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gymracer01 · 09-07-2008, 10:59 PM

Travis, don't know how I missed this thread. Anyway, I do have a story of my first new car. It was a 1966 Chevy II SS L79 that I order and took delivery of in Jan 1966 in Campbellsville, KY.
I bought it because of the drivetrain. I had learned of the 350hp 327 from a friend in Gainsville GA that had bougth a 65 Chevelle with that setup. He was fast and out running everything on the street at the time, yes GTOs too. I wanted to buy a base 2 dr Chevelle with that engine for 66. My boss called a friend at Cunningham-Kelly Chevrolet in Hartsville TN as they were selling a lot of hot Chevrolets at the time. He told us that the engine was going to be in the 66 Chevy II and that would be a hot setup. Since the Nova was light anyway I got carried away and went for the SS and Hardtop, sometimes wish I had stuck to the post idea. I had a 3.73 posi and put better tires on it right away. I took it to GA in Feb. 66 and with only recurving the distributor and a little work on the secondary side of the carburetor, it went 13.10 on some recapped slicks. I won A/S the first time out. I never really raced it on the street much because of the braking and handling. I moved back to Campbellsville in the fall of 66 and the old Campbellsville dragstrip was still there but they just left the gate open and we would go in and race without the cops bothering us. I spent many a night there racing. I lost only a hand full of races. They were bringing cars from E-town and Lousville to try to beat me. After the first 1,000 miles on the car I had changed the cam to the 375hp solid lifter cam and done a few other tweaks to it to be able to out run the rest of the Chevy IIs. It was not really fast by today standards, but 12.50s in 66 with a street driven car would win you a bunch of races if you could drive it. I've own a couple since, but nothing like that FIRST ONE!
JIm N.

09-07-2008, 10:59 PM	#5
gymracer01 Junior Member Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Middle Tennesse Posts: 46 Likes: 0 Liked 0 Times in 0 Posts	Re: Your new musclecar Travis, don't know how I missed this thread. Anyway, I do have a story of my first new car. It was a 1966 Chevy II SS L79 that I order and took delivery of in Jan 1966 in Campbellsville, KY. I bought it because of the drivetrain. I had learned of the 350hp 327 from a friend in Gainsville GA that had bougth a 65 Chevelle with that setup. He was fast and out running everything on the street at the time, yes GTOs too. I wanted to buy a base 2 dr Chevelle with that engine for 66. My boss called a friend at Cunningham-Kelly Chevrolet in Hartsville TN as they were selling a lot of hot Chevrolets at the time. He told us that the engine was going to be in the 66 Chevy II and that would be a hot setup. Since the Nova was light anyway I got carried away and went for the SS and Hardtop, sometimes wish I had stuck to the post idea. I had a 3.73 posi and put better tires on it right away. I took it to GA in Feb. 66 and with only recurving the distributor and a little work on the secondary side of the carburetor, it went 13.10 on some recapped slicks. I won A/S the first time out. I never really raced it on the street much because of the braking and handling. I moved back to Campbellsville in the fall of 66 and the old Campbellsville dragstrip was still there but they just left the gate open and we would go in and race without the cops bothering us. I spent many a night there racing. I lost only a hand full of races. They were bringing cars from E-town and Lousville to try to beat me. After the first 1,000 miles on the car I had changed the cam to the 375hp solid lifter cam and done a few other tweaks to it to be able to out run the rest of the Chevy IIs. It was not really fast by today standards, but 12.50s in 66 with a street driven car would win you a bunch of races if you could drive it. I've own a couple since, but nothing like that FIRST ONE! JIm N.