We first met Randy Johnson several years ago when Car Craft photographed his '70 Rat-powered Camaro for the Nov. '98 issue, and later an even nicer '67 LS1-urged and IRS'd Camaro that appeared in the Mar. '05 issue. If you remember those cars, you can see a trend that has now evolved into his latest effort, a '66 Chevelle with a Schwartz tube chassis. It should also come as no surprise that the Chevelle has LS7 power. It just seemed like the perfect match to its tip-of-the-spear suspension. Even if you are not a big fan of Pro Touring, this car transcends that whole issue. What you see here is the latest in suspension design combined with a production-based Gen III engine with a six-speed trans wrapped up in a classic skin with monster tires that does everything well. What's not to like?
Randy's goal from the very beginning was truly a car that could do it all- accelerate maniacally, carve up a canyon road like Joey "Jaws" Chestnut pounds down hot dogs, and brake so well there should be a printed warning about detached retinas glued to the dash. Plus, it had to be a great road car. Then, just after the car was completed and as if through some preordained alignment of stars and planets, this magazine decided to stage a contest to test the mettle of the readership's street machines with the Car Craft Street Machine of the Year (CCSMOTY) event. Randy learned of the contest from chassis supplier Jeff Schwartz, and suddenly the Chevelle had a stage from which to prove its worth. Of course, with the opportunity for stardom comes the specter of defeat. As one wag suggested, "You realize, of course, if you don't win, you could look like a complete dipstick." So the challenge was on.
As we all know, of course, Randy and the Chevelle took the Muscle Car Class win, but not because there wasn't some good competition. So now we need to know more about how this car came together. The story has all the basic themes that make for a classic Hollywood script. Randy discovered the car as a primer-brown castoff in the minimal-rust mountains of Colorado, not as a big-block hero, but instead as a rather pedestrian 283/Powerslide Malibu. Randy's main concern was for the sheetmetal, because he knew little else would make the transition. Not long before the Chevelle arrived at Randy's Wisconsin home, Jeff had begun building an impressive tube chassis for late '60s Chevelles and the GM A-body lineup. Not only was the chassis torsionally stiffer, but it also promised to be lighter. The front suspension featured tubular upper and lower control arms connected to a custom spindle with coilover shocks and a race car-like splined antiroll bar. The rear suspension retained a version of the basic factory unequal-length four-bar design, but instead of a 12-bolt, Randy opted for a Winters finned aluminum 9-inch centersection with full-floating axles, just like the big-boy Cup cars.
But you don't just drop the body on a chassis like this and have a nice day. While a '66 Chevelle offers cavernous rear tire room, Randy wanted more. Jeff designed the chassis for monster rear tires, which led to a 3-inch minitub effort. The next step was a set of QA1 double-adjustable shocks on all four corners and then adding Wilwood six-piston calipers with 13-inch rotors in the front and only a slightly more subdued Wilwood combo in the rear to fit inside the 18-inch-diameter Kinesis wheels and monster rear tires. Even before the car was finished, it looked absolutely sinister from the rear.
Of course, with all these exotic underpinnings, a stock Malibu faade would just not do, so Randy elevated the A-body's stature by cloning a 427 factory combo with a steel repro SS hood from Goodmark, along with a pile of repro parts from Year One and Restoration World. The bodywork evolved out of lots of body and paint effort from Midwest Musclecar Restoration in Slinger, Wisconsin, which included the PPG Mist Blue paint.
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