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Mean, Green and Still Going Strong
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Brian Ferrari's Chevelle has been a member of his family for 37 years
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Story and photos by Brian Wood |
If you were to take a quick poll around the pit area at just about any drag racing event anywhere in North America , you'd very likely find a high percentage of today's participants got their introduction to the sport directly through a parent, sibling or other close relative. That's just the way it is – mom or dad raced, and junior and sis tagged along from the time they were able to walk, or maybe even earlier. From there many of them grew up to first help work on the car a little, then become a regular member of the crew before perhaps taking over in the driver's seat when the right time came. Thus the great sport of drag racing perpetuates itself.
So, in that regard, the story of second-generation racer Brian Ferrari isn't all that exceptional – he grew up in exactly the above scenario, and today is carrying on a family tradition behind the wheel. What does make this account so special is the fact that the very car he grew up around and worked on as a kid is the same one the New Brunswick , New Jersey native now drives today at the age of 38. The car under discussion here is the familiar dark green 1966 Chevelle that Ferrari campaigns in the National Street Car Association's Nostalgia Pro Street class, and the tale of its early days as a 396-powered street cruiser, right up through its latest incarnation as a seven-second quarter-mile brawler is an interesting one, to say the least. Ferrari was born the same year the car he drives rolled off the assembly line, and he's grown up always having it around. “My father Lee, who everyone knows as Butch, and my Uncle John actually bought the car when it was about a year old,” said Ferrari, also noting that he was a year old when the pair purchased their factory-built hauler. “I remember that it was a 396-powered car originally, and the two of them drove it on the street for three or four years. They eventually decided to go drag racing with the car, and in 1971 they hit the track with it set up for DD/ Modified competition.
“I was just a kid when they started racing,” Ferrari added, “but naturally I wanted to tag along every time they went to the local track. Fortunately, they had a real good track to go to, which was Old Bridge Township Raceway Park in Englishtown , New Jersey , which was literally in our back yard.” As usually happens with anyone truly afflicted with competitive fever, the Ferrari brothers soon tired of the bare bones type of racing they were doing, and gradually ramped up the big Chevy's performance, as Brian recalled.
“As the years went on, the two of them did quite a bit of class racing and then went into bracket racing,” he said. “They started in Heavy Eliminator, which is a 12.00 to 13.99 class, and then moved on to Pro, which is 11.00 to 11.99, and then to Super Pro. “By that time I was working with them on a regular basis, and had some say in the decisions that were made regarding the car. In 1984, we made a pretty major one when we decided to back-half the car and install tubs. We did all the work ourselves, right here in our shop. After those changes were made, dad and Uncle John raced the car until 1987, but after that they started to lose interest in the sport and the car was parked in my father's garage, where it stayed for nearly four years.
“The same year they parked the Chevelle I started racing on my own with a '77 Corvette. In my first season I was second in the points at Raceway Park with one race left to go when they found out I was only seventeen, and not legal age to race, so they threw me out! I came back the next year, and fortunately they let me back in. I later bought and raced a '79 Corvette, but during all that time I really had an urge to get dad's Chevelle back out.
“I just couldn't stand seeing it sitting there, you know, so finally in 1991 I just kind of took it over and started racing in a class they had at Raceway Park caller Top Street ,” Ferrari continued. “It was a class where the 16 fastest cars qualified and then we ran off bracket-style. Later, they started a Quick 8 deal, and that's when we started putting more power to the car. “I acquired a 572-inch big block from Pat Musi Performance for the car, but then we ran into a problem. We had plenty of horsepower, but the car weighed 3,600 pounds and the square tube back-half job we had done nearly ten years earlier just wasn't up to the job anymore. We decided to have Leo Barnaby at Neverlift Motorsports help us tune the chassis, and we immediately went from the 8.60s to the 8.30s.
“At that point my father and I sat down and discussed what we really wanted to do with the car – were we going to keep bracket racing it or go heads-up street car racing,” Ferrari remembered. “We decided to go for the balls-out stuff in the NSCA, so we sent the car back to Leo and Dave Krouse at Neverlift for the whole treatment. They installed round tube chrome moly from the firewall back, and built a funny car-style cage as well. The chassis is certified for 25-2, so I can actually go 6.50s with the car. “To tell you how well the chassis upgrade went, the first time we took the car out after getting it back from Neverlift, it went from 8.30 to 7.90 with the same motor and no other changes made. “After that, we sold the 572 engine and replaced it with a 632 from Musi and went Nostalgia Pro Street racing with the NSCA. I also kept racing the Quick 8 events at Englishtown, and won the championship there in 2001 and 2002. In 2003 I finished runner-up to my chassis guy Leo Barnaby. The Quick 8 deal is really great for us to run in-between NSCA events because it's real close to home, and they run with NSCA Nostalgia Pro Street rules, with the exception of allowing turbos and blowers to spice things up a little. Nitrous cars are limited to one stage of nitrous and can't run any quicker than 7.50.” Today the car has been trimmed down to 3220 pounds, and in “outlaw” trim, with two stages of nitrous, it has run a best elapsed time of 7.32 at 185 mph. The green beauty sports the aforementioned 632-inch Pat Musi engine with Sonny Leonard 14.5 heads, Pro-Filer intake, Pat Musi fuel injection and an NOS nitrous system. Set up for Nostalgia Pro Street competition, it generates around 1,550 horsepower.
Getting the power to the ground is handled by a super-tough Powerglide built by F&B Transmissions and a converter from ProTorque. Further back there's a Pro Fab Nine nine-inch Ford rear stuffed with 4:70 Strange gears and Strange axles. All four corners feature Weld wheels and Hoosier racing rubber. Brian has some definite ambitions for the near future in NSCA, as he explained. “Last year we won the event in Atlanta , and finished sixth in the points. My goal is to be champion of Nostalgia Pro Street, but there are a bunch of strong racers in the class. Guys like Rob Golobo, John Schroeder and Kevin Parent are just some of the tough competitors you have to face at every event, and you have to work hard for everything you get, believe me. Everybody is out there to win. With my dad Butch, my crew chief Wayne Keegan and crew guy Brian Berneth working as hard as they do at every race, though, I'm sure it's something we can do.” The family connection is an important one for the Ferrari clan, as has been seen, but it goes far beyond the racing world. Butch, John and Brian own and operate Ferrari & Sons Auto Body in New Brunswick , New Jersey , so when they're not at the track together they're working together. The shop has put out some of the finest body and paint work ever seen, including the trademark green on green paint found on Pat “Popeye” Musi's Pro Street machines. Carrying on the family theme, Brian would like to thank his mom and dad for giving him the opportunity to race, and his wife Stephanie and kids Noel, Billy and Raven for their support and understanding. Of course, in addition to the support his family provides, there are many in the professional and corporate world that contribute a great deal, and Brian wants to recognize Mike from Auto Meter, Todd from MSD, Joe and Joe Sr. from ProTorque Racing Converters, Mike and Freddie from F&B Transmissions, Pat from Pat Musi Performance and Leo Barnaby from Neverlift Motorsports.
Like all good stories, this one has a postscript, and it has to do with Brian's future plans. It seems the beloved Chevelle may get a little time off again if things work out. “I've been looking at stepping things up, but it may not be with the Chevelle,” Ferrari said. “I have a friend who owns an '89 Corvette Pro Mod car that has been sitting in his garage for four or five years, so we're kicking around the idea of dropping my engine and transmission in it and going out for the NSCA's Top Street class next season. We're still talking about it, but he told me to go ahead and take the car anytime I wanted, because he just doesn't have the time to race these days. “If we do that, we'll park the Chevelle for a while and see if we can go out and make some six-second passes, which is something I really would like to do. It should be a real fun ride - I just hope the Chevelle understands!”
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