Interior:
Other than fresh carpet and a B&M
Magnum shifter, the interior is as it
was in 1982. The original tape deck is
still there, and the seats are in great
condition. Much like the car’s exterior,
the idea was to keep the interior
clean and simple
Exterior:
The outside of the Vacationer is
about as visually stock as it gets.
The giveaway that it houses a whole
new drivetrain is purely down to the
wheels and its stance. It’s fair to say
this old wagon has certainly held up
well over its 35 yearsI’D SAY IT’D RUN A LOW 11-SECOND TIME AT THE DRAGS, BUT
WE’LL SEE. I’LL TAKE IT TO THE TRACK NEXT YEAR
Everything new
is old again
IN TERMS of giving the LS1 its retro look, Ben tells
us there’s a bit involved, but it’s not too difficult.
“The top end isn’t that expensive to buy, but once you
start fiddling around with different throttlebodies,
moving wiring, as well as finding a new home for the coil
packs, which then requires custom-made leads,
it starts to add up.”
With the coil packs nicely tucked up under the dash,
Ben sourced some rocker covers from a 283ci small-
block Chev. “I think they were found in 1962-66
Chevrolet Impalas,” he says. “They only ran them for a
few years without an oil filler and no PCV holes,
so they’re basically just a solid rocker cover. I
bought an adapter from the States that allows
the rocker covers to bolt to the
cylinder head.”