Racing my 66 Chevelle L78 in 1966 to 1969

[Roger A Obert]

I am a new member and I thought it might interest to know my drag racing experience. I hope one day to find the car on the internet, it may be the one with vin 138176F1270xx, but Dale from Macs Registry would not share the last 2 digits or the owner’s name from 2012.

I bought the car in early summer 1966 from the original owner who was drafted for military service for $2500. It had 3,000 miles and was in original condition, factory exhaust etc. At the time I just finished my junior year at Roger Bacon High School in Cincinnati.

The SS396 was marina blue with black vinyl top, and black vinyl bucket seat interior, no console. It had M21 transmission and 4:10 posi-traction. On the highway I cruised at 3000 rpm at 60 mph.

The first things I changed were the Knee knocker tach moved to mounted on the steering column, and I put the battery in the trunk. I always raced with a tank full of gas for traction and with the air cleaner in place.

I raced B Pure Stock for the first year at Tri-State most Sundays. In Pure Stock you could make no performance changes to the car including street tires. There were very few cars in my class so I frequently won the B Pure Stock trophy, with a best time of 14.10 seconds, I always wrote the winning time on the trophy. I had the standard Muncie shifter, did not power and shifted at the factory red line of 5600 rpm.

Although I raced a lot at Tri-State most of my racing was done for fun on the street. Hang out at Frisch's, find a willing participant, and race on the interstates or Cross County highway. My car was well known, my brother Jack and Crazy Bob bought 68 L78 Chevelles, and Bruce bought a 68 Nova L78. All of those had bench seats.

The second year I ran ET at Tri-State. Dan from GE made me a set of Titanium exhaust flanges so I could run on the strip with my standard exhaust manifolds without mufflers, and I bought a pair of slicks. My ETs then were 13.60's and with many cars racing against their ET's I rarely won, but it was still fun. Bruce's 68 Nova with headers and slicks ran 13.20's.
In all, I believe I made over 500 quarter mile passes without engine issues.

Eventually my piston rings were loose, and I could not keep the spark plugs clean on the street, so I sold the chevelle and bought a 65 Sport Fury convertible and a motorcycle. At the time it was a good choice, but it would be nice to still have the chevelle. I know someone who is the original owner of a Copo Camaro, and another who is the original owner
of a 63 split window Corvette.

I think I'll enjoy being a member. Guessing you don't hear from many who raced the Chevelle's in the 60's.

Roger Obert
Cincinnati, Ohio

[Ralph Spears]

Hi Roger, I worked at a Chevrolet dealer in Boston MA. 1967-1972 and i used to race the new cars we had in stock on the street using the dealer license plate & also used to take the customers cars that were in for service out for test drives.

[luzl78]

Pics pics pics

[GM Powertrain]

Great info.
Thanks for sharing and welcome.

[Pro Stock John]

Thanks for sharing real world experience. Hope you track the car down.