60 CAR CRAFT AUGUST 2019
By John Machaqueiro / Photos: John
Machaqueiro and Fred Enke, Petersen
Publishing^ Co.^ ArchiveT
he 1960s were turbulent times in
America. It was a decade fraught
with war, civil unrest, and cultural
upheaval. It was also a decade that
spawned the Funny Car concept, and
Car Craft was there with its finger on
the pulse of it all. We recently revisited
that era when we stumbled on Maynard
Rupp’s “Chevoom,” a blown Chrysler-
powered rear-engined 1966 Chevelle
that was on display at the US30 Indoor
Dragfest show. Our curiosity was
aroused when we noticed “Car Craft
Project Car” painted on the trunk, so
went digging in the archives.
When we cracked open the June
1966 issue, we found Chevoom in
glorious color as the centerfold for that
month. We also saw the great changes
taking place in the Funny Car class.
There were efforts with factory backing,
and some like the one that Rupp had
organized with high-profile sponsors. Hewas no stranger to winning at the top
level of the sport with an NHRA World
Championship in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in
1965 behind the wheel of his Prussian
AA/FD rail dragster. To the surprise of
many, he made the switch to the Funny
Car ranks in 1966 and, when asked, was
quoted as saying, “Chevy has a lot of
fans that go to the ’strip, and we want
to give them something to cheer for.”
In search of significant weight savings,
most competitors were adopting the
front-engined, tube-framed, and fiber-
glass-bodied formula. Rupp’s vision,
however, was to build a rear-engined
car with a full tube frame and a fixed
fiberglass body. Gratiot Auto Supply
in Detroit dubbed it as the world’s
largest hot rod shop, and was his
primary partner.
Chevoom defied the quest for weight
reduction. Rupp was adamant that
the Chevelle had to look as stock aspossible, with opening doors, a remov-
able hood, trunk, and fenders. It also
had working headlights, turn signals,
carpet, a dome light, and all exterior
trim installed in its factory locations.
Most of the fabrication and assembly
on Chevoom took place at Chetah Engi-
neering, a subsidiary of Gratiot Auto,
while some of the key components
were sourced to other businesses.
B&N Automotive in Dayton, Ohio,
crafted the fiberglass body with the aid
of Shalla Chevrolet in Detroit, which
was tasked with the acquisition of a
pre-production body-in-white from the
factory to make the molds.
After the body was splashed, every-
thing was shipped to The Carriage
Shop in Detroit for all of the finish work
on the fiberglass pieces. The shop also
created the instrument panel, engine
cover, wheeltubs, and the aluminum
bulkhead before laying down the Moon