Brent Jarvis is one of those people who really likes playing with cars. By day, he owns and operates Performance Restoration in Mundelein, IL., a shop that does everything from bodywork on everyday cars to frame-off restoration to construction of custom resto-mod pro-touring g-machines. But in his spare time, he builds killer creations like this modernized '66 Corvette.
When he's not working, Jarvis campaigns a 1957 Corvette Pro-Street car capable of running low 7-second passes in the quarter mile. Lots of body shops build show-quality cars to demonstrate the quality of their work. Not very many of them are routinely pushed to nearly 200 miles per hour on the drag strip. But that’s Jarvis, a man who applies the term “high performance” to every aspect of his vehicles. They not only look perfect, with pristine paint and precise fit, but they also have to perform on the street or track.
Keeping these criteria in mind, Jarvis made the decision to un-T-bone his ‘66 Corvette and create a road coarse screamer that was also capable of taking home all the trophies at car shows where the contestants are trailored in on stretchers.
Jarvis always liked the lines of the mid-year Corvettes, but he felt the road manners offered much room for improvement. To remedy this situation, Jarvis grabbed a C-5 Corvette front suspension system and stuck it under the nose of the ‘66. But just because it’s there doesn’t mean it works properly, so Jarvis spent considerable time fiddling with the pickup Points on the subframe to make sure the lower control arms rode parallel to the ground. This was done to ensure correct handling, even though the car has been substantially lowered.
The rear suspension required even more work, as Jarvis discovered the C-4 Corvette rear axle assembly required a re-work to get it to fit and function properly. Understanding the importance of proper stance and attitude, Jarvis started with the biggest radial tire he could find and built the suspension around it. To tuck the huge Tires inside the Original Corvette quarters, the suspension system would have to be slimmed. Jarvis ended up narrowing the rear end over 10 inches on each side. Of course, you simply can’t cut nearly a foot of width out of an independent suspension system and expect it to work as it did when it was in Original form, so Jarvis again had to monkey with the parts to make them articulate properly. After all, this car was built to drive hard, so it all had to be right.
Under the hood, Jarvis whipped up an all-aluminum big block 427 Chevy topped with a Hilborn electronic fuel injection system. Cranking out 800 horsepower, the lightweight big block relies on a .700” lift cam to work the valves, and the Caribine ECM is smart enough to idle this monster at 1200 RPM even with the Hilborn setup. Click the key and it fires right up. Behind the motor is a custom 6-speed Tremec trans.
Anticipating this Corvette would have the power to go; Jarvis then concentrated on adding some stop to the mix. Brent took an unusual step and ran 13” Baer rotors on all 4 wheels, because he feels a smaller rear Rotor upsets the visual balance of the car, especially when they’re visible through the big 18” Colorado Custom wheels. He retained stock C5 calipers, but Jarvis had to reengineer the brake system to maintain proper front / rear bias.
Once Jarvis was satisfied with the suspension and driveline, he attacked the Corvette’s broken body, but he didn’t just glue it back together. Jarvis performed a whole stack of body modifications to the fiberglass shell, but they were all completed with a respect for the Original design of the car.
He tightened all the door and panel gaps, removed the fish gills from the fenders, and crisped-up all the body lines.
Jarvis and his team reworked the tail to enhance the contours and increase the razor-edge of the beltline. They created custom bumpers from scratch. They added C5 door handles. They made dozens of changes, but most people wouldn’t notice the difference unless the ‘Vette was parked next to a stocker. Then came the orange. Jarvis sprayed coat after coat of PPG colors with subtle tints added to mix, all blending together into the intense orange pearl you see here.
Inside, they had the stock interior re-stitched in bone-colored leather, keeping all the Original trim and gauges. The only addition is a roll cage and an air/fuel ratio gauge. Jarvis digs the Original design of the interior, and he again only wanted to enhance Chevrolet’s plans instead of fight with them.
3 years after starting the project, it was finally time to turn the key. He stressed performance during the build-up, and Jarvis wanted to be sure his mouth didn’t write a check that his car couldn’t cash, so he thrashed it on Road America’s course for its first major outing. He spent some time getting used to the steering and brakes, then decided to see for himself how the car felt at high speed. After winding it out in 5th in the back straight at nearly 180 miles per hour, with another several hundred RPM and one more gear to grab, Jarvis concluded the car made enough power to hit the 200 mph goal speed on the right track. It handled perfectly, nice and neutral, and the car came back without a scratch.
Show car perfection with go-car performance. Sounds like the definition of “Performance Restoration” to us.
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