Walter Doyle is a drag-and-drive racer that does body work on vehicles for a living, but that doesn’t mean what he drives is all show and no go. The 8-second capable, twin-turbo Chevelle that Doyle debuted at Sick Week in 2022 is a project he and his wife had been working on for a while. Don’t let the rough look of Doyle’s 1966 Chevelle fool you for a second, though, as this is a well put together machine.
Doyle grew up in a small town where he spent plenty of time cruising in his Chevelle. When you hang out with enough teenage car fanatics, street racing will inevitably happen, and Doyle may or may have partaken in these activities.
“I started working on cars before I had a driver’s license. I rebuilt the 327 in my Chevelle while I was still in high school. I also swapped in a turbo 400 transmission, which eventually led to some nitrous being used, as well. I made plenty of mistakes along the way, of course, because that’s how you learn on your own. My first real mechanic job was at a shop that swapped out junkyard motors and transmissions. I stayed on the mechanical side of the industry for a few years, but I just never really liked working on stock cars. I jumped around to several different jobs after that first gig, but eventually ended up in the paint and body industry,” Doyle says.
The original plan was for Doyle to take the car to Rocky Mountain Race Week 2.0 in 2021. Doyle and his wife tore the Chevelle apart but fell just short of getting it finalized for the event. The Chevelle sat for a few months in an unfinished state so Doyle could get caught up at work, but then Sick Week was announced, and he scored a spot and got back to work. Doyle got enough of the car finished so it could have its chassis certified, and he began to chip away at the rest of the outstanding items. Scott Law, Doyle’s best friend, even came to Florida to assist with getting the car ready.
The last big hurdle was body work, and after a few adult beverages, a plan was concocted to throw a matte clear over the original paint. Well, after what seemed like an eternity of sanding, Doyle discovered plenty of sins committed by others who had attempted to repair the Chevelle’s body at different points during its lifetime. While 70 percent of the body was going to look awesome with the original paint, the other 30 percent was just too rough to really make look right.
“The car had too many bad small repairs from over the years to make it look cool. At this…
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