You got beat by a "slower" car? Here's why and how to fix it.....

Talked to some people the other day at a Mustang club "Show&Shine".  A few of them were griping how they'd lost "Stoplight" Gran Prix's to cars that magazine road tests said were substantially slower. Listening to some of these cars run when they started them, I wasn't surprised. I hear this complaint all the time at "Show&Shine's" and it doesn't matter if the club is GM, Ford, Mopar or AMC.  Here's the problem's that cause this and how to fix it.  # 1. A major engine problem. Do a simple compression test. Even an 8:1 "smog" motor will have 120 psi of compression; higher compression engines will have 150 or 175 or more. The main thing is all 8 cylinders should be close-within 5-10 psi of each other. If one or more cylinders only has 80 or 90 psi of compression-you've got a major problem-bad rings, a blown head gasket, or burned valves. This is more common than you think-I see dozens of Musclecars limping around on 6 or 7 cylinders. # 2. No high rpm power. I'm not talking 7,000 or 8,000 rpm-many cars don't have the bottom end or valvetrain for that. But a 318 Dodge with a 2bbl and 100,000 miles on it will rev to 5,000 rpm or so. If your car starts popping or missing above 3,000 rpm or won't rev past 4,000 or 4,500 you could have a flat cam, weak valve springs, or major timing chain slop. You'd be amazed at the number of musclecars running around with $5,000 paint jobs and $2,000 worth of tires and wheels that can't pull 5,000 rpm in low gear. #3. Bad Ignition setup / tuning. Even on a bone-stock engine bad tuning can cost you as much as 50 hp. I see it all the time-the vacuum advance is unplugged or inoperable, the points are closing up,the timing is way too advanced or way too slow, plug wires are arcing, etc.  Again-guys will tell you about their $5,000 paint job-but they can't remember the last time they changed the plugs and wires, or the cap ,rotor and points!!  #4. Bad Carburators / tuning. I see this all the time. The carb is jetted way too rich or way too lean, the float is sinking, the throttle shafts are warped, the throttle linkage sticks or doesn't open all the way. Think about it-do you really expect a 45 or 50 year old carb to be working flawlessly? The solution is simple-get a new carb. Even some Concours show organizations have changed their rules to allow the carb to be the "Original Type"-i.e.-your 1970 Z/28 is ok if it has a 3310 Holley on it-but it doesn't have to have 1970 date codes. Your '68 440 Charger is ok with an Edelbrock AVS on it-it doesn't have to be a 1968 Carter. The other thing is a lot of these cars are trailer queens / garage jewelry. Their only driven on and off the trailer or for a few weeks a year in the summer for Hot August Nights or the Hot Rod Power tour or whatever. The owners are so damned afraid of blowing it up that the car never sees the high side of 3,000 rpm. Then, the second it fouls a spark plug-they start screwing around with the carburator(s). Pretty soon it won't even start. Have a professional jet the carb(s) for you and then leave them alone!!  If the car is going to sit for extended periods and your going to drive it like grandma on Prozac then go a range or two hotter on the plugs. Then if you decide to take a trip or go to the drags changing to the recommended heat range is pretty easy. And like the GTO song-once in a while you have to "Turn it on,wind it up, blow it out! ". Nobody's saying you have run your Hemi to 7 grand and risk blowing it up; but a run through the gears to even 4,500 rpm or so once a month or a good old-fashioned full-throttle run down the freeway once in a while goes a long way to keeping carbon buildup and sludge out of the fuel system. # 5. Bad transmissions / tuning. I see tons of musclecars running around 2 qts low on transmission fluid, with slipping converters,vacuum modulators un-hooked, sticking governors etc. If you have an automatic trans-change the fluid every couple years even if you don't drive it 5,000 miles a year. Make sure the vacuum modulator is working and that your kickdown linkage is hooked up and working properly. Make sure the cooler isn't plugged up and put a B&M or TransGo shift kit in it. It makes a huge difference. The same goes for sticks-the clutch is slipping or not engaging properly, the shift linkage hangs up or get's caught between gears-these are relatively easy fixes-a new clutch setup or a new Hurst shifter is not that hard to do. # 6. Bad exhaust. Again-you'd be amazed at the number of cars I see with $5,000 paint jobs-that sound like an old school bus. The exhaust system is rusted out or crushed and has multiple leaks-which hurts performance. The worst offenders are the guys who will spend $1,000 bucks on a Flowmaster or Dynomax dual setup and mufflers-but the headers / exhaust manifolds have huge leaks under the hood!! Changing the exhaust manifold / header gaskets and tightening the bolts once in a while goes a long way to keeping the system leak-free-which keeps you from losing large amounts of power. Anyhow-these simple tips will keep your car running like it should and not embarrass you next time you decide to smite some kid in an import or a soccer mom in a V8 Cherokee!!  Mastermind            

Why NASCAR sucks now.....And the way to fix it.........

The letters stand for National Association of Stock Car racing. Now there's people who like Robert Duvall's Harry Hogge character in "Days of Thunder" will argue-that since the '50's-"There's nothing stock about a stock car." Their half-right. Yes-NASCAR racers have always had roll cages and beefed up suspensions and hopped up engines. But the fact remains-that the motto-"Win on Sunday, Sell on Monday" came from NASCAR success. Pontiac surged from sixth to third in U.S car sales in the late fifties and early sixties for two reasons. One-the new president of Pontiac-Semon E. "Bunkie" Knudsen-had a motto-"You can sell a young man's car to an old man, but you can't sell an old man's car to a young man."  Two-Smokey Yunick and Fireball Roberts were the scourge of NASCAR in their Fire-Breathing Pontiacs. Roberts won a record 22 races in the 1961-62 season-a record that stood until Richard Petty won 27 in 1967-68. People wanted to buy cars they saw their heroes driving. And many of our great performance cars came about only because the manufacturers wanted to homogolate them for racing-be it NASCAR, Trans-Am or NHRA drag racing. If it weren't for that there'd have been no Hemi Mopars, no Boss 302 or 429 Mustangs, no Z/28 Camaros-no Big-Block Chevys, no Ram Air IV Pontiacs-the list goes on and on. The bottom line is-yes-Grand National cars were Race cars, not street cars-but you could go to your local dealer and buy a Pontiac Catalina with a 421, a Ford Galaxie with a 406, a Plymouth Belvedere with a 413, and a Chevy Impala with a 409. Later in the '60's you could go to your local dealer and buy a 426 Hemi Charger. You could buy a Torino with a 429, a Chevelle with a 396 or 427. You could buy a Z/28 Camaro or Boss 302 Mustang just like Mark Donohue and Parnelli Jones drove. In the 1970's- even after the Hemis and big-blocks were outlawed you could buy the same cars your heroes drove at Daytona and Talledega-Richard Petty ran a 1974 Charger with great success until 1979. You could buy a Chevelle or Monte Carlo with a 350 V8, just like Cale Yarborough drove. You could buy a Mercury Montego or Cougar with a 351C just like David Pearson drove for the Wood brothers. You could buy an AMC Matador with a 360 V8. When Petty's Juggernaut Charger was outlawed for 1980-NASCAR rules said cars couldn't be more than 5 years old-he switched to a '77 Olds Cutlass-whose fastback roofline and slope nose was more aerodynamic than the flat nose Malibus and notchback Monte Carlos the other GM teams were running-and he kicked ass. The other teams protested because Team Petty was running the ubiquitous small-block Chevy race engine. They argued that he should have to run a 350 Olds engine-which would have been un-competitive. Petty successfully argued that GM was playing musical engines with their production cars-that you could buy off a dealer's lot-a Pontiac Firebird with a 350 Chevy or a 403 Olds engine,an Olds Cutlass with a 305 Chevy V8, a Buick Regal with a 301 Pontiac, and a Chevy Monte Carlo with a Buick V6. NASCAR ruled correctly-that since GM was selling cars to the public that way-race teams could run any GM engine in any GM body. Several teams switched to Cutlasses to keep up with Petty. Even in the 1980s-you could buy a Monte Carlo SS with a V8 just like Dale Earnhardt drove. You could buy a Thunderbird with a V8 just like Bill Elliott won the championship in.  Things went to hell in 1989 when GM discontinued the rear-drive "G" bodies-i.e.-Olds Cutlass, Buick Regal, Chevy Monte Carlo,Pontiac Gran Prix. Now GM still built Camaros and Firebirds which were rear-drive through 2002. Why NASCAR GM teams didn't run Camaros and Firebirds-I have no Idea. Instead the rules were changed and they started running Luminas and Berettas and stuff. Plastic bodies of Front-drive compacts on a tube chassis. Instead of running Mustangs and T-Birds-Ford started running Taurus bodies. Chrysler-who had no rear-drive cars at all started running Dodge Intrepids. So from the early 90's on you've had a '90's front-drive econobox body on a race car chassis that's running 1965 technology. Carburators? Flat-tappet cams? Pushrod engines??? When Toyota wanted to play-instead allowing them to run the I-Force V8 in a Lexus body-NASCAR forced Toyota to basically build their own small-block Chevy replica and run it in a Camry body. The Ford V8s in the Fusions are not 5.4 OHC Mod Motors or 5.0 Coyotes like you get in a Mustang or an F150. Their "Clevors"-again 1969 technology-351W blocks with big-port Cleveland heads. The Chryslers aren't modern 5.7 or 6.1 or 6.4 Hemis-there old-school 360s-a 1967 design. The Chevys aren't LS Motors like you get in a Camaro or a truck-their old-school 350s-just like they were running 40 years ago in 1975. The "Fuel Injection" that was finally allowed in 2014 isn't direct fuel injection like all cars have-it's a 4-barrel throttle body on a Edelbrock Victor Jr manifold-a glorified carburator. NASCAR needs to change the rules-cars need to be based on production models. GM guys could run LS engined Camaros, Ford guys Coyote Mustangs, Dodge Guys could run Hemi Challengers and Chargers, and Toyota could run a Lexus body. Nissan could play with a Infiniti body and the big V8 from the Titan Trucks. People would indentify with the brands and be excited again. Now you've got a bunch of cookie-cutter cars-( they all look like a Camry ) buzzing around with 1960's technology under their phony skins. Ho-Hum. If teams had to run what was in production that would energize things. Maybe if enough people write NASCAR they'll listen.....Mastermind        

What if all the manufacturers hadn't just gave up on performance in 1973-74?...

I mentioned in the last post how the Pontiac Trans-Am became the best-selling car of the late '70s-partly because it was a great car and partly because it was the only game in town. We owe Pontiac-a great debt-if it weren't for the T/A's phenomenal popularity-we wouldn't have had 5.0 Mustangs and Buick Grand Nationals in the '80's or Impala SS's and Ford Lightnings in the '90's. And we wouldn't have 400 hp Mustangs, Camaros and Challengers now. That aside-the other automakers screwed up big time.  Here's some examples. # 1. Olds 442. The Cutlass was the best selling American car in the '70's. However-after 1972 the "W30" 455 was dropped, and the "442" became an "Apperance and Handling package." In other words-you could buy a Cutlass with badass graphics and big tires-that had a 350 2 bbl V8 that wheezed out 150 hp. The sad thing is-the "W30" 455 which could compete with the LS6 454 and Pontiac 455HO could have continued unchanged through 1974 and with minor changes-like Pontiac did with the L78 400-could have rocked on until 1979. Think a 455, 4-speed or TH400 backed 442 would have sold? Is a pig made out of pork?  # 2. Big block Challenger / 'Cudas. For some insane reason, after '71 the biggest engine you could get in a "Cuda or Challenger was a 340 or 360. Since GM kept the F-bodies the same from 70-81-Chrysler could have done the same with the E-bodies if they didn't drop them in '74. And the 400 and 440s were EPA certified in the big cars until '78. Think a 440, 4-speed Challenger could have competed with a Trans-Am?  Yeah!!!!   # 3. Javelin AMX. Same thing-they quit production in 1974. They could have continued on until 1979 easily. The 360 and 401 engines were EPA certified in Jeep Waggoneers and AMC Ambassadors. A 401 Javelin could have competed with a T/A.  # 4. Ford Mustang. Instead of going to the Pinto based Mustang II in 1974-Ford could have kept the '71-73 bodystyle that could accomodate a 429 / 460-and the 460 was certified in T-Birds and Lincolns until '78. Think a 460 Mustang could compete with a 400 or 455 T/A?  Duh!!!!   But everyone just gave in to the bean counters. Thank god Pontiac didn't. Otherwise-like I said-we wouldn't have the great performance cars that we do now.  All Hail Herb Adams and Dennis Mecham and everyone else that promoted T/A's in the '70's. Mastermind    

Some badass cars that never made production.....Damn!!..They'd have been awesome....

For some reason-every manufacturer has had some ultra-badass cars that would have been easy to produce and would have sold like hot cakes, yet they were killed before they were born. Here's a bunch we all wish were built. # 1. 1970 LS6 454 Nova SS. Originally the LS6 454 was slated to be optional in the Nova SS and the Camaro SS as well as the Chevelle line. In fact-the intake manifold loses 10-15 hp over the 1969 427 4bbl intake because it's so flat-designed that way to clear the low hoodline of the new Camaro. Since the 396 was already an option in both cars, it would have been a bolt-in swap. However-a Nova weighs about 800 lbs less than a Chevelle and about 400 lbs less than a Camaro-if the buff mags thought the LS6 Chevelle was badass-an LS6 Nova would have been like "Leroy Brown"-"Badder than King Kong and meaner than a Junkyard Dog."  For whatever reason-the brass killed it and the LS6 was only offered in the Chevelle line that year.  # 2. 1971 Boss 429 Mustang. The larger '71 Mustang was designed with the 429 CJ as an option, so it's huge engine bay could have easily accepted a "Boss 429". And unlike the -'69 and '70 models which started life as 428 models and were converted at Kar Kraft-( Ford lost money on every one ) the '71s could have been built on Ford's assembly line. For whatever reason, Ford decided not to offer the Boss 429 at the last minute. # 3. 1971 Plymouth Superbird / Dodge Charger Daytona. Chrysler considered putting the slope-nose and big wing on the new for '71 models, and then changed their mind at the last minute. Too bad. They'd have been cool.  # 4. 1971-73 429 / 460 Mercury Cougar. Since Pontiac offered a 455 in the best-selling Gran Prix and Chevrolet offered a 454 in it's Monte Carlo cousin some Ford engineers thought the Cougar should have a big block as well. The bean counters decided that the G/P and the Monte were competitors of the T-Bird, not the Cougar. Hello? The T-Bird was based on the much heavier Lincoln MKIV platform. In drag race-the 455 and 454 "A" body ( Chevelle / LeMans chassis ) GM offerings would blow the doors off a 429 / 460 T-Bird. My cousin had an early '70's GP with a 455. It had power everything, and it felt like a GTO. She showed her taillights to quite a few evil-looking Camaro and Mustangs.  A 429 Cougar would have been competitive. Alas-a 351C was the biggest engine you could get in a Cougar. # 5. 1974 Pontiac GTO. Initially-Pontiac was going to keep the GTO nameplate on the LeMans platform and offer the SD-455-that had only been available in the Trans-Am / Formula Firebirds in '73. That might have given sales a shot in the arm. When it was decided to move it to the "X" body ( read Nova / Ventura / Omega ) platform, the engineers got the bright idea of returning to it's 1964 roots that made it wildly successful-stuff a "Big Car" V8 into a light compact. They thought about dropping in a 400 and reviving the "Judge" moniker. Since the 350 was already an option in the Ventura and Pontiac engines are externally identical it would have easy. And a Ventura weighs about 500 lbs less than a Firebird. A 400 Ventura / GTO would have been a rocket-even quicker than the vaunted SD-455 Trans-Am. Since the T/A was now the flasgship and cash cow, the brass couldn't allow that. So the down-sized Goat got a 7.6:1 compression 350 that wheezed out 200 hp. And they wondered why they didn't sell?  # 6. 1977 AMC AMX. I know there was an AMX option in '77-78, but let me finish. After 1974-there was no more 'Cuda / Challengers, no more Road Runners, the Charger was a re-badged Chrysler Cordoba ( yuk! ) the Mustang was more Pinto / Capri than Mustang, the Javelin was no more, no more SS Chevelles, and the Z/28 was gone, and the biggest engine you could get in a Corvette was a 350, and you couldn't even get a 4-speed in California!. Gee-wonder why 400 and 455 Pontiac Trans-Ams were selling in record numbers, even before "Smokey and the Bandit" came out?  Musclecar buyers didn't go away after 1974-the manufacturers stopped making cars they wanted to buy!! After T/A sales doubled or tripled every year from '73-76 ( "Smokey and the Bandit" wasn't released until May 1977 )  Everyone realized their collossal goof and began trying to find a Trans-Am fighter. Chevrolet hastily re-introduced the Z/28 Camaro for '77 with very T/A like spoilers and graphics. AMC engineers developed a performance package for the compact Hornet. It had a great handling suspension and since-like Pontiacs-AMC engines are externally identical-a 304 V8 was an option in the Hornet line-they got the bright idea to swap in a 401 out the big car / Jeep line. That would have been a bolt-in swap. Since a Hornet only weighs about 2,900 lbs-and a '77 T/A weighs about 3,800-a 401 Hornet AMX would have smoked a 400 Trans-Am in a drag race or the twisties. They might not have been sexy but-like the '68 Road Runner-they'd have been a stripped-down, badass street fighter. In spite of irrefutable proof that performance buyers were still out there-Pontiac sold 50,000 T/As in 1976 alone, and another 68,000 in '77, and the revived Z/28 was selling-'77 and '78 were record sales years for the Camaro and Corvette-the AMC brass decided that performance didn't matter only cosmetics-so they ok'd the suspension and graphics package but nixed the engine swap. The only engines available in the Hornet AMX were a 258 inch six and a 304 V8 with a 2bbl that wheezed out 120 hp, and there was no manual transmission option. Decisions like this are why AMC went under.  # 7. 1990 Buick Reatta. That's not a Typo. Buick engineers wanted to make the racy Reatta 2-seater rear-wheel drive and drop in the badass Turbo V6 out of the now-defunct Grand National. ( Since the engine was offered in the '89 20th Anniversary T/A, they were still building them. )  Chevrolet brass had an absolute meltdown-as a GN-engined Reatta would have blown the doors off an L98 Corvette in performance and sales both. GM brass nixed it-and the Reatta was made front-drive with a normally aspirated V6 that wheezed out 120 hp. And they wondered why they didn't sell?  What might have been....Mastermind                

Ask for professional advice....And then don't take it...stick to your fantasy....

Had a guy mention an old Hot Rod article about a couple guys that ran a 440 powered '68 Charger in the Silver State classic and went like 185 mph. ( They were shooting for 200 mph ). He asked if I thought they could break 200 if they'd had a Hemi. I said no-the 440 they had was putting out like 600 hp-they didn't need more power-they needed a lighter and more aerodynamic car than a heavy, boxy '68 Charger. He asked what combination I would run if I wanted to try to go 200 in the Silver State classic or at Bonneville. I said I would use a 1982-90 Pontiac Trans-Am with a 454 Chevy for power as this would be the easiest and most econmical way to do it. Then he asks why not a '70's T/A with a 455 Pontiac. Here's why-# 1. Aerodynamics is just as much a factor in high-speed runs as power. A more aerodynamic car can go faster with less power because it slices through the wind easier. Why do you think a '79 Trans-Am can go 132 mph while a 454 powered GMC Stepside '78 1/2 ton pick-up can only go 118-even though they both weigh about 3,800 lbs and the truck had 20 more hp ( 240 vs 220 ) and catalyst-free exhaust?  Because the Firebird slices through the wind easier than the boxy truck. Very simple. Anyhow-I said-a '70's T/A has a drag coefficient of .048. The '82-90 model has a drag coefficient of .032-or .028 with the "Aero" package. That's about as low as your going to get with a production car. Even if they had the same amount of power-the '80's model would go way faster because of the aerodynamics. Secondly, the '70's T/A weighed about 3,800 lbs. The '80's model weighed about 3,200.  So with the aerodynamics and the weight advantage-the '80's model would go much faster with the same amount of power.  # 2. Bang for the buck. Like it or not nothing makes more power for less money than a big-block Chevy. Yes a Chrysler Hemi or Boss Nine Ford can make as much or more power-but at double or triple the cost. For example the GMPP 454 HO makes 440 hp and 500 lbs of torque for $5995.  The 465 hp 426 Hemi that Mopar Performance sells retails for $14,995. The 472 and 510 Hemis are way more expensive than the 502 or 572 GMPP Rat Motors. As for the guys question about a 455 Pontiac-yes Butler performance and other companies offer 600 hp Pontiac motors-at a cost of $15,000 or more. Then he asks if a Fox-bodied Mustang could do 200 with a 347 stroker?  Really?  I just said you'd have a hard time doing it with a slippery T/A with a pumped to the gills 454 Chevy. Why would you think a "barn door" Mustang could do it with a 347 small-block??  Really?? Mastermind  

You can restore or build a car on a budget....Just don't waste money on unnecessary upgrades that offer little "Bang for the Buck"..

I was talking to some gearheads in Summitt Racing the other day and they were lamenting  how expensive it is to build a hot rod. I'm not always "Devil's Advocate", but I had to differ. The reason is these guys had fallen into emulating car magazine project cars and the ever-present "Gotta Haves.". The "Gotta Haves" can drive the price of a project up substantially while not really offering the performance return for the dollars invested. Heres the main offenders. # 1. Aftermarket 4-wheel disc brake systems. Why does every single magazine project car have to have a Wildwood or Brembo 4-wheel disc brake setup worthy of a NASCAR Nextel Cup race car?  Don't get me wrong, I'm all for safety-But honestly-the stock front disc / rear drum or 4-wheel disc brake setup on most late '60s, '70's, '80's and '90's cars isn't adequate to stop the car in daily driving or on a weekend trip to the drags?  I had a friend that Autocrossed his '76 Trans-Am with great success, with the stock brakes. We figured out that if he used Police-Spec D52 Metallic pads and Dot 5 fluid, that his brakes wouldn't fade, even in back to back events. Ditto for another friend that had a '78 Camaro "Super Stock" circle track car that he raced on 1/4 mile, 1/2 mile and 5/8 mile ovals. Even on a 50 lap main event on a 1/4 mile track-( that's a lot of heavy braking ) his brakes never faded either. In fact he found that the Dot 5 fluid was the key. Dot 3 fluid would boil-and cause the pedal to be mushy. As long as he used Dot 5 fluid and Police-spec Wagner or Ferodo pads-he never had a problem. If you are building an autocross car or something that your going to race in vintage car races at Laguna Seca or Lime Rock then you might want an upgraded braking system-but honestly-whether it's a '68 Chevelle, a '78 Trans-Am, an '88 "5.0" Mustang or a '98 Dodge Dakota R/T your playing with-anything with factory front disc brakes is going to be able to handle 500-600 hp safely in daily driving or a weekend trip to the drags. In fact-back in the '70's-I knew many guys who built 400 hp V8 Vegas, Pintos and Chevy LUV trucks-and the stock front disc/ rear drum setups on those compacts stopped the cars safely from multiple 100+ mph 1/4 mile runs every Saturday night. A lot of guys who built 10 second Shelby Cobra kit cars used Mustang II front suspension and disc brakes and the cars stopped quicker than most production sports cars.  # 2. Ford 9" rear ends. Why does every single magazine project car-even GM or Mopar-have to have a $4,000 custom Currie 9 inch rear end?  In 40 years-I have never seen anyone break a Chrysler 8 3/4 rear. A friend has a Duster with a 505 inch 440 based stroker with nitrous that runs 9s on wrinklewall slicks-and he's never had a problem. I had Lakewood Ladder bars and N50-15 Mickey Thompson Hot-n-Sticky drag tires on my GTO-I'd pop the clutch at 4,500 rpm and powershift at 6,500 and I never broke the 12 bolt rear in it.  I've had 400, 4-speed '70's Trans-Ams and popped the clutch at 3,500-4,000 rpm 15 times at a weekend at the drags-every weekend for two years-and never broke the 8.5 inch 10 bolt posi. LIke I said-I know guys who have Cobra replicas with 500+hp 302s, 351s and even 427s-and they've never broke the 8 inch Ford Maverick / Mustang II rears that their using. I know guys with 9 second Fox Mustangs that have never broken the stock 8.8 rear. Yes-if you've got a 720 hp 572 inch Rat backed with a TH400 with a 5 grand converter and a trans-brake and your running wrinklewall slicks bolted to the rims-driveline breakage is a possiblity-but for most people-the stock rear end will hold up to just about any power level. The exception being the 7.5 incher in '80's Camaros and Firebirds and GM G-bodies. They break with moderate power levels-they need an upgrade-but just about anything else-that 1/4 or 1/2 inch on the ring gear isn't going to make that much difference. # 3. Upgraded transmissions. Every magazine car seems to have a Richmond or BW five or six-speed stick or a beefed up 4 or 6-speed automatic. In reality-a C4 or a TH350-a "small-block" trans-will withstand up to 500 hp in basically stock trim-i.e. a shift improver kit and upgraded cooler. My brother's GTO has a 400 with the Edelbrock Performer RPM package on it-Edelbrock claims 422 hp and 441 lbs of torque with this package- and his TH350 has lasted 7 years with his lead foot-and still lays 30 feet of rubber on the 1-2 shift. A friend with a Ram Air III '69 Firebird has a 200R4 in his car-and it works great. I know Buick Grand National racers that run 11s with 200R4's. So you don't need a TCI or B&M or Art Carr built  700R4 or Ford AOD for your car. If your car has a TH400, 727 Torqueflite or C6-their practically indestructible in stock trim-that's why they were put behind 454 Chevys and 455 Buick, Olds and Pontiacs, 440 and 426 Hemi Mopars and 429 and 460 Fords in various cars and trucks. A shift kit and an adjustable modulator will be all you need in any but the most radical applications. Ditto for sticks. The 4-speed in your GM, Ford or Mopar Musclecar will stand up to just about any power level. Even factory 5-speeds are very tough. I know guys with 11 second "5.0" Mustangs that are running stock T5 trannys. I know a guy that put a stompin' ZZ4 crate engine in an '85 IROC-Z-and it lasted 13 months with him powershifting it 20 times a weekend every weekend at the drags. If he'd drove it normally it probably would have lasted 5 years. If you want an overdrive tranny and can afford it-fine go for it-but that's 3 grand that you don't really need to spend. # 4. Unnecessary bottom-end beef and machine work. Here's where the "Gotta Haves" are half-right. If your building a NASCAR Nextel Cup engine that has to go 7,800 rpm for 500 miles at Daytona, or a Pro Stock or Top-Fuel drag car-then you need all the beef you can get. For the average street machine that will never see the high side of 6,500 rpm-you don't. Two-bolt main blocks are fine for this kind of use. Ditto for cast cranks and cast pistons. That's what I told a guy who asked my advice about building a hot small-block Chevy. I told him I'd only recommend a forged crank and pistons if he was going to run a blower or nitrous. But then my question is-"If you have THAT much money and need to go THAT fast-why aren't you building a 454 instead of a 350?"  See what I'm saying?  Anyhow-just because " Project Badass" has it-doesn't mean you have to copy it part for part. Mastermind        

No you didn't.....and your still a moron....Part 2...

Got some more outrageous boasts from angry idiots after the last post. I thought I'd share the more entertaining ones. # 1. This is my personal favorite. This clown, who has a 1986 SVO Mustang-which if you don't know has a Turbocharged 4-cylinder engine with 200 hp. When they were new-they ran 0-60 times in the 7 second range and the 1/4 in the high-15s. Not bad for the time-but the "5.0" V8 models were both quicker and several thousand dollars cheaper-which is why the SVO's didn't sell. Anyhow this idiot claims that he beat a 1998 WS6 Trans-Am-which had 320 hp stock and ran 5-second 0-60 times and high 13s in the 1/4. Technically he did, but he sounds like such an asshole justifying it. They didn't line up at a stoplight and go on green, and he left the other guy. No,-he races in a bracket racing class at his local strip. The way they do it is if a 15 second car is racing a 13 second car-the 15 second car gets a two second head start. I mean they literally let one car leave the line, while the other one sits there staring at a red light for two whole seconds, before he's allowed to launch. This system really favors the slower cars. Often the guy waiting for the delayed launch redlights and loses,or doesn't launch quick enough when he finally gets the green and loses. There's no way in hell this clowns '86 SVO Mustang could beat a '98 LS1 WS6 T/A in a regular drag race, or a "Stoplight Gran Prix". # 2. This one is hilarious too. This guy I sold cars with back in the '80's. He asked me if I remembered his 289 powered '67 Mustang beating a mutual friend's '69 SS396 El Camino from a light. I do-and I asked him if he remembered that the guy had blown the 396 up a couple months before, and had put a 307 with a 2bbl in the car so he could drive it while he was rebuilding the 396. So he beat an Elky with a junkyard 2bbl carbed 307, not a "real" SS396!!  # 3. Here's another "10 second" car that got smoked by a 14 second car. This guy had a shop next to mine for years. He had a '68 Nova that started out as a six-cylinder, 3-speed model. It had a one-legger monoleaf sprung 3.08:1 10 bolt rear. He put a 350 and a 4-speed in it. I don't know what cam he had in it-it idled rough enough to tell me it was "too big" for the car-and it had headers and a really loud exhaust and a Weiand Tunnel Ram with two 660 Holleys. He put traction bars on it to control wheelhop. He was always revving it up and smoking the tires. It spun the wheels and made a lot of noise-but I never thought it moved that fast. One day he challenged my buddys restored 440 powered 1972 Road Runner to a drag race. The Road Runner was restored to stock specs-except it had an Edelbrock carb on it instead of a Thermo-Quad. It was only a race for about 100 feet. As soon as the Road Runner stopped smoking it's tires he started pulling away. He won by about 5 or six car lengths. The Nova driver was aghast. How could this be? I told him-his car was built wrong-his tunnel-ram killed whatever low-end torque his engine did have-and the 3.08:1 gearing didn't help. He needed a single 4bbl induction system and some 3.73:1 or 4.11:1 gears, and m,aybe a smaller cam for it ro run the way it should. And even then it would have been maybe a 13 second car-not a ( GAG!!!! Damn the "F&F Movies!!! ) "10 second" car. Anyhow just had to vent those. Mastermind                

No you didn't......And you sound like a moron insisting you did.....

Had a couple of conversations this week that made me want to slap the people senseless-when I realized if they had any sense-they wouldn't be making the stupid statements that they were!!!  I blame the "Fast&Furious" movies. I know their immensely popular-but since the first one in 2001, stars Vin Diesel and the late Paul Walker spouting about "10 second" cars and insane horsepower numbers has caused idiots everywhere to make impossible boasts about their car's ability.  Moron #1. Claimed to have a Mitsubishi EVO sedan with "800" hp that could go 140 mph in third gear, and topped out at 197 mph-when he "Let off". Let me quote actor Ricardo Montalban- "Welcome to Fantasy Island." Here's why- 1st off- a stock Mitsubishi EVO has 305 hp. Like its closest competitior- the Subaru WRX STI-it runs 0-60 times in the mid 5-second range and the 1/4 in the very low 14s or very high 13s depending on which magazine road test you read and brutal the launch was. They also have a top speed of about 143 mph. He claims that by adapting a Ford Diesel truck Turbo that he was able to push the little 4-banger to the 800 hp level. Really-how-since Gale Banks-who is widely regarded as "THE" Turbo Guru-could only get 800 hp out of a 454 Chevy V8 and in a gutted '82 Trans-Am race car that had a drag coeffieceint of .028-was barely able to top 200 mph in Bonneville run. But I'm supposed to believe that this guy-in his garage was able to make that power level with one bolt-on piece-no head porting, no hotter cams, no bigger exhaust, no nitrous or water injection, no MSD or Jacobs additional electronic management, no larger fuel injectors, etc- from a 4-clyinder engine thats less than 150 cubes??  Even if this backyard mechanic was somehow able to actually increase the horsepower of his car by 50%-no easy feat even for factory engineers-he'd have "only" 450 hp-which would make the 3.330 lb car an absolute rocket-but it's still nowhere near "800" hp!!! And his speed claims are ludicrous. With stock gearing-even if he disabled the rev limiter and could go 7,500-8,000 rpm-the fastest he could possibly go in third gear is about 90 mph. As for his top speed claim-he's totally dreaming. The Hellcat Charger that really does have 707 hp-can only pull 186 mph top speed. The Z06 Corvette-which weighs less than an EVO, has 650 hp and a drag coefficient of something like .024-way more aerodynamic than the boxy little jap sedan-can only go 192. Danica Patrick-a NASCAR and Indy car driver-couldn't top 200 for Car and Driver in a Lamborghini Gallardo-but this asshole can go 197 in his boxy little rice rocket. Riggghhhht.  NASCAR Nextel Cup race cars that really do have 850 hp and are gutted, aerodynamic race cars-not production sedans with airbags, etc-rarely top 195 mph-with miles of acceleration at Talledega or Daytona. But this asshole goes quicker in his street car-he just "Lets off" at 197!!!  Sorry bud, not in your wildest, wettest dreams.  Moron # 2. Had a 1974 Pontiac Ventura. I like Venturas.  ( Pontiac's version of the Nova.) I had two of them-one with a warmed over 350 and the other with the warmed over 400 out of my wrecked Trans-Am. Since they weigh about 600 lbs less than a '70s Firebird-they make a good street machine. And any suspension or brake upgrades that fit a Camaro / Firebird fit these cars-so you can build a corner-carver or a drag racer. I commented on how nice the car was-and said I had a couple, and that my 400 version was quite a sleeper. Arrogant little bastard sneers at me-"Yeah well this one runs 10s."  I couldn't resist. Really? I said-"I'll run you right now,with my Subaru, and I'll bet you 100 bucks you can't outrun my Subaru." "And it's not a WRX, it's a Forester." "And it's not even a Turbo Forester." ( When Motor Trend voted the Forester SUV of the year for 2014-the Turbo model ran a 6.2 second 0-60 time and a 14.7 second 1/4. The base model, which I have-ran a 7.5 second 0-60 time and a 15.8 second 1/4 ). Which is faster than Cars Magazine's 1974 Ventura GTO test car. "I don't race for less than $500." the punk sneered at me. I had to crush him. "Ok." I said. "Let's race for $1,000." "Right Now." "You got "Noss" ( not nitrous,"Noss" god I hate the "F&F" movies!!!! ) on that thing?" He asked. "No." I replied. "You think your Forester runs 10s?" He sneered. "No."  "And your car couldn't travel 1320 feet in 10 seconds if it was dropped from an airplane." "Because I had a '69 GTO with a 12:1 compression, Ram Air III 400 with a solid-lifter Crane Cam, Hooker Headers, an Offenhauser Dual-Quad manifold with two 750 AFBs,backed by a Rock-Crusher 4-speed and a 4.33:1 geared posi rear end with Lakewood Ladder bars and N50-15 Mickey Thompson "Hot-n-Sticky" drag tires-and it could only run an 11.79 in the 1/4."  "I'm supposed to believe that your 7.6:1 compression 350 with stock iron intake and exhaust manifolds and a stock cam, and an automatic with a one-legger, 3.08:1 10 bolt rolling on 205 /75R14 tires is a full-second quicker than my Goat?" "I don't think so." "In fact like I said-I don't think this slug can out run my little SUV." "Or my co-worker's Honda Civic."  "Screw you buddy." he growled. "Yeah. Screw you too,obviously the truth hurts." He couldn't even lay 10 feet of rubber on his angry launch out of the parking lot, turning right!!. My buddy and I laughed ourselves sick. "Yep-that's a "10 second" car."  Guys-when you flippantly pull numbers out of your ass-you sound like a complete idiot to anyone who's ever been a mechanic or on a dragstrip or a racetrack. And you sound even stupider when you insist-after they've given irrefutable proof that you are wrong. If your going to brag about your "10 second" car-you damn sure better have a timeslip to back it up!!!  Mastermind        

There's a good reason for many "Day Two" modifications.....

I hear it every day-some "Just as it left the factory" type makes an incredible barn find of a low-mileage musclecar and then bitches because it has a couple of non-stock parts-i.e. a Mallory distributor or a Holley carb or something else that was a popular mod back in the day. Besides enthusiasts looking for more speed, there was a lot of factory parts that just didn't work from the get go. Here's the major ones. # 1. Shifters. Pontiac GTOs and Firebirds and Olds 442s with 4-speeds had Hurst shifters from the factory, which worked great even when powershifting. However-for some insane reason Chevrolet SS 396 Chevelles and Impalas and even small and big-block Camaros and Novas used a horrible body-mounted Muncie linkage. Forget powershifting-if you were over 3,000 rpm and had your foot in it-the linkage would bind up. You couldn't shift them quickly under any circumstances. So most people did the smart thing and went to their local speed shop and bought a Hurst or Mr Gasket shifter and solved the problem. This wasn't just a Chevy problem. Fords and Chryslers had terrible shifters. In 1970-the new Hurst-"Pistol Grip" shifter that showed up in Mopars was a vast improvement-but it still wasn't great. Ask anyone who tried to powershift a pre-1970 Mopar and they'll tell you horror stories of missed shifts and being stuck between gears. Ditto for Fords. Yes, the Boss 302 had a Hurst linkage-but the 70,000 other V8 Mach 1 Mustangs had a terrible Inland linkage. Even in the disco-era the Pontiac Trans-Am had a Hurst shifter from the factory and the Z/28 Camaro had a crappy Inland shifter.  So that's why you rarely see a stock shifter in anything other than a Pontiac- in most musclecars-they were replaced with a Hurst 40 or 50 years ago!!  # 2. Distributors. GM had decent distributors. If you used genuine Delco or Accel points they were good to 6,000 rpm or so. Not so with Fords and Mopars. Their points would "sign off" about 5,000 rpm. If they weren't set perfectly, they'd start to "bounce" as low as 4,400 rpm. You never saw a Ford or Mopar drag racer who didn't have extra sets of points in his toolbox!! A lot of guys switched to aftermarket Accel or Mallory units. They did it because the stock ones just flat didn't work. There's a reason everyone rejoiced when Chrysler went to electronic ignition in 1972 and GM and Ford in '75!!  # 3. Carburators. This is what hurt Ford the most. The Autolite 4100 and 4300 4bbls are THE WORST carbs ever built, bar none. They were terrible when they were brand-new. Cold-starting problems, crappy gas mileage, no power. My dad was a carburator specialist in the '60s and '70's for both GM and Ford. If you had a new Ford in the early '70's and you bitched hard enough-Ford would have their dealers replace them with a 600 cfm Holley with a electric choke and warranty it!! If I remember correctly the carb number was either 6619 or 6919. My dad installed hundreds of them-even on 429 and 460 powered T-Birds and Lincoln MKIV's!!  But most gearheads that had Torinos, Mustangs, and Cougars didn't know that-and they just replaced them with a Holley or a Carter AFB. The Carter AVS that came on most Chrysler products worked pretty good, but they only flowed about 585 cfm. Fine for a little 273 small-block, but kind of choked off the big 383 and 440 engines. So a lot of guys switched to big Holleys. The 750 cfm Carter Thermo-Quads that Chrysler went to after 1970 was ok when they were brand-new, but the bakelite bodies would warp from engine heat and start bleeding over and running like crap. GM Quadrajets fared a little better brand-new-but for some insane reason a lot of these had plastic floats. Gasoline is corrosive to plastic, so the floats would get heavy and sink and the cars would run like crap. Tuners like my dad and Brad Urban and Nunzi Romano would rebuild them and use brass floats and jet them properly for performance use, but again-most gear heads just junked them. And in a lot of cases-they changed the manifold too. The reason being-the Carter AFB and all Holleys had a square bore bolt pattern that wasn't compatible with Q-jet or Thermo-Quad spread-bore manifolds. Some guys used adapters-but that never really worked well-so most of the time guys changed the carb and intake. Edelbrock and Offenhauser made a mint because of this. Then in 1971-Holley came out with a line of carbs that had the spread-bore bolt pattern. You could now put a Holley on your car without changing the manifold. And a lot of guys did. # 4. Exhaust. All musclecars had restrictive exhaust systems. Some-like the stupid "Crossflow" muffler in '70's Camaros and Firebirds and Corvettes-really killed performance. Even if you didn't have headers-going to an aftermarket dual exhaust system could add 40 hp with stock exhaust manifolds. It was too much of an easy boost for most people to resist. Who wouldn't want more hp, better gas mileage and a throatier sound?  # 5 Wheels and Tires. Really?? Is there anyone wondering about this one?? You'd really try to make a 454 Chevelle or a 440 'Cuda or a 428 Mustang try to hook up on F70-14 Goodyear Polyglas GTs or Firestone Wide Ovals??  Or even a 400 Firebird or 396 Chevelle or a 340 Duster for Pete's sake!!  Anything with any power at all built in the '60's and '70's needed more rubber on the road!!  That's how M&H and Mickey Thompson and Pro-Trac flourished selling big tires. B.F. Goodrich burst onto the scene with the Radial T/A-one of the first wide performance tires of radial design. Hope that clears things up on "Day 2" mods.....Mastermind              

The reasons why their aren't more ultra-premium musclecars left.....

Someone told me the other day that he didn't understand why more of the prized musclecars-i.e.-Boss 302s, Hemi 'Cudas, LS6 Chevelles,428 CJ Mustangs, RAIV GTOs, etc weren't sold when they were new. Having worked in car dealerships all my life-I think I can give a viable answer, although there's no one single factor-but a variety of factors that contribute to these car's rarity. # 1. Availability of the option. This has always been a problem. A manufacturer introduces something really cool,and the buff magazines get wind of it and write about it, and people start pestering dealers wanting to buy the cars. But often the dealers can't even get the cars. Beleive me-they'd want to sell as many of them as they could, but often they can't get them. Here's several examples. Back in the '60's and '70's you had to sell 500 units to the public if you wanted to race the car in NASCAR or Trans-Am, or even NHRA Stock or Super Stock Drag classes. This is why only 602 Z/28 Camaros were built in 1967 and why only 1,603 Boss 302 Mustangs were built in 1969. Ford and Chevy didn't care about selling them to the public-they wanted to homogolate them for racing. Same thing with Thunderbolt Fairlanes and Hemi Darts. Secondly, the manufacturer's often changed or limited the availability of the option. For example-Initially, the LS6 454 was slated to be available in the Camaro SS and the Nova SS as well as the Chevelle line. The flat intake manifold that loses 15 hp compared to the 1969 427 4bbl intake was designed to clear the low hood of the new for 1970 Camaro. Since the 396 was an option in both cars the 454 would have been a no-brainer drop-in.  The brass decided to cut down on model proliferation at the last minute, and the engine was only offered in the Chevelle line late in the model year. Thus although nearly 50,000 SS 396 Chevelles were sold that year-only 4,478 LS6 SS 454s were sold. And think about this-At that time Chevrolet had a network of 7,700 dealers across the United States. Do the math-with only 4478 cars built-not every dealer got one-regardless of how high demand was. This is also why there is no LS6 1970 Corvettes. Zora-Arkus Duntov, chief Corvette engineer- fully expected the much more radical LS7 to make production as the 'Vette's top engine option which is why the LS6 wasn't offered. In early 1973 sales literature the SD-455 was listed as optional in the Grand Am, Gran Prix, LeMans,GTO and Firebird Formula and Trans-Am models. The buff magazines were excited. CARS magazine made a collossal goof-they voted the 1973 GTO their "Car of the Year." Both Hot Rod and Car and Driver raved about their Red T/A test car-( it was the same car ) that ran blistering 1/4 mile times of 13.54 and 13.75 respectively.  However-the engines had trouble passing emissions with the radical 308 / 320 duration RAIV cam. The cam was swapped for the milder 301 / 313 duration RAIII cam and hp was down-rated from 310 to 290. Then they had reliability and availability problems with the connecting rod supplier. In fact- if you went to a dealer and wanted to buy a set of SD-455 rods-you had to produce a matching vin number or they wouldn't sell them to you! They also had more trouble passing emissions because of faulty EGR valves. Only the tireless efforts of Herb Adams and the buff magazines kept GM from scrapping it altogether. Finally-in April 1973 the engine was EPA certified in the Firebird line only. This is why only 295 were built-252 in Trans-Ams and another 43 in Formulas. And that's why they all have May or June production dates. Another 943 were sold in 1974 Trans-Ams. This wasn't just a '60s and '70's problem. In the early '80's I was selling cars in a Chevrolet / Pontiac dealership. In 1983 the buff magazines raved about the L69 Performance Package for Z/28 Camaros and Firebird Trans-Ams. These hotted up 305s had a higher compression ratio, a hotter cam, a better exhaust and a better intake, and an electric radiator fan to lower parasitic losses. This bumped hp from 150 on the standard LG4 to 190 for the L69. Car and Driver's May 1983 test car ran a blistering ( for the time ) 6.7 second 0-60 time and the 1/4 in 15.0. However-the fan switch wouldn't kick the fan on until coolant tempurature reached 225 degrees. This caused overheating and vapor lock problems. Very few were sold. The option returned for '84-and GM solved the problem by going to a 180 degree thermostat instead of 195, and having the fan kick on at 180 instead of 225. Only gearheads knew about the option so they didn't sell a ton of them. It was offered agian in '85-but then the new Tuned Port Injected LB9 with 215 hp was the big dog-and the L69 quietly faded away, even though it was a good package. In 1984 the new Corvette was offered with the 4-speed 700R4 automatic and a Super T10 4-speed manual with an overdrive that could be turned on in 2nd,3rd or 4th, effectively giving you 7 gears. However they had problems with the operation of the overdrives, and 99% of '84 'Vettes were automatics-even though enthusiasts very much wanted the manuals. They got the bugs out-and it actually worked very well and was available from 1985-88. In 1989 they went to a 6-speed manual. But try to find a manual '84 model-there's not many of them.  # 2 Price of the Option. This is just as big a factor as # 1-maybe even bigger. Think about this-in 1968 the base price of a 383 Road Runner was about $2,800. That was a screaming deal for a stripped-down performance car that could run just as fast as the much more expensive Pontiac GTO, Olds 442 and Chevy SS 396 Chevelle. They sold 45,000 in '68 and in '69 they sold 81,000-almost 10,000 more units than Pontiac could sell of the vaunted GTO. Yes the mighty 426 Hemi was an option-a $1,163 option!!  And you couldn't buy a Hemi with the standard 3-speed manual you HAD to get a 4-speed or a Torqueflite automatic. You HAD to get a heavy-duty radiator, heavy duty suspension and a Dana 60 rear. ( Why I don't know-I've never seen anyone ever break an 8 3/4 ). By the time you got all the "mandatory" options-the price had risen from $2,800 to $5,000+. Further-for some reason Chrysler only gave the Hemi a 1 year / 12,000 mile warranty. The 383 and 440 engines got a 5 year / 50,000 mile warranty. One of the editors for Musclecar Review still has the 440 Road Runner that he bought new in 1969. He said he didn't get a Hemi for those reasons. The 440 was like a $200 option, the Hemi, with the other "mandatory" options was in reality almost a $2,000 option-again pushing the price from just over 3 grand to over 5 grand. And for a young guy with a wife and kids making payments on a new car-that 5 year / 50,000 mile warranty was really important. Plus-the Hemis were a race engine that Chrysler was only selling to the public so they could race them in NASCAR. The peaky, dual-quad, huge headed, solid-lifter Hemi really needed a 4-speed and 4.10 or stiffer gears to get maximum performance. Popular Hot Rodding said the Torqueflite equipped, 3.23:1 geared '69 Hemi Charger they tested felt like it was running with one flat tire. They said it desperately need 4.30 gears and a high stall converter. They were right-on the high banks of Daytona or the Drag Strip with open exhausts and proper gearing the Hemi was King Kong-Richard Petty and Ronnie Sox were unstoppable in NASCAR and Pro Stock drag racing. But the milder 383 and 440 4bbl engines were actually quicker on the street. Ditto for the Boss 302 and Boss 429 Mustangs. The 302 had a lot of special one-off parts and had very little torque below 3,000 rpm. There's a reason they were only available with a 4-speed and 3.90:1 or 4.30:1 gears!!  And to cut down on warranty problems on these expensive pieces-Ford put a rev-limiter on it that cut off spark at 5,700 rpm!! Kind of pointless on a car that makes all it's power from 5,000-8,000 rpm!!  The 351W that was standard in the Mach 1 was a much better street engine, and could be had with an automatic and air conditioning if you wanted it. The 429s started out as 428 models, and were shipped to Kar Kraft for the Boss-Nine conversion. They too, had a lot of one-off special parts, and Ford lost money on every single Boss built. The Boss 429 was designed for one thing and one thing only-to beat the vaunted Chrysler 426 Hemi on the Super Speedways of Daytona, Charlotte and Talledega. It didn't run well with restricted exhaust and street gearing. The 390 and 428 engines actually ran faster on the street and in magazine 1/4 mile testing. But the nose-heavy "FE" engined 390 /428 cars were terrible handlers. The 351W / 351C engined Mach 1s of the '69-70 period were actually the best balanced and best performing Mustangs of the time. This affected every automaker. The vaunted Ram Air IV Pontiac engine had forged pistons, special round-port cylinder heads, a special aluminum high-rise intake, special round-port exhaust manifolds, and the hot 308 / 320 duration cam with 1.65:1 rockers and .520 lift. It was only available with a 4-speed or an automatic with a special 2,500 rpm converter and 3.90:1 or 4.33:1 gears. It could easily compete with the mighty LS6 454 Chevy,440 Six-Pack Mopars and 428 Fords. However Pontiac out foxed themselves by being cute and grossly-under-rating the engine to slip by insurance companies. The Standard GTO engine ( which was basically the mild "Big Car" 400 that came in a Catalina, Gran Prix, etc ) was rated at 350 hp. The RAIII which had a hotter cam was rated at 366 hp. The RAIV was rated at 370 hp. Huh? You want me to believe that very special pistons, very special bigger heads,bigger exhaust,a bigger cam with a special valvetrain and a bigger intake is only worth 20 hp over a station wagon engine, and only worth 4 hp over the station wagon engine with a cam?? And you want me to pay $600 more on the window sticker for it??  In a Firebird the base engine was rated at 335 and the RAIV was only rated at 345!!!  No wonder they didn't sell. From 1984-86 Ford sold SVO Mustangs that had Recaro seats, 16" tires and wheels, 4-wheel disc brakes, and a Turbocharged 4-cylinder engine with between 175 and 205 hp depending on year. The buff magazines raved. However-the "5.0" V8 models were both faster and several thousand dollars cheaper, so the SVO's sold poorly. # 3. Poor, or no promotion by the factory. This always perplexed me. You engineer a cool-ass car that would sell like hot cakes-and you don't promote it. I'm a lifelong gearhead and I didn't know Buick Grand Nationals existed until I read a road test of one in Car Craft. GM and Buick never promoted the car. Same thing with the Supercharged Ford Lightning Pickups in the late '90's. I worked in a Pontiac Dealer and I didn't know that the 20th Anniversary T/A was going to have the vaunted GN Turbo engine instead of the usual Chevy V8's until I saw one on the lot!!  No Brochures, no magazine articles nothing!!  And the 2003-04 Mercury Marauder. Ford never promoted them.  Any how-hope that clears things up-there's many reasons why their aren't more 340 Six-Pack 'Cuda AARs, or Boss 351 Mustangs or W30 442s or whatever.  Mastermind      

Just build your dream car the way you want it.....And save about $50,000...Or more!

I was talking to a friend the other day and he was looking through old, yellowed, dog-eared copies of Hot Rod, Car Craft, and Popular Hot Rodding from the '70's. Of course he was lamenting how the average guy could never afford some of the Ultra-cool stuff that was in these magazines. I told him we could, if we built it ourselves, and let go of the "Numbers Matching" and "Original" curse. Right off the top of my head I easily "built" four Ultra Cool hot rods for a 1/4 of what a "Real" one would cost. Here's the examples. # 1. 1964 Ford "Thunderbolt" Fairlane. Try to find one of these for under six figures. You can't. However, you could find a '63-65 289 Fairlane in decent shape for 10 grand or less pretty easily in any state in the union. Currie enterprises can hook you up with a 9 inch posi rear with the proper mounting points for under 3 grand. A Top-loader 4-speed is easy enough to find on the 'net, or through various Ford / Mustang parts suppliers. There are millions of 390 V8s in junkyards as they were used in virtually ever car and truck built from 1961-76. No it's not a 427. But all "FE" engines look alike, and Edelbrock claims 452 hp and 428 lbs of torque with their Perfomer RPM heads, cam and dual-quad intake on a 390. You'd have the look and the sound, and 450 honest hp in a 3,000 lb Fairlane would be a rocket. Harwood still sells the famous "Teardrop" hood scoop, and some Ford van buckets aren't that hard to find. Only a serious Ford collector would know it wasn't "Real" and who cares? You got the look, the performance, and you built the car for around 20K instead 100-plus and if you blow the motor-you don't give a shit-another 390 is easy to find. # 2. 1970-73 Motion Phase III Camaro. Base-model Camaros of this vintage are cheap enough. I have seen rough-but-running examples as low as $1,200 and anything over 3 grand is usually pretty decent. A 454 HO crate motor from GMPP has 440 hp and 500 lbs of torque and costs $5995. A TH350 with a shift kit, auxilary cooler and 2,500 rpm converter can stand up to a big-block of this power level, so you don't have to change trannys. 4.56:1 or 4.88:1 gears are easy enough to put in an 8.5 inch 10-bolt rear, and a Gear Vendors overdrive will reduce that to like 3.42:1 for highway cruising and give you six gears instead of three. Lakewood traction bars, Cragar Mags, Mickey Thompson tires, and the "L88" hood scoop are readily available from Summitt. The paint job is easy enough to copy, I really don't see how this one could go over 25K if you went top-notch on everything-and you got a badass, unique ride for about 1/4 of what you'd pay for a "Real" Baldwin-Motion car. # 3. 1969 Pontiac Trans-Am. Only 697 were built and you can't touch one for under 100K. I know that. But Pontiac built 115,000 V8 Firebirds in 1969, and 15 or 20 grand will buy you a damn nice one in any state in the union. Year One, Ames Performance and NPD all sell the hood, side scoops, rear spoiler and graphics. Rally II wheels are easy enough to find or you could go with Minilites or American Racing Torq-Thrusts if you wanted the period correct flavor. Edelbrock claims 387 hp and 439 lbs of torque from the basic Performer Package on a 400. That's more than the 335 and 345 hp the stock RAIII and RAIV were rated at and it still has 15 inches of vacuum at idle. That would be perfect with an automatic and very pleasant with a 4-speed, and should easily run low 13s on street tires. If you "gotta" have the RAIV sound and performance-the "Performer RPM" package has RAIV round-port heads, an exact replica of the RAIV cam and makes 440 hp and 460 lbs of torque according to Car Craft, has a badass lope, but stable idle, and makes 10 inches of vacuum at 900 rpm. Enough to operate your power brakes. I'd recommend a 4-speed or a 2,500 rpm converter and 3.73:1 gears. That would put you solidly in the 12s-and you'd have under 30K in the car. A 1/4 of what people ask for the real deal.  # 4. 1969-70 Boss 302 Mustang. Ford built over 70,000 fastback Mustangs in 1969 alone and a similar figure in 1970. Phoenix Graphics sells the graphics. Edelbrock and Trick Flow sell Cleveland style heads that will bolt-up to Windsor blocks, and Edelbrock has "E-Boss" manifolds that will work with these on a 302 or 351W block. And think of this-if you got a 347 or 392 or 427 short-block from Ford SVT-you'd have double the power of a "real" Boss 302 at a fraction of the 100k+ price tag. And you wouldn't worry about blowing it up, and would actually drive it the way it should be driven. Now that's a deal. I'm sure there's many others I missed, but you get the idea. Stop whining and go build your dream car. Mastermind      

Be honest with yourself about what you want and what your really going to do with the car....You'll be a lot happier!!

I talk to so many people who buy musclecars because of something a friend told them, or they read in a magazine and then their disappointed and either sell the car, or don't drive it much. Here's some good advice to help people avoid this pitfall. # 1. Be brutally honest about what your going to do with it. Is it going to be a Concours show car, are you going to run it in the Pure Stock drag races, or is it going to be a weekend cruiser?  Here's a perfect example-An Older gentleman I've known for years that always loved Corvettes bought an 11:1, 435 hp, solid-lifter,Tri-Power 427 / 4-speed, 4.11 geared 1969 Corvette convertible. He's disappointed that it pings even on premium with octane booster,the clutch is stiff,the engine buzzes at 3,500 rpm on the freeway and his wife burns her legs on the sidepipes every time she gets out of it. Why did he buy it? Because he has more money than brains. He wanted a convertible Stingray to cruise to Lake Tahoe and to the wine country on weekends. Now he'd be much happier with a 350 small-block L48 / TH350 model with 3.08:1 gears, or if he wanted a big block model-a low-compression, hydraulic-cammed, Q-jet carbed LS5 454 with either a 4-speed or a TH400 and 3.36:1 gears would have been a much more logical choice. Even a late-'70s model with T-tops would have served his purpose better. Luckily-since it was a pristine,desirable numbers-matching 427 model he was able to recoup his investment and on my advice is much happier with a low-mileage L48 / TH350 1978 Indy Pace Car edition with T-tops. He and his wife love it,it idles smooth and runs fine on 87 octane unleaded, the A/C blows cold, the cassette player has classic rock blasting out the t-tops and they take a fun road trip almost every weekend in the summer. But he  initially listened to other people who told him he should get the biggest,baddest, rarest model. Which brings up  # 2. Do you really want the Ultra-premium model, even if you can afford it? Think-do you really want a 1969-70 Boss 302 Mustang?  The high-compression, solid-lifter engine has very little torque below 3,000 rpm. There's a reason they were only available with a 4-speed and 3.90:1 or 4.30:1 gears!!  Most people would be much happier with a Mach 1 with the standard 351W / 351C, which is a much better street engine anyway-if your going to drive the car at all. And that's where most people screw up-there so enamored of "Resale Value"-honestly-is the primary factor in buying anything-a car, motorcycle, boat,handgun or rifle, set of golf clubs, a guitar, whatever-what it's going to be worth when you decide to get rid of it?  So you sink your life savings into a Hemi 'Challenger. And it sits in your garage and is only driven on and off the trailer or to "Show&Shines". The engine never sees the high side of 3,000 rpm because your so damnded afraid of blowing it up or wrecking it, that you can't enjoy it. Now wouldn't you be happier in a 340 or 383 model that you could pop the clutch on, smoke the tires and bang through the gears once in a while? Or take a 200 mile Sunday day trip in or a 1,000 mile trip re-tracing "Kowalski's" last ride in "Vanishing Point?" So you REALLY "Need" a Fuel-Injected Split-Window 1963 Stingray? Wouldn't a carburated 327 model up to '66 be just as much fun? Again probably more, because you'd drive it more and not worry about "damaging it".   Do you really "Gotta Have" an LS6 Chevelle? Wouldn't you have more fun in an SS396 that was less than half the price? Don't you think the guy who drag races his 400, 4-speed, WS6 1978 Trans-Am every weekend is having way more fun than the guy who looks at his 1973 SD-455 T/A in his garage because he's afraid of putting too many miles on it or wrecking it or blowing the engine?  Who's the true Pontiac Performance enthusiast?  # 3. Consider carefully the options that you do or don't want. People never think of this. For example-if your going to drive the car at all and you live in a major city that has a lot of traffic-an automatic may be a much better choice than a 4-speed. Do you really want to shift a "Rock-Crusher" through rush-hour traffic in San Francisco or Los Angeles?  If you live where it gets really hot in the summer, I'd certainly look for a car with factory A/ C.  A couple I knew bought a '57 Pontiac-mainly because they couldn't afford a '57 Chevy. They didn't like it because it had no power-the 347 2bbl V8 was a dog in the heavy car-it had no power steering,no power brakes, and a 3-on-the-tree manual trans. On my advice-I told them how great '60's Pontiacs were- they sold it and bought a 1962 Gran Prix. They absolutely loved the G/P. It had power steering and power brakes, comfortable bucket seats, an automatic transmission, and the 4bbl 389 would smoke the tires at will. Amazing at what just 5 years of evolution did. # 4. Just buy the car you want-it's easier and cheaper in the long run. I know a guy who bought a 1988 IROC-Z Camaro. It had the Corvette L98 350 / 700R4 powertrain. It was a nice car, and it was fast for being bone-stock. His buddy had a 1989 Formula Firebird with the LB9 305 / T5 five-speed combo. Even though the Camaro was faster in a drag race-he liked his buddy's car better because the stick was much more fun to run through the gears. He started asking me what it would cost to put a stick in the Camaro. I told him it was possible, but it would cost so much and be such a pain in the ass that he'd be better off just selling his car and using the money to buy another Camaro or Firebird with a 5-speed already in it. Another guy I know-a Mopar fan-passed up a gorgeous 1971 Dodge Demon-it had a great red and white striped paint job, a flawless white interior,the "Go-Wing" spoiler,Cragar mags with new BFG T/A radials and a healthy 340 with a 4-speed. Instead he bought a drab brown 383 automatic '70 Road Runner because his "expert" buddy told him the B-bodies were worth way more than the Duster / Dart series. Every time he saw the red Demon crusing around he'd say-"Damn!" I should have bought that." "That is a cool little car." Yes, you should have, instaed of listening to your moron buddy.  # 5. Be honest about your mechanical capabilities. Unless you are a bodyman by trade, I would avoid any car with major body or frame damage. It's just too expensive to fix. 99% of the time a "deal" isn't a deal-your better off spending a little more money and just getting a better car to start with. The same goes for mechanics. Magazine writers flippantly spout about something being a "Bolt-in" swap. Have you ever changed an engine in a car before?  Have you bought a short-block or a long block and changed the valve covers, timing cover, oil pan,intake and exhaust manifolds,fuel pump, water pump,belt pulleys, and all the wiring? Especially if changing from a small-block to a big block. Besides the motor mounts you may need a bigger radiator or heavier springs, and a heavier-duty transmission or rear end. Making a 318 'Cuda into a 440 clone? That's easy, right? After you get a big-block crossmember,larger torsion bars,swap the 8/14 rear for an 8/34 or Dana 60,swap the 904 Torqueflite for a 727, change the rear trans mount, shorten the driveshaft and change the yokes,get a bigger radiator....See what I'm saying?  Even people who buy the car they want still screw them up because they over-estimate their mechanical abilities. I see this especially with multi-carb setups. Doesn't matter if it's a Hemi 'Cuda, a 409 Impala, a Tri-Power GTO, a Six-Pack Road Runner, whatever-they all make the same mistake. They never drive the car, or if they do they drive like grandma on prozac-it never even sees 4,500 rpm-much less 5,500 or 6,000 because their so goddamnded afraid of blowing it up. Then, the second it fouls a spark plug-they start screwing around with the carburators. Pretty soon it won't even start. A better solution if it's going to sit a lot-is to go a range or two hotter on the plugs for low-speed, short town trips. If you decide to take a road trip or go to the drags-changing to the recommended heat range plug is easy. And like the GTO song says-once in a while you need to "Turn it on, wind it up, blow it out". Like I said-you don't have to redline it and powershift-but a good full-throttle run up the freeway for a few miles once a month will go a long way to keeping it in good tune. If you don't know carburators-find a reputable shop that does and pay them for the tune and weld the hood shut! You'll be better off in the long run.  Mastermind            

Some people are just never happy....The Golden Age of Musclecars is now.....

As much as I like the "Old-School" Musclecars that I write about-I get tired of a certain type of people lamenting that "They don't make 'em like they used to."  Really? Think about this. The base-model Camaro that anybody can buy for under 25k has 323 hp and runs 0-60 in under 6 seconds and the 1/4 in like 14 flat. That's faster than a 1969 Z/28 or a 1969 SS396.  And that's the basic V6 model. The 425 hp SS and 580 hp Z/28 go way beyond that. Ditto for the Mustang. The V6 model has like 319 hp and again-runs high 13s in the 1/4. The GT has 435 hp and runs high 12s off the showroom floor and costs 32K. Then there's the 662 hp Shelby GT500 with the blower.  The V6 Charger and Challenger have 300+ hp. The Hemis range from 370-707 hp if you count the blown Hellcat models.  Sorry old chaps-any of these new cars would smoke your LS6 Chevelle, Hemi 'Cuda,  428 Mach 1, etc in a "Stoplight Gran Prix" on street tires-and get 20 mpg with the a/c on while doing it!!  And the premium ones would smoke a Yenko or Baldwin-Motion Phase III Camaro, or a Shelby Mustang. I drove a Roush Mustang with 675 hp. It felt like any other Mustang. Until I hit the loud pedal. What a rocket!! This car was as close to a NASCAR racer in street clothes as you can get. And it handles and brakes way better than the stocker too. Car and Driver lamented that in the 1/4 it wasn't "substantially" faster than the 435 hp GT model. That's because the times differed depending on whether you fried the tires halfway down the strip or all the way down the strip!!. The car was going about 110 when the spinning tires finally matched the speed of the road!!  With drag radials or slicks this would easily be a low 11 second, possibly high 10 second car. It just couldn't hook up on street tires. Yet C/D acted like it was an overpriced pile of shit-that the base model was a better deal. For 99% of the population it probably is. How many times do you see some white-haired 75 year old guy in a Corvette or an Audi R8 or a Porsche 911 going 65 in the right lane on the freeway and wonder "Why did you buy the freakin' thing if your not going to go over 70??!!"   Buy 'em now while you can. They will not pass this way again... Mastermind          

Some '60's and '70's econoboxes that can be wicked fast....and "Retro-Cool"...

Early Novas ( 1962-67 ) have kind of a "Cult" following which drives the prices way up. If you can find a deal on one, by all means buy it and build it, but it may not be feasible for most people. That aside-here's some cars that could be low-budget fun and real fast.  #1. 1962-68 Ford Falcon / Mercury Comet. These cars are really light-about 2,800 lbs-so even with a mild 289 / 302 they can really run. You could find a wrecked "5.0" Fox Mustang and swap the whole drivetrain-engine, T5 tranny, 8.8 inch rear and for very low-bucks have a fast, reliable sleeper. Or you could go old-school style gasser-straight axle, dual quads, fenderwell exit headers etc. If you wanted to build a corner-carver-a lot of early Mustang suspension and brake upgrades fit these cars. They have a lot of potential for low bucks.  # 2. 1964-68 Plymouth Valiant / Barracuda. A lot of these may have Slant-Six or 273 V8 motivation, but a 360 or 408 stroker crate motor would bolt right in and make one of these lightweights a rocker.  # 3. 1971-77 Chevy Vega. Bill "Grumpy" Jenkins dominated Pro Stock drag racing in his V8 Vega in the early '70's. V8 Vegas were all the rage in the late '70's and early '80's. Hooker and other companies offer motor mounts and headers etc. You could use an old-school small-block or a late-model LS engine to build a pocket-rocket. ( No one gives a shit about Vegas-your not desecrating ' 69 Z/28 )  # 4. 1971-80 Ford Pinto / Mercury Bobcat. 289 / 302 Pintos were also popular in the '70's and are actually easier to build than the Vegas. A Maverick or Mustang II 8 inch rear will bolt right in and stand up to almost anything. "Dyno" Don Nicholson ran V8 Pintos in Pro Stock and was the only guy who gave Jenkins a run or beat him once in a while. # 5. 1971-77 Ford Maverick / Mercury Comet. These lightweight cars make great drag racers. A buddy of mine was shocked when his 440 Road Runner got beat by a screamin' 302 Maverick.  # 6. 1971-77 AMC Gremlin / Hornet. With a curb weight about 2,700 lbs and a short wheelbase these cars make great drag racers. Like Pontiacs-AMC V8's are externally identical. Which means a 360 or 401 would bolt right in place of a 304. A guy I knew in high school had a 401 Gremlin-and he surprised a lot of people-including a couple of big-block Chevelles.  # 7.. 1971-77 Pontiac Ventura. 350 versions can be made to run, but a 400 or 455 is a bolt-in swap. Weighing about 3,200 lbs-600 less than the average '70's Firebird-these make great sleepers. And a lot of suspension and brake upgrades that fit the Camaro / Firebird fit these cars.  Any of these would be a fast, fun ride with the right combination. Mastermind      

"Fast&Furious 7" is a horrible mess....

Took my 12 year old nephew to see "Furious 7" this past weekend and even he said-"You can't do that" "He'd be dead."  Not just once, but at almost every turn from beginning to end. It's that bad. Let me explain. You know from the teaser at the end of "F&F 6" that Jason Statham is the bad guy in this one. He's the brother of Owen Shaw-the villian in "F&F 6". The film opens with FBI Agent Hobbs-Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson in his office saying goodnight to the hot Brazilian girl cop he recruited in "Fast Five". He finds Statham at his desk using his computer and they threaten each other verbally and then fight. I personally like Jason Statham as an actor / athlete-he's a talented martial-artist. But he's about 5'10" and 190 lbs. The Rock is 6'5" and 275 lbs with 6% body fat. In a real fight-I think Johnson would win easily. Like Oddsmaker Jimmy "The Greek" used to say-"The race may not always be to the swift, or the battle to the strong, but that's the way to bet." Anyhow-they have a brutal fight-punching and kicking each other in the ribs, the face,throwing each other through plate glass partitions, smashing each other into desks, etc. In reality-after a minute or two-they'd both be awaiting an ambulance with broken jaws, broken ribs, punctured lungs, busted knees, etc. Except here neither man gets so much as a bloody nose. They also pull guns and exhange gunfire-not hitting anything when Statham pulls an incendary explosive device of some kind out of his pocket which blows the Rock and the Brazilian babe out the window and they fall 2 stories and land on a car. The babe is unscathed-( How do you get blown though a plate-glass window and not get cut? ) because she landed on the Rock. Mere hours later he's sitting up in the hospital with a cast on his left arm trading insults and sarcasm with Vin Diesel. ( Dominic Toretto ). He tells Diesel about Statham. In the next scene Mia-( The smokin' hot Jordana Brewster-she gets hotter with age if that's possible ) is visiting Dom and complaining about her marriage. Apparantly having the 10 million bucks they stole from the Brazillian drug king in F&F 5 and a pardon from the Justice Dept and living happily ever after with Mia and their baby isn't enough for Brian O' Connor. ( The now-deceased Paul Walker ). He "Misses the bullets". At this point-Diesel get's a phone call from Statham and his house blows up. Now he's pissed. At Han's funeral, he sees Statham cruising the cemetary in an Aston Martin DB9. He gives chase in a 440 / Six-Pack 1970 GTX. They play "Chicken" and hit each other head-on at like 60 mph. And then get out-of course neither man has a scratch. Statham pulls a gun-but before he can shoot Diesel, Kurt Russel and a team of heavily armed Commandos show up and Statham flees. Somehow Dominic Toretto has morphed from a street-racing thug into James Bond. Russel is a CIA type who wants Toretto to rescue a master computer hacker who invented a state of the art satellite tracking system and is being held by a third-world dictator. If he retrieves the sytem-Russel will let him use it to find Statham. They drop cars out of airplanes to rescue the computer whiz. Now I know the military did this with Hummers during Desert Storm-but they were dropping them in a general area of a huge desert. You CAN"T drop cars out of airplanes with parachutes onto a narrow two-lane mountain highway with pinpoint accuracy.  You can't. They do. During this road rescue-Paul Walker gets into a Kung-Fu fight with an Asian thug on the bus that was transporting the computer wiz-who surprise-is a smokin' hot woman that Ludacris and Tyrese Gibson argue over who has "dibs" on her. Anyway the Asian guy bails just before the bus starts to fall off a cliff. In a totally impossible scene that's obviously CGI-Walker races up the roof of the bus and as it falls he leaps toward solid ground and miraclously grabs the spoiler on a Challenger that Letty (Michelle Rodriguez) slides up in at the last possible second. Right. The hacker gave the flash drive with the satellite surveillence sytem to a friend, and he sold it to a Sheik in Dubai. So the crew goes to Dubai to steal it from the Sheik. He has it stashed in his multi-million dollar sports car of which there's only  7 of which he keeps in his penthouse on top of a huge skyscraper. ( Why would you keep a car in a Penthouse? ) Ludacris and the hacker try to circumvent the security system while Michelle Rodriguiez-who was murdered in F&F 4 and amazingly returned from the dead in F&F 6-and has amnesia-is trying to find a phone jack they can hook their hacking equipment to-while Walker and Diesel try to find the flash drive in the car. Here's a cameo by super-hot women's UFC Champion Ronda Rousey as one of the Sheik's babes / bodyguards. And it's totally wasted. All the women at this swanky party are wearing evening gowns and heels. Rousey's in a gold dress and Rodriguez is in a Red one. Rodriguez whomps the ass of a few male guards, then encouters Rousey. They could have had a cool, sexy girl-girl fight scene, but the director totally blows it. I'd have had Rousey choke Michelle out with a sleeperhold and then call in "All ok" on her dress-mounted microphone. Then Michelle could wake up and smash Ronda in the knee and the mouth. They could kick off their heels, start to fight, the dresses get ripped to hell and they have to finish the fight topless and barefoot or at least in their underwear. They could have had Rousey use all her MMA moves-arm-bars,leg-scissors, figure-four leg-locks,and had Rodriguez use her ghetto moves-hair pulling, eye-gouging, scratching, biting, head-butting, hitting in the groin,etc. Now THAT would have been worth the price of admission. Instead-we get lightning-quick camera cuts as the throw each other around in a blur of red and gold fabric. You can't see who's doing what to who, and you can't see their faces-it could have been two stunt MEN wrestling in those dresses!! After a minute or two of this-they fall over the railing on the top floor and land on a table on the dance floor, which knocks Rousey out, but only stuns Rodriguez, who limps away with Tyrese Gibson. Diesel and Walker then jump the sports car from one skyscraper to another, not once, but twice. Really? If you drove a 3,000 lb car out of a skyscraper's top floor-you would fall to the ground and die, or splatter on the walls of the other building and fall to the ground and die. The chance of you crashing through a window onto a floor is so impossible...Well it's just impossible. Then they go back to Los Angeles where their pursued by the dictator and half his army with planes helicopters and drones. Now how a foriegn national got all these military aircraft into United States airspace over a major city like L.A.-especially in our post 9/11 world without being shot down by the U.S. Military-is a huge question that goes unanswered. He wrecks half the city pursuing the crew in their musclecars. Until the Rock gets out of his hospital bed, breaks out of his cast by simply flexing his biceps, steals an ambulance and drives it off an overpass into the drone, totalling the amabulance and the drone. And he of course emerges from the wreck without a scratch, and shoots down some helicopters with a machine-gun. Diesel and Statham have another head-on collision in two more cars-and again emerge without a scratch. And even though he's got a sawed-off shotgun,and he's pissed about Statham killing Han and blowing up his house, he doesn't shoot him. They pick up tire irons and have a fight. Again-they hit each other in the head, the ribs, the arms, the legs, etc with the iron bars and don't get multiple broken bones, and concussions no-they get nary a scratch. Then even though a parking garage falls on Statham and Diesel takes out a helicopter with a Charger-they both survive-with nary a scratch-Statham goes to jail and Diesel and friends go to the beach to see Walker and Jordana Brewster. Again-no gratuitous bikini scene for Brewster-( Bastards!!-we got Gal Gadot in a bikini in F&F 5 and Eva Mendes in 2 Fast 2 Furious, but no Jordana in 7 films??!! ) Like Ditka says-"Come on, Man!". Then Diesel leaves in yet another Charger, and Walker catches him in a white 98 Toyota Supra and says-"You can't leave without saying goodbye." "There's no goodbye." Diesel says and they take different roads. Diesel does a voice over about how Walker will always be with him and always be his brother. The problem I have, is since this stinker grossed 144 million bucks on it's first weekend, it's going to be a blockbuster, which means there will probably be an "F&F 8". But they didn't kill Walker's character in this one-so how are they going to explain his absence in the next one?  Are they going to say that he and Jordana Brewster went somewhere to live happily ever after and let Diesel,Rodriguez, Gibson, and Ludacris go on the next Bond / Jack Ryan / Jack Reacher type adventure that Hobbs comes up with?  God, I hope not.  Mastermind            

Road Test Ringers re-visited.......

Had a guy spewing numbers from an old road test the other day and he got even more spittingly hysterical when I said the test he was quoting was a heavily modified "ringer" and that his stock car would go substantially slower.  He asked why the manufacturers would do that. Simple-they wanted to sell the cars!!! Anyhow-here's the the biggest offenders that I've seen over the years. # 1. 1964 Pontiac GTO. After 40 plus years Jim Wangers finally admitted what we already knew. Car and Driver's May 1964 test car was a ringer. Royal Pontiac had pulled the 389 and substituted a blueprinted 421 that had thin head gaskets to up compression,rocker arm lock nuts so it could rev higher, a re-curved distributor and a mechanical throttle linkage on the 3-2bbl carbs instead of the stock vacuum unit. Small wonder that production examples were more than a full second slower than the blistering 4.6 second 0-60 time and 13.1 second 1/4 mile!!  # 2. 1969 Z/28 Camaro. Hot Rod got their Z/28 "almost" in the 12s-it ran a blistering 13.11 e.t. Except it wasn't stock. They had added headers and re-curved the distributor, re-jetted the 780 Holley carb, added slicks and traction bars, and swapped the 3.73:1 gears for 4.56:1s!!  That's why production examples ran in the mid-14s!!  #3. 1969 440 Six-Pack Road Runner. Chrysler ran an ad in several magazines bragging that their Prototype ran a string of high 12-second e.t.s "Under controlled conditions, with a professional driver." The "Prototype" had been brought "To the top of Specifications"-i.e.-blueprinted-and was equipped with slicks, a pinion snubber,4.30:1 gears, and the "Professional" driver was Pro Stock Drag Racing Champion Ronnie Sox of "Sox&Martin" fame.  # 4. 1973 SD-455 Trans-Am. Car and Driver and Hot Rod both tested the same car-a Buccaneer Red pre-production example that ran a blistering 13.54 for Hot Rod and a 13.75 for Car and Driver. Except that car had the 308/320 duration / .470 lift Ram Air IV cam and the wrong EGR Valve, and an open "Shaker" scoop. Except it couldn't pass emissions and the cam was changed to the much milder RAIII cam-with 288 / 302 duration / .414 lift and horsepower was down-rated from 310 to 290. Noise regulations were stiffer for '73 models than they were for '70-72 models and the scoops were closed on production models. They had trouble with the connecting rods failing and with EGR valve function. The engine wasn't EPA certified until April-which is why production was so low-only 252 in T/A's and another 43 in Formulas.  The final production models ran 14.40's-pretty damn quick for a low-compression 1973 model-but not mid 13s.  # 5. 1978 Dodge Li'l Red Express Pickup. In November 1977 Car and Driver tested a bunch of performance cars in a "Double the Double Nickel" run-each car had to be able to go more than 110 mph. Truckin' magazine tested the same truck. The Dodge pickup blew the doors off both an L82 / 4-speed Corvette and a WS6 Trans-Am. It also blew the doors off a short-bed, 2WD 454 Chevy Stepside and a 2WD 460 powered Ford F150.  Except this "Prototype" " Li'l Red Truck"  had a 360 V8 with NASCAR style "W2" cylinder heads,the hot cam from the legendary 340 "Six-Pack", a single-plane Holley "Street Dominator" aluminum intake manifold, a 600 cfm Holley 4160 "Double-Pumper" carb, and catalyst-free dual exhausts. Shocker-production examples with a garden variety 360 V8-stock heads,stock cam, and iron intake with an EGR valve and a Carter Thermo-Quad carb were substantially slower.  # 6. 1978 Z/28 Camaro. Most '77-79 Z28's tested by magazines ran e.t.'s in the 15.60 range. Popular Hot Rodding's ran a 14.48. Except it wasn't a stocker. It was a DKM prototype-they were thinking about building a "Macho Z" to complement their wildly successfull "Macho T/A." This Camaro had been given the "Macho T/A" treatment-re-curved distributor, re-jetted carb, open hood scoop, Hooker Headers and dual cat converters. # 7. 1992 Mitsubishi 3000 GT / VR4. This one rivals the '64 GTO for audacity. Mitsubishi claimed their test mule "Under controlled conditions with a Professional Driver" could run a blistering 4.8 second 0-60 time and a 13.69 second 1/4. Faster than an LT1 Corvette and a Porsche 944 Turbo. Except the engineers had disconnected the knock sensor,disconnected the rev limiter,filled the tank with 104 octane gas,put wet towels on the intake and intercooler between runs, lowered tire pressure to 15 psi and had the "Professional Driver" drop the clutch at 6,200 rpm and powershift at 7,000 rpm, which produced the blistering times, and grenaded the $5,769 transaxle after three runs. Shocker that production examples could only run sub-6 second 0-60 times and mid 14 second 1/4 mile times.  So before you flippantly spout numbers-make sure your comparing actual production cars. Mastermind            

How about some base or full-size models done in retro-racing style?....

Popular Hot Rodding built a 1975 Chevelle Laguna like Darrell Waltrip's '70's NASCAR racer. It was wildly popular with readers, and PHR and other mags featured other cars done in NASCAR style. Here's some ideas I think would be really cool for low bucks.  #1. '60's style "Gasser" Drag Racing tribute cars. The obvious candidates here would be '64-72 Chevelles, LeMans,Tempest and Cutlass models. NOT GTO's,442s, or SS396 / 454s-anyone who thinks of cutting up one of those-should have his entrails cut out and burned-but there are tons of base models out there-Chevrolet sold something like 400,000 Malibus in 1968 alone. A Tempest with a snarling 428 or 455 Pontiac under the hood with dual-quads, a straight front axle,radiused rear wheelwells with huge meats,and not even a paint job-just primer would be totally badass. Ditto for a Malibu with a Tunnel-Rammed Rat, or a Cutlass with a stompin' 425 or 455 Olds. Or-what the hell-their base-models that your modifying anyway-put a 572 inch Rat in one and get a vanity liscence plate that reads "KNG KONG".  I think that would be a lot cooler and way more fun to drive than doing the cookie-cutter GTO / SS / 442 clone job. You could also do a Dodge Coronet with a 440 or a Ford Fairlane with a 390. There's tons of possiblities.  # 2. Trans-Am Racing tribute cars. People have already done the obvious-Camaros, Firebirds and Mustangs-but what I think would be cool is alternative bodystyles. A 1967-70 Cougar looks evil in the old Trans-Am racing photos. Radiused wheelwells, Minilite wheels, side exit exhaust, a snarling 302 or 347 stroker under the hood,like Austin Powers would say-"Yeah Baby!!"  Or a '71-74 Pontiac Ventura with radiused and flared fenders,a Trans-Am style "Shaker" hood scoop, WS6 T/A sway bars front and rear and a thumpin' 400 under the hood would rock. You could do a '68-74 Nova the same way-I think Hot Rod featured one-that the guy built for less than 20 grand. A '67-69 Dart or Barracuda with a hot 360 crate motor would be cool in this vein. And there's plenty of '70-74 318 Challengers and Barracudas and Dusters and Darts that could use this style. # 3. Full-size '60's NASCAR tribute cars. High-Perfomance Pontiac featured a replica of Fireball Roberts' 1962 Catalina Daytona 500 car and it was way cool. Pontiacs would be the obvious choice because they all have at least 389 cubes under the hood. My next choice would be Fords-most of them have 390 cubes under the hood. I saw a '65 Galaxie NASCAR racer at the Monterey Historics one year and it was evil looking. Chevy Impalas are an obvious choice but most of them are small-block powered. Not that that's a bad-thing-but '60s NASCAR racers all had big-blocks-but again-it's a fake anyway so who cares?  Plymouth Belvederes and Furys and Dodge Monacos in this era usually had at least 383 cubes, so their players too.  All of these would be unique and cool. Mastermind      

Again it's a copy of a movie car.....It doesn't have to be right to the nth degree...

Had someone lamenting the other day that they wanted to build a car like Burt Reynolds' whiskey runner in "White Lightning", but they couldn't find the parts. I told him-it COULD be done-but it would be major league expensive. The reason being-the car-depending on the shot of the film-is a 4-door 1971-72 Ford Galaxie Custom or LTD that supposedly had a 429 with a 4-speed. The 1st problem is-as far as I know-Galaxies and LTDs had no manual transmission option in those years. So to convert one from automatic to stick would be problematic. You'd either have to adapt mid-size Mustang / Cougar / Torino pedals and linkage, or maybe use F100 or F150 truck linkage. Or fabricate an aftermarket hydraulic setup. None of these three choices is either easy or cost-effective. The other is the engine. A 429 was available both as a civilian option and a "Police Interceptor" package-but try to find one 43 years later. Most of these cars had 351 or 400C motivation under the hood. You could buy a high-performance 460 crate motor from Blueprint Engines or Ford SVT or Jon Kaase Racing-but that's 15 grand on up. My advice was to buy a 71-72 Galaxie / LTD, put black wheels with chrome lug nuts and white-letter tires on it and put an Edelbrock Performer intake and 4bbl carb ( the 351-400C's were all 2bbls ). on the engine and some loud exhaust with glasspack mufflers on it, paint it Chesterfield Brown, and call it good. I even suggested a old-style Hurst or Mr Gasket "Indy" floor shifter. It looks like a 4-speed stick but is actually an automatic shifter. At least you'd have the LOOK for low bucks, and if you powerbraked it a 400C has enough low-end torque to do smoky burnouts. People would get the drift and think it was cool. "But it wouldn't be RIGHT."  The guy said. "How do you try to restore a car that never really existed to it's exact condition 40+ years later?" I asked. "There's speculation that the shots of Burt shifting the Hurst 4-speed were cut into the film from a stuntman's Mustang." "Scenes in the film where he puts a column shifter in park in front of his mother's house, and where Jenneifer Billingsley slams a column shifter into drive when their escaping Big Bear and his henchman, lend weight to this claim." "So the stunt cars may have been all automatics anyway." "There may have NEVER been a 429 / 4-speed model!!"  "In the Fast&Furious movies-Vin Diesel's Charger has a small-block Chevy and a TH400 for power. The Blower is a fake." "There was never a blown Hemi version-until the 4th movie-and that was built for car shows and premieres." "The stunt cars were all Small-Block Chevy powered with fake blowers bolted onto the hood." "It pisses Mopar fans off-but it was published in Popular Hot Rodding and verified by the stunt coordinator of the film."  "The GTO that Diesel had in  "XXX" was Chevy Powered." "Strictly for parts availability and ease of repairs while filiming."  "Hollywood does that crap all the time."  "I wouldn't obsess over it."  The guy was crushed by the realization that if he wanted to build a 429 /4-speed '71 LTD that it would probably cost him 40 or 50 grand. He wouldn't take my advice and build a decent replica for probably 10 grand.  I had a similar conversation with another guy who wanted to do a "Bullitt" Mustang copy. He was mortally offended when I suggested that he buy a clean '67-68 289 fastback for like 10 grand and paint it Dark Highland Green and put American Racing Torq-Thrust Mags on it. He'd done research on the movie. "But the Bullitt cars were 390 / 4-speeds!" he wailed. "And a clean 390/'4-speed '67-68 Mustang fastback will cost you 25K easy, maybe more."  I said. "How bad do you want it to be "exactly" like the movie car?" "If I wanted a badass "Bullitt" replica I'd buy a 289 model and swap in a 347 stroker and a T5." "It would at least handle good then." I said. He looked at me like I was crazy and said-"But that's totally different from the movie." Here's your sign. Anyhow-the point I'm trying to make-if you want a "Vanishing Point" Challenger-as long as it's Alpine White with Rally wheels-even it's a '74 model with a 360-people will get the drift. It doesn't have to be a 440 / 4-speed 1970 R / T!!!!.  Your black 1982-83 Trans-Am doesn't have to have a talking computer-people will get the "Knight Rider" tie-in!!  And answer me this-"Mr Majestyk" had a badass chase in it. The footage was used in the "Built Ford Tough" ads for years. How come no one wants a Yellow '68-72 Ford Pickup with "Majestyk Brand Melons" stenciled on the doors?  Why doesn't anyone care if it was a stick or an automatic, or a 302,360 or 390??  Charles Bronson's Vince Majestyk had as much or more BAMF style and kicked more ass than Burt Reynold's Gator McLusky-so why does Burt's '72 Ford get demi-god status and Charlie's doesn't?  Michael Douglas was cool in "Basic Instinct" why aren't people obsessing over '91 "5.0" Mustang Convertibles?  Any ideas? Mastermind                    

"The Last of the Mohicans".....Are they worth anything?....

Someone asked a viable question of me the other day-the first of anything is usually worth a lot-i.e.-a '55 T-Bird, a '64 Mustang, a '64 GTO, a '67 Z/28-etc. However-is the last model of these cars worth anything? Sometimes, yes, sometimes no. He asked me for some examples-and I thought everyone might be interested. # 1. 1973 Ford Mustang. This was the last year of "Real" Mustangs. Engine choices ranged from a 250 inch six, to a 302 2bbl, a 351C 2bbl and a 351C 4bbl. It was also the last year you could get a convertible Mustang until the mid-'80's. In 1974 the Ill-fated "Mustang II" debuted. It was based on the Pinto chassis, and the only engines were an anemic 2.3 liter 4-banger and the slightly less anemic 2.8 liter V6 out of the German-made Mercury Capri. Like with "New Coke" the public was not amused. In 1975-they offered a 302 V8-but it had a 2bbl carb and wheezed out about 135 hp. The model lasted until 1978-while GM was selling Camaros and Firebirds in record numbers. I think the Mustang II's finest moment was when a barefoot Farrah Fawcett-Majors posed on the hood of one in a promo for "Charlie's Angels". They were turds-they had no power, got crappy gas mileage, and were unreliable. The Fox body debuted in '79-but didn't get a real powertrain until-'83 when they finally put a 4bbl carb and dual exhausts on the 302 and a 5-speed behind it. All of the '71-73 Mustangs make nice drivers and the 351C has a lot of potential and parts are readily available-but there not really worth any more than any other Mustang.  # 2. 1971 Dodge Super Bee. For some reason in 1971-Mopar engineers decided to put the "Super Bee" moniker on the Charger instead of the Coronet. Engine choices are a 383 4bbl, a 440 4bbl, the 440 "Six-Pack" and the vaunted 426 Hemi. Obviously 6-pack and Hemi models are priced in the stratosphere, and 440 4bbls are getting there. 383 models can still be bought reasonably. This has nothing to do with this being the "Last" Super Bee-'71 was the last year of the high-compression mega-hp Mopars-in '72 the 10.25:1 425 hp Hemi and 10.3:1 385 hp 440 Six Pack were dropped and the biggest engine you could get in a Charger or Road Runner was an 8.2:1 compression 440 4bbl that wheezed out 280 hp. How the mighty had fallen in one year. Anyway-6,500 or so were built-and they do command a King's Ransom-but because of the engines not the name.       # 3. 1973 Pontiac GTO. I know the GTO soldiered on through 1974-but those 7,058 units were based on the "X" body ( read Nova ) Ventura platform. The engineers wanted to go back to the Goat's roots-a big motor in a stripped-down, light car. Since a 350 was optional in the Ventura and Pontiac engines are externally identical-a 400 would have been a bolt-in. The engineers wanted to put the 400 in the Ventura GTO.  And since the Ventura weighed 600 lbs less than a Firebird-it would have been a rocket. But the GM bean counters-killed it. A 400 powered 3,200 lb Ventura would have blown the doors off the 3,830 lb Trans-Am that was now the flagship-even with an SD-455, and it would have eaten the lunch of the 275 hp LS4 454 Corvette. Pontiac and Chevy brass couldn't allow that. So the GTO died a horrible death with a 7.6:1 350 V8 as it's only engine. Anyhow-the last "Real" GTO-i.e.-LeMans based and with an engine 400 cubes or more was built in 1973. 4,806 were built. Here's how bleak it was. T/A sales-quadrupled in '73 compared to '72, '74 doubled '73's sales,75 doubled '74's, and '76 doubled '75's!!  The Grand Am-which was touted to have the performance of a Trans-Am and the Luxury of a Gran Prix-sold 34,000 units-in 1973 alone. Anyhow-their not worth anything-the '68-72 models bring all the money-as with Chevelles. But if you find one at a reasonable price they have potential-there are a million ways to build power into a Pontiac V8 and any suspension or brake upgrades thar fit a Chevelle fit these cars.  # 4. 1977 Olds 442. Olds shamelessly put the "Cutlass" and "442" monikers on a variety of pieces of shit in the '80's-the low point being a front-drive, 4-cylinder Calais actually having 442 emblems on them-that's why Olds is no more. Anyhow-the last "Real" 442-based on the "A" body Cutlass platform and with an engine over 400 cubes-was sold in 1977. 12,000 or so were sold. The sad thing is no manual transmission was offered, and with 2.41:1 gears they were slugs. If Olds had put maybe 3.23:1 gears in them and or offered a 4-speed like Pontiac still did in the record-selling T/A-Pontiac sold 50,000 T/A's in 1976-and "Smokey and the Bandit" wan't released until April 1977-they might have had a real performer. Again-speed eqquipment for the 350 / 403 Olds is readily available and any suspension or brake upgrades that fit a Chevelle fit these cars.  # 5. 1974 Road Runner / Charger. '74 was the last year that you could get a 440 with a 4-speed. In '75 the Charger was a re-badged Chrysler Cordoba with no manual transmission option, and the Road Runner badge was put on a Sport Fury with a 318, 360 or 400 V8, but again-no manual trans option. The Chargers bring money-because the body is unchanged from '71-and Richard Petty ran one in NASCAR until '79. For some insane reason-in '73 Plymouth engineers took the gorgeous '71-72 Road Runner and made it ugly. The '73-74 models nobody wants. Their ugly. You can buy them cheap, but their ugly.  # 6. 1974 AMC Javelin AMX. It'a funny-AMC, Ford, Chrysler, even Chevrolet killed the Z/28 for 2 years-everybody gave up in 1974. Musclecar buyers didn't go away-the Automakers stopped making cars that they wanted to buy. That's why Pontiac Trans-Am sales soared in the late '70's-if you wanted a musclecar with a big V8-you had one choice-a Trans-Am. Anyhow-in '74 you could still get a 360 or a 401 with a 4-speed or an automatic. Ironically-even though these are nicer cars-better interiors, standard front disc brakes, etc-the '68-70 Javelins still bring blood and a 1st born child. People don't care too much about these. Mastermind