Still another stupid GM Corporate Edict that hurt performance and cost sales

For whatever reason, GM was deathly afraid of Ralph Nader and the safety Nazis in the 1960s. After Nader's "Unsafe at any speed" almost single-handedly killed the Corvair-maybe they had good reason. One of their concessions to "safety" was that no intermediate -i.e.-Chevelle, LeMans, Cutlass, or Skylark could have an engine over 400 cubic inches. This was ok from 1964-67 when GTOs, and SS396 Chevelles pretty much ruled the street. However, in 1968 Chrysler dropped three nuclear bombs. The Charger was redesigned into it's now classic form, and you could get a 440 V8 or the mighty 426 Hemi. The Road Runner and Super Bee were introduced with the 383 standard and the 440 and 426 Hemi optional. A big 440 inch Road Runner or Charger had little to fear from a 400 GTO or 396 Chevelle. Ford even dropped the mighty 428 into the Mustang.  A few GM guys fought back. Don Yenko, a Pennsylvania Chevy Dealer started swapping 427 Vette engines into Camaros and Chevelles. George Hurst took a 455 Olds out of the Toronado, gave it W30 heads, intake, and cam, and stuffed it into a Cutlass 442 and created the legendary Hurst / Olds. Royal Pontiac would swap 428HO Gran Prix engines into GTOs and Firebirds for a fee. Yet the GM brass wouldn't budge, and allow the bigger motors to be factory installed. In 1969 Chrysler hit another home-run. They introduced the 440 Six-Pack option on the Charger, Road Runner and Super Bee. This was a 440 Magnum with a hotter cam, and 3 holley 2bbls on an aluminum Edelbrock manifold. This beast was actually a better street performer than the vaunted Hemi. When the Camaro-sized new E bodies-Challenger and Cuda were introduced with the 440-6 and the Hemi optional, GM realized it was war. They relented and for 1970 we got the legendary LS6 454 Chevelle, the W30 455 442, and the Stage 1 455 Buick GSX. Pontiac stuck with the Ram Air III and Ram Air IV 400 engines as the top dog in the GTO and Trans Am. You could get a 455 in a GTO,but it was a "station wagon" stump-puller, not near the fire-breather the 400s were. However, for 1971, Pontiac put the RAIV heads and intake on the 455 along with the milder "068" cam and created one of the greatest street  engines ever-the 455HO. This monster produced 480 lbs ft of torque at a low 2,700 rpm. To this day 455HO Pontiacs dominate stock class drag racing even beating up on LS6 Chevelles, Hemi Cudas and the like. After 1971 the lowered compression ratios and ever-tightening emission controls began killing performance packages. The Hemi and 440 Six-Pack were gone after 1971, as was the LS6 ( It was still sold as a crate engine until 1991 ) . The W30 Olds 455 and the 455HO Pontiac were gone after 1972. Herb Adams had a last Hurrah with the 455SD Trans-Ams of the 73-74 period, but that was it for true performance engines. You could get a 455 in a Trans-Am until 1976 and a 400 until 1979, but they were "corporate" big blocks by then with barely 200 hp. What a shame that the GM brass didn't allow the mega inchers until it was almost too late. Mastermind

Another unpopular GM edict......And the myth hot-rodders have believed for decades!

Almost as unpopular as the infamous racing ban was GM cracking down on multi-carb systems. Back in the late '50's the Olds J-2 system with 3 2bbl carbs was a legendary performer. From 1959-1966 Pontiac had great success with their 3 2bbl setups on 389 and 421 engines. They also did well in drag racing with the 2 4bbl "Super Duty 389 and 421 engines. '57 Chevys had a dual-quad option on the 283, and later in the early '60's, the legendary 409. Chrysler had cross-ram 383s and 413s, and of course the legendary 426 Hemi with it's dual AFBs. In 1967, to cut down on "option proliferation" the GM brass said no more multi-carb setups. Zora-Arkus Duntov threw a fit, and an exception was made for the tri-power 427 Corvette, which hung on until 1969. Pontiac and Olds engineers scrambled and the buff magazines were assured that the Quadrajet topped 1967 engines made just as much power as the tri-power 1966 models. Herein is the myth. For 40+ years all the hot rodder mags have said a single 4-barrel is the way to go. That's because the average idiiot that thinks he's a mechanic can't tune one lousy Holley 4bbl properly, much less dual quads or 3-2's. I use to see it it mine and my dad's shop all the time. 409s, tri-power GTO's, Six-Pack Road Runners, even Hemis. The owner's screwed them up. They forgot that these engines were designed to be run hard, not babied. If your going to drive like grandma-then go a range or two hotter on the plugs. But they don't. And the second it fouls a spark plug, they start screwing around with the carburators. Pretty soon it won't even start. Then I get it. And using an infrared exhaust analyzer and a carburator syncronizer, and many sets of jets, I fix it and tell them to weld the hood shut. And the owner's can't beleive how much better their car runs, simply being tuned properly. Why do you think Porsches and Ferraris used multiple Webers for so many years? Because they made a ton of power, that's why!.  Automakers only switched to electronic fuel injection because of emission laws. All other things being equal, a carburator, or carburators always makes more power. That's whjy NASCAR didn't switch to fuel injection until 2012. I've seen it first hand. Back in 1985 I had the pleasure of being invited to Bill Pennington's shop. He owned the Circus-Circus casinos in Reno and Vegas. He also was an avid sports-car racer and boat racer. He collected Lamborghinis as well. His mechanics showed us that an early multi-weber equipped Countach made nearlyn 100 more hp on the dyno thjan a later injected one. In front of my eyes they pulled the Tuned Port Injection off a new ( at the time ) Corvette and installed an Edelbrock Torker II intake and a 750 Holley, and it picked up 55hp on thje dyno. Mopar Muscle tested an aluminum-headed 500 inch 440 based stroker that made nearly 600 hp with an Edelbrock Performer RPM intake and a custom-jetted 850 Holley double-pumper. For giggles they put a stock Six-pack setup on it. They were blown away. The "antiquated" tri-power came within 5 hp and 10 lbs ft of torque of their state-of-the-art 4bbl setup, and that was with out of the box carb jetting-the repro Holley 2bbls are jetted for a stock 440 with Iron exhaust manifolds. It was undoubtedly way lean for a roller-cammed badass with headers. After rejetting the carbs, this 40 year old "dinosaur" of a design kicked the ass of the modern setup, actually making about 25 more hp!!  Yes, a single 4bbl is a cheap, easy way for the average guy to go real fast, and he can't screw it up too bad. But if you want a multi-carb setup on your musclecar, don't be afraid of it. Just find someone who knows how to calibrate them, and then leave the damn carbs alone!!!  And enjoy the look, sound and feel that onlu a multi-carb setup can deliver! Mastermind       

The History of The SS396 and the 442

Much has been written about the History of the Pontiac GTO but you don't see a lot about the 442 or SS396. I thought I'd give a history lesson on how the GTO helped spawn these two other iconic musclecars. In the late '50's and early '60's most performance cars were full-size models. Smokey Yunick and Fireball Roberts were the scourge of NASCAR in their fire-breathing 389 and 421 Pontiac Catalinas. Bill "Grumpy" Jenkins was having great success in drag racing with 409 Impalas and Ford had their 406 Galaxies, and Chrysler had their 413 Dodges and Plymouths. Olds had the famous "Rocket 88" with a tri-power 394 inch V8. This is where the motto-"Win on Sunday, Sell on Monday" came from. Then in 1963, GM laid down the famous ban on racing. No more racing, period. Not even the previous wink,wink, back door stuff to people like Mickey Thompson or Arnie Beswick. John De Lorean, and Pete Estes, who along with Semon E. "Bunkie" Knudsen had helped Pontiac rise from sixth place to third in sales just behind Chevrolet and Ford. They had accomplished this by building exciting, fast cars. Knudsen's motto was-"You can sell a young man's car to an old man, but you can't sell an old man's car to a young man." He was proved right. Knudsen got promoted to President of Chevrolet, but DeLorean and Estes were still at Pontiac. They feared without racing success, they'd lose their high-performance image. Estes said-"Forget a race car-let's build a high-performance STREET car!"  The rule at the time was big cars got big engines, small cars got small engines. No intermediate ( I..E.-Cutlass, LeMans, Chevelle,Buick Skylark) could have an engine over 330 cubic inches.  DeLorean was pissed that Oldsmobile had put the "small car" 330 V8 in the Delta 88 as a step-down option and cut the price. A direct assault on the Pontiac Catalina. Estes said the loophole worked both ways. The rule was for STANDARD engines. They could take the 389 out of the Catalina and put it in the mid-size LeMans as an OPTION. Estes and DeLorean had hoped to sell 10,000 units. They sold 32,450. Chevrolet and Oldsmobile bitched, but the brass never argued with sales success. Oldsmobile quickly came out with the 442 Option which stood for 4 barrel carb, 4-speed trans, and dual exhausts. But with only 330 cubes, it really wasn't a competitor for the mighty 389 GTO. Ditto for the 327 inch Malibu SS. For 1965 the other divisions fought back. Chevrolet put the big-block 396 in the Chevelle and Oldsmobile put the 400 V8 in the 442. Buick even put their 400 inch V8 in the Skylark. The GTO was still king of the street, selling over 75,000 units, more than double '64's sales. In 1966, things really heated up. Oldsmobile offered a tri-power ram air option on the 442 to compete with the GTO's 360 hp tri-power 389, and Chevrolet offered a solid-lifter 396 rated at 375 hp, that had been rated at 425 in the Corvette. In 1968 GM redesigned the intermediates with a sexy new body that would carry on until 1972. The GTO won  Motor Trend's "Car of the Year" award, and George Hurst took a 455 V8 out of the Toronado and stuffed it in a 442 and created the Legendary "Hurst Olds".  Don Yenko, a Pennsylvania Chevy dealer started putting 427s in Chevelles. With Ford putting 428s in Mustangs and Torinos, and Chrysler putting 440s and 426 Hemis in Chargers and Road Runners, the Horsepower race was on. But that's how it started, with GM's infamous 1963 ban on racing. Mastermind    

Blaspehemy Most Foul!!

Saw in a national magazine a featured car sure to offend everyone. And once again, the More-Money-Than-Brains factor is involved. This genius put a 528 inch Chrysler Hemi into a Pantera. The only thought that comes to mind is "What the hell were you thinking?" Pantera collectors damn sure don't want it, hardcore Ford Racers don't want it, and Mopar guys certainly don't want it. Panteras come with a 351 "Cleveland" engine which can be hopped up easily if you want more power. If you want a monster motored Pantera-the 351C and the 429 / 460 engines share the same bellhousing bolt-pattern, and the larger engines are almost identical in external dimensions.  A Ford Racing 460-based 514 inch stroker with 600+ hp would practically be a bolt-in. Why go to the trouble and expense of adapting a Chrysler engine?  I know Pontiac guys get pissed every time they see a GTO or Firebird with a Chevy Rat motor under the hood, but at least that's GM to GM-the cars are sisters to the Chevelle and Camaro. The only thing that comes close on the stupid meter is I saw a Chevy LS engine stuffed in a Fox-bodied Mustang. What are these people thinking?  "I know, I'll spend triple the money and time it would take to build a stompin' 302,and put a Chevy engine that doesn't run any faster than the Ford would in my Mustang, and that'll be the coolest!!"  Ditto for the Pantera except he's stupid time PI. The Mustang guy bought a beater Mustang for $1,000 bucks and got the LS motor out of a junkyard, so he gets an award for being cheap and ingenius if, offensive. A nice Pantera goes for about 30-50K if it's in any kind of decent shape. Yeah that's smart. Take a $40,000 classic and butcher it with a $30,000 crate motor that's a Dodge!!.  At least if he went with the 514 Ford, he'd have some resale value. I haven't been this offended since I saw the '57 T-Bird with the 389 Pontiac engine in it!!  There's just some things you don't do, and this is one of them. Mastermind  

The Automakers just don't learn....and history keeps repeating itself!!

As a lifelong car enthusiast I'm amazed at how in my lifetime, the automakers have made the same mistakes over and over, and don't learn from them. I touched on it a little in a past post, but it's worth discussing again. # 1. A carmaker comes up with a great idea that's a thunderous hit. Not content to sell this car like hot cakes, and rake in profits for years to come, they have to "broaden it's appeal" to try to sell even more. What happens is they ruin the car, and people stop buying them. A couple good examples-one American, one Foreign. The 1964 GTO was a smash. It was a simple old hot-rod trick-put a big motor in a light car. Pontiac had hoped to sell 10,000 units. Even though it was a mid-year option, they sold 32,450-more than triple what they planned. In 1965 they sold 75,000 units, more than double '64's total. In 1966 they sold almost 100,000. Even mighty Chevrolet, with twice the dealer network of Pontiac, could only sell 77,000 SS396 Chevelles. Then they decided to "Broaden it's appeal." The car got heavier and more expensive every year. By 1971-five short years later they only sold 10,000 units, and in 1972, half that-5,807. Yes, high insurance rates put a dent in all musclecar sales, but the brass had ruined Pontiacs biggest Cash Cow. They didn't even try to save it. All the performance efforts were now concentrated on the Firebird line. Nissan did the same thing. In the '50's and '60's the British pretty much owned the sports-car market. The 1970 Datsun 240Z was an immediate smash. It had a sexy body, a high-revving six-cylinder engine that would suck up and spit out any British sports car-including the vaunted XKE-and it was reasonably priced. To combat the power lost to the tightening emission controls of the mid-'70's they punched the engine out to 2600cc and later 2800cc-thus the 260Z and 280Z monikers as the years passed. But the basic platform stayed the same until 1978. Then, Yes-The brass decided to "broaden its appeal". The car got bigger and heavier, and more expernsive. Even with a turbocharged engine, the 1983 280ZX was nowhere near the performance car the original 240Z was. Did the brass learn? No. 1984 brought the even larger, heavier, more luxurious and much more expensive 300ZX. By 1994 a loaded ZX cost 45 grand. That's more than a Corvette was at the time.  Gee, why weren't they selling?  In 2003 they brought back the "Z". Now called the 350Z and powered by an awesome 300 hp V6 and with a swoopy two-seat body and a pricetag around $26,000 guess-what-they sold like hot cakes and the enthusiast mags raved. Now they've increased the displacement and the hp is up around the 350 mark in the 370Z, and the base price has crept up to around $32,000. However, when you consider that a loaded Toyota Camry or Honda Accord is over 30K, their still a screaming bargain. Hopefully Nissan won't screw it up again. GM did again-in the '80's and '90's. Musclecar buyers didn't magically fall off the earth in 1973, the automakers stopped making cars that they wanted to buy. That's why the Pontiac Trans-Am was the alpha dog in the late '70's. Yes it was a good car, and "Smokey and the Bandit" certainly helped sell a few-but think-if you wanted a sporty car with a big V8 after 1975-you bought a Trans-Am or nothing. Chevy brought back the Z/28, and Ford wisely scrapped the Pinto-based Mustang II platform and put a V8 in the Fox replacement. Yet, ath the Camaro / Firebird's demise in 2002 a loaded Z/28 or T/A cost almost 40 grand. The people that wanted them-young males-couldn't afford them. Yet Ford sold twice as many Mustangs every year as GM sold Camaros and Firebirds combined. Why? Because you could buy a V8 Mustang for around 25 grand not 40!! And just like the T/A in the '70's-if you wanted a rear-wheel drive sporty V8 car-you bought a Mustang or nothing.  Flash forward to 2009-the reintroduced Camaro with a 300 hp V6 and a sticker of $22,000 duh-sells like women of ill-repute in a seaport full of drunken sailors. Even the SS-comes in under 30 grand-almost 10K less than the one they were trying to sell seven years before. Shocker! It's a success. As is the Dodge Challenger that's looks like the "Vanishing Point" model. Hopefyll GM, Ford and Chrysler won't make the same mistake again and price and pork these awesome modern musclecars into oblivion. Mastermind   

The little pony that could....And did!

With the recent resurgence of the ponycar-Camaro, Mustang, and Challenger-some people have asked if there were others back in the late '60's and early '70's. (Firebird, 'Cuda,-"sister" cars- Duh! ) I thought I'd bring up a noble underdog in the ponycar wars-the AMC Javelin / AMX. The Javelin was a racy looking car that was also available as a two-seater from 1968-70 in AMX form. Optional engines included the 290 inch V8 that was used in SCCA Trans-Am racing, and larger 343 and 390 inch V8s. They were exceptional handling, well-balanced cars. The problem was, at the height of the musclecar era, they were underpowered. The top 390 only made 315 hp. By contrast-you could get a 396 in a Camaro that made 375 hp. A Ram Air 400 Firebird was rated at 345 hp; however the same engine in a GTO was rated at 370, and considered under-rated at that. You could get a 428 in a Mustang. However, in 1970-Mark Donohue and Roger Penske-who had won championships in Trans-Am for Chevrolet defected to AMC. The Javelin was given a more aerodynamic body for 1971 and the base engine was increased to 304 inches, the 343 to 360, and the 390 to 401. The new 401 was rated at 330 hp. However, you could get a 440 or 426 Hemi in a Challenger or Cuda, and Pontiac offered the 455 in Firebird Formulas and Trans-Ams. The Javelins were still underpowered when it came to street cred. However-Donohue won the SCCA Trans-Am Championship, narrowly edging Ford for the title, and AMC promoted it heavily in the buff magazines. Except for a Trans-Am or a Corvette, the AMX was about the best handling American car built. However, ever-tightening emission controls and the Arab fuel embargo was putting the hurt on Musclecars in general. By 1975 not only was the Javelin a memory, so was the Challenger and Cuda, the Z/28, and the Charger and Road Runner. The Mustang II was more Pinto / Capri than Mustang. Ironically,the Pontiac Trans-Am soared in popularity in the late '70's-partly because it was a great car-their really rising in popularity among restorers now-and partly because it was the "Last Man Standing" if you wanted a performance car with a big V8. However, as a Welterweight in the ring with Heavyweights the Javelin did pretty well. If you can find one, they still make a nice driver, but except for two-seat models they don't hold the Value that Camaros, Firebirds, Mustangs and E-body Mopars do. However, that's a good thing if you want to buy one! Mastermind

Don't try to emulate magazine project cars- You don't have the bankroll!!

A lot of us enthusiasts read car magazines and often the stuff we buy for our cars is influenced by them. But we can't copy them verbatim, because we don't have an unlimited bankroll and companies like Edelbrock or Accel aren't donating new products to be tested on our vehichles!  You have to realize a lot of these project cars aren't someone's personal ride ( although some are ) their rolling test beds for their advertisers products. A case in point-Popular Hot Rodding's "Project Talledega" a 1975 Laguna done up in '70's Nascar Style. It was finished less than a year ago. The engine they put in it was a snarling, 408 inch solid-roller small-block that pumped out 560 hp. Now they say their putting a big-block in it. Huh? I know what your thinking. 560 hp is enough for anybody, and even with a Rat they'll have a hard time making much more than that in a streetable package. So why do it?  Here's why. A couple years ago when they started the project, Dart had just introduced a new line of Small-Block Chevy high-performance short blocks. They were available in either 372 or 400 inches and with a Dart "Top end" kit-i.e.-heads, cam and intake manifold you basically had a crate engine. They wanted to showcase this engine line in a car. Now apparently, someone has a new big-block package the magaazine and the manufacturer want to showcase. This is nothing new. "Project X", their legendary '57 Chevy that served them from 1962 until it's retirement and internment at the GMPP Museum in 2008, went through numerous small-blocks, big-blocks, four-speeds, five-speeds, automatics, carburators, fuel injection systems, blowers and turbochargers over the years. There's nothing wrong with that. That's how they keep readers interested and sell their advertisers products, which keeps them in business. But "Joe Average"  can't afford to change engines or transmissions or suspensions every six months.  So take these projects with a grain of salt, and plan yours for the long-term. Mastermind

Are you as sick as I am of "Sissy" hotrods?

I get tired of reading about musclecars not only with modern fuelie engines, but with leather seats, and a/c and their owners talking about good gas mileage and idle quality and drivability. Huh? First off, research has shown that a restored musclecar is usually the fourth or fifth car in a household. So nobody's using these cars as daily transportation. Sorry to be sexist, but Idle quality and gas mileage and "drivability" shouldn't be a factor in a musclecar unless your building it for your wife or daughter as a daily driver! I can't believe how sissified the sport has become. Competition Cams actually makes a series of camshafts called "Thumper" that idle like the car has a big cam, but doesn't have reduced vacuum at idle. Companies make hydraulic clutch linkages because one wouldn't want to have to use a stiff clutch!!  Come on guys!!!  Don't get me wrong, I'm not talking about a daily driver. If I was buying a new daily driver, I'd get a Dodge Charger with the Hemi and an automatic and all the toys. If I actually wanted a classic as a daily driver-say a '70's Corvette-yes I'd use a mild 350 with a hydraulic cam and a quiet exhaust system and a TH350 or maybe even a 700R4. And It would have nice stock or aftermarket seats, and a/c and a nice CD player.  However, if I wanted a '70's Corvette as a hot rod-that I only drove on sunny weekends-It would have to be a four-speed, and the engine would either be an ultra high-revving solid-roller 372 inch Dart small-block with 11:1 compression and either a Victor Jr intake with one 800 Edelbrock carb or a Tunnel Ram with two 450 Holleys, or an earth-shaking 12:1 454 with a solid lifter cam, aluminum Dart or Brodix rectangular-port heads, a Brodix or Dart or Super Victor intake with a Demon or Dominator carb, and either engine would have Hooker headers and barely muffled chrome sidepipes. The rear axle ratio would be 4.56 or 4.88, and I'd have a Gear Vendors overdrive not for gas mileage, but for top-end speed when I'm giving Dodge Vipers and Turbo Porsches the finger!!  I wouldn't care if it only got 5-8 mpg on 104 octane race gas, idled at 2000 rpm and had a stiff  clutch!!  It would be the meanest mother in the valley, with all motor, no sissy-ass nitrous, and not for the faint of heart to drive!! That may sound extreme, but a hot rod that's strictly a hot rod should be extreme. It's not what mom drives the girls to soccer practice in, it's Jule's Wallet from "Pulp Fiction".  Drivabilty,schmrivabilty!  I want to see a 6-71 blower and two 660 Holleys sticking out the hood of a primered Chevelle, that has big meats and ladder bars, and a gutted interior and an 8 point cage, not a Vortech centrifigully blown LS fuel-injected wonder that fits under the stock hood and purrs quietly as it motors down the road ( albeit rapidly ) coddling the driver in a climate controlled, leather filled, concert hall!!  If you want a Toyota Camry, go buy one. You want a fast car with a smooth idle and heated seats and a moonroof, that's rides like a Cadillac then buy a new Chrysler 300 or a Lexus Is350, or a Cadillac CTS-V, or a BMW 5 series.  But a hot rod that's not also a daily driver should be a nasty bastard.  At least in my book. Mastermind        

Movie and Delta Blues Muscle!

Took a vacation to Tennessee a while back. Went to see Graceland, Sun studios, the usual tourist stuff. Then I went to Adamsville and toured Buford Pusser's house and museum. For those of you that live in a cave, Buford Pusser was Sheriff of McNairy County Tennesse from 1962-1970, and his life and career were immortalized in 4 movies and a TV series. Joe Don Baker, Bo Svenson, and Brian Dennehy all played Buford Pusser, although the one with Joe Don Baker is the most famous. Pusser fought hillbilly organized crime that made the Sopranos look like kindergarteners. Moonshine runners, drug dealers, pimps, murderous motel owners, illegal casinos, McNairy county had it all. He was shot several times, and his wife murdered in an attempt on his life. He died in a car wreck in 1974 when he crashed his 454 Corvette. Anyway, while touring the museum I met the current McNairy county sheriff who showed me Buford's last police interceptors. One was a pristine 1968 Ford with a solid-lifter 428, that had finned aluminum valve covers, the aluminum manifold and original 735 cfm Holley 4bbl!! He even fired it up for me, and it shook the earth! The other was a 1970 Dodge that was used in the movie that was made in 1972. I'd forgotten how good a high-compression 440 sounds! It had an unsilenced air cleaner and a chrome tab on the AVS carb said "Police Interceptor".  The sheriff said the Ford was quicker off the line, but the Mopar had an unbelievable top end. These cars were so clean, it was like I stepped in a time machine and went back to 1970. The mechanic who cared for them also showed me one of Buford's 'Vettes-( Not the one he died in ) and his own personal toy-a pristine 1968 Fairlane with a 428 and a four-speed!!  He offered to sell me one of his other cars-a really nice 390 / 4-speed 1969 Torino-for $6,500!!. The cost of shipping it back to the west coast and the ensuing probable divorce kept me from buying it, but it was a cool ride. He also told me about a guy that had a bunch of Chevys at a farm up the road, and a guy in the next town who had a ton of old Mopars. If you think all the great cars are gone, take a trip down south or through the midwest. You might find something really cool! Mastermind    

"Old School" is right for old cars! ...And your wallet!!

I see a disturbing trend in the buff magazines and it's not limited to swapping modern fuelie engines into classic iron. I see people spending tons of money on high-tech stuff that doesn't offer the performance increase to justify it's expense. # 1. Aftermarket fuel-injection systems. Edelbrock, Holley and Accel all offer aftermarket fuel-injection systems for most popular engines. The problem is most of them cost between $2,000 and $3,500 depending on application. And the sad thing is, they don't make any more power than a simple $600 carb and intake combo!! High Performance Pontiac tested a system on a stoutly built 455. With an Edelbrock Performer RPM intake and an 850 Holley carb it made something like 588 hp. The 859 Holley retails for $449 through Summit Racing and the Performer RPM manifold retails for $219. Total cost $668. The injection system made 574 hp and cost $3495!! Hello?? An extra cash outlay of almost $2,900 to make 14 LESS Horsepower??!!  # 2. Overdrive Transmissions. Same deal- Mopar Muscle put a new TCI six-speed automatic in a 440 GTX project car. Yes, it was slightly quicker in the 1/4 and got better gas mileage than it did with the three-speed Torqueflite, but the conversion cost $5,500!!  To spin 500 less rpm on the freeway?!  Think what you could do with $5,500. A crate engine, a complete interior or an ultra-trick paint job. # 3. Aftermarket Brake systems. Do you really need a $4,000 Wildwood, Baer, or Brembo 4-wheel disc setup worthy of a NASCAR stocker? The factory braking system-( If it's in good condition ) on your musclecar isn't adequate to stop the car safely in daily driving or on a weekend trip to the drags? Come on guys!!  #4 Ultra-Performance tires and wheels. I understand wanting the good handling and braking of modern Radials. American Racing,Cragar,Year One and Wheel Vintiques all offer factory and classic mag style wheels in 15", 16" and 17" sizes. That will give you the classic '60's or '70's look with modern tire performance. 275/40ZR20 tires on 20X10 wheels not only looks stupid on an old musclecar, you can't use the performance anyway. Is your B-body Mopar or A-Body GM muscle car going to put fear into the hearts of any Dodge Viper, Porsche 911 or Corvette drivers on a curvy road? Puhleeze.  So save your money and do what's right for the car and your bank account. Mastermind

Make your Driver / Project run strong while your building it!

This kind of goes along with the last post but I'll talk some more about it anyway. Just because your saving up for a 600hp crate engine or whatever, doesn't mean your musclecar project has to languish in the garage or limp around with not even the power of a modern Honda Accord. # 1. Tune it up! You'd be amazed how much more power your car will have with a new set of spark plugs and wires and the timing and point gap set properly. Also adjust or replace the carburator. You'd be amazed at the cars running around with the float sinking, warped throttle shafts, and jetted way rich or way lean.  #2. Transmission. If it's an automatic, flush the fluid and the torque converter and install a shift improver kit. If it's a stick, make sure the clutch and shift linkage are adjusted properly. # 3. Exhaust. So many cars have crushed or rusted out or leaking exhaust systems. A good exhaust system will not only help your current engine, it's a good investment for that mega-hp engine your building. # 4. Brakes and suspension.  Replace the shocks or worn parts to make it safe to drive while you wait for that complete Hotchkiss or Air Ride setup. Making it nice to drive will motivate you to finish it. Mastermind

Drive your cool base model while you stockpile parts and cash to make it your dream ride!!

I see so many musclecars sitting in garages or driveways, and their owners lamenting-"When I get enough money....".  The car doesn't have to sit until it has it's killer powerplant,suspension and paint job, and is magazine cover worthy. You can drive and enjoy your project while it's "in progress".  You bought a base-model Firebird that you plan on turning into a killer Trans-Am clone? Great! If you put a 4bbl carb and intake and a good dual exhaust system on the 350, it would run way better, and guess what? The Edelbrock Performer intake and free-flowing exhaust system will also work great on the killer 400 or 455 your planning. You want it to have 17X9 Snowflakes and 275/40ZR17 Goodyear Eagle F1s for rolling stock? Fine. But you could put some inexpensive 14" or 15" inch radials on the stock Rally II wheels and drive it while you save for the killer rolling stock. Adding the air extractors, and spoilers and shaker hood is a big investment before you consider painting it. But what's stopping you from throwing a $399 Maaco or Earl Schieb quickie paint job on it for now, to make it look a lot better than it does with peeling paint and primer and preserve the body panels you are going to keep? See what I'm saying?  You can go ahead and put a 3.55 geared,12 bolt rear end and a Turbo 400 in your '69 Chevelle. Guess what-The 350 that's in the car will bolt up to and work fine with that B&M or TCI TH400 until you get that killer 454 or numbers-matching 396 built. You've got the killer suspension in place, and the snarling 383 stroker crate engine is already in the engine compartment of your Camaro. You just don't have the $2800 needed for the Tremec six-speed conversion you planned.  So? Hook up the motor to the Muncie or Saginaw or T10 4-speed, or TH350 that came in the car and have a blast driving it and working the bugs out of the rest of the car while you save for the tranny swap! Planning to drop a killer 440 into that '71 Charger you bought that has a knocking 318? Why can't you spend a few hundred bucks and a weekend installing a running 318 out of a junkyard? Now that the car's running, like I said, you can work out a million other bugs, and get the bodywork and paint and interior done and not have to have worry about some yahoo in a body shop or upholstery shop grenading your prize big-block. You'll be a lot more motivated to finish something that runs and drives than you will to work on something that you know isn't going to move for months. Trust me, you'll be a lot happier with a registered, driveable "Work in progress" than you will be with a rusting, rotting, "Someday" under a tarp.  Mastermind        

Where's the Hard-Core hot rodders with wicked fast beaters?

Maybe I'm showing my age, but nowadays it seems there's the Concours "Just as it left the factory" crowd and there's the Blown / Nitroused / Modern engine and tranny crowd, and nothing in between. There's no badass beaters around. When I was younger yes, there was the meticulously restored show car types, and there was the radical "Pro Street" type cars, both of which cost their owners many thousands of dollars even back then. But there was also the dangerous "beater" that could stomp the ass of a $30,000 ( In 1980's dollars) show car or Pro Street hero in a drag race. I'm talking about cars like my buddy's 1965 Plymouth Barracuda. Yes, the ugly Valiant model with the huge fastback window. But it was light, and it was all motor.  It was primered, and he never got around to painting it. He had crudely radiused the wheelwells on the rear to clear the soft-compound N50-15 Mickey Thompson tires that were mounted on 15X10 Center Lines, while still running E78-14 tires on stock steel wheels on the front. His crude, home-made exhaust system exited in front of the rear wheels and was excessively loud even by kid hot rod standards. But it had a very nasty solid-lifter, tunnel-rammed 340 backed by a four-speed and a 4.90 geared 8 3/4 rear end with a pinion snubber. He would pop the clutch about 4,500 rpm, and the car would just rocket off the line, and he'd shift it about 7,500. He smote everyone in biblical fashion, even expensive big-block cars. Another guy I knew had a ratty, primered, '66 El Camino with a 455 Pontiac under the hood that showed it taillights to quite a few aghast expensively restored musclecars. There was also a guy with a 383 powered Duster that kicked a lot of ass, and I took the 400 out of my wrecked Trans-Am and stuffed it in a 72 Ventura that looked like Eddie Murphy's crappy Nova in "Beverly Hills Cop".  But it smoked a lot of "Hot" cars that had pricetags 10 or 20 times what I had invested. You don't see that anymore. I mean, I'd love to see a beat up, but wicked fast '88 5.0 Mustang, or an '84 Camaro with a 383 stroker in it, or an '85 Olds Cutlass with a 403 or 455 V8 stuffed in it, or even a '90's Crown Victoria with a blower on the "Cop Car" 4.6 mod motor. All I ever see is megabuck cars whether their restored or butchered. Let's see some cheap, but quick cars, please. Mastermind    

What happened to badasses? Baby boomers want Nav and cupholders instead of horsepower!

Remember when a musclecar was a stripped-down, snarling street fighter? The automakers build a thing of beauty whose only motivation is speed.  That's what made people want to buy them, but out of greed and searching for "Broader Appeal"  then we try to change them into a grocery getter that appeals to women and families and old men. It's happened over and over throughout history. The original '64 GTO was a badass. DeLorean, Estes, and a few other Pontiac guys had the bright idea to stuff a big motor in a light car, and made history. Like the song said-"Three deuces and a 4-speed, and a 389." "Listen to her tachin' up now, listen to her wind, gonna turn it on, wind it up, blow it out, GTO!"  Yet, almost immediately, engineers began looking for "Broader appeal." The car got heavier every year. In 1967, for the first time, they sold more automatics than 4-speeds. The redesign of 1968 was a big hit, winning Motor Trend's "Car of the Year" award. The car got bigger, and heavier, and more luxurious, and more expensive. Most GTO's were over 4 grand in sticker price by 1968. It was still a runner, and still popular, but the Plymouth Road Runner came along-basically a 2 dr Belvedere Taxi with rubber floor mats, pop-out rear windows, and a hopped up 383 V8 that ran the 1/4 in under 14 seconds and cost $2800! The Road Runner was an instant hit, and even outsold the GTO for 1969. ( Pontiac sold 72,000 GTO's, Plymouth sold 81,000 Road Runners.) Dodge responded with the Super Bee, a stripped-down Coronet coupe with some cool graphics, and the 383 Magnum V8, the 426 Hemi, or the 440 Six-Pack. They didn't even bother with hubcaps or trick wheels. Just black steel wheels and chrome lug nuts. Chrysler hit the niche that GM was missing. No more tri-power GTOs or 442s after 1966. The vaunted SS396 Chevelle got the same fate as the goat-it got larger and heavier, and although the L78 was stone-cold bad with 11:1 compression, a hot solid-lifter cam, and a 780 Holley on an aluminum intake, not many were built. 99% of them had L34s with a mild hydraulic cam and and a quadrajet on an iron intake. More of them had vinyl tops than posis. Ford and Chrysler fell into this trap too,as the Mustang and Torino got bigger and heavier, as did the Charger and the Road Runner. We all know what the gas crisis and emissions did to musclecars in the '70s, but the automakers didn't learn. At the height of it's popularity and 3 best record sales years ever, some genius at GM decided that the Trans-Am didn't need a 400 cube V8 anymore. We all know how the ill-fated 301 Turbo worked out. Ford hit it out of the park with the lean,mean "5.0" Mustang in the '80's, but it too got heavier, and more pricey before it was replaced by the 4.6 versions. Subaru fell into this trap. The original WRX was a Rally car for the street. A delightful little hot rod with great handling and a turbo motor that spooled up plenty of power and loved to rev. They sold like hot cakes. What did the brass do? Tried to "Broaden it's appeal" by softening the supension and making the motor less peaky. All they did was make them LESS fun to drive!  Car and Driver said it best-and they didn't mean to be funny, but it was. In a recent road test of a Ford F250 Diesel pickup-they complained that it's ride was too stiff and too "trucklike". Hello?! A 3/4 ton pickup that's designed to tow 15,000 pounds is a little bouncy on rough pavement when it's unloaded?  Say it isn't so!!! Now I  understand why every Camaro SS or Mustang GT I see has a moonroof and Nav, and heated and cooled seats, and heated electric mirrors, and bluetooth so you can talk on your cell-phone. We all want BMWs and Lexuses.  To me that's a waste If I want a luxury car, I'll buy a Cadillac or a Mercedes. If I want a musclecar, I want it to be evil,wicked, mean and nasty, not subdued like a Camry!. Just had to vent that. Mastermind          

Like Tom Petty says- "Stand me up at the gates of hell, and I won't back down."

Got a lot of debate on the last post on both sides, but in my opinion there's no debate. Like I said, there's enough junk out there to play with, that we don't have to cut up classics. For example-my own 1973 Hurst / Olds. It's one of 1,097 ever made. It has the H/O only custom vynil top/opera windows, white and gold two-tone paint, Hurst Dual/Gate ratchet shifter, digital tach, swivel bucket seats, F41 suspension, and the 455 / TH400 powertrain. Now, if I wanted to copy Popular Hot Rodding's "Project Talledga" Nascar tribute Laguna with a Cutlass, instead of gutting the interior on my car and installing an 8-point roll cage,and Corbeau racing buckets, painting it like Richard Petty's late '70's NASCAR racer, and installing a solid-roller Rat motor and a Tremec six-speed manual-why wouldn't I just buy one of the 3 million or so 1973-77 Cutlasses that are out there that AREN'T worth anything and butcher it? Why would I destroy a for-real, numbers-matching,excellent condition Hurst /Olds to turn it into a hot rod that no one but me thinks is cool? There's no excuse for this genocide. Yet, Hot Rod magazine did it and bragged about it!! In their October 2008 issue they had a "Crate motor shootout" where they installed 8 different GMPP engines in the same car and drag-tested them. The "test mule" in their own words was-"A for-real,numbers-matching,four-speed SS396 model in great condition." They proceeded to gut the interior and install fiberglass buckets and a 10-point cage, a custom 9-inch Ford rear ( I guess the stock 12-bolt posi wasn't up to snuff) Wildwood disc brakes all around-( Again-the stock disc/drum setup can't stop the car safely on a weekend trip to the drags? ) and a TCI built TH400 with a 4 grand converter and a transbrake. Then they swapped in each engine and drag-tested them. What their going to do with the car now, remains to be seen, but for the life of me I don't understand why they couldn't get one of the millions of beater 68-72 GM "A" bodys out there and use that. Why did it have to be a numbers-matching SS396?!  Another magazine featured a guy putting an LS7 and a six-speed in a numbers-matching GTO Judge!!  He couldn't buy a beater Tempest or LeMans that there's millions of rotting everywhere, and even put the Endura front end and Judge trim on it if he had to have the look?  No, you have to desecrate one of 3,797 classics ever made that someone else would sell their soul to have. This tells me that there's too many people out there with more money than brains. I will argue this issue until Hell Freezes over. Chevy sold over 200,000 Camaros in 1967, so you don't have to cut up one the very few remaining 602 Z/28's!!!  Play with junk you want, but please stop butchering rare classics!!  Mastermind             

There's enough junk out there to butcher....Can we please stop doing rare classics?!!

Once again I am mortally offended by a national magazine cover car. This one wins, hands down, the Hustler magazine award-"Asshole of the Month".  Once Again we have a modern  Z06 LS motor and a tremec five speed transplanted into ......A pristine Split-Window 1963 Corvette Sting Ray!!!!  This is so wrong on so many levels. # 1. General Principle. Don't desecrate an ultra-rare, one-year only classic. It would have still have been irritating, but I could understand if he did it to one of the thousands of 64-67 models out there, as long as it wasn't a 427 model. But a split-window??!!  # 2. Cost. The guy had over 100 grand in the car. For that, he could have bought a brand-new 638 hp supercharged ZR1 Corvette that will leave his hot-rodded '63 in the dust in a drag race or the twisties. Ditto for a new ZO6, and he'd still have 30 grand left in his pocket.  # 3. Ruined resale value. I hope he's going to keep the car until he dies, because he's never going to be able to sell it for anywhere near what he's got in it. And even if he is willing to take a substantial financial bath at sale time, he's still going to have a helluva time finding a buyer at any price. Think about it-if you were going to spend $50-100K on a 1963 Corvette you'd want it to be fuel-injected model,or at least a 300 or 340 hp model in perfect condition with the knock-off wheels and everything, not some hot rod with aftermarket guages, seats, wheels, suspension, and a modern LS motor!!  The cost to put it back the way it should be would be so prohibitive, that anyone with common sense will take their 50-100K and buy an already properly restored one, or buy one that needs a complete restoration for15-25K and spend the rest fixing it up. The car is sale-proof in my opinion any way you look at it.  Like I said in the title-there's still enough junk out there to play with. I have to commend another magazine for featuring the exact opposite. They featured a '66 Chevelle that someone had done up like a '60's gasser drag car. Radiused rear fenderwells, straight tube front axle, tunnel-rammed small-block, fiberglass bucket seats, the whole nine yards. I thought it was totally badass, and the guy built it for under 25K. That's because he started with a beater 2dr 1966 Malibu, that originally had a 327 and a Powerglide, of which Chevrolet sold about 400,000 of.  Now if he'd done the same to a numbers-matching four-speed SS396, we'd be storming his house with torches.  That's what I'm saying. If you want to cut up an old car and hot rod it any way you please, go do it. No one's saying you can't do what you want with your own car. But another Popular Hot Rodding cover car begged the same question. It was a 1972 Trans-Am with an LS motor, a 9 inch Ford rear, and an extensively modified interior and body. It said in the article the car was originally purchased as a "show car."  You want to pretend your Boyd Coddington or Chip Foose, fine.  You have to cut up one of the few remaining 1,286 1972 T/A's ever built??!!  You couldn't go buy one of  the about 4 million beater 1970-81 Camaros or Firebirds out there and F#$k that up?  That's all us "old-school" guys are saying. Put an SRT8 injected Hemi and five-speed german automatic in any beater 318 Challenger that you can find and enjoy it to your hearts content. But don't take a 440, 4-speed R/T model and do it, ok?  Leave the ultra-classic vintage iron for those that appreciate it. Mastermind                     

It's your car....For god's sake, do what you want! Not what's "Correct"!!

Don't take the title to this post wrong. I still firmly believe that anyone who even THINKS about cuttting up the trunk of a Hemi "Cuda for wheel tubs, or putting a modern fuel-injected Chevy LS motor in a numbers-matching Judge should be dragged out into the street and shot, after having his entrails pulled out and burned. There are some "Thou Shalt Nots." I'm not talking about that kind of butchery, I'm talking about people afraid of removing a vinyl top or changing a bench seat for buckets. Go ahead, laugh, but I talk to people all the time that say stuff like "I'd like to paint it a different color," or "I wish it had a hood tach", but I don't want to compromise the value." What value? Regardless of what any "expert" says-a car is only worth what someone's willing to pay for it. And why is everyone so damnded worried about what the car will be worth if or when they sell it? If you want a dog,have no kids, and you'd really like a pit bull, are you going to get a Golden retreiver instead, because their more kid-friendly, and might be more attractive to the next owner? Did you marry your wife because you thought she'd give you an easier divorce than the other women you dated?!  Why is everyone so fixated on if or when they get rid of the car and what the next owner might want, that they don't even build it the way THEY want it!  Trust me-if you have a '69 Super Bee and you call Summit Racing and order a complete Six-Pack setup and install it on the car-you've increased the value of it, even though it's not "Totally Original." If you add the spoiler and hood tach,and paint a '69 GTO like a Judge, it's worth more to more people than it would be if it was Original "Verduro Green" with a puke-yellow vinyl top. If you want a "Formula" ( i.e.-Trans-Am style ) steering wheel on your Firebird or GTO instead of the stock Luxury Cushion model, is the car "ruined?"  Would that actually stop someone from buying it if it was for sale?  Puhleeezzze!!  I know a guy that was in genuine pain because the '71 Road Runner he bought to restore was yellow. He told me his dream combo on this car would be B5 Blue with the black stripes, and A "Go-Wing." The car had a black interior, so it would have looked fine. ( If the interior was red, that might have been a problem.) "So buy a go wing from Year One, and paint it blue." I said. "It'll look awesome." "Yeah, but the build tag says it was originally yellow."  He replied, dead serious. "So?" "If you want to sell it to someone that anal five years from now, he can repaint it." "You hate yellow." "You only bought the car because it was too good a deal to pass up regardless of color." "I can't believe your actually thinking of painting your car a color you don't like, in case you want to sell it in the future." "Are you kidding me?" He eventually painted the car blue, and is happy. This goes beyond paint and trim as well. If you have a 1968 SS396 El Camino with 4-wheel drum brakes-( They exist-I had two of them ) and you go to the junkyard and get the spindles, rotors, calipers, and brake booster / master cylinder off a '71 Malibu and put the disc setup on your car, you have greatly increased it's resale value, even though it's not original. If you have a 1967 289 Mustang with a three-speed stick and you swap it for a 4-speed with a Hurst shifter, you've upped the car's value in anyone's eyes. If you buy a Pontiac Firebird with a 350 and swap in a stormin' 455, you've upped it's value. As long as the modifications were stuff that was optional on that car, that year, or is aftermarket "period correct" then don't fret about it. Like I said, you want a hood tach on a GTO or Firebird? Do it! A 1968 Charger with 15" Cragar S/S mags is cool. Put 20" wheels off a 2009 Charger on the '68 and it'll look stupid. A '70 350 Camaro with an Edelbrock Torker intake, 650 double-pumper Holley,headers, a Muncie 4-speed and Torq-Thrust wheels is just as cool now as it was in 1971. A '68 Camaro with a TPI 350, 700R4 automatic and 19" Enkei wheels is just wrong. See what I'm saying?  Within reason, do what the hell you want with it. It's your car!!!   Just had to vent that. Mastermind             

Cars that can have the Nascar / Trans-Am / IROC racer look....and power!!

There are a few cars out there that have great potential for handling and braking as well as straight-line acceleration if you want to torture new Mustang, Camaro, and BMW owners in drag races or the twisties. Besides this mechanical ability, they can be made to look really cool, and be bought relatively cheap. #1. 1968-79 GM "X" body.  The obvious choice is a Nova, but this also includes Pontiac Venturas, Olds Omegas, and Buick Apollos. Virtually any suspension or brake upgrades that fit the Camaro / Firebird also fit these cars, so they can be made to handle exceptionally well. I mean late-1990's Corvette skidpad numbers, exceptionally well. The obvious choice for power is a small-block Chevy, which a lot of these came with from the factory anyway-GM was playing musical engines because of smog laws for most of the '70's. However, a 400 or 455 Pontiac or a 455 Olds with aluminum heads wouldn't be much more nose-heavy than the SBC, and would certainly bring the power level you want. You could also run a big-block Chevy if you want-they'll fit easily in the engine bay-and with aluminum heads and intake, headers, etc, would still have decent front to rear weight distribution. I see one with radiused and flared fenders, monster tires, and a sinister monochromatic black paint job. # 2. 1969-76 Pontiac Gran Prix. 400 power standard all years, and a fair number of '70-76 models have 455s!  And GM engineered a great chassis all those years ago-( The basic design debuted in 1964 ). Hotchkiss, Just Suspension,Global West, H-O Racing Specialties,Herb Adams VSE, and other companies offer suspension pieces to make these "A" bodies put a Trans-Am or a 'Vette on serious notice. Any suspension or brake upgrades that fit a Chevelle or Monte Carlo will fit these cars,so your choices are unlimited. And they have large wheelwells that can fit huge tires without modification provided you have the right wheel offset. I picked the GP over all the other GM "A" bodies because most Chevelles and Monte Carlos have 350 cubes under the hood. Ditto for the Olds Cutlass and Buick Skylark / Regal. While 454 Montes and Chevelles are rare, 455 Cutlasses and 455 Regals are moon rocks. On the other hand, As I said, the Pontiacs had the big-blocks standard all years. GM "A" bodies were the scourge of NASCAR in the '70's and Popular Hot Rodding's "Project Talledega" a tricked up 1975 Chevelle Laguna that channel's Darrel Waltrip's racer-is a good example of the breed I'm talking about. # 3. 1967-73 Mercury Cougar. Any suspension or brake upgrades that fit a Mustang also fit these cars. While some early models have 289s under the hood, most of these will have 351W or 351C motivation which is good, because there's a myriad of aftermarket support-heads, cams, intakes, stroker kits, etc to make the power to turn these kittys into tigers. A Cougar can usually be bought substantially cheaper than a same-year Mustang. The 429 / 460 has the same bellhousing bolt-pattern as the 351C, so you could go hog-wild on power if you need to. A 514, with a Tremec five-speed...... "M5 This you Yuppie Scum!"  Mastermind                 

A streetable clone of a classic race car might be cool.....

Got a lot of debate from the last post, which proves gearheads are passionate if nothing else. Didn't mean to offend anyone, but I wrote that post after talking to someone who restored one of the B.F. Goodrich "Tirebirds". In 1970-71 B.F. Goodrich campaigned 5 Pontiac Trans-Ams in the SCCA series. Afterward, they sold the cars to privateers.  A couple were used as race cars, one was sent to a museum, and this one the guy tried to make street-legal. He did it, but he said if he knew how much time and trouble and money it was going to end up costing, that he never would have done it. Chasing all the interior trim parts, light bulbs, etc was a pain enough, taking out the rollcage and bracing, and then going through many DMV safety inspections to get it registered-it was never registered originally-BFG bought the car and turned it into a racecar immediately-so even though he had a title,trying to register a 40 year old car that hadn't been registered in 40 years....Let's just say it was a nightmare.  The point I'm trying to make, is if you want the look and feel of a classic racer, it's just a hell of a lot easier to build a copy from a real car. Go buy a running,legally registered 1974 Charger, give it a Red and Blue # 43 STP paint job, put a Mopar performance crate Hemi in it, or a 360 stroked to 408, or whatever, and have a blast with your "Tribute" to Richard Petty's winningest race car. You can even put a roll cage in it if you want, but won't it be nice that all the dash lights and turn signals and headlights and windshield wipers, and heater already work, and the windows roll up and down, and you can register and insure it without an act of congress. I think a 1971-74 Javelin AMX painted red, white and blue, with Minilite style wheels, a side-exit exhaust and either a torquey 401 or a high-winding 304 with a 4 or 5-speed stick would be way cool. Mark Donohue would definitely approve. Edelbrock offers Aluminum "Cleveland"  style heads and compatible intake manifolds so you can build a mock "Boss" 302 or "Clevor" engine-i.e.-302 or 351 Windsor block, with the much freer-breathing 351 "Cleveland" heads. Turn a clunker '69-70 Mustang into a Boss 302 clone. I'm down with the race car styling and graphics and definitely down with a badass motor to back up the image, but you'll have a much easier time making a regular car that you can drive to the store safely and legally look and sound like a race car than you would trying to turn a race car into something street-legal and remotely drivable. So, if you want the vintage NASCAR or Trans-Am look and feel, go build one easily and cheaply from a running, registered car, don't spend untold thousands trying to convert a moneypit old race car. That's all I'm saying. Mastermind   

Don't buy an old race car.....unless you just want an expensive "Trophy"...

I see an alarming trend among the More-money-than-brains crowd, and it's spreading to the normal people as well. Magazines are doing big write-ups on people who buy and restore old racecars. This is not fun or cute, or profitable. Old racecars are a worse moneypit than anything else on the planet!! And when there immaculately restored, their still an obsolete piece of shit from a racecar standpoint, they can't be made street legal in any state in the union, and the only time you can drive them is in Vintage car races against other people's overpriced garage jewelry. You think I'm being cynical or jealous?  I'm not- let me break it down for you.  # 1. Obsolescence. NASCAR rules say the bodystyle can't be over 5 years old. That kills everything right there. Secondly-the cubic inch limit is 360 cubes. That eliminates all the 421 Pontiacs run by Fireball Roberts, the 426 Hemis by Richard Petty, the 427 and 429 Fords run by David Pearson and the Wood brothers, the 427 Chevys by Cale Yarborough and Junior Johnson and so on. Third, the new NASCAR cars are so light and so aerodynamioc, and so light-years ahead in handling, braking, and everything else, that even if they made an exception and allowed some gazillionaire to campaign a '60s or '70s car, it wouldn't be competetive anyway!!  So it's useless as a race car-which is what it was built for. # 2.  If you can't legally race it anywhere, what are you going to do with it?  I saw an article in High Performance Pontiac on someone who had restored Fireball Roberts 1962 Daytona winner to the nth degree. Big deal.  Like I said, he can't race it anywhere except vintage car club racing, and with a curb weight of about 3,700 lbs and no power steering and manual drum brakes, it's not that much fun to drive anyway. Further, when he does drive it, it's not like he's going balls-out, and doesn't give a shit if he wrecks it-he spent a zillion dollars chasing down a real 1962 Super Duty 421 and a Warner T85 three-speed tranny to be totally accurate. He's not going to risk blowing a rod out the side of that block. Wouldn't it have been a lot easier to just get a 389 or 400 out of a clunker and buy a used Muncie or Saginaw 4-speed for $500?  # 3. Don't get the bright idea to make it street-legal and drive it. First off, where are you going to get a title? Most race cars have no titles, as they've never been registered. That right there is a DMV nightmare you don't want. Secondly-it's a gutted race car-you think restoring a regular car is hard? How much of a pain in the ass do you think it's going to be to hook up headlights, tailllights, turn-signals, etc on a 40 or 50 year old car that never had them?  Are you going to drive it with a gutted interior or are you going to try to restore it? Do you know what a nightmare it is chasing down door panel clips, and sun visor screws, and seat and dash trim, and indicator light bulbs, etc, etc, etc,?  # 4. How in the hell do you know or even find out what is and isn't original?  It's a race car, so it was modified from day one!!  It doesn't matter what was or wasn't factory optional that year!!  Think about it-If you buy a 1969 Trans-Am Camaro that was supposedly raced by Mark Donohue-and it has a 9 inch Ford rear end under it, how do you know if it's original or not?  On the stock GM 10 or 12 bolt rear ends that Camaros came with, if you break an axle, the wheel comes off. Something a racer doesn't want to happen, especially at 155 mph!!  So how do know if, in 1969, Roger Penske didn't install a full-floating 9 inch Ford to avoid this problem? Or did Penske just put a c-clip eliminator kit in the stock GM rear end, and the 9 inch was installed by some other gear head who bought it in 1974?  How do you know if the 4-speed tranny is original?  Z/28 Camaros came with Muncies, but road racers often preferred the closer ratios of the Borg-Warner T10, which GM also used. How do you know if the engine is original? A lot of racers, did what Chevrolet engineers did-built it from parts-So it could have a 327 or 350 block, with a 283 crank and custom pistons in it-4 inch bore x 3 inch stroke equals 301 inches-it would have been legal to race-but it won't have the coveted "DZ" 4-bolt main 302 block in it. Does that make it worth more or, less?  # 5. So, What the hell are you going to do with it?  You can't drive it on the street and if you do race it in vintage car races, are you going to run on the ragged edge, ( which is what it takes to win, even in this arena ) or are you going to be so damn afraid of wrecking it or blowing the motor that you spend your life at the back of the pack being lapped by assholes in MGBs and Austin Healeys?  You buy a car because you want to drive it, not tow it around or look at it. I'd stay away from the old musclecar / race cars, unless of course you fall into the "More Money than Brains" category.  Mastermind