510 Cubic Reasons to Dig this Studebaker

When Kevin Nichols sets up to build his first street car (he’s been primarily a drag racer) he doesn’t mess around! I ran into Kevin a few weeks ago at the 83rd Ave. show up in Peoria. This car’s under construction, but there’s still a ton to see. Plus, sometimes cars that aren’t quite finished yet tell a better story than a finished car.

The first thing that jumps out of this bad Stude is the engine. How’s 510 cubic inches for ya? If it was only a blown Chevy big block, that’d be cool, but this engine’s from Kevin’s Super Eliminator and Advanced E.T. At NHRA events it ran 6.70’s! A sub 7 second E.T. digger that’s been his passion for years suddenly lost sponsorship and went down the road. The engine’s electronic fuel injection will push pump gas through the 8-71 blower and it’ll have power steering, and A/C! This will be a driver.

Like most projects, the timeline for the Stude’s slightly blown. Alright, it’s been thrown out the window! 3 years into the build Kevin’s proud to say he’s done almost all the work himself. Robert Nurez helped with tin work and chassis, but other then that, you can count this one as HOME BUILT.

The car started as a running and driving flat 6 cherry with the 6 volt system still there and working. For this project, only the body stayed. Everything else was stripped off and sold. The body was so nice, all that’s been done to it, besides the subtle body mods, is a good sanding to take off the original paint. That’s a nice find, but it might make the Studebaker purists a little salty!

As the car nears completion, the plan is to get it running, shake it down a bit, then pull it all back apart for paint. With the professional looking work I’ve seen first hand, I don’t think he’ll find any major problems.

Since meeting, Kevin’s joined MyRideisMe.com. Here’s a link to his garage: “54STUD” is his name. CLICK HERE. Kevin’s loaded about 30 pictures showing the build progress. When you see what’s been done, 3 years won’t sound like much time. That’s Kevin in the red shirt behind the car. When you see him, be sure to say hi.

Look for more info about this car as it get’s closer to being finished. How’d you like to see a first hand video of a bonzai run?

Kevin… let’s get it done!

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