Walking through the door of All Speed Customs shop in Muskegon, Michigan, made our eyes immediately widen. With show-quality builds on display in a room to our left, and more eye candy straight ahead and to our right, we may have forgotten to breathe, if only for a moment. Turning the corner around the shop’s front desk revealed a 1970 Chevrolet Corvette that brought the air back into our lungs with a whooshing gasp. The shop's founder, Brian Moat, noticed our interest and immediately offered to park the car in front of the building so we could get a closer look.
All Speed Customs is a one-stop-shop that does everything in-house, including engine builds, custom fabrication, upholstery and paint. The team did a phenomenal job bringing this car back to life for proud owner Randy Fedo, who purchased it after it sat alongside a road for several years in the late-80s. By the time Randy rescued it, the Corvette’s body was relatively rotted and still had its original, but tired, 350-cid engine hibernating under the hood.
The shop’s vision for the car started with significantly improving its performance and handling, which they would accomplish with a modern pro-touring style. An aluminum 408-cid small-block Chevy fueled by Holley HP multi-port fuel injection sits in the front of the factory frame. It’s cooled by an aluminum radiator, which is assisted by an electric high-flow water pump and fans. An intercooled Procharger D, mounted with custom billet brackets by All Speed, raises the performance bar to 750-hp and 685-ft.-lb. torque. A TKO 500 manual transmission puts the power to the pavement, often leaving two streaks of Nitto Tire rubber behind. The front and rear Ride Tech StrongArm tubular control arm systems are linked to HQ series coilovers for that refined rides-on-rails feel.
Performance upgrades should never go without refining the brakes. In this case, Wilwood Aero 6 front brakes and Wilwood Aero 4 in the rear, all braced against 13" rotors, allow this Corvette to stop on a dime. CCW Classic three-piece Forged wheels pull the car’s design together with the gloss black barrels and satin centers. If you look closely, you’ll notice the different widths: 18”x10” for the rear and 18”x9” for the front, all four wrapped with ultra-high-performance Nitto NT555 G2 tires.
Once the All Speed team decided on the driveline, the inevitable happened: the car's exterior appearance no longer reflected its performance capabilities. As you can see, they gave it a much-needed makeover as a result. Brian stated that the fiberglass bodywork was the most challenging part of the build; "We spent a lot of extra time repairing the rotting and cracked areas, and even more time to perfect the shapes," he said. But it was inarguably worth the extra effort, and in our opinion, the car is straighter with smaller, more precise body gaps compared to a C3 that just rolled out of the factory.
The car's brilliant pearl yellow color further accentuates its angular, swooping sporty lines that C3 enthusiasts love. The Lamborghini Giallo Orion Mica tri-coat paint looked so modern, it made the old pitted chrome on the bumpers and trim stand out. It was then that All Speed decided to spice things up with a combination of gloss and satin black bumpers, wheels and trim to give the car a modern, more sinister appearance. The black accents tie it all together, black leather interior and all.
Randy has many miles of smiles to look forward to, with plans to drive his Vette on Michigan's curvy back roads. An occasional track day will allow Randy to show everyone what his car can do, and it will also be attracting crowds at the occasional local car show.
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