A tough choice of Blue Oval muscle.......

My brother is thinking very seriously about getting a new Mustang. He's torn between a Shelby GT350R and a Roush Stage 3. The Roush would be the "King Kong" drag racer with 675 hp on tap-a Hellcat fighter for sure. The Shelby is a better balanced package overall. We'll be checking them both out and I'll post about what decision he makes and why. I've driven a Roush Stage 3 and they are definitely "Jule's Wallet" from Pulp Fiction. I'd like to drive a GT350 and compare. Anyhow I'll let everyone know how the search goes. Otherwise Happy New Year to everyone.....Mastermind

An F14 fighter jet is an airplane....But it's not something you'd fly 100 people to Hawaii in...

Got a bunch of the usual flack about the post stating that 7 and 8 second cars weren't street machines, but race cars with liscence plates. "Go buy a Camry you pussy if you want a smooth idle."  Real adult stuff like that. Anyhow-I'm here to say that I personally and my friends have had some badass rides. My GTO had 12:1 compression, a cam with 337 duration and .575 lift, two 750 AFBs on an Offenhauser dual-quad manifold,Hooker headers and it was backed by a Rock-Crusher 4-speed and a 12-bolt posi rear with 4.33:1 gears and Lakewood ladder bars. Rear tires were Hot-n-Sticky N50X15 Mickey Thompsons. I had an 11.79 time slip from a strip in California. Yes, it was brutally quick. Yes, I loved it.  It also got 5-8 mpg while needing two cans of octane booster per tankful and the motor buzzing at 4,000 rpm on the freeway didn't really make for a nice commute to work. My '73 Hurst / Olds and my '77 Trans-Am weren't nearly as fast but they were a lot easier to drive on a daily basis. A friend had a Cobra Replica with a blown big-block Chevy in it. It was ungodly fast-the first time he ran it on the track it ran something like 9.90 in the 1/4-( 500+hp in a 2,300 lb body will do that ) and he got kicked off the track for not having a full cage and a driveshaft safety loop-which most tracks require on anything quicker than 11.50. However-it oveheated if it idled for more than two minutes, you had to crane your neck to the left to see around the blower to drive, driver's and passengers alike burned their legs on the sidepipes getting in and out, and about every fifth run the Jag rear end would spit out a half-shaft and it would have to be towed home. As this demonstrates-anything is drivable depending on what the driver is willing to tolerate. But to qualify as a "Street Machine" like I said in the previous post-you ought to be able to drive 150 miles without stopping for gas,enter or exit a sloping driveway without denting the oil pan or the exhaust system,idle in 90 degree heat for ten minutes without overheating and drive 10 mph over the posted speed limit on a curvy road in the rain. You know things that a 15 year old Honda Accord or a 20 year old Buick LeSabre can do!!  If you want to drive some fire-breathing monster go ahead. But don't try to convince the rest of us that it's as comfortable a daily driver as your neighbor's Chrysler 300.  Mastermind

Another blast from the past...."Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry" could be updated....

After talking about possible remakes of The "California Kid" and "Thunder Road" someone mentioned "Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry." It's usually on the list of greatest car-chase movies in buff magazines or on the internet. For those who aren't action / car movie buffs-It starred Peter Fonda and Susan George. Fonda was an ex-Nascar driver who with his former crew chief decide ro rob a major supermarket to fund their next attempt to run the Winston Cup circuit. It's largely lumped in with campy stuff like "Eat My Dust" or "Moonrunners" but it actually has a pretty good robbery / kidnapping plot gone wrong and good suspense. There's also some good automotive action early on with Fonda driving a '66 Impala, that they later dump for the Iconic '69 Charger used in the finale. Susan George was smokin' hot in the early '70s-she had the barefoot, halter-top wearing southern slut that men die and kill for down pat. She played Dustin Hoffman's wife in the Sam Peckinpah thriller "Straw Dogs", she played Timothy Bottoms girlfriend in the revenge flick "A Small Town in Texas" and her hot inter-racial love scenes with Boxer Ken Norton in "Mandingo" gave her the same kind of notoriety that Sharon Stone got from "Basic Instinct" years later. Others have tried it-Kim Basinger in "No Mercy", Teri Hatcher in "Heaven's Prisoners" and most recently Reese Witherspoon in "Mud"-but none of them come close to Susie as the bubble-headed Mary or Jennifer Billingsley as the over-sexed "Shake a Puddin'" in "White Lightning". As to whether Susie or Jennifer has the more enticing, sympathetic portrayal of the whore-with-a-heart-of-gold-it's too close to call. Susie was a little more biker bitch, in-your-face-with her sexuality and attitude,going insult for insult with Fonda and his pal while showing her smokin,tanned body in-the skimpy denim halter-top and ultra-tight hip-hugger jeans that barely covered her ass-crack-while Jennifer was more demure- wearing a flowery sundress and running her bare foot up and down Burt Reynolds bicep and cooing-"If you want it Gator, just say so." "If you don't it's ok." That scene causes a "Wayne's World" type "Schwing!" for me every time I see it. Anyway you want to rate them-Susan pretty much had that market cornered in the mid-70's. Vic Morrow-ironically following the role of the Maniacal sheriff in the "California Kid"-is cast here as-guess what? An over-zealous lawman that you feel doesn't want to catch Fonda & crew and send them to jail, he wants to kill them. The fatal crash at the end was used in the opening credits of "The Fall Guy" for years.  Anyhow-the kidnapping / robbery plot would still fly-you'd just have to change the dollar amounts. For cars a Hellcat Charger would be the obvious choice-but you could also use a Camaro SS or a Mustang GT. I'd say use Chris Hemsworth ( "Thor" "The Avengers," "Blackhat" ) in the Peter Fonda role and Scarlett Johansen as Mary. ScarJo wouldn't even have to talk-90 minutes of her barefoot in skimpy jeans and a barely-there halter top would be worth the price of admission. Now if Chris got tired of her bitching and put her bound and gagged in the backseat??!!!!  Ok, sorry getting too close to porn there......But still..... Anyhow I think it could be a big hit.  Mastermind  

A "Thunder Road" redux might fly.....

After the post about the "California Kid" I got some inquirys about other car-chase classics that might benefit from a re-boot to modern times. Obviously "Bullitt" would fly-you just change the dollar amounts that Johnny Ross embezzled and put the records on computer disc. And of course you can use a new Hemi Charger and a new Mustang GT. That's a no-brainer. The one I thought of though that would be better and more original is "Thunder Road."  The original was made in 1958 and starred Robert Mitchum as a Korean war vet who was running Moonshine and fighting not only the Feds but other Moonshiners who were trying to take his territory. I spoke once before about updating it to the Viet Nam era and using late '60's musclecars and also maybe adding drugs and hookers to the mix. That would fly too. However the other day I got an Idea for a modern TR.  Luke Doolin and his buddys can be returning Iraq and Afghanistan vets that live in Washington or Colorado where Marijuana is legal. One of the guys can use his disabled veteran status to get a legal dispensary. They can quickly figure out that they could make HUGE profits by running the weed to neighboring states that aren't so progressive, while flying under the radar with their "legal" business. Soon local law enforcement can find out and want a piece of the action to look the other way. The DEA and the IRS can get interested, as well as gangsters who contol the drug trade in the neighboring states. This will obviously set up great suspense and action. Besides using Chargers and Challengers and Mustangs to elude the law-obviously they want to do business in the winter time too- they could also use Subaru WRX's-all-wheel drive with Blizzak tires would surely haul ass over snowy mountain passes a lot better than Crown Vic or Charger cop cars or even Ford Explorer SUVs that Police agencies use. They could also use 400 hp Ford Raptor 4X4 pickups to make their own roads through the woods. Because of their training in desert and mountain warfare it won't be easy for the law or the gangsters to take them down. I think it would be a badass, unique original story that would be a mega-hit. Especially if the director kept it real. By real-I mean no CGI-just great men doing great things with great cars. And real fight action-no "Matrix" like flying through the air and walking up walls-we'll see-blood and bones breaking, and how a real fight looks-not the usual Hollywood crap of two guys kicking each other in the face for ten minutes and they both look like they just left the barber shop. I think it would be a mega mash if someone did it right. You listening, Quentin Tarantino of Brian De Palma? ( "Carlito's Way" ).  Mastermind      

"Period Correct" Or "Proper Date Coded"....Still isn't original!!!!.......

I see a disturbing trend in the sales of high-end musclecars. By high-end-I mean stuff  that people want over $100,000 for. That's right-the price of a house anywhere but New York or California and it's not original!!. I mentioned in a earlier post that I saw a Shelby Mustang that was for sale for $140,000 and had a "date correct" Police Interceptor engine in it. What that means is the original owner probably put a rod through the side of the block around 1974 and it's been through several Ford engines since-and when this last guy decided to restore it he managed to find a 428 out of an old cop car. This is isn't an isolated example. I've seen several Hemi powered Road Runners, Chargers, and Challengers selling for $80,000 on up. Except their not original Hemi cars. Their 318 or 383 models that someone stuffed a Mopar Performance Crate Hemi in. I saw a '57 Chevy Bel Air that was very nicely done and was selling for $99,000. Yep. Another one for 100K. And it was proudly stated that it had a "period correct" T10 4-speed trans and 283 V8. Except it wasn't "period correct".  Period Correct would be with 1957 date codes. The engine and the trans had 1964 date codes!!  I saw a '69 Trans-Am Convertible for sale for $100,000. Except it's not one of 8 ultra-rare cars. It's a Firebird convertible that someone cloned a T/A out of.  Don't get me wrong-I'm not disparaging the builders or sellers of these cars. They disclosed that the cars weren't original-it's not like their trying to defraud anyone by selling fakes as the real thing. No I'm saying theres way too many people with more money than brains. If I was going to spend six figures on a car-it damn well better be the real deal.  Here's where the term "Buyer Beware" comes into play. Do some research and shop around. If the '69 GTO your buying has a 400 out of a '75 Bonneville in it-that wouldn't be a deal breaker-if the price was under 10 grand. But it should be if someone's selling it for 50 grand!!!!  That's all I'm saying. Mastermind