The Forgotten Z/28s!

Everyone sings the praises of the original 1967-69 Z/28 and it's high-winding 302. Magazines also say how great the 70-72 model with the solid-lifter LT1 350 that would still rev to 7 grand, but had substantially more torque than the 302 it replaced.  Emissions and safety controls tightened in the mid 70s however. In 1973 and 74 the Z/28 was powered by the L82 350 which had a hydraulic cam, and a quadrajet on an iron manifold instead of a 780 Holley on an aluminum one. In late 1974, the option was scrapped. Chevrolet quickly realized their mistake. They no longer had a "Flagship" Camaro. Meanwhile, the Pontiac Trans-Am soared to new sales heights, selling nearly 50,000 units in 1976, before "Smokey and the Bandit" ( Which was released in 1977. ) After a nearly 3 year absence ( Late 1974,75,76, and part of 77 ) In the spring of 1977 Chevy brought back the Z/28. It had one engine, the 170hp L48 350 4bbl. However, Chevy engineers used mechanical advantage to make them decent performers. Transmissions were a Borg-Warner T10 with a 3.73:1 rear axle or a Turbo 350 with a 3.42 cog. While T/A sales continued to soar-the 400 V8 in the T/A made 220 hp-50 more than the Z, and in 1978 the WS6 performance package further increased the T/As already legendary handling. Chevy tried to play catch up. In 1978 they scrapped the ugly huge bumpers that had plagued the Camaro since 1974 and adopted sleeker, urethane covered bumpers front and rear, which Firebirds had since 76. They also added air extractors to the front fenders and louder graphics-copying the T/A shamelessly. In 1979 they upped the horsepower to 190, and added T/A style fender flares front and rear. In 1980 they finally topped their Pontiac cousins. The 400 inch motors were dropped at the end of 1979, and were replaced with the anemic 301 V8 Turbo rated at 210, but they were noticeabley slower than the 400s. Meanwhile, the 350 was still available in the Z/28, and Chevy brought back "Cowl Induction" -a vacuum operated hood scoop that opened up on acceleration. Automatics still got a 3.42 rear end, but four-speeds had 3.08s. However, acceleration actually inproved, because instead of a 2.64 1st, and 1.75 second that the 77-79 models had, the 1980 models had a T10 with a 3.44 1st and 2.28 second.  Sadly, in 81, the 4-speed was only available with a ( Yuk!) 305.  However, the 1977-80 models are a screaming bargain. While Disco-era T/As are bringing high prices, these cars are a steal. Think about it-they have a 350 Chevy under the hood, front and rear sway bars, a 4-speed or Turbo 350 for a trans and a 3.08, 3.42 or 3.73 geared 10-bolt posi rear end all standard. You can't ask for a better base for a hot rod than that. There is a ton of aftermarket equipment available for 1970-81 F-bodies, and you could swap in a big-block if you want, a Richmond or Tremec 5-speed stick, or a 700R4 automatic very easily. They won't have the wow factor of a 67-72 model, but they'll probably be a 1/4 of the price. Something to think about. Mastermind    

More reasons to just drive it!!

A lot of us buy musclecars and have grand plans for them. And a lot of these cars have non-original engines in them and are in less than stellar condition. A good way to restore a car if your on a tight budget-( Most of us are ) is to do it little by little. My brother's 69 GTO was a little rough when he got it and had a 350 Pontiac out of a 75 Firebird in it. The 350 ran fine, but obviously, he wanted a 400 or 455. He was smart, however. He fixed the bodywork while driving it, and a few other things, like the heater core, and the power steering pump and a repairing the radiator, even installing a new transmission. He even got it painted with the 350 in it. He continued driving it, while he built his dream 400. When we swapped in the 400, it was easy. And believe me, what a releif it was to have all the brackets and linkages, and nuts and bolts off the 350 to put it together.  Another friend was restoring a 340 Cuda. It had a 318 in the engine bay. Same thing, he drove the car while fixing the brakes, the bodywork, the headliner, and other things. He did find a 340 block, but again, if he didn't have the valve covers, oil pan, timing cover, fuel pump, water pump, distributor, and all the brackets off the "Unoriginal" 318, it would have cost him a ton of money and time to buy those things or to try scour junkyards for them.  By keeping the car drivable, you can fix things that you might have missed otherwise-i.e.- the wiper motor doesn't work, but you found that out when it rained one day.  Plus, you can work out other bugs with the junk motor you don't care about. And trust me, all 40 year old cars have bugs, no matter how nice they look. Here's a good example- You buy a 69 Camaro that has a junkyard 350 in it. While driving around, you realize it's overheating badly, because the fan clutch isn't working.  Wouldn't you rather overheat and maybe blow a head gasket on the junk motor than on that 425hp 383 stroker you were planning to drop in?  You can also use junk to dial in nitrous systems. I'd rather melt the pistons of a $300 junkyard motor than a $7,000 crate engine!  Seriously, I know a guy that did this with his Nova. He built like a 300hp nitrous system complete with an extra fuel pump, timing control from inside the car, everything. He tested it at the local strip. When he grenaded a motor, he'd see why, go get another one from the junkyard and tune some more. After the 2nd or 3rd junkyard motor, he installed his solid-roller 408 small-block that ran high 11s on the motor and low 10s on the spray. And the engine is still together after more than a year of abuse and numerous drag races, which sometimes mean 30 passes in a weekend. The grand or so he spent grenading the clunkers while dialing in the nitrous has kept his megabuck, mega horsepower mill alive and well.  Something to think about. Mastermind

For God's sake!!.......Just Drive it!!

I have talked to several people lately who really offended me with their anal, "It's not completely original" attitude.  Here's why I found the conversations so offensive.  Idiot # 1 had just bought a really nice 1963 Impala SS. The body was straight and rust-free, and was painted a nice silver color. The interior was perfect, having been redone with replacment upholstery by Year One. The powertrain was a mild 350 backed up by a Muncie 4-speed. It had 2 sets of wheels and tires-American Racing Torque-thrusts with BFG T/A radials-certainly a "Period Correct" look, and some steel wheels with whitewalls and original style "SS" hubcaps! The car ran and drove like a dream. And the Price was $8500!!  What a great find! The new owner sighed wistfully and said-"It's gonna be a while before I drive or show this one."  "What are you talking about?" I said incredulously.  "This car is an awesome driver right now."  "I'm gonna have a helluva time finding a 1963 327 to replace that 350."  "And a 1963 distributor, or Carter AFB carb?"  "I may have bit off more than I can chew." He said. "Are you planning on putting it in Concours shows?" I asked.  "No, I wanted to drive it on nice days, and maybe show it at Hot August Nights."  "Then do it." I said. "It's a great car."  "People will love it."  "Not with that unoriginal engine." he sneered.  "The car doesn't know what engine's in it, and neither will 99.9% of the people that look at it."  I replied. "Just drive it and enjoy it."  "I can't until its right."  I was shocked and appalled and thought he was maybe a 1 in a million moron.  I was wrong. I met another guy who bought a rough but running 1965 Pontiac Catalina 2+2 for $2500!!  The interior was good, but the body did need some work. It had the Tri-Power induction system on it, and the car ran strong. The trans was a Turbo 400. The new owner was crestfallen, because it turned out the engine was a 1967 400.  Same thing- "I'll never find a 421 with 1964 or 65 date codes."  The guy whined.  "So what?  I said. "Pontiac engines are externally identical from a 326 to a 455." "No one will ever know, unless you tell them." "And even if your selling it, I don't think a potential buyer would care if you told him." "And you can buy 421 or 428 crank kits to put in a 400 block." "Make it a 421 and be happy."  "But I'd know it's not original." The guy protested. Again- I posed the question-"Are you planning on showing it in Concours competition?"  "No, I wanted to race it at the Pure Stock drags."  "Oh, for Christ's sake!"  I exploded. "As long as your within 15 cubic inches of the original size and have a stock-type intake and exhaust system on it, your within the rules." "In other words, if this was a '70 Z/28 you'd have to have a #3310 780 Holley on it, but it wouldn't have to have 1970 date codes."  "You could build a stompin', but stock looking 433 inch Pontiac and probably win your class."  "I saw an article in Musclecar Review about the guy that won it a few years ago." He had a 69 428 Mustang. "  "But he was saving the original numbers-matching engine."  "The engine in the car was a 390 that he'd bored to 415 and put the CJ intake and a Lunati cam in."  "He shouldn't have won." "His car wan't original." The guy sneered. "None of them are."  I said- "The cars are Stock Appearing, but their not totally stock." "They all have bigger cams, or electronic ignition, and hi-stall converters, and whatever other "stealth" modifications they can get away with."  "That's what makes it fun."  "Some of the "Hemi" Road Runners running have Mopar Perfromance Crate Hemis in them." "Their not original Hemi cars." "Their allowed, because the Hemi was available in that body, that year." "Same for some of the Ram Air IV Pontiacs or L88 Vettes running." "Their not original L88 or RAIV cars, their built to that spec."  "You can race a classic, and not worry about blowing a rod out the side of a numbers-matching block." "That's what makes it cool."  "That's wrong." The guy said. "They should have to be all original."  "That's Concours again, and no one's going to race a car like that because their afraid of breaking it."  "Just drive the car and enjoy it."  I said.  "Not unitl I find a 421." He growled and stomped off.  I was stunned.  Like I said before, If Concours is your bag, have fun if you can afford it. But if you want to drive the car at all or yes-race it, then get real.  When you put your foot in it bang through the gears do you think-"Wow this really cool."  "Too bad I've got a 454 in this Chevelle ."  "If it was a 396 this would be even cooler."  Puhleeeze.  Drive the damn thing and enjoy it.!!  Mastermind   

What not to buy.....And Why!

I see people all the time that spend a lot of money buying and or/ building a car, and then their disappointed that A)  No one else thinks its cool.  Or B) They can't sell it for anywhere near what they spent on it.  Here's some good advice for people who are new to the musclecar hobby and how to avoid this problem.  # 1 I don't care that "Sport Sedans" are all the rage now. That's a 90's baby-boomer / Yuppie thing. Yes the Subaru WRX, BMW M3, and Cadillac CTS-V are all badass 4-doors, for people who like to go fast, and have kids and grandkids.  However, if you want a 1950's, 60s, or 70's car, the 2- door is king.  No one wanted a 4- door 57 Chevy in 1957, and they aren't worth anything now, except as a parts car for someone restoring a 2 door!  Ditto for 60's and 70s models. No one wants a 4-door 1966 Pontiac Tempest or a 4-door 1970 Malibu, or 1968 Coronet. They are good parts cars if you need front end sheetmetal, or a trunk lid, or interior or suspension parts. Otherwise your a nerd if you drive one.  #2 Pertaining to GM products Chevys always bring top dollar, with Pontiacs a close second.  That's a fact of life, so get over it. Watch the Barrett-Jackson Auctions on the speed channel or buy Hemmings motor news.  What this means is, the 1965 Buick Skylark with the 300 inch Buick V8 that was half the price of the 1965 Malibu SS with a 327, or the 1964 Olds Cutlass that was 1/3 the price of a 1964 GTO is not that great a deal. For three reasons- # 1 Chevrolet and Pontiac restoration parts are big business, and easy to find, and much cheaper than anything else. If Something is made for an Olds or a Buick, it' only available because it also fits a Chevy or Pontiac. Finding replacement Buick-only or Olds only parts is tough and expensive. # 2 There are a ton of aftermarket parts out there for Chevys and Pontiacs-aluminum heads, intakes, stroker cranks, whatever you want. Stock or hog-wild, Price out an engine rebuild for a 350 Chevy and a 350 Buick, or a 400 Olds engine and a 400 Pontiac. It'll make you sick, if your a Buick or Olds owner. # 3 Resale Value. People will give blood and a first-born child for a nice big-block SS Chevelle or GTO.  These same people won't even look at an Olds 442 or GS 400 Buick Skylark. If you want to buy an Olds or a Buick, the prices are lower, but the preceding reasons are why.  # 3 Base models are cheap for a reason.  If you find a good buy on a 350 LeMans or Firebird, great. Enjoy it, and restore or modify it to your heart's content.  Just don't expect GTO or Trans-Am money when you try to sell it.  # 4. An ultra-rare car missing a critical component is not a deal at any price. The obvious example is any Hemi-powered Chrysler vehicle without the Hemi engine.  Others would be a Boss 302 or Boss 429 Mustang without the "Boss" engines, Fuel-injected Corvettes without the Fuelie motor would be others. The reason is the cost of trying to chase down an original replacement engine and related parts, would be so prohibitive, that even if you had Donald Trump's bank account,  you'd be better off just buying an original or already restored car.  # 5 "Basket Cases" are not a deal, even if your a bodyman or mechanic by trade.  Here's why- You buy some engineless, transmissionless, gas tankless, interiorless hulk because it's a rust-free 69 Camaro body and you got it for $1000 bucks! Wow!  At the same time a guy is selling a rough but running 69 Camaro for $5000, that your buddy bought. Guess what? Your pal got the better deal.  Because by the time you find an engine-and where are you going to find the alternator, the starter, water pump, fuel pump, all the tin, and all the brackets, the radiator the hoses, the fuel lines, all the intieor parts, transmission, clutch linkage, the light bulbs, taillight mounting brackets, door handles, window cranks, wiper motor, wiper arms and blades, dash and guages, all the wiring and sending units, etc, etc,.it's going to cost you more than 5K to get the car in driveable and registerable condition, never mind magazine-cover or show worthy.  So even though your pal spent five times as much as you for raw material, he saved himself ten times the work, and expense. If a car has major body damage, or rust issues, or water or fire damage, or is missing the engine and trans, 99% of the time your better off in the long run by spending more money and just getting a better car to start with.  Mastermind          

More "Insurance Beaters" that might be collectible today

In the last post I mentioned how the Plymouth Duster flew under the radar of Ralph Nader, the safety Nazis and exorbitant insurance premiums. Other carmakers caught on, and came up with good-performing cars that would appeal to musclecar buyers, but not get saddled with the high premiums. One was the Pontiac Tempest T-37. Pontiac took a strippy Tempest, put Judge style stripes on it, and Rally II wheels without trim rings. The standard powertrain was a 350 V8 with a 3-speed manual, but the 400 and 455 inch V8s were optional, as was a 4-speed or a 3-speed automatic. The buff magazines of the day called them "The Poor man's GTO." They were only built in 1970 and 71, however in 1972 there was a LeMans GT package that was basically the same. Another was the Olds Rallye 350 Cutlass. This model was made for one year only-1970. They had a super loud sebring yellow paint job, and the bumpers were urethane-coated and body-colored. The had one engine- a 350 Olds rated at 310 hp. Rumors persist that of the 3,527 built that at least 10 were W31 powered, but this has never been verified by an Olds engineer or a car with a build sheet in a magazine. Buick had sold GS 350 Skylarks since 1968, but they were overshadowed by their 400 and 455 inch brothers. However, the option was continued. You basically had all the GS 455 trim, but with a smaller engine. Chevrolet got into the act as well. In 1971 for the first time since 1965-( All SS Chevelles built from 1966-1970 had 396 or 454 big-blocks) you could get a Chevelle SS with a small-block. The 350s were rated at 270 hp and ran well. The big-blocks were still optional as well. They also introduced the "Heavy Chevy" which was a 2 dr Malibu with a blacked-out grille, domed SS style hood, and slotted 14 inch rally wheels. Engine choices ranged from a 307 with a 2bbl, to two 350s-one with a 2bbl, the other a 4-bbl, to the 402 big-block. The 454 wasn't optional in the "Heavy Chevy" for some reason. These were built in 1971-72. Chrysler followed GM's lead and in 1971 for the first time offered the 340 in the Charger and the Road Runner, although the 383, 440, and 426 Hemis were still available. In 1972 the Hemi and the 440 Six-Pack were dropped. These cars have some collectiblity to them, and bring more than say a base-model Malibu, or 318 Satellite, and they are fun to drive. But don't pay much more than base-model prices for one. I mean face it-a pristine T-37 is still a 350 Tempest with bench seats, not a Ram Air IV Judge. A "Heavy Chevy" is a 2 dr Malibu with an SS hood, not an LS6, or even a for-real SS396. With that in mind, you might find a great car at a reasonable price. Mastermind 

Ever been "Dusted?"

By the late sixties, the government safety Nazis and insurance companies were cracking down on high-performance vehichles. For drivers under 25, sometimes insurance premiums were more than the payments on the car! This obviously hurt musclecar sales, because it was primarily young males that wanted them. Mid-size cars with engines over 360 cubic inches were hit particularly hard. Well , that was just about every Musclecar built. In 1970 Chrysler came up with a brilliant "Insurance Beater".  They took the Valiant economy car, gave it a great-looking semi-fastback body and stuffed the hot 340 V8 in it. They re-named it the "Duster" and gave it a flat-black hood with a big "340" graphic on it. They also gave it a cool "Twister" stripe down the side- at the end of the stripe stood a little tornado with eyes-"A Duster." It was available in wild colors-Sub-lime, Plum Crazy, Panther Pink, Hemi Orange, etc. Since they only weighed about 2,900 lbs, they were fast. With a 4-speed or a Torqueflite, a 340 Duster could rip off low 14 second 1/4 mile times right off the showroom floor. With very litte tuning-i.e.-headers and stickier tires and traction bars or a pinion snubber-they could run low 13s and give big-block musclecar owners a lesson in power to weight ratio they'd not soon forget. Priced less than a Road Runner, and just as fast, they were an immediate sales hit. Although Dodge had 340 powered Darts since 1968, they never had the sales success of the Duster. For 1971 Dodge took their version of the Dart/Duster plaftorm and went even further. Besides swapping in the 340 V8, they put twin hood scoops on it, and a 'Cuda style "Go-Wing" spoiler on the decklid. They also put stripes on the hood and sides and a decal of a Devil holding a Pitchfork. Inside, it had a three-spoke "Tuff" steering wheel and Husrt shifter for 4-speed models, or a "Slap-Stick" console for automatics. They named it the "Demon." Get it-"Speed Demon?" When I was a kid, I thought the Demon was the coolest car around.  In 1972, Mr Norm of Grand Spaulding Dodge put a Paxton Supercharger on a Demon and called it the Demon GSS. These are quite rare today. Even in the '70's the ever-tightening emissions controls and political correctness was creeping in. The Demon name was dropped in 1973 and the "Dart Sport" moniker used again. Plymouth still had 340 Dusters, but the graphics were toned down.  In 1974 the 340 was dropped, and replaced with a 360 truck motor that although it may have had a similar horsepower rating- ( 245 hp ) it didn't have the performance that the high-winding 340 did.  By 1976  a 318 with a 2bbl was the largest engine available. By 1977 they were replaced with the ( Yuk! ) Plymouth Volare / Dodge Aspen platform. For a few years, the Duster and the Demon were great performance cars. Now they are starting to gain in popularity again, probably because people are finding the B and E bodies too expensive.  Even if you get a 318 version, they can be hopped up easily, or a fire-breathing Mopar Performance 390 hp 360 crate motor is a bolt-in swap. And Mopar Performance offers crossmembers to allow installation of the B / RB big-block engines.  If you want big performance for low bucks, just like when they were new, Dusters offer a lot of "Bang for the Buck".  Mastermind           

A lot of great raw material is still out there.......If you lower your sights a bit

I hear a lot of people whining that they can't find a musclecar to play with, and price isn't always the objection. "There just isn't anything out there."  I beg to differ. Yes, if you must have a 1969 SS396 Chevelle, then your options might be limited. Although only 86,000 SS396s were built in 1969, nearly 400,000 Chevelles and Malibus were built with V8 engines. Now some of those are obviously four-door sedans and wagons, but it also means that there are a good quarter-million plus 2-door Chevelles out there that can be bought reasonably and are just waiting to be restored, or turned into an SS clone. And that's if you absolutely, positively have to have a 1969 model!! If you can live a 1968, or 1970-72 model, there's literally millions more. This is not an isolated example. While GTOs and 442s command a king's ransom, 2-door Cutlasses and Tempest / LeMans models from 1964-77 are out there by the thousands.  Road Runners are scarce, but 2-door Satellites and Belvederes are plentiful. Ditto for 2-dr Coronets- ( Think "Instant Super Bee" ) .  Your not going to find a deal on a Shelby or a Boss 302, but there were literally millions of 289 or 302 Mustangs built from 1964-1970.  Trans-Ams and Z/28 Camaros might be pricey, but again, there are millions of 1970-81 Camaros and Firebirds out there, and there is probably more aftermarket speed equipment and restoration parts on the market for these cars than anything else on the planet.  You might have to do some work other than write a check, but you can build your car anyway you want. I may be too much of a gearhead, but I'd rather have $20,000 in a Malibu with a Fire-Breathing 500 hp 502 inch Rat motor, than the same amount in a numbers-matching SS 396 that still needs restoration. Mastermind         

Need to sell some stuff....

I have a complete "Turn-Key" i.e.-distributor, carburator, water pump, fuel pump, serpentine belt drive system with alternator, p/s pump and a/c compressor included GM Performance Parts ZZ4 crate engine for sale. It has less than 500 miles on it. It is still in a car, so potential buyers can hear it run or drive the car. To refresh your memories, the ZZ4 is a 350 Chevy with a 4-bolt main block, a steel crank, "Pink" rods, 10:1 compression Keith Black Hypereutic pistons, a cam with 279/290 duration and .474/510 lift, L98 aluminum heads, an aluminum Z/28/LT1 high-rise manifold and 770 cfm Holley carb. They are rated at 355 hp and 405 lbs ft of torque. Summit Racing sells these "Turn-key" engines for $5295. I will sell mine for $3795, cash only. I also have an Olds 455 engine with a Lunati Bracket Master cam with 298/304 duration and .496/520 lift in it, chrome moly rod bolts, TRW forged flat-top pistons and an Edelbrock Torker intake. It is also complete from distributor to oil pan. It is on an engine stand, and has a spun main bearing. I will sell this engine for $1500 cash only. I also have a Chevy bolt pattern Turbo 400 and a BOP bolt pattern Turbo 400 that I will sell for $400 and $250 respectively. I also may be interested in selling my one of 1,097 made, 1973 Hurst/Olds 442. Price negotiable. Interested parties can comment on this post, leave your email or phone number with area code and I will get back to you. Mastermind

How it all started.....

A lot of people will tell you that the 1964 Pontiac GTO started the musclecar craze, but they don't know the reasons why.  Here's how it all started. Way back in 1956 Semon E. "Bunkie" Knudsen took over Pontiac, which was in sixth place in sales. Pontiac had a staid image of big sedans-i.e.- your grand father's car. Knudsen's motto was "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."  He told his engineers to build sporty, fast, good looking cars. Fortunately, in 1955 both Chevrolet and Pontiac introduced modern V8s. By modern I mean OHV design, not flatheads like Ford had used since the '30's, and with free-breathing combustion chambers, not like the "Nailhead" V8 that Buick was using or the "Rocket" Oldsmobiles that dated back to 1949.  The Chevys were 265 cubic inches and the Pontiacs were 287. We all know the small-block Chevy is still in use to this day, and that the Pontiac design lasted until 1979. Anyway, Pontiac increased the displacement every year to 317 inches in '56, and to 347 in 1957. Chevrolet only increased theirs to 283 inches in '57 Corvettes and Impalas and Bel Airs.  The Fuel-Injected 1957 Bonneville that paced the Daytona 500 was Knudsen's first great achievement. In 1958 Pontiac bumped displacement to 370 inches and introduced Tri-Power- 3-2bbl carbs on one manifold. In 1959 they stepped up to 389 Cubic inches, and Smokey Yunick and Fireball Roberts won a bunch of NASCAR races. In this time, Pontiac had climbed from sixth to third in U.S. Auto sales. This is where the motto "Win on Sunday, sell on Monday" came from. Chevrolet and Ford and Chrysler competed too. A guy named Lee Petty  and his son Richard won a bunch of races in Chryslers. Mickey Thompson, and Arnie Beswick ran stock class drag racers successfully. Chevrolet hot-rodded their truck motor and the famous "409" was born. Chrysler bumped displacement of their big V8 to from 361 to 413 cubic inches. Ford dropped the ancient 292 and 312 "Y-Block" design and introduced the 352, the 390 and the 406 inch "FE" series of V8 engines. Not to be outdone, Pontiac bumped displacement again to 421 cubic inches and offered single 4bbl, 3-2bbl, and 2-4bbl induction systems on the "Super Duty" 389 and 421 engines. Mickey Thompson and driver Hayden Proffit blew everyone away at the 1961 NHRA drag championships in a 421 Catalina. The Pettys were still winning in Nascar with Dodge, and the Wood Brothers and the Allison brothers had some success for Ford, and a guy named Junior Johnson had some success for Chevrolet, but Smokey Yunick and Fireball Roberts were virtually unstoppable in their fire-breathing Pontiacs. Roberts won 22 races in 1961 and 1962. In 1963, Chrysler increased displacement to 426 cubic engines. Chevrolet introduced the 427 inch "Daytona Mystery motor" which we all know became the legendary big-block Chevy that's still in use today. The cars that these legendary motors were raced in were full-size cars. Impalas, Catalinas, Ford Galaxies, Plymouth Belvederes. Then 4 things happened. GM sent down their famous ban on racing in late 1963. Not even "back door" help to NASCAR teams, no more racing period. However, Ford and Chrysler had no such ban. Chrysler was developing the 426 Hemi and Ford was working on a semi-hemi 427 to race NASCAR and be drag-raced.  GM brass knew that without winning a lot races, they's lose performance car buyers to Ford and Chrysler. Knudsen got promoted to President of Chevrolet. His replacement was John DeLorean. DeLorean did not want to lose Pontiac's number three sales position behind Chevrolet and Ford. He knew the performance image was a big part of that. He asked his top engineer Pete Estes, "What if we didn't build a race car, what if we built a high-performance street car?"  "A Factory Hot Rod."  The new A-body intermediates were being introduced for 1964-the Pontiac Lemans, the Chevy Chevelle, the Buick Skylark and the Olds Cutlass. GM said none of these cars could have a standard engine over 330 cubic inches. That was the unwritten rule-big cars got big engines, small cars got small engines. Olds engineers angered DelOrean by putting the "Little Car" 330 V8 in the Delta 88 and lowering the price-this car was a direct competitor of the Pontiac Catalina and the Chevrolet Impala. Estes said-"What if we took a 389 out of the Catalina / Bonneville line, and put it in the LeMans?"  Delorean cited GMs rule. Estes replied-"It says no STANDARD engine over 330 inches." "We make the 389 an OPTIONAL package."  Delorean liked the idea. They hpoed to sell 10,000 units. The GTO sold 32,450 units as a mid-year option package, and the buff magazines raved about it's blistering performance. Olds quickly released the 442 package on the Cutlass. The 442 moniker stood for "4 barrel carb, 4-speed trans, and dual exhaust. Even though it came out later than the GTO, and only had the 330 inch V8 the first year, the 442 sold well. The other GM divisions, especially Chevrolet, cried foul, and demanded the Pontiac and Olds models be scrapped. In 1965, Pontiac sold 75,000 GTOs. Oldsmobile upped the ante by offering the big 400 cube V8 in the 442 to compete with the GTO. GM didn't argue with sales success and said the GTO and 442 were here to stay. Chevrolet quickly built some 396 Chevelles in 1965, but only 201 were made. In 1966, the SS396 package was introduced. However, even though Chevrolet had a dealer network twice the size of Pontiacs, they only sold 77,000 SS396 Chevelles, while Pontiac sold nearly 100,000 GTOs. After the phenomenal success of the Mustang, GM introduced the Camaro and Firebird for 1967. And you could get a Camaro with a 396 or a Firebird with a 400. The largest engine available in a Mustang was a 289. Ford quickly shoehorned the 390 into the Mustang to combat this. Even though the Plymouth GTX and the Dodge Charger could be had with the new for 1967 440 V8, they were still full-size cars. Chrysler had to do something about this or just let GM and Ford own the performance car market. Thus the Barracuda was given a much swoopier body and the 340 and 383 V8s were available, and the Road Runner and the Super Bee were launched in 1968. They also wanted a "Camaro fighter" for 1969, but the new E-bodies ( Challenger / Cuda ) didn't make production until August 1969 as 1970 Models. The rest-the Judge, the Hurst / Olds, LS6 Chevelles, Hemi Cudas, is history.  Mastermind    

More overlooked musclecars

The buying public is fickle, and as such there are still some great cars that be bought at great prices, simply because they are a different year.  Here's the expanded list in no particular order. #1 1971-72 Pontiac GTO. You can buy these cars for way less than the 1968-70 models, and I really don't know why. The bodystyle is basically the same, the venerable 400 4bbl was still the standard engine, and although the Ram Air III and Ram Air IV 400s were gone after 1970, they were replaced by the awesome 455 HO, which had the RAIV heads, intake and exhaust, coupled with the "068" cam to make a torque monster that could run with anything.  #2 1971-73 Ford Mustang Mach 1. Same deal-people pay double the price for 69-70 models, but these are treated like Rodney Dangerfield. Most have the 351C for power and the bodystyle is still cool today.  #3 1971-72 Chevelle SS. I know horsepower and compression dropped off after 1970, but the bodystyle was basically the same, and the 402 and 454 big-blocks were still available., as was the famed "Cowl Induction" hood, and the famous "Horshoe" console shifter for automatics. The '70's have such a cult following that people buy these cars and put the '70 front end on them. If you'll consider a 350 version, you can find some real bargains. #4 1972-74 Dodge Challenger / Plymouth Barracuda. 1970 and 71 models bring blood and a first-born child, because of the availability of the 383, 440 and Hemi engines. However, the 72-74 models share the same bodystyle, and 340 and 360 versions are good performers. #5 1971-72 Olds 442. Just like the Chevelle and the GTO, people pay insane money for a 1970 model, yet won't even look at these. Yet, again, the bodystyle is the same, and although compression was down the 455 still made over 300 net hp. Some 1972 models had 350 V8s as the standard engine with the 455 optional. These can be real bargains, because just like Chevelles, everybody wants the big-blocks. #6 1971-74 AMC Javelin / AMX.  Same story-1968-70 models bring way more money. However, I think the 71-74 model has a way more muscular look, better handling and the 360 and 401 V8s are torquey.  If you buy one of the cars on this list you'll have something you don't see everyday and you may save some money. Mastermind

Cool Muscle Machines that are overlooked

There are many great musclecars that are overlooked by the buying public, which makes them great deals for the smart shopper. Ill list them in no particular order.  #1 1967 Pontiac GTO. People fight with machetes for 1964-66 models, and for 1968-70 models, but this one year can be bought for substantially less than the others, and I don't know why. The styling is cleaner than the '66 model, Disc brakes were optional for the first time, and automatics were Turbo 400s which is a quantum leap up in performance from the two-speed Super Turbine 300s ( Read Powerglide ) used in 64-66 models. The Hurst Dual/Gate shifter was an option too. The 400 V8 was rated at 350 hp, 360 for Ram Air models, and a 4-speed was standard. 81,000 were built, so you should be able to find one. #2 1967 Chevelle SS396. Same as the GTO-people give blood and a first-born child for 65-66 models or 68-70s, but these are not as sought after by buyers. Maybe it's the grille which looks like an Impala. Still they had 396s rated at 325 and 350 hp, a Muncie 4-speed or Turbo 400 for trannys, and they were strong runners, as their lighter than the later models. #3 1972 Plymouth Road Runner. The 68-70s are treated like the holy grail, and 71s have quite a following as that's the last year for the Hemi and the 440 Six-Pack. However, even though the bodystyle is identical to the '71, the 72 models are treated like Rodney Dangerfield. ( "No Respect" ). Although lowered compression ratios and lower net horspower ratings might be a factor, I think they get a bad rap. The 400 V8 ( A bored-out 383 ) was the standard engine. The 340 and the 440 were optional, and electronic ignition debuted this year. For whatever reason, you can buy them way cheaper than the 1968-71 models. #4 1975-76 Pontiac Trans-Am. Whether Super Duty powered or not, the 73-74 models bring way more money, as do the 77-79 "Smokey and the Bandit" era models. However these cars are a screaming bargain. They all have "Real" 400 Pontiac engines-( A lot of 77-79 models had 403 Olds engines.)  and the 455 was still optional. With very little work- intake,exhaust and an axle-ratio change these cars can really run. Dynamite. #5 1969-70 Shelby GT 350 Mustang. That's not a typo. These cars have the 290 hp 351W for power with either a 4-speed or an automatic for trannys. I have seen great examples in Hemmings Motor News or at auctions for $40-45,000.  Not cheap, but try to find any other 1965-70 Shelby Mustang for under 100 grand. #6 1974 Pontiac GTO  The best Nova money can buy. When Pontiac changed the Goat from being based on the A-body LeMans to the X-body ( read Nova ) platform enthusiasts howled. Snubbed by Pontiac enthusiasts, these cars are a steal, and make a great hot rod. (It's not like your messing up a Judge, right? ). Here's why-the only powerplant was a 350 Pontiac rated at 200 hp. Transmissions were a Turbo 350 or a 4-speed, and the rear end was a 10 bolt posi with a 3.08 axle ratio. Even with 5 mph bumpers, these cars only weighed about 3,200 lbs,-about 600 lbs less than a Trans-Am.  Here's the fun part-Pontiac engines are externally identical from a 326 to a 455, which means a 400 or 455 is a bolt-in swap. Any aftermarket suspension or brake upgrades that fit a Camaro, Firebird or Nova will interchange. Only 7,058 were built, so their fairly rare, but still cheaper than a same-year Firebird, or even their Nova SS cousins.  Mastermind       

The "Other" Road Runner! And it's competitors.....

A while back I wrote about how the success of the Road Runner led to the production of the GTO Judge. It also led to the production of several other cool musclecars.  One in particular came from Dodge. In 1968, They really stepped in it. They didn't think the Road Runner would be a success. When they saw Plymouth selling Road Runners like hot cakes, Dodge engineers quickly came out with a Road Runner clone.  They took a base model Coronet 2 door, and added the 383 Magnum engine from the Charger. The standard transmission was a 3-speed manual, with a 4-speed manual or a 727 Torqueflite optional. The other engine choice was the mighty 426 Hemi. Graphics included the famous "Bumblebee" stripe and the Bee with the helmet and goggles and smoking slicks for a lower body. They called it the "Super Bee."  While Plymouth sold 45,000 Road Runners that year, Dodge's late-to the party Super Bee sold 15,000.  In 1969 Dodge was not going to be left out. The Super Bee debuted for 1969 and besides the 383 and the Hemi, they offered the 440 Six-Pack. A 440 Magnum with a hotter cam, and 3 Holley 2bbls on an aluminum Edelbrock manifold. It also had a lift-off fiberglass hood held on by four hood pins, with a huge scoop, painted flat black. It looked mean, and with 390 hp, it WAS mean.  While Pontiac decided to go up with the Judge, other divisions also came out with Road Runner/Super Bee fighters. While the 442 had mighty street cred, they were often more expensive than a GTO or an SS Chevelle or a Plymouth GTX.  To fight the bargain-priced Road Runners and Super Bees, Oldsmobile engineers took the original Idea that Pontiac had for the "E.T " Tempest. They took a Base-model F85/Cutlass with a 350 V8. The added freer-breathing heads, a hot cam with 308 degrees duration and .474 lift, a high-rise intake and special quadrajet carb. The were only available with a 4 speed and 3.90 or 4.33 gears. Grossly underrated at 325 hp, ( The standard 350 was rated at 310 ) these terrors were named "W31". The stripped down badass F85s were as quick as the heavier and more expensive 400 powered 442s. Ford jumped on the bandwagon offering 390 and 428 engines in the stripped-down Fairlane 2 dr. Pontiac did eventually offer a 350 HO package on Tempest and Firebird models. These were also rated at 325 hp.  The car with the "Beep-Beep" horn obviously had quite an impact on the musclecar era. Mastermind           

If it ain't broke.......Part 2

I don't understand why people think "restoration" means replacing everything on the car whether it needs it or not.  I sold a 1966 Mustang to a guy a few years ago. Mind you, the 225 hp 289 had good oil pressure, good compression on all cylinders, didn't smoke an ounce, didn't use or leak a drop of oil, and ran like the proverbial scalded cat.  The C4 tranny didn't leak, didn't slip, shifted glass-smooth at part throttle, and would bark the tires into second at full throttle. The front disc brakes would stop the car on a dime, and the car handled great. It did need a paint job, and the buckets seats needed recovering, but otherwise the car was a diamond. The body was remarkabley rust-free, and all the chrome was intact. I saw the guy a year later and the car looked great. It had a new paint job, and American Racing Torq-thrust wheels on it. I said hello to the guy and said how nice the car looked, and said "See-I told you it wouldn' take much to make that car really nice."  "What are you talking about?" The guy responded. "I've got over $10,000 invested in this over and above the price I paid you."  "How?" I asked, incredulous. "You spent ten grand on a paint job, seat covers and wheels?"  "No, I had the engine and tranny rebuilt first."  "Why?" I asked. "The car ran like a champ."  "I also completely re-did the brakes and suspension." "New rotors, drums, calipers, wheel cylinders, hoses, master cylinder, everything." "Why?" "There was nothing wrong with the brakes."  "I could understand maybe some KYB or Monroe shocks, but there was nothing wrong with the suspension." I said.  "I replaced all the bushings, the tie rod ends, the ball joints, everything."  The guy responded.  "I wanted everything new."  "If you were going to replace everything on the car anyway, why didn't you buy a beater?" "Why pay top dollar for a nearly perfect, numbers-matching original car, and then replace everything on it?"  Whether he wanted it as a driver or to sell it for a profit, he'd have been way better off just painting it and fixing the seats!!  And now he had almost $25,000 in a car that he'd be lucky to sell for $15,000!!  A similar thing happened when I sold another guy a 1971 Chevy Monte Carlo. This time, I had even put a new paint job and vinyl top on the Monte before I sold it. This car was an awesome driver. The 350 ran great, the A/C would form an icicle on your nose, the seats and the dash weren't cracked, I mean this car was again, a diamond.  I saw the guy a couple weeks later and asked how he liked the car.  "I'll love it when it's done"  he said. "What do you mean when it's done?" I asked. "What could that car possibly need, unless your swapping in a big-block?"  "I'm doing a frame-off restoration." "Why?" I asked, stunned.  Again I had to ask- "If you were going to do that, why didn't you start with a clunker that you could buy for about a 1/5th the price?"  "Why buy an already restored car, and tear it completely down?  "You only half-restored it." he sneered. "Im replacing everything."  I guess there's a lot of people with more money than brains.  But the rest of us don't have to fall in that trap. Again, if it ain't broke, don't fix it.  Mastermind        

Don't go overboard trying to be "Original"

People complain about the high cost of restoring a 40 or 50 year old car, but I think a lot of people's problem is the "Just as it left the factory" mentality. If concours is your bag, and you want to compete in that arena and nit-pick other rich peoples garage jewelry-( "You lose 10 points because you had the wrong kind of hose clamps" )  Go ahead. However, if your going to drive the car at all, that type of mentality is unrealistic. Is a pristine 1970 Boss 302 Mustang really worth less because it has a Sears Die Hard Battery and a Fram oil filter instead of NOS Autolite?  Is an LT-1 Corvette "Ruined" because it has a #4779 Double-Pumper carb on it instead of the original #3310 Vacuum-secondary model? Would you NOT buy a gorgeous 57 Chevy Impala Convertible because it had an alternator instead of a generator on the 283 V8? Or if it had a 350 in it?  I've mentioned this before, but I know a guy who almost didn't buy an unrestored but always garaged, one-owner 80,000 mile 68 Charger because it had a bench seat and a two-barrel carb on the 383!!  "For God's sake!"  I told him. "Putting bucket seats and a factory or aftermarket 4bbl carb and intake on it is not going to hurt the value!!"  "Your actually thinking of not buying a car as nice as this one because of the carburator?!"  "Are you out of your mind?"  He listened and bought the car.  I know another guy who was anal about a gorgeous 69 Camaro we saw on a used car lot. The car was Hugger orange with black interior and had a mild 350 and a Saginaw 4-speed trans. It also had nice Centerline wheels and BFG T/A tires on it.  He hemmed and hawwed, because the numbers showed it was originally a six-cylinder, three-speed model! "So what?"  I said. "It's worth more now with a V8 and a 4-speed than it would be if it was orignal." "It's not a Yenko or a Z/28." "People aren't fighting with machetes for six-cylinder 3-speed models." "Your never going to find a V8, 4-speed 69 Camaro at anywhere near this price." "Who gives a shit if it's not orignal?"  Sadly, he did not come to his senses, and kicked himself every time we saw the happy owner banging through the gears on the way to work.  I know another moron who didn't buy an immaculate 400, 4-speed, 69 GTO Judge because it was "A fake."  It wasn't an original Judge, the owner had just painted it that way and added the spoilers and emblems because he thought he'd get more money when he sold it. It was however, a for-real numbers-matching 400, 4-speed, 69 GTO. And the price was reasonable even for a non-Judge model.  Be reasonable in your expectations and don't scour the galaxy for unobtainable cars and parts, and you'll be a lot happier. Mastermind      

A real life "American Graffiti" drag race

In 1971 My family moved from San Francisco California to Lebanon, Missouri. This happened because my dad was from Missouri, and his mother and a lot of brothers and cousins lived near Fort Leonard Wood. My dad was an expert mechanic and a lifelong gearhead. He loved Pontiacs. During my growing up years he had a 1959 Catalina with the Tri-Power 389, a 1964 GTO, and a 1965 2+2 with the Tri-Power 421. He worked in a Chevy dealership in California where he got a reputation as a carburator expert. People with Tri-power Pontiacs, and Tri-power 427 Vettes came from miles around to have him tune their cars. The legendary Dino Fry said there was no one better at tuning multiple carbs than my dad. Guys with Hemi and Six-Pack Mopars started coming to this Chevy Dealer to have my old man jet their carbs and tune their ignition. He carried this heavy rep with him when we moved to Missouri. He went to work at Lindsay Chevrolet in Lebanon, and soon word was out as far away as Springfield about the "Wizard of Lindsay Chevrolet."  Gearheads from all over brought their cars to my old man. For a small town, I guess because of the many farming communities around it, Lebanon had quite a street racing scene in the early '70's. The early '70's was when Interstate 40 and Interstate 44 bypassed the legendary Route 66. Every Friday night just outside town, on "Old 66" people would congregate and the racing would be on. The King of the Lebanon Street racing scene was a 20 ish guy nicknamed "Little Orris." He was actually about 6 ft tall, but his father's name was Orris, so this childhood moniker stuck to him. Everyone who had a hot rod feared "Little Orris." He worked at the same dealer my dad did. He drove a 1966 SS396 Chevelle. This Chevelle had a solid-lifter L78 396 under the hood backed by a Muncie 4-speed and a 4.11 geared 12 bolt posi. The buildup to the big race started innocently enough one Friday when Orris blew the doors off a 1969 Hemi Road Runner. The Road Runner driver protested that his car was pinging and not running properly. Arrogant little King that he was, Orris told the Road Runner driver to have my dad tune his car up and come and try again. The Mopar man took this advice. I remember my dad admonishing the guy. "Whether its a Hemi, or a Six-pack or a Vette or a GTO, none of you idiots can leave well enough alone." "As soon as the car fouls a plug, you start screwing around with the carburators." "Pretty soon it won't even start, much less run decent." The guy took the tongue lashing and said, "Ok. How much is it going to cost me to shut Little Orris' big mouth?" Dad told him to come back after closing time. The manager was a gearhead who had been stomped on by Orris, and allowed my dad to use the scope, the Sun distributor machine and the infrared exhaust analyzer after-hours. That way him and my old man could split the money, instead of having to charge the guy the daytime dealership rate. The three of them worked on the Road Runner from 6 pm to almost midnight. I'll never forget the final test drive down I-44. ( I was in the backseat ). The driver punched it at the bottom of the on-ramp, and lit the tires up. The dual AFBs roared like a lion,and we were rocketing forward. The Torqueflite hit second, and the car hip-faked a little sideways, and smoked the tires for another 75-100 feet. The car hit third and laid another 8-10 feet of rubber. I couldn't beleive it. My dad's GTO was fast, but this thing was ungodly. It just kept pulling on that mountain of torque like a locomotive. Finally, the driver and my dad and his pal the service manager agreed that he should let off before the tires came apart, because it was obvious the Big Hemi was not going to run out of power! The Road Runner driver paid my dad more than he'd asked for. "This thing never ran that good, not even when it was brand-new!"  The following Friday night the Road Runner driver went looking for Orris. Orris and the Chevelle beat him off the line, but at the top of second gear, the Hemi caught him, and then passed him. Beating the "King" by a good two car lengths. The exultant Plymouth driver taunted the dejected Orris. "Thanks for the tip." "Your mechanic did a great job."  Orris' brother had a 1970 Plymouth GTX with a 440 Six-Pack, a 4-speed and a 4.10 Dana 60. Orris decided to fight a Mopar with a Mopar. He borrowed his brother's car, had my dad tune the carbs and the ignition, and then challenged the Hemi Road Runner driver again. Word spread quickly among the gearhead community that "Orris has a new car, and he just had the "Wizard" tune it, and he's going to crush that guy in the green hemi Road Runner."  That Friday night hundreds of people lined both sides of the road near the 1/4 mile stretch that had been marked off the deserted section of old 66 that everyone knew about. The local Police figured they might as well avoid a problem, and instead of trying to stop the race, they closed the road to ensure no old lady would dawdle into the race and cause a tragedy. Since my dad had tuned both cars, we were there. The two cars lined up, and just like in the movies the "Flagger" stood between the cars and turned a flashlight on. Orris was an artist with a 4-speed. The GTX came off the line with very little wheelspin, just enough to get the engine up on its torque curve. Even with an automatic, the Hemi Road Runner lit the tires up allowing the GTX to jump ahead. You could hear Orris powershifting at the redline. Crack! Second gear. Crack! third gear. But the Hemi came on strong in the mid-range and pulled even. Crack! Orris hit 4th. Everyone was jumping up and down and screaming. They roared across the finish line, the Hemi ahead by half the length of the front fender. Orris demanded that they go 2 out of three, and the Road Runner driver agreed that being that close, 2 out of three was the best way to settle it. But the local Police had seen enough. Their was too many people on and around the road to let them go again. The cops told everyone to go home or get tickets and or go to jail. Everyone left. For years after people speculated on whether or not the GTX could have beat the Road Runner, but the rematch never happened. However my dad's legend as a tuner certainly grew from this. To hear people tell it today, their was thousands of people lining the road, and tens of thousands of dollars were bet on it. Funny how tales grow taller every time their told. However, I was there at this real-life "American Graffiti" drag race. Matermind        

RIP Joe Mondello

The sport of Hot Rodding has lost another legend. Joe Mondello passed away last month from complications following stomach surgery. Many of you know him as "Dr Oldsmobile"  The worlds top Olds V8 expert. His engines powered many a Champion drag racer and boat racer.  What you may not know is that he was slready racing and modifying flathead Fords in the early '50's before he was 17 years old.  Along with guys like Vic Edelbrock Sr, Joe was an innovator back in the days when it was all seat of your pants, no flow benches. Modern Cylinder head and combustion technologies owe a lot to Joe and the work he did on Carroll Shelbys dominant LeMans engines in the 60s as well as early small-block Chevys.  Mondello set the gold standard in cylinder head research, even building Don Garlits record setting dragsters.  Before his sudden illness, he was still working at the Mondello Technical School training the next generation of high-end racing engine builders and machinists, as well as building his beloved Oldsmobile engines for customers.  He was a true champion of the sport and a legendary nice guy.  Now what the hell am I going to do about the 455 Olds engine sitting in my garage needing a rebuild while ( Gasp ) a Chevy powers my Hurst/Olds?   Mastermind

If it ain't broke, don't fix it!!

A lot of people ask how they can keep a restoration project from becoming a money pit. The title to this post says it all. You don't have to replace every nut and bolt on the car. I know a guy who over-restored his car, and was then disappointed when he couldn't sell it for anywhere near what he had invested.  Here's how that happened. I understand him wanting to rebuild the engine, and mybe pump in a little more power. But he replaced the power steering pump, even though the old one worked fine, wasn't leaking, and wasn't making any noise. He replaced the radiator, even though the old one wasn't leaking, wasn't clogged up, and cooled the engine just fine even in 95 degree weather.  He replaced the starter even though it bench-tested fine, and started the car fine. I could go on, but you get the drift. He spent a lot of money replacing things that not only didn't need to be replaced, but also didn't add any value to the car.  Your fixing what needs to be fixed, not trying to make a brand-new old car. Mastermind

A Turbo Trans-Am worth owning!

We all know about the ill-fated Turbo Trans-Am of 1980-81. The anemic little 301 V8, even with a Turbo couldn't come close to the performance of the mighty and deceased ( After 1979 ) 400 Pontiac engines. As such, you can buy these cars cheap, and most people put a 400 or 455, or even ( Gasp! ) a small-block Chevy in for a quick power infusion. However in 1989 there was a 20th Annivesary model that had the fuel-injected Buick Grand National motor in the sleek third-generation T/A body. They were lightning-quick stock, and there is a ton of aftermarket speed equipment available for the GN motors. Plus, their even lighter than the small-block Chevy V8s that they replaced, which improves handling. They are not cheap, but they are a unique and cool ride if you can find one. Mastermind

The Boss is Back! With a Vengenance!

Car and driver and Road and Track tested Boss 302 Mustangs this past month, and they both were blown away. 0-60 times of 4.1 seconds and 1/4 mile times of 12.3 seconds dusted the vaunted BMW M3. And it's not just a drag racer. It beat a $125,000 Audi R8 around Laguna Seca. The graphics are cool too. Very similar to the original 1969 models. All for about $40k. Or if you were judicious with the option sheet, you could get a 412 hp GT for about 30K!. According to Car and Drvier, the GT ran a 12.7 second 1/4, and gave an M3 all it could handle around Willow springs raceway. In my mind a few tenths in the 1/4 and 32 hp ( The Boss is rated at 444 hp ) isn't worth 10 or 15 grand more. However, the base GT is still quicker than the Camaro SS and the SRT8 Hemi Challenger. Kudos to Ford for having the balls to put out such a killer ride in these times of 4 dollar a gallon gas and people touting hybrids. Wonder if I could get financed on a new Mustang..... Mastermind

The Judge was supposed to be a budget beater

In 1968 Plymouth took a strippy two-door taxicab Belvedere/ Satellite model. They made the standard engine a 383 V8, and added the heads and cam from the GTX's 440 Super Commando ( Or in Dodge speak the 440 Magnum) engine. They also added an unsilenced air cleaner, and a horn that made the "Beep-Beep" sound that the Popular Warner Brothers cartoon character "The Road Runner" made. They even put little decals of the bird on the fenders and called the car the "Road Runner." To keep the price down, the cars had rubber floor mats, no carpet, and pop-out rear windows-they didn't even roll down. They didn't even have front disc brakes, just drums. They didn't have trick wheels, just hybcaps, or in some cases, like their Super Bee cousins, black steel wheels with chrome lug nuts. Chrysler hoped to sell 10,000 units. The car was a runaway hit, selling over 45,000 units the first year, and a fair number had 440s in them. Because they were so stripped-down, they were also fast. Whether you had the 383 or the optional 440 under the hood, these cars could outrun the much heavier and option-laden 396 Chevelles or 400 GTOs.  This fact was not lost on the GM upper brass, especially Pete Estes and John DeLorean who worked for Pontiac and had started the whole musclecar craze 4 years earlier with the GTO. However, the GTO had started out like the Road Runner-"Lets take a big motor and put it in a light car."  The 1964 Tempest-based GTO was a lean, mean, hot rod.  However, to broaden its appeal, The GTO had gotten bigger, heavier, and more luxurious, and thus, more expensive every year. They were still great performing cars, but this challenge from the new badass from Chrysler could not be ignored. It was obvious that the Road Runner was attracting a lot of potential GTO buyers, especially younger guys who couldn't afford a "Loaded" factory hot rod like the GTO, Olds 442, or even Chryslers own Plymouth GTX.  DeLorean told his engineers to build a stripped, down, cheap, badass GTO to crush the Road Runner challenge. They took a base-model Tempest coupe, and took a 350 Pontiac V8 and put bigger valve heads on it, a Ram Air III cam and four-barrel intake. They backed it up with a Muncie 4-speed and a 3.55 geared posi rear end. They painted it carousel red, and Called it The "E.T." For "Elapsed time".  They tested one against a 383 Road Runner, and the strippy Tempest was faster.  However DeLorean said that there would never be a GTO with an engine smaller than 400 cubes while he was president of Pontiac, but he liked the color. Estes said that by January 1969 Plymouth had already sold more Road Runners than they had in all of 1968, and they weren't all strippys. A lot of them had 440s and were loaded with options, and the new 440 "Six-Pack" which had  3 Holley 2bbls on an Edelbrock manifold, would certainly lure GTO buyers who were still pissed about Tri-Power being dropped in 1967.  This was a full on assault on the cash cow that Pontiac and GM held dear. A sales guy talked about the Popular Rowan and Martin comedy show "Laugh In" and "This funnt guy-( The "Funny guy" was Flip Wilson ) who says "Here Comes the Judge." "Why don't we call it "The Judge?"  DeLorean agreed, and Estes and others decided to give the Judge the heart to back up it's attitude. The Ram Air III 400 was standard equipment, and the Vaunted Ram Air IV was optional.  Although they weren't introduced until April, 6,833 Judge models were sold, and the magazines raved about them.  It still didn't stop the Road Runner from being the Undisputed Musclecar champ that year. Pontiac sold 72,287 GTOs in 1969. However Plymouth sold over 81,000 Road Runners that year, nearly doubling their total from 1968. Even mighty Chevrolet, with a dealer network network twice the size of Plymouths, could only sell 86,000 SS396 Chevelles-barely beating the Bird with funny horn. The Judge lived on until the option was dropped in mid-1971, and The GTO istself was gone by 1974, as were the big-block SS Chevelles. The Road Runner hung on until 1974 as well, but the GTX package was dropped after 1971, as were the 426 Hemi and the 440 Six-Pack.  However, for a few years-1968-1970, Chrysler went toe to toe with GM for performance car buyers, and we all won for it. If not for the Road Runner, there probably wouldn't have been a Hurst/Olds, a Judge, or 454 Chevelles or 455 Trans-Ams.  Mastermind  

RIP Peter Yates

Happy Easter everyone. Sorry I didn't post more this week, but I was out of town and didn't have my computer. I heard Movie director Peter Yates died recently at age 81. If your not a film buff, he was the director of "Bullitt" the Steve McQueen classic that has spawned 40 years of car chases in action movies. "Bullitt" was based on a novel called "Mute Witness" by Robert L. Pike. Even though the chase is only 11 minutes of the two-hour film, everyone knows about it. The reason it still stands up more than 40 years later-(regardless of how many hubcaps the Charger loses, or how many times they pass the same VW) is because Yates and McQueen demanded to the letter police, hospital and morgue procedures be shown. And in the chase, McQueen, Stunt coordinator Carey Loftin, and stuntman Bill Hickman-who drove the Charger, and the Grand Ville in another classic chase-"The Seven-Ups"-insisted on realism. No speeding up the camera. They were sometimes going 115 mph through the streets of San Francisco. If not for Yates and McQueen's vision and committment to excellence, we might not have had classics like "Vanishing Point" - incidentally, Carey Loftin was the stunt coordinator on that flick as well, or "The French Connection", "To Live and Die in LA" or even camp like "Smokey and the Bandit, or Fast and Furious 5 coming out this summer. May he join Steve McQueen in Valhalla! Mastermind

The best car no one bought.......And Why!

I had a 2006 GTO in the shop the other day for minor repair and the tech that worked on it was amazed at how fast the car was and how good it handled. "I wonder why they didn't sell more of those?" He asked. He laughed at my answer, and then agreed completely. "Because it looks like a Grand Am on steroids." I said. "It runs like a Corvette, handles like a BMW and looks like a rental car." "Ford can't make Mustangs fast enough to meet demand becuase they look a lot like a 60's Mustang." "Dodge Challengers are selling like hotcakes because they look like the Original "Vanishing Point" Challenger." "The New Camaro is a hit because it looks like a 69 Camaro." "If GM had made this look like a 69 GTO they'd have had people lined up around the block." "They blew it." "Or they could have made it look like a '70's T/A and brought the Trans-Am nameplate back." It seems automakers never learn. Now, if I could only afford a white 392 Hemi Challenger..... Mastermind

Here's your sign.....

Remember comedian Bill Engvall had the hit song "Here's your sign" about people that were so stupid they needed to carry a sign warning others of their stupidity? I hate to say it, but I've encountered quite a few lately. My personal favorites are the ones asking why I don't devote a lot of time to modern performance cars like the Shelby GT500 or SRT8 Challenger 392. I've also been asked why I don't cover stuff like Infiniti G37s, BMW M3s, and Honda S2000s. I've also been told that if Im going to write about vintage performance cars I should give equal time to Datsun 240Zs,E-Type Jags, and Porsche 914s and 911s. To all those people-"Here's your sign."  What part of "Musclecar Mastermind" did you not grasp?  Did you read where it says this site is dedicated to the preservation and restoration of 1960's and 70's musclecars? I don't recall an E-type Jag or a 240Z ever being considered a musclecar. As for modern American muscle-yes I love the cars, but if you want to read about a new Mustang, Camaro, Corvette, Charger, or whatever you can pick up any issue of Car and Driver, Motor Trend, Road and Track, or go on the the net for the online tests. That's why 90% of what I talk about it is duh-related to old musclecars. I'm reminded a few years back Playboy had a special edition called "Barefoot Beauties".  One idiot wrote in and asked why it didn't have any pictures of the Playmates wearing high heels or boots!  Here's your sign...... Mastermind

More on "Non-Existent" mystery cars!

In the last post I talked about cars that were never made and why. I've gotten some more inquirys about other vehichles. I may have touched on this in the past, but enough people have asked that I think it's worth going over again. Here's an expanded list of  "Cars that never were" and why. #1 There was never a GTO Station Wagon. In 1971-72 you could order the "Endura" Read-GTO front bumper and scooped hood on any LeMans model, including wagons. The 400 and 455 engines were available as well, although the vaunted 455HO was only available in GTOs and Firebirds. If someone claims to have a GTO wagon, it's a LeMans Sport with GTO emblems. Period. #2 Still on Pontiacs-There were only 295 SD-455 engines built in 1973 and they were all installed in Firebirds. 252 in Trans-Ams, and another 43 in Formulas. In early 1973 sales literature the engine was listed as optional in the Grand Am,Gran Prix, and the GTO as well as the F-bodys. However the engines had trouble passing emissions with the RAIV cam, which was changed to the RAIII grind and horsepower dowgraded from 310 to 290. They also troubles with EGR valve function, and quality control issues with the connecting rod supplier. Mainly because Herb Adams would not quit fighting, the engine was finally certified in the Firebird line only. That's why all SD engined cars have late production dates-May or June. If you have a 455 1973 Pontiac-it may be a tire fryer, but it's not an SD. #3 There are technically no 1970 Shelby Mustangs. The ones that were sold in 1970 were leftover 1969 models that were given new vin numbers by Ford and Shelby American and sold as 1970 models. That's why 1970 GT350s have the 290hp 351 Windsor that was used in 1969 Mach 1s, instead of the 300 hp 351 Cleveland that was the standard engine in 1970 Mach 1s. GT500s still had the 428. #4 There are no Boss 302 Cougars. A few privateers built Cougars for Trans-Am racing and these may have had Boss 302s bought through dealers over the parts counter and then put in the race cars. The SCCA overlooked minor violations like this from "Mom and Pop" race teams-i.e. the Pontiac Firebirds with Chevy engines-But they were hard on the auto manufacturers. If Ford was to officially sponsor one, they'd have had to sell at least 500 to the public to race them legally. The Boss 302 Mustangs were already outrageously expensive to build because of the many unique parts they had that were different from a "regular" 289/302, so they didn't want to waste the money on a Cougar version. #5 The Olds "Rallye 350" 1970 Cutlass is not a 442 in any way, shape or form. And it was not "Almost the 1970 Hurst/Olds". The 442, after 1964 always had a 400 cubic inch engine through 1969. In 1970 the 455 became the standard 442 powerplant. All Hurst/Olds models built in 1968-69,and 1971-72,1973,and 74 all had 455s. Some 1975 models may have 350s, but I have never seen one. Every H/O I have ever encountered has 455 cubes under the hood. 3,527 Rallye 350 models were built with the base 350 4bbl engine, a Super loud Sebring Yellow paint job and body-colored bumpers. The only involvment Hurst performance had with these cars is four-speed models had a Hurst shifter! Rumors persist that at least 10 of these were built with the nasty "W31" 350 V8, but I have never seen one, or the window sticker or the build sheet on one. It was basically an appearance package on a Base-model Cutlass, not anything super-special.  Mastermind

"Area 51" Cars Again...... And the reasons why their not real!

Recently I've had a lot of people telling me about their ultra-rare cars that they or a friend or a relative now owns or once owned. They also say they can't find any factory documentation that these cars exist. That's because they don't. But wait, you say, the guy's driving the car, or restoring it in his garage, how can you say it doesn't exist? Here's how. If I miss a few, I'm sorry, but here's the list of mythical cars that don't exist, and the reasons they don't, in no particular order of importance. I'll start with GM, and then do Mopar and Ford. #1. There are no Tri-Power 1967 GTOs. Enthusiasts were pissed when this option was dropped at the end of 1966. All the parts could be ordered from dealership parts departments, and the system would bolt right on the 400 engines. Some dealers,like Royal Pontiac, would even install the system for you for extra cost. However there was never a factory-built version. #2. There were no factory-built Ram Air V GTOs or Firebirds. Drag racers like Arnie Beswick and Doug Nash got the engines or parts from Pontiac and put them in their race cars, but they never made production. Royal Pontiac's Milt Schornack even built an RAV Judge that he raced with some success, but the bottom line is Pontiac wouldn't warranty any solid-lifter engine, so DeLorean wouldn't allow them to make production. # 3. There are no 1970 LS6 Corvettes. Originally the LS6 454 was slated to be available in the Camaro SS,and the Nova SS as well as the Chevelle. The low hoodline of the Camaro and Nova is why LS6's had the flat intake manifold that cost about 20 hp compared to the old 427 aluminum 4bbl manifold. However, GM brass wanted to cut down on proliferation of options, so ultimately the LS6 was only installed in Chevelles and a few El Caminos. Zora-Arkus Duntov expected the even more radical LS7 to make production as the Vette's top engine option, so the LS6 wasn't offered. The brass killed the LS7 at the last minute. Thus any 1970 Corvette with a 454 is the hydraulic-cammed 360 hp version. Roughly 1,000 or so 1971 Corvettes were built with 9.0:1 compression LS6's rated at 425 hp. #4. I am 99.99% sure that there are no 440 Six-Pack 1972 Chargers or Road Runners. The option was listed in early 1972 sales literature, and the horsepower rating was 330 hp, down substantially from the 385 hp rating of 1971. However, the engines had trouble passing the stiffer 1972 emissions standards, and the option was dropped. Rumors persist that "A few" i.e.- less than 10-"Slipped through"-but I have never seen one, seen the window sticker or build sheet for one, or seen one documented by a Chrysler engineer, or a magazine like Hot Rod or Musclecar Review. #5. The Challenger T/A and 'Cuda AAR models were only produced in 1970. Again, very early 1971 sales literature listed the option, and I have even seen a picture of a Challenger T/A which a Chrysler Executive said was a 1970 model with a 1971 grille airbrushed in. However, the option never made production, and the 340 Six-Pack wasn't offered after 1970. #6. There are no Boss 429 Cougars. Kar Kraft in Michigan, which helped Ford build the Boss 429 Mustangs, built one or two "One-off" Boss-Nine Cougars for Drag Racer "Dyno" Don Nicholson. However these were 428 Eliminator models that had the 429s swapped in. There was never a production version offered to the public. #7 The Boss 351 was produced for one year-1971. It had 11.3:1 compression, a solid lifter cam,was rated at 330 hp, and was only available with a 4-speed and 3.91 or 4.30 gears.  In 1972 the name was changed to 351 HO, and the compression was dropped to 8.8:1. It was still only availble with a 4-speed and 3.91 gears, and the horsepowe rating dropped to 285. These are quite rare. The majority of 1972 Mach 1 Mustangs have the 351CJ, which has a hydraulic cam, an 8.0:1 compression ratio, is rated at 266 hp,and was avalable with a stick or automatic. Hope this clears a few things up Mastermind      

Loud Doesn't equal fast!!

You'd be amazed at the number of people that think just because something sounds nasty, and smokes the tires, that it's really fast. Here's a couple of funny stories proving the opposite. I had an auto repair shop for years, and it was located, of course, near other auto shops. I got to know a few of the guys who owned and worked in these other shops. One guy had a 1968 Nova that had a warmed over 350 and a 4-speed in it. He had a Tunnel Ram with dual 465 Holley 4bbls sticking through the hood, and it sounded like a NASCAR stocker. He was always spinning the wheels and bragging about how fast it was. A buddy of mine had a nicely restored 1971 Plymouth Road Runner with a 440 4bbl in it. He had rebuilt the engine, but to stock specs-i.e.- a replacement Mopar Performance 440 Magnum cam, new rings and bearings, etc. It didn't even have headers on it-he was running stock exhaust manifolds and a stock-type replacement dual exhaust system. He did have an Edelbrock Performer Intake Manifold and matching Thunder AVS carb, but it was otherwise dead stock. The trans was a rebuilt 727 Torqueflite, and he had 3.55 rear end gears. The guy in the Nova challenged him to a drag race one day, and we all adjourned to a local side street that was a little more than a 1/4 mile, never had any traffic, and that the cops rarely, if ever patrolled. Every mechanic in town used it to make full-throttle runs in anything we were working on. To the utter surprise of the Nova driver and all his friends, the Road Runner beat the Nova off the line, and then completely walked away. It wasn't even a race. Here's why. The Road Runner may have been stock, but it was in perfect tune, and had the right combination of parts. The Nova had way too much cam and carburation, and instead of the 4.56:1 gears it needed to go with the over-cammed and over-carburated engine, it had 3.08:1 gears!  Another guy in this group had a 1972 Mach 1 Mustang with a 351 Cleveland that he thought was fast. Again, it was the wrong combination. He had an Old-style Edelbrock Torker intake-the ones that are dogs below 4 grand, not the late-model Torker II that are decent from 2500 on-and a 750 Double-Pumper Holley carb. It to had a big cam,and headers. It also had an automatic and 3.25:1 gears. Now we all know that 351C-4V engines are notorioulsy down on low-end torque because of the huge head ports. Ford fans agree that the 2V heads are better for street use. Now add a hot cam and a single-plane intake that also kills bottom-end, a stock torque converter, and high ( low numeric ) gearing, and you have a recipe for disaster. This Mustang was probably faster in stock trim, although it did sound mean as hell. He challenged me and my Hurst / Olds. At that time, my car had 4.10:1 gears in it, a 2,400 rpm Hurst "Shotgun" torque converter, ( this was after I grenaded the 455 for the 4th time, but that's another story ) and a Brand-New, 355 hp 10:1 compression, aluminum-headed, roller cammed, GMPP ZZ4 / 350 Chevy Crate motor in it. Blasphemy, I know, but that's what was in the car at the time. Anyone who's driven a GM car with a ZZ4 knows how strong they are. They make 405 lbs of torque at 3,500 rpm, but what makes them awesome is they also make 350 lbs ft or MORE of torque from 2000-5200 rpm. Perfect for a heavy car like a Cutlass. Needless to say, I blew his doors off, and he was shocked. I also flabbergasted a friend who had a warmed-over 454 Monte Carlo. He couldn't believe he'd gotten beat by a "Small-block" Cutlass. I tried to console him with the facts that my "small-block" wasn exactly stock, and that my 4.10 gears gave me quite an advantage off the line over the 2.73s his car was packing. He was still crushed.  Anyhow, just because a car is loud and smokes the tires, doesn't mean it's fast.  Mastermind        

Z/28 Returns!

Rumor has it that this spring Chevrolet is going to revive the Z/28 Camaro. It will have the 556 hp supercharged 6.2l V8 out of the Cadillac CTS-V. That ought to give those arrogant Shelby Mustang owners and SRT8 Challenger owners pause. Since Ford is also reviving the Boss 302 Mustang, and the new for 2011 Charger will be available with a 460 hp 392 inch Hemi, this is as good as anytime in history to buy a new musclecar. Wonder what order time on a Charger is..... Mastermind

Never argue with an idiot, because people might not know the difference!!

I talked to a guy the other day who got so upset that I knew more than he did, that if I wasn't about 4 inches taller and 40 pounds heavier than him, I think he'd have challenged me to a fight. I never saw anyone get so spittingly hysterical about being proved wrong. The subject was SCCA Trans-Am racing, and the impact it had on production cars. This "Know-it-All" attended the Monterey Historic Car races every year. If you don't know, the Monterey Historics allow people with everything from MG-TC's to Shelby Cobras, to Datsun 510s and 240Z's to old NASCAR racers to run at Laguna Seca for a few days. It's a great event, and the only place where you can see tons of really cool vintage cars actually running, not sitting in a museum or on a trailer. Anyway, a group of guys were discussing the Trans-Am series, and how the cars evolved. All of us agreed that although they took the name of perhaps their most famous model from the series, Pontiac didn't have much success in the races. I said that was because just as Herb Adams and several other engineers were getting serious about mounting a Pontiac Trans-Am effort to compete with Ford, Chevy, and AMC -( Who by then had stolen Roger Penske and Mark Donohue from Chevrolet ) John Delorean, who was backing Adams and Co., got promoted to Genearal Manager of Chevrolet and left. DeLorean's successor cut Adams budget.  Adams had destroked a 400 Pontiac to 303 inches to meet the 305 cubic inch limit. He found that the Tunnel-Port Ram Air V heads that Arnie Beswick and other Pontiac drag racers were using with great success on the 400 and 428 engines just killed the little 303. They actually ran better with Ram Air IV or regular "D Port" Ram Air III heads. With the smaller heads, Adams got 485 hp out of the 303, between 5,000 and 8,000 rpm. This was consistent with what the racing 302 Chevys and Boss 302 Fords were putting out. However, because the cranks, rods, and pistons, were all custom-made, and the solid lifter valvetrain was a hybrid of Pontiac and Chevrolet parts, the engines were quite expensive. Chrysler was even experimenting with a 305 Hemi to have Richard Petty and company possibly mount a Trans-Am effort. Petty had the same problem as Adams. The engines were outrageously expensive to build, and the Hemi heads were just too damn big for the little motor. Chrysler cut the budget just like Pontiac did. In the end a few 303 Trans-Am Firebirds were built-Jerry Titus won a couple races before he was killed at Lime Rock. When the rare and expensive Pontiacs blew up, a lot of privateer racers just put 302 Chevys in the cars and kept racing. As for Chrysler, Richard Petty pulled out and decided to stay with NASCAR. But Sam Posey and others destroked a 340 small-block to 305 inches that was competitive. This guy started staying how stupid I was, that Pontiac never sold a 303 engined Firebird Trans-Am, and that every Challenger T/A or AAR Cuda he ever saw, had a 340 six pack, and that Mopar never had a 305 Hemi and I was the dumbest person he'd ever met. I responded that I was fully aware that Pontiac never sold the 303 in a production car, but it was built for racing purposes, and that NASCAR, as far back as 1968, because of the 200 mph plus speeds the 427 Chevys and Fords and 426 Hemi mopars were going, was considering lowering the cubic inch limit to 305 to keep speeds down and make the racing safer. That's why Richard Petty was involved, because they thought they might need a 305 inch NASCAR motor. I said I knew for a fact, that at least one 305 inch Plymouth Superbird was built and raced in the 1970 season to see if they would be competitive. When NASCAR decided to continue to allow the big-blocks, Petty lost interest and without him, Chrysler didn't really give a crap about Trans-Am and cut the funding. Thus the destroked 340s that were run by the Mopar Trans-Am racers. This guy began swearing and telling me that all Superbirds had 440s, Six-Packs, or Hemis, and that I was F-ing retarded. Neither I nor the other guys in the group could convince this moron that we weren't talking about production cars, but RACE cars, and how their development sometimes impacted what made production. He called us all more names and left, disgusted. As were the other five guys there who knew what i was talking about. As Ron White says- "You Can't Fix Stupid!"  Mastermind    

Why musclecars dominate action movies

A lot of people ask me why musclecars are so prevalent in action movies. All their theories about Tarantino and Rodriguez, and their "Homages" to Bullitt or Vanishing Point, yadda,yadda, yadda are bullshit. There's only two reasons Musclecars dominate action movies. # 1. Almost all great action flicks have a car chase. No one wants to see a chase between a Prius and a Hyundai.  # 2. The main reason-and why they don't use modern ones-is all modern cars are so laden with electronic nanny and safety devices, that you can't do a "Dukes of Hazzard" or "White Lightning" or "Smokey and the Bandit" type chase, because if you hit anything with a modern car going more than about 20 mph, the airbags trigger, and the on-board computer shuts the fuel off. That's why Nicolas Cage drove a '60's Charger and a '70's Chevelle in the new 3-D action flick "Drive Angry". Fast & Furious 4 with Vin Diesel and Paul Walker was all muscle this time instead of Imports. A fifth installment is due out this summer, and I've seen some classics in the trailers. I also saw some modern Chargers. Maybe they disabled the airbags. Anyhow, those are the reasons, not any great creative vision on the part of anyone in Hollywood.  Mastermind

If you can't buy your dream car, then build it!

I saw an article in a Mopar Enthusiast magazine the other day that made me think-"Hey, everybody should do that!" The guy in the article always wanted a Challenger T/A. Since they were only offered for one year-1970-and few were built, the problem was finding one in any condition, at any price. He gave up searching, and bought a 318 powered 1970 Challenger. Through Year One, Mancini Racing, and other companies he bought a T/A style replacement hood, spoilers, and graphics package. He couldn't find a 340, but he bought a 375 hp 360 crate motor from Blueprint engines, and bought the Edelbrock 3-2bbl manifold, Holley carbs, throttle linkage, and air cleaner from Summit Racing. Summit also supplied the replacement Rally Wheels, and a local muffler shop made him the correct-style exhaust that exited in front of the rear wheels. Unless you check the serial numbers, you have no way of telling that it's not a "Real" Challenger T/A. And it's faster than an original one, too. They were only rated at 290 hp. This is not an isolated example. I did a little checking, and it would be easy to turn a 1965-68 Mustang fastback into a Shelby GT350 clone. Tony Branda and other companies offer the body pieces and reproduction interior parts, steering wheels, even the Shelby-style mags. Practically ever Mustang built in this era has a 289, or you could buy a 302 or 347 stroker crate engine from Ford racing. Want a 1969 Trans-Am? Good luck, as only 697 were built. However, Pontiac built over 100,000 Firebirds in 1969, and almost all of them have 350 or 400 V8s under the hood. If it's got a 400, your already ahead of the game. If not, the 350 can be hopped up pretty good, or a 400 or 455 is a bolt-in swap. If you want to build a Ram Air IV style engine, Edelbrock sells Aluminum RAIV heads, and the "Performer RPM" cam has the exact same lift and duration. The Performer RPM manifold is actually a little better than the factory aluminum RAIV intake, especially above 4000 rpm. Year One and Ames sell the hood, and spoilers, stripes, and Air extractors for the fenders. Summit has reproduction Rally II wheels. You could also buy the stuff to make a "Plain" GTO into a Judge, or a Malibu into an SS model, or a Camaro into a Z/28. And I'm not just talking cosmetics. You don't have to have a base Camaro with a junkyard 350 that's painted to look like a Z/28. GMPP sells 4 inch bore, 4-bolt main new blocks designed to use 283 style small-journal cranks, and you can buy the 3.00 inch stroke cranks. Summit, Dart, Trick Flow, and many other companies sell High-Performance Iron and Aluminum heads for small-block Chevys.  Crane sells exact replicas of the original solid-lifter cam in their Blueprint Musclecar series. GMPP still sells the intake manifold in iron or aluminum, or a Holley # 300-36 is also an exact replica. Summit has 3310 780 cfm Holleys. Moser sells brand-new 12-bolt Posi rear ends, and you can find M20 or M21 Muncie or BW T10 four-speeds through Summitt or many other places. You'd have a Z/28, with a "Real" solid-lifter 302 Chevy engine!! When you powershift to second at 6,500 rpm and lay about 30 feet of rubber, are you going to be thinking about serial numbers?  This may be the way to go for a lot of people. Mastermind   

More on Dealer influence on the Musclecar Era

In the last post I talked about certain dealers across the country that offered option packages that weren't available from the Factory. Some of these packages resulted in the factories eventually offering these upgrades to the public. A couple examples would be the Hurst/Olds and the Yenko Camaros and Chevelles. For some reason, maybe pressure from insurance companies or government safety Nazis, GM had an edict that no A or F body car could have an engine over 400 cubic inches. This included Chevelles, GTOs, Cutlasses, and Camaros and Firebirds. That's why the largest optional engine in a Camaro or Chevelle was a 396, and the largest engine in a GTO or Firebird was a 400 Pontiac. Ditto for Olds and Buick. Century, Skylark and Cutlass / F85 models were limited to the 400 inch Buick and Olds engines. Meanwhile, Chrysler had no such restrictions. You could get a Road Runner, Charger or Super Bee with a 426 Hemi or a 440 V8. If their all stock, a 440 Road Runner has little to fear from a 396 Chevelle, or 389 or 400 GTO. This was not lost on the GM brass, but they didn't quite know what to do about it. George Hurst and others did. Hurst performance took the 455 out of the Toronado, added W30 heads and cam, special graphics,and a beefed up Turbo 400. Although only 515 were built in 1968, and 906 in 1969, the automotive press went wild. Don Yenko started offering 427 Corvette motors swapped into Camaros and Chevelles. Royal Pontiac got into the act by swapping 428 HO Gran Prix engines into GTOs and Firebirds. Carroll Shelby got tired of his 289 powered GT350 Mustangs getting dusted by big-block Camaros and Firebirds, so he took a 390 Mustang, and swapped in a 428 and called it the GT500.  Bob Tasca, owner of Tasca Ford, who campaigned many stock class racers in the 60s, blew everyone away by swapping a 428 Police Interceptor engine into a 68 Mustang. This caused Ford to offer the 428 as an option on 1969 Mustangs. In 1969 when Chrysler introduced the new 1970 E-bodied Challengers and Barracudas, which looked eerily like a Camaro,and were avalable with any engine up to and including the 440 Six-Pack, and 426 Hemi, GM decided to lift the ban and allow the largest engines to be put in the smaller cars. This is how the LS6 454 Chevelle, 455HO GTOs and Firbirds, and the 455 W30 442, and 455 Buick GS models came into being. If not for a few adventurous souls at the dealer level, some our most revered cars might never have been built. Mastermind       

Dealer specials! A thing of the past....

In the 1960's and 1970's many car dealers got into the performance scene, and offered special packages to their customers. Royal Pontiac in Michigan was legendary. The "Royal" treatment on a 389 GTO or 421 Catalina, or 400 GTO or Firebird included re-curving the distributor, re-jetting the carb, ( on 4-bbl models ) using thinner head gaskets to add compression, and adjusting the lifters and putting locknuts on the studs to add maybe 400-500 rpm on the top end. On Tri-Power models, besides richening the carbs, this included changing the linkage from vacuum to mechanical. Don Yenko was legendary for the 427 "Yenko" Camaros and Chevelles, as well as the "Yenko Deuce"-Since the Nova was sometimes called the "Chevy II"- this was a Nova with a 370 hp solid-lifter LT-1 Corvette motor stuffed in. "Mr. Norm's Grand Spaulding Dodge" was similar to Royal Pontiac, except they were doing it with Mopars. Challengers, Chargers, and Darts had their 340s, 383s, and 440s super-tuned before they left the dealer. Baldwin Chevrolet in New York partnered with Motion Performance, and Joel Rosen was the father of many L88 and LS6 and LS7 427 and 454 engined Camaros, Firebirds and Chevelles. Nickey Chevrolet in Chicago, as late as 1974, ( Hot Rod magazine tested one.)  offered an L88 427 Nova package.  I mentioned in an earlier post the Mecham Brothers of Mecham Pontiac in Arizona and the "Macho T/A".  I guess now, that truly is a thing of the past because of EPA and state and federal regulations. I recently drove a 2011 Charger R/T with the Hemi. In a major U.S. City, where people have a lot of money. I asked the salesman how much the dealer would charge me if they installed a K&N air filter and a Flowmaster "Cat-Back"-i.e.- after the catilytic converter, and thus emissions legal-exhaust system, and he acted like he was a Rookie Secret Service Agent and I said I wanted to kill the president. I never saw such hemming and hawing. He asked a manager, and the manager said he didn't care what was legal, under no circumstances would they modify a new car for any price. I had to quote Steve Martin from an old Saturday Night Live skit- "Wellll Excuuuussse me for asking!"  A sad state of affairs, and I hate to sound like an old fart, but I miss the "Good Old Days" when "The Customer was Always Right", and if you were willing to pay for it, you could get what you wanted on a new car. Sad. Mastermind 

The forgotten 'Cuda

Plymouth introduced the Barracuda in 1964. It was based on the Valiant platform, and the engine choices were 198 or 225 inch Slant-sixes or a 273 inch V8. I guess they thought it was going to compete with the Mustang, but it was too ugly, even in fastback form. Because they were really light ( around 2,900 lbs ) the 273 models made good drag racers, and when the SCCA started the Trans-Am series they could compete with the Mustangs. ( At least on the racetrack, if not in sales.) The Trans-Am series was immensely popular, but the only fly in the ointment in the musclecar era of "Bigger is Better" is the cubic inch limit was 305 inches. The Ford 289 and Mopar 273 did nicely. Chevrolet wasn't content to race a Nova with the old "economy" 283. They fired back with both barrels in 1967, introducing the Camaro, and putting a 283 crank in a 327 block, and adding Corvette "fuelie" heads, a "30-30" ( for the valve lash settings) cam, aluminum intake and a 780 Holley carb, and the legendary Z/28 was born. Also, the big-block 396 was optional in a Camaro, which left the Mustangs in the dust. Ford responded by offereing the 390 in the Mustang to keep up on the street, and after Chevrolet won the 1968 championship in Trans-Am with Mark Donohue driving a Z/28, they brought out the Boss 302, and offered the T-Bird / Police Interceptor 428 in the Mustang and called it the "Cobra Jet".  Mopar couldn't sit by, and let Ford and GM dominate the pony car market, so they got busy. The E-bodies that became the-now legendary Challenger and re-designed Barracuda, had several design and production delays, and didn't debut until 1970. In the interim, they had to fight back with something. The 1968 Barracuda had a much cleaner Fastback body, and was actually good-looking, although it was still light. ( About 3,200 lbs.) Further the all-new for 1968 340 V8 was a quantun leap up in performance from the 273. Besides the extra cubes, it had freer-breathing heads, 10.5:1 compression, a much hotter cam, and with a steel crank, a bullet-proof bottom end. Grossly under-rated at 275 hp, the power to weight ratio was excellent. The 340 Cudas could not only paste small-block Mustangs and Camaros, they could give the much heavier 396 Chevelles and 400 GTOs a run for the money they'd not soon forget. Mother Mopar also offered the 383 big-block in the Barracuda as well. These were a little nose-heavy and didn't handle handle as well as the 340 models, but boy were they quick in a straight line. These 68-69 models have a bit of a following of their own, but they are way cheaper to buy than a 1970 or later Cuda ./ Challenger. The good thing is, you don't have to search the galaxy for a 340 or 383 model. Buy a 318 model and a stout Mopar Performance 390 hp 360 crate motor, or a Bluprint engines 408 stroker ( based on a 360 ) will bolt right in. Or with a little work, forget a 383, stuff in a 440, or an MP 500 inch stroker!  If you want Mopar performance that's a little different from everyone else, consider the "Forgotten Cuda." Mastermind     

The "Other" Novas

The Chevy Nova has it's place in musclecar history-and rightly so. The L79 350 hp 327 SS models of the mid-60's could certainly surprise the heavier big-block offerings from the big 3. When GM redesigned the X-body in 1968, it opened up a whole new world. The front subframe was the same as a Camaro, which meant that big-blocks could now be easily installed. and for the first time, the 396 that had been previously only avaialable in Impalas and Chevelles, was now optional on the Nova SS.  Many an unsuspecting street hero that thought he was messing around with a small-block Nova got his doors blown off by a 396 model. To this day Novas have quite a following, and although they aren't as pricey as a same-year Camaro or Chevelle, they are rising in value. even for base models. However, the other GM divisions needed an economy car too, so they began offering their versions of the Nova. The best ones are the Pontiac Venturas from 1971-77. A lot of them had six-cylinder or 307 or ( 76-77 models ) 305 Chevy engines under the hood. This is not a bad thing, as that means a stout 350 or 383 Chevy is virtually a bolt-in swap. However the real sleepers to look for are the 350 Pontiac models. With very little work-intake,exhaust, and an axle-ratio change, they can really fly, or if you want to go really fast, since Pontiac engines are externally identical from a 326 to a 455, a 400 or 455 is a bolt in swap. After I totaled my 77 Trans-Am, I put the engine and tranny in a 72 Ventura. Since the T/A weighed 3830 lbs, and the Ventura weighed 3278 lbs,  ( a nearly 600 lb difference) the Ventura was noticeably quicker than the Firebird! I toasted many people who thought I was driving a small-block Nova. Olds and Buick didn't get in on the act until 1973. There are quite a few Omegas out there, with 350 Olds engines under the hood. There is a lot speed equipment available for the 350 Olds, and although a 455 Olds doesn't interchange with the 350 as easily as the Pontiacs, it's not too hard. You don't see many Buick Apollos around, but if you do, they were usually bought by old people, and are in really good condition, as opposed to the Novas and Venturas that have been raced, abused and wrecked. T/A performance and Edelbrock offer speed equipment for 350 Buicks, or again, a 455 would swap in pretty easily.  And, many aftermarket suspension and brake upgrades that fit a Camaro or Nova also fit these cars. If your looking for a bargain sleeper, this may be the way to go. Mastermind      

Three fewer Gorilla Mouths!

When I was a kid my dad used to say- "Don't let your Bulldog mouth overload your Canary ass."  My high school football coach said the same thing, just with slightly different lingo. His was- "Don't let your Gorilla mouth write checks that your Hummingbird ass can't cash."  People do this with cars all the time. Here's a few examples that I thought readers might find entertaining. Gorilla Mouth # 1 Drove a crewcab SRT-10 Dodge Pickup. For those of you that don't know. it's a four-door Dodge Ram pickup with a Viper motor stuffed in it. Yes, they are unbelievably fast for a truck. The key phrase being "For a truck." The engine may have 480 hp, but the truck weighs 5,700 lbs!  Anyway this Gorilla mouth was always saying his truck could beat my brother's GTO in a drag race. Without giving the whole laundry list, my brother's GTO easily has 425 hp, ( yes, we have dyno'd it, I'm not pulling that figure out of the sky ) and weighs 3731 pounds. You do the math. With almost the same amount of power, nearly a 2000 lb weight advantage, and better traction, ( try to launch a pickup with a lot of power without frying the tires )  my brother ran off and left him. The guy was destroyed. I mean you'd have thought his dog died or something.  Gorilla Mouth # 2 Had a 2008 SRT8 Hemi Charger. He bragged about all the Mustangs he'd "Eaten for lunch." The SRT8 Chargers have a 425 hp Hemi, and I don't doubt that he dusted many a 90's "5.0" ( 225 hp ) or even many 2005-2009 GT's ( 300hp.) However the Charger weighs 4140 lbs. When he arrogantly challenged a guy in a new Shelby Mustang- ( Which has 540 hp from its Supercharged 5.4 V8, and weighs about 3,500 lbs ) I knew he was in trouble. He even bet the guy in the Mustang $500 bucks. It wasn't even close. The guy in the Charger was speechless as he handed over 5 Franklins to the Mustang driver, who asked- "Didn't you ever hear that song- "You don't tug on Superman's cape..."  Gorilla Mouth # 3 had a 416 hp Lexus ISF. He Challenged a guy in a 2008 Corvette. Again, the Lexus was ungodly fast for a sedan, but it weighs about 3,800 lbs. The Vette had 428 hp, and weighed about 3,200. Do the math. Vette 1, Rice-Rocket, 0.  Like Jim Croce sang in that famous song- "Find out where it's at, not hustling people strange to you that you don't know..."  Mastermind.    

No you didn't Part 3!

I'm sorry to be so negative lately, but I've talked to a lot of people lately who amaze me with their ignorance, and their arrogance. And it's brought back some memories too. The "One Just like it." thing continues to rear it's ugly head and irritate me in new ways. I get sick of people bragging that they beat a certain model of car in a drag race or "Stoplight Gran Prix", so that means they can beat every other car of that type in the world. Here's why it's so irritating, and why I love giving these jerks a huge comeuppance.  I knew a guy that had a small-block Chevelle that he thought was badass. He was always challenging me and my Judge. and saying he "Eats Goats for breakfast." He did this because he'd beat a neighbor's 68 GTO from a light. However, the neighbor's GTO was an "Economy" model-yes they made them- with a 265hp two-barrel carburated 400, an automatic, and 2.93:1 rear end gears. One day I caught him at a light, and annihilated him, even while smoking the tires well into second gear. He couldn't understand how my GTO with a 366hp Ram Air III, a 4-speed, and 4.33:1 gears, could whomp his ass so bad after he beat "One just like it." Another blowhard had a 79 Z/28 and bragged that "Trans-Ams are dogs." Because his 3.73 geared 4-speed Camaro had beaten a 403 Olds powered, automatic, 2.41 geared T/A. When he ran into my 400 Pontiac, 4-speed, 3.42 geared WS6 model, he was shocked when I beat him by a car length and a half. He was even more stunned when my pals "Macho T/A" smoked him by about 5 car lengths.  Yet another arrogant fool in a small-block 72 El Camino challenged my buddys 67 Cougar to a drag race, because he'd smoked his brother-who-you guessed it-"Has one just like that.'  Except his brother's was a 289, and my pal's was a 390 model!!  Oops! The best one was the guy I worked with that challenged my Hurst/Olds to race his 5.0 Mustang, telling me that my "17 second" car didn't have a chance. He came to this conclusion by pulling out a road test of a 1977 442 that "looks just like that", and ran a 16.9 second 1/4.  Except the 77 442 was powered by a 350 with a catilytic converter choked single-exhaust system, and 2.56:1 gears. He was utterly aghast when my 73 model with a 455, catalyst-free dual exhaust, Hurst "Shotgun" converter, and 3.23 gears, came out of the hole with him, and then passed him at the top of second gear. Guess the one in the magazine WASN'T  "Just like mine!!"  God I get tired of hearing that phrase from people who have no Idea what their talking about. Mastermind