Springsteen and the "69 Chevy with a 396"
Bruce Springsteen has received criticism for decades for the opening lines to Racing In the Street, The Boss' ode to rev heads everywhere:
I got a ’69 Chevy with a 396, fuelie heads and a hurst on the floor
The Chevy boys are right: you can’t get fuelie heads for a 396 big block V8 (6.5ltr). Fuelie heads were developed for the fuel-injected small block V8s starting with the ‘57 283 cubic inch unit that was upped to 327 cubes for 1962. The fuel injection option was expensive, and complex to maintain. But boy did it have status on the street - having a fuel injection badge on your Corvette would attract instant attention. Why? It meant you had the hottest thing going, in an era when Americans were just nuts about fast cars. And if you couldn’t afford a real ‘fuelie’ you could get a set of fuelie heads for your non-injected small block Chevy V8.
Having a fuel injection badge on your ‘57 Chevy let everyone know you had the really hot setup. Kids would ask you to pop the hood just to get a look!
The fuel injection option gradually lost popularity as cheaper big block V8s put out equal muscle with less hassle. 1965 was the last year for the injected 327 and only available on the Corvette. 1965 was also the first year for the new Chevy big block 396 - as mentioned in the song. And to make matters more confusing, you could order a high performance 327 small block with fuelie heads, but not fuel injection.
After Born To Run made him famous, Bruce sold his custom ‘57 Chevy ragtop when it became too recognized.
Photo: Eric Meola
Originally developed by legendary Corvette chief engineer Zora Arkus Duntov (and originally named for him - ‘Duntov heads’) it was on the street they became known as fuelie heads. Whatever you chose to call them, by 1973 Chevrolet no longer offered the hot setup. All new cars sold in the US would have to run on unleaded fuel. Lead free fuel mean low compression, which in turn meant less power and the death of the muscle car. Bye bye fuelie heads.
A ‘69 Chevy with a 396 ready to go into battle. Drag racing was one of the most popular sports in America.
With thousands of fuelie heads manufactured through the muscle car years, street racers could get a cheap horsepower boost in the form of a fuelie-head equipped, second-hand small block Chev V8. Engines thus equipped became a hot item for would-be street racers like the one Springsteen sings about.
With the muscle era barely cold in its grave, Bruce Springsteen’s Racing in the Street appeared on his legendary 1978 album Darkness On The Edge Of Town. At his concerts 40 years down the road, thousands still sing along to every word “I got a ‘69 Chevy with a 396, fuelie heads and a Hurst on the floor.”
Having an after-market Hurst shifter in your hot rod provided assurance of quick and reliable gear-shifting when street racing…
Like we said at the start - fuelie heads would not fit a 396. How or why could Bruce have made such a glaring mistake? The answer goes back to Springsteen’s penchant for tinkering with his lyrics, so there were often several versions of the same song.
The original song lyrics to Racing In The Street mention a 383, not a 396.
We have to assume the 383 Bruce mentions was a ‘stroked’ 327 or 350 (not the 383 mopar big block). Stroker kits are still available from hot rod shops today and when installed, the kit will stretch a Chevrolet small block capacity to 383 cubes. And yes, fuelie heads will fit!
So originally the lyrics made sense, then somewhere down the track Bruce changed it from ‘383’ to ‘396’. Who knows why - he probably just liked the sound better. Makes sense - ‘396’ rolls off the tongue nicer than ‘383’ and that’s probably all there was to it. Does it really matter?
The Chevrolet 396 was a big deal when introduced in 1965 and became an instant legend on the street.
Search youtube and you’ll find audio of Bruce performing an early version of the song live. In that version he’s driving a deuce coupe, not a 69 Chev. You’ll hear him sing
I got a 32 Ford she’s a 383
Fuelie heads and a Hurst on the floor
Early drafts of the song referred to the title as ‘32 Ford’. The Boss knew his cars. And he name drops them more than any other songwriter I can think of - Cadillac, Buick, Ford, Dodge Challenger, Trans Am, even an Olds 442 is mentioned in an early version of Thunder Road. With so many brilliant car themed songs in his repertoire - one small mistake can be forgiven. And Racing In The Street is still the best song ever written about street racers…
‘For all the shutdown strangers and hot-rod angels rumbling through this promised land’ - lyrics from Racing In The Street, Bruce Springsteen.
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About the author
Raph Tripp is a passionate classic car enthusiast and writer, and founder of TunnelRam.net. If you wish to publish this article in part or in whole, please credit Raph Tripp and tunnelram.net . This is an original Tunnel Ram production ©2021 Tunnel Ram. All images remain the property of the original copyright holders.