Duncan’s John Walker is proof drag racers never die, they just live to build wicked looking hot rods.
Case in point, Walker’s 1957 Chevrolet 150 2-door post.
In part, this slick Tri-Five Chevy is the culmination of 11 years of work but it’s also a by product of more than 40 years of accumulated hot rod knowledge.
“I’ve always been partial to ‘Vettes,” says Walker, who took to the quarter mile with the Vette and campaigned it at drag strips all over the Pacific Northwest until 1966, when he bought the Chevelle.
The car before the ‘Vette was a 1956 Chevrolet.
“I bought that in 1960 and paid $2,200,” says Walker, who remembers that coming up with the 50 per cent down payment dealers required back then wasn’t easy, even though he was making good money ‘working in the woods.’
While Walker went into family mode in the late 1960s, eschewing hot rods and big blocks for Chevelle Estate Wagons and mid-1970s Monte Carlos, he was always thinking about cars he’d like to build.
“I always wanted to build a ‘57 Chevy,” says Walker. “I always liked them.”
He found this 1957 Chevy in Victoria in 1981.
Though the car was discovered on the Island and restored locally, it seems fitting it began its life in what many gearheads believe to be the cradle of hot rod civilization - California.
The car was in storage when Walker found out about it from his son John Jr.‘s friend.
“He was racing motocross back then,” says Walker of his son. “And this friend of his was living next door to the original owner’s son.”
Though it had originally been Sea Mist Green, the car was burgundy and white when Walker found it.
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