Truppi Kling Chevelle

COPO_Anders · #1 10-29-2007, 01:50 AM

I bought some old magazines today. On the cover of one of them, Start & Speed no.1 1974, this 1969 Chevelle with SS/E on the windshield and SS 396 in the grille caught my attention. It has Truppi/Competition/Kling in a Bowtie on the frontfender.
The picture was taken in England at Santa Pod(in 1973 I assume)and they say the owners name is Richard Smits.
Does anyone remember this car ?

Stitch · #2 10-29-2007, 02:38 AM

That car was called Russo's Rat , a friend of mine owned it in the early 80's and it had a 327/4spd at that time . I have a couple of pictures of it somewhere , I'll try and find and post them .

There's a short snippet about it on this web page when it took the No.1 spot in Street Eliminator in August 1974.

http://www.trakbytes.co.uk/7074.htm

**mockingbird812** · #3 10-29-2007, 03:44 AM

Nice star spangled pants! Cool Chevelle. Gotta love the wordly wealth of info on this site. Query from Sweden - answer from the south of England.

**Stefano** · #4 10-29-2007, 04:09 AM

Very cool, just think the wealth of info you can get from a "Global Moderator"!

COPO_Anders · #5 10-29-2007, 09:04 AM

I found it under 1973 Ron. An SS/E car would be a 427 car, wouldn´t it ? I wonder if it was an L78 car to begin with, then upgraded to L72. Or a COPO with an SS 396 badge. Any clues ?

Ron, did it have a 327 in it when Richard Smith bought it ?
It seems like Richard was know for his spectacular burnouts !

Stitch · #6 10-30-2007, 02:29 AM

Sorry Anders I have no idea , it was around 1980/81 when my friend owned it and he bought it as a roller and put the 327/4spd in . I'm pretty sure it was imported from the US as a race car so maybe it had been that way from new .

I'll post on the UK NSRA forum to see if anybody knows anything .

Ron

Belair62 · #7 10-30-2007, 04:32 AM

[ QUOTE ]
Very cool, just think the wealth of info you can get from a "Global Moderator"!

[/ QUOTE ]

Stitch · #8 10-30-2007, 02:01 PM

Hi Anders ,

Here's another pic that somebody posted on the NSRA forum, it's running in BM there though and not SS/E . The guy with the stars and stripes suit is still the line marshal .

poster knows the driver of the car from the 70's .

http://www.nsra.org.uk/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=44125

COPO_Anders · #9 10-30-2007, 08:42 PM

Hi Ron,
It says BM I (or 1)on the pic I posted to. I´m thinking that the car came to England painted that way, and with the SS/E on the windows. If so, then it would have competed with a 427 cui.engine in the USA.
And it doesn´t have an SS 396 emblem on the frontfender !

COPO or not ?

Nice pic Ron !

Chevy454 · #10 10-30-2007, 09:10 PM

[ QUOTE ]
I´m thinking that the car came to England painted that way, and with the SS/E on the windows. If so, then it would have competed with a 427 cui.engine in the USA.

[/ QUOTE ]
An L89 (396/375hp aluminum head) Chevelle would have been in SS/E also...from the 1970 season and on, an L89 and L72 Chevelle would be in SS/E...in '69, they were in SS/F.

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