Unfortunately, one day the car was gone–only the shape of dirty tire tracks and dust markings sketching the Chevelle’s perimeter remained. A knock on the door resulted in the owner informing Bo that the car had been sold as he had forgotten about Bo’s years of chasing it. Bo went so far as to reach out to the new owner, offering a fair price, but he would not sell, further bursting Bo’s bubble. He then criticized his perfect car as a “rust bucket” and that he was “better without it.”

At that moment, Bo’s big plans for one day owning the ultimate ride had been destroyed. It was like finding a cool, original big-block Chevelle being powered by an “upgraded” Tesla electric drivetrain—it just wasn’t right.

With the original ’66 Chevelle out of the picture, Bo was undeterred and began looking for another muscle car. Over the years he had done a lot of research and started to like the sister vehicle of the ’66; the slightly more angular ’67 Chevelle body style. After a long search he found a solid example on which to build his original vision of a muscle car.

Right off the bat, the ’67 Chevelle had two solid traits: no rust and it ran under its own power, both aspects can be hard to find in a 40-year-old muscle car. Equipped with a small-block engine and automatic transmission, it was a car that he could drive, all the while formulating a plan for the future. One thing that was clear: it was not going to stay in its current sedate configuration.

A longtime friend from Mission Hills, California, Bob Jennings, ran a well-known dyno shop not far from Bo’s home. After four decades in the business, Jennings was well experienced in building and tuning classic muscle cars. But it only took a few brainstorming sessions between Jennings and Bo over what to do with the “plain Jane” Chevelle. Jennings recommended Jim Shewbert as the perfect guy to build an engine worthy of his childhood visions.

Shewbert had been in the performance engine building business for just about as long as Jennings, including stints with Milodon and building racing engines for some the most successful racers from the ’60s-00s. Shewbert was able to “rip the Band-Aid off” Bo’s budget and started in on the engine build. In the end, Shewbert created a very potent 510ci Gen VI big-block that was ultimately connected to a built Turbo 400 transmission, Gear Vendors overdrive, and GM 12-bolt rearend with C-clip eliminators and 3.73:1 ratio gearing.