Time Capsule 1965 Pro-Street Chevelle Has Stayed Nearly the Same for Over 40 Years!
Mark Abbott’s 1965 Pro-Street Chevelle Is A Window Back To The Golden Age Of Pro-Street.
Back in the before times, our hot rodding hobby was the wild west. Yeah, 40 years ago there was an aftermarket, but it didn’t even remotely resemble what you see today. There were no tubular control arms, and handling, for the most part, was left to Porsches and ‘Vettes.
You got your parts from brick-and-mortar speed shops and a few chains like Super Shops. But what we did have was Pro-Street. Why? Well, because most of aftermarket for hot rods was focused on drag racing, and guys worked overtime to meld drag race parts to their street cars. This is the story of one such Pro-Street Chevy that was iconic in the ’80s SoCal street scene, a 1965 Chevelle owned by Mark Abbott and called Quicksilver. What you see here is pretty much how the car has looked for the last four decades, in essence a Pro-Street survivor and a window into our hot rodding roots.
You see, I grew up with this car, drove it, got tickets in it and it’s a huge reason for why I became a car guy. Back in the early and mid 80s I was fresh out of high school and rockin’ a 1967 Camaro.
The paint you see here was laid down between 1979 and 1980 by Jeff Scozzaro (of Jeff’s Place) after Keith Dean did all the bodywork. In 1980, Bobby Harris (Billet Race Cars) did the tub work which included a Ford 9-inch with 5.13 gears and Sommers Brothers axels. These days, the Chevelle fields a 461-inch big-block built by Taylor Engines in Whittier California.
It features ported heads by Mike Culbertson and the short-block is filled with 9:1 forged pistons, an Isky Z77 solid-flat-tappet cam, polished and shot peened 7/16 rods, and ARP bolts. Topping the long-block is a Blower Drive Service (BDS) 6-71 Roots blower wearing a pair of Holley 850 carbs that were massaged by C and J Engineering. Backing up the blown big-block is a Turbo 400 trans with a reverse manual valve body, trans brake, and a 9-inch 5500 rpm stall converter.
As I said earlier, this was a street car, although the Buena Park cop that pulled me over one day would argue that point and did with a rather epic “fix it” ticket. It was what every Pro-Street car should aspire to be: driven and driven hard. As Abbott said, most of his friends came from having this car, and I’m lucky to be counted as one of those. In reality, that’s the point of this entire hot rodding hobby we partake in. Yeah, the cars are cool, and stupid fun, but they’re really just ways to meet other gearheads and make life-long friendships.
