The 57 has some interesting features... I am assuming that angle iron is just laying across the upper control arm. At our local dirt track, one of the promoters decided he wanted to have a modified class, so he created one for the next year. The rules were pretty slim. A roll cage, a tire size limit, and no front fenders. His thought was a lot of the guys would simply pull the front fenders off their hobby stock car, which is what most in the calss did (me included). We saw some really interesting things that year. We had a guy that had a pile of pretty used up 57 Chevy sheet metal laying around and welded up the body (he did a much better job then the guy did with the pictured 57). The next season we actually had some real rules, a lot of the stuff that was racing the 1st year wasn't "legal" with the new rules. The pictured 57 reminds me of some of those 1st year modified cars that didn't get finished before the real rules were written for that 2nd year.
The coupe is really wild, looks like ladder bar mounts way up front. Tri 5's were cut upon mercilessly back in the day!
Looks like that 56 has 3/4 ton spindle and hub on the front, I wonder if that extra coil over up there was for some sort of a weight jack? pretty cool. looks like it started life as a 56 bel air 2 door hardtop...
Tri 5 Chevy's were indeed butchered on a regular basis for many years. The metal on this one actually looks pretty straight, except for the cowl mess. Kind of makes me think the rear shell and roof was saved for a future project that never happened (or could have been an old drag car). The roll cage in that 57 is pretty narrow, maybe an already old modified race car looking for a body when the 57 turned up. I know many areas ran "cut down" modified (WI comes to mind) and the tri5 frames were popular frame choices. Maybe narrowing the body was outside of the guys abilities (or time ran out). It does appear this body never saw the track, even though it has a number painted on it. Not many ran without any bracing forward of the firewall. Could be a pretty interesting story, or just another failed attempt.
Yes, Mark is correct, it does look more like a 56 then a 57. I was going by the pointed top of the rear quarter, but now I see the bottom is pinched in a lot to fit inside the rear bumper. The current body was not on the car from the beginning. I suspect the original body on this chassis probably was mostly inside of the rear tires. It would be interesting to see if a track would allow the side trim to remain. That trim would be a no go here after the early 60s. I have no doubt the chassis was raced before, and may have worked well. I wonder if there is still a coil spring between the control arms on the right side or if it was removed when the coil over was added, and if there is a coil over on the left side? Does look like it has the rear weight jacks too. I believe the current body may distract what the car was before this body was added.
Back in the day we would cut the end off a 3/4 ton Ford truck rear end and weld it over the front spindle to stop them from breaking in the turns. The wide five drums were the preferred drums so you could use the same wheels as the rear quick change.
Did you notice the lever with the rod attached just forward of the steering gear? Suppose that was an in-n-out box, or auto trans shifter? The cage looks like it might be centered on the car, a good sign of an old modified. For you 56 Chevy guys, there is a rusted area above the rear tire, and it looks like a roof post may have been removed behind the front door, could this have been a 4 door body? And, isn't the rear body pretty short? Maybe that is just the angle of the picture. Sure would like to see more pictures of this poor old Chevy.
When I was racing stock cars in the '70s 95% of the sportsman cars were tri-five Chevys. 3/4 ton right front hub was required by the rules.
The Jalopy Journal
