The 1957 Chevrolet Black Widow Packed A Venomous Bite

The 1957 Chevrolet Black Widow Packed A Venomous Bite

During its more than 100 year history, Chevrolet has produced a number of different terms that are instantly synonymous with performance. Names like Super Sport, IROC-Z, 1LE, or Z06 let everyone know that the wearer of this nomenclature was no ordinary Chevrolet. But, before any of those names became household terms to car nerds, Chevrolet had its first performance nickname: Black Widow.

Chevrolet Black Widow

1957 Chevrolet 150 Utility “Black Widow” (Photo: Barrett-Jackson)

A Humble Beginning

In 1957, Chevrolet essentially built its first-ever version of a 1LE or Z06-optioned car. This performance concept of taking the lightest version of a vehicle model – with zero options – and stuffing the best engine you have from the factory, has been utilized over and over again. For 1957, the Black Widow was the combination to build. What you started with, was a 1512-optioned Chevrolet 150 utility sedan (two-door, no back seat, fixed rear windows, and no radio or arm rests) which was the lightest sedan Chevrolet manufactured that year. Under the hood was a 283 cubic-inch engine with 283 horsepower, fed by Rochester fuel injection.

Chevrolet Black Widow

NASCAR’s famous Turn One at the beach in Daytona with one of Chevrolet’s secret weapons, a 1957 Chevrolet 150 utility sedan “Black Widow” ripping up the sand. (Photo: NASCAR)

The Black Widow was developed during a strange and trying time in motorsports. Racing was proving to be inherently dangerous. Not only was it a fatalistic sport for drivers, but unfortunately fatal for fans as well. A terrible tragedy in 1955, at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, killed 83 people and injured many more when large vehicle components covered in fire ripped through the grandstands in France.

Just driving down the road in America in 1956 wasn’t exactly a safe pastime itself, with vehicles being produced without seatbelts or other safety standards. As a result, over 37,900 people died on American roads in 1956. Some in the American government thought motor racing – along with manufacturers advertising racing results – encouraged American youth to drive recklessly on public roads, contributing to the fatal accident problem.

Chevrolet Leaves Racing , Kind Of…

The Automobile Manufacturers Association (AMA) was fearful that congress would outlaw motor racing. In 1957, the AMA placed an official ban on any manufacturer to be involved in or advertise its racing accomplishments, in a move to keep congress from passing any legislation banning motorsports. It was sort of a gentlemen’s agreement… one that was quickly subverted by Chevrolet.

Chevrolet Black Widow

In 1957, Chevrolet wasn’t racing, but a company called The Southern Engineering Development Company (SEDCO) was racing Chevrolets. SEDCO was operating out of the Nalley Chevrolet dealership in Atlanta, Georgia, and had a suspicious amount of access to Chevrolet parts. (Photo: NASCAR)

Then GM President, Ed Cole, may or may not have allowed an engineer from Chevy named Vince Piggins, to head down to Atlanta and start up an enterprise called the Southern Engineering Development Company, known as SEDCO. You can think of SEDCO as the 1957 version of Pratt & Miller Engineering today. With financing from Chevrolet Engineering, Piggins surrounded himself with extremely talented people – geniuses with a wrench, like Smokey Yunick, and fast drivers like Grand National Champion Buck Baker. They modified six 1957 Chevrolet 150 utility sedans that had been shipped by rail from Detroit to Atlanta for stock car racing. They chose the black and white paint scheme and the Black Widow was born.

The 1957 Chevrolet Stock Car Competition Guide is incredibly detailed and lists every single part number and modification needed to convert a 150 utility sedan model into a track champion Black Widow.

Since Chevrolet wasn’t officially racing, Piggins, wrote and published the 1957 Chevrolet Stock Car Competition Guide, detailing every modification SEDCO made to the 1957 Chevrolet 150s. The guide is very detailed, and lists by specific part number, 170 different parts you could order from General Motors (like a thick Buick radiator and a 20-gallon gas tank from a taxi version of the 150) to build your own Black Widow. Piggins mailed this guide to Chevrolet dealerships, so anyone who wanted to race Chevrolets was armed with the knowledge they needed.

Chevrolet Black Widow

The fuel injected 283 cubic-inch, 283 horsepower, small-block V-8 with Rochester fuel injection from the Corvette was the engine of choice for the SEDCO-built cars. The EFI units were later swapped to four barrel carburetors per NASCAR regulations. (Photo: Barrett-Jackson)

The fuel injected engine from the Corvette was the starting point for the Black Widow, but during the 1957 season, NASCAR made the fuel injection illegal (a ban that lasted until 2012), forcing the SEDCO cars to swap from fuel injection to a four-barrel carburetor. The swap didn’t hinder performance. The Black Widows were on a roll, winning races, and sometimes finishing First, Second, and Third, dominating the 1957 Grand National Series season.

A sexy detail on the Black Widows were the racing flags over the “Fuel Injection” insignia on the rear quarter-panels. (Photo: Barrett-Jackson)

Heavy-duty parts were part of Vince Piggins’ design, as he modified the 150s. He wanted the cars to be lightweight, but he knew that racing was tough on equipment. He upgraded crossmembers, added shocks on every corner, and swapped the axles from five-lug to six-lug. The engine was blueprinted and balanced to deliver 315 horsepower. Torque went through a close-ratio three-speed manual transmission into a 3.90 gear in the rear axle.

How many Black Widows were built by SEDCO is a topic of much speculation. It is known at least six were built in Atlanta by SEDCO and campaigned in the Grand National Series. But, with the Competition Guide, anyone could build a spec Black Widow. Over the years, many tribute cars have been constructed in the Black Widow’s likeness.

One of the quickest ways to spot a non-legit SEDCO Black Widow is to look for the number of lug nuts on the wheels. SEDCO swapped out the axles for sturdier units, converting the five-lug 150 utility sedan to a six-lug wheel.

Race-Winning Combination

For the 1957 Grand National season, the combination of a lightweight chassis, strong power plant, and some very unofficial factory support was the magic formula for winning races. Black Widows won 16 races, with 10 of those races won by Buck Baker in his number 87 Black Widow. During the season, Baker had six pole positions, 30 top-five finishes, and 38 top-ten finishes in just over 40 races.

Buck Baker with his Black Widow at Daytona Beach. Baker became the first back-to-back NASCAR champion (then referred to as the Grand National Series) when he followed up his 1956 championship with a championship in ’57 driving the Black Widow. (Photo: NASCAR)

The car was such a dominating force in racing during 1957, the lore of the Black Widow and its Skunk Works-build lives on today. SEDCO closed up shop at the end of 1957, and most of the race cars were given to the drivers. Vince Piggins went back to Chevrolet and became the father of the Camaro Z/28, helping that engine/chassis combination to become the Trans-Am Champion in 1968 and 1969, with Roger Penske and Mark Donohue.

The Black Widow is such an icon for Chevrolet motorsports, Revell created a 1:25-scale model kit of the 1957 Chevrolet 150 utility sedan in SEDCO racing trim.

Is The Black Widow A Legit Chevy Option?

The Black Widow is an interesting piece of Chevrolet motorsports history. It is a car that you could build with off-the-shelf GM parts, however, Chevrolet never officially built a single Black Widow. The concept of building a fake Black Widow is an odd one. Think about it, they are all essentially fake as none of them actually came from the factory. Purists consider “real” Black Widows the ones which were constructed by SEDCO in 1957. Those cars were raced, wrecked, traded, and often scrapped. Racers only really care about the car that can win a race for them. When a car is no longer competitive, it is often tossed aside. Where all six or maybe more of those SEDCO cars are now is not widely known. Some were rumored to have been converted into drag race cars for the NHRA.

Appropriately, the 1957 Champion SEDCO-built Black Widow of Buck Baker is on display at NASCAR’s Hall of Fame “Glory Road” in Charlotte, North Carolina. (Photo: NASCAR Glory Road)

Buck Baker’s championship-winning Black Widow is at NASCAR’s Hall of Fame. The Black Widow is in the same room as Dale Earnhardt’s menacing black number 3 Chevrolet Monte Carlo. Another Black Widow recently emerged, the number 47 SEDCO-built car driven by Jack Smith (the same car illustrated on the Revell model kit). The car was meticulously restored and won numerous car shows. It fetched over $200,000 at a 2016 Barrett-Jackson auction.

The price of a genuine SEDCO-built Black Widow is going up. The number 47 car driven by Jack Smith went for $205,700.00 at Barrett-Jackson auction in Scottsdale, back in 2016. (Photo: Barrett-Jackson)

Even though Chevrolet wasn’t officially racing in 1957 (wink, wink, nod, nod) the 1957 Chevrolet 150 Black Widow raced itself into the motorsports history books solidifying a base for motorsports success that Chevrolet still enjoys today.

About the author

Rob Krider

Rob Krider will race absolutely anything. He is a multi-national champion racing driver and is also the author of the novel, Cadet Blues.
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