1966 Chevelle Owend by Steve Ahrenberg

I grew up in Phoenix Arizona and attended (mostly) Thunderbird High School and graduated in 1979.  All throughout my junior and senior years, I had a friend named Brett.  Brett has a 66 Chevelle SS, 396.

That car was infectious, it somehow stuck to my skin and I was never able to wash the desire to own a special one away.

Fast forward 35 years.  My industrial supply business was doing OK and I decided to begin lookin for a 66 Chevelle.  As most would agree the gene pool is becoming scarce.  There are few buildable donor cars and the finished restorations are priced commensurately high.

I knew what I wanted would need to be built.

I wound up purchasing a "buildable" 66 from a customer.  He had it in his dads barn in New Mexico and bought it sight unseen.  It was his car in high school. 

He delivered the car to me and I began to deconstruct it.  I pulled engine, transmission and interior and delivered it to a "Hot Rod Shop" belonging to a customer who desired to get into the business.  At this time I didn't realize where all this would lead.

I showed up at the shop one afternoon and could tell this wasn't going to work.  He had removed a rear quarter panel with a nibbler and was welding it back into place in a manner that even I knew wasn't correct.  I pulled the car.

I had since heard of another more "legit" shop and brought the car over.  They hemmed and hawed while checking it out.  The car was deemed unsalvageable for a reasonable build.   I had to find another donor car. 

I was lucky enough to find one local.  It was pretty straight, had a good floor and a bad trunk.  I bought it  and told the guy to keep the motor and transmission if he desired, which he did. 

The new shop began to work.  The body straightened up pretty quick and the fab work on the chassis began.  We needed to reinforce and box it due to the power I had being built.  Progress slowed and our relationship took a turn for the worse.

Progress eventually stopped and I, again, pulled the car.   At this point I was not even planning on finishing the project.  Its over 3 years now and I essentially have a rolling chassis.  I was going to stick it in my garage and forget about it for a while.  I was now into this car dollar wise for a stupid amount and it had a very long way to go still. 

I was my wife and business partner who told me to finish the car.  It was a bucking list thing for me so I committed to it. 

I had another friend who had just bought a Chevy II from a builder I had never heard of; Goodfellows.  I was given the owners (AJ) number and we chatted some.  He agreed to take a look at the car, even though he rightfully so didn't like finishing others projects. 

AJ agreed to take on the project.  He informed me to come weekly, I WOULD SEE PROGRESS.

His shop isn't far from my home so it was easy.  AJ and his crew of Justin (fab) and Glenn (paint) are easy guys to be around and are a talented as any artisans I've met.  I would say they have become trusted friends along the way.

Glenn had the body off and in body/paint very quick.  Justin had the fabrication underway and the project was humming along nicely.  The car had to be red...I mean RED.

AJ had blended this color for another car long ago and just knew that was what I wanted.  The color, the application and the overall appearance exceeded my expectations.  

It is now obvious to all involved that this car was taking on its own personality.  There were some very special things about it that make it a one off car that doesn't really fit one category.  Its a bit of a pro-street, daily drivable, resto-mod.

When I was mentally conceiving this car, I wanted gobs and gobs of power.  I had just lost the 6.0 LS3 in my Silverado MAX and had it sent off to my boar motor builder in Tucson, Arizona, Larry Peto.  Larry regularly has built me 1000-1100 supercharged boat engines that both performed and lasted.

After a few conversations, Larry decided on ~427 CI, Whipple charge LS, that would be in the 850-950 HP range.  As it always the case with Larry, motor was finished on time with no drama.

There is an intercooler on this engine.  We ran the calcs on the cooling required for the intercooler water as not to "heat soak" the system and lose power.  There is a heat exchange under the car behind the Aeromotive fuel cell with a 6 gallon tank n the trunk for the require cooling capacity.

I wanted to drive this car, so I opted for a Tremec Magnum 6 speed.  Wanting reliable performance throughout the drivetrain, I chose a Moser Ford 9" with 35 spline axles rated for power.

Ride Tech front end components and coil over shocks all the way around.  Flaming River rack and pinion steering with 2 drop spindles.

I wanted "classics" wheels and didn't want the 20" wheels look so I had Weld "Pro-Stars" in 17", both front and rear made.

I wanted to run 335's in the rear so AJ had installed a "mini-tub" set of fenders narrowing the frame during that process to allow for these tires.  We wound up with 325-45R-17, M&H Drag Radials.  Wanted clearance for the body and tire toll so decided on the smaller tire.

We added a roll cade and a completely custom dash.  I never really like the look of the Chevelle dash.  It always reminded me of my Grandmothers Galaxy 500 dash.  Vintage Air and all one-off switches were added.  AJ added an extremely cool and very functional center console.  IT houses the fuse panel, Bluetooth controller, USB charging ports and after being chastised by AJ, 2 drink holders.

As I stated prior, the car had developed a very sinister and menacing appearance.  I was standing there one day chatting with AJ about something and all at once it hit me and I blurted out... "Red Wolf".  AJ said, "what?"  I answered, the car, its name, it has to be the Red Wolf!