Bob Bertelsen’s latest creation is a 1968 Corvette he calls “The Green Mamba”. It’s the latest in a line of home-built Pro-Touring machines that Bob pilots to the limit at major events around the country. Bob’s previous cars have garnered plenty of favorable press, so it’s no surprise this new Corvette has captured a lot of attention already. His creations have a very distinctive style, as one look at his “Code Red” ’72 Firebird, “Brute Force” ’71 Camaro, or “Orange Rush” ’69 C10 pickup will show.
The new Green Mamba follows suit, with bold body mods, striking color choices, and purposeful performance modifications engineered to really work. Bob’s creations are show quality and race-ready, which really defines what the top-end of the Pro-Touring omniverse is all about. What separates Bob are the custom body mods. Ample vents, scoops, carbon fiber, and screens are added, and then highlighted with painted color accents.
The Green Mamba takes Bob’s own imagination to a higher level, with custom headlights, side pipes, reshaped grilles, blacked-out bumpers, and custom-crafted badging and wheel center caps. It’s a very well-refined and ‘finished’ effort, with all of the details attended to. You want to keep looking all over the car to see the wide range of subtle modifications. You cannot help but start imagining what some mods like this would look like on your own muscle car, but then you realize two things.
First, these aggressive changes to the original design are probably more than you’re willing to do. Secondly, the incredible level of workmanship it takes to accomplish custom work on this level without it looking tacky or cheap is beyond most home car builders. We’ve all seen half-hearted attempts at custom work ruin a car, but Bob’s work simply shines. His mods are all carefully thought out and well executed.
The video walks you through the fabrication, and is narrated personally by Bob. Enjoy the workmanship that went into this car, and then appreciate the performance it’s capable of. This is what it’s all about, folks!
After spending almost a decade in the aerospace industry, Scott Parkhurst chose to learn about racing engines by working in some of Southern California’s most respected engine shops. He took on the role of Tech Editor at Popular Hot Rodding magazine back in 1998, and was instrumental in the development of both the Engine Masters Challenge competition and Engine Masters Quarterly magazine. He was also the founding Editor of Street Thunder magazine and Author of the V8 Horsepower Performance Handbook before he arrived at Timeless Muscle.
