Muscle Car Of The Week’s, Kevin Oeste, takes us on a fascinating tour of one of GM’s most historic A-Bodies, a featured Dark Green Metallic ’70 Chevelle SS. Don’t be fooled by the midsize’s lack of ostentatiousness; our featured Super Sport is said to be not only a factory LS-6 car, but based on documentation (or lack thereof), possibly the very first built in the United States.
Kevin says that no one actually knows for sure, thanks to a rumored fire that had broken out in the Chevrolet headquarters several decades ago. But for him, not knowing whether or not the Chevelle is an original pilot car adds to the sled, a sense of wonder, one that adds a certain richness to the A-Body’s history, “General Motors might have known at one point, but a lot of those records have been destroyed,” says Oeste.
Of all the 1970 Chevelles built, approximately 4,475 were ordered with what was Chevy’s fastest production big-block, the 4-bolt, 11.25:1 compression LS-6 V-8. Whether ordered with the TH400 automatic or a Muncie “Rock Crusher” 4-speed, the General’s fire-breathing Chevelle was good for a low-to-mid 13-second passes all day long.
But what leads Kevin Oeste and others to believe that this Chevelle specimen is the first is in its documentation. Apparently the car had build sheets scattered throughout the interior, many of which feature a note depicting, “pilot job” as hand-written by someone at its Baltimore assembly plant.
The historical accuracy of these isn’t entirely certain, but when combined with a VIN that points to a December 9th 1969 production date for the 1970 sales year, it can almost be certain that our featured SS is indeed a pilot car.
It’s never been verified if an LS-6 Chevelle was built in North America before this Green Metallic car, but there is rumor afloat, according to Kevin Oeste, that an export Canadian A-Body was built in November of 1969, which would’ve placed it before the U. S. version.
Since so much of this history has been lost, the world may never know! But if there’s one thing to be learned from our featured Chevelle SS, it’s that history lurks in the darkest corners of some of our most beloved, muscle car classics!
Fanatical about everything LS and Buick Turbo-6, it goes without saying that Sal Alaimo Jr. is on it, when it comes to covering anything late-model. But his musclecar roots can be traced back to Chevelles, Skylarks and the rest of the A-Body family of GM performance!
