In praise of less than "King Kong" models....

In the last post I talked about lowering your sights a little and finding a car you could live with. As gearheads we tend to always lust after the biggest and baddest of anything, but that isn't always pracitcal. I was talking to a friend the other day and we were discussing how we'd like to have a '60's 427 Stingray to play with. I said I'd be fine with a 10:1 390 hp 4bbl model or a 400 hp Tri-Power model, because they could run on pump gas,and with a hydraulic cam would be pretty much maintenance free,and would still be fast enough that I wouldn't have to take crap from little boys in WRX's or soccer moms in Hemi Cherokees, and would be fun to cruise up to tahoe or to the wine country in the summertime. My pal brought up an article about the Pure Stock drags champion. The champ has an L88 ( not numbers matching, but built to L88 specs ) '69 'Vette that ran a blistering 11.43 at the Pure Stock drags. "I couldn't afford a for-real L88 but I could build a 390 hp model to those specs." My friend said. "You could, if like this guy you only raced it." I said. "But it's totally impractical if you intend to drive the car at all." "Why would you say that?" he asked, dead serious. "Did you read the spec sheet?" "First off, it's got 12.5:1 compression." "You'd either have to run racing gas or put two cans of octane booster in every tankful." "The cam recommends open exhausts, and solid lifters need regular lash adjustments to get optimum performance." "And it's got 4.56:1 gears." "Do you really want the motor buzzing at 4,000 rpm on the freeway?" "I get that nothing feels like a Rat motor-but if you want to drive it at all-I just think you'd be happier with a milder 427 combo-or maybe even a LS5 454 / TH400 '70-72 model." "I never thought about that." he said. "Your right-unless it's a trailer queen the lesser powered model would better." That got us to talking about some other people we knew who made the choice for a lesser model in the name of drivability. One guy had a '69 Shelby GT350 Mustang that he absolutely loves, and drives often during Hot August nights and sunny weekend days in the spring, summer and fall. It goes in storage every winter and never sees rain or snow. Another mutual friend had ribbed him about how for the price he paid for the Shelby-he could have bought a Boss 302. "Yeah, I thought about that." "I even test drove a Boss 302." "There's a reason most of them have 3.90:1 or 4.30:1 gears." "They have very little torque below 3 grand." "The motor is peaky,has 11:1 compression and solid lifters, and if you read old road tests their not any quicker than a 351W or 351C Mach 1." "If the Boss has got 3.50:1 gears their not as fast as a 4-speed / 351 Mach 1." "The 351 in the Shelby idles smooth, has lots of low-end torque-if your in any gear but fourth around town you can just accelerate without having to downshift,the 3.25:1 gears are a nice compromise between jackrabbit starts and easy freeway cruising, and it has power steering, and A/C." "Sort of a "Gentleman's hot rod" like a Hurst / Olds." "No, I don't regret not getting the Boss." "The Shelby's just as elite, but much more user-friendly." "And I've played grab-ass with Boss owners at Mustang club meets." The Shelby'll give 'em a run."  Similar words from an Olds 442 owner. He had seriously considered a W31 Cutlass. If you don't know the W31 package took a strippy Cutlass / F85 coupe and added a hopped up 350-special big valve heads,a 308 degree cam, an aluminum high-rise intake, special exhaust manifolds. They were only available with a 4-speed and 3.90:1 or 4.33:1 gears, and couldn't be ordered with power brakes because the lumpy cam didn't make enough vacuum to operate them! They were blisteringly fast and grossly under-rated at 325 hp. The base model Cutlass / sedan / station wagon 350 was rated at 310 hp; all those go-fast goodies are only worth 15 hp? Puhleeze. Anyhow-like the Mustang guy-he drove a couple W31s, was impressed with how quick they were, and ended up buying a a 400 / TH400 442 that had A/C, power steering, power brakes, power windows,and an AM / FM radio with a still functioning power antenna. "With 350 hp and 440 lbs ft of torque, the 442 will literally spin it's tires as long as I want to stay on the throttle." he said. And it's a nice car to drive-the 3.23:1 gears give it good oomph off the line and easy cruising on the freeway." "Plus 5,700 rpm is something like 138 mph." "Its got some serious top-end." "The W31 was a rocket through the 1/4-but with 4.33:1 gears you were all done by 110." "You'd almost run out of rpm before the end of the 1/4." "And it was so low geared, that around town even if you weren't hot rodding, you were always shifting."  "Plus the motor was buzzing at 3,800 rpm on the freeway, and even though it had front disc brakes, and would stop, I didn't like the pedal feel." "The 442's brakes feel a lot better even if they don't actually stop any quicker, and it's only spinning about 2,500 rpm on the freeway." "The W31's a great street fighter or drag racer, but under any other driving conditions the big-block 442 is much more pleasant to drive." "I haven't raced a W31 yet, but I bet my 442 would beat one or at least give it a helluva run."  Actor Barry Newman who along with Stuntman Carey Loftin did some of the driving in the cult-classic "Vanishing Point"-said in an interview with Muscle Car Review-"There were 5 Challengers" "4 were 440 / 4-speeds, and the Camera car was a 383 / Automatic." "They were powerful-you'd pop the clutch in first, and it would almost rear back." "But I tell you, I honestly think the 383 would run just as fast as the 440s." "That 383 was a great running car."  Good advice from real people. I'm not saying DON'T buy an L88 'Vette, or a Boss 429 or a Hemi Charger, or whatever-if you want one and can afford it-by all means get one. I'm just saying that you may be happier in the long run with something that isn't "King Kong". Especially if your going to drive the car more than on and off the trailer!  Mastermind            

Lower your sights a little and you may find your dream car...

I ran a post a while back saying "There is no used car factory". I ran this because I get so tired of listening to people lament that they can't find a car they want and they've been looking for five years,etc, etc. The bottom line is these people are too picky. If you read Hemmings Motor News, or AttaBuy, or go on the internet everyday there are hundreds of very cool musclecars out there in great condition at fair prices. However-the chance of you finding your exact dream car-with the engine, transmission, axle ratio,exterior color, interior color, wheels, etc-is almost nil. You have a better chance of being struck by lightning on the golf course. However-if you lower your sights a little-you can get something really cool that you can love for years to come. Here's a few examples-let's say a 1970 LS6 454 Chevelle is your dream car. Good luck with that-Since Chevrolet only built 4478 of them-even if you had an unlimited bankroll the problem would be finding one for sale at any price. By contrast Chevrolet built 49,826 SS396 models that year. They are the exact same car except for the engine. And stock or modified-do you really NEED more punch than a 396 has to offer? This isn't an isolated example. 1969 GTO Judge lights your fire? Same deal-of the 72,225 GTOs built in 1969 only 6,833 were Judge models. "Gotta Have" a Boss 302 Mustang? Ford only built 1,603 in 1969 and another 7113 in 1970. By contrast-Ford built over 70,000 fastback Mustangs in 1969 alone-most of them with 351W power-which is a much better street engine if you plan to drive the car at all. The point I'm making is by accepting less than the ultra-premium model-you've increased your chances of finding a car tenfold. And that's if your stuck on a one or two year model. Which brings up the next point. Consider different model years of the same car. If our Chevelle enthusiast would consider an 1968 or 1969 SS396-he just upped his chances by 58,000 ( 1968) and 86,000 ( 1969 ) more choices. Our GTO enthusiast if he would accept a '68 or a '70 model just upped his chances of finding a car by 87,000 ( 1968 ) and 40,149 ( 1970 ). 1970-73 Trans-Am is your dream car? Good luck as Pontiac only built about 10,000 in those four years. However-from 1974-1979 Pontiac built over 350,000 T/A's nearly all of them with 400 Pontiac power, and with very little work-an axle-ratio change and an intake manifold and dual exhaust-could easily equal or surpass the performance of the rarer and much more expensive earlier models. Again consider less than the premium model. Of the 243,000 Camaros sold in 1969, only 19,000 were Z/28 models. Fewer than that were SS396 models. That means there are about 200,000 '69 Camaros out there, nearly all of them with 350 V8 motivation-and you couldn't ask for a better base for a street machine. We all agree that a Formula 400 Firebird packs all the punch that a T/A does-without the bells and whistles. Some people actually like the cleaner styling of the Formulas better. Any Hemi powered Chrysler vehicle is priced in the stratosphere and 440 / Six-Packs are getting there. However-I see 383 and 440 4bbl 'Cudas, Challengers, Road Runners and Chargers all the time for sale at reasonable prices. And what about a 340 model?  340 'Cudas and Challengers are the best handling, best balanced E-Bodies if you ask me. From '71 on you could get a 340 in a Charger or Road Runner. And what about 400 models from '72-74? A 400 is just a bored out 383. Also consider "Sister" cars. A big-block was only available in the Camaro until 1972 and in very limited numbers. However you could get a 455 in a Firebird Formula or Trans-Am up until 1976, and the 400 was available until 1979. If you can't find a deal on a 400 Firebird you aren't looking past the end of your nose. 396 and 454 Monte Carlos built from 1970-75 are rare and priced accordingly. However, a Pontiac Gran Prix is to the Monte Carlo what the Firebird is to the Camaro. The better buy of the two. From 1969-76 400 power was standard all years, and a fair number of '70-76 "SJ" models had 455s!  My sister had a '72 GP in high school. It felt like a GTO. It had power everything, and she showed her taillights to many a shocked Camaro and Mustang driver. The Cougar is to the Mustang the same thing. From 1967-73-Cougars usually had upgraded interiors, larger engines, and cool options like factory A/C, disc brakes, guages, etc. In 1974 they went to the much heavier and uglier Lincoln MKIV platform and performance Cougars were gone. Even a pre-"Charlie's Angels" Farrah-Fawcett-Majors barefoot in a bikini in the ads couldn't sell them. Anyhow-be reasonable-I know a guy who wanted a '70-72 LT-1 powered Z/28 Camaro. He passed on an unrestored, but exceptionally well-maintained '70 model because it was an automatic. He passed up a 4-speed '72 model because it had Cragar mags on it and traction bars, and a 750 Holley double-pumper carb instead of the stock 780 3310. He also turned up his nose at a gorgeous low-mileage, 4-speed '73 model because it was an L82. ( The LT-1 had a solid-lifter cam and a 780 Holley on an aluminum intake. L82's had a hydraulic cam out of the 350 hp L46 and a Quadrajet on an iron manifold ). That was several years ago-and to this day he still hasn't found a Z/28 up to his standards!!  I knew another guy who wanted a '68-70 GTO with the 400 / 4-speed combo. He passed on a gorgeous '68 model because it didn't have the hood tach and front disc brakes. He passed up an awesome 455 powered '70 model because it was an automatic. When he turned up his nose at a gorgeous triple-white, 400,4-speed, '71 LeMans Sport Convertible done in full "Judge" regalia-because "Its a fake" I wanted to kill him. I told him I'd no longer look at cars with him, because he was completley unreasonable in his expectations. That too, was years ago-and he still doesn't own a GTO or any other musclecar. Idiot # 3. wanted a '68-70 Bullitt / Dukes of Hazzard / F&F  Charger. He passed up a nice '69 model that had a KILLER 440 in it and Cragar mags and brand-new T/A radials because the engine wasn't original. He passed up a one-owner, little old lady gem of a '68, because it had bench seats and a two-barrel carb on the 383. He also passed on a beautiful Torch Red '68 model with Center Line Wheels and a 383 / 4-speed powertrain because it had a little rust in the trunk. What '60's Mopar, or any other 50 year old car that hasn't had a frame-off resto doesn't???  Really?? A 50 year old car had a small amount of rust?  So when you hear some asshole whining about how hard it is to find a musclecar-it's because he's too picky. Don't fall into that trap. Mastermind  

What's the first modification you should do? It varies depending on the car.....

People ask me all the time "What's the first thing I should do to improve the performance of my musclecar?" I assume they want some stock answer-like headers or a carb and intake or whatever. But the truth is it varies greatly depending on the car. For example if you have a late '60's or early '70's Chevelle or Camaro with a 4-speed-the first thing you should do is replace the awful Muncie or Inland shift linkage with a Hurst Competition Plus. For some insane reason-these linkages were body mounted, and would bind up under load. Forget powershifting at 6,000 rpm; you'd be lucky if you could change gears at 3,500-4,000 if you had your foot in it. Small-block Novas and Camaros that had Saginaw 4-speeds were just as bad. If you had a GTO or a Firebird or an Olds 442-they had a Hurst shifter from the factory that was transmission mounted and could she shifted quickly at any speed. If you have a disco-era Pontiac Trans-Am with an automatic transmission, the first mod you need to make is an axle ratio change. These cars had salt-flats gearing like 2.41:1 or 2.56:1. Swapping for something in the 3.23:1 to 3.73:1 range will give a stunning improvement in 0-60 and 1/4 mile times without hurting gas mileage or drivability too much. 4-speed models, the shoe is on the other foot-they came from the factory with 3.23:1 or 3.42:1 gears. For them the first thing I would do is get an Edelbrock Performer intake. The factory '75-79 intakes have a restrictive throttle opening that really limits power above 4,000 rpm. The point I'm making is the gear change on the TH350 models would net a bigger improvement than changing the intake. On the stick models that already had decent gearing-the intake would net a big improvement. Even bigger than opening up the exhaust-which should be the second mod. See what I'm saying?  If you have a 1970-73 351C Mustang-a lot of these cars had 2bbl-carburation-obviously the first thing should be to get a 4bbl carb and intake. If the car has a 4bbl from the factory and an automatic trans, then the first thing I'd do is add a B&M or TransGo shift improver kit. If you have a 440,4-speed Road Runner or a 396 / 4-speed Camaro or a 455 / 4-speed Trans-Am-or any other big-block car with a manual trans and leaf-spring rear suspension that has traction problems-the first thing I'd do is get a set of traction bars or a pinion snubber. You don't need more power-you need to put what you have to the ground before you start adding more tire-shredding power and torque!!  If you have any '60's or early '70's Chrysler musclecar-the first thing I'd do is get a Mopar Performance or MSD electronic distributor!!  Or if you want to stay "period correct" and still use points-then I'd get an Accel or Mallory high-performance point-type distributor. The reason is factory Mopar points were awful. They'd close up and bounce above about 4,500 rpm. You never saw a Mopar racer without extra points in his toolbox-and they were usually Accel or Mallory!!  So you can see every car is unique in their weaknesses that I would fix first. Do some research before you throw away money on something that doesn't offer a huge bang for the buck. Mastermind      

Still more on Road Test "ringers".....

I guess the magazine writers and engineers-being gearheads at heart sometimes just want to see what potential a certain vehicle has. And the manufacturers like it-it helps sell the cars. But it does create confusion for the public. They wonder why the showroom examples can't come close to the magazine test cars or prototypes performance. Here's a few more examples. # 1. 1973 Trans-Am. Hot Rod and Car and Driver both tested an SD-455 T/A prototype. Hot Rod recorded a 13.54 1/4 mile e.t. and C/D recorded a 13.75. The 2/10ths difference may have just been track conditions, or wind, or driver technique. It was the same car-in the pictures of both magazines the licensce plate number is the same! The reason I say this car is a "ringer" is early SD455 prototypes had the Ram Air IV cam which had 308 / 320 advertised duration and .470 lift. The cars barely passed smog with this long-duration cam. Pontiac engineers thought this was too close for comfort with the EPA and for production examples the cam was swapped for the much milder RAIII cam-which had 301/313 advertised duration and only .414 lift. Hp was down-rated from 310 to 290 as well. However-Pontiac also had trouble with the connecting rod supplier and with EGR valve function. This was why the engine wasn't EPA certified until April 1973, and in the Firebird line only-( initial 1973 sales literature listed the SD-455 as available in the Grand Am, Gran Prix, and GTO as well ). this is why only 295 were built-252 in T/A's and another 43 in Formulas. Further-although the road tests were published in the April and May issues-the actual testing ws done in January-with the red T/A that had the RAIV cam and a 3.42:1 axle ratio. Production TH400 examples,besides having the milder cam also had 3.08:1 gears if ordered with A/C. No one knows what happened to the Hot Rod / C/D test mule. Some say a Pontiac executive bought it, others say it was crushed. Regardless-other magazines that tested other SD455 T/A's in '73 or '74 ran low 14s. Great performance for a 3,800 lb car with 8.4:1 compression-but nowhere near the blistering times of the red "prototype".  # 2. 1973 Olds 442. Motor Trend had a 1973 Performance car comparison. The silver and red Cutlass 442 blew the doors off all comers which included an SD-455 Trans-Am, a 454 Corvette,a 440 Dodge Charger,a 429 Torino, a 351CJ Mustang and a 401 / 4-speed Javelin AMX. The MT writers were shocked by this and did some checking. One of the Olds engineers let it slip that the badass 442 in fact had the super-hot 328 duration "W30" cam out of the 1970 442-and also had a 2,800 rpm torque converter, a Hurst shift kit in the TH400 and 3.42:1 gears. This one ripped off a string of 14.01s with the best run being a 13.82. Production models that had a much milder cam, a converter with 1,000 rpm LESS stall speed and 3.08:1 gears could only run 14.90 and 14.65 in other magazine tests. # 3. 1978 Z/28 Camaro. Popular Hot Rodding raved about their Z/28 test car that ran a blistering 14.34 in the 1/4. However-DKM incorporated who had great success selling the "Macho T/A's"-decided to do a Camaro. This test car was a "Macho Z" prototype-and had the full "Macho T/A" treatment-which included a re-curved distributor, a re-jetted carb, and Hooker Headers with real dual exhausts and 2 catalytic converters. This is why production examples could only run times ranging from 15.21 to 15.60!!   The Mecham brothers sold about 300 Macho T/A's a year from '77-79. For some reason Chevy dealers weren't interested like Pontiac dealers. As far as I know this prototype is the only known "Macho Z" to exist. Car Craft also tested a Corvette that the Mecham brothers "Macho-ized"-with the headers and tuning, and a Doug Nash 5-speed that they called the L82-S. The magazine raved about it's performance-but again I've never seen an L82-S anywhere else. # 4. 1987 Buick Grand National. Most GN's ran 14.30s in road tests. Awfully quick for a 3,500 lb car with Turbo V6. However High-Performance Cars magazine ran a blistering 13.85 at Englishtown. This was accomplished by swapping the 195 degree thermostat for a 160 degree unit, and changing to a switch that kicked the fan on at 185 instead of 220. They also filled the tank with 104 octane unleaded racing gas and put wet towels on the intake between runs. The 104 octane gas meant no detonation-which meant the knock sensor and the ECM wouldn't retard the timing-and the cooler, denser fuel mixture-180 versus 220-also helped immensly. This is why other magazine testers-running at 220 degrees on 87 or 91 octane gas were half a second slower!!  What's the old saying-"It's only cheating if you get caught..."  Mastermind          

More on road test "ringers" and production cars...

Like I said in the last post people love to spout numbers and stats-but they don't always have all the information. And this is why "civilian" cars can never match magazine test cars. After 40+ years Jim Wangers finally admitted that Car and Driver's May 1964 GTO test car that ran a blistering 4.6 second 0-60 time and a 13.1 second 1/4 was a ringer. Royal Pontiac had pulled the 389 and replaced it with a blueprinted 421. That's why showroom examples and other test cars could only run mid-14s!!  Chrysler did it when they introduced the 440 Six-pack. Their "prototype" that ran high 12s "Under controlled conditions, with a professional driver" is almost as bad. The controlled conditions being the engine had been brought to "The top of specifications"-i.e. blueprinted-the distributor custom curved,the carbs custom jetted,and the car had a 4-speed, 4.30:1 gears, a pinion snubber, and wrinklewall slicks. And the "Professional Driver" was Pro Stock Drag Racing champion Ronnie Sox. Gee, wonder why my buddys 440+6 Super Bee with a torqueflite,3.23:1 gears and street tires was a full second slower!!  Hot Rod's '69 Z/28 test car ran a blistering 13.11 et. They said "We almost made the 12s". With headers, rejetting the carb, recurving the distributor,adding traction bars and swapping the 3.73:1 gears for 4.88:1s!!!  Wonder why production examples could only run low 14s?  A couple of import tests are just as bad. Mitsubishi's claim of a 13.75 1/4 mile time for the 3000GTVR4 Turbo takes real cojones to say with a straight face. The "controlled conditions consisted of the engineers disabling the rev limiter, disabling the knock sensor,filling the tank with 104 octane racing gas, and lowring the tire pressure to 15 psi. The "professional driver" then popped the clutch at 6,200 rpm and powershifted at 7,000, which blew the $5769 tranaxle after three runs. Now how many people are going to run around with 15 psi in their tires, full of race gas, and drop the clutch at 6,200 rpm to jump someone from a light?  That's why production examples could only run high 14s. Car and Driver admitted that their Subaru WRX STI's blistering 5.3 second 0-60 time and 13.7 second 1/4 mile time was acheived by dropping the clutch at 5,400 rpm, and shifting at 7,000-500 rpm over the redline on the tach. The writer said he wouldn't recommend such a brutal launch if you wanted the drivetrain to last. When they launched at a more reasonable rpm-say 3,000-3,500 and shifted at or below the 6,500 rpm redline-the times were 5.8 seconds to 60 and 14.3 in the 1/4. Still quick-but more than 1/2 a second slower than the published time!!!  Even some punk kids I know that have WRX's don't go around dropping the clutch at 5,400 rpm!!  Hot Rod did it in a "Crate Motor Shootout." They tested a bunch of GMPP engines-small-blocks, big-blocks, and LS motors in a '69 Chevelle they had. Besides having a ladder bar rear suspension and wrinklewall slicks-the test mule also had 4.30:1 gears and a TCI TH400 with a 4,800 rpm converter and a trans-brake!!  Now Joe average goes and buys ZZ4 350 or a ZZ427 and puts it in his Camaro or Chevelle and is mystified when his times aren't even close. You think a 4,800 rpm converter and a trans-brake might skew the 60 ft and 1/4 mile times a tad?  Think a car with a stock converter or even a 3 grand one is going to be a bit slower??!!!  So read the fine print and be sure your comparing "apples to apples" before you quote performance figures for any given car. Mastermind  

No,your car is or wasn't that fast......

I get so tired of people pulling numbers out of their ass. I blame the "Fast&Furious" movies for a lot of this with their constant spouting about "10 second" cars. Almost daily I overhear some idiot claiming to have 500 or 600 hp-yet he can't produce a dyno sheet!!  Or claiming some blistering 1/4 mile time, and again-can't produce a timeslip!!  These idiots don't realize that 1/10 of a second equals one car length in a drag race. So if your car runs say a 13.8 and someone elses car runs a 13.5-he'll beat you by three car lengths. If the other guys car runs a 13.0-that's an 8 car length ass-whippin'!!  I love old musclecars-but there were very few that could run low 13s off the showroom floor and easily drop into the 12s or high 11s with maybe headers, slicks and traction bars. Hemi 'Cudas, LS6 Chevelles, W30 442s, RAIV GTOs, 440 Six-Pack Mopars,427 'Vettes, and  428CJ Mustangs-but that's about it. And these cars were just as rare new as they are now. Whether it's their car or their father's or older brothers-most people's "Musclecar Memories" involve "entry level" musclecars-389 GTOs,396 Chevelles,383 Road Runners, etc. Or 340 Dusters, 351 Mustangs,350 Camaros, 400 Firebirds, etc. Tales of nearly pulling the front wheels,being pushed back in the seat and third gear rubber seem silly when someone pulls out a yellowed, dog-eared copy of Hot Rod or Car Life and find that the machine in question ran in the 14.60's. I also love it when people pull up old "ringer" road tests and quote them. My personal favorite is the Mopar guys who claim that the Dodge Li'l Red Express pickup was the fastest american car in 1978-even quicker than an L82 Corvette or a WS6 Trans-Am!! This comes from a November 1977 Car and Driver article called "Double the Double Nickel"-they tested a bunch of cars that could run 110 mph or faster. They did have a Corvette and a Trans-Am, and the "Prototype" Li'l Red Truck did win a 3-way drag race. However-the "Prototype" had a 360 V8 with NASCAR spec "W2" heads,a hot cam out of the old 340 Six-Pack, and a 4160 Double-Pumper Holley carb mounted on a single-plane aluminum Holley "Street Dominator" intake, and catalyst-free dual exhausts, and a 2,500 rpm torque converter!!!  No surprise that production examples with a garden-variety 360 with stock 318 /360 heads,a lazy cam,and a Carter Thermo-Quad mounted on a Iron intake with an EGR valve, and a stock torque converter were substantially slower!!  A close 2nd is the "stock" '91 Mustang tested by Car Craft that ran a blistering 14.03 in the 1/4-when every other magazine that tested a "5.0" between '87 and '93-ran between 14.72 ( Hot Rod ) and 15.29 ( Road and Track ). CC's mule was "stock"-except for a K&N airbox and filter,a Flowmaster cat-back exhaust system, swapping the 2.73:1 gears for some 3.55:1s,and swapping the stock 225/60R15 radials for some 235/60R15 M&H drag tires!!  I mean if your going to nit-pick....The point I'm making is you can love your car-you don't have to exaggerate it's performance!!  Mastermind

R.I.P. Vic Edelbrock...

I was saddened to hear about the recent passing of Vic Edelbrock Jr. He was 81. His father, Vic Sr. founded the company, making intake manifolds and other race parts for flathead Fords. Vic Sr was very involved in the Southern California racing scene in the '40's and 50's. Vic Jr. was only 26 when he took over the company in 1962 following his father's untimely death at age 49. At the urging of friend Bob Joehnk Edelbrock began producing a high-perfromance intake for the Small-Block Chevy-which had quickly replaced the flathead Ford as "The" performance engine. Through the '60's the company blossomed making perfromance intake manifolds for virtually everything-big-block Chevys, Pontiacs, Oldsmobiles, Buicks, Fords, Chryslers,AMC's,. In the '70's Vic became the leader of SEMA and fought the good fight against ever-tightening emissions standards and states trying to outlaw cars that were modified. Edelbrock's SP2P manifold that was introduced in 1975 not only increased performance, but also improved the gas mileage and drivability of the test mule. Vic was one of the strongest allies of the performance industry and fought hard to get Edelbrock products and those of other companies exemptions or certificates of legality from CARB ( California Air Resources Board ) and the EPA. Through the late '70's and into the '80's Edelbrock continued to develop new products that increased performance and were emissions legal. They introduced hi-performance aluminum cylinder heads and began producing camshafts as well. Edelbrock was the first company to come up with the "package" approach to performance-camshaft, cylinder heads and carb and intake all dyno matched for your specific needs-towing, street perfromance, drag racing, circle-track racing whatever. The Performer Packages were good from off-idle to 5,500 rpm and were great for street cars or for trucks and 4x4s-anything that need more low-end and mid-range torque. Their Torker II and Performer RPM packages had a lumpier idle and were good up to 6,500 rpm. The Victor packages were for racing only and were good to 8,000 rpm and beyond. The company also began producing carburators the Performer line of carbs were basically an improved Carter AFB-they had no gaskets below the float level-no leaking, and you could change jets without removing the carb from the engine. The real beauty of them however-was you usually didn't have to re-jet them they just flat worked out of the box. Bolt them on and go. They also had the Thunder AVS line which was basically and improved Carter AVS like the legendary 383 and 440 Magnum Mopars had. Their adjustable secondary air valve made them even more versatile, and tuner-friendly. Through the '90's and into the 2000's the company continued to expand-making intake manifolds, throttle-bodys, and other parts that worked in conjunction with factory fuel-injection systems. They began producing superchargers for popular cars and trucks,and even began making shocks and suspension parts doe popular cars and trucks. Edelbrock got in on the ground floor of the import-tuner market. They were one of the first companys to offer hi-performance intakes for Hondas, Toyotas,Nissans, and VW's. They developed nitrous-oxide injection systems and also began offering hi-performance Chevy and Ford crate engines. Vic stayed active in racing and the show scene. Whether at the Monterey Historics, or a NASCAR event, or the Hot Rod power tour or Hot August Nights-Edelbrock always had a huge display and hospitality tent, and Vic was always there bench-racing with people shaking hands and telling stories. He was never too busy to talk to someone or answer a tech question. He will be sorely missed by everyone who knew him and the automotive industry as a whole. May he rest in Valhalla!  Mastermind