LS3-Swapped 1937 Chevy Business Coupe Goes as Good as It Looks: Track Time Tuesday
Vintage 1937 Chevy has plenty of retro appeal, but also plenty of welcome modern updates.
Classic Fords have garnered their fair share of attention from hot rodders and street rodders for decades now, becoming the favorite of those folks. But many of those vintage Blue Oval machines wind up being powered by GM motors, thanks largely to their affordability, the availability of parts, and how easy they are to modify and make reliable. This sweet 1937 Chevy Business Coupe up for grabs at Bring a Trailer breaks that mold by being a Bow Tie in the first place, but it doesn’t stray in terms of loyalty under the hood, either.
That’s because this vintage 1937 Chevy is powered by a modern-day LS3 V8, which in this case displaces a healthy 416 cubic-inches. The dressed-up powerplant was put together by Don Hardy and features a Holley Terminator X fuel injection system, Hooker headers, a 3-inch ceramic-coated stainless steel Flowmaster exhaust, and a host of polished and painted components. The combination put down a healthy 636 horsepower on the dyno, which should make it pretty darn fun to drive.
That power flows to the rear wheels via a Tremec T-56 Magnum six-speed manual transmission fitted with a McLeod RST Stage 2 twin-disc clutch and a Ford 9-inch rear end with 31-spline axles and 3.70 gears. The whole thing rides on a Street Rod Garage chassis with an independent front suspension, power rack and pinion steering, a four-link rear suspension, Strange Engineering coilovers, stainless steel brake lines, and Wilwood Dynalite four-wheel disc brakes with slotted and drilled rotors.
The body needed to be modified a bit to make it fit that updated chassis, but it looks like a polished Olive Green jewel, regardless. Highlights on the outside include that unique hue, along with a set of 18×8-inch front and 20×12-inch rear Circle Racing alloy wheels, which are wrapped with 225/45 and 295/45 Continental Extreme Contact tires. Inside the cabin, everything has been updated with either fresh paint or saddle vinyl, along with modern amenities to make this classic a comfy cruiser.
And that’s precisely what this unique 1937 Chevy is – a cool, retro yet modern ride that has pretty much everything we’d want in a car like this, including prodigious amounts of reliable, updated power.
Photos: Bring a Trailer
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