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It’s difficult to argue that the lines between a race car and a street car have become particularly blurred these days. The preconceived notion of what a street car is and should be is continually being challenged, and the very spirit and essence of the genre, to many, seems lost. But a select few still remain driven to approach street car drag racing the right way, and West coast racer Tony Ferguson is one such individual.
Ferguson, a native of Wyoming, campaigns this gorgeous, show-quality 1956 Chevrolet in the PSCA’s Limited 235 heads-up category, and while the car is certainly built to go racing, it’s got the DNA of a street car throughout.
Ferguson, born in Wisconsin but raised in the city of Casper, grew up around performance cars and drag racing. His father was a Chevrolet man through and through, owning “maybe an occasional Pontiac,” as Ferguson shares. “I think we only owned one Ford growing up, and that was a motorhome.” And, in a case of the apple not falling far from the tree, Ferguson has lived and breathed Chevrolet products in his adult life. “It’s all I’ve ever been around; I don’t know anything else. I wouldn’t even know where to begin,” he says.
Ferguson also followed in his father’s footsteps into racing.
“My dad built a bracket car when I was about 10 years old. I got into racing as soon as I was old enough to drive and started bracket racing myself. My first car was a 1962 Nova station wagon that we cut up and made into a two-door wagon. I bracket raced it until about the mid-1990s, when the engine blew up. It hasn’t run since,” he shares with a laugh. “But I’ve had several race cars, including a 1972 Nova that I ran before I bought the ’56. We bracket raced and ran ‘PINKS: All Out’ with it. We did quite a bit of street racing with that car, as well, but now that I have kids, my driver’s license is a little important to me and I try not to do any street racing.”
Maturity and the responsibilities of adulthood, Ferguson admits, are what compelled him to pursue a purpose-built race car. But because he wanted said car to remain drivable on the road, this was destined to be anything but your typical cut-and-dry racing machine.
A decade ago, Ferguson stumbled upon a 1956 Chevrolet — or what was left of one — sitting in the dirt behind a local shop. The original frame was gone, the floorboards had been extracted for another project, and the body, albeit not considerably rusted, was “pretty beat up,” in his words. But Ferguson, clearly not one to shy away from a challenge, saw the ’56 as an excellent palette for his racing project.
… I wasn’t particularly looking for a ’56. It just seems that that’s what I keep finding. I found the body and thought it would make the perfect race car. – Tony Ferguson
After acquiring the body, he was able to track down the original front clip from the car that another party had purchased, which was stowed away in an attic, thereby making the car somewhat whole again. As he tells us, all of the outside sheetmetal is original to the car, with the exception of patch panels in places. All it needed then was a frame.
“I got a frame from a friend. Between the two of us, we have a couple of parts cars. I got a frame from one and he helped me set the body on it. It sat there, though, for about five years before I even touched it. Once I got back to work on it, I pulled the body back off and started working on the frame; moving the leaf springs inboard and things like that.”
Because he still had his Nova at the time, along with other projects eating up time and discretionary income, Ferguson admits that completing the ’56 wasn’t a high priority for him, and thus the lengthy timeframe that the car sat in his shop before it was finally completed.
Ferguson originally had intentions of (and was building the car for) the PSCA’s Limited Street category, but two years into the build, the series eliminated the class, forcing a slight change of direction. “My suspension was already done by then, so I just kept on working on it the way that I had planned. Eventually another class came about that the car fit into.”
Ferguson has been a best of 6.14 at 120 mph with the Chevrolet since debuting it in May.
Ferguson, who works on custom and performance cars for a living, did much of the work on the Chevrolet himself. The installation of the roll cage was outsourced to Kennedy Race Cars in Denver (later updated by Chad Ahnstedt in Fort Collins to a 25.2), and the final prep and paint work was performed by Tony’s cousin, Jason Ferguson, at Tubby’s Customs in Wisconsin. Tony welded the floors back into the car, and with help from a good friend, added the patch panels and the new rear wheel tubs.
The car has its full, stock frame from front to rear, with the 25.2-spec, 6.50-certified chassis resting on top.
With the bodywork complete, it was time to add some color. Ferguson says he “wanted it to be unique; I was going for a classy, elegant look, rather than a newer, metallic color.” What he happened upon is the mint green-on-black, two-tone color scheme that you see here.
The 509 cubic inch big-block Chevrolet powerplant, built by AMS Automotive Machine.
“The color was picked out of a paint sample book. I kind of had a color in my head, and I went through a book and picked it out and actually painted my golf cart that color to see if I liked it. We then went ahead and painted the car that color,” he explains.
“I wanted it to look like it could’ve come off the assembly line with those color combinations,” he continues. “That was the whole vision with the car. That’s why we went back to the original materials and patterns with the interior of the car, as well.”
As spectacular as Ferguson’s ’56 looks from the outside, the inside is every bit as head-turning.
Because he wanted this to remain a road-going car — a family car, at that — it was unquestionably going to need to maintain all of its original creature comforts. Ferguson utilized all original ’56 factory materials and colors, and reupholstered everything to the very look the car would’ve had when new. It even has a full back seat.
I wanted it to look like it could’ve come off the assembly line with those color combinations. That was the whole vision with the car. – Tony Ferguson
“ The only way to get the back seat in is through the windshield. You have to get it back in the car and then fold it in a ‘V’ shape to get it through the cage and then get it back down in there. It’s an insane amount of time just getting it in and out of there. At one point I got it in and forgot to put the seat belts and had to take it back out.
“But it was worth it, because now the kids can ride back there,” he adds.
To get the full back seat in, Ferguson had the cage built with a perimeter bar around the rear seat area.
Ferguson takes the car out for Sunday drives quite often, even dropping off and picking his sons, Riley and Isaiah, up from school in what has to be the coolest — and quickest — family car in the school parking lot. “It gets a lot of attention, driving it around. More than I thought it would,” he says.
“It drives decent. It’s kind of hard on the motor, but the way I saw it, if I can’t at least drive it a little bit, then it’s not fun. I don’t think it’ll handle Drag Week or anything.”
The tan and black interior retains its headliner, door panels, carpet, and yes, seatbelt for everyone.
After an estimated four and a half years of work, Ferguson debuted the car in May of this year with the PSCA, and has competed in the Rocky Mountain Super Series races and at the Street Car Super Nationals in St. Louis. Thus far, he’s been a 6.14 best at 120 mph in the 1/8-mile with his nitrous-fed powerplant on the 26-inch tall, 9.5-inch wide street radials.
Ferguson says he was originally planning on a single turbo small-block combination for Limited Street, but settled on a 509 cubic inch big-block Chevrolet that was built by Craig Jones at AMS Automotive Machine in Fort Collins, which Ferguson outfitted with a plate nitrous system from Induction Solutions.
The interior is particularly impressive, with all original colors and patterns used in the upholstery.
Jones assembled the powerplant with a whole host of top-flight parts, including a Callies crankshaft, GRP connecting rods, Diamond pistons, and a Bullet camshaft spinning Jesel valvetrain components. It’s topped with Dart Machinery Pro 1-355 cylinder heads, an Edelbrock Victor Junior intake, and a Pro Systems 950 carburetor.
This is what Ferguson and his peers must use to put the power to the ground in the Limited 235 category: a 26-inch tall, 9.5-inch wide radial.
A Transmission Specialties-built Powerglide with a Reid case and an M&M converter send the power back to a Quick Performance 9-inch rear end housing and Yukon aluminum carrier with 3.73 gears. Ferguson runs Moser 35-spline, star-flanged axles, Wilwood brakes, and Billet Specialities Street Lite wheels wrapped in M&H Racemasters up front and Mickey Thompson 235/60/R15 ET Street Radials in the rear. The car sits on Calvert Racing CalTracs with leaf springs and CalTrac shocks in the rear, paired with a TRZ Motorsports anti-roll bar. Up front are tubular A-arms and a front-mounted rack and pinion. Rhodes Race Cars supplied the 20-gallon fuel cell.
Ferguson plans to remain in the Limited 235 category next season, but suggests that he’d like to make a jump to Outlaw 8.5 or a 275 Drag Radial class in the future.
“The motor has gone quite a bit faster than it is right now. We’ve got fairly small jets in it. It was a Limited Street motor at one time and so that’s why I was kind of working toward that class. But my car is really heavy, because I wanted it to be as close to original as possible. There’s a little left in the motor to make it run quicker, but I don’t know how much. If I can afford it, I’ll probably switch it over to a small-block turbo in a year or two.”
At 3,780 pounds with Ferguson in the seat, the ’56 is a full 350 pounds overweight for the Limited 235 class. This has left him dealing with an internal struggle between keeping the car stock-appearing, and being competitive.
“I’ve been really having a hard time with it. I know I could go faster with lighter parts … we’re so far over the minimum weight. I’m looking at maybe doing a fiberglass bumper and hood, but I haven’t decided. I think if you do it nice enough and go about it right, it could be pulled off and still look good.
“I love how nice it is and that it’s all steel, but the competitive side of me kicks in. I’m not sure which personality will win,” he continues.
Ferguson includes wife, Jessica, his two sons, and his friends at ELE Racing for their support in making his racing endeavor a reality.
