DARKGRL

'70 CHEVELLE

I walking along a stretch of a few houses that are placed between the projects and the Gowanus Canal when I saw this:

A blacker than black 1970 Chevy Chevelle! This is the second-to-last year of true muscle cars from any of the big 3 automakers. Starting in '72 we see horsepower go down, safety regulations come into play, punitive insurance rates for anything even seeming like a performance vehicle, and a general change in tastes to more luxurious offerings. In '70 though you could still order a free-breathing massive V8 powered 2 door, not wear your seatbelts, and have an open container in your lap. America!

While somewhat straightforward this Chevelle is in great shape and obviously gets used often. This is the same era of Chevelle Chevrolet used to install some of their largest engines ever made. You could order the 396, or even the mighty 454 in this beast when it was new. Since this example has been repainted at some point and has no emblems on it we can only guess what drive train it has.

The Chevelle only looked like this for a single year. The '68 and '69 Chevelles had a forward-leaning front end with a full-width grill. The year after this one had a single headlight on each side. To me this year always looked a little chubby, but with all the horsepower on tap who cares?

I'm assuming the vanity plate refers to the tough chick that drives this beast around the city as opposed to a lonely car guy who's treating this machine like his significant other. I've met plenty of the latter and it's never good.

This is also the only year for rectangular taillights set into the rear bumper. I'm sure I'll see DARKGRL rolling around someday as it lives pretty close to the shop. For now I'm happy to have caught it sleeping on its little side lot.