Gary Hettler (the winningest Super Stock engine builder in the country) built two 250-hp 327 c.i. engines.

Jere put me in touch with engine builder Gary Hettler. Red Roberts at McLeod Industries set us up with two Soft Lok clutch assemblies and George Maxwell at Jerico got us two four-speed transmissions. Jere recommended a RacePak V-500 data recorder and which "bells and whistles" should be on our system.

Our wish-list was very long, but I decided that if the rulebook didn't say you couldn't do it and if we could get it approved by NHRA, then I wanted it in the Cavalier. There were many items on my list that NHRA rejected. This "'70s" approach to building the racecar would come back to bite me in the butt big-time later.

The Cavalier was built by Mark Lynn of Jerry Bickel Race Cars.

The paint job caused no problems.

The project was considerably more labor intensive than JBRC had anticipated and the delays associated with getting NHRA's approval on every aspect of the new car's construction extended the process even longer. Bickel assigned the project to Mark Lynn, who had done most of JBRC's prototype chassis for 17 years. Lynn built the car in his own home shop.

In June 2003, the Cavalier was complete and ready to race. For the amount of money I had invested in the Cavalier, I could have bought two Bickel Pro Stockers.

We took the Cavalier to a divisional event at Atco, NJ for inspection. Tech inspectors Bob Lang and Curt LaShure had my trick Cavalier spread out all over the scale area. The interior and dash were out and the hood and trunk were open. As Bob and I stood side by side looking over the car, he said, "Len, your Cavalier is really nice and it's really safe. Unfortunately, it's just not a Super Stocker."

The carbon fiber seats were rejected by NHRA.

They didn't like the composite dash either.

The letter from NHRA cited 14 items that needed to be changed before the car would be allowed in the class. The carbon fiber seats needed to be replaced, a hood seal was missing, some carpeting was missing, the pedals needed to swing from the top, the steering column was just a bit too long, and so on. They also questioned the use of a composite dash and our use of heim joints on the front of the lower control arms for adjustment.