

The greatest compliment came once the vehicle was complete. On August 2nd, 2013 I picked up the owner at DFW airport and we road tripped the Chevelle back down to Miami Beach. In spite of the 108* Texas heat index, a bit of back tracking in Louisiana for a dropped wallet, pointless traffic jams through pretty much every major city, and a steak that I'm still not sure was actually beef, the trip was phenomenal. The car performed flawlessly and for all of their racing intent those seats are remarkably comfortable. We had people follow us on the highway taking pictures and lots of thumbs in the air. We drew crowds everywhere we stopped and heard stories of the muscle cars they had owned. Those of you who that have spent any time with me know my philosophy that the cars are just a medium, this business is about the people and their stories. We now have a new story. Thank you Chris for letting me build you this wonderful vehicle! Thank you to all of my vendors for building top notch products! Thank you to all of my family, clients, and friends for your support over the years! -Sean Revved Automotive Concepts