712 ci All Motor '55 Chevy Making Over 1000 hp! Evel Knievel Would Be Proud

[Music] thank you [Music] [Applause] [Music] hey guys what's up it's Sean autotopia LA today we're here with Tony from Lakeside Customs been looking forward to this one my buddy Ken Johnson from classics daily and at can can set this one up for us and here's the things I know about it 55 and I know it's all themed around Evil Knievel and like we were talking about I love it because I grew up watching him jump what prompted you first off to do the Evil Knievel theming on this first off I've been an Evil Knievel fan uh since a kid just like a lot of the old school guys my kid kind of dared me into then do it Evil Knievel then so I was like oh okay so I kind of started off on a dare but this is what we ended up with let's pop the hood wow I noticed the cane so that's like Evil's cane correct yes wow dude this is so Bonkers what what was it a clean 55 was it a wreck of a 55 what it's a gentleman that I spoke to for the first time yesterday his name is Ronald he owned the car for 25 years he started off with a hope and a dream and did some design work on the car and they had to stop because of some medical issues and okay and then we were able to uh grab it and we pulled it all apart and kind of re-engineered a lot of it and finished it to what you see here today gotcha how long has it been done for probably like a week a week we almost made it to the uh the good guy show we had a faulty uh computer system kind of kept us from our where we want to date view it Robbie Knievel was scheduled to come down to good guys and then he uh struck ill as well and passed away since then so yeah um so everything kind of fell apart a little bit for our debut but yeah we're just kind of rolling it out now what if we looking at here what have you done engine wide this is a 712 cubic inch Merlin block it has the dart Big Chief heads and has the Kinsler fuel injection system on it so that's what like 12 liters uh yes it's real close to that it's right at about 1096 horsepower without the nitrous we actually removed the nitrous uh from the uh from the engine because we didn't want it all the problems to go with that so um you go over 700 cubic inches and then your plan is to throw nitrous out at all yeah that was the original plan and then we kind of pulled back from that a little bit everything is a little bit limited on space and yeah and we want to kind of keep it as clean as we could under the hood I mean obviously it's ridiculously impressive the engine the size I mean the headers are massive everything's insane but then on top of it the metal work in here is exceptionally correct clean dude and really pushed quite a way back isn't it it's pushed about four and a half inches God even the way you cut out the hood so that you're getting the clearance there yeah that took us about five times to get the clearance right on those trumpets and about three paint jobs on the trumpets to to really get it to fit and it it clears by about a sixteenth of an inch this is just stunning stunning I'm dude how big are the headers on headers are two and a quarter inches and then what does it go to exhaust wise three inches uh we have a three inch stainless from front to back and we've designed all the exhaust system it has a like a muffler set up that a really small Muffler so it airs it out pretty well we opted to go with no air filters and the ejection system gives a little bit more of a throaty sound look let's be honest the red white and blue theme with the gold with the white like this is the kind of stuff personal opinion not done in a tasteful manner it can really get ugly in a quick second and this is for me personally it's just truly beautiful what you guys have done thank you can you guys build all this in-house yes we have a painter that works for us so really uh besides when it leads to the paint shop that's the only time it's actually out of our facility so I have an uh interior guy that comes and he visits our shop and he does everything right there the glass shop he comes and does his thing there and uh but all the metal work you guys are doing yeah we took care of all the metal work that's chop two and a quarter inches in the front so to get that windshield to fit it took three tries to uh to get that yeah I get what we're doing here well over a thousand horsepower without the nitrous as you said what does it make to transmission wise rear end it's a TCI turbo 400 and it has a gear vendor set and then it goes to the kugel independent rear suspension with a strange Ford nine inch and then the has the Google uh front components as well so yes and with the Art Morrison chassis so the whole thing's sitting on a Morrison chassis and then all the suspension components are cool correct wow there's a couple of serious hitters right there do you see you really didn't pull any expenses on this one no expense spare just like anything right it's quality look in a 500 horsepower car I think it's really important that everything go quality you know you start getting up into this kind of power range I mean you know brother things can go wrong in a quick second man because there's only a small amount of the radiator exposed as it all the radiant yes the radiator uh is actually up in here and then we have the cooling fans actually recessed in and they cleared by about an eighth of an inch on the radiator we had a custom radiator built for the front of it unbelievably clean work I mean not a wire exposed anywhere yeah that's not an easy one to pull yes I'm gonna kind of fanatic about uh but the finished work so wiring is uh there's a there's a big Thorn on my side is it a manual brake setup it's actually a has the kugel with the vacuum booster underneath the dash and it has all will wood brakes uh all around it six piston in the front what's your Wheel and Tire set up the wheel and tire they're 19 inches in the front and they're a buttnic wheel and they're 20 inches in the back what size are you doing tires on here these are a Hoosiers like a intermediate slick type of setup that we're actually trying out we started with three different size tires and this is kind of what we ended up with thinking that we wanted the larger of the of the group and uh once we set it down it's it clears bike about an eighth of an inch so curious on how when we do finally get it up to speed you are on air right correct air ride system it's uh by righteck it has actually dual bags at each of the the rear corners and singles in the front is it their shock wave where you're always on the coil correct all the way around it's so like I'm not a big bad guy you know just because I've ridden in a bunch of airbag cars where you're sitting on the bag and you know the bouncy and stuff yes this setup that they do is just bitching I I absolutely love it man I love too that you went side exit exhaust on this yeah we have a little bit of staining up in here so uh just a little it's a little caramel color so it don't burn the paint but that's kind of where we set out to to have it yeah really slick man so the back end of the body the quarters have actually been flared by an inch and a half on either side so it still is in possession of all the original uh wheel tubs in the in the inside so all the stuff really the tire is actually flared to the outside ah got you man the amount of metal work I mean and I don't even know if 55 that well and I can tell it's dramatic I mean even this I don't remember seeing any 55s and actually this is one of the items that Ronald was able to uh take care of before we took possession so it's almost like a mystery of the way that the hood was manufactured so I wish I could take credit for that but that did come to us as a gift yeah gotcha obviously your bumpers are radically flushed bumpers are yep flipped and uh they're they're gone from yeah pretty it fitted pretty tight also uh the front and the back there's no flaring in front of the body correct that's all a stock uh style fender and then you said how much is the roof chop down uh two and a quarter inches at front how about the back the back is still the stock style uh rear rear window and it's actually been sloped to the to the front so it's all one piece side windows but there's a second window here correct yeah got it got it we see you lose the win-win correct so we actually removed the frame uh at the back as well they usually have the frame with the little flap that folds in and out right yes yeah this is all changed is it not correct all the a-pillar and then we actually had to redesign all this to fit the windshield after the first try it's a work in progress uh at this point yeah we shopping is like pretty damn on point yes white car man the gapping is going to show hard dude what'd you get your door handles from these are a Corvette door handle ah okay so is this glass altered as well no this is actually the factory size flash yes we opted to go with the clear glass uh all the way around the car so you can view the interior a little bit more clear see how I match my shoes to the interior today oh yeah that's right is trunk still stop the trunk is completely stuck completely it's really one of the only things on the car that the remain stock I guess it just looks so different because there's no Hardware it's closed anywhere so what's that with a solenoid or something correct and then I'm guessing do you have a mechanical release as well no we went suicide on that so yeah I do have an exterior uh plug with a remote battery charger on board so we've got for sure that yeah that we don't have a uh that type of a problem and all your trim pieces for one what's the color and is that Sarah code is it this is a cerakote and this is a custom color that uh that cerakote did for us here and we actually Incorporated the color inside the stripe on the side it's cool though how it ties it all together with your exhaust with your headers with your wheels with your trim pieces it's we're trying to build something a little bit different that people don't see every day because usually the traditional 55 Chevys uh you know kind of blend together and I love them all but they have a tendency to keep us for the most part A Certain bit of theme to them and you've definitely departed radically from that with this car you know what is the white color that Omar white and Omar blue and that's the name of the gentleman that had to provide me with 30 different samples of the white and 30 different samples of the blue about drove them crazy so I said you know what we're going to call we're going to call this Omar white and Omar blue I love it we really taxed them on the uh color choices here and and how to be the right color okay to climb in absolutely oh my god dude this interior is personal opinion this is the most over the top element of the car because it's not blue it's all blue I mean it's blue blue blue yeah there were about uh 28 cows who were sacrificed to pull this one if you look up at the headliner yeah we did oh my God oh my god dude the amount of blue and red oh this is so bitching we actually Incorporated uh The Evil Knievel handlebar into the interior here that's what that replicates huh a little subtle hint is it so a full custom Center oh it's all steel has the Auto Meter 6021 uh Dash this is just decorative there's no gauge here no no gauges on either side we switched this one up over here to resemble a uh kind of a fallen flag type of design but a lot of people say oh the stars are upside down but we actually did that intentionally all the TR so is that all custom trim pieces steel bars what are the seats from the sheets are from uh Alexis uh GS 460 I believe and they're uh yeah they're kind of built up yeah we took the uh the heating element out of them but they are double uh adjustable are they still powered yes yes I know there's a story that comes with these Evil Knievel number one inserts here here so why don't you tell how you came to have them you know what I uh I bought actually one a few years back with intentions of doing it on a bicycle seat and then I was like you know what I think I'm going to incorporate these into this car here so I ended up finding somebody out of Europe that had all this certificate of authenticities and I actually bought uh three additional patches two for the truck that we're building uh to match this car we're building a ramp truck and then uh one for the other side here so we actually sewed those in and those are uh original hand signed Evil Knievel Patches from back in the day I mean my god dude just how cool is that I designed all of the the metal work in there we drew all the templates we had everything machined down went through about 40 processes to get all the the center console the dash bezels and and in the back here this is actually a speaker Port we have 7 000 watts of stereo system actually a speaker port in the back for the subwoofers you have 7 000 watts in this yes dude you don't mess around you go all the way over the top but we have no air conditioner or heater so really well I guess if you blast the audio loud enough you get airflow some of the friction yep possibly now what are the rear seats from back here these are all custom built and hand fabricated and then tucked into the all the hardware yeah these are it's about four inches thick in the back this is original to the car this is original to the car but then where it meets up here from here here this is all custom around the uh yeah from the back to the back side and then I noticed after you pointed this out how you've brought it into the seat as well correct and then this uh the armrest here kind of resembles the armrests in the back if you notice how they kind of flow back in I just caught that wow and even down here it's still the same material right that's all suede yep that is such an extreme blue is it from something or is it just did you go through I know um I went through uh about five different colors of the blue suede when went through the process of matching the the blue as far as the paint to the suede interior I mean Elvis would have gone nuts for that right oh yeah is that your start button uh no this is actually a center console as I was sitting here wondering like well where are all your buttons and switches and stuff and you got everything tucked in here yeah so at some point you're going to finish it out to stay with the entire theme of the car with the ECU we had to kind of switch everything at the 12th hour to accommodate this electrical system so this had to all change on the inside at the last minute but we have a full switch panel called The Switch pros and what are all the different switches these are all just temporary until the switch Pros panel goes in here and we have a blue suede panel that reset so is that controlling things like fan and ignition yeah this is the ECU and this like I said this is a temporary panel I got you dude I never mind see just so you know and I and I know the way our viewers are I mean most of you guys are really great about it is understanding what it takes to bring together a custom car bro I think you and your guys have proved that you're far from lazy I mean the amount of workmanship in this car is and we've been simultaneous potentially building a 66 C60 Evil Knievel themed ramp truck that this will sit on the back of and it should be done towards September October but it's all through mock-up stage and we're getting ready to blow it apart to send it to the paint shop right now so a big truck with a like a 22 foot custom built bed on the back and yes and that has about 7 000 watts of stereo system in it as well and of course yeah it's going to be uh pretty wild at this point you better not ever show me a subtle car and be like what happened to Tony man something's wrong with that boy boy I tell you dude this is uh every bit of mind-boggling as I was anticipating it would be if you're cool with it we'll uh we'll get our cameras in here and we'll go take it out for a little Cruise yeah this can be fun you guys off camera and we talked about the rear end of this car how when you look through the rear wheel you don't see any brake that's a uh a kugel uh independent rear suspension so the brake is inside the Abdul rotors with a well wood caliper they are a set uh right on the other side of the pumpkin so not only do you get a high level of rear braking but you also get the view where you get to see all the directions suspension correct see you said before we drove you've got a small handful of miles on that you're like you're really at the beginning of driving distance yeah this is basically the Shakedown process by the way you guys another thing that was said off camera I just got the cameras going here is it although it's an automatic it is a manual valve body any of you don't know what that means it means he has to manually shift to go from first to second to Third and back down is there a reason why you chose to do it that way uh performance yeah I figured we're still in the uh the tuning process just getting all the fluids right getting all the shifting pattern right getting all the little uh bugs worked out and you guys just so you know although this car makes over a thousand horsepower we're going to experience very little of it today because because it is in the beginning stages of driving it but there's you know any of you guys know it's it's a process man you build it you get it just right now you go drive it and work out the bugs and work out the bugs and work and that can take 500 plus miles to find the bugs and work them out I have a good pest control guy so he's helping me work the the bugs out right there's guys like me right that go out and drive and I don't do it as much anymore but as a kid I used to get after it a bunch go up in the canyons you pretend like you're a race car driver you're actually a race car driver a former race car driver performer yes I used to race all over the United States on the go-kart series and then we moved over to um a dirt track so we traveled around quite a bit on the dirt track and then we moved into the NASCAR series The Local tracks here Irwindale Speedway El Cajon and then we started traveling into the upper Series in the southwest tour of the NASCAR and then we ended up in the Winston West series and that's kind of where uh my journey ended gotcha the high levels of Motorsports right yeah a lot of work I mean you're talking highly competitive you're inches off of people's bumpers and sides and it's really similar to a building a car like this you know everything's uh Performance Based you know the clearances are all tight you know the the engine the rear end sit in the passenger seat of this car feeling how it sits on the road the Art Morrison the kugel the ride Tech it's stable and it really feels like yeah it's super stable by the way these seats you can sit at them all day long huh man and we get to enjoy it together for the first time dude I love it I just love it I love it so much man I appreciate you guys willing to take time to do this and that's kind of a like a performance mode of the Bride height gotcha I felt it stiffened up a bit yeah it's funny you don't even need to downshift you got all the torque in the world right in third gear yeah this is pouts off to you and your guys man this is some hell of a build you put together I gotta say yeah they put a little conservative tune on it sure until I get back to finalize everything sure the amount of work that goes into the build itself but for me it's all the stuff that comes after the build's done now to get it to where you can turn the key or hit the start button and go for a drive you know correct it's a lot of fine tuning at the end it's a big process and I I got to imagine the more radical you go elements that are hard to deal with now what a crazy sound this car makes it's like yeah that's not an LS is it oh no not today [Music] I can't stop smiling right now that I'm riding around in this car thank you boy I absolutely love love these seats we updated them since uh the build originally the the sides were like a plastic and I was not happy with that so I ended up uh building a new panel for the side and covered in suede box you get are I just like the sounds this car makes that my friends is what I call a truly exceptional build the theme of Evil Knievel I absolutely love yes it's a bit on the over the top side but it's done in a tasteful manner I think I think they pulled the reins at the right points just exceptional and then the mechanical components of this thing from the Morrison chassis to the kugel suspension the ride Tech shock wave and that massive 700 plus cubic inch motor totally totally blown away by this build I know you guys enjoy it but I hope you truly appreciate what it takes to build a car on this level and that Tony's got the balls to go drive this thing down the road so as always you guys I say thank you for hanging and watching what we do here I really do appreciate it I'll see you in the next episode alright man later that's right

Channel: AutotopiaLA

Views: 196,369

Keywords: Autotopia, Autotopiala, AutotopiaLA, Autotopia LA, Jay Leno, Jay Leno's Garage, Tri Five, 1955 Chevy, Bel Air, Chevy Bel Air, Big Block, 1000 hp, 1000 horsepower, Classic Cars, Custom Cars, American Muscle, Made in America, Evel Knievel

Id: gOKEuOaen6s

Length: 23min 45sec (1425 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 06 2023