White Lightning

Sipped Just a Little at a Time

- Geoff Stunkard

Up in the hills the crafters still refer to it as squeezin’s, trickling through a homemade distillation system. More public and commercial now, old-school moonshine remains a sort of rite of passage for many. The Chevelle SS you are looking at is the automotive equivalent of good moonshine. Plain white wrapped, column shift, bench seat, and little to show that it is packing a real kick. It goes smooth, then you realize you are at 110 mph or faster. As for the crafter, well, that would be ol’ Chevrolet, passing the LS6 around to some guy named Roger Penske. How much should you use? Oh, we are just sippin’ it, a little at a time; in fact, less than 15,000 miles since it was purchased back in 1970.

Tim Wellborn is noted for his ability to buy cars right, and this one came into the collection in Alabama back in 2013 after it was offered at Mecum’s Indy Classic. At the time, Tim and his wife Pam already had a low-mileage black LS6 in their collection, but something about this particular car drew Tim’s attention with enough pull that he decided it was worth chasing.

“I like white muscle cars, and I thought the gold interior was a great complement to it,” says Tim. “Plus, it was a non-cowl induction car, non-stripe car, a bare-bones car. The black one was such a time capsule, and it had taught me a lot about these cars, so when this one came up I decided it was worth chasing if it came in at a good price. It did.”

Column shifters on muscle cars could be considered a detriment in some cases. The lever in the LS6, however, looks almost aggressive in its angularity. Tim was correct when he wondered if the selling price would end up being reasonable as result, and he took it home without topping $100,000.