“When the family comes together to make a build happen”
Written by Jim Fox Photography by Jesse Fox (3G Video)
Family can shape who we become
Our families many times influence who we are and our likes and dislikes. You can see this in military families, where generation after generation join the military and a lot of times the same branch. I praise God for their service. It can be found with farmers, lawyers, doctors and the list goes on. Not just with occupations, this carries into hobbies, skills and everyday habits. The longer amount of time I spend in the presence of car racers and enthusiast I see this is, many times, the reason the younger generation is involved. That does not take away their love for cars just gives them a jump start.
Cars just a part of growing up
Austin Matthias from Readlyn, Iowa has such a family. Raised half mile outside of a little town in Iowa with less than thousand people and one gas station, Austin learned about cars and racing with a drag strip nearby. Grandpa was always into cars as he was growing up and still has a lot of cars. Cars just sitting around, Chevelles, Impales, couple of Belairs and even a ‘38’ Chevy Coup. The family has always tinkered around with muscle cars and lifted trucks and the love for cars is on both sides of the family. Dad has a ‘68’ Camaro he bought at age fifteen, hasn’t hit the road for twenty-five years. Part of the family is along as spectators this year, Dad, brother and his brother’s girlfriend, and are having a hard time, wanting to help but resisting to keep in the guide lines of the event.
Swapping engines
Grandpa really liked the body style of the ‘66’ GMC truck, which had a 305 V6 when he bought it, this was over thirty years ago, set it in a shed and never did
“Didn’t know if it would run or not”
anything with it, didn’t even know if it ran or not. Austin had always wanted a C-10 so when Grandpa decided to sell the old truck he bought it. Originally the plan was to have a LS 4L80 build but they swapped the 383 out of the ‘77’ K20 pickup that Austin had bought when he was fourteen with a 327 and put the 383 in the old GMC that he had sold to his Dad. They have plans of putting the 383 in Dad’s ‘68’ Camaro for next year. Austin has a 427 tall deck to put in the GMC and plans on being back next year running the times he was hoping for this year. He has an ’86’ Monty SS that in a couple of years will be his quick one.
Out of the shed and running again
This ‘66’ GMC build has the 383 small block Chevy engine with a tunnel cam, dual quads, a four speed Muncie transmission, a brand new McCloud clutch good for 700 foot pounds of torque and a twelve bolt rear end. Nothing on the truck they didn’t touch, most of the wiring had to be gone through to make sure everything
"Long hours and long night" worked. Austin and his Dad thrashed to get it together, long hours and long nights, then with some help from an uncle and cousin they got it running. Friday night was the first time it had hit the ground in over thirty years before coming to Hot Rod Drag Week on Sunday. Never been on a track before and the drive from Iowa to Madison, IL, where the event started and finished, was the test run and it passed. Cousin came along as co-pilot.
Making sure to finish was the goal
Austin was hoping for faster times but having a time to turn in each day is better than nothing and being able to finish the trip this year, even with a few oil leaks, is a major accomplishment. He wanted to be sure to make the six hour trip home since a buddy was getting married on Saturday and he was in the wedding. All said and done Austin and his family had a great time and are looking forward to being back next year with bigger goals in mind. This article was written in 2022, if we catch up with Austin again we will give you an update.
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