One of his latest awe-inspiring re-incarnations that gets my red, white and blue blood pumping is a 1957 Chevy Bel Air modelled after the famous Daytona racing Stock Car known as The Black Widow.
Photos and Article by Etienne Fouche
The Black Widow Reborn – Peter du Toit’s ’57 Chevy Bel Air
There’s something about Zwartkops Raceway that gets under your skin. For me, it’s a place I can’t stay away from. I’ve spent lazy Sunday afternoons leaning on the fence, staring at the silent tarmac, imagining the ghosts of McQueen, Shelby and Moody tearing through the corners. An empty racetrack has a strange beauty to it — part romance, part melancholy, and all horsepower in waiting.
At the heart of that magic is Peter du Toit, the man who’s made Zwartkops a temple for South African motorsport. He’s a living link to an era when race cars were raw, loud, and just a little dangerous — when “motorsport” meant grit under your nails, the smell of high-octane in your clothes, and the occasional questionable life choice after dark. This was long before launch control, PR-friendly photo shoots, or any of the sanitised polish that comes with modern racing.
One of Peter’s latest creations is a perfect reminder of those glory days: a ’57 Chevrolet Bel Air built in the spirit of the legendary “Black Widow” stock car. The originals were Chevrolet’s factory-backed answer to Ford and Chrysler in the late ’50s, pounding the Daytona track when it was still half asphalt, half sand. Born from the wild days of bootleggers and moonshine runners, that scene would eventually morph into NASCAR — now big enough to pull bigger crowds than football.
The first Black Widows ran a 283 cubic-inch small-block with fuel injection, a compression ratio of 10.5:1, and a very tidy 283 horsepower. That’s one pony for every cubic inch — serious bragging rights in 1957. They came with 4.11:1 gears, positraction diffs, and an intimidating catalogue of 170 factory performance parts ready to turn your Sunday driver into a circle-track brawler.
Peter’s Bel Air, though, is built for a different kind of fight. Under the gleaming black-and-white skin beats a high-compression 350 small-block stroked to 383 cubic inches, topped with Edelbrock Victor Junior heads and a matching alloy intake. A Holley carb gulps down hot Pretoria air before sending it through a full tubular racing exhaust. The result? Well north of 500 horsepower, all of it ready to be unleashed through a Muncie four-speed, shifted the proper way with a Hurst lever. Out back, American Racing Torq Thrust IIs wrapped in soft compound rubber do the job of translating power to motion. Stopping power comes courtesy of Wilwood discs all round — a wise move, given the Chevy’s lead-sledge weight and unrelenting pace.
Inside, there’s no creature comfort to speak of — just a bucket seat, a roll cage, and the sense that you’re sitting in a weapon rather than a car. The trunk holds nothing but a fuel cell and a battery, and the steering is a high-ratio manual unit that doubles as a workout regime for the driver. Add a fire suit, gloves, boots and helmet, and the cabin becomes a sweatbox of pure, undiluted intent.
This is a car that demands respect. It’s as much a statement about the way racing used to be as it is a performance machine. Peter du Toit has managed to channel the spirit of the original Black Widow into something that can still tear up a circuit in 2025 — and in doing so, he’s given South African race fans a living, breathing slice of Americana.
Special thanks go to Peter, Jonathan du Toit, and the team at Zwartkops for keeping the past alive in the best possible way: at full throttle.
