NEW PRICE! Beautiful professional build. Steel body, fresh Porsche Guards Red paint, Martz chassis, supercharged 350 Chevy, Viper leather seats, digital gauges, coil-over suspension, recent tires. Nice rod on a budget!
Thanks to a fresh coat of Porsche Guards Red paint, this ’32 Chevy looks very contemporary and extremely crisp. It was not an inexpensive paint job and working with clean OEM steel (only the running boards and rear fenders are ‘glass), it looks far more expensive than it is. Modifications to the bodywork are minimal, mostly related to the headlights and that low-profile blower scoop sticking out of the hood. It wasn’t chopped or shaved, giving it a classic look that will never go out of style. And to their credit, they resisted adding graphics or other paint tricks, so it will look contemporary for decades to come. Fit and finish are excellent, with doors that open and close easily, neat gaps even around the hood, and a great stance that’s aggressive but street-friendly. The doors on the hood still open to manage airflow over the warmed-over small block and original chrome bumpers not only provide protection, but give it a finished look.
The interior is neatly dressed in gray fabric that wears well and looks great. A 1994 Dodge Viper donated a set of matching gray leather buckets that fit rather neatly in the vintage Chevy coupe bodywork, and thanks to the work of noted trimmer Make Haverstock, it remains in fantastic condition throughout. They took it easy on the tech just so everything remains reliable, although a custom billet gauge panel full of Dakota Digital gauges is a neat touch. There’s also a tilt steering column with a leather-wrapped LaCarrera steering wheel that makes it quite easy to get comfortable at the helm. Overhead there’s a custom aluminum console with all the secondary controls, plus a tachometer, which is a neat way to do it. There’s also a Kenwood AM/FM/cassette head unit with a 10-disc CD changer system in the trunk that sounds quite good, although the blown V8 up front sounds better. You’ll note a few switches on the panel marked “NEON” which control the red neon lights under the car, in the engine bay, and in the passenger compartment, all of which combine to give this car an incredible look at night (and is likely why there are two big batteries in the trunk—keep it lit up at shows!). The trunk is equally well-finished, although between the batteries, tubbed wheel housings, and CD changer, there’s not much space left over.
The running gear is headlined by a 350 cubic inch Chevy V8 topped with that beautiful GMC 4-71 supercharger. A single 750 Holley double-pumper on a Hilborn intake handles feeding the beast while a custom-grind Comp Cams camshaft and valvetrain with roller rockers give it great street manners. An MSD ignition system lights it up and is always the right choice with a blown engine, pulling out timing before anything gets broken. It’s also nicely detailed with lots of polished aluminum, braided stainless, and red paint on the block itself. There’s a 4-inch thick Walker radiator up front with a powerful electric fan, so keeping it cool isn’t difficult and you’ll be shocked by how quickly it starts and how easily it idles, even when it’s cold. This is not a fussy, high-strung motor that needs a lot of attention. It’s tuned for pump gas, so hitting the road is no big deal and once you dip into the boost, you’ll be addicted, because that engine just flings this lightweight little coupe down the road. It’s potent.
Underneath, there’s a 2x4 tube chassis by Martz Chassis which provides a rock-solid platform for the performance this car carries. The transmission is a bulletproof TH400 3-speed automatic with a high-stall torque converter, so you’ll need to accustom yourself to giving it a pretty good prod off the line. A custom 3-inch driveshaft turns a narrowed 12-bolt rear end filled with Summers Brothers axles and bearings and 3.73 gears that are a good compromise for the street. The front suspension is a familiar Mustang II setup with coil-overs and rack-and-pinion steering, while the rear is ladder bars and another set of coil-over shocks. A beautiful set of ceramic-coated Sanderson long-tube headers feed a set of side pipes that sound fantastic, but there are baffles inside, so it’s very streetable and not annoying. The stance is just about perfect and it sits on staggered Centerline wheels with Mickey Thompson rubber.
This car neatly bridges street and race, which is what hot rods are supposed to be about. The fact that it’s beautifully finished means you’ll never be afraid to be seen in it, and the beautifully sorted mechanicals are ready to cruise any time. We rarely get such well-tuned rods with this much performance, but this is a turn-key car that would cost tens of thousands more to build yourself. Why spend the time and money when it’s right here, ready to rock? Call today!
For more details and photos, please visit www.HarwoodMotors.com
