๐๐ต ๐ฎ๐ช๐จ๐ฉ๐ต ๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ญ๐บ ๐ฃ๐ฆ ๐ข ๐ญ๐ฐ๐ค๐ข๐ญ ๐ฑ๐ช๐ฆ๐ค๐ฆ ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ฉ๐ช๐ด๐ต๐ฐ๐ณ๐บ, ๐ฃ๐ถ๐ต ๐ช๐ตโ๐ด ๐ฉ๐ช๐ด๐ต๐ฐ๐ณ๐บ ๐ฏ๐ฆ๐ท๐ฆ๐ณ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ญ๐ฆ๐ด๐ด, ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ธ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ฏ ๐ช๐ตโ๐ด ๐ข๐ฃ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ต ๐ด๐ต๐ณ๐ฆ๐ฆ๐ต-๐ณ๐ข๐ค๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ฎ๐ถ๐ด๐ค๐ญ๐ฆ ๐ค๐ข๐ณ ๐ญ๐ช๐ฌ๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ช๐ด ๐ถ๐ฏ๐ช๐ฒ๐ถ๐ฆ โ66 ๐๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ท๐บ ๐๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ท๐ฆ๐ญ๐ญ๐ฆ ๐๐396 โ ๐ธ๐ฆโ๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ฃ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ต๐ข๐ฌ๐ฆ ๐ฏ๐ฐ๐ต๐ช๐ค๐ฆ. ๐๐ฐ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ฐ๐ท๐ฆ๐ณ, ๐ต๐ฉ๐ช๐ด ๐ด๐ต๐ฐ๐ณ๐บ ๐ช๐ฏ๐ค๐ญ๐ถ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ด ๐ข ๐ต๐ณ๐ช๐ข๐ฏ๐จ๐ญ๐ฆ ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ฐ๐ธ๐ฏ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ด โ ๐ข๐ญ๐ญ ๐ธ๐ช๐ต๐ฉ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ช๐ณ ๐ฐ๐ธ๐ฏ ๐ฑ๐ญ๐ข๐ฏ๐ด ๐ง๐ฐ๐ณ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ค๐ข๐ณ. ๐๐ฐ, ๐ญ๐ฆ๐ตโ๐ด ๐ฏ๐ฐ๐ต ๐ธ๐ข๐ด๐ต๐ฆ ๐ข๐ฏ๐บ ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ต๐ช๐ฎ๐ฆ.
The car used to belong to David Heath who often put it through its paces off Dobyns Road outside the little mountain town of Claudville, Virginia. That was back in early seventies though, when muscle cars were still dominating American roads โ especially those in the country.
David bought Chevelle SS396 from his uncleโs dealership Stanley Chevrolet, in Stuart, Virginia and it was better-looking than anything new in the shop at the time, according to him. Even mechanic who tampered with it said it was the second fastest car heโd ever worked on โ fastest being 1967 Corvette with a 435-horses.
Thatโs after David replaced the busted stock 396, mind you. Chevelleโs 396 simply couldnโt cope with big blocks at the time and one day, David over-revved it after bouncing off the ground.
He was racing 1970 Mustang with a 428 Cobra Jet under its hood. Davidโs next move was to replace the busted engine with the 427 and the rest is history.
Races were being held on Highway 103, also known as the Claudville Highway, after 11 PM. There was very little traffic at that time of the day (or night if you will), and highway featured a straight quarter-mile section which is such a rarity in small mountain communities. Lads never stopped after quarter-mile, though.
They went straight over the old two-lane iron bridge and over the Dan river, and raced for another five miles or so on curvy roads. This type of racing required some skilled driving, but as all things come to an end, so did Chevelle SS396โs time on the roads come to an end back in 1980.
