BLOW YOUR COOL

Charlton Sherry’s clinically clean, blown Ls-powered Chev was built as a weekend family plaything

THE impetus for Charlton Sherry’s super-sweet ’56 Chev came from a motorcycle accident that left him thanking his lucky stars and re-evaluating his choice of transport. “I lost an argument with the Armco while riding my motorbike up the Putty Road,” says Charlton. “My family and I decided that it was time to end my bike days and go the four-wheel option.” Other than it having an extra two wheels, Charlton was unsure of what make, model or year he wanted. Relentless ‘suggestions’ from his son Ray to buy a Chev eventually swayed him.

“In reality, it was a no-brainer,” says Charlton. “I’ve always loved Paul Souma’s ’56 [SM, Jan ’13]; this whole car was inspired by ATTACK.”

While searching for a suitable donor car, Charlton came across a potential candidate located at Sussex Inlet on the NSW coast. “Despite the owner telling me I wouldn’t be disappointed, I initially rejected the car,” says Charlton. “The guy rang a second time and again got a ‘no thanks’. Third time around he offered to trailer it up to Sydney. We met at Powercruise. I took one look at it and promptly told him: ‘You’d better unload it, as it’s not going home with you.’”

It was good enough that after a bit of a tidy-up it was registered and put into service as a weekend cruiser. Nonetheless, Charlton had bigger plans, so around four years ago, off the road it came.

Charlton is part of an overachieving family. Street Machine readers will be familiar with his brother Steve’s Summernats Top 60 LJ Torana, GRNADE (SM, Mar ’18), and his explosively quick Datsun 1200 ute. The third brother, Warren, owns an ultra-tidy green EK that was at Summernats Slam. Fussiness, craftsmanship

WHILE THE DONOR ’56 WAS EXTREMELY SOLID AND 100 PER CENT COMPLETE, IT REQUIRED A TON OF REPRO PARTS TO BRING IT UP TO ‘SHERRY’ STANDARD

01 Despite sitting around for extended periods of time, this ultra-sweet Chevy came together in around four years. “Realistically, we probably only worked on it for two years,” says Charlton. That’s impressive, given that it was good enough to score a Top 10 spot at Summernats Slam 02 Why go with a four-door? Having escaped major injury from a high-speed motorbike crash, Charlton was adamant that this build was all about creating something the whole Sherry family could climb aboard and enjoy safely 03 Those trick coil covers adorning the Magnusonblown 6.0L started out as diecast units with a raised Edelbrock script. The script was machined off and replaced by the original Chevrolet badges from 50SIXX’S rear quarters – very cool! 04 At the front of the engine bay lives the radiator, a/c condenser and water-to-air intercooler for the supercharger. Charlton supplied careful dimensions and a template to Aussie Desert Cooler. “It fitted first go and works perfectly!” he says 01 02

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