Have you ever been to a car show or cruise night and noticed a car that stopped you in your tracks? It happens to all of us, and when this ’69 Chevelle stopped Rudy and Louise Salandanan, the couple knew they couldn’t live without it. “I guess a good place to start is where I first saw the car. It was 3 years ago while I was at Ocean City, Maryland, during the Spring 2014 car-show weekend,” says Rudy. “My wife and I were at the Wawa parking lot and saw it parked there. I thought it was a nice-looking car, and then the owner walked up and started it.”

That was all it took, as Rudy’s wife looked at him and grinned. She said she liked it because it sounded angry. The car definitely left a lasting impression, but Rudy didn’t get the chance to talk to the owner at the time. Fate has a way of coming into everyone’s life, and a few weeks later, it made its presence known as Rudy’s brother stated that he knew the guy with the Chevelle and it might be for sale.

572 cubic-inches of fun-inducing big block. This is not your typical street car.

“I got in touch with him and discussed a few things and told him I might be interested,” says Rudy. It didn’t take long until a deal was struck and the Chevelle made its way back to the Salandanan homestead.

Under the hood was a 454 engine-block that had been upgraded with some serious internal parts and displaced 509 cubic inches. While ingesting a healthy dose of basic pump gas, the engine made a respectable 700 horsepower. Behind that was a Turbo 400 that was filled with a reverse and manual-shift valvebody, transbrake, and a 3,500-stall converter. Finishing out the drivetrain was a 9-inch rearend filled with Moser internals.

Like many car guys do when they get a new ride, Rudy wanted to make some upgrades. Those upgrades revolved around what was under the hood. Rudy is definitely a fan of making a statement, and his statement required an engine that was not only in your face, but in the air.

The 509-inch engine was yanked and replaced with a 572 cubic-inch behemoth. Earl Johnson of Big Johnson Performance Engines started by using a Dart Big-M tall-deck block and filling it with a 4 1/2-inch stroke Ohio crankshaft. Rapidly spinning off the crankshaft is a set of Eagle connecting rods and JE pistons. The assembly creates an 8.0:1 compression ratio. An Erson hydraulic-roller camshaft with .621/.621-inch lift and 268 degrees duration at .050-inch lift directs the fuelish mix.

Above that is a pair of Air Flow Research cylinder heads and a large-by-huge 10-71 supercharger from The Blower Shop. Feeding copious amounts of go-go juice through the blower and into the cylinders is a pair of 950cfm Quick Fuel carburetors.

Although the Chevelle stopped the Salandanan couple in their tracks when they first saw it, the upgrades they have made continue to make sure that they never take the car for granted. Now, it stops everyone in their tracks.

Do you want to read about more Home-Built Heroes? All you need to do is click here. If you own a Home-Built Hero, we want to hear about it. Since we’ve started the series, we have received more than a few candidates, but we still want to see more – we can never get enough. If you want to see more cars built by you the readers, send us a few pictures of your car showing the engine, interior, and exterior, along with all of the pertinent information, and we’ll make you Internet famous. You can send your submissions to [email protected].