Supercar Collectibles is trying to get a 1:18 scale version of the Briggs Chevelle made. The estimated price is $120. If you’re interested in one of these, please pre-order one by going to the Supercar Collectibles page for the model.
As the title says, part of my childhood has died. I just found out yesterday from a friend of mine that my father’s old shop 133 Rt. 22, Green Brook, NJ has been torn down. I’ve known this has been coming for over a year now so it was just a matter of time before it got knocked down. I’m really sad to see it go since I spent many weekends there with my father when I was growing up. It’s especially sad for me to see it go since before it was Truppi-Kling High Performance, it belonged to my maternal grandfather. Then, it was known as Coddington Auto. My father used to work for my grandfather and that’s where he learned everything he knows about cars. When I used to go there on weekends with my father, I used to dream that one day I’d be going there and working on my future wife’s car and my future kid’s car. Now, I hold a small grudge against Commerce Bank because if they weren’t so gung-ho about putting a branch on just about every street corner, then the building would still be standing.
I’m sitting here watching the Barrett-Jackson Auto Auction on Speed Channel and the Briggs Chevrolet 1970 Chevelle LS6 just sold for $1,150,000. Yes, you read that right. One million, one hundred fifty thousand dollars. From the Barrett-Jackson site:
454cid LS6 V8 automatic transmission with 61 miles showing on the odometer. This is the car that Ray Allen drove and won just about every conceivable race entered in 1970. This car won The US Nationals, The Super Nationals, The World Finals and most of the division races that were entered. This car has gone through a frame-off restoration that was mostly built and supervised by Ray Allen himself. This car is being sold with the original New Jersey title in Truppi & Kling’s name and also comes with the original build sheet and various magazine and National Dragster articles about this World Champion Car and pictures at The Winners’ Circle. This car is truly a legend in muscle car history.
The car was bought originally for $1500. If I remember correctly, my father said that that included the flatbed to tow it on. The interesting thing about the car is that it was truely one of 17 ever made and NHRA required that at least 50 of a car be made for it to eligible for competition. Truppi-Kling was able to get a letter from Chevrolet stating that 50 were made even though there weren’t.
I’ve included an edited video of the auction that I recorded to my PC thanks to my TV tuner card
