This ’57 Chevy is on the high-end of a project deadline duration because Faren Hermanson has owned it for 31 years.
In fact, the first time he drove it was in 1999.
Clearly Faren has no end of patience with his car but the real story is in the evolution of this 57 Chevy from Dr. Jeckyll to Mr. Hyde.
This budding romance between car and owner wasn’t a ‘love at first sight’ scenario–in fact Faren’s description of the Chevy was far from complimentary,” It wasn’t a very good car, it had hacked out metal flares for the rear tires, front fenders were junk, it had 3 colors of primer…it just wasn’t great”. That didn’t stop him from handing over 2500 dollars for the car but he admits that part of that price stemmed from one thing as he confessed,” I’ve loved the ’57 since I was a kid”.
Faren went through a series of motors in the ’57 but the 350 it came with was an early casualty. In fact, he knew from Day 1 that “I had to have a big block eventually” but before that point he went through several motors. As Faren explained, ” I wrecked a lot of engines during that period”.
Faren evolved the ’57 to the big block of his dreams when he installed a 572 monster under the flip top hood. He’s put much more into his old automotive friend because this 57 now has a tube chassis and more new technology under the skin than Captain Kirk had in three Star Ship Enterprises. He liked the tube chassis but he admits that “ there’s nothing to bolt anything to, had to build all the brackets”.
This ‘57 Chevy is a street monster-make no mistake about it, but it’s civilized enough to run on pump gas plus the aluminum block stays cool. Bear in mind that this car has run a 10-second quarter mile yet it can be driven in modern traffic.
Faren concedes that this 10 second car “needs an approved roll bar on the track” because he did one pass before the track officials flagged him down. Regardless, he doesn’t hesitate to jump in and drive it although he admits that it’s little bit like an old Harley, “I can drive with one hand on the wheel but after an hour I need to get out of the car”.
Faren clearly loves to drive this car because he put on quite a display when he left the car show…leaving no doubt that this was a 10-second car. He has a simple philosophy that extends to show and shines “they’re boring-I need to drive it”.
Words to live by when your 57 Chevy evolves from lukewarm to monstrous.
Jerry Sutherland
Many more car guy stories found here-https://www.mystarcollectorcar.com/2-features/stories.html
