Small Town Pride
“Keeping it all in the Family”
Story by John Ashcneberg
Photos by – Julia Aschenberg
The first thing on the agenda was to build a motor, so Michelle along with brothers Chris and Darryl Harvey went out to their dads shed to check out what ole dad had in there. Low and behold, there were enough goodies in there to build a rat motor, a 402 big block bored 0.30 over to make it a 406 cubic inch rat. Some internal goodies include Keith Black 10.0:1 pistons, a Comp cams .520 lift / .280 duration camshaft, and Clevite bearings with all machine work handled by Race Engine Design out of Chattanooga, Tn. After tearing into the car for media blasting, the farther she dug into it, Michelle realized it was more work than she could do at the time. So the Camaro was sold with intensions to find another. After searching around her area, she learned about a couple who both owned Camaro's, his was black and hers was, you guessed it, "copper". The best part is that the copper one was for sale, so Michelle went to check it out, drove it, and bought it. It was a very nice driver in really solid condition that was mostly restored. Now remember, there's a healthy rat motor resting on an engine stand somewhere in the corner of the shop, so shortly after purchase of the first Gen Camaro, it was time for "out with the old and in with the new". They pulled the 400 c.i. small block out and shoe horned in the big block all in one weekend, it was "mission complete" when they fired the big motor up. Michelle said she was so excited to hear the rumble for the first time, she couldn't talk, it was only smiles and happy tears. Exiting all the spent gases is performed by a set of Hooker competition headers with a 2 and 3/4" exhaust system with Flowmaster 40 series mufflers for that true deep rumble we all love to hear. Keep in mind that a lot of these parts used in Michelle’s motor, are the same parts she helped her dad build his motor for his truck when she was just only ten years old.
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