1965 Chevy Biscayne - "Drifting'' The Biscayne

Pick up a copy of just about any of our sister magazines this month or next and you'll probably find an article about Hotchkis Performance's recent Media Challenge at Buttonwillow Racetrack in central California. Those articles will likely chronicle in head-swelling, chest-thumping, ego-on-overload detail just how heroically their writers and project cars triumphed at the event, which consisted of a four-way test of braking, handling, acceleration, and cornering. The rules were simple: the car had to be a legit magazine project car, driven by a legit member of the magazine's staff. With yours-truly at the helm, our '65 Chevy Biscayne qualified on both counts-and as a bonus, it even has Hotchkis suspension components (see "Sway Away!" June '03). The night before the test, we stayed up til midnight prepping the 4,000-pound barge for combat by swapping in a close-ratio manual steering box we borrowed from Associate Publisher Ed Zinke's street rod, and a set of 4.10 gears with a torque-biasing True Trac differential into the Biz's Currie 9-inch.

The next day we blasted 125 miles up I-5 to Buttonwillow for a long, hot day at the track. Unfortunately, as the photos here show, we didn't leave with anything to brag about-except a great series of humiliating action shots. In fact, we almost came in dead last in our '65 Chevy Biscayne, proving either how pathetically under-prepared the car is for open-track performance, or how pathetic a driver the editor is. For our ego's sake, help us pretend it was at least a combination of the two.

Here's what we learned: Building an all-around car isn't as easy as it looks, and driving an open-track-style road-race car is an absolute blast. We're totally hooked after just this one trip out, and we're desperate to someday have a purpose-built car that's actually good at doing all this stuff. This year's Hotchkis Media Challenge kicked off the company's annual Track Day at Buttonwillow, which is co-sponsored by Yokohama, Baer, and Flowmaster. So if you too have corner-carving ambitions, you might just want to check it out next year. Find out more at www.hotchkis.net.

By Randy Lorentzen/Planet-R

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