1968 Chevelle Magazine Car

Chevrolet Chevelle 1968 Description

Up for sale is a hand built pro street car that has been in the collection for around 15 years. This fully custom racing machine was built by the previous owner. It was featured in the May 1999 issue of GM High-Tech Performance Magazine written by Jay Heath
The article provides an in-depth overview of the incredible caliber of this one of a kind vehicle.
Here it is:
Unless you are tooling around town in an Air Force rocket sled or John Force’s Funny car, chances are you don’t have anywhere near the huevos to go head-to-head with Brian Bedford’s 1968 Chevelle. Mini van drivers and Consumer Report Subscribers may question the judgement and possibly even the sanity of a man who drops a fortified fuel fat-block into a car manufactured during the later days of the Johnson administration. Built in an age when the automotive landscape is increasingly dominated by foreign sport-utes and innocuous, ovoid “every-cars” we say,”More power to him.”
Not that he needs any more power mind you. The burly rat lurking behind the frame rails of Brian’s Chevy puts out somewhere near the order of 930 horses.
I knew it was going to be a nitrous motor, but it just kind of escalated from there, says Bedford, a roofing contractor by day, and a man apparently endowed with a penchant for understatement. After purchasing the Chevelle for $,1800 in 1994, Brian drove the then 307 powered car home, pulled it into the garage, an immidiately set about performing the Kafka-like the transmogrification that would eventually yield the all-conquering creature you see here.
“ The body was pretty good,” he relates, but the effete factory 5-liter just wasn’t going to cut it. Out it came, and in its stead went a 1989 vintage LS6 block topped with fully ported and flow tested Dart 320 heads. Instead of following prevailing logic and installing a traditional intake, Brian took the road less traveled and went with a Kindler DFI setup. And that, as Frost put it, is what made all the difference.
The system utilizes eight individual 2.89-inch throttle plates and 83 lb./hr. fuel injectors, and is fed a healthy diet of racing gas via dual SX fuel pumps rated at 1000 horsepower each. Why the Kinsler rig? “ It was the only way to flow enough air,” says Brian. “We picked up hundreds of cfm in airflow over the Cutler throttle body I was using before. “Better still, the system was a snap to tune and thus far has evinced the impeccable manors of a Carolina schoolboy.
A Stahl camshaft, with a towering .7395-inch of lift, actuates what can only be described as manly Manley 2.25-inch intake and 1.888-inch exhaust valves; an MSD 7AL2 ignition provides the requisite spark to bring the beastly rodent to life. The 468-cuber exhales through Hooker Super Competition headers and into a mammoth 4-inch Flowmaster exhaust system capable of evacuating almost as much waste gas as a dyspeptic GMHTP staffer.
An ATI-sourced tranny and 4200 rpm stall converter send the power rearward where it undergoes the ministrations of a 9-inch rear end manufactured by -ahem- Ford. Some mights consider the inclusion of the Dearborn diff on a car built to showcase GM- style performance to be a transgression bordering on hot rodding heresy. But no one can deny that these rears are tough, plentiful and affordable, and we think the ford piece detracts not a whit from the overall goodness of this vehicle. A Precision Gear 3.89 ring and pinion and Summers Brothers 35-spline axles and spool round out the driveline equation and put the power to the rolling stock.
But power, as we all know, means nothing if not properly managed, so Brian undertook a comprehensive working-over of the stock chassis and suspension bits to ensure that every last pony was put to the pavement. A custom-built back half by S&W Race Cars features coil-overs, ladder bars and wheel tubs to house the 33x18-inch M&H Streetmasters necessitated by this kind of obscene torque production. Surprisingly, the front suspension remains stock, save for the inclusion of Koni race shocks to help get things pointed skyward off the line.
The interior features just sort of simple, utilitarian layout one might expect in a car of this nature. There is no stereo, nor is there any need for one when nearly 8 liters of instant aural gratification are never more than a cracked throttle away. There is, however, a full host of Auto Meter gauges to keep Brian apprised of the goings-on underhood. A full S&W roll cage bolsters structural rigidity while keeping things about as safe as they can be in a car with this sort of performance potential.
An aluminum rear wing helps to obviate the possibility of the car performing a mach-speed Macarena on the big end, and probably scares the bejesus out of would-be challengers in the process. By removing the stock steel hood, fenders, bumpers and trunk lid in favor of fiberglass Harwood pieces, Brian managed to pare weight to around 3,300 lbs. -quite an improvement, but still none-too-svelte for a full-on drag car.
While we’re on the subject of drag racing- and when aren’t we? -we’d just like to reiterate that this is most definitely not a car to be trifled with. The pearl-white Chevy has turned a best ET of 9.60 seconds running 4.56 gears, and the NOS three stage nitrous system at the strip. A trap speed of 134 mph is especially impressive when one considers that the 1968 Chevelle body work, though handsome, confers about the same coefficient of drag as a frost-free Kenmore.
“I’m looking to put it in the mid-8s at 150 mph with the nitrous, the 3.89s and some chassis adjustments,” says Brian, and we have no reason to doubt him. As to whether or not anyone has actually been foolish enough to test this Chevy’s mettle on the street, he just laughs. “No, I can’t say that anybody’s even thought about it.”Trust us, it’s probably just as well.

Data File:
Block--------------------------1989 LS6Bore---------------------------4.280-inchStroke-------------------------4.000-inchDisplacement-----------------468 cubic inchesCrank--------------------------Chevy steelRods---------------------------Oliver steelPistons-------------------------J&E, 13:1 compressionCamshaft----------------------Stahl roller, 0.7395-inch liftCylinder heads----------------Dart 320, ported 40 hours eachValves-------------------------Manley 2.25-inch intake, 1.88-inch exhaustIntake Manifold---------------Kinsler IRThrottle Body-----------------Eight 2.89-inch Kinsler throttle platesFuel injectors-----------------83 lb/hr.Fuel pump--------------------Dual SX, rated at 1000hp eachRegulator----------------------PaxtonEngine management--------ACCEL ECMHeaders----------------------2 1/8 inch Hooker Super CompetitionMufflers-----------------------4-inch FlowmasterTransmission-----------------ATI Turbo 400, 4200-rpm stall converterFront Suspension------------Koni race shocksRear Suspension-------------Coil-overs, S&W Race Cars 130-lb shocksRear---------------------------1972 Ford 9-inch, 3.89 Precision Gear ringand pinion, Summers Brothers 35-splineaxles and spoolChassis-----------------------S&W Race Cars backhalf, wheel tubsRace weight------------------3,300 lbsBest ET/mph-----------------9.60@134mph (no nitrous)