38 SUPER CHEVY OCTOBER^2019Over the years, Rick has owned
many, many high-end cars. The origi-
nal car in his stable was—yep, you
guessed it—an all-original, numbers-
matching 1970 Chevelle. He com-
pletely disassembled it and restored
it to perfection. But once it was done
he felt like he couldn’t enjoy the car.
Driving it and modifying it was out
of the question due to its heritage
and the fact that any changes from
stock would hurt the car’s value.
Eventually, it ended up sitting in the
garage for a few years. That car was
finally sold off and he started down
the path of acquiring cars that strike
his fancy for one reason or another.
Today, he owns nine super Chevy
machines, one of which is Big &
Ugly, the big-tire 1966 Nova seen
in these pages.Each car in his collection is in
a different stage. His 1967 Nova, a
small-tire, small-block blown car, is
in the middle of a restomod build.
And since he sold off the numbers-
matching Chevelle, he picked up a
non-numbers-matching ’70 Chevelle
that he can play with. There’s also a
’69 Camaro that was built from the
ground up, and yet others which don’t
get much use, like his 2010 Camaro
SS ZL1, which sits on the lift with
just 3,200 miles, 1,300 of which
were put on during the drive home
from Green Bay, Wisconsin, where
he purchased it. Half of his daily
driver time is spent behind the wheel
of a two-door ’99 Tahoe, which his
parents bought brand-new. The other
half of the driver duties go to his
2006 Monte Carlo SS, which sportsthe front-wheel-drive 300-horsepower
LS2 engine.
Not long after buying his first
LS-powered, second-generation ’67 Nova
five years ago (which was featured on
the cover of our sister mag Chevy High
Performance), Rick decided he wanted
something different—a car with a blower
on top of the engine. Not a centrifugal
supercharger unit like a ProCharger or
a modern TVS-style supercharger, but
a real, honest-to-goodness, roots-style
blower complete with a big injection
hat sticking out of the hood. There’s
nothing quite like the sound of a rowdy
supercharger sucking down massive
quantities of alcohol. I think we can all
agree on that, yes? “I fell in love with the
Pro Street stuff.
I wanted a blower motor that surged and
whined. I just loved it. An older buddyTRADING PLACES