History: “Chevy 2 Much” is one of the west coasts first altered wheelbase funny cars. According to an early article in Super Stock Magazine, “When Bee Platt, the wife of Hubert Platt first saw the brilliantly painted Chevy, she couldn’t refrain from drawling ‘that Chevy is tooo much’ which Doug quickly adapted to, ‘Chevy 2 Much.’” Doug exclaimed, “In those days those of us building these altered cars were outcasts. Why the mainstream magazines wouldn’t even write articles on us. It was hard to get the strip owners to let us even run!”

This is the original car at Lions Dragway ... and that’s Doug in the engine compartment !

 Another shot at Lions Dragway .... “pre wheelie bar “

   Another article in February 1966 read, “Doug picked up the car from a used car lot for $600, then invested $8,000 and three months of time in its preparation. Thorley partnered up in the venture [with] Dee Keaton… Together, they foresaw the coming popularity of the “funny cars” to the western scene and commenced their project.”

   In an interview with DRM (Drag Racing Magazine) he was asked how the car began. He answered, “Hubert Platt had come out from Georgia one winter with a new (’64 427) Falcon. I’d known Hubert for years and had just built him a set of headers. There was a match race coming up and he’d burned his hand pretty bad so he asked me if I wanted to drive the car. I took two rides in the car…and it was off the ground most of the time all the way through the quarter. Well, that really hooked me, and the minute I got back to the shop I started on ‘Chevy 2 Much.’ I copied Hubert’s car cuz it was factory backed, thinking Ford had already figured [it all] out.”

  The interview with DRM (Drag Racing Magazine) adds this historic question, “Tell us about Chevy 2 Much. In 1966 there were only a handful of NHRA national events−and no Funny Car Eliminator−so you must have built it as a match racer?” Doug’s relates, “Yep, that’s all we did in those days was match race. It was an altered wheelbase ’64 Chevy II built by Ted Brown. It had an alcohol-injected 396 big-block at first and weighed around 2100 pounds. It ran in the high 9’s at over 150 mph, and I think it might have been the first 4-speed car over 150. It was a ball to drive because it was off the ground or sideways most of the time. It was the only ‘funny car’ in Southern California outside of Jack Chrisman’s blown Comet, and it got so popular people wanted me to bring it back east and race the factory cars like the Ramchargers Dodge and (Ed) Schartman’s Comet. I could beat those cars to the 1/8 mile, but then they’d come around me by 30 mph at the 1/4 mile.”