Exclusive Feature: Craig Keirnan's Gorgeous 1969 Chevelle
/Rarely do we come across a car that is so beautifully crafted in an old school manner. This happens to be one of those rare occasions where everything came together perfectly.
Some of us harken back to a day of old school muscle cars. The days when street steal was king on every boulevard across the country. Each and every Friday & Saturday for years I would go and cruise in cars like Torinos, Mustangs, Monte Carlo’s, Cutlass’, and many more. So when I was presented the opportunity to bring this brand new, Coast Chassis Design built ‘69 Chevelle, I jumped at the opportunity.
While you can see, the car isn’t built for a Saturday night cruise, but it certainly looks 100x better than half the other stuff being built for drag racing right now. It’s not just another Camaro or Corvette. The car was built to compete in the ultra-competitive world of Outlaw 632.
The Chevelle was built by Tim Christ at Coast Chassis Design in Florida for Craig Keirnan. Craig then went ahead and tapped one of the most capable drivers in drag racing to wheel the machine. Ari Birchfield, who was previously behind the wheel of Enrique Perez’s Mustang for years while competing in Ultra Street and No Time events.
Laying between the rails at the heart of the Chevelle is a Nesbitt built 632 engine with an Induction Solutions fogger kit atop and is bolted to an FTI Turbo 400. All that power is transferred to the rear, where the Menscer Motorsports shocks plant the power to a set of M/T 34x13 slicks. Once the hammer is dropped, the car also plants a set of Voss carbon fiber wheelie bars. None of that would have been possible with the entire car being wired up by William Tetro & Rodney Hadwiger though. When you make the power that these setups do, it is important to have a great tuner, and Craig went with Mike Perduto. Based on the performances that we saw right out of the gate, Mike has a great handle on the tuner and they are already making huge strides. The one thing that stands out the most though is that deep, beautiful paint job. The color is a version of color from a 2016 Corvette and was laid down to perfection by Dennis Bandish.
Look for the Chevelle to be a player this season in Outlaw 632. The team that has been assembled, from the chassis man, tuner, owner, and driver, are all top-notch, as you can see from the photos. I would like to thank Craig, Tim, Kyle, Ari, and everyone else involved for allowing me the time to capture and highlight such a great build.
