26th Oct 2009, 15:21
Ah, hearing that 383 crank at 6,000 rpms would be sweet, indeed! I once had a 383 in a Newport and loved the sound of it running right off the Y pipe when the muffler fell off once. That had great low-end torque, though I never did anything more than a few burnouts -- it was just my daily beater.
Actually, the one and only real race I ever managed to get in, I was just coming back from the store with some grillin' steaks, and this guy in a kind of beat up looking '80s Firebird really started messing with me just going down the street. He'd pop the clutch, rev it up next to me, swerve back and forth in front of me. Really asking for it. Not sure what he had, but something with headers in it, so it wasn't stock.
We got out of town and the speed limit went up, so we started easing up from the 30 we'd been doing. I figured that I'd get the noses even and see what he wanted to do. Well, he figured he needed a little head start, so when my front bumper was still about two feet from being even with his back bumper, he kicked it down. I dropped it down into second, and then first briefly to get the RPM up, then back up into second. I wasn't sure how things were going to go at first, but I started sliding up past him and just eased on by, probably doing close to 90 in second. I was watching the tach more than the speedometer. I gave him a little wave, and when I came even with his front, popped it up into third and kept going. He must have had enough, because he did the famous "quick right turn" onto a side street. Actually, for as adrenaline pulsing as that was, I guess I didn't really care to repeat it again. Also, it made me realize that my car wasn't as fast as I thought it was, because I imagined that I should have rocketed by the guy faster than I did, but then who knows what he had. Maybe he was surprised as hell that anybody beat him by two car lengths. Well, that was way back in the early or mid '90s and nothing like that ever happened again, which is okay by me.
No, I've never had the Barracuda to a car show. It's still in unrestored condition since I bought it in '87. It's not bad for its age, but certainly not in show condition. After all this time, I suppose it could be argued whether it's in 20-foot condition. That was always going to be my priority, but I ended up putting resources into other things, and I don't get to drive the Barracuda much, anyway. That is a shame, because I like driving the old cars, and probably always will.
On the other hand, the car that always was my beater, a '73 Charger, made me appreciate what a good car it was and I ended up restoring that. It's still my daily driver, with a 318 2-barrel. I did take that one to a car show the first summer after the body shop, but they don't stay new forever. I just like driving them too much to let them sit in a shed. Maybe that's the advantage of driving the base models that will never be worth the big money. You can get them nice for not 10s of thousands, and still enjoy driving them.
28th Oct 2009, 13:03
Newport hey. I'd have to go back through my books but it is conceivable that my engine could have been factory installed in a Newport, but if my memory serves me correctly it is most likely out of a 66 Windsor convertable. You know what? I doubt that I would even trade this engine for the 318 that came out of the car, unless it was sitting in a core pile for the last 25 years gettin no miles on it, and it had good compression/oil pressure.
Muscle car shows usually have judges who are fanatics of the exact car that you drive in, whatever it may be, making some of them very hard to please. I've personally gone to shows and had close looks at some of the cars that win. They are spotless, Not a bolt or a screw out of place and they don't even get 100 Pt's from the most strict of judges. I've seen 1 100 pt resto job that was on a 69 charger R/T.
The car was flawless and buddy who owned it probably needs a separate trailer to haul all his shiny hardware. It wins almost every show it goes in and it doesn't drive that far to do it. Maybe some day the organizers of all the events that he wins will have spent an equivalent amount on the trophies as the guy spent on his Charger.
Ah yes, the boys and their toys. I hear what your saying about funds being allocated to other things leaving out the fun of the project car.
26th Oct 2009, 00:27
It always makes me laugh when I see a 6 inch tail piece with 1.5 inch exhaust tubing the rest of the way from the front. This one time I was at a stop light on the highway and this prelude pulled up, the driver believing that it was in the upper echelon of performance machines. He was reving his car as I pointed at the police officer in the other lane. He (the Prelude guy) started rubbing fake tears out of his eyes thinking that I was afraid. The police man saw the entire thing and gave me the nod with his facial expression being, teach Prelude boy some manners. When we got the green, I let him get ahead of me 2 lengths and then walked on it shifting gears at 6 grand, blowing past the Honda in a nanosecond. I could see in the rearview the arm out of the police cruiser with a thumb sticking straight up in the air. Of course as soon as I passed the guy, he let off on the gas and took the next turn off leaving me to shift into drive and purr away down the open highway.
I'm glad I don't have to fill one of those dual supercharged big block racing boats that use $750 worth of gas everyday. Once I finish the resto I probably won't even put on 500 miles per year.
Have you done any car shows? I'd like to once my resto is done which wont be for at least 2 years or so.