More on "Good Deals" and "Budget" projects....

Sometimes when reading the buff magazines and their "Budget" projects you think "Who's budget?" Jay Leno's?  Donald Trump's?  Here's a couple that had me shaking my head. One was "Junkyard Jewel". This one featured a 455 Pontiac that they bought from duh-a junkyard. When they were done they were happy that it made 440 hp and 460 lbs ft of torque. and it cost "only" $4,400! Really. The 400 in my brother's GTO made 381 hp and 430 lbs of torque and cost $1,900 to build. If we really needed the extra 59 hp and 30 lbs of torque-I think we could get it for a lot less than another $2,500!!  Part of the reason the 455 was more than double the cost of our 400 was the magazine used Edelbrock heads which cost over 2 grand a pair for Pontiacs. Our whole engine build didn't cost 2 grand. I realize the magazines have to showcase their advertisers products to stay in business, but in this case-the 455 came out of a '76 Gran Prix-it had 6X heads on it. Which except for RAIV's ( which the Edelbrocks are patterned after ) are the best breathing factory heads to start with. I know '76 455s had an anemic 7.6:1 compression ratio. But they were completely rebuilding the engine. Pontiac heads can be milled .060 to raise the compression a full point, and they were getting new pistons anyway. With the head work and custom pistons they could have easily raised the compression to something in the 9-9.5:1 range which is about all you can run with pump gas and iron heads anyway. Even if the Edelbrock heads were worth 40 hp and 50 lbs of torque-which the difference is probably more like 25 hp 30 lbs ft-but I'm just saying-they'd have still had over 400 hp and 400 lbs of torque and the whole project would have cost like $2,200 instead $4,400. Half the cost. I'm not slamming Edelbrock heads-I think their great, have used them in the past and probably will in the future-I just think on a project where you were trying to keep costs to a minimum spending $2,000+ for a set of heads you don't really need is frivolous. Another one was hopping up a ZZ4 crate engine. If you don't know-the ZZ4 was very popular 350 Chevy crate engine. They were pretty hopped up from the factory. They had 10:1 Keith Black pistons, L98 Corvette aluminum heads, a roller cam with .474 / .510 lift, and the original Z/28 / LT-1 style aluminum intake with a 770 Holley carb. They were rated at 355 hp and 418 lbs of torque. What made them such an awesome street engine was they had more than 350 lbs of torque from 1,800-5,200 rpm. I had one in my Hurst / Olds for a while after I grenaded the 455. If I didn't tell people-when they drove the car-they'd swear it was a good running 455 Olds. They were shocked to see a small-block Chevy under the hood, and that it had that much low-end torque. Anyhow Hot Rod did this article on hopping one up. A single-plane intake and a bigger cam netted them another 70 hp. 425 hp from a still streetable engine is pretty damn good. They wanted to increase the output by 100 hp. They added a set of bigger Trick Flow aluminum heads. This got them another 40 peak hp and attained their goal. However- here's the kicker. The 40 hp increase came  at 6,100 rpm!!. On the dyno sheet the "Antiquated" L98 heads were equal to or within 5 hp and 5 lbs of torque at every rpm up to 4,600!!  Now how often are you going to be above 4,700 rpm? The Trick Flows didn't show more than 25 more hp until over 5,000 rpm.  In an all-out race car-yes that might be worth it. In a street / strip machine, maybe not. Further, the Trick Flow heads cost $1,400. For $1,400 they could have got a 200+hp nitrous system, a higher stall converter, some stiffer rear end gears,-all stuff that would have netted a larger performance increase than 40 hp in a 500 rpm window on the top end. And agian- a ZZ4 crate engine cost about 5 grand to begin with. Now you want to throw another 2 grand plus at it?  And now my question is if you have that much money and need to go that fast, why aren't you buying a 454 instead of a 350?  By contrast another magazine did a budget 350 buildup. They bought a short-block from Pep Boys for $650. They bought some Vortec heads from Scoggin-Dickey, and an Edelbrock Vortec-compatible Performer RPM manifold, a hot roller cam, and some hooker headers. It dyno'd at 395 hp and 410 lbs of torque and cost $2,600. Now that's a "budget" build. All I'm saying is be careful and don't fall into "Gotta Haves". For example-I'll use the ubiquitous small-block Chevy. Every time you read an article about hot-rodding a small-block Chevy you see this list of "gotta haves". "You gotta have a 4-bolt main block"  "you gotta have a forged crank" "You gotta have "Pink" rods" "You gotta have 2.02 heads with screw in studs" etc, etc. Their half-right. If your building a NASCAR Nextel Cup engine that has to go 7,800 rpm for 500 miles at Daytona-yes you need all the beef you can get. But for a street car that only sees the occasional weekend trip to the drags-or even a "Street Stock" or "Hobby Stock" circle track racer that runs a 50 lap main event on a 1/4 mile or 1/2 mile track-you don't need any of that. Two-bolt main blocks and cast cranks are fine as long as rpms don't constantly go over 6,500. Cast pistons are fine. "Standard" heads and "Hi-Performance" heads have exactly the same size intake and exhaust ports. Standard heads have 1.94 / 1.50 intake and exhaust valves. Hi-Perf heads have. 2.02 / 1.60 valves. Any competent machine shop can easily put the larger valves into standard heads. As for screw in studs-my friends and I have raced cars for over 30 years,and I have NEVER seen a pressed in stud pull out of a head. Not ever. I've seen broken pushrods, broken rocker arms, broken valvesprings, but I have never seen a stud pull out of a head. I've also never seen a cast crank fail. I've seen spun main bearings and spun rod bearings-but that has nothing to do with whether the crank is cast or forged. You don't need to spend a ton of money on custom rods. Stock Chevy rods are virtually bullet-proof. Chrome-moly rod bolts are good insurance. regardless of make-95% of rod failure occurs at the bolt.  But if you don't know this and no one tells you-you'll innocently spend hundreds or even thousands that you dont' need to. That's all I'm saying. So do some research before you plunk down your credit card or hard-earned cash on some "Gotta Have" that you don't really need.        

"Good deals" should be stuff "Joe Average" can find....

A lot of the buff magazines are crying the blues about circulation being down, and they claim it's because the "Baby Boomers" are getting older and retiring, that the "Millennials" don't care about cars,etc,etc. The real problem is their stale and put out the same dreck month after month. I've said it a million times a couple of them should change their names to "Modern Fuelie Swap Monthly". I am sick to death of seeing old Camaros and Chevelles with LS motors, old Mustangs with Coyotes, and Old Mopars with 5,7 / 6.1 / 6.4 liter Hemis. I'm a hardcore gearhead-I was writing tech articles for Popular Hot Rodding when I was in junior high-If I'm sick of it, I'm certain the average casual reader wants to vomit day-glo. I'm also sick of cars that people have over 100 grand invested in. If your lucky enough to have that much expendable income-good for you. Enjoy it. But the average guy who lives on 15 bucks an hour doesn't want to read about some other asshole's "Toy" that cost 150K!! I'll give Hot Rod some credit- a while back they did a big article featuring reader's cars and the rule was you couldn't have more than $25,000 in the car-including the original purchase price. Now that was nice-these were cars that anybody could afford to buy and build. There was guy with a '76 Trans-Am that had a Herb Adams VSE suspension and a stompin' 455 under the hood. There was a guy with a Supercharged '92 Mustang GT that ran in the 11s, and a guy with an '84 Chevy Stepside pickup that had a 454 in it and ran in the 12s. There was a guy with a '71 Pontiac Gran Prix that ran in the 12s-with a 455, a TH400 and 3.55:1 gears. These were all very cool rides, and they were affordable. Anyhow what irks me the most are some of their "How To" articles or new "Project" cars. You know "12 seconds for $1,200" or "10 seconds for 10,000" or "Budget" engine build. Don't get me wrong-I don't mind if someone says they bought a set of used headers for $40 at a swap meet,or their buddy sold them a used Edelbrock manifold for $50, or gave them a used 750 Holley carb. That stuff happens all the time. What drives me up the wall is in the middle of their "Budget" build article-"Hey-what about that set of ported and polished Brodix aluminum heads that we almost forgot we had?" "Joe's brother not only gave us the disc-braked,3.73:1 geared posi rear end out of his wrecked Trans-Am, he helped us put it in the Camaro and bought the beer!"  Ugh. The two biggest offenders are Super Chevy and Mopar Action. Super Chevy ran the "10 seconds for $10,000" thing. I was find with seven grand for a 550 hp 406 inch Dart small block Chevy crate engine that was complete from carb to oil pan. That's reasonable. What made me want to firebomb their offices was the "engineless" '79 Camaro they bought to put it in. This car had a currie 9 inch Ford rear end with 4.88:1 gears, a TCI built powerglide with a 3,800 rpm converter, and 8-point roll cage,a safety fuel cell,Competition Engineering traction bars,and Center Line Wheels with Moroso drag front tires and BFG drag radials in the rear. For $2,700??!!!  The Currie 9 inch rear alone with GM mounting points costs $3,300 in Summitt!!!  The TCI tranny and converter is close to 2 grand, the tires and wheels another $1,500, the traction bars and the roll cage another grand, and the fuel cell another $500. Gee, I'd like to buy a car with 8 grand worth of custom parts in it for $2,700!!! "We only went $700 over budget".  I was livid. No one could duplicate that build for under $20,000-double their claim. Mopar action did the same thing. They had a "Budget" buildup of a 440. It started out ok-they bought a used 440 out of a '77 Chrysler Imperial in a junkyard for $300. Then they took the block to a machine shop to have it bored .030 over and cleaned up. Standard operating procedure. They ordered forged TRW pistons instead of cast, in case they decided to put nitrous on it later. No problem there. Then it began. They decided to use a forged crank and a set of "Six-Pack" rods with ARP chrome-moly rod bolts that they had "Laying Around". Check Summitt-a forged steel 440 crank from Eagle is $1,200, and a set of Eagle forged rods is another $600. Then they bought a big cam and some Edelbrock heads and instead of the Performer RPM / 850 Holley induction they were thinking of-"Hey what about that "Six-Pack" setup we also had "Laying Around?" Edelbrock still sells the manifold, Holley still sells the carbs, and Mopar performance sells the throttle linkage and the air cleaner. If you have to buy all that stuff retail-it would cost you $2,300 for a complete "Six-Pack" setup. Add the $1,800 for the crank and rods. How nice that they had $4,100 in premium parts just "Laying Around!!" That's the kind of shit that pisses people off immensely. Sure-when I managed a Pep Boys service center I once bought an LT-1 350 Chevy engine for $160. Some idiot had bought one of our $699 "Long Block" rebuilt 350 Chevy specials and turned this in for the "core". After seeing the camel-hump heads and 4-bolt mains, I triple checked the numbers on the block heads. Great googliemooglie-it was a for real LT-1! I asked the store manager if I could have it. He said sure, as long I paid the company the $160 "core charge". I paid him and turned handsprings all the way home. But that's not something you run across every day. "Good deals" should be something the average Joe can find at a awap meet or a junkyard-not a "Moon Rock" Mastermind         

Consider your whole package before you throw parts at it....

I talk to a lot of people who unfortunately-spend big dollars on speed parts for their car and then are severely disappointed in the car's performance. Often, the car doesn't even run as good as it did in stock trim. The reason is these people buy stuff that they read about in a magazine, or they listen to a friend, and they don't have all the information needed. Part of the problem is they read the buff magazines, but they either don't read the whole article, or they don't assimilate the information properly. A perfect case in point-Car Craft recently ran an article comparing various single-plane intake manifolds. They said the one that offered the most "Bang for the Buck" was the Edelbrock Torker II. That it would work equally well on a stock engine or a wild one. The hp and torque champ was a Holley / Keith Dorton unit. They said that while this intake worked well on their test mule, it wasn't really a streetable intake. The reason is the test mule was an 11.4:1 compression 406 inch smal-block chevy with 215cc intake port aluminum heads and a cam with 242 duration ( @.050 ) and .600 lift!!  Now 99% of the people reading that article aren't going to have an engine anywhere near that radical. But-he races off to Summitt Racing or Jeg's and orders up a Keith Dorton intake and an 750 Double-pumper Holley, because the article said that was the hp and torque champ. He puts it on his 8.2:1 compression L48 350 in his '78 Camaro that's an automatic with 2.73:1 gears and has stock 153cc heads and a cam with .390 / 410 lift.  It bogs off the line, doesn't begin to do anything until 4,000 rpm, and because of the lazy stock cam, is all done in by 5,000 or so. He's pissed. He should have read the article and the box the manifold came in. The Dorton intake is basically a NASCAR manifold-much like the Edelbrock Victor Jr-it's designed to make power from 3,500-8,000 rpm!!  This guy would have been much happier with an Edelbrock Performer and a 600 cfm vacuum-secondary carb. The car would have showed a noticeable improvement in power and torque from idle on up. If he "had" to have a single-plane-he could have got by with the Torker II and a vacuum-secondary carb. It would have had a little less bottom-end torque than the Performer, but it would "hit" like "gangbusters" at 2,500 rpm and pull hard to 5,500 or whenever his valvesprings gave up. Not Ideal-but the car would have been faster than stock and the guy would have been happy for the most part. Now the guys sells the Dorton intake and double-pumper to his buddy who has a '79 Corvette. The buddy's 'Vette really rocks with this setup. How is that possible? The buddy's 'Vette is an L82 that has 9:1 compression, "2.02" heads, and a cam with 224 duration (@.050 ) and .450 / .460 lift. It's a 4-speed with 3.70:1 gears. He drops the clutch at 3,500-4,000 rpm, it rockets out of the hole and pulls hard to 6,500 rpm. The T10 4-speed has about 1,500 rpm drop between gears-so he hits 2nd and subsequent gears at 5,000 rpm in the thick of the manifold's torque band. It works because the L82 has the cam and the heads and the gearing to take advantage of the manifold's power band. And with a stick-the driver can launch at whatever rpm he wants by manipulating the clutch, and he can rev the motor up at the line to "clean out" the carb. You can't do that with an automatic. Ironically-if the 'Vette was an automatic-it would still work ok. Not as good as with the 4-speed-but the L82 package would have 3.55:1 gears with the TH350-close enough to 3.70-and they came from the factory with a 2,500 rpm converter. Enough to get the car moving and up on it's torque curve. Much better than the guy's Camaro that had 2.73;1s and a converter that stalled about 1,600 rpm. See what I'm saying?  Here's another example. Guy has a 389 Tri-Power, 4-speed '65 GTO with 3.90:1 gears. He slaps a Ram Air IV cam into it that has 308 / 320 duration ( 231 / 240 @.050 ) and .470 lift with his 1.5 rockers. It has a badass lope but idles at 900 rpm. He pops the clutch at 3,200 rpm and shifts at 5,800. The M21 rock-crusher has a 1,400 rpm drop between gears so he's hitting 2nd at 4,400 right where the power and torque are the strongest. The car is way quicker in the 1/4, launches fine on the center 2bbl, really rips on the street. His buddy puts the same cam into his '77 T/A with an automatic and 2.56:1 gears and it absolutely kills what performance the car did have. It won't idle, you have to kick it into neutral at a stoplight to not creep into the car in front of you,and it's actually slower than stock. Here's why. The 389 in the GTO had 10.75:1 compression, a stick, and 3.90:1 gears. The huge cam-even if it lowered static compression by a full point-the car still had 9.5-9.75:1 compression. The 3.90:1 gears covered the lack of bottom end torque and got the motor into it's powerband quickly. ( There's a reason RAIV's were only available with 3.90 or 4.33 gears! ). Idle quality didn't matter-because again the driver can launch at whatever rpm he wants by manipulating the clutch. Now in the '77 T/A-the 400 had 8.0:1 compression. If the big cam cost it a point-now your static compression ratio is 7:1. Your going to lose what little power you had. Further-the choppy idle won't work with a stock converter, and the salt-flats 2.56:1 gears can't cover the off-the-line bog. The T/A driver would be much better off with the Edelbrock Performer Cam, or the factory "068" cam-both of which build massive low-end and mid-range torque. The only way the T/A driver could use the RAIV cam would be if he got some 72cc chamber Edelbrock or factory heads ( or milled his .060 to raise the compression over 9:1 ) and installed a 2,500 rpm converter and some 3.42:1 or 3.73:1 gears. It still wouldn't be as strong as the high-compression, 4-speed, stiffly geared GTO-but it would be pretty damn quick and definitely wouldn't bog. I know another guy who had a 390 hp 427 Stingray that nearly ruined it-he was going to install a Lunati "L88" spec cam. Thankfully-I talked him out of it. I pointed out-Lunati's catalog said the cam worked best with open exhausts and 4.56:1 gears!!!  Didn't that throw up a red flag?  Regardless of the 427's massive torque-this cam would have made his car-which had Q-jet on an iron intake, stock iron exhaust manifolds and a 4-speed with 3.36:1 gears-run like shit. It wouldn't have been as quick as it was stock. The spec sheet for the cam showed it idled about 1,500 rpm and made power from 4,000-8,000 rpm. "Bigger" isn't always better. Sometimes,it's better to err on the side of caution. Especially with cams and carbs and intakes. Comp Cams has their "Thumper" line which gives you the sound-but still has acceptable low and mid-range torque if you have to have everyone hear your car going "pocketa-pocketa-pocketa" at idle. And think of this-if a Super Stock Firebird can run 11.30s with a Quadrajet on an iron manifold-why do you need a tunnel-ram and dual 660 Holleys?  I'm all for "Restification" and more speed-but be reasonable and do some research before you start throwing parts at your car. Mastermind           

A few musclecars in movies that I missed...

After the last post some people told me about a few musclecars and movies they appeared in that i missed. #1. 1963-65 Buick Riviera. Patrick Swayze drove two of these in "Road House" a red one and a white one-because he didn't want his 380SEC Mercedes trashed. It's kind of a running joke through the film. Nicholas Cage drove a primer black one in the opening of "Drive Angry".  #2. 1967-68 Mercury Cougar. Mickey Rourke and friends drove one of these in "Desparate Hours"-a stinker about a hostage situation. The high point of the film is Rourke's escape from the courthouse when his attorney / lover-the smokin' hot Kelly Lynch-with her hands hancuffed behind her back loses her fur coat and gets her blouse ripped-exposing her awesome breasts on the courthouse lawn. Except for a brief scene of a barefoot Mimi Rogers in a skimpy bathrobe-the rest of the movie sucks. The action is tepid and dialogue overlong as they try to show what an evil genius Rourke is, and how equally smart Anthony Hopkins ( Rogers' estranged husband ) is. Ho-Hum. And they drove the nice Cougar into the lake.  George Clooney and Quentin Tarantino drove one in "From Dusk til Dawn". An action / horror flick about prison escapees who run into a coven of vampires on their way to mexico. Tarantino's buddy Robert Rodriguez- "Desparado" "Once Upon a Time in Mexico" directed-but you definitely see QT's influence. Over the top action, laugh out loud one-liners and a bikini-clad Salma Hayek "forcing" QT to drink tequila off her bare foot are some of the highlights. Great fun for a mindless action / horror / black comedy. # 3. 1969 Ford Torino. Aaron Paul-the worst actor on the planet-I don't know how he got his breakout gig on "Breaking Bad"-plays an auto customizer / race car driver who goes to prison when someone dies in an illegal street race-and he WASN'T driving the car!!!  One of many plot holes that you can drive a semi through in "Need for Speed". Anyhow in an early 4-way street race with other musclecars he drives a nice '69 Torino Cobra. The movie sucks ass-and his totally wooden performance doesn't help. He shows more emotion running on the treadmill in the ads he does for "Vitamin Water". Seriously.  Jason Statham drives one in "Wildcard" a stinker-about a professional bodyguard who goes on a rampage of vengenance after gangsters rape and nearly kill his hooker friend. It's a stinker because it's a remake of "Heat" which was made in 1986 and starred Burt Reynolds as the bodyguard, and it was a stinker. The Torino GT is cool however.  # 4. 1969 Nova. Kurt Russel drove one in "Death Proof". ( The early part of the film; the '69 Charger came later ). I can't remember the actor's name-but a gorgeous black '69 Nova SS gets wrecked in "Final Destination". Or Final Destination 2. One of the horror flicks about teens who get off a plane that crashes and then die gruesomely in later accidents. The Nova and the smokin' hot Ali Larter are the highlights. # 5. 1973 Charger. Ray Liotta drives one in "Unlawful Entry" a stupid stalker flick about a cop who gets obsessed with a married woman. Madeline Stowe is definitely worth obsessing over-but the plot is stupid, and the usually reliable Kurt Russel-this is Snake Plissken-from "Escape from New York" and "Cash" from "Tango&Cash", and Wyatt Fucking Earp for god's sake- "Tombstone" remember-is awful as her pussy husband-who provokes Liotta's psycho cop unnecessarily to set the whole mess off.  The Charger is cool though. It's a TV show-but USA Network's spy series "Burn Notice" has Jeffrey Donovan driving a black '73 Charger with Cragar S/S mags on it.  Thanks to the people who pointed these out and send more if you think of them. Mastermind

The Musclecar with the most movie appearances.....Hard to say...

Had someone ask me which musclecar had the most movie appearances, whether or not their was a chase scene. I gave it some thought decided that there were  3 or 4 that had many appearances, and the rest are sporadic. I'd have to say I think '70-81 Pontiac Trans-Am's have the most appearances. Besides the two "Smokey and the Bandits"  ( There was a 3rd one without Burt Reynolds, but no one really counts that ). John Wayne drove a T/A in "McQ", Chuck Norris drove one in "An Eye for an Eye", Steve McQueen drove one briefly in "The Hunter", there was an awesome chase in a parking garage with a T/A in the Micheal Douglas legal thriller "The Star Chamber", Roy Scheider drove one in "Blue Thunder", Bruce Willis got chased by one in "Color of Night", Chuck Norris got chased by one in "The Octagon". Ryan O 'Neal chased one in the finale of "The Driver". I'm sure I missed a few, but that's all I could think of off the top of my head. Right with the T/A's or perhaps more prevalent-if people think of more-are the iconic '68-70 Dodge Chargers. Besides "Bullitt"-the grandaddy of them all-and the Fast&Furious flicks-theres "Dirty Mary,Crazy Larry", Wesley Snipes drove one in the "Blade" vampire movies, Nicolas Cage and Amber Heard drove one in "Drive Angry", Kurt Russel drove one in "Death Proof", of course there's the "Dukes of Hazzard movie and TV series. I'd say next would be Mustangs. "Bullitt" of course-"Diamonds are Forever", the Original "Mechanic" ( with Charles Bronson and Jan-Michael Vincent, not the stinker remake with Jason Statham and Ben Foster. ) both versions of "Gone in 60 Seconds", Steven Seagal drove one in "Marked for Death", Jeff Bridges drove one in "The Last American Hero", ( bio of racing legend Junior Johnson ) Micheal Douglas drove one in "Basic Instinct". You get Challengers in the classic "Vanishing Point" and the vomit-inducing remake, Tracie Thoms drove one ( with stuntwoman / action star Zoe Bell strapped to the hood ) in "Death Proof", John Saxon drove one in "Moonshine County Express". This flick also had Maureen McCormack braless in a tank top and denim cutoffs tied up in a barn with a bomb ticking at her feet. If you were a teenage boy in the '70s-you'll appreciate this. If Marcia Brady in bondage won't help get your freak on, then I don't know what will. Sorry-back to the cars. NCIS and NCIS: Los Angeles have both featured Challengers old and new. Don Johnson drove a 'Cuda convertible on Nash Bridges-it's a Mopar E-Body-so that should count, but it's technically not a Challenger. That's all I can think of. If anyone wants to chime in with more of these cars appearances or others please do. But it's really hard to say what car has the most appearances. Mastermind  

If you don't know, ask someone who does!!!....

A pet peeve of mine-I mean one that really gripes my ass is when famous authors or movie directors make collossal mistakes about cars and other stuff and it gets totally missed by proofreaders and quality control people and gets left in the book or the film. Often for me-it just ruins the story. Here's a few that really pissed me off lately. # 1. "The Dark Half " This was a Stephen King best-seller and a movie about a writer whose bad-ass character comes to life and starts killing people after the writer "retires" the character. Overall it's a good story-but what screwed it for me is the killer drives a black '67 Toronado with a bumper sticker that says "A High Toned Son of a Bitch". That's a cool enough description of a gangster ride. However King goes on to talk about it having a 4-speed  with a Hurst shifter and him smoking the rear tires. Except Toronados are all automatics, and are all Front-wheel drive!!!  Arrrrrrggghhhh!!!  He could have left out the comment about the 4-speed and had the guy driving a '67 Riviera. They have the same bodystyle as the Toro-( cleaner and better looking I think ) and their rear-wheel drive. Or like he said if a "Macho Man" like George Stark HAD to have a 4-speed- Why didn't he give the guy a 60's or '70s Pontiac Gran Prix? Gran Prix's had a lot of power,were rear-wheel drive, and you could get a 4-speed in one well into the '70's.  Or he could have just said he "spun the tires". With 425 cubes under that long hood-my aunt had a '66 Toro-they would easily smoke the front tires. Just leave it at that. If your going to be specific-make sure your right. # 2. "Message from Vietnam". This is a Danielle Steel novel about some young men that-duh-get sent to Viet Nam and their experiences. It's set in 1965. One of the guys wants a Camaro. Ugh!!  We all know that Camaros weren't introduced until 1967. The kid should have wanted a Mustang or a GTO-both of which were introduced in 1964 and were selling like hot cakes again in '65. How hard would that have been?  Doesn't she have someone on her staff that could say-"Hey Boss-Camaros weren't introduced until 1967" "The "It" cars in '65 were the Ford Mustang and the Pontiac GTO".  And she was an adult herself in 1965-how could she not know that???  # 3. The Shawshank Redemption." Another Stephen King story about an accountant who killed his cheating wife and her lover and gets sent to a brutal prison. The movie starred Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman.  He manipulates the system and the crooked warden and the crooked guards and evetually escapes with the warden's stolen money. The story spans 19 years from 1947-1966. Except when they show him out of prison at the end happily cruising down the road-he's driving a 1969 GTO convertible!!!  For God's sake they couldn't find a '66?  Or a '67 model if it was supposed to be late '66??  At least that was at the very end so it didn't ruin it while I was watching it. But it still pissed me off.  # 4. "The Butcher". This one starred Eric Roberts as an ex-boxer turned mob enforcer. It was alright for a mindless action flick-except for one very annoying thing. Everyone he met kept talking about his badass '69 Dodge Charger and offering to buy it. Except the car he was driving in the movie was a '73!!!  If they'd had a '68 or a '70 model-I'd have forgiven the filmmaker-their at least the same bodystyle except for minor trim changes-but the '71-74 models are totally different. There's no way anyone would mistake one of those for the famous '68-70 "Bullitt / Dukes of Hazzard ( and now Fast&Furious and Drive Angry ) model!!  # 5. "Basic Instinct". Sharon Stone's "Beaver Shot" in the police station got all the attention when this flick came out. Personally I thought the scene where Micheal Douglas bends Jeanne Tripplehorn over the couch and rips her clothes off was sexier than anything he did with Sharon. But I digress. Anyhow-when the IAD prick that he had a fight with turns up dead he's called to the scene. The Coroner's there and says they recovered the bullet and it's from a .38 revolver. The captian says "Give me your gun, Nick. " Douglas hands over a Glock 19-which is a 9mm automatic!!! And worse yet-the captain smells it-like he's checking to see if it was fired recently!!!  Ugh! The director should have had Douglas hand him a Smith&Wesson or Colt or Ruger .357 Magnum-which will also chamber and fire .38 Special ammo. Or-when he handed over the Glock-the Captian should have said-"Let me see your back-up". Even though police agencies nationwide made the big switch from revolvers to autos in the '80's and '90's-a lot of cops carry 5-shot .38 snubbies as a back-up weapon in addition to their dept issued 9mm, 40 S&W, or .45 ACP autoloaders. THAT would have been realistic. But the way it came off-I was like "Is the captain a moron?" He doesn't know a revolver from a semi-automatic??!!  Ugh. #6. "Waterworld". This overlong sci-fi stinker about how global warming caused the polar ice caps to melt and put 90% of the world under water starred Kevin Costner as mutant who had gills-he could breathe under water without any scuba equipment. Anyhow he ends up with the too-sexy Jeanne Tripplehorn and a little girl who has a map tattoed on her back. The evil "Smokers" led by an eyepatch wearing Dennis Hopper want the kid because they think the map leads to "Dry Land" and tons of treasure. Tripplehorn spends the entire movie barefoot in a ripped up leather-like dress that shows her smokin' body nicely. Except for the scene where she takes it off and stands nude before Costner-offering herself to him so he won't kill the kid. ( I know. It's a weird convoluted story. And Jeanne isn't the kid's mother, or aunt or sister,So why is she so protective of the brat that she's willing to fuck a mutant to save her? This is one of many plot holes you can drive a truck through.  ) Anyhow-the one that irked the shit out of me was after much trouble and mayhem Costner and Tripplehorn and the little girl and a bunch of other nice people finally make it to "Dry Land." Now apparently "Dry Land" had a Macy's or a Nordstrom's or at least a Wal-Mart. Because in this dark-post-apocalyptic future where everything is under water and people are killing each other for stuff like food and water and toilet paper-like I said Jeanne spent the whole movie barefoot in a ripped up dress-don't get me wrong-I much prefer her this way as opposed to the staid pant-suits she wore on "Criminal Minds"- but anyway-Costner is getting his boat ready to leave-and her comes Jeanne dressed in a clean white sweater, clean jeans, and wearing white sandals!!  Where did all these clean clothes come from?  Like I said did this Island at the end of the world have a Wal-Mart?  Of all the stupid shit they wanted you to swallow in this movie- her being perfectly dressed with no explanation where she got the clothes or a shower to clean up in before putting on the clean clothes-this one irked me the most. Ok the 2nd most-I was really pissed when Costner didn't screw Jeanne when she took her dress off. Guess he's a politically correct killer-mutant. They had said he had gills-maybe they omitted that he didn't have any balls. Or brains.  # 7 "Law&Order SVU". I don't have the title of the episode-but Stabler and Benson ( Christopher Meloni and Mariska Hargitay ) are investigating a crime scene in a warehouse. Stabler finds Benson unconcious on the floor and then keeps searching and eventually points his gun at a guy who says he's another cop. Stabler says "What did you do my partner?" The guy answers "Gently put her to sleep." "She'll be fine in a couple minutes."  Back at the station Stabler and the guy are talking in an interview room and Benson walks in,holding an Ice-pack on her head and sneers "Nice sleeperhold, asshole". The guy quips "Glad you liked it". Except- a sleeperhold is a choke-hold!! If he choked her out, and gently laid her down-which he apparently did-since Stabler didn't hear her scream or hear her body or gun hitting the floor-why would she have a bump on her head that required Ice??  He didn't hit her in the head with a nightstick!! Anyhow she holds the ice on her head through the whole interview. Stupid. Anybody that's observant is going to catch stuff like this-so why don't the proof readers or the film editors??  Mastermind          

Heed Smokey Robinson's advice....

"Pretty girls come a dime a dozen, make sure you find one that'll give you good lovin'" "My mama told me-"You better shop around".  R&B singer Smokey Robinson had a huge hit back in the '60s with "Shop Around"  It definitely applies when searching for a musclecar. I've seen an alarming trend lately-a lot of low mileage,-and I mean low-like less than 10,000 miles "survivors". Some of these cars lived their entire lives in storage and were never driven. Who does that? Who buys a car and never, ever drives it not even on a sunny weekend in the hopes that 20 or 30 years down the road it'll be worth 10 times what you paid for it?  And what if it doesn't appreciate?  Some of these are nice "Time Capsules" but even if I won last weeks powerball jackpot-759 million bucks-I wouldn't buy them. Why-because their's way better deals out there. Here's a few  perfect examples. # 1. 1979 Trans-Ams. These two really killed me. One was a black SE model with 65 miles on it. That's right-65 miles. It had spent it's entire life in storage. The asking price was $180,000!!!  And it was a 403 Olds / TH350 model!!!  The other one was 10th Anniversary, 400,4-speed model that the owner claimed was THE car that paced the 1979 Daytona 500. Asking price for it was $85,000.  By contrast on the internet I found a pristine, unrestored, but spectacularly maintained 1978 WS6, 400, 4-speed model with 27,000 original miles for $30,000!!!  I also found a restored, documented and verified by Dennis Mecham  '78 "Macho T/A" for $29,995!!! And to go-"Apples to Apples" I found an 8,000 mile, 400, 4-speed, 10th Anniversary "Pace Car" model for $43,000! Literally half the price, for the very same car with identical equipment.  Further-I also found a restored 1974 SD-455 T/A-one of 731 built with a TH400-for $79,000 and a 1972 455HO model-one of 1,286 built-for $59,000!!  Now any serious T/A afficianado will tell you that he'd much rather have a 400, 4-speed model or a "Macho" over a 403 Olds / automatic model, regardless of price. But the better optioned, more desirable car is $150,000 CHEAPER???!!!!  The coveted 455HO and SD-455 models are 100K cheaper??  As for the "Pace Car"-I found an identical one for half the price-and the other disco-era models I mentioned were a better deal.  # 2. 1978 L82 "Pace Car" Corvette. This one had 40 miles on it. It apparently had sat in a Chevy Dealer's showroom unsold for more than 30 years. A few years ago when GM restructured and closed a bunch of dealers they decreed that all cars like this had to be sold immediately or you'd lose your franchise. So the car was sold to a collector who later sold it to this musclecar dealer in Florida who now was trying to sell it for 150K. 1st off-it is an L82 model which makes it worth more than an L48-but it's an automatic, not a 4-speed. By contrast-I found a pristine, 1968 400 hp,Tri-Power, 427, 4-speed Stingray for $52,000!!!  I also found a pristine, restored 1969 435 hp Tri-Power 427, 4-speed model for $84,000. I also saw a documented, Bloomington Gold certified 1971 LS6 454 / Th400 model for $139,000. I also found a restored 454, 4-speed '72 model for $45,000!!  '78 Corvettes aren't anything special-nor are the Pace Cars. Back in '78 GM said they had to build one car for every dealer. Chevrolet had over 7,700 dealers then. So their not exactly a moon rock. And when your asking MORE than the price of a 427 or 454 model-you know your sniffing glue!!  To go "Apples to Apples"-disco era C3s-I found an L82 / TH350 1980 model for $22,000, an L81 / 4-speed '81 model with 47,000 original miles on it for $26,500, and a 1977 L82 / 4-speed model that ran fine, but needed paint and some other minor work for $4,500!!  I found a rough, but running L82 / Th350 "Pace Car" for $6,000!!  So like I've said before-"Rare" doesn't always equate to "Valuable". Even if you have Floyd Mayweather's bank account-it would behoove you to do a little research before forking over a pile of cash. And these late '70's T/A and 'Vette owners aren't the only offenders. I've seen people asking $150K for 351W "Eleanor" clones-the Mustang driven by Nicholas Cage in the awful "Gone in 60 Seconds" remake,and I've seen documented, pristine 428 powered "Real" GT500 Shelbys for less!! I've seen documented, restored, "Boss 302s"  for half that!! Take a minute and think-would you rather have a for-real Boss 302 or a for-real Shelby GT500-or a generic, '67 Mustang fastback that a shop in L.A. did some bodywork on and threw a 351W crate engine in??!! And remember this isn't THE CAR that was in the movie-it's a COPY of the car that was in the movie-which everyone knows was a "clone" to begin with-the movie car wasn't a "real" Shelby!!!  A 150K for a clone of a clone???  Arrrggghhhh!!  I've seen people asking 100K for CLONE LS6 454 / TH400 Chevelles-and on the same website-a pristine, documented, numbers matching, L78, 4-speed, positraction SS396 for $59,000!!!  Nearly half !!  The worst was the Barret-Jackson auction here at Hot August Nights a few years ago. Some idiot paid $32,000 for a 1970 Challenger T/A clone ( 318 model that some fool threw a 360 crate motor with tri-power on it into and gussied up ) and later that same day-a for real, documented, numbers-matching 340 Six-Pack Challenger T/A sold for $24,000!!!  That's right-the numbers matching, real deal went for $8,000 LESS than the fake!!!  So do some research and look around before laying out your hard-earned cash.  Mastermind