Ron Niemeyer, of Ottoville, used to drag race his 1955 Bel Air at Wayne Trail Dragway in Van Wert.
Jim Krumel | For The Lima News
OTTOVILLE — Ron Niemeyer looks at his 1955 Chevrolet Bel Air and sees two cars.
It is the car the Ottoville man purchased 53 years ago as a youth with a taste for drag racing.
It’s also the car he later refurbished, and today enjoys taking riding in with the love of his life, his wife Mary Lou.
“It’s been some car,” Niemeyer said.
It is certainly full of memories. He raced at the old Wayne Trail Dragway in Van Wert as a young man in his 20s.
“It could go through the quarter mile in less than 11 seconds,” he recalled. The drag strip is history now, shut down long ago.
“Those were fun days,” he said.
When he bought the Bel Air in 1969, he had no idea he would own it for so long.
“I purchased it from George Place in Marble Town … the south side of Delphos. I contacted him three times before he would sell it,” Niemeyer said. “It was just a body. I got an engine and a transmission and put it together to race it.”
In 2003, with his racing days behind him, he decided to restore it. It has a 327 engine with a four-speed transmission.
His love for the car is not surprising. The Bel Air series has a special place in the hearts of vintage car collectors. It was part of the Chevrolet lineup from 1950 to 1975 and was named after the Bel Air Estates district in California.
The 1955 Bel Air that Niemeyer owns is part of the second generation of the vehicle, which ran from 1955 to 1957. Motor Trend crowned it the car of the year in 1955.
Today, Hot Cars magazine calls the Bel Air’s fancy, curvy design “eye candy.”
“It’s just a nice car,” Niemeyer says.
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