A Little Piece Of Americana

If you want a taste of the classic American car-as-art experience, all you have to do is head down to your local Advance Auto Parts on a sunny summer Saturday. I literally stumbled upon this carshow while driving around with a friend in Cary, North Carolina.  The quality and execution of some of the classic musclecars there was impressive enough to warrant coverage; I think you'll agree.

The first thing that caught my eye was this clean-as-clean-can-be 2nd-generation Chevrolet Camaro.  I'm normally the furthest thing from a fan of the second-generation Camaros; they had the taught proportions of the gorgeous first-gens, but the lines were a mishmash of "what were they thinking?"  This one proves to be an exception to the rule; that is what I call the definition of the perfect musclecar stance.

Check out the wheel/tire fitment.  Those wheels are replicas of the classic Torq-Thrust, which was THE wheel for hotrodders back in the day.  These are obviously larger than the originals, bringing it up to modern times.  The offset of the wheels has them sitting perfectly flush with the fenders, and there's about a half-inch of tuck in the front and an inch in the back.  The gold-fleck paint is thick enough to check your reflection in.  And under the hood...

...is a gleaming, high-compression carb'd 396ci Chevy V8.  Check out those tubular equal-length headers.  Delicious.

This one's bound for one of Jim's fantastic Parting Shot articles... a Chevrolet SSR!

The SSR was pretty much half-fish, half-fowl.  Based on a shortened GMT 360 chassis (Chevrolet Trailblazer, GMC Envoy, etc.), the SSR was a retro-styled V8-powered "pickup" (with a carpeted bed and hard tonneau cover)... with a folding metal hard-top!  Yeah, makes no sense, but it's cool ain't it?

Of course, an American car show wouldn't be worth it's weight in bacon without a Cobra replicar.  So, duly posted:

Quite an industry has sprung up around creating replicas of the lairy old AC Cobra with more modern running gear.  This one is sporting a Ford Motorsports 302ci High-Output V8 with a Vortech Supercharger, which is a lot lighter than the original's 427ci V8.  I would imagine this is a barrell and a half of fun.  Speaking of 427's...

Here's the engine bay of a C3-generation Chevrolet Corvette Stingray convertible, with a 427ci hi-compression V8.  Ohh, delicious.  Not sure how I feel about the wheels, though...

And now for something completely different...

How about this tube-frame 3rd-generation Chevrolet Camaro drag car?  Check out the rubber in the back...

Of course, it wasn't all hot-rods and musclecars.  The American muscle experience isn't limited to Camaros, Mustangs and Corvettes.  As evidenced by this ultra-clean '64 Buick Riviera.  Oh.  My.  Gosh.  Just amazing.

And last, but not least - there wouldn't be an American Muscle scene without this car - the Tri-Five Chevy.  This Bel-Air was looking great with red and white two-tone paint, air-ride suspension, and some deep-dish five spoke wheels.

I'm also digging his twin-intake setup on that gigantic Edelbrock carb. Not so sure about the Advance Auto Parts "Spectre" brand filter, but hey - a filter on a stick by any name intakes just as sweet.

So if you're in the mood for some Americana, just head out to your local burger joint/car parts store on a sunny Saturday - you never know what you'll find.