Photos and Article by Lance James

Flip Hayes wanted to build this car for a long time. He started this build nine years ago, it had gone away, then come back to him, back and forth and he finally said, “I gotta finish this thing”

He wanted to build something crazy and did a ton of drawings of Chevy’s. Something big and blown with spindle mounts and no front brakes, one version of the build was just that, it was going to be more scary than sane with magnesium wheels. More race than street, with plexi windows, a real deal radical gasser, not some straight axle cream puff that cruises fair grounds, no, a real ground pounder. I must say he did just that. This machine will smash you into the seat with just a little blip of the throttle.

At first the idea was to build a small block, then he came upon this big block from a machine shop buddy. A customer didn’t pick up so a deal was struck and the magic started. The motor has a Callies crank, H beam rod, aluminum heads, all the really good go fast stuff. The pistons were middle of the road flat tops, which made it acceptable for a blower to top it all off.

“You know I was gonna build a blower car to begin with,

I’ve never had a blower car before,

so here we are, and it’s cool, I mean it hauls ass

and it’s fun and I’m glad that I did it.”

He purchased a Speedway axle before they were really advertising them, when you had to piece meal it all together and sent it all out for chrome. Backing up the big block is an M-21 Muncie with scatter shield. Out back, a Halibrand quick change, which is pretty cool and not common to gassers I’ve ever seen. The doors have slider windows, a nod to the Two Lane Black Top ‘55. Flip has been building cars since his early twenties, some muscle cars in high school and then Datsuns. Along the way he discovered, “you can spend a lot of money on a little car that goes okay fast and is fun to drive, but you can spend the same amount of money on something that really hauls ass” so it was time for the American cars and big V8 power. Flip runs Eights & Aces Tattoo shop in Santa Cruz Ca. A full video feature of this car can be found on MotorNation HERE