Not many of us can say we still own the car we bought at age 16. Most wouldn’t want their first car, because it was more than likely a cheap junk box. It was probably rusty, slow, and just something to get us from home to whatever entry-level job we had, and hopefully to pick up the ladies. However, because of the aforementioned condition, those ladies often ran in the opposite direction.
What we needed was Rick Hornback’s car. This 1969 Chevelle. Yeah, this one.
If we’d had Hornback’s Chevelle, we’d have no trouble gaining attention and the eye of the opposite sex.
“I purchased this ’69 Chevelle for $1,200 in the summer of 1978 when I was 16 and entering my junior year of high school,” Hornback says.
Just for grins, go to Craigslist or eBay and try to find a Chevelle for $1,200 … you won’t find one. If you do, it’ll be a rusted-out hulk not worth saving. However, at that time, a ’69 Chevelle was just a pretty cool, old car, but one that could be had somewhat inexpensively. After buying the car, Hornback spent the next two years making the modifications that he could afford as a high school kid working part-time bagging groceries at the local IGA store in Olney, Illinois.
After earning an Associate’s Degree at ITT Technical Institute in Indiana, he returned home gainfully employed with a full-time job. This gave Hornback the opportunity and financial means to completely tear down the Chevelle and turn it into a street and strip terror that’s just as at home at a car show. This process took four years, as he swapped out the original 350 for a big block 427 with iron oval port heads, a tunnel ram, and two four-barrel carburetors. “I retained the original Muncie M21 four-speed and 12-bolt rear end that was originally ordered with the car by its owner, but I did make a gear change to a 4.10 from the original 4.33,” Hornback tells us.
“I was relatively new and still learning what made a muscle car perform, so I took what I thought was the popular route at the time,” he says of the car’s first iteration. A few years later, in 1987, the car received the paint job that it still wears today. “The car was painted using what I consider close to the original Garnet red color from a 1986 GMC van,” he says.
From there, Hornback and his wife, Twila, moved a few times to pursue better employment opportunities, but settled in the Indianapolis area in 1989. There, they started a family, and the focus turned to raising Tyler and Shelby (now 22 and 19). The Chevelle remained largely unchanged during that time.
Around 2001, he says the drag racing bug started to really sink in, and so it was time for the Chevelle to receive a few mechanical and chassis updates to make sure the car would perform up to Hornback’s level. Other than the paint, everything else about the car has changed over the last 12 to 14 years. “Almost everything on the car has seen an upgrade or modification,” Hornback says.
Hornback had added a six-point roll bar back in the early ’80s, but that wasn’t going to cut it, so that was promptly removed. Andy Smith and Jack Couden at Pro Tree Race Cars added a chromoly 12-point roll cage in its place. Pro Tree also added mini-tubs and a 4-link rear suspension to accept the Mickey Thompson 29.5 by 10.5W tires that Hornback still runs today. Pro Tree wasn’t done, though, as they also fabricated a nine-inch Ford rear end and added a Mark Williams aluminum third member.
“Almost everything on the car has seen an upgrade.” – Rick Hornback
But that combination was merely a stepping stone to bigger things.
“Being a typical car guy, and never really satisfied with that performance, an upgrade to a bigger engine was in order, so I purchased an aluminum Dart block and Brodix BB4 heads and took them to Steve Schmidt for some guidance,” Hornback says.
Schmidt and his team machined the block to accept JE gas-ported pistons, ported the heads, installed titanium intake valves and stainless steel exhaust valves, and installed a set of T&D shaft rockers. Hornback then took the remaining parts home to assemble the short block, which included installing Manley H-Beam rods with L19 rod bolts. A custom Comp Cams roller was installed along with Comp lifters and pushrods. Hornback then topped off the 565-inch big-block with a Pro-Filer Sniper II intake manifold that was port-matched by Schmidt, along with an 1150 Quick Fuel Dominator-style carburetor.
He then installed an MSD crank trigger ignition that now uses a Power Grid Controller to enable better launch control. With everything back in the car, it returned to Pro Tree Race Cars for a pair of stepped headers, which Hornback mated to a 4.5-inch exhaust system with mufflers from Burns Stainless.
Our team discovered the car at the 2015 NMCA season opener in Bradenton, Florida, where Hornback was racing in the Open Comp category. Wheels-up launches and the sound of banging gears drew us in like a fitness model to garlic knots after a competition. Once up close, we found a well-detailed musclecar that still retained its classic lines.
“Although I’m happy with the performance of the car (which weighs a whopping 3,460 pounds) to date, consistently running low nines with a best of 9.08 at 149 mph, we’re planning to step up again and make a run at the NMCA N/A 10.5 class,” Hornback tells us. “This will require some weight to be carefully removed without cutting the original sheet metal from the car, which is important to me, given our long history. But, I’m looking forward to the challenge.”
Hornback ran in NMCA Open Comp in 2015, and was also the UMTR South 2014 Quick Stick Champion.
Hornback’s crew at the track consists of his crew chief and son, Tyler, wife Twila, and daughter, Shelby when they can attend, along with regulars Rob Wetnight, Brent Wright, Gary Goodwin, Steve Wright, and Kelley Murphy.
“I would like to thank my sponsor American Structurepoint (an architectural and engineering firm) for their support along with expert advice and help from Steve Schmidt Performance Engines and Pro Tree Race Cars,” Hornback says.
Hornback’s pride and joy has morphed from a high school cruiser and lady-getter to a nine-second track ripper. While it took about 35 years to get it to this point, we’re pretty sure Hornback wouldn’t change a thing. We sure wouldn’t, except making that Chevelle ours.