One car receiving a whole lot of double-takes and ‘ooh’s’ and ‘aaah’s’ at this week’s Performance Racing Industry show is the brand new 1969 Chevrolet Nova known as “Gucci” that’s destined for the “Street Outlaws No Prep Kings” circuit. Not only is the build a world-class setup from front to rear, but Michael’s vision include a striking candy-burgandy and black scheme that extends from the body to the chassis and even the engine.

Larry Jeffers Race Cars recently put the finishing touches on the car, and it will soon go into the hands of the California-based Michael.

Gucci has been four years in the making for Michael — the project initially began with a different ’69 Nova at a West coast chassis shop, but transitioned to a different donor car and a different builder.

“I was out of the game for a long time and wanted to get back into it,” Michael says. “Patrick Barnhill turned me onto Larry Jeffers. We sold the other car, and I gave Larry my vision, the colors I wanted, how I wanted it done, and he rolled with it. Covid-19 put us a behind a little bit, but a year and a half later, it’s done,” he says. “We went forward and then backward some, because I wanted powder-coating and polishing and different things a certain way. It took a month just to do the intake and valve covers. The candy paint took some time to figure out how we wanted the lines and where they’d end, and the hood has these double Gucci logos in candy paint that’s just awesome, but it took some time to get it all just right.”

Gucci features a 4.9-inch bore spacing Noonan Hemi with custom anodized intake and valve covers, with twin 98mm Precision turbos delivering the boost. Michael and tuner Barnhill will utilize a Haltech ECU to control all facets of the cars’ operation. The car sports Lamb brakes and a set of one-off Lamb front struts, with a billet Mark Williams full floater rearend housing out back and RC Components polished wheels on all four corners. A Rossler Turbo 400 and Neal Chance converter transfer to a carbon-fiber driveshaft. ProWire completed all fo the electronics work on the build.

Michael has campaigned imports and some high-powered domestics out of his Bad Intentions Racing stable, but Gucci will mark unquestionably the quickest and fastest machine he’s ever driven. With West coast icon Jay Boddie and Barnhill, in his corner, though, he’s certainly in good hands.