Felix Chevrolet / 1959 Bel Air

[Pantera]

I don't remember seeing one (283 FI) back then. Everybody was boat anchor crazy (348 tri power) and they would eat the lunch of a 283 in that heavy of a car. Hard to beat cubes sometimes. considering the tires of that time it was a no brainer to go for the bigger cubes.

If that is a originl car then it should be a very rare car. I grew up back then and never saw one in anything but a vette. I am sure that someone could have ordered one tho.

My first car was a 57 210 post that I got in jan of '61, from my mother and then put a slew of go fast intake setups on it. It actually ran best with the factory 59 vette injector on it. Then I got one of the first 340 hp vette shortblocks in town thanks to my cousin being the parts mgr of Bill White Chev here in Tulsa. I cleaned house around town for about 4 months till everybody got wise and would not race me for money.

The 68 and up impallas were just too heavy to be really fast like a lighter car. My 57 with a 4:11 and a 58 vette 2:20 low 4 speed was a solid 14 sec street car. With some tires it would go into the high 13's. I was 17 in 62 and got one of the first Hp 327 shortblocks in town thanks to my cousin. I had spun a bearing with the three duce setup on the old 283 with a duntoff cam. So called him and $158 later I was tearing the competion up till they learned about the little finger place on the front of a 327 ci block.

Boy were those the good old days.... Sigh....