An E85 Street-driven ’55 That Runs Eight Flat

True Street is a class for amateur weekend warriors to take their licensed and insured street machines to the track. The times aren’t great, the traction’s not always good, and the driving might be suspect, but it gives people a taste of drag racing and some fun. Occasionally, however, there will be a car that makes people’s jaws drop. That’s certainly the case with Tim Harper’s ’55 Chevy 210, ’cause it’s nothing but red hot…and blue!

“I only ran some Street Wars events on Friday nights at my local track and a Super Chevy event, but I did go an 8.05 at 168-plus one afternoon,” Tim deadpanned. “I guess that’s not bad for an old used car.

“A ’55 Chevy has always been my favorite car, but I never wanted just a race car. I wanted a street car that I could drive. I bought my first ’55 back 1980 when I was just 16 years old. I put a 409, a four-speed and a 12-bolt rear in the car and had fun with it, but sold it to get this one because the body was in so much better shape.” Tim’s 210, featured here, has been an ongoing project for the past 30 years. His investment of time, energy and money has certainly paid off.

Tim went to work almost immediately on the suspension. Autofab upper and lower control arms were used with QA1 adjustable coil-overs to both lighten and help control suspension travel on the front end. Wayne Balch Jr. helped Tim back-half the car and install the 60-inch-long chrome-moly wheelie bars, while Rapid Motorsports installed double adjustable coil-overs with Hypercoil springs. Chassis Engineering provided the cross member which works with the Dana 60 rear housing, Moser 35-spline axles and 3.73 gears. Billet Specialties wheels wrapped in Mickey Thompson rubber on the front and Hoosier D.O.T.-approved tires on the rear. Wilwood Dynalite 11-inch rotors with four-piston calipers front and rear are used front and rear.

Tim ran his all-steel car for years with just a 3.5-inch fiberglass hood and stock bumpers, but went to a lighter ’glass tilt front end and bumper assembly that saved about 100 pounds. Glen’s Body Shop in Petersburg, Virginia sprayed the ’55 in PPG Bright Blue Poly. Black vinyl diamond-tucked material covers both the door panels and the Jaz seats, while Autometer gauges and an Innovate LM-1 provide advice on engine conditions. Although the car shows a few nicks and dings from its many years racing, that just proves it isn’t a trailer queen.

Tim built a 454 engine which had the car running in the low 13s, but later switched to a bored over 396 producing low 11s. After blowing the head gasket and spinning a bearing, Tim went back to the 454 now over-bored by .060 inch to provide 468 ci, and a touch of nitrous got his blue bomber into the high nines.

In the late ’90s, he traded a sidearm for a rusted 502 crate engine salvaged from a sunken boat. Randall’s Racing Engines in Chester, Virginia machined the block and installed Dart heads, roller cam, Lunati rods and Wiseco pistons. That combination helped the car to 10-second time slips on pump gas and into the low nines on nitrous. Next came a Procharger F3 centrifugal blower engine combination before he switched to a milder, more street-friendly F2 Procharger.

“The only problem was that the car ran very inconsistently,” Tim explained. “I met Glen Hunter, who was also running in True Street, and he told me about how well E-85 would run in a boosted engine in place of pump or race gas. So, I started doing some research, bored the block out a bit more to 522 cid and had the carb recalibrated. Today, it’s run a best time of 8.16 seconds at over 167 mph. I think I can get the car into the sevens with a little more boost, but I’m still using the same block, rods and heads that I bought back 16 years ago, so I don’t want to blow it up.”

Even with weighing in at more than 3,550 pounds, Tim has had phenomenal success with the car. He’s been a regular winner on the Super Chevy circuit picking up five wins in True Street in addition to seven Editor’s Choice awards while also running a 5.49-second index class at Virginia Motorsports Park. With help from friends like Pete Bryant, Wayne Balch, Glenn Moore, Warren Wright and the late Wally Duncan, Tim was able to get his ’55 Chevy to a place where few street-driven Tri-Fives reside today.

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