WE ALL love classic cars for different reasons, and while some like to walk on the wild side with massive tubs, skyscraping blowers and reflectors having ride height, others prefer a more subtle approach.
Wendy Stevenson’s ’58 Corvette appears at a quick glance like a beautifully restored stocker, but when you dive deeper, you see the huge amount of work that Sydney’s FUEL Bespoke Design (FBD) has put into hiding the many clever modifications made to America’s Sports Car.
John Ward, the man behind FBD, has serious form in taking super-sad C1 Corvettes and turning them into cleverly disguised resto-mods. “I try to keep the essence of the design but just tweak around the edges,” he says.
For this particular project, John was given an incomplete base ’58 that Wendy and her husband Robert had bought out of Orange, following a chance discovery on Facebook Marketplace. It wasn’t ready for a scuff and squirt, though; John had to redo the sills, dash, transmission tunnel and all the hanging panels before he got to the fun stuff like shaving the fuel filler and widening the rear quarters to squeeze in fatter rubber.
“Bodywork was the biggest challenge, being a 60-year-old fibreglass body that’d had a tough life,” sighs John. “We had the choice of getting a better car, but Wendy and Robert had already bought this car, even though it was in terrible shape with damage and poor repairs. The complete front clip was replaced with new press-moulded pieces from Corvette Image in the USA.”
While the body took a stack of work to get up to scratch, John was more fortunate with the condition of the chassis. However, he wanted the C1 to ride and handle far better than the soft boulevard cruiser Chevy originally delivered.
この記事は Street Machine Australia の October 2022 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
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この記事は Street Machine Australia の October 2022 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
すでに購読者です? サインイン
ROYAL CARRIAGE
BENNY ROYAL TOOK A FAMILY HEIRLOOM TOYOTA CORONA, SHOVED A 1JZ IN IT AND HEADED OFF FOR FIVE DAYS OF DRAG-AND-DRIVE
DEBUT TOUR
WITH A SCREAMING HOLDEN SIX, DEAN TROUNSON'S HOME-COOKED HR STEERS WITH THE BEST OF 'EM
FULLY FRANKED
A SNEAKY 670 HORSES OF FRANK MARCHESE POWER MAKES ROB GORGIEVSKI'S CONCOURS XW A PROPER TREAT
NOMADIC LIFESTYLE
DON'T BE FOOLED BY ITS DEMURE APPEARANCE THIS '57 CHEVY NOMAD IS A RAUNCHY RESTOMOD PACKING MODERN MUMBO
PERFECT 10 '!!!!
THE SYDNEY HOT ROD & CUSTOM AUTO EXPO TURNS 10
VAN WILDER
PETER MARRIOTT BUILT THIS TOUGH, 350 CHEV-POWERED HK PANEL VAN IN TRIBUTE TO THE LONG-LOST HT VAN OF HIS YOUTH
EXPRESS DELIVERY
IF YOU'VE ever been to the Bright Rod Run (and you damn well should've), odds are you've seen Joel Beatson lapping in an early Falcon.
RED HOT & BLUE
A REBORN PROGM8 SHOOTS FOR THE TITLE OF AUSTRALIA'S BEST SHOW-AND-GO COMMODORE
PEOPLE LIKE US
WHEN Michael Gonzalez isn't busy making eight-second passes in CHOCTOP, his street-driven, LSA-fed VC Commodore, or cruising one of the many other cars in his collection, he can be found managing Springmount Raceway, home to Far North Queensland's biggest horsepower hoedown, Northern Nats (see p. 48 for full feature).
DRIVING INNOVATION
EVER WISH YOU COULD HAVE A BRAND-NEW VERSION OF AN ICONIC 1970s AUSSIE MUSCLE CAR, FULL OF THE LATEST TECH? DRIVE SOUTH IS WORKING TO MAKE THAT A REALITY