This 1969 SS396 Chevelle Once Owned by Bruce Springsteen Rocks a Killer ’80s Vibe!

The Chevelle may have only lasted three generations, from 1964 through 1978, but it left its mark on the hot-rodding world, and was once touted as “America’s most popular midsize car”. Of the three generations, we would argue that the one most-envisioned when you think of a Chevy Chevelle would be the second generation, sold from 1968 through 1972. This is the time period considered by many to be the golden era of muscle cars.

For 1968, the Chevelle received a whole new look, and carried over very few styling cues from the previous generation. The Chevy adopted a long hood/short deck design, and even the wheelbase changed from the previous 115 inches to 112 inches with the 4-doors and wagons stretching out to 116 inches. The new, flowing roofline was reminiscent of a fastback, and overall, the new design was more streamlined. The 1968 design (the first to incorporate Federally mandated items such as side-marker lights) was slightly revised for 1969, with a new front end that used a single chrome bar to connect the quad headlights, along with a grille cast in ABS plastic. The side-markers were shrunk down and Astro Ventilation, a feature already found on other Chevys such as the 1968 Camaro, replaced side vent windows.

In 1968, GM invented the term Astro Ventilation. Before then, windwings (side vent windows that flipped out) were used to direct outside air into the car, which was especially nice if you didn’t cough up the cash for air conditioning. We would like to say the addition of dash vents for the air—which is really all Astro Ventilation is—worked better, but they didn’t; GM only replaced vent windows because the dash vents were cheaper to make compared to the complicated and expensive-to-produce glass side vent windows. Hey, sometimes it’s all about the bean-counters and marketing departments, and the term “Astro” sounded so futuristic in the space-crazed late ’60s.

This 1969 Chevy Chevelle convertible is rocking a 1980s vibe, because it was owned by rocker Bruce Sprinsteen from 1981 until Christmas of 1987, when he gifted it to his buddy and recording engineer Toby Scott. The car was completely restored in 2020 in a configuration described in Springsteen’s song Racing in the Streets from his 1978 album Darkness on the Edge of Town. The car is being offered at Mecum’s 2023 auction in Indy as lot number S229.

The title song of Bruce Springsteen’s 1978 album Darkness on the Edge of Town most assuredly mentions clandestine street racing and how for many it was an escape from a depressing life and a meaningless job. That song is a bit obscure about it, but the song Racing in the Streets (voted 17th coolest car song by HOT ROD)  gets right to the point. It describes a “sixty-nine Chevy with a three-ninety-six” that was built with the narrator’s partner Sonny “straight out of scratch,” and how the pair “only run for money.” The song also says the 396 has “fuelie heads,” which, besides being impossible, is rather stupid. But hey, it’s a rock song, not a technical manual. To be fair, the song does mention that “the strip’s just right” and that the narrator is going to “blow ’em off in my first heat.” So, we would say it’s a mix of street racing and the legal type at a dragstrip. If you can ignore the fuelie nonsense, it’s a pretty good drag racing song.

This 1969 Chevelle drop-top, which is even fielding a Hurst shifter on the floor, as mentioned in the song, was produced at GM’s Baltimore, Maryland, assembly plant, and when Springsteen owned the Chevy he had it painted Midnight Black. During the restoration it was returned to its original LeMans Blue metallic with the retro-cool white side-stripes along with a power top done in white. It’s also rocks (sorry, can’t stop using that pun) a set of chromed Cragar SS wheels wrapped in BFG raised-letter radial tires, to fit the era of that song.

Under the hood there’s a 396-inch big-block engine with updated MSD ignition and a tach adapter, a billet-aluminum serpentine belt system driving a polished alternator and water pump, and ceramic-coated Hooker headers feeding dual exhaust. The heavy-duty drivetrain incorporates a four-speed manual transmission with a Hurst T-handle shifter and a 12-bolt rearend. The car’s electrical system was also updated with a Painless wiring harness.

The Chevelle, as shown, was displayed in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio, where it even had the surfboard Springsteen would carry in the back when heading to the Jersey Shore (one of the benefits of a convertible). So, if you want to own a small piece of rock history, or just a ’69 Chevy Chevelle with an early-’80s vibe, then check out this Chevelle at the Mecum Indy event.

On episode 17 of HOT ROD Garage, a new project car is welcomed to the show: A 1970 Chevelle that’s being built for the owner of Original Parts Group. OPG sells just about everything you’d need to restore one of these Chevelles to factory specifications, but the HOT ROD Garage team is gonna put its own spin on things and hide a fuel-injected HT502 big-block in the engine bay disguised as a 454 LS6. When it’s finished, this vehicle will have all the classic looks of a 1970s muscle car with the power and reliability that you could have only dreamed of 45 years ago. Sign up for a free trial to MotorTrend+ and start watching every episode of HOT ROD Garage!