Did you marry your wife because you thought she'd give you an easy divorce??

You may laugh at the title of this post, but I ask that question a lot. The reason is I am sick to death of people making decisions on whether or not to buy a certain car, or paint it a certain color or change the wheels or whatever based on how it impacts the cars resale value. Why is everyone so damn worried about what the car will be worth if or when they get rid of it?  And you know what? Barring major butchery-like the idiot that "Pro Streeted" a '63 Split Window Stingray, or the guy who put a 389 Pontiac into a '57 T-Bird-pretty much anything you do isn't going to affect the value of the car that much. Think about it-if your looking for a '69 GTO is the fact that it does or doesn't have the hood tach a deal breaker? What about a vinyl top? What if it has Cragar S/S mags on it? Are you really going to not buy a numbers-matching, 4-speed LS6 Chevelle because it has a Hurst shifter instead of the awful factory Muncie unit?  Or an HEI distributor instead of a point type?  Are you going to turn up your nose at a documented, for real Boss 351 Mustang because it has a 750 Holley Carb on it instead of the awful Autolite 4300 4bbl??  Or a set of headers?  Probably not. I've touched on this before-but is a '65 GTO worth more or less with a Tri-Power setup on it, even if the car didn't have it originally? 999 out of 1,000 people would say more. So screw the one guy who says it isn't. Then let him either chase down an iron Pontiac intake and a Carter AFB with 1964 or 65 date codes and put it back to original if he buys the car, or he can just not buy the car and keep searching for one that meets his exacting standards!!  Here's a few cases of this insanity. A guy I knew had a '79 Trans-Am with the 403 Olds / TH350 powertrain. We were looking at an issue of High Performance Pontiac magazine and they had an article on the "Macho T/A's". "Man I love the graphics and color scheme of those cars."' he said. "Even today, they look badass just sitting still." "Dennis Mecham authorized Phoenix Graphics to sell the stencils for people restoring a "Macho" or anyone who just likes the look." "You could paint your car like that." I said. "And ruin it's value??!! he said, aghast. "I hate to break this to you-but nobody cares that much about a 403 / automatic disco era T/A that it's going to matter if it's painted a non-original color." "I'm not trying to insult your car-I had a 403 T/A I really liked, that was originally blue that I had done in black and gold SE style-but it's not like it's a 400, 4-speed, 4-wheel disc braked, WS6, 10th Anniversary model." "Or a white and blue 1970 Ram Air IV, or a Buccaneer Red SD-455 '73." "Those I wouldn't change the color on, any others, who cares?"  Another guy had a Verduro Green '69 GTO. I hated that color back in the '60's. That's about the ugliest color GM ever came up with, and unfortunately a lot of GTOs and Firebirds got that color in the late '60's. My cousin has a '67 Firebird that was originally a 326 and was that color. It's now red and has a 400 under the hood. He likes it much better now, and so do the people who offer to buy it every Hot August Nights, even though it's not "just as it left the factory". Anyhow, back to the guy with the green GTO. He was saying how much he loved the look of a Carousel Red Judge that we saw at HAN. "Your cars's got black interior, and Year One sells the spoiler and stripes and emblems." "Do yours that way." Again-he acted like I'd slapped his mother. "And ruin it's value?"  "You'd actually increase it's value." I said. "Trust me-I know a ton of Pontiac enthusiasts-and every damn one of them would much rather have a Carousel Red GTO in full Judge regalia-even it's not a "real" Judge over an "original" green one." "I wouldn't." he sneered. "Then you one out of a million." "Personally, I wouldn't drive around in a car painted a color I didn't like, just so some asshole who may or may not want to buy it will deem it "correct". I've also seen people pass up cars they loved, because again-some asshold told them a different model will be worth more at resale time. That's shrewd-spend thousands of dollars on a car you don't really want-so you can recoup your investment when you get rid of it!!  Idiot # 1. fell in love with a gorgeous 340, 4-speed red and black '71 Dodge Demon that had bucket seats, the "Pistol Grip" Hurst shifter, a "Tuff" steering wheel, the Go-Wing spolier, and brand-new T/A radials on Center Line Auto Drag wheels. It was a great-looking car. And it had headers on it, and a "Six-Pack" setup, and sounded nasty. On the advice of his asshole buddy who claims to be a Mopar "expert"-he isn't-he passed on it and bought a drab brown, dog-dish hubcapped,bench seat,column-shifted automatic,383 '69 Road Runner. Because his buddy told him that "B" bodies are the most valued Chryslers-and the "A" bodies aren't worth anything. Really?  Then why do I see restored 340 Dusters selling for $30,000 in Hemmings? Or 383 Darts for $50,000??  Anyhow-for months afterward-we'd see the red Demon driving around town, and every time he'd say "Damn!" "I should have bought that car." "That is the coolest looking little car." He was really crushed one day when we pulled up next to the guy at a light, and the Demon outran his "high value" Road Runner!  "Why did I listen to that asshole??!! he said, pounding his fist on the dash of the Road Runner,which did nothing but bruise the side of his hand. "I asked you that question back in August". I said. F%6k you! was his response. Idiot # 2. Passed up a gorgeous 400, 4-speed, T-Topped '77 Formula and paid more money for an automatic, hardtop '403 Olds / TH350 '78 T/A-because some "expert" told him that T/A's are always worth more than Formulas. Idiot # 3. Wanted a red and black 71-73 Mach 1 Mustang with Magnum 500 wheels, and a two-tone red and black interior. He passed up a nice blue and silver, 4-speed,Q-code 351CJ '73 because he just "Had" to have the red and black combo. We actually found a '72 Mach 1 with that exact color combination and interior on a "U-sell it" car lot. We called the number and the owner came over, and the price was quite reasonable. He didn't buy it, because the engine was a 351C with a 2 barrel carb!!!  I tried to talk him into it. "For god's sake" I said. "An Edelbrock Performer intake costs about $200 through Summitt,and a Holley or Edelbrock 4bbl costs about $350." "For less than $600 this car will really rock." "Where are you going to find another one with this exact color combo in great condition at a fair price?"  "It don't get better than this." He passed it up!!!  And then bitched about it for about two years after. "I should have bought that car." You think???  So use your head-and get the car YOU want-not one you think some other asshole MIGHT want to buy down the road!!!  Mastermind        

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

R.I.P. Vic Edelbrock...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A few musclecars in movies that I missed...

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

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

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

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

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

Heed Smokey Robinson's advice....

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

Tuning and testing is a lost art....

This past Hot August Nights I saw a bunch of musclecars that were definitely all show and no go. I've touched on it before-but I'm amazed at the number of cars I see with $5,000 paint jobs and $2,000 worth of tires and wheels that can't pull 5,000 rpm in low gear!  The owners will tell you how much money they have in the car, but they can't tell you the last time they changed the points and plugs and wires, or the fuel filter!!  Even on a bone-stock engine-bad tuning or simple neglect can cost you 40-50 hp. I see it all the time guys will have a supposedly frame-off restoration. Yet-the engine idles rough-and the car won't run properly-because the points are closing up,the vacuum advance is unplugged or inoperable, the timing is way too advanced or way too slow, the carburator is way too rich or too lean. I had a guy come into my shop once with a 396 powered '65 Impala SS that couldn't spin the tires on dry pavement. Because-I kid you not-he had all the above mentioned problems and more. I replaced the points, condenser,rotor, cap and plugs and wires. I put a new vacuum advance canister on it, and hooked it up properly. I set the timing for factory specs. He had a Carter AFB 4bbl on it-and I set the float at the proper level and leaned out the jetting ( it was way too rich ). He also had a sticky throttle linkage that wasn't allowing the 4bbl to fully open. I cleaned and re-adjusted the throttle linkage. His kick-down linkage wasn't working either-and I fixed that. When he picked up the car he was flabbergasted. Now it would literally spin the tires as long as you wanted to stay on the throttle. It would lay 30 feet of rubber on the 1-2 shift. "What the hell did you do?" he asked "Put a whole new engine in it?"  "No." I said and laughed. "I just made the one you had run the way it should." He was esctatic and tipped me 50 bucks over the price I'd quoted him and took a bunch of my cards to give to his friends. In the '80's a couple of friends-one had an LB9 IROC-Z Camaro and the other had an L98 Tuned Port Injected Corvette. They both had the same problem. The cars ran great when they were dead cold. When they got up to operating tempurature they would cough and spit, and stumble under full-throttle load. The Chevy dealer couldn't ( or wouldn't ) do anything about it under warranty. They brought the cars to me. I figures out the problem quickly. The cars had a 195 degree thermostat from the factory, and the electric fan didn't come on until 225!!  This is the way the cars were set up for smog. But they were practically vapor-locking becuase they were running so hot. I hosed down the radiators and put wet towels on the intake manifold, and then went for another drive. Cold engine-rocket ship. Hot engine-slug. Now I knew what to do. I installed a 160 degree thermostat and changed the fan switch to one that would kick the fan on at 185. No more stumbles-now they would rocket off the line-and lay 10-15 feet of rubber when the 700R4 snapped off its 1-2 shift! With the engine running at 180 instead of 220-the cooler, denser fuel charge it was now getting vastly increased performance. Another guy with a carburated L69 Trans-Am had the same problem. Same fix-change the thermostat and the fan switch-and instead of stumbling under load it now pulled hard to 5,500 rpm. I've spoken several times how changing from AC R46SZ plugs ( an .080 gap ) to R45S ( one range colder and a .040 gap ) caused my 403 Olds powered Trans-Am that previously ran out of wind at 4,700 rpm to pull hard to 5,400. A gain of 700 rpm on the top end!  So here's some advice on how to get top performance from your musclecar, even if it's stock. # 1. Do a compression test. Even an 8:1 "smog" motor will have 120 psi or so of comprssion. Higher performance engines will have 150 psi or more. The main thing is the readings should be uniform on all 8 cylinders-within 5-10 psi of each other. If one or more cylinders only has 80 psi-you could have bad rings, or burned valves or a blown head gasket. You'd be amazed at the number of musclecars limping around on 6 or 7 cylinders. # 2. Make sure you've got good wires, the timing set properly and no vacuum leaks. # 3. This is the number one offender here. Guy spends a ton of money building a killer motor. But he's so damned afraid of blowing it up that he drives it like grandma on prozac. I mean the car literally never sees the high side of 3,000 rpm. Then the second it fouls a spark plug-he starts screwing around with the carburator(s ). Pretty soon it won't even start. Here's the cure-like the GTO song says-once in a while you gotta "Turn it on, wind it up, blow it out". I'm not saying powershift at 7 grand and risk a picture window in the side of a numbers-matching block. But occasionaly running it full-throttle up a freeway on-ramp, or running it up through the gears to say 4,500 rpm once in a while-will keep carbon from building up and keep you from fouling plugs. The other option if you insist on driving like my grandmother-is go a range or two hotter on the plugs. They won't foul as quickly in low-speed driving. If you decide to take a road trip or go to the drags-changing to the colder plugs is an easy thing to do. # 4. If the car is an automatic-make sure its full of fluid-clean fluid. Make sure the vacuum modulator is hooked up and working properly. Make sure the kickdown linkage is hooked up and working properly. # 5. If it's a stick-make sure the clutch is working properly and that the shift linkage isn't binding up. These simple things can make a HUGE difference in a car's performance. Mastermind      

Building cool stuff with junk....

A friend of mine owns a junkyard and we talked about building fun stuff with junkyard parts. His "parts runner" delivery truck is a Chevy pickup with an Escalade front clip on it. You'd be surprised at the number of people that ask how many "Cadillac" pickups were built. It's a fun ride, and he just combined a pickup that had been hit in the front with the front end of an Escalade that had been badly rear-ended. We got to talking and came up with several others that you could build cheaply. # 1. GTO / 442 / GSX El Camino. You find a beater '68-72 El Camino and put a GTO, Cutlass, or Skylark front clip on it. Swapping in a 455 Pontiac or Olds or Buick engine would be easy. '73-77 models you could put a Monte Carlo or Gran Prix or Cutlass front end on them-but they wouldn't be as cool as the earlier models. # 2. 1968-72 GTO / 442 / SS454 Station Wagon. The GTO / 442 wagons would be easy to do because there are a lot of LeMans and Cutlass wagons out there that already have 400 or 455 cubes under the hood. A good number of LeMans models already have the "Endura" ( read GTO ) front end. The Chevelle SS model would be harder because most Chevelle wagons are small-block powered. You'd have to swap in a Rat-but that's relatively easy. Because of their long wheelbase and excellent weight distribution a wagon actually makes a good drag racer. # 3. 1977-79 Lincoln MK V Ranchero. In 1977 Ford moved the Ranchero from the Torino platform that it was on from 1968-76 to the LTD II platform which the downsized Lincoln MK V also shared. You could very easily put the sleek, hidden headlight MK V front clip on a Ranchero of this vintage. # 4. 1968-70 "Super Bee" wagon. Most Coronet wagons of this vintage will have 383 or 440 cubes under the hood. Phoenix Graphics sells the Super Bee graphics. You could even put a Six-Pack setup on it, or if you have more bucks to throw away-you could drop in a Mopar Performance crate Hemi. You could also do a "Road Runner" wagon off a Belvedere / Satellite wagon. # 5. 1972-74 Challenger T/A / 'Cuda AAR. Mopar fans will fight with machetes and give blood and a first-born child for the '70-71 E-Bodies but the '72 and later models are way cheaper to buy, probably becuase the Hemis and big-blocks were dropped after '71. From '72-74 the largest engine was the 340 /360. However-you can buy the Six-Pack manifold and carbs-Edelbrock made the manifold until just a couple years ago-places like PAW and Summitt still stock them. If you can live with a 4bbl-and you have or are considering buying a 318 version-I've said it before there are millions of 360 Magnums in junkyards in '92-2003 Dodge trucks and Vans and Jeep Grand Cherokees that would give you a massive power infusion for low bucks. Edelbrock makes 4bbl intakes that work with the "Magnum" heads, which breathe better than any factory head and many aftermarket ones. The graphics are easy to do. You'd have a cool high-performance, T/A style E-Body for a fraction of what a "real" one would cost. # 6. 1981-87  Grand National clone. Find a 2 dr Buick Regal of this vintage with the 307 Olds V8. A 350 or a 403 is a bolt-in swap. The black paint and trim is easy enough to do, and "Vector" style wheels are easy enough to find. Or you could use Center Lines or something else that was cool in the '80's. Or if you had a 3.8 V6 version you could get the Supercharged 240 hp 3.8 out of a wrecked '90's Bonneville SSEI, Gran Prix or Riviera and drop that in. # 7. 1978-87 Malibu / El Camino SS. Honest Charley and other places sell the '83-87 Monte Carlo SS front clips that would bolt onto the Elky / Malibu bodies. Any other cool ones I overlooked?  Mastermind.      

A "Muscle Truck" can be a fun hot rod....

While I was saddened at the lack of premium cars-i.e.-Superbirds,Thunderbolt Fairlanes,Boss 429s,409 Impalas,Super Duty Pontiacs, etc,etc at this years Hot August Nights-I did see quite a few very nice hot rod pickups. Besides the usual '53-56 Ford F100s and 1960-66 Chevy / GMC's there were a lot of other cool ones in attendance. The good thing about a truck project is they already have heavy-duty suspensions and rear ends, and their engine bays will swallow anything. Here's my list of trucks that can be very quick for relatively low bucks. # 1. 1967-79 Chevy / GMC 1/2 ton. The '67-72 models already have kind of a cult following, but you can still find them at reasonable prices if you look hard enough. Most will have 350 power which certainly isn't a bad thing. There's a million ways to build power into a small-block Chevy. 396 / 402 models will be pricier but you'll have Rat power. Chevy purists will howl-but I've seen many of these trucks with 500 inch Cadillac V8s under the hood, as well as 428 Pontiacs and 455 Olds V8s. Hey-massive torque is cool, regardless of where it comes from, right? The '73-79 models will have more luxury options and the 454 was available all years. Again most will be 350 powered, and 454 models will be pricier. The good thing is-there is a ton of suspension and brake upgrades and performance parts for these trucks out there.  # 2. 1972-78 Dodge D100 / D150. These came with everything from the 225 inch slant six to a 440 V8. 318 models make nice drivers and get good gas mileage, but are a little underpowered. Obviously the 400 and 440 models are the most desirable from a performance standpoint, but 360s can be made to really run as well. Again-if you have or are buying a 318 model and want a massive power boost-like I said in the last post-junkyards are full of Dodge trucks and vans and Jeep Grand Cherokees with 360 Magnum V8s in them. Edelbrock sells 4bbl intakes that work on the "Magnum" engines. # 3. 1967-79 Ford F100 / F150. These were available with everything from a 240 inch six to a 460. The upside is a lot of them will have 390s. Edelbrock claims 452 hp and 434 lbs of torque from the "Performer RPM" package on a 390. Obviously the later models with 460s would be the most desirable, but quite a few will have the 400M. These got a rep as "dogs" because they were saddled with 2bbl carburation, single exhaust, and a lazy cam, and in the cars at least-salt-flats gearing. ( Trucks had reasonable axle ratios like 3.25:1 ) However-a 4bbl carb and intake and headers and dual exhausts really "wakes up" a 400-and if you need serious power Edelbrock and Trick Flow offer hi-performance aluminum heads and Crane, Comp Cams, Lunati etc offer cams. Some may have 302s-which again make nice drivers and get good mileage but the trucks are too heavy to go fast with only 302 cubes. Also avoid the 360 V8s. They are an "FE" engine-but they are a small-bore design and had the dual attributes of no power and crappy gas mileage. Stock or modified they don't make anywhere as much power as a 390.  Anyhow any of these trucks would be a good base for a street machine and your limited only by your imagination and your wallet. Mastermind  

Some '70s "clunkers" that make great modern rat rods....

A lot of the buff magazines are featuring old "rat rods"- 30's, 40s and 50's cars that are ugly, but wicked fast. There's a lot of '70's iron that you can buy cheap that has a ton of potential to have major speed for low bucks. Here's a few that you may not have thought of, in no paticular order. # 1. 1971-77 Ford Maverick / Mercury Comet. ( V8 models ) These "Economy" cars make great drag racers. Their light-around 3,000 lbs, and their short wheelbase gives them good weight distribution and traction. And their are a million ways to build power into a 302 Ford. A buddy of mine with a 440 Road Runner got his doors blown off by a hot 302 Maverick. Their not sexy-but they can be lightning fast for low bucks. # 2. 1971-77 Pontiac Ventura. Pontiac's version of the Nova. Some may have small-block Chevys in them-which isn't a bad thing-you basically have a Nova-and their's more speed equipment for a small-block Chevy than anything else on the planet. The real gems are the 350 Pontiac powered models. 350 Pontiacs respond spectaculary to basic hot-rod stuff-4bbl carb and intake, headers and dual exhausts, gears and a mild cam. Or if you want to be really badass-Pontiac engines are externally identical from a 326 to a 455. That means a 400 or 455 is a bolt-in. And any suspension parts that fit a Camaro / Firebird fit these cars so you could build a front-wheel pulling drag racer or a corner-carving "g" machine. # 3. 1973-77 Olds Omega ( Olds V8 models ). This was Oldsmobiles version of the Nova. Again-because of GM playing musical engines because of smog laws some of these may have Chevy straight sixes, or Buick V6's, or 305 Chevys. The 305 Chevy models would be ok if you wanted to swap in a 350 / 383 / 400 small-block. The ones to look for are the 350 Olds models. Edelbrock claims 397 hp and 400 lbs of torque from their "Performer RPM" package on a 350. 400 honest hp would make the light "X" body an absolute rocket. And a 403 would be a bolt-in swap-and stock or modified 53 extra cubes would be worth a sizable boost in hp and torque. Special note-some of these will have 260 inch Olds V8s. These are a lightweight "economy" motor that wheeze out about 120 hp. Their only good use would be as a boat anchor. However-the motor mounts and all the tin-i.e. valve covers, oil pan, etc, and the accesories-p/s pump, alternator, water pump, fuel pump, etc-do interchange with a 350. This means a 350 or a 403 would be a bolt-in swap. # 4. 1975-77 Chevy Monza ( California Emissions Model ). The Monza was built from 1975-1980 and most had 4 cylinders, 3.8 V6s, and 305 Chevy V8s. However-the real gems are the '75-77 "California" V8 models. For some reason-the 305 wasn't certified for California-so if you got a V8 Monza with California emissions it had a 350!!  The buff magazines called these the "Factory V8 Vega ". They weren't rockets because they had single exhausts, 2bbl carburation and salt-flats gearing. However-those are easy fixes-some dual exhausts, a factory or aftermarket 4bbl carb and intake and swapping the 2.29:1 gears for some 3.42:1s will have you showing your taillights to those smug late '80s / early '90's "5.0" Mustang owners.  # 5. 1975-79 Ford Granada / Mercury Monarch. ( V8 models )  These cars were marketed as compact luxury cars. Again-like a lot of '70's Fords-2bbl carburation, single exhaust and salt-flats gearing made them dogs. However-they have great potential. Some had 302s and some had 351Ws under the hood, and they had 9 inch rear ends-some with rear disc brakes. Their light-about 3,300 lbs-and theres a ton of speed equipment for Small-Block Fords. Their not sexy-but with the right equipment could be very quick. # 6. 1975-79 Dodge Aspen / Plymouth Volare. ( V8 models ) These were supposed to replace the Duster and the Dart. Their light-around 3,000 lbs-and the 318 models can be made to run strong. The real trick would be find a 318 model, and go to a junkyard and find a '92-2003 360 Magnum out of a Dodge Truck or Jeep Cherokee. Their's millions of them out there. "Magnum" heads breathe better than any factory head and many aftermarket ones. Edelbrock sells 4bbl "Magnum" compatible intakes. You'd have big power for very low bucks. # 7. 1975-78 Ford Mustang II. ( 302 models ) Even a young Farrah-Fawcett-Majors, braless and barefoot in shorts and a tank-top on the hood of one of these ( Ford shamelessly used promo shots for "Charlie's Angels" in their ads ) couldn't make them cool. Again-with a 2bbl carb and salt-flats gearing they couldn't break out of the 17s in the 1/4. However-with very little work-intake, exhaust and an axle-ratio change-these light-around 2,700 lbs "Factory V8 Pintos " can really rock. # 8. 1975-78 Plymouth Sport Fury / Dodge Monaco ( 400 and 440  models ). For those who want to live out your Elwood Blues fantasies-it's got cop tires, cop shocks,....Seriously-the 2 door models are even nice-looking, and their's a ton of speed equipment available for B / RB Mopar engines. If your short on cash this may be the only way you can experience big-block Mopar thunder-definitely way cheaper than any Road Runner or Charger you'd see. None of these cars are sexy-but they can all be wicked fast for low bucks. Mastermind      

Where did all the cool cars go? Or are their owners sick of the way we treat tourists?

Hot August Nights is here again, and for the third or fourth year in a row I feel the same way. The big hotel-casinos all have their Show-n-Shines and other events. But it's dull. The GM section is all Camaros and Chevelles, with a few GTOs thrown in. No 409 Impalas, no 421 Catalinas, no 442s or Hurst / Olds, no Buick GSX's or Rivieras, no 427 'Vettes. A few '55-57 Chevys-but all those were "Just as it left the factory"-with hubcaps and big whitewalls and ugly colors like turqouise, and six-cylinder or 265/ 283 / Powerglide motivation. No badasses like the "Two-Lane Blacktop / American Graffiti" car. No "Gassers" with the front bumpers removed and radiused rear wheelwells, and a snarling 327 small-block with a 4-speed or a 396 or 427 Rat Motor.  Hell I'd even settle for seeing a nice small-block Nova or a "Bandit" Trans-Am! Nope. The Ford section is all Mustangs. Generic Mustangs. I've seen one Boss 302, no Boss 429s, no Shelby GT350s or 500s. No T-Birds, no Thunderbolt Fairlanes,no Torinos. I've seen a few '67-70 Cougars. No Cobras-real or replicars, no Mercury Cyclones or Marauders. At this rate I'd rejoice if I saw a Maverick "Grabber" or a 289 Falcon!!  Same for the Mopar camps. All '68-70 Chargers and Road Runners. I saw one Superbird. Very few Challengers and 'Cudas-and most of them 340 and 383 models. No Hemis or 440 Six-Packs, no Challenger T/A's or 'Cuda AARs. No Max Wedge cars, no Super Bees. No 50's Hemi 300s, no '58 Furys-( "Christine" ,and the cop car from "California Kid" were both '58 Furys ). No '70s Sport Furys. I'd jump for joy if I saw a 340 Duster. Not happening. Where have all the cool cars gone?  Sadly,I think it's the way the Reno City Management screws everyone during HAN. Last week any motel or Hotel-Casino in town would rent you a room for $29.95. Now they all want $150-300 per night. And I'm not talking a "honeymoon suite" at the Atlantis-this is Motel 6!!  The highway patrol had a bunch of cars out by Boomtown-which is 7 miles west of Reno just before the California state line-writing tickets left and right!!  Yeah that's a good way to greet people coming to town to spend money and have a good time-here have a $200 ticket-and if you don't want to pay it you have to come back a month from now to go to court and fight it. You have a nice day now. And the entertainment sucks. We used to get people like Jerry Lee Lewis and Bill Medley, and John Kay from Steppenwolf, John Fogerty, Paul Revere and the Raiders, and Gary Puckett and the Union Gap, the Guess Who,Three Dog Night and the Beach Boys. You know-people that had hits on the radio in the '60's and '70's and that people actually want to see. No more-now it's all a bunch of people you never heard of and don't care about if you did. Now were lucky to get "Rain"-a group of local guys who impersonate the Beatles. And 1/16 mile drag races in a Casino parking lot? Really? The big-block cars spin the tires farther than that!! I could be grand champion in my Subaru-and it's not a WRX STI!! I mean who wants to see cars race for 330 feet??!!! What do they get up to? 35-40 mph? Puhleeze.  Used to they'd have real 1/4 mile drag races at the Old Stead airport. If that's not available Reno-Fernley Raceway-that's 29 miles from Reno has a for-real dragstrip as well as a circle-track. Why not use that?  Because the casino owners and managers are a bunch of cheap bastards, that want to soak the tourists for as much as possible, while spending as little as possible. So I answered my own question-if I had a $100,000+ Hemi 'Cuda or Boss 429 or L88 'Vette-I'm not going to drive or tow it to Reno to pay $250 a night to stay at a Days Inn and see shitty entertainment and and get a ticket every time I start the car. If I want to drink and gamble big bucks- I'll leave the car at home go to Vegas and see Celine Dion or Elton John or some other real star-and be treated like a king at the Bellagio or Mandalay Bay. Maybe if the city fathers would try to make it a fun thing like it used to be instead of just seeing a cash cow-the high-rollers will come back. If not, greed will kill another golden goose. Sad. Mastermind  

More cool cars that were nixed before they made production...

Here's some more cool rides the manufacturers thought about, and then never built. Too bad, they'd have been fun. # 1. 1971 Charger Daytona / Plymouth Superbird. Chrysler considered offering the slope-nose and big rear wing on the redesigned '71 Charger and Road Runner. However-like I said in the last post-Ford cut way back on their racing programs, and Chrysler knew with ever-tightening emissions laws that the Hemi's days were numbered and that they wouldn't be seriously competing in NASCAR-Richard Petty and other big names would get some back-door stuff-but their wouldn't be officially factory backed teams. Ultimately they decided it wasn't worth the effort to produce a limited run of cars with special bodywork, especially if they didn't have to sell a certain number to homologate them for racing. Too bad they would have been cool. # 2. 1971 Challenger T/A / 'Cuda AAR. This package and the 340 Six-Pack engine was listed in early '71 sales literature, and I even saw advertisements for the Challenger T/A in Car Life and Motor Trend. However the "ad car" was a '70 model with the '71 grille airbrushed in. For whatever reason-emission standards, or Chrysler pulling out of Trans-Am racing, the car's never made production, leaving 1970 the only model year. Too bad-if Chrysler hadn't given up on the E-bodies-they might have made a huge comeback in the later '70's like the Camaro and Firebird did. The 340 Six-Pack would have fell by the wayside because of smog laws-but the 400 and 440 V8s were available in the big cars through '78. Think a 440, 4-speed, Challenger T/A could have competed with the Trans-Am and Z/28?  Does a bear crap in the woods?  # 3. 1971-73 429 Mercury Cougar. Since you could get a 454 in a Monte Carlo and a 455 in a Pontiac Gran Prix-GM's top-selling "Personal Luxury / Performance" coupes-Ford engineers thought it might be a good idea to offer the 429 in the Cougar. The bean counters nixed the idea-saying that the Thunderbird was the competitior for the Monte Carlo and the GP, not the Cougar. The largest engine available in the Cougar was a 351C.  Huh? We all know that in a drag race or the twisties all a big, heavy Lincoln MKIV based T-Bird-429 / 460 power aside-would see of the much lighter 454 and 455 GM A-bodies ( Chevelle / LeMans based ) would be the taillights!!  Ford engineers knew this-and a 429 Cougar would have been awesome. But it wasn't allowed. Cougars did get a 460 in 1974-but this was after the sister Mustang was downsized to a gussied-up Pinto / Capri-and the Cougar was now based on the much heavier and uglier Lincoln MKIV platform. Even a pre-"Charlies Angels" Farrah-Fawcett-Majors advertising them barefoot in a bikini couldn't sell them. # 4. 1974 Pontiac GTO. Initially-the '74 GTO was going to still be LeMans based-and offered with the SD-455 that had made such a splash with the buff magazines in the Trans-Am in '73. Pontiac hoped this would re-energize sales. Then the engineers got the idea to put the name on the X-body platform ( read Nova ) Ventura. They even discussed putting the L78 400 that was standard in the Trans-Am into the Ventura based GTO ( Pontiac engines are externally identical and the 350 V8 was already available in the Ventura; so it would have been a bolt-in. )  and since the X-bodys shared underpinnings with the F-body Camaro / Firebird they could have put a T/A style suspension on it and revived the "Judge" nameplate as a special performance package. However the bean counters nixed that. The T/A was now the flagship-and even with an SD-455 under the hood-the 3,800 lb T/A would have got it's lunch eaten by a 400 powered, 3,200 lb Ventura. So instead the Ventura / GTO got a T/A style shaker hood and a 7.6:1 350 V8 that wheezed out 200 hp. And they wondered why they didn't sell. The 400 / Judge idea would have been great. I know-I put the 400 out of my wrecked '77 T/A into a '71 Ventura and it was really quick. With disc brakes and a WS6 suspension-the proposed factory version would have been totally badass. But I guess-like the LS6 Nova-GM couldn't have anything that cool out there. # 5. 1987 Fiero GT Turbo. Even with the 140 hp 2.8 liter V6-the light, mid-engine ( 2,600 lbs ) Fiero scooted pretty good. Pontiac engineers discussed putting a Turbo on it. GM had the technology-the blisteringly fast Buick Grand Nationals proved that. They even discussed putting the GN powerplant in the Fiero. 3.8 Buick V6s are not that much larger than the Chevy 2.8s. It was feasible. Once again-Chevrolet brass threw a tantrum. A Turbo Fiero would hurt Corvette sales. Pontiac engineers fought hard. Ok-scrap the Grand National engine swap-that probably would have been too much work anyway-we were just bench racing. But turbocharging the 2.8 that was already in the car would be easy, and that would make the Fiero a competitior of the Mazda RX-7, the Nissan 300ZX ,the Toyota Supra and the Porsche 944, not the Corvette. Were RX-7s cutting into 'Vette sales?  Would the upcoming Mazda Miata hurt 'Vette sales? Chevrolet brass wouldn't back down an inch, and like always-the other divisions toed the line and the project was nixed. Too bad. It would have been a fun little car. I know a guy who put the Supercharged 3.8 out of his wifes wrecked Bonneville SSEI into a Fiero. It will literally spin the tires as long as you want to stay on the throttle, and run off from just about anything but a Hellcat Charger or a Z06 'Vette. Now we know what the GN engined version would have done!  Thankfully-the big 3 seemed to have learned. Chrysler is ballsy enough to release the Hellcat and the Demon, GM has the Z06 'Vette and ZL1 Camaro, and Ford has the GT350 Mustang. Too bad they didn't learn 30 or 40 years ago. Mastermind