Some alternative bodystyles that can be cool...

If you look outside the box, there are still some bargains out there. Here's some that I think offer incredible "bang" for the buck. # 1. 1960-68 Full-Size Pontiacs. While 99% of Impalas, Caprices, and Biscaynes from this era have 283 or 327 small-block motivation, and 396, 409, and 427 models priced in the stratosphere, a Pontiac is a much better buy. Be it a Catalina, Bonneville, or Grand Prix-At least 389 cubes standard all years, with 400,421 or 428 available depending on years. Pontiacs also had nicer interiors. # 2. 1967-71 Ford Thunderbird. I personally think the '67-69 T-Bird is one of the best looking cars Ford ever produced. The hidden headlight, rakish styling is still cool 50 years later. With 390, 428 or 429 cubes under the hood, they move pretty good too. The 1970-71 models have a cool, fastback Nascar style to them, and a 375 hp 429 under the bonnet. 1972 and later models are based on the heavier, and uglier Lincoln MKIV platform.  # 3. 1969-72 Plymouth Sport Fury. Peter Graves drove one on "Mission: Impossible". Cool, fuselage styling, and 383 or 440 cubes under the hood. # 4. 1969-76 Pontiac Gran Prix. While 99% of Monte Carlos are small-block powered, GP's had 400 cubes standard all years, and a fair number had 455s. My sister had a '72 GP in high school. It had power everything, and it felt like a GTO. She showed her taillights to quite a few shocked Camaro, Chevelle and Mustang owners. # 5. 1977-79 Ford Ranchero. After being based on the Fairlane / Torino line from 1968-76, Ford upgraded the "other" El Camino to the longer,lower,wider LTD II platform. Their great looking, and ride and handle like a Cadillac. 460 models are the ones to get, but the 351M / 400 models cab be made to run too. A nice change from the "cookie-cutter" El Caminos you see. # 6. 1976-79 Cadillac Seville. This sounds way outside the box-but back in the '70's Car and Driver did one with Trans-Am sway bars, upgraded wheels and tires and Recaro seats, and made a BMW challenger. Now if you swapped the 350 Olds for a 403 with the 400 hp Edelbrock Performer RPM package under the hood.....you could mess with AMG Mercedes owners.....Mastermind

It doesn't have to be "King Kong" to be cool....

Everyone lusts after the ultra-premium badass musclecars-i.e. LS6 Chevelles, Hemi 'Cudas, Six-Pack Road Runners, W30 442s, 455HO T/A's, Boss 302s, etc etc.  The reality is not many of us can afford them without a powerball win or re-financing the house. Even "base" models i.e-383 Super Bees, 396 Chevelles, 389 GTOs-that even 5 or 10 years ago wouldn't get a second look, are now commanding a King's Ransom. Even in this environment-I'm amazed at the number of people who turn up their noses at very cool cars at reasonable prices,because they aren't the "Big Dog", and then whine how hard it is to find decent car!!.  Here's a few that left me scratching my head and going Huh?  The one guy wanted a '68-70 GTO. So do a lot of people. But he turned up his nose at a beautiful red and black 350 / 4-speed, 1970 LeMans Sport convertible. Why? "It's still not a GTO."  Puhleeze.  Another idiot who wanted a '69-70 Mustang Mach 1 passed up a gorgeous Candy Apple Red '69 model with Ansen Sprint mags and rear window louvers-period-correct '70's cool-because it had a two-barrel carb on the 351W!!  Are you kidding me? An Edelbrock or Weiand intake manifold is about $200 in Summitt, and an Edelbrock or Holley carb is about $400. For $600 and a couple hrs work you could have a huge increase in performance and drivability and have the car the way you want. But he passed on the whole car, because he didn't like the carburator??!!  Another idiot did the same thing with a really nice '68 Charger that had a gorgeous red paint job and new T/A radials on Cragar S/S mags-because it had a 2bbl on the 383!! This boggles my mind. A couple guys I know looking for full-size muscle did the same unthinkable,moronic act of passing up a fabulous car because of some stupid detail. The one guy passed up a beautiful, Tri-Power, 421, 4-speed, 8-lug wheeled '63 Gran Prix, because the car was light blue, and he hated that color!!!  The car had white interior-he could have painted it any color he wanted!!!  If I'd had the cash, I'd have bought it and painted it Pearl White, or Buccaneer Red!!  The other idiot passed up a beautiful '65 Ford Galaxie coupe-it had a gorgeous bucket seat interior,factory A/C, new T/A radials on original style American Racing Torq-Thrust mags, and an awesome black paint job, because it was a 352 and he wanted a 390!!  The 352 and the 390 are both "FE" engines!! I pointed out that heads, intakes, headers etc-anything that fits a 390 will fit a 352-if he's looking for more oomph. I also pointed out that he could get a 390 out of a truck in a junkyard, and continue to drive the car with the 352 while he built a stompin' 390-if that's what he had to have. Nope. Passed up the car altogether. I'm reminded of that Bud Light Super Bowl ad from a couple years ago-two guys go into this bar full of gorgeous, friendly, scantily-clad women. Their the only men in the place and get quite a bit of attention. They leave when they find out the place doesn't serve Bud Light. As their walking away the one guys says-"Too bad, that place had potential". You think?  What is wrong with these people?  I've said it before-there is no "Used Car Factory" for you to place and order with!!  The chance of you finding a 40 or 50 year old car with the exact engine, transmission, axle-ratio,and color combination you want is almost nil. You have a better chance of being struck by lightning on the golf course. However-cars can be painted, seats can be re-upholstered, vinyl tops added or removed,and wheels changed. If you want to find a car and not have to lay out a gazillion bucks for "Exactly what your looking for" then you'll have to compromise on some things, like maybe settle for an automatic instead of a 4-speed, or a 383 instead of a 440, or whatever. Or continue searching for some unobtainable holy grail. Just stop whining about it.  Mastermind        

More on "If it isn't broken, don't fix it".....

Here's some more good advice for first-time restorers. Before you start tearing the car apart, fix the little crap and see where you really are. I've said it before, but it's worth revisiting. I've seen cars with $5,000 paint jobs and $2,000 worth of tires and wheels that can't smoke the tires on dry pavement or pull 5,000 rpm in low gear. You'd be amazed at the number of cars running around with the timing way too slow or way too advanced, the vacuum advance broken or unplugged, with bad plug wires,the points closing up, the carburator way too rich or too lean,the throttle linkage not opening all the way, the automatic trans kickdown not hooked up, the vacuum modulator not hooked up, and other stupid stuff I can't think of off the top of my head. I spoke in an earlier post about a 396 Impala I worked on. The guy brought it in fully expecting me to sell him a new engine, or offer to rebuild the one he had. I did a compression test, and the engine was sound, it didn't have a blown head gasket or a flat cam. It did however-have most of the problems I just listed. After replacing the points and condenser, rotor, distributor cap and wires, and hooking up the vacuum advance and setting the timing to proper specs, I leaned out the carburator, and cleaned and adjusted the throttle linkage so it opened fully. The guy was amazed. It would now fry the tires off the line and lay 10-15 feet of rubber on the 1-2 shift. He was so happy he tipped me $100 over the bill I charged him. The point I'm making is yes,before I looked at it, for a big-block Chevy his car ran like total shit. It didn't have the power of my mom's 305 powered '86 Caprice. But it was just suffering from major neglect. Once I fixed the little problems-we realized there wasn't a big one-like he didn't need his engine rebuilt!!  A similar thing happened with another customer of mine. He had a '78 Trans-Am with the 400 Pontiac / TH350 powertrain. He brought it to me to get a 2nd opinion because another shop told him he needed a new transmission. I drove the car, and it did shift poorly, sometimes not at all-literally sticking in low gear, and then violently shifting to 2nd about 4,000 rpm. Sometimes. If you did get it into high gear-then it wouldn't kick down into 2nd under load. I did some investigation and found multiple problems. 1st off, it was 2 quarts low on fluid. Secondly-the kickdown linkage was completely unhooked. Third, and most importantly-the vacuum modulator was not hooked up and was spewing fluid. I changed the fluid and the filter, and hooked up the kickdown linkage. I also replaced the vacuum modulator and made sure it was hooked up with a new vacuum line. ( The old one was horribly oil-soaked,probably from the fluid leak of the broken modulator.) I took it out for a post-repair test drive. After making sure there were no men in blue around, I punched it when the light turned green. The T/A lit up the tires all the way across the intersection. As the tach swept past 4,500 rpm and neared 5,000, it snapped off a quick 1-2 shift and the tires gave a nice little "rubber in 2nd" screech. I kept my foot in it, and it pulled hard in 2nd and snapped off a crisp 2-3 shift about 4,800 rpm. I slowed down to about 50 mph, and punched it again. It dropped into 2nd easily and accelerated hard. I aired it out a couple more times-now shifting manually. This T/A was bone-stock, and with the 400's tractor-like torque curve I found the car ran quickest if I shifted manually at 4,900 rpm ( 1-2 ) and 4,400 ( 2-3 ). I could hold the tranny in any gear up to 5,400 if I wanted to-but I was just beating up the valve springs. He needed an Edelbrock Performer intake ( or a factory '68-74 unit ) to make any real power. The '75-79 intakes have such a restrictive throttle opening that power above 3,500-4,000 rpm is severely compromised. Anyway-the transmission now worked as it should. The owner was esctatic that he only had to pay me a couple hundred for a couple hours work instead of spending $1,500 or more for a new tranny!!  The point I'm making is-sometimes something that looks like a big expensive problem, is a much smaller, less expensive problem if you do some checking.  The other thing that gripes my ass is magazines always build every engine from scratch. Like I said in the last post-if the engine in the car runs fine, doesn't smoke, doesn't use any oil, has good compression and has good oil pressure-why in the hell would you pull it, tear it down and rebuild it?  If you want more power-then add an aftermarket carb and intake, or headers or a cam, or whatever you want. The other problem I have is magazines have to bore every block .030 or .060 over and replace every single part. I remember back in the '60's and '70's people used to replace "rings& bearings" and the oil pump and consider the engine freshened!! If it needed it-they'd sometimes grind the valves, but not always. I've done it myself, and I've done it for customers. I'd tear an engine down-and nothing would really be wrong with it, it just had 100,000 or more miles on it and needed freshening. You know what I'd do? Polish the crank lightly,replace the rod and main bearings, and the piston rings, and put the pistons back in the same holes. ( They've already got a wear pattern, it'll work fine ). If one of the main or rod journals was damaged-we'd go to a machine shop and have the crank turned .010 over, get .010 over bearings, have the rods re-sized, ( here's a good time to add chrome-moly rod bolts. Even in racing engines 95% of rod failure occurs at the bolt, so this is good insurance ). Replace the oil pump, the cam and lifters and timing chain-do the heads if necessary-button it up and drive it another 50,000-100,000 miles!!  The point I'm making is EVERY single engine doesn't have to be bored .030 over, have a new crank,rods and pistons, and new everything. The 400 in my brother's GTO came out of a '74 Gran Prix. We put one piston in it, rings and bearings and an oil pump, and a set of 6X heads off one of my wrecked T/A's. It also has an Edelbrock Torker II intake and matching cam kit and Hooker Headers. A 750 Edelbrock carb and an MSD HEI distributor. It cost $1,900 to build, and dyno'd at 381 hp and 430 lbs of torque. It's ran 9 years without a problem, uses a quart of oil every 1,200 miles, and will literally spin it's tires as long as he wants to stay on the throttle. One of the buff magazines rebuilt a 455 and were jumping up and down because they made 440 hp and 460 lbs of torque for "only" $4,400. If my brother wanted another 59 hp and 30 lbs of torque, I'm pretty sure we could get it for a lot less than another $2,500!!  Everyone espouses the virtues of "Vortec" heads for small-block Chevys. Iron "Vortecs" cost $700 on up and aluminum ones are well over $1,000. On a tight budget, using junkyard parts?  Did you know that '81-'86 305 "smog" heads will give a 350 a huge power boost?  Huh?  Most 350's have 76cc combustion chambers and 1.94 / 1.50 valves. 305 heads have 58cc combustion chambers and 1.84 / 1.50 valves. The smaller combustion chambers will bump compression from 8.2:1 to about 9.6:1. The power and torque boost from the added compression will more than offset the slight loss of airflow from the smaller intake valves. And any machine shop can install the 1.94 valves if you want to. "Old Standbys" become "Old Standbys" because they just flat work. Here's a couple of examples. Unless your building something really radical-if you've got a 383, 400 or 440 Mopar-the factory 440 Magnum cam is damnded hard to beat. It has great low-end and mid-range torque, and is really long-legged-it'll pull all the way up to 6,000 rpm. It's perfect for an automatic and very pleasant with a 4-speed. Mopar Perfromance sells this cam to this day, and Crane and Lunati offer exact replicas. Aftermarket ones may make more peak hp-but your trading quite a bit of low-end and mid-range torque for top-end rush. Ditto for the small-block Chevy L46 / L82 cam-the "350 hp 350" cam. It idles smooth, makes 15 inches of vacuum at idle and pulls hard to 6,000 rpm. Same for the old "068" Pontiac Ram Air cam. It's really sweet in a 400 and makes gobs of torque in a 455. Even with an automatic and 3.08:1 gears-your Poncho will pull hard up to 5,500 rpm. The original Z/28 / LT1 small-block Chevy manifold makes power from idle-7,200 rpm. GMPP sells both aluminum and iron ( for stock-class racers where an iron manifold is required ). versions of this intake. I'm not slamming Edelbrock or Weiand or Holley intakes-their great-but this one is damded hard to beat for mild or wild engines. What I'm saying is-do some research and you may be able to save yourself quite a bit of money and time and grief. Throwing money at a project isn't always the answer.  Mastermind          

Don't listen to self-proclaimed "Experts"....

It's funny-but I see it all the time. Some neophyte hot-rodder who's thinking about a project will be listening raptly to some moron telling him about a bunch of "Gotta Haves" and encouraging him to spend umpteen thousands of dollars on stuff he doesn't need. And-this "Expert"-more often than not, is not a professional mechanic, doesn't even change his own oil, calls AAA if he gets a flat tire,and has never pulled an engine or transmission in his life,and has never built or driven any kind of race car-not a VW sand rail,an MG or a Miata, a Toyota or Datsun mini-stock, a hobby stock or street stock dirt-track or paved track racer, or any kind of drag car. Nothing. Yet he pontificates at length how other people should spend their money with quotes he got off the internet, in magazines and off shows like Top Gear. And it's funny-people will listen attentively to these assholes like their talking to Smokey Yunick, or Dick Landy, or Roger Penske,or Herb Adams, or Vic Edelbrock or Richard Petty or some other legend who was a trail blazer in Indy car racing, drag racing, or Nascar, or who designed an induction system or a whole car!!  Anyhow-I'm here today to save the first-time car restorer from making expensive mistakes on some ass-clown's advice.  # 1. "If it ain't broke, don't fix it". This is the best advice I can give anyone. Every car doesn't have to be a frame-off restoration where every single nut and bolt is replaced whether it needs it or not. This will drive the price of your project into the stratosphere. If you've got a basically solid car to start with-fix what it NEEDS. Whether that's replacing a rusted 1/4 panel or trunk floor, or buying a new radiator. I know a guy who bought a 340 Road Runner. It was a solid, running car. It had a dent in the left front fender, and the seats needed to be recovered, but otherwise it was all there. All he needed to do, literally was replace that fender, get the seats recovered, and a paint job, and he'd have had a nice car. A couple weeks later-I go by his place and he's got the car all tore apart and he's replacing stuff that doesn't need to be replaced. I mean he replaced the radiator, even though the car wasn't overheating, and it wasn't leaking. He replaced the power steering pump, even though it worked fine, wasn't making any noise and wasn't leaking. He replaced the starter and alternator-even though the car started fine every time you turned the key, and never had a dead battery. He was pulling the engine-and I asked him why. "I'm going to rebuild it." "Why on earth would you do that?" I asked, aghast. When we looked at the car before he bought it, I helped him go over it with the proverbial fine-tooth comb. We did a compression test and all 8 cylinders were within 5-10 psi of each other. It didn't smoke, didn't use any oil, had good oil pressure, and ran like a champ. It would smoke the tires at will from a light, and lay 8-10 feet of rubber when the Torqueflite hit 2nd!!  If he wanted more power-I could understand adding a set of headers, or an Edelbrock Torker intake, or maybe even a cam-but the engine was fine-it absolutely did NOT need to be torn down and rebuilt. It probably would have ran another 50,000 miles without trouble. Ditto for the brakes. The car had front disc / rear drum brakes and stopped just fine, with no weird noises or vibration. He replaced not only the pads and shoes, but the rotors and drums, the calipers,hoses,wheel cylinders, and master cylinder and booster!!  When none of that stuff was bad!!!  Anyway he maxes out all his credit cards and spends nearly 50 grand replacing every nut and bolt whether it needed it or not. Then he decides to get married and sell the car for a down payment on a house. He was crushed when he sold the car for $21,000-which is all the money for a 340 Road Runner back in the mid-1980's-everyone wanted the 383, 440 and Hemi models. Less than half of what he had invested. Now if he'd listened to me and just fixed what needed attention-he'd have had maybe 10 grand in the car, including it's original purchase price-and he'd have MADE 10 grand when he sold it instead of losing 30!!  Those wheel cylinders,calipers, radiator,p/s pump, and alternator and starter, etc-drove the build cost way up, but didn't raise the selling price any!!  Any restoration is going to be a labor of love, and I wouldn't expect to make a profit, but if you don't go batshit crazy replacing stuff that doesn't need to be replaced-like an alternator that works or a radiator that doesn't leak-the pain will be a lot less if you have to sell the car.  # 2. "Run What You Brung".  Magazines and gearheads talk flippantly about how "easy" it is to swap certain engines and transmissions. For a professional mechanic with state of the art tools, in a state of the art shop, yes,swapping a 350 Pontiac for a 400 / 455, or a Powerglide for a TH350 is cake. But for "Joe Average", in his driveway, with hand tools? Has anyone pulled a small-block Chevy out of a old Nova laying on the ground in the driveway? Or a clutch out of a Ford pickup?  I have. It's a sonofabitch, and that's if your simply removing and replacing identical parts. If your changing something or fabricating something-that's a rabbit-hole a 1st time restorer doesn't want to go down. So that's why I say "Run what you brung". What I mean is-if the car is an automatic-then run the automatic trans that's in the car. Don't try to swap in a Tremec 5-speed stick or BW 6-speed. Or try to swap a TH350 for a TH700R4. It's not worth the grief and hassle-and the money you'd waste is better spent elsewhere-on speed parts, tires and wheels, paint and bodywork etc. And run the engine that's in the car. If you have a 350 Firebird or LeMans, a factory or aftermarket 4bbl carb and intake, some headers and dual exhausts, and a B&M or TransGo shift kit in the trans will give you a HUGE increase in performance. You don't have to sell your soul to put a 400 in it. Ditto for a 318 Duster or Challenger, or a 289 / 302 Mustang / Cougar. Don't buy a small-block Chevelle with the intention of "someday" swapping in a 454. Unless your attending UTI or some other school to become a professional mechanic, I guarantee it won't happen. You'll get frustrated and sell the car.  If you "gotta have" a 400, 4-speed Trans-Am, then pay the price and go buy one. Don't think that you'll be able to "convert" a 403 / TH350 model. You "gotta have" a "Vanishing Point" Challenger with a 383 or a 440-then step up and pay the price. Don't buy a 318 model and think that you'll be able to-in your driveway-change the crossmember, torsion bars, transmission,rear end, leaf springs, radiator, and everything else that a "B" or "RB" E-body swap requires. I'm not trying to piss on anybody's dreams; I've built race cars and V8 Vegas, and V8 Chevy Luvs, and put small-block Chevys into 240Z's and 389 Pontiacs into GMC pickups; and I WOULDN'T attempt the Challenger swap I just described!!  That's what I'm saying-if your a first-timer-don't bite off more than you can chew. Yes-it's possible to put a 460 into a Fox Mustang-but with guys running in the 10's with 302s-why would you want to attempt it?  # 3. Everything doesn't have to be "Super Duty". I say this because in my car sales days working in a Ford store, I got a 40 year old adolescent who wanted to buy an F250 Diesel to tow his race car. The race car was a gutted '70's Camaro that weighed maybe 3,000 lbs. His trailer that he towed it on weighed maybe 1,000; even with gas and tools, he was only pulling about 4,500 pounds. He didn't need a Super Duty-a V6 Ranger can tow 5,000 lbs!!  He definitely would have been fine with a base-model F150-they have a 7,700 lb tow rating with the 6-cylinder and 9,500 lbs with the V8. I explained all this. Like talking to the wall. He was adamant, he had to have a Super Duty. Then it hit me-all of his asshole buddies at the track drove Super Dutys, or the Big Dodge and Chevy Diesels. If he pulled into the pits in an F150-one or more of these assholes would crack-"I see you brought your wife's truck today". "A little short on cash?" "You couldn't afford a real truck?"  This guy was 40 years old, and acting like he was in junior high. He was going to spend about $10,000 extra on a heavy-duty truck he didn't need, because he didn't have balls enough to tell another 40 year old adolescent blowhard to shut the F$%k up!!  Mercenary bastard that I was, I sold him the Super Duty. He was going to lay down for one somewhere, so Instead of futiley trying to talk sense into him, I took the commission. The moral of this story-is the magazines have to sell their advertiser's products to stay in business, and like I said earlier-most of these self-proclaimed "experts" get all their information from the magazines or the internet, none from practical experience. Here's a couple examples. Look in Summitt Racing's catalog in the transmission section. They sell brand-new BW T10 4-speed manual transmissions. There listed as having a 325 or 375 lb torque rating. However-in the early '60s-409 Impalas, 421 Catalinas and 406 Galaxies all had T10 4-speeds as standard equipment and they all had 450-500+ lbs ft of torque. People not only drove them every day on the street, they competed in stock class drag racing, sometimes making 30 hard passes in a weekend. Ironically- because of modern metallurgy-the newer ones have much tougher mainshafts and gears than the old ones!!  Yet they only have a 375 lb torque rating!!  What I'm saying is-if you need a 4-speed for your 389 GTO or 396 Chevelle and you can't find a Muncie-you'll be fine with one of these T10s!!  Ditto for the T5s in Camaros and Mustangs. They supposedly only have a 300 lb torque rating. Yet I know guys who have swapped in strong 350s and never had a problem. I know Mustang racers that run blowers and nitrous and run in the 10s and 11s with stock T5s.  The same for automatics. A TH350 or a C4 can handle up to 500 hp pretty easy. I know Grand National racers that run in the 10s with 200R4's.  So remember these simple guidelines, and you'll save yourself a ton of money and grief.  Mastermind                  

The argument that killed NASCAR.....

NASCAR always stood for the "National Association of Stock Car Racing". Back in the 1950's when Semon E. "Bunkie" Knudsen took over Pontiac he had the motto "You can sell a young man's car to an old man, but you can't sell an old man's car to a young man." Pontiac immediately began building performance into their cars. The 1959 model was the first one to have been completely designed and built under Knudsen's tenure. It looked like the Batmobile, and the top engine option was a 389 inch V8 with 3 2bbls that had 345 hp. All a 348 inch Impala or a 352 inch Galaxie were going to see of a 389 Catalina or Bonneville is the taillights. A mechanic named Smokey Yunick partnered with a driver named Fireball Roberts and for a couple years they dominated NASCAR. The term "Win on Sunday, Sell on Monday" was coined by the automotive press. It certainly worked. With it's high-performance image Pontiac quickly climbed from sixth in U.S. sales to third. NASCAR rules said that to race a car at least 500 had to be sold to the public. The SCCA ( Sports Car Club of America ) which sponsored the immensely popular Trans-Am series had the same rule. This rule brought us many cool things-most notably the vaunted 426 Chrysler Hemi, as well as the Boss 429,the Charger Daytona and the Plymouth Superbird,the Z/28 Camaro,the Boss 302 Mustang and the Firebird Trans-Am, Challenger T/A and 'Cuda AAR. ( There was a loophole that allowed de-stroking a production V8 to get under the 305 ci limit. Pontiac de-stroked a 400 and Chrysler did the same with a 340; unlike Chevrolet and Ford, they had no 5 liter high-performance production engine )  We all know Robert Duvall's immortal line from "Days of Thunder"-"There's nothing stock about a stock car" is true. However-the point I'm making is the cars had to be production based. You could recognize your favorites on the track and if you wanted one-you could go down to your local dealer and buy a 421 Catalina, or a 409 Impala or a 406 Galaxie, and later a Hemi Road Runner or a big-block Chevelle, or a 427 Fairlane. The competition was fierce. In the early '70's in an effort to keep speeds down-they were hitting 200 mph on the big tracks-You know how much power it takes to push a '70 Charger or a '71 Monte Carlo to 200 mph?? Nascar lowered the cubic inch limit to 366 ci and the mega motors were no longer necessary. As the small-blocks got more and more powerful, then they went to restrictor plates under the carb and other crap to control speeds. Also bodystyles could not be more than 5 years old. This is what eventually ruined NASCAR racing and made it the uninteresting mess it is today. Richard Petty couldn't run his iconic '74 Charger after the '79 season. He tried to run a Dodge Magnum body, but it was uncompetitive. The Petty team then switched to GM products. Most GM racers were running either Chevelle or Monte Carlo bodies. Petty discovered that the slope-nosed fastback '76-77 Olds Cutlass was much more aerodynamic and would run much quicker than the blunt nosed, notchback Malibus and Monte Carlos. Since Petty was running the ubiquitous 350 small-block Chevy race engine, the other teams cried foul. They said Petty should be forced to run an Oldsmobile engine. Obviously-the 350 Olds had nowhere near the racing development or speed equipment availability of the Small-block Chevy. If he had to run an Olds engine, the car would have been uncompetitive, which the other teams knew. However-in the late '70's, mostly because of smog laws, GM was playing musical engines. In 1977 you could get a Pontiac Firebird with a 231 inch Buick V6, a 301 Pontiac,a 305 Chevy,a 350 Chevy, a 350 Olds, a 350 Buick, a 350 Pontiac,a 400 Pontiac,and a 403 Olds. In 1978 you could get an Olds Cutlass with a 231 Buick V6, a 260 Olds V8, a 305 Chevy,and a 350 Olds. You could get a Buick Regal with a 301 Pontiac or a 305 Chevy. A Pontiac Gran Prix offered the 231 Buick V6, a 301 Pontiac, or a 305 Chevy. The Cadillac Seville was powered by a 350 Olds. Petty argued that since GM was selling Oldsmobiles to the public with Chevy engines in them,that he ought to be allowed to race them. The NASCAR brass agreed with Petty, and amended the rules-saying that teams could run any GM engine in any GM body. Petty's Cutlass dominated, winning several races in a row. The other teams quickly switched to Cutlasses to keep up. Through the '80's you could still buy a V8 rear-drive Monte Carlo SS, like Dale Earnhardt drove, or a Ford Thunderbird like Bill Elliott drove to the championship. Buick Regals were a popular body-so that got us the badass Grand National-although no NASCAR team was running a Turbo V6.  That was all well and good. Then in 1988 GM discontinued the rear-drive "G" bodies ( Pontiac Gran Prix, Chevy Monte Carlo, Buick Regal, and Olds Cutlass ). Every GM intermediate and most of the "big" cars were now front-wheel drive with V6's. This posed a problem for the racers. Now why GM NASCAR teams didn't simply switch to Camaros and Firebirds-I don't know-they were still rear-drive, V8 models and stayed in production through 2002. That would have been the simple thing. Instead the rules were amended and teams began running Chevy Lumina and Beretta bodies. As we got into the '90's the downward death spiral started. NASCAR should have stuck to their guns. If no manufacturer is making rear-drive, V8 cars then guess what guys? Your racing 4-banger and V6 front-drive econoboxes!!  I guarantee the manufacturers would have made sure they each had at least one model that was rear-drive and V8 powered!! Instead, they change the rules to allow a fiberglass front-drive econobox body on a tube frame, with 1965 technology?  Carburators? No roller cams? No overhead cam designs?  Then Ford guys started running Taurus bodies, and Toyota got into the fray with Camry bodies. Here's where they really went sideways. NASCAR basically forced Toyota to build a small-block Chevy copy-a pushrod V8 that was NEVER in any production Toyota vehicle!!  I don't understand why they didn't stick to the rules that cars had to be production based. GM still had Camaros and Firebirds, Ford had Mustangs. And let Ford run the OHC Mod Motor. Let Toyota run their I-Force V8 in the Lexus coupe. Let GM run their LS engines. Let Chrysler run the Hemi in a Charger Body. Now that would have been fun to watch and competitive as all hell. Nope. You got small block Chevys-a 1955 design, "Clevor" Fords-Windsor blocks with "Cleveland" heads-a 1968 design, and small-block Mopars-a 1967 design. Toyota has their faux-small-block Chevy, not the OHC V8's they put in Lexus's and Tundra pickups.  They had carburators until 2014-when every american and foreign car built has been fuel injected since 1988!!  And the so-called "fuel injection" their running now isn't multi-port or sequential port injection like all modern cars have-it's a 4-barrel Holley throttle body on an Edelbrock Victor manifold!!!  A glorified carburator!!  All the cars look the same. You can't tell one from the other. Don't you agree that today the sport would be better if people were running LS engined Camaros, Coyote engined Mustangs, Hemi Challengers,and I-Force Lexus Coupes?  That would be fun to watch, instead of a bunch of "Cookie Cutter" "Cars of Tomorrow" ( That are really cars of yesteryear ) going in circles. I think they need to get back to their roots-"Stock Car Racing". Or like it was in the '60's and '70's and '80s-the Golden Age when they were at least production based!!  Anybody have any other ideas?  Mastermind      

I'm not "Bashing" anything...I'm trying to give people good advice

A lot of people ask me why I sometimes "bash" certain vehicles, even revered classics. I think the term "bashing" is a little harsh. I'm not "bashing" anything; I'm trying to give people good advice to help them avoid costly mistakes when buying or restoring a musclecar.  For example-I've said it many times because it's true. Fords do not have the easy parts interchangeability that GM and Chrysler stuff has. This is not a slam of Ford products; it's an irrefutable fact. You can take a 327 out of a '66 Impala and put it in a '78 Camaro and and not have to change a thing.  By contrast a 390 Ford out of a T-Bird has a different oil pan,a different water pump and different accessory brackets than a 390 out of Mustang, and they are both different than a 390 out of an F100 pickup! And god help you if your changing "families". A 289 / 302 has a different bellhousing bolt-pattern than a 351C does. Their both different than the "FE" engines-i.e. 352-390-427-428, and they are different than a 429 /460!!  So if you swapping a Ford engine, chances are your chasing a bunch of different parts, and you need a new transmission or bellhousing to boot!  A lot different from taking a 455 out of a '75 Grand Prix and literally bolting it into your 350 powered '69 LeMans!! That's all I'm saying. I'm not telling people to not do Ford projects. I'm just warning them that they are going to cost more and be more hassle than a Chevy or a Pontiac or a Mopar. Another thing I don't understand is I've been called out for saying a 351W is a better street engine than a Boss 302. That's because it is!!  The Boss 302 was designed for one thing-to win the SCCA Trans-Am championship. The engine was designed to make maximum power between 5,000 and 8,000 rpm. The engineers didn't care about anything below 5 or above 8. That's why they have a solid-lifter cam and ports and valves the size of a 427 Chevy!! There's a reason they were only available with a 4-speed and 3.90:1 or 4.30:1 gears. They have very little torque below 3,000 rpm. And a lot of people don't know it, but to keep people from running them 8 grand and blowing them up and having a lot of warranty claims on this expensive ( Ford lost money on every one ) one-off engine-Ford put a rev limiter on them that cut the ignition at 5,800 rpm. So yes, if your in the market for a '69 Mustang and your going to drive the car at all-the 351W has way more low-end torque and much easier drivability, and can be had with an automatic trans and A/C!!  What part of better STREET engine did people not grasp?  Ditto for the mighty Chrysler Hemi. I've been chewed out for saying that a 383 or a 440 is much better STREET engine. Again-that's because it's true. The 426 Hemi was designed to do one thing-go 200 mph at Daytona. Richard Petty and others had great success and dominated the big tracks in Nascar. Others like Sox&Martin had great success in drag racing. That's because it was designed as a racing engine. On the street, especially with restricted exhaust, an automatic and normal gearing like 3.23:1-they don't run that fast. Popular Hot Rodding said driving their '69 Hemi R/T Charger test car was like running with one flat tire. They couldn't break out of the 14s, and went through the traps in 2nd gear. They said it needed a 4-speed and 4.30:1 gears or at least some 4.10:s and a higher-stall converter to reach it's full potential. In the same issue a 440 GTX ran faster in the 1/4 than the Hemi Charger, as did a 428CJ Mustang, a 400 RAIII GTO, and a 396 Chevelle!!  The PHR writers are absolutely right. If you've got stiff gears and the right converter and free-flowing exhaust, yes a Hemi will kick ass. But in bone-stock trim-they often got beat in "Stoplight Gran Prix's" by "lesser" cars like 383 Road Runners, 400 GTOs, 396 Chevelles, etc. This is another irrefutable fact. Just like saying that Boss 429s don't run to their potential. They don't. The Boss-Nine was designed for one thing and one thing only. To beat the 426 Hemi in NASCAR races. Period. Stuffed into a Mustang with a very restrictive exhaust system, and a little 735 Holley carb, and having 3.50:1 gears-they weren't slow-but a "regular" 428 Mach 1 would blow it's doors off in a drag race. A 351C Mach 1 would run almost as fast, and have much better handling because they weren't so nose-heavy. The Boss 429s weren't the fearsome beasts you'd think they'd be. And here's the catch 22-with only 1359 ever built and pristine examples selling for $250,000 on up-no one is going to put headers and a Jon Kaase intake and an 1150 Dominator Holley and 4.30:1 gears in one and let it rip down the drag strip to the tune of low 11s like it should!!  I love Pontiacs. I loved my dad's Tri-Power 421 '65 2+2, I loved my '69 Judge, and I loved my '77 T/A. I loved my sisters '72 Gran Prix. Nothing feels better than punching it and riding that mountain of torque that a 400 or 455 posesses. However-Pontiacs are not high revvers. That big heavy crank, which is why they often go 200,000 miles on the street with out a rebuild-is a hindrance when racing. If your building a 455 I wouldn't run it over 5,700 rpm if you want it to last. A 400, you can get away with 5,800-6,200, but that's about it. When you've got 450+ lbs of torque from idle on up, you don't need to rev to 7 or 8 grand. That's the beauty of them. But their not high revvers. Ditto for a 400 or 455 Olds. It's not a bad thing, it's just a quirk of the way these engines were designed. As STREET engines, not racing engines. Oh yeah? You say-then how come a 427 or 454 Chevy can go 7,500 rpm reliably? Because-the Rat motor was designed as a racing engine!! Remember the 427 inch Daytona Mystery engine of 1963?  In 1961-62 Smokey Yunick and Fireball Roberts were the scourge of Nascar in their fire-breathing 421 Pontiacs. They won 22 races that year-a record that stood until Richard Petty won 27 in 1967-68. The old 409 Chevy and 406 Fords and 413 Mopars were blown away by the 421s. The Manufacturers weren't going to stand for that. Chrysler was already developing the Hemi for its debut in '64 or '65. Ford was developing the 427, and Chevy was developing a 427 of their own. That Daytona "Mystery" engine became the porcupine-head production "Rat" motor that debuted in 1965. So the legendary "Rat", like the Hemi and the Boss-Nine was designed to be a race engine and was adapted to street cars. Chevrolet just had better success making them streetable. I hope that clears a few things up. When I say something about a given car line, I'm not saying it maliciously, I'm just trying to save people time, money and frustration. Mastermind