ProCharged, LS-Swapped 1964 Bel Air Wagon Is Our Kind of Family Hauler: Track Time Tuesday
It might not look like much, but that’s precisely what makes this 1964 Bel Air wagon so darn cool.
Wagons have always been popular among the hot rod crowd for a number of reasons. For starters, they’re just cool, and many of us grew up taking road trips in them. Wagons are also the perfect sleeper that no one really suspects to be fast, while also offering up loads of room for both friends and gear. However, this 1964 Bel Air wagon recently featured by MotorTrend is all of the above and more, thanks mostly to its ProCharged, LS-swapped heart.
Conceived by Brandon Pierce, this 1964 Bel Air wagon has all the makings of a sleeper, but is reliable enough that it participated in Hot Rod‘s Power Tour last year, too. It certainly doesn’t look like much on the outside, with plenty of patina, bumps and bruises, along with a set of steel wheels and hub caps. But true beauty lies within, as they say, and that’s certainly the case with this old Bow Tie wagon.
When Pierce acquired this car from a buddy, it already had a 5.3-liter LS V8 under its hood, albeit in naturally-aspirated form. From there, he enlisted Street Smart Performance to give it some real juice, and they obliged by upgrading the internals to prepare it for copious amounts of boost, along with a Texas Speed cam, Precision Race Components heads, and a Holley EFI setup. The proverbial cherry on top is a ProCharger D-1SC huffer, which helps it churn out 700 horsepower at the wheels on a modest 9 pounds of boost.
Flowing to the rear wheels via a 4L60E transmission to some larger rear tires, this vintage wagon certainly scoots. It’s also fitted with a few upgrades underneath, including Wilwood brakes and QA1 coilovers, along with a custom panhard bar, though most of the suspension remains stock.
Pierce proceeded to rack up an incredible 70,000 miles on the car, driving it both on the road and the track, before he recently decided to move on and sell it to someone else. Obviously, most of us would love to have an all around sleeper/daily driver like this, which can quite literally do everything well.
Photos: MotorTrend
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