Nickey Chevrolet (AKA: "Nickey Chicago") was a Chevrolet automobile dealership located in Chicago, Illinois, USA. Nickey Chevrolet was one of the largest factory dealerships and specialized in high performance Muscle Car sales and service. Nickey Chevrolet's Service Department performed numerous hot rod conversions, and their parts department functioned as a huge speed shop.
Nickey Chevrolet was originally established in the 1920s at 4120 Irving Park Road. (at the corner of Kedvale and Irving Park Rd.). When the Kennedy expressway was built in the 1950s Nickey Chevrolet moved to 4501 W. Irving Park Road in Chicago. Ultimately, Nickey Chevrolet grew to a huge 200,000-square-foot (19,000 m2) facility. Nickey Chevrolet began its high performance parts business in 1957 and immediately went racing with tremendous success. Their "Purple People Eater" Corvettes became famous and soon everyone knew that Nickey was spelled with a backwards "K". Nickey helped create the Super Car Genre. Nickey Chevrolet became General Motors largest volume selling Dealership for both vehicles and parts, many of the High-Performance variety.
The service department specialized in engine swaps, transplanting 427 Cubic Inch Displacement (CID) engines into the very first 1967 Camaros, and soon after that into Novas and Chevelles. A unique Nickey conversion was swapping the Z/28 Camaro's hot "Special High Performance" 302 CID V8 into various 1969 Chevelles. In fact, Nickey Chevrolet modified hundreds of cars to their customers' specifications. A customer could walk into the dealership, pick out a car, and then have it modified to their taste; anything from a street sleeper right on up to a NHRA National Record competitor. Nickey Chevrolet's Stage I, Stage II, and Stage III conversions are considered by many enthusiasts to have been the high point of the Muscle Car movement, and are amongst the most sought after and desirable of collectible cars. Most of these cars are held in private collections and are rarely seen in public. The 454 (CID) Big Block engine was added to the option list in the 1970 model year and any other part imaginable was available through Nickey's extensive parts department. The dealership was sold in 1973, and became Keystone Chevrolet. The key players who built Nickey's performance cars and image moved to a new location in 1973 on Milwaukee Avenue in Chicago. The New Speed Shop and Automobile Conversion Center was called "Nickey Chicago". Nickey Chicago continued to build legendary Hi-Performance Chevys until 1977 when the speed/performance shop finally closed its doors.
In 2002 a Muscle Car Collector and Car enthusiast, Stefano Bimbi purchased the legal rights and trademarks for the NicKey Brand. A team of individuals to include Don Swiatek, the one and only Hi-Performance Manager of the original NicKey Chevrolet Dealership as well as Ronnie Kaplan the Crew Chief for NicKey Chevrolet's road racing efforts, joined forces, in order to revitalize the Iconic Brand of Performance automobiles as a tribute and continuation of the genre created by NicKey Chevrolet.
The new company is called NicKey Performance and builds vehicles branded as NicKeys. The company is located in Saint Charles, Illinois. While NicKey Performance is not a new car dealer, it does have an established network of dealers wherein new car orders may be taken.
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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