Factory 454 Chevelle drag car test car

[JoeC]

In Popular Hot Rodding Oct 69 there is an article on the new hi po cars for 1970. They talk about a press preview at the Chevy proving grounds in July of 69 where Chevy showed off the canceled prototype ZL1 Camaro, the 10 sec ZL1 Corvette drag car, and a LT1 Nova. I have other articles where these cars were mentioned but this article also mentions a 454 Chevelle set up for drag racing with headers, slicks, traction bars, and TH400. They say it ran 12.20 ETs at 117 mph. This is the first I heard of a Chevelle test car set up for drag racing. I have been collecting different magazines of this time period trying to learn more info on this press preview day and the cars that were there but I only find bits and pieces and small B&W pictures.

I've heard of this article..I would suspect that the car might have been a "SS396" car that had a LS6 added by Chevrolet. This seems to be the case for the car MotorTrend tested. The "SS396" door panel emblems are still present in a few of the pics. It too was an automatic car.