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Take a leisurely drive down US Highway 1 on Florida’s east coast and you’ll pass through the small town of Titusville. For dozens of miles, this highway makes its way along the shores of the Indian River. If you look across the river at Titusville you’ll spot the VAB (Vehicle Assembly Building) – one of the largest structures on the Cape; home of NASA. For years Cape Canaveral was the center for rockets, space travel and astronauts!

Some towns have superstar athletes. In the Cape Canaveral/Cocoa Beach area, we have superstar astronauts. One of the most famous of those was Neil Armstrong. After all, Neil was the first man to walk on the moon – who could forget, “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”

This 1997 C5 Corvette sleeps by day and terrorizes by night

A first glance at this C5 gives most people the impression of “Cool, another C5 with wheels and exhaust tips. Another C5 ’Vette.”

Taking a closer look, you notice the Nitto Drag Radials sizing up at a whopping 305/45/R18. That’s over a foot of rubber on the ground. Once the car is started, it sounds like it has a bad alternator– screeching and whining… then roaring to life.

One of the things I see as most admirable and effective about the 1955-57 Chevy is the suspension design. It was the first of the strong, lightweight, open driveline, modern IFS (Independent Front Suspension) cars that GM would do so well with for many years after. This IFS was very well designed and in many ways a better design than later GM IFS.  I believe it to be superior by far to the 70's and 80's GM IFS, for example. For that reason, this suspension was more often upgraded as technology advanced rather than replaced. Racers and rodders both found that to make them shine on the roads and on the track only took a bit more tweaking instead of heavy modification (like sub-framing).

That front seat just won’t go back quite far enough, will it? We must be giants compared to the people back in the 50s... or perhaps we have all gotten a little bigger around the equator in our old age. Installing a tilt steering column can make things even tighter as they are slightly longer than the stock column. Or perhaps you have a floor shifter that hits the seat and you just don’t want to change shifters or modify the seat. A simple solution is to relocate the seat further back in the car. But, if you move the seat back on the floorboard, the rear legs of the seat tracks will drop off the seat platform and lean to the rear. Plus, new holes would need to be drilled in those nice stock floorboards. Classic Chevy has developed a simple bracket system that bolts to the floor using the stock mounting holes. The seat will be relocated toward the rear of the car 4”. Best of all, no new holes will need to be drilled in the floor.

I first fell in love with the Tri-5s in 1955, when I was five years old. My dad, Jay Kirk, was employed as a salesman at Mantes Chevrolet in Tooele, Utah. A friend of his, Bud Pendleton, used to drive over to our home in a Coral and Gray '55 Chevy two-door Bel Air. I would just stare at the car, thinking how it was the coolest car in the world.

I bought this ’57, 210 2-door sedan about 15 years ago for $500.  Originally a 283 power pack 3-speed car, it had been converted into a race car.  While loading the car on the trailer, I noticed it was equipped with a Dana 60 4.11 posi rear, sweetening the deal.  I remember “Hot Rod Magazine” around 1974 built a similar ’57  210 2-door sedan drag car that used a Dana 60.  I stored (more like buried) the car in my storage building, while I finished other ’57 projects, until about 2 years ago when I started the restomodification.

When it comes right down to it, Chevrolet’s storied performance history can be summed up in two simple letters— “SS”. Sure, names like Chevelle, Camaro and Nova conjure up visions of tire-smoking prowess. And of course, cubic-inch call-outs such as “396”, “427” and “454” all bring to mind big torque and power. But the “SS” moniker is the all-encompassing term that will forever symbolize not only power and performance, but a level of pure class as well.

Where did it all start? In 1961, with the introduction of the SS option on the full-size Impala. This was the year the legendary 409 cube V8 came into play as well. The SS/409 combination was Chevy’s response to Ford’s 390 powered Galaxie. You might say 1961 was the year that the serious horsepower wars began!

Customer quote: “Nearly all of the weatherstripping, wiring and many other parts came from Eckler’s Classic Chevy and other suppliers”

RAKISH was a six-year project. I purchased this ’55 210 when I was 55 years of age. I had wanted a 1955 Chevy since the age of ten, when I first saw my dream car. A neighbor came home from the service with a black beauty. I loved it! When I made the decision to do a frame-off restoration on this car, I had no idea what I was in for. My goal was to complete the car in about two years. Boy was I off target! Being new to the hobby, I had no idea how long it took to get body work done, painting, interior, upholstery, etc.

My sister said, "Brother, you're not going to buy that piece of junk, are you?"

My love for Chevys started back in high school when in 1984 I purchased my first Chevy, a 1955 two-door sedan. Although I loved all Tri-5 Chevys back then, my real love was for the ’56s. I liked the changes in the grille, taillights, and rear wheel styling. My budget just would not allow me to own one!

Customer quote: “I spent 3-1/2 months on the Internet, 8 hours a day, 6 days a week, locating and purchasing parts for this car…”

The ’57 Nomad is arguably the most beautiful and most collectible Nomad of all. Sure, production during the “Tri-5” years was quite limited to begin with - 8,530 units in 1955 and 8,103 in ’56 - but for 1957, production dropped to just 6,534 units. Add this low build number to the fact that the ’57 Chevy Bel Air (on which the Nomad was based) stands as perhaps the world’s most iconic vehicle, ever, and you have an instant automotive masterpiece.