More Issues

Years In The Hobby

Written By: Tom Olsen

I have to admit it. I’m a sucker for original owner car stories, even if the owner sold the car along the way. If they’ve since bought it back, I’m intrigued. And then, if it happens to be a 1968 Chevelle, and the original purchaser was a young lady, that’s even better yet!

Such is the case with the Chevelle owned by Marsha and Loren Letsche of rural Hartford, SD. Back in February of 1968, Marsha Bernd walked into her local Chevrolet dealer, S & D Chevrolet in Manson, Iowa, and ordered her new 1968 Chevelle Malibu Sport Coupe. While not a high-performance muscle car as ordered, Marsha added a nice complement of options that gave good performance. Those options included the 250 horsepower 327 engine, dual exhaust, powerglide transmission, bucket seats, center console, radio with rear speaker, tinted windshield, and more. Butternut Yellow with the black vinyl interior was the choice of colors. All this added up to the princely sum of $3,483.95. Marsha traded in her 1965 Chevy Impala convertible and the balance due was $1,680.

Marsha was dating Loren, her now husband, when she bought the Chevelle. It was her daily driver for the next several years. She and Loren married in 1971 and started racing the Chevelle in 1972 or ’73. This engine/model combination fell nicely into the NHRA K/SA (K-stock-automatic) class and Loren and Marsha enjoyed racing the car for the next few years. After a few years of racing, the Chevelle was relegated back to daily driver duties until the Letsches bought a 1978 Chevy Nova and parked the Chevelle.

A family friend, Brad Bucholz, had his eye on the Chevelle for several years. He tried to buy the Chevelle from Marsha in 1979, but Marsha wasn’t ready to part with it. It wasn’t until 1997 that Brad and Marsha finally made a deal on the car. By then, the Chevelle was in need of some serious “freshening up.” Over the course of a few years, Brad did some much-needed body work including new quarters, fenders, cowl induction hood, paint, glass and bumpers. A new interior was installed, and the 327/powerglide was swapped out for a 427 big block and a TH400 transmission. Now the Chevelle was a serious performer!

In 2008 Brad was ready to sell the Chevelle, and Loren and Marsha had to have it back. (It’s interesting to note that the Sun Super Tach which Loren gave Marsha for Christmas in 1969 was still in the car.) Since buying the car back, Loren and Marsha have taken it to several car shows including the O’Reilly Street Machine Nationals, Automania, and many of the area car shows.

Last summer, the 427 that was in the Chevelle was getting a little tired, so Loren had the crew at Sehr Performance Machine do a total performance build on the engine. After the build, including a .030 overbore and a roller cam, the 427 is now putting out 473 horsepower on the dyno! Loren is very pleased with the process at Sehr’s. Scott kept them informed throughout, and they are very satisfied with the end result. There are no plans to go racing with the Chevelle at this time, other than perhaps a test-and-tune visit “just to see what it’ll do.” Loren just wanted “a healthy street machine.” It sounds like he accomplished that.

Loren and Marsha have a long history with performance cars. Back in the late 1960s they raced a couple different Chevy gassers. The first was an E/Gas ’55 Chevy with a 331ci engine and a 4-speed hydro transmission. Loren raced it in 1967 at Thunder Valley running 12.66 @ 106mph. It was sold after a year and followed up with a ’57 Chevy sporting a 302 and a 4-speed. The ’57 ran 11.80’s, also in E/Gas, and was raced at Thunder Valley as well as Empire Raceway in Sioux Falls. Loren built his own engines and he and Marsha both worked on the cars in an unheated garage at the time. After a couple years racing gassers, Loren got out of racing until he and Marsha started racing the Chevelle.

In addition to the Chevelle, the Letsches have a couple other performance cars in the inventory.

Their 1978 Nova was purchased when the Chevelle was parked. This car was also purchased as a “driver,” and equipped with a 305 and a 4-speed. It was a base model with no air conditioning. But, this one has been updated, too. In 2006 a 385 horsepower/350 crate motor was installed. The engine has aluminum heads and a 700cfm Demon carb. A Muncie 4-speed replaced the original Saginaw 4-speed, and 3.73 gears have been added. The car has had one repaint in its original black color. Loren calls this one his “local black-top car.”

One more performance cruiser comes in the form of a 2006 Pontiac GTO. The Torrid Red with black leather interior package is their “fun fair-weather cruiser.” The GTO has the 6.0L, LS2 engine producing 400 hp, and a 6-speed manual transmission. Kooks stainless headers and a strut tower brace are the only performance mods on this car, but then, these don’t need a lot to be quick.

This is a family that has enjoyed the car hobby and drag racing for much of their lives. Loren has been an NHRA member since 1968. He and Marsha even planned their wedding so that they could attend the World Finals in Amarillo, TX, in October of 1971. They have two daughters, Shana and Stacy, and a granddaughter Shayne. They all try to go to at least one national racing event each year. Shana, I’m told, took her first steps at Thunder Valley Dragways. Now, she is a regular photographer there.

It was enjoyable visiting with Loren and Marsha about their cars and history in the hobby. The more we talked the more we discovered mutual friends (and cars we knew) from back in the day. It’s interesting how close some paths cross in the car hobby without actually meeting a person. Loren recalls that he and I raced each other at Sioux City back around 1965! It will be fun to see them at future automotive events and discuss more tales of cars and characters from way back when. Keep enjoying that original owner Chevelle, you two!

February 2019

View Online

More Issues

Years In The Hobby

Images