Loading up your racecar onto a trailer might seem like a sensible way to get it to the track, but Michael Lukenovich doesn’t think that way. In Lukenovich’s world racecars and street cars are one in the same, and he likes to drive his rides anywhere he goes. His 1967 Chevelle has been built to stay honest to its street car roots, and it lays down single digit passes when it needs to.

When it comes to racing, Lukenovich has done it all, from drag racing his first car, a 1970 Nova, to taking on the curves road racing behind the wheel of his modified Dodge Viper. No matter what he did with a car it always seemed to come back to drag racing. With the call of the drag strip being so strong, Lukenovich started his newest project, a true 138 SS 1967 Chevelle that packs a whole bunch of big-block power.

“I have had many cars over the years; everything from a mildly modified Viper to a 1,400 horsepower C6 Corvette, a nitrous-fed, big-block 1969 Camaro, and another 1967 Chevelle 25.3 car with large cubic-inch nitrous engine. I’ve always loved the old cars and wanted a nasty street car that I could eventually take on Drag Week and not have any issues,” Lukenovich explains.

His current Chevelle uses a stock-style suspension with UMI tubular upper and lower control arms in the front and their drag double adjustable control arms in the rear. To help with weight transfer and putting the power down, a full set of AFCO Big Gun shocks are used at all four corners of the Chevrolet. Lukenovich added a narrowed 12-bolt rearend that uses Moser 35-spline axles, spool, and 3.73 gears. The 8.50 certified cage, mini-tub and parachute mount were installed by Rick Stevens at Stevens Race Cars in Santa Fe, Texas.

To make the big power he wants Lukenovich used a 582 cubic-inch TRE Racing Engines motor with sr20 heads that were ported by Slick Rick. Inside the motor is a Callies Magnum crank, Oliver billet rods, and Wiseco pistons. The motor is controlled by a Holley Dominator EFI system and get its spark from a MSD box. Lukenovich uses a RacePak IQ3 street dash to watch the car’s vitals. A wet fogger nitrous system was added to the motor and can spray up to a 400 shot with the help of some C23 race gas courtesy of a custom standalone fuel cell. Taking all of the 1060 pump gas horsepower abuse is a Rossler TH400 and Neal Chance Racing Converters torque converter.

This car has all the right parts to make it one rowdy street car and that’s exactly what Lukenovich was going for with this build, but he’s not done with it yet.

“The end goal is to switch the car over to twin-turbos and hopefully run in the low seven-second zone. The car is still all steel and I would love to keep it that way, which is why I will be going to the turbo setup eventually. I’ve always wanted to do Drag Week and that’s the ultimate goal for the car when it’s ready. The only thing is it will always have to be street legal because I like to drive my cars everywhere,” Lukenovich says.

The plan for 2017 is to spend most of the year testing with the Chevelle to make sure everything works correctly and then begin the transition to the boosted setup — and hopefully some seven-second time slips!