Monday, January 11, 2016
60's and '70's Road Test Ringers re-visited......
Had some people ask about other magazine test gaffes or favoritism after the last posts. I've touched on them before, but I aim to please so here's my list of the biggest offenders. # 1. After more than 40 years Jim Wangers finally admitted what we all knew. Car and Driver's May 1964 GTO test car that ran a blistering 4.6 second 0-60 and a 13.1 second 1/4 mile time was a ringer. Royal Pontiac had pulled the 389 and replaced it with a hopped up 421. In addition to the extra cubes-the ringer had thin head gaskets to raise compression, rocker arm lock nuts and loosely adjusted valves to get another 500 rpm on the top,mechanical throttle linkage on the Tri-Power instead of the stock vacuum unit, the carbs were jetted richer and the distributor was re-curved for maximum performance. Showroom versions only ran in the low 14s-but man did that article sell a lot of cars-32,450 in the short '64 sales year-and another 75,000 in '65 and 96,000 in '66. GTO fever was so hot-That Chevrolet-with a dealer network twice the size of Pontiac's-could only sell 77,000 SS396 Chevelles that year. # 2. 1969 440+6 Road Runner "Prototype". Car Life tested a "Prototype" 440 Six-Pak Road Runner that ran a string of very low 13 and very high 12 second e.t.s Chrysler even used it in their ads. However the "Prototype" had been "Brought to the top of Specifications"-i.e. Blueprinted-and the carbs custom-jetted and the distributor custom-curved. And the car had 4.30 gears and slicks, and a pinion snubber. And the "Professional Driver" was Pro Stock Drag Racing Champion Ronnie Sox of "Sox&Martin" fame. Small wonder that production examples were more than 1/2 a second slower! # 3. 1973 SD-455 Trans-Am. This "Prototype" ran a blistering 13.75 for Car And Driver and and an even quicker 13.54 for Hot Rod. If you look at the pictures closely-you can see it's the same car-down to the Michigan liscence number! The reasons I say it's a ringer are because the SD-455 wasn't released until April 1973 and this is why only 295 were built-252 in T/A's and another 43 in Formulas all with May or June production dates. The road tests were published in the May and June issues, but the actual tests were done in January. The car is a ringer because it had a 1972 aluminum RAIV / 455HO intake on it. Production SD-455s had an Iron Intake with an EGR valve on it. Part of the delay problem in getting the engine EPA certified was EGR valve function. Also-the prototype had the hot RAIV cam-which had 308 / 320 duration and .470 lift. ( With 1.5 rockers; RAIV's had .520 with 1.65 rockers ). It had trouble passing smog with this cam which was swapped for the much milder RAIII cam which had 301 / 313 duration and only .414 lift. Horsepower was down-rated from 310 to 290. This is why production examples could only run 14.30's. # 4. 1973 Olds 442. Motor Trend had a 1973 "Performance Car Preview". At this test a silver and red Cutlass 442 blew the doors off all comers which included an SD-455 Trans-Am, a 454 Corvette, a 440 Charger, a 401 / 4-speed Javelin AMX and a 351CJ Mustang Mach 1. Olds engineers later admitted that the 455 in the car had the ultra-hot 328 duration "W30" cam, and the TH400 trans had a 2,800 rpm stall torque converter and a Hurst Shift kit installed, and the stock 2.73:1 gearing had been swapped for 3.42:1's! Production examples had none of those things. Think that made a difference? # 5. 1978 Dodge Li'l Red Express Pickup. In November 1977 Car and Driver had a "Double the Double Nickel" test-all cars which ran faster than 110 mph. The half-ton 2WD 360 V8 Dodge Pickup blew the doors off both an L82-4-speed Corvette and a WS6, W72 Trans-Am. How? This "Prototype" had Catalyst-free real dual exhausts, Nascar-style "W2" cylinder heads,the hot cam out of the legendary 340 "Six-Pack", an aluminum Holley "Street Dominator" intake manifold and a Holley 650 "Double-Pumper" carb. No surprise that production examples with stock heads,stock cam,and an Iron intake with a Carter Thermo-Quad were substantially slower!!. It was all done in good fun and the interest of selling cars......Mastermind
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On a day with no extra pocket money and waiting pick up a prescription I was perusing a magazine that had a "427 Cobra vs L-88 Corvette" shootout. The Vette was equipped with a 4 spd, dual disc clutch, 4.56 gears ( I think...?) but was all stock O.E.M. Same for the Cobra, all stock, but I don't recall the specs. The Vette clutch was going away and they didn't allow the owner time to swap it out, yet it still handled the Cobra by nearly .4 in the 1/4 mile, recording an ET in the high 11s vs the Cobra's low 12 for the 1st round. It was a 2 out of 3 race and the 2nd was nearly a dead heat with the Cobra winning due to the Vette's clutch woes, the 3rd all Cobra because the Vette clutch went south. It was interesting to note that once the racing was over the Vette owner swapped in the new clutch and recorded a blistering pass in the 11.70s. I went back the next day to buy the mag and it was gone, didn't find another copy, just added it to my memory banks. Don't know if you're hip to that one, but I couldn't help but think "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance". At the end of the movie, now knowing the truth, the newspaper man says, "When the legend becomes fact, print the legend." How dare they say the Cobra was not invincible, right? Something similar happened with Chrysler's own test of a Road Runner HEMI vs 440 Six Pack. A tired, loaded, exec version of a 440 Six Pack was driven from Detroit to NY for the test/race. The HEMI was tuned to the max, equipped with a 4spd and 4.10 gears, and once again was driven by none other than Ronnie Sox. The magazine guy drove the automatic GTX with 3.55 gears, and the use of that car was excused due to no Six Pack, 'glass hood 1/2 year specials available. The funny thing was how close they were in another 2 out of 3 test, the GTX actually winning a round due to a missed shift (from Ronnie SOX!?!). The word on the street bak then was how well the 440+6 could run, in many cases handling the legendary 'elephant' in street tune. "When the legend becomes fact..." Thanks for the topics.
ReplyDeleteOn a day with no extra pocket money and waiting pick up a prescription I was perusing a magazine that had a "427 Cobra vs L-88 Corvette" shootout. The Vette was equipped with a 4 spd, dual disc clutch, 4.56 gears ( I think...?) but was all stock O.E.M. Same for the Cobra, all stock, but I don't recall the specs. The Vette clutch was going away and they didn't allow the owner time to swap it out, yet it still handled the Cobra by nearly .4 in the 1/4 mile, recording an ET in the high 11s vs the Cobra's low 12 for the 1st round. It was a 2 out of 3 race and the 2nd was nearly a dead heat with the Cobra winning due to the Vette's clutch woes, the 3rd all Cobra because the Vette clutch went south. It was interesting to note that once the racing was over the Vette owner swapped in the new clutch and recorded a blistering pass in the 11.70s. I went back the next day to buy the mag and it was gone, didn't find another copy, just added it to my memory banks. Don't know if you're hip to that one, but I couldn't help but think "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance". At the end of the movie, now knowing the truth, the newspaper man says, "When the legend becomes fact, print the legend." How dare they say the Cobra was not invincible, right? Something similar happened with Chrysler's own test of a Road Runner HEMI vs 440 Six Pack. A tired, loaded, exec version of a 440 Six Pack was driven from Detroit to NY for the test/race. The HEMI was tuned to the max, equipped with a 4spd and 4.10 gears, and once again was driven by none other than Ronnie Sox. The magazine guy drove the automatic GTX with 3.55 gears, and the use of that car was excused due to no Six Pack, 'glass hood 1/2 year specials available. The funny thing was how close they were in another 2 out of 3 test, the GTX actually winning a round due to a missed shift (from Ronnie SOX!?!). The word on the street bak then was how well the 440+6 could run, in many cases handling the legendary 'elephant' in street tune. "When the legend becomes fact..." Thanks for the topics.
ReplyDeleteHey Thanks for commenting! I remember the L88 vs Cobra article. It was in Musclecar Review and you are absolutely right. Thanks again for reading!
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