Never argue with an idiot, because people might not know the difference!!

I talked to a guy the other day who got so upset that I knew more than he did, that if I wasn't about 4 inches taller and 40 pounds heavier than him, I think he'd have challenged me to a fight. I never saw anyone get so spittingly hysterical about being proved wrong. The subject was SCCA Trans-Am racing, and the impact it had on production cars. This "Know-it-All" attended the Monterey Historic Car races every year. If you don't know, the Monterey Historics allow people with everything from MG-TC's to Shelby Cobras, to Datsun 510s and 240Z's to old NASCAR racers to run at Laguna Seca for a few days. It's a great event, and the only place where you can see tons of really cool vintage cars actually running, not sitting in a museum or on a trailer. Anyway, a group of guys were discussing the Trans-Am series, and how the cars evolved. All of us agreed that although they took the name of perhaps their most famous model from the series, Pontiac didn't have much success in the races. I said that was because just as Herb Adams and several other engineers were getting serious about mounting a Pontiac Trans-Am effort to compete with Ford, Chevy, and AMC -( Who by then had stolen Roger Penske and Mark Donohue from Chevrolet ) John Delorean, who was backing Adams and Co., got promoted to Genearal Manager of Chevrolet and left. DeLorean's successor cut Adams budget.  Adams had destroked a 400 Pontiac to 303 inches to meet the 305 cubic inch limit. He found that the Tunnel-Port Ram Air V heads that Arnie Beswick and other Pontiac drag racers were using with great success on the 400 and 428 engines just killed the little 303. They actually ran better with Ram Air IV or regular "D Port" Ram Air III heads. With the smaller heads, Adams got 485 hp out of the 303, between 5,000 and 8,000 rpm. This was consistent with what the racing 302 Chevys and Boss 302 Fords were putting out. However, because the cranks, rods, and pistons, were all custom-made, and the solid lifter valvetrain was a hybrid of Pontiac and Chevrolet parts, the engines were quite expensive. Chrysler was even experimenting with a 305 Hemi to have Richard Petty and company possibly mount a Trans-Am effort. Petty had the same problem as Adams. The engines were outrageously expensive to build, and the Hemi heads were just too damn big for the little motor. Chrysler cut the budget just like Pontiac did. In the end a few 303 Trans-Am Firebirds were built-Jerry Titus won a couple races before he was killed at Lime Rock. When the rare and expensive Pontiacs blew up, a lot of privateer racers just put 302 Chevys in the cars and kept racing. As for Chrysler, Richard Petty pulled out and decided to stay with NASCAR. But Sam Posey and others destroked a 340 small-block to 305 inches that was competitive. This guy started staying how stupid I was, that Pontiac never sold a 303 engined Firebird Trans-Am, and that every Challenger T/A or AAR Cuda he ever saw, had a 340 six pack, and that Mopar never had a 305 Hemi and I was the dumbest person he'd ever met. I responded that I was fully aware that Pontiac never sold the 303 in a production car, but it was built for racing purposes, and that NASCAR, as far back as 1968, because of the 200 mph plus speeds the 427 Chevys and Fords and 426 Hemi mopars were going, was considering lowering the cubic inch limit to 305 to keep speeds down and make the racing safer. That's why Richard Petty was involved, because they thought they might need a 305 inch NASCAR motor. I said I knew for a fact, that at least one 305 inch Plymouth Superbird was built and raced in the 1970 season to see if they would be competitive. When NASCAR decided to continue to allow the big-blocks, Petty lost interest and without him, Chrysler didn't really give a crap about Trans-Am and cut the funding. Thus the destroked 340s that were run by the Mopar Trans-Am racers. This guy began swearing and telling me that all Superbirds had 440s, Six-Packs, or Hemis, and that I was F-ing retarded. Neither I nor the other guys in the group could convince this moron that we weren't talking about production cars, but RACE cars, and how their development sometimes impacted what made production. He called us all more names and left, disgusted. As were the other five guys there who knew what i was talking about. As Ron White says- "You Can't Fix Stupid!"  Mastermind