This is not yet another ’55 Chevy, it is a bad ass piece of automotive history.
Mr Americar started its life as a Chevy Bel Air built for Paris Autoshow but was bound to make a career as a part of UK Drag Racing history. Shipped to UK from France in August 1976.Chevy needed some TLC to cure the dents and broken glass but amazingly it still had the factory plastic protectors on the seats and door panels. The first owner in UK was Tim Cook, a big name in UK drag racing at the time. Tim used to run this Chevy regularly with a small block V8 and managed to make it one of the fastest cars in its class. You can even admire the car in a move ‘Shutdown’ (1977) showing the action at the Santa Pod.
Chevy must be lucky as nowadays it is owned by another legendary person, Bryan Whitfield. You may know this great guy from his state of art paintjobs at Roberts Motor Bodies or as a race driver tearing the drag strips of UK. Either way we always wanted to do a photoshoot of his cars and since we finally managed to pin down the date in calendar we couldn’t wait to get a shot of Mr.Americar!
Chevy is in immaculate condition, the black paint goes fantastically with chrome trims and emblems. Slightly raked back of the car with fat rear tyres, two exhaust pipes and a rollcage visible through windows are the only hints that this is a 9sec drag weapon.
The monster sitting under the bonnet is 502cui big block V8 with a juicy 200 shot of nitrous. It feeds the power through automatic ‘box and 9inch Ford rear end by Hauser Racing. Stopping power is provided by 4 wheel disc brake kit.
The interior is a mix of original parts and modern racing technology; it sounds weird but looks right together. Loving the fact that small things like the original radio and even the cig lighter are still in there!
A big thank you to Bryan for finding time for us in his busy schedule and special thanks to The House Skatepark in Sheffield for letting us use their carpark for the shoot!
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Photo: Radoslaw Pajor
