TAKE ME IN OH TENDER WOMAN

    TAKE ME IN OH     TENDER WOMAN    

I was out in some distant corner of Queens in Ozone Park or Woodhaven when I passed this tough beast with the ridiculous tagline (more about that later):

This is a 1972 Chevrolet Chevelle in flat black. We know it's a '72 because the '71 had one single horizontal bar in the grill as opposed to the 2 shown here. Another difference is that the turn signals were broken up into 2 individual rectangles on each side while these are solid.

What can I say about a Chevelle that hasn't already been said? Like every Chevy from the '60s and '70s the Chevelle was hugely popular and could be ordered with any number of configurations.

This is obviously the body of choice for the muscle car crowd. However the Chevelle could be ordered as a 4 door sedan, convertible, and station wagon as well. The sporty hardtop look of this coupe is accentuated by the omission of the little pop-out vent windows which still adorned the front of the doors on the sedans.

There was a 4 tier hierarchy in the Chevelle lineup. At the bottom was the 4 door sedan. Next up was a 1972-only curiosity called the Heavy Chevy. Above that and somewhat splitting the difference was the luxurious Malibu and the musclebound Super Sport. If you wanted cushier seats with headrests, hidden wipers, chrome trim, or a convertible you went Malibu. If you wanted the earth shattering 454 V8 you went with the SS.

Here we see the sweet '72 vintage NY plates the owner's using, but else is that on the back?

WHAT?
I was gobsmacked by this when standing before it. When I searched the term I found that these are lyrics from the 1966 Al Wilson song The Snake. Unfortunately I also discovered that the President-Elect gave a dramatic reading of these lyrics back in March. He went on to explain something about how we knew he was a snake when we let him in. Yeesh. BACK TO THE CAR:

So this beast looks mighty capable with its tough paint job and Rally wheels. The law of averages would dictate that this has a 350 small block V8 in it just because they produced so many and they remain immensely popular.

There's a big aftermarket tach on the column and some gauges under the dash so this is meant to run hard. We can just glimpse the original radio. As far as that column shifter goes there is a slight chance that this is one of the last 3-on-the-tree manual Chevelles but most likely it's the stalwart TH350 auto.

Looks like somebody added a pop-up sunroof at some point, most likely in the '80s when this car was worth peanuts. The thing about Chevelles is that they built so many of them in each model year that you need a rare combination of options, engine, or the highest level of originality for it to be worth a lot. You could go out and buy beautiful Chevelles for $20,000 or under all day long.
This is how I prefer them; ready to be enjoyed and used daily. Good luck Tender Woman!