Meet Brendon Vetuskey and his 1955 Chevy gasser…
The inspiration to build a car like this goes back to when Brendon was six years old. His next-door neighbor got a ’55 chevy and he’d see that outside his bedroom window and ever since then he’s wanted one. And of course, he loves movies like Two-Lane Blacktop and American Graffiti.
He knows that thousands of them have been done before, but this one is his unique take on it. It has a mix of old and new – there’s a lot of throwbacks to the look of a 1960s car as well as a mix of modern tech in there.
Brendon’s had a lot of people come up to him and ask when he’s going to get the car thing painted. His vision was to have a survivor car from the 1960s, so it’s a faux patina paint job. It’s weathered to look like that and he had help from George Tantardini, aka Hoodoo – he’s the one who helped Brendon paint the car. Brendon did design the graphics, but George is the one that made them come to life.
The body is weathered but once you open it up, it looks like a fresh build — he wanted it to have that kind of look that it’s earned its chops over the years.
It’s just raw, it’s loud, it makes no apologies.
Brendon Vetuskey
He chopped the frame from the firewall forward so it’s all custom built just like a traditional gasser would be with an old leaf spring from a ’57 Chevy truck. Under the hood is a 496ci Mark IV Big Block Chevy Engine. He’s running a modern FiTech fuel injection on top of a tunnel ram. The white fender well headers and tack on the dash are a Two-Lane Blacktop nod, as well as the license plates which read “3 YARDS”, a quote from the movie.
The Chevy big-block is bolted to a T56 Magnum transmission that spins a Ford 9 Inch rear-end with 4.11 gears. The car is fitted with disc brakes all around and has a six-point roll cage that Brendon designed himself.
Brendon’s ’55 Chevy Bel Air Gasser Becomes a Hot Wheels Car
Brendon is a designer for Hot Wheels, so he does have an inside influence and he’s very fortunate that his ‘55 Chevy is the latest. They had a gasser casting already, one that he designed back in 2013, and the graphics team was kind enough to take the art that he created and put on the Hot Wheels car.
