Chuck Parker's '55 on 'Street Outlaws' Is a Fan-Favorite for Its Blend of Power and Beauty

Reality TV stars are often unprepared when they're thrust into the limelight. While lots of actors and actresses dream of the day they'll "make it," folks who get famous for just doing their day jobs while a film crew captures it don't exactly have the kind of wherewithal to deal with a sudden public interest in who they are, what their hobbies are, and if they have a husband or wife.

Like Chuck Parker from Street Outlaws.

The better you are at something, the more people want to know about you, and Chuck is pretty darn good at racing. A member of Team 55, Chuck started getting attention for the gorgeous red 1955 Chevrolet that he would pit against the competition on Discovery Channel's Street Outlaws. While the original design was a splash, in the world of drag racing, if you're not constantly evolving, then you're already behind the competition.

Chuck's had to shave off some weight from his beautiful whip in order to be more competitive against other racers. Dragzine penned a pretty amazing write-up of significant changes the 55 team did to the gorgeous red vehicle, namely switching the body from metal to fiberglass, which made people think that the racer was all of a sudden a lightweight car, however, this wasn't the case — not by a longshot.

Even with the "slimming down" improvements, Chuck's '55 still stands at a whopping 2,840 pounds, all while producing an insane amount of horsepower and torque. He's had to make big changes to the auto's drivetrain as well, which has produced some good results for the team. Although Chuck admits that new changes always bring a learning curve, he's excited about constantly evolving his now iconic racer.

"We had to lean on it pretty hard... and when you’re doing that all the time you’re going to have to rebuild it quite often, and we were finding ourselves having to rebuild the car every two or three races. We’re starting to get the feel of it. It’s a completely different tuning curve than what we’ve had before with that 632 cubic-inch motor. You know we’re starting to learn some things, we’re starting to figure out where we can throw power at it and where we can’t."

Chuck's '55 has been nabbing a bunch of wins, but it isn't the most consistent vehicle on the tracks these days. However, it doesn't change the fact that it's wicked fast and when it's working right, the monster is tough to beat. That was pretty easy to see when it went up against Daddy Dave and Death Trap at the Route 66 No Prep Kings event. The red Chevy's tires gripped the asphalt with ease as it lunged ahead at preposterous speed.

In September of last year, it went up against Mike Murillo and left its black-painted opponent in the dust. Murillo's whip appeared to have had an issue getting off the line, but it still doesn't change the fact that Mike's car made an amazing time. As always, at all of Chuck's races, model Amelia Tyree was there repping the '55 team.

Both Chuck and Amelia are seen at all of their races together, which led a lot of people to believe that they're an item or even married. Judging by some of their social media posts, it definitely seems as though Chuck and Amelia are at least dating, but it's hard to tell whether they're married.

In one photo on Instagram, Amelia refers to herself and Chuck as a "power couple," which led one commenter to say, "Power couple? I thought he was your dad!" Amelia clarified, replying: "Nope [...] So many people don’t know and just assume, but now you know! Thank you hope to see ya at some races." 

Maybe they'd rather keep their personal life a little more, I don't know, personal and away from prying eyes? It doesn't change the fact that the two are hella good at this whole drag racing thing.