ORANGE KRATE TRIBUTE 1955 GASSER
[Dave wanted a street/strip, versatile Chevy gasser and went with this Ray Romito–built big-block at 496 ci. Open chamber iron heads and the Edelbrock tunnel ram are throwbacks. Spinning a beefed Jerico four-speed trans and Strange 9-inch rear, the old sedan takes the launches in stride at such storied tracks as Route 66 Raceway in Joliet, Illinois. hWhen Tinley Park, Illinois, resident Dave
VerSchave sold his 1966 Nova—featured in HOT ROD (Dec. 1994 issue)—he started to search for a car that he built in his head as a kid afer watching the movie American Graffti. When he found a $2,500 1955 Chevy sedan in the local paper (that he ended up grabbing for $1,500) his American Grafti gasser build began. Te car’s rear wheelwells had been cut sometime in the 1960s, which was perfect for what Dave wanted, and the body was a rust-free and straight splendor, but the foor and frewall had been victim of multiple engine, trans, and rollcage combo clobberings. Dave hand-formed a new foor and trans tunnel, created a frewall for the 6-inch setback the engine would need, and grafed in wheeltubs robbed from a 1970 Cuda. Te rest of the body needed only light massaging to be factory fresh. Wanting both a street and strip car, he enlisted Ray Romito at Romito’s Racing Engines in Mokena, Illinois, to build a 496ci big-block Chevy using an Eagle crank and H-beam rods connected to JP pistons, and some old cast-iron open-chamber heads
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[Nice and tidy. The frame horns are owner-fabbed 2x4-inch rectangular tubing, while his son, Al, made the straight-axle setup, running Wilwood 12-inch discs front and rear. Those fenderwell headers are also the product of Al. The contrast of the silver, chrome, black, and orange suits our eyes plenty.
[Out back Al fabbed the simple, straightforward ladder bars and hung the Strangebraced 9-inch. He also built the fuel-cell mounting brackets. Chrome QA1 coilovers suspend and dampen the ride.