I miss Light,and lightning fast hot rods....

All the buff magazine lately seem to be embracing the "Bigger is Better" theory. Every car that is featured has a 500+ inch stroker motor. The "small-block" cars are 392 and 427 inch Fords based on 351Ws, 383,400,and 427 and 454 inch small block Chevys, 410 inch Chrysler "LA" engines, and 350 inch Olds engines stroked to 440 inches. Just because something is possible, doesn't mean it's worth doing. If you want a 454 inch Chevy-there's millions of them in junkyards in 80's and '90's trucks, as well as GMPP selling them as crate engines. Why bore and stroke a 350 to get 454 inches? Rather than getting a 350 Olds Diesel block and and spending bookoo bucks on machine work and cutting down a 425 crank, and using special rods and custom pistons to get 440 inches-I'd just buy a 455. They were used in every Olds model from 1968-76, so their not exactly a moon rock. The point I'm trying to make is I remember a lot of guys who had lightweight cars with small or medium sized engines that were blisteringly fast. My cousin had a '63 Nova that had a 283 bored to 301 inches that had a 4-speed and 4.56:1 gears that was an absolute rocket. He showed his taillights to many big-block cars. Another guy had a '64 Falcon with a 289 that was badass. A buddy of mine that had a restored 440 Road Runner got his doors blown off by a hot 302 powered '72 Maverick one night. I had 2 Pontiac Venturas ( Pontiac's version of the Nova ) that were great street racers. Venturas only weighed about 3,100 lbs. About 700 lbs less than most '70's Firebirds.  One was a '73 Hatchback with a 350 Pontiac. Dual exhausts and an Edelbrock P4B manifold and a rebuilt Q-Jet, and a shift kit in the trans made everyone think I dropped in a 400. I blew the doors off a buddy's '70 Chevelle that had a 300 hp 350 in it, and another buddys '66 Chevelle that had a 327 and a 4-speed. Because of the power to weight ratio, it was deceptively quick. I totally shocked a guy with a 351C powered '72 Mustang. The other one was a '71 model that had been a six-cylinder model. This one was really light-it had no power steering, no power brakes,no a/c and had small bumpers-the heavy 5mph bumpers weren't introduced until 1973. This one weighed about 2,900 lbs. I dropped the 400 and TH350 out of my wrecked Trans-Am in it. Weighing 900 lbs less than the T/A-( which weighed about 3,800 ) it was quite the pocket rocket. Many a challenger who thought they were up against a small-block Nova got quite a surprise.  Speaking of small-block Novas-another friend bought a little-old lady, pristine, six-cylinder / 3-speed '66 Nova. He swapped in the 350 out of his wrecked El Camino and a Saginaw 4-speed. With 3.31:1 gears and the 3.11 1st gear and 2.02 2nd-it was a rocket off the line. I did the math once-the torque multiplication was equivalent to having a 2.20 low Rock-Crusher and 4.88:1!s  And once he got 2 or 3 car lengths on you off the line-unless you had a really strong big-block-you weren't getting it back. Another friend of mine had a 1970 340 Dart Swinger that was really quick. He gave quite a few 396 Chevelles, 383 Chargers, and 389 GTOs runs for the money they never forgot, if he didn't win outright. His brother had a '64 Barracuda with a pumped-up 273 V8 and a 4-speed that was brutally quick. Don't get me wrong-I love big-block torque-I loved my GTO Judge, I loved my T/A's and I loved my Hurst / Olds. I always wanted a 427 Stingray. But I also appreciate a lightweight contender that can run with the big dogs. I'd like to see the buff mags feature a really quick '66 Mustang with a hot 289 or a '68 Nova with a 327,or a 340 Duster- rather than another Chevelle with a 572 inch Rat or a Charger with a 528 Hemi!!  Just once in a while. Mastermind