SEMA 2014: LSA-Powered Chevelle SS

SEMA 2014: LSA-Powered Chevelle SS

Article And Photos by Kaleb Kelley

When I saw this Chevelle in Optima Alley at SEMA 2014, I had to know more. After some research, I found that the owner, Greg Heinrich, is an interesting guy. His family has been running Chevy dealerships for decades and he is a Chevrolet man all the way through. You would expect a 61 year-old man who lives and breathes Chevy to be one of those picky purists, but not Greg. He loves the new technology and going fast. This is why he took a ’70 Chevelle SS 454 LS6 car and installed LSA Chevrolet Performance crate motor. The LS6 Chevelle is the holy grail; top dog of the muscle-car era with 450 horsepower from the factory.

He bought the car as a total basket case. Original motor was gone and it was plagued with hail damage and rust. He nearly gave up on it, but instead put a 454 crate motor under the hood. After driving it, he realized that this was not what he wanted. It drove terribly. After some planning, he decided to go the ProTouring route and called Ironworks Speed and Kustom in Bakersfield, California.

Together they put together a full chassis for it with C6 goodies up front and a custom four-link out back. This alone would have made the car incredible, but Greg didn’t stop there. The next step was brakes. 14″ Wilwoods all around with 6-pot calipers handle the braking, but with these massive rotors, he needed wheels to clear. He went with Forgeline’s new Laguna design which is part of the Grip-Equipped series designed by famed rendering master Ben Hermance. The front wheels measure 19×10″ and the rears 20×12″5. With these wide wheels out back, he was able to fit a fat 335-series tire to get it to hook up.

The power comes via the supercharged LSA that powered both the ZL1 Camaro and Cadillac CTS-V. This is good for 556 horsepower which trumps the old-school Ls6’s output. Greg is happy with the finished product and loves driving it now. Who would want a factory car from 1970 that could be outran by a new 4-cylinder Mustang? Greg’s Chevelle is superb in its new form and definitely made a big impact at SEMA 2014 and the OUSCI races the weekend after.

Article by Kaleb Kelley
Published by Kaleb Kelley – Chief Editor