Nickey/Motion 427 Transplants

[sixtiesmuscle]

The general belief is that:
1]Small block cars were used in early '67 model year, but, once the big blocks were available, those cars were preferred to be used for transplants.
2]The 396/375 engines that were pulled were easier to sell to the "hot rod" crowd than small blocks, plus the installations were much easier because they required less modification.
3]If a customer wanted a particular car, color, whatever, they would convert that car whether it was a big block or not. Inventory probably dictated much of what went on.

[JoeC]

The 1967 Camaro was not produced with the 396 until January of 67 so the early conversions were done to SS 350 Camaros. Later when the SS 396 375 hp Camaro was available all they had to do was swap the L78 short block with a L72 block so they most likly would have used a L78 car. They may have still used a small block cars after January depending on what was available and what the customer wanted for options. Motion and Nickey did some 66 Chevelle 427 conversions and probably did 427 Camaros as soon as they got their hands on one. The first Motion 427 Camaro ran a L88 and was used as a drag car. The magazine article claimed it was the first L88 sold to a dealer other then the Chevy race teams. Nickey was working with Bill Thomas and Dick Harrell. All three also had prior racing and fabricating experience. I would guess that Harrell and Thomas built the first 427 Camaros since Bill T had a complete fabricating shop and was already building Corvairs and Nova race cars and doing special projects for Chevy Engineering. Chevy hired some race shops like Thomas and Smokey Yunick to do work for them where it was done less expensively and hidden from Chevy management. In Smokeys book he claimed he was given the first 66 Chevelle prototype (with a 427 in it from Chevy) and used it to build his first 66 Chevelle Daytona race car.

[GMH454]

Bill Thomas also was used to promote the extensive available modifications availble to a 396 thru his "Bill Thomas 396 performance book". This is the one quoted by Ludvisgren as saying the 396 made 442 HP out of the crate. It did'nt mention the blue print and balance job that happened once it was out of the crate.
Great book, type face looks almost identical to the Chevrolet 1965 Interim shop manual for the 396 and Tubo Hyra-matic. Happy to take other opinions on this but looks like they put Bills name on 'their' publication

[bbdon]

Here is some reading material related to the Nickey Camaros.
Super Stock and Drag Illustrated, March 1967, except the ad, which is from January 1967.


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