BY Scotty Lachenauer Photography by The Author

ick Moscato of Rockville Centre, New York, has been drag racing in the greater New York metro area since he was a teenager. His first weapon of choice out on the blacktop was a brand-new ’65 Mustang coupe, built up with a four-speed and Hi-Po 289 underhood. “I saw the car premiere at the New York World’s Fair in 1964. I knew right away I had to have one. It definitely had a lot of power for its time, and I lost very few races once I put it out on the street,” Nick states.

However, after a few years of racing everyone within driving distance of his Long Island home, he had a change of heart. “I went out and bought a ’69 L78 Fathom Green Chevelle off the showroom floor.” The reason for his decision was simple: “My brother-in-law drove a nice ’64 Chevelle drop-top and he told me straight out one day that I couldn’t buy another Ford. He said we are a Chevy family. Period. That hit a note with me, and I agreed.”

The reason for purchasing the A-body Chevelle was simple. It was sporty and fast and was also large enough for raising a family. Well, at least it was better than a Corvette or Nova for certain. That thought alone was important to Nick. That extra room would soon come in handy when he welcomed new additions to his expanding family.

A few years later he made friends with local hot rodder Frank Mungo who was proprietor of Venturi Automotive, an established repair shop in Baldwin, New York. “We soon became partners in a ’70 Chevelle convertible. When we cruised, I would drive my ’69 and Frank dove the ’70. From there my collection kept growing. At one point I had five classics, including a ’32 Ford, which I still have.”

After years of reliable family service, the Chevelle was then retired. Other cars came and went, but for 30 years the Chevelle was kept under Nick’s ownership. However, in 1999 Nick did the unthinkable. “I sold most of my collection, including the Chevelle. I regretted selling the Chevy the minute it was gone. Right away I decided to look for another. Just a clean one I could build into a Chevelle restomod. It took two years, but I scored a good, straight builder on eBay,” Nick states.

Nick already had a good game plan in place when he purchased his new toy. “When I bought the Chevelle I knew I was going to pull the 396ci engine and install a ZZ502 crate engine from Chevrolet Performance. In addition, I was going to get rid of the four-speed in favor of a TREMEC five-speed. So, I brought the car over to Bill from Cap-A-Radiator in Farmingdale, New York, to do the initial work. Not only did they do the drivetrain, they also replaced the floors and rewired the car to boot,” Nick says.

After watching some of the shows appearing on Network TV, Nick started making phone calls to seasoned shops. From there the car went to FantomWorks in Norfolk, Virginia, where Dan Short took the helm of restoring the Chevelle. Plans changed over the course of time. “I was originally going to go with an LS3. In January 2016 [Short] told me about the new 650hp supercharged LT4 that was coming out. I agreed that I would be happier with the blown crate engine and we decided to install that along with a modified 4L85E transmission to get it through the gears.”