Pete Youhill

Chevrolet Chevelle 427

As a relative newcomer, Pete has risen swiftly to the top of his game and continues to get the car quicker.

The original motor was a home-built 427ci, this made just under 500hp on John Sleath's dyno, but Pete’s new motor is a 582ci Shafiroff 'Ultrastreet', this made just over 760hp and there is probably a bit more in it with some fine tuning when the motor loosens up a little.Pete has also rebuilt the back axle (a GM 12-bolt) and swapped out the 4.88 gears for some 4.10 –so hopefully we’ll be seeing more of this car on the street?The gearbox is a built 2-speed Glide with trans-brake and high-stall torque converter.

Pete’s old combo was good for consistent 11.2 second passes at 120mph, as Pete says, “the slide rule suggests that I should be good for 9.6s at 138mph but that’s if all conditions are perfect. I'll be happy with high nines.

Pete has been twisting, crunching and breaking his way into the 9s and he was experiencing some bad handling problems at the Mopar Euro Nationals. "We found that the axle tubes were twisting where the fit in the centre section! After some re-fitting and some heavy welding, we managed to sort out the problem.""But at York, the 2-3 August meeting, the car seemed to launch much better and thanks to the good track and good air, we were running nicely managing low 10s or high 9s on every pass. We ran a total of 12 passes, with six being in the 9s and the best being 9.83."

Dave Fox has recently been taking care of the driving duties for Pete's Chevelle.