MORE POWER? BETTER SOUND? OF CORSA!
July 20, 2023
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THE AUTO BUILDER
Featured
Red Rider
Grandma was fond of Bible quotes. Platitudes and homilies were her way of making her virtually unassailable position completely clear. Of course, she never felt that accuracy was a requisite when using quotations as a way of declaring her homespun philosophy. Many of her quotes were edited, but her points were always appropriate and valid, or at least offered a simple instruction that brought resolve to a particular dilemma. Among her favorites were patience is a virtue and all things come to he who waits. While probably not precisely accurate to their biblical roots, these quotes serve to make an excellent point. If you are willing to be patient, success is most likely on the way.
KING OF THE ROAD
“Carroll Shelby has pulled the trick of the year. He’s combined Ford’s new drag champion 428 Cobra Jet engine with his complete road car, the Cobra G.T.500. Result? Cobra G.T.500KR…King of the Road.” Those words accompanied the full-page advertisements for the mid-year introduction of the ’68 Shelby Cobra G.T.500KR. The new model replaced the early ’68 G.T.500 and its more docile 428 V-8 engine.
MAKING A GOOD THING BETTER
It’s a simple concept really. You see, when you build six-figure cars for one person, many others stand by and wish they, too, could have such a fine piece of work. Of course, all that one-off bodywork, tube frame construction and sculpted interior is just too pricey for most street rodders, and that doesn’t even consider the price of an artist concept study and subsequent drawings.
However, after spending all that time, money and effort to produce an aesthetically pleasing and award-winning design based on the venerable ’32 Ford, why not mass produce the car in fiberglass with the same great chassis and super smooth lines? That thought crossed Boyd Coddington’s mind when he did the original Boydster, a fenderless highboy roadster. The next progression was to add fenders to the car and so, being a sequential kind of guy and is good with numbers, Boyd decided to call this one the Boydster II. The car embodied all the great style of the first car, but now with fenders.
Spotlighter
KEEPSAKE CAMARO
Super Car Workshop’s Joe Swezey Selects One of the Rarest Cars for His Personal Ride
Author
Brian Henderson
Photography by Bob McClurg
Drag racing history buffs are more than familiar with the name Dick Harrell, or “Mr. Chevrolet,” one of early drag racing’s pioneer match race/funny car stars. However, there was also Dick Harrell the innovator, and he should be recognized for his incredible streetcars.
In 1967, legendary Chevrolet dealer and road racer Don Yenko teamed up with Harrell to build the first of Yenko’s infamous Yenko 427 Camaros. While Yenko mechanics built these cars at his dealership in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, for East Coast distribution, Dick Harrell and his crew in Kansas City, Missouri, also built Yenko Camaros for Yenko’s Midwestern and West Coast-based dealers.
History records that after a split with Yenko in 1968, Harrell became involved with another Chevrolet high-performance icon named Fred Gibb. That year, Harrell modified and campaigned a Fred Gibb Chevrolet-sponsored Camaro AA/Fuel funny car and the Fred Gibb Chevrolet 427 COPO Nova, which was raced primarily in AHRA classes. Then in 1969, Harrell again raced his funny car under Fred Gibb Chevrolet sponsorship, as well as the red number 1 Gibb ZL-1 Camaro Super Stock car, which was later raced by Jim Hayter, in AHRA competition.
The 1968 Dick Harrell Performance Center was not only supporting the Gibb-Harrell drag racing team, but they were also building some of the Midwest’s most feared streetcars. Since Harrell happened to be a performance shop owner and not a Chevrolet dealer, he customarily had the cars slated for conversion for other dealers (those other than the ones he was converting for Fred Gibb) shipped directly to him. Much like Yenko, Harrell had established a dealer network to sell his high-performance creations, and that brings us to Joe Swezey’s stellar example of a ’69 Dick Harrell 427 Camaro.
Swezey’s ’69 SS 427 Harrell Camaro rolled off the GM assembly line as a barebones L-78-option SS 396, devoid of the usual spoilers or even a factory AM radio. The Camaro was factory equipped with a Muncie M21 four-speed manual transmission and a 3.55:1-geared GM 12-bolt Positraction rearend. The Camaro was ordered in LeMans Blue with a standard black vinyl interior without the commonplace factory console. The car was converted by Harrell for Ed Black Chevrolet, located in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Swezey’s Camaro was ordered from the factory with a black vinyl bucket seat interior complete with radio-delete feature. There are no frills here, just a basic go-fast machine.
First, the crew at Harrell’s Performance Center removed the 396 big block and installed a 427/425hp big-block Chevrolet engine that had been fully balanced and blueprinted. However, prior to actually installing the engine, they re-painted the engine compartment in LeMans Blue glyptal paint to match the exterior of the car. The single 4-bbl 780cfm Holley carburetor, which came on these engines from the factory, was replaced by a pair of Carter WAFB carburetors (one of Harrell’s sponsors) as well as a Weiand 2×4 tunnel-ram intake manifold. The stock GM distributor was also modified, and a set of Jardine headers (another Harrell sponsor) and Cyclone mufflers were also added. Finally, a set of Mickey Thompson finned aluminum valve covers was added to the engine.
The suspensions on the Dick Harrell Camaros were modified with Harrell’s own special spring clamps using the original five-leaf GM rear springs, along with the substitution of Hurst Performance Dual-Duty drag shocks on all four corners. The rearend gearing was also updated to 4.88:1 Schiefer gears. The suspensions on these cars were further enhanced with the addition of Cragar S/S five-spoke 15-inch steel wheels, along with a set of M&H Racemaster tires providing the much-needed grip.
The interior of this and other Dick Harrell Camaros was modified with a Sun 601 tachometer mounted on top of the dash in plain sight, along with a trio of Stewart Warner (oil, water and amperage) gauges to mind the engine and a classic Hurst T-Handle sitting atop a Hurst Competition Plus shifter.
The exterior of the car was upgraded with an A&A Fiberglass (another Harrell sponsor) lightweight Stinger hood and a unique black paint stripe by “Oops,” Dick Harrell’s in-house painter. Then, special “Built By Dick Harrell” badges were pop-riveted on the header panel, decklid and dash to round out the package.
Sweezey located this Camaro while attending the Chicago Chevy/Vette Fest in the summer of 2003 and purchased it from a fellow collector who was thinning out his collection. Once a deal was struck, the car was brought back to Latrobe, Pennsylvania, for a complete, no-holds barred restoration. Since Swezey is co-owner of the Super Car Workshop, he and partner Brian Henderson used the car as a two-year in-house shop project.
The first thing that the two discovered was that since the car came from New Mexico, it was almost totally devoid of the rust that is so common with late ’60s F-body cars. They entrusted the car to Roberts Auto Body, located in Fayette City, Pennsylvania, where expert body man Bernie Matway made everything better than new prior to re-painting the Camaro in PPG LeMans Blue. From there, the car was returned to the Super Car Workshop for final detail and assembly. The Camaro was then debuted at the 2004 Yenko Sportscar Club Supercar Reunion (in Collinsville, Illinois), where it received rave reviews.
With only a handful of documented Dick Harrell cars in existence, seeing one today in all its splendor is truly a rare sight, and Joe and Brian are proud to say that not only have they restored this car, but they have also revived a ’68 Fred Gibb/Dick Harrell Super Tuned Nova and maintained both a survivor ’68 Dick Harrell 427 Chevelle SS and a Jones 427 Camaro SS. With the guys at the Super Car Workshop, it’s all in a day’s work.
Shown is Joe’s Dick Harrell-blueprinted and assembled 427 big-block, complete with Carter WAFB dual 4-bbl carburetors, Weiand 4×4 intake and Mickey Thompson valve covers. Also on board are Jardine headers and Cyclone mufflers.
EDITOR’S NOTE: For the sake of clarity, it should be noted that even though we refer to Dick Harrell as “Mr. Chevrolet,” Chevrolet racers Bruce “USA-1” Larsen and “Jungle Jim” Lieberman were also publicly known as “Mr. Chevrolet” within drag racing circles, with all three of these racers having won the “Mr. Chevrolet” title at numerous funny car events throughout the country, including Capitol Raceway’s highly publicized “Mr. Chevrolet’ funny car series staged throughout the late 1960s.
ARTICLE SOURCES
Super Car Workshop
Joe Swezey & Brian Henderson
Latrobe, PA
(724) 875-3546
