Keeping it Steel: A Naturally Aspirated Heavyweight Chevelle
There aren’t too many perfect panels on Mike Higgins’ ’71 Chevelle, but the scars tell a story.
Mike was 16 years old when this car arrived in his life, the Chevelle having been hit twice while parked before coming into his hands in 1979. He took it on as a senior project for high school, giving it some love on the paint and making the Chevrolet his own. He later turned it into a track-only bracket car.
Through most of the nineties and much of the early 2000s, the car went into storage while Mike did the family thing. It wasn’t until 2013 the car came out of dry storage and into the garage, something Mike described as a bad move due to the moisture around the Pennsylvania mountains.
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“It got an occasional cleaning but it was getting a beating from storage on its roof and things being moved around its sides,” he said. “2016 was the start of bringing it back to racing. I always followed Hot Rod Magazine and when Drag Week came about I wished that I could do it, it would be more than any of the crap talking car friends around me would do.”
Mike missed a few years of Drag Week due to the huge demand on entries, but finally got a place in 2021. That year saw him knock a hole in the oil pan just weeks before leaving but he was able to patch the engine up and finish second in Pro Street NA. 2022 was less successful, with a failed lifter bringing his campaign to a halt.
That brings us to 2023, where Mike was hoping his 2021 performance was not a fluke. Spoiler alert: it wasn’t.
“We set a new personal best ET and speed, even though we started the event missing a couple of teeth on the flex plate,” he said. “I can’t tell you how good it feels to have finished number two again.”
The Chevelle runs a Blueprint Engines 598ci big block, which Mike received as a carb to pan deal. “I’m trying see how fast I can get it to run as delivered before I started making changes to it,” he said.
The motor breathes through a Holley Dominator carb, with spark provided by a MSD Digital 6 ignition box and blaster coil. A Magna fuel pump and Aeromotive fuel pump controller are in place to deliver the go-juice.
Power goes through a transbraked FTI Turbo 400 transmission with a Select Performance torque convertor, though Mike was only footbraking as he doesn’t have an NHRA license yet.
“It’s a traditional back half car using Competition Engineering ladder bars, cross member and frame rails,” he said. “I have a 10-point cage and Summit double adjustable coilovers. The rear end is a shortened 12-bolt with Strange spool and axles, and Richmond 4.11 gears.
“The stock frame is only cut out and narrowed to fit the tubs and Pro Street tires.”
Mike is proud of how much steel he has kept throughout the car, with virtually nothing lightened.
“There are minor alterations to the floor boards to allow the cross member, ladder bar clearance and roll cage installation. Any thing that was removed was replaced with steel. The only aluminum used in the back half was to create a bulkhead to close up where the coil overs come through the floor, the package tray and seat area. The steel doors are complete with power windows.”
