1962 Chevy Bel Air: A Beast On The Street

With slick features and a beautiful silhouette, the 1962 “bubbletop” Chevrolets are cars enthusiasts lust after—Impala, Biscayne, or Bel Air, the design is timeless. Add 409 power, and the desire to own one goes through the roof. In ’62, 409-powered cars were piloted by drag racing greats, and were even the subject of a popular song you may have heard.

Michigander Bob Phelps, now 83, had just left the Air Force in 1962, and was racing a new Corvette. Fast cars were everything to him, and his Chevrolet was a quick one; Bob won his class at the ’62 NHRA U.S. Nationals. But not long after, racing was put on hold for a while, as business came first.

I was a kid on the street. I had a ’49 Ford and I drag raced whenever I could. When I got out of the Air Force, I bought a new 1962 Corvette that I ran for a bit, but I stopped drag racing because I needed to get involved in business,” he told us. Bob’s love of aviation steered him toward the air charter business, and he ultimately created Active Aero Charter and USA Jet, amassing 15 Falcon Jets, five DC-9s (with 121 certificate), six Lear Jets, and three King Airs.

“I raced that ’62 Vette and won the U.S. Nationals, and later on, we won again with my AA/A Jerry Haas Corvette in 2001. I still have that car. It’s 100 percent a drag race car and it’s run 6.4 seconds in the quarter at 220 mph with an all-aluminum LS 443 with a Magnuson blower.”

When asked what motivated him to build the Bel Air, Bob told us, “Well, you know how popular the bubbletop is, that’s sort of the reason,” he said. “It’s one of the most popular body styles for a Chevy. I built a great ’48 Caddy, and I couldn’t get anyone to peek at it. This car is just beautiful and we had some cool ideas for the build. We spent months getting the body perfect, we smoothed the firewall, and I knew we’d use an LS because we’ve pushed about 30-35 LS installs out of our shop since 1998,” said Bob.