If your going to drive it, make it as nice as possible!

I've joked about people saying incredulously-especially if it's raining-"You DRIVE that car?" While there are quite a few "trailer queens"-i.e. show cars that are rarely, if ever driven, most of us don't want a $25,000 piece of garage jewelry that we show to people. Most of us do drive our beloved muscle cars. Maybe not for daily transportation, but on weekends or nice days. Some of us ( Gasp! ) may even put 5,000 miles a year on them. If your buying, or already own a musclecar you plan to drive somewhat regularly, here's some good tips to make it a pleasant experience.  #1 Know your driving style and needs, and maybe change your option list ( stick or automatic? ) , or ( within reason-i.e.-axle ratio ) even modify the car accordingly. Here's a tale of two Trans-Ams.  I had a 1978 WS6, 400, 4-speed T/A that I absolutely loved. The 3.42 gears were a great compromise between jackrabbit starts and top-end charge. ( 5,400 rpm was 128 mph ). I surprised the hell out of many 5.0 Mustang owners in the mid-80's. But I lived in a city of 300,000 people. I drove maybe 3 miles to work, and 0-60 speed was important. My cousin had a 400 powered 78 T/A but his was an automatic with 2.56 gears. He absolutely loved the car. He lived in rural Missouri, 30 miles east or west of the nearest small town, and 90 miles away from the nearest large city. 99% of his driving was at highway speeds, so the 2.56s made for easy cruising and good gas mileage. And the top-end was unbelievable-the car was going like 143 mph at 4,700 rpm ( According to a radar reading from a cop ). Any impromptu "speed contests" he got into were going to be from 60-100 mph. So if, you live by cornfields, 4.10 gears might not make for the best driving experience. A four-speed can be fun, but not in inner-city rush-hour, stop and go traffic.  #2 A non original carb can be a boon to driveability. If your a Ford fan, you know that the Autolite 4100 and 4300 four-barrels were the worst carburators ever made, bar none. Brand-new, they didn't work right. Crappy ( even for a musclecar ) gas mileage, hard-starting, flooding, hesitation under load. I worked for Ford in the '70's, and if you had a Mustang with a 351C or a T-bird with a 460 and you griped hard enough, the dealers would put 600 Holleys on them and warranty them! This is how the #6619 and #6919 became emissions-legal in California! I recommend the Edelbrock Performer series-no power valves to blow, no gaskets below the float level, adjustable secondarys, and they just flat work. Mopar guys-rejoice- Edelbrock makes AVS's now too! If you have a 72 and later model with the Thermo-Quad-use it as the doorstop it is, buy an adapter or change the manifold, and put an Edelbrock on it, if you want to drive it. GM guys-Jet and other companies make performance rebuilt quadrajets, unless your running an aftermarket manifold / carb setup. Believe me, this will make your life much easier than a bleeding over, 35 or 40 year-old carb with warped throttle shafts. (Store that numbers matching piece of junk for resale or show time.)  # 3 GM guys with pre 1965 full-size cars or pre-1967 A body automatics-Change 'em! The awful "Slim-jim" in full-sizes won't shift over about half-throttle, and no one makes shift kits for them. By changing the driveshaft yoke, and shortening the driveshaft a tad, you can swap in a Turbo 400 that works like a dream. You can even use the stock shift linkage, (they have the same number of detents even though the pattern is different) just remember that reverse is now low. Slim-jims mount the starter on the bellhousing, and Turbo 400s on the block. Most 1963 and later blocks are drilled and tapped for a starter anyway. Earlier models may need this done but it's not a big deal.  The A-bodies-Chevelle, Cutlass, GTO etc, are even easier. A Turbo 350 will bolt right in place of a two-speed Powerglide ( Chevys ) or Super Turbine 300 ( BOP applications ). You don't even have to change the trans mount or driveshaft yoke. The car will drive way better, and be quicker. You can use the stock linkage here too, but you won't be able to manually engage low gear. No big deal, a shift kit can make it automatically kick down to 1st under 20 mph. Mopars after 1962 had the excellent Torqueflite, so you guys are exempt, as are Ford guys with C4's and C 6's.   # 4. Put modern tires on it. Save the Coker tire replacements for show duty. Modern Radials ride, handle, stop, last longer and are more puncture-resistant than 40+ year old bias-ply designs.  Hope this helps everyone out. Mastermind