Reunited

[Ronnie Smith Jr]

How many of you have kept your first race car and have it to this day, racing or not? How many of you beat yourself up over selling your first race car and wish you could have it back? Well, I fall into the second category and have been reunited with my first race car after selling it over 21 years ago.

Many of you may remember our 66 Chevy II we ran in IHRA Pure Stock and Stock from 1980 through the mid 1980's. We sold it in 1988 and it went to a good home in eastern KY. We asked that if they ever decided to sell to please give us first right of refusal. The gentleman passed away several years ago and it sat in their barn for the last 11 years. Over the course of the last several years, Dad and I have dreamed about buying the car back. The widow, true to her word, tracked Dad down and offered the car back to us. Needless to say we jumped at the offer. On Monday, we drove to Dad's, picked him up and headed for KY. After spending a few hours there, we loaded up 2 additional motors, powerglide and many other parts and were enroute back to Dad's. We unloaded all the parts and the car into Dad's garage and then headed back home in hopes of beating the storm (which we didn't).

It is an original Super Sport car, 283, 2barrel, powerglide, 10 bolt rear. The rearend is long gone but we received the original block, heads and I believe the intake when we bought the car back. I checked the date code on the block (Oct 1965) and the heads (Jan 1966). I would like any information on how to locate the date code for the intake. The 12 bolt is an original Chevy II rearend that we took out from under a donor car in 1979 when we built the Chevy II for racing.

The car is in dire need of a complete restoration for any future use. With that being said, do I set it up for;
1) stock eliminator (327 full out),
2) freshen it up (283) and teach the kids bracket racing, or
3) street it with an L-79 and enjoy (already have the intake and carb).

I am leaning towards streeting it and having the kids learn a little about building a car. While I make a decision, I will likely need parts to restore it either way. This is going to take a long time to do. I would like to be able to talk to several of you who are Chevy II owners so I may reacquaint myself to the body line. Don't hesitate to reply here or PM me.

I urge you to share your stories about your first race car. Please post!

Below are a couple of pics from the 80's and Monday. Picture on the left is circa 1982 at Rockingham and the picture on the right is loading it into Dad's garage on Monday. Enjoy.

Ronnie, Jr.