Innholdsfortegnelse for June 2016 i Hemmings Muscle Machines

There are places in this world where life is both fragile and noble. People live shoulder to shoulder with the land. They literally become as one with the ground beneath them. They take nothing for granted and it shows in their labors, and their lives. People living in these places work hard, sometimes in direct peril. They raise good families with a sense of purpose and dignity. And they put the same effort into their diversions. This is a story about how one such guy — Pete Barczak — involved his offspring in his efforts to make a 1969 Ford Mustang Mach 1 whole and proud, just like his family. For many years, Pete was lowered into the shafts of coal mines in west-central Pennsylvania to dig bituminous, the Keystone…

Seek and ye shall find? Yeah, sure, that old proverb makes literal sense. But collector cars have a way of making everything more paradoxical: The harder you look for something, the harder that something becomes to locate. (Ever drop a nut or bolt, hear it hit the garage floor and then spend the rest of the day crawling around on your hands and knees futilely trying to find it?) What’s even stranger is, during that split second you’re not actively seeking... Poof! Your object of desire will magically appear. Often, after having been right there in front of you the entire time. (There it is! Next to the front tire! How’d I miss it?) That more or less describes how Canton, Michigan’s, Tony Gramer became the third owner of this…

Being a Pontiac man, I had always been curious about the 350 H.O. engine, though for many years I didn’t have the opportunity to purchase either an A- or F-body equipped with one until this Firebird was offered to me in 2013. It’s really a perfect combination: 1969 saw the 350’s highest output tucked into the division’s lightest car. It’s the year engineers got everything right on it mechanically, and then they killed it. The H.O. is one of those models from Detroit that, with some simple drivetrain adjustments and basic tuning, could easily launch the Firebird into the 13.9s. After I bought this one, I pulled the engine — it was only registering a 9.4 compression — and did a valve job, and while I was in there I…

SPECIFICATIONS PRICE Base price . . . . . . . . . . . . . $2,848 (Javelin SST) Price as profiled . . . . . . . . $3,900 (est.) Options on car profiled . . . (partial list) Go-Package with 390 V-8 and functional ram air, $422.70; Shift Command (automatic transmission) and console, $293.90; Mark Donohue spoiler, $58.30; Twin-Grip differential, $42; gauge cluster with 8,000-RPM tachometer, $50.20; AM radio, $61.60; exterior side stripes, $32.40; “mag” wheels, $72.40; visibility group, $42.75; power steering, $102.35; heavy-duty cooling, $16.05 ENGINE Type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . American Motors “second design” V-8, cast-iron block and cylinder heads Displacement . . . . . . . . .…

Why would someone swap a 455 H.O. engine, TH400 transmission, 12-bolt rear end and heavy-duty suspension parts into a ’72 Le Mans post coupe, and in the process change its appearance to that of a ’71 T-37? The short answer is: to go racing. The slightly longer one is: Only 11 ’71 T-37s were built with that high-performance drivetrain, so the probability of spotting a real one on the street is exceedingly rare, and the chances of seeing one on the strip are more so. The even longer answer as to why that drivetrain was available in the T-37, the lightest and cheapest A-body Pontiac model for ’71, requires some more explanation. A positive byproduct of the muscle car era was the emergence of the budget supercars. Automakers developed them…

June 3-5 All-Ford Nationals Carlisle, Pennsylvania. . . . . . . 717-243-7855 June 3-5 The Race of Gentlemen Wildwood, New Jersey. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . .www.theraceofgentlemen.com June 4-5 Michigan Antique Festival Midland, Michigan. . . . . . . . . .989-687-9001 June 5 Sumter Swap Meet Bushnell, Florida. . . . . . . . . . . 727-848-7171 June 9 Hemmings Cruise-In Bennington, Vermont . . . . . . . 800-227-4373 June 10-12 Russo & Steele Auction Newport Beach, California . . . 602-252-2697 June 14-18 Petit Jean Show and Swap Meet Morrilton, Arkansas. . . . . . . . . 501-727-5427 June…

The GT350 and the GT350R are, at their hearts, the same car. Both run the flat-plane-crank 5.2-liter V-8, rated at 526 horsepower at 7,500 RPM, and 429 pound-feet of torque at 4,750 RPM. That’s 102 horsepower per liter, or (at 315 cubic inches) a naturally aspirated 1.67 horsepower per cubic inch. Redline on the so-called “Voodoo” V-8 is an eye-watering 8,250 RPM. Both run a Tremec six-speed transmission to a Torsen limited-slip diff. Both wear an all-new front end, with fascia, hood and fenders up to two inches lower than a comparable GT. (The fascia and fenders, in particular, really help pull the car’s appearance together, at least in our eyes—by comparison, the standard car looks as if a vintage model has been left to melt in the sun.) They…

Some would hear about Greg Condra’s lot in life and think the deck was stacked against him. Graduating from high school in 1966, he attended junior college in 1967 and ’68, and by 1969, he was out of options. The government forced Greg’s hand, drafting him into the U.S. Army for mandatory service in the Vietnam conflict, and ducking service was not in the cards. It was while he was stationed in Southeast Asia that the longtime Mopar fan heard about the car that he knew he’d have to own when he got home: the new Dodge Challenger. Finally, Dodge had a pony car to call its own, replete with long-hood/ short-deck proportions, a longer/lower/wider stance and sheer aggression of styling in an era when Mustang was getting long in…

Every Sunday night, if the weather’s cooperating, we’re out in Altoona, Johnstown or Indiana (Pennsylvania) at the cruise-ins. That’s what’s nice about all this. We finished the car up in 2003, and the neat thing is that we still have the Mach 1, along with my ’34 Ford coupe and the 1969 Camaro that my son and I were doing when we got the Mustang. So I guess that makes me both a Ford guy and a Chevy guy. I love them all. To tell you the truth, the only thing I don’t have, and haven’t been able to find financially, is a Chrysler product. I wouldn’t mind it a bit if I had a Mopar in there with the rest of my collection. Like I said before, I love…

Every time, my wife, Maria, and I take the car out, it brings back great memories. My son Tony Jr. and I did most of the restoration ourselves, so this has been the greatest time of my life. I couldn’t have done it without Roseville Chrysler-Jeep and John Soullier who helped me track down many hard-to-find parts. In August 2013, I asked the car’s original owner, James Dupree, to come over to my home and reunite himself with the car, which he hadn’t seen since 2000. He told me that the car is in better shape now than when he purchased it on May 10, 1969, from Sites Bros, Motor Co., Inc. in Kansas City, Missouri. The Road Runner has won best of show throughout Michigan and at major events,…

Hershey, Pennsylvania, was forged in chocolate, while Battle Creek, Michigan, built its foundation on a bed — or bowl — of corn flakes. Likewise, Kenosha, Wisconsin, was for decades associated with building automobiles for Nash and American Motors. That all came to an end in the late 1980s, when Chrysler acquired AMC from Renault, spelling the demise of the manufacturing facility that dated to the turn of the 20th century. It was an unfortunate ending for a longstanding Midwest manufacturing center and glimpsed the national manufacturing decline that would accelerate over the next couple of decades. In all honesty, however, AMC had been limping along for the previous couple of decades with products that were generally competent, but didn’t make customers’ pulses race. Segment-busting experiments in the 1970s, such as…

We all know that auto racing, of any variety, is not an inherently harmless pastime. You can get hurt doing it. The risks advance exponentially with the race car’s speed capabilities. When you’re wrapped in a shell of fiberglass, with a supercharged aluminum big-block practically between your knees, generating insane cylinder pressures and guzzling prodigious quantities of nitromethane… well, let’s just say that things can go seriously sideways in a mere eyeblink. It can come from a blasted-away supercharger housing, a broken valve spring that causes the engine to “hydraulic” on unburned compressed nitro, or an internal failure that sends the connecting rods — or more than that — ripping through the sides of the engine block. Whatever the cause, the outcome will not be pretty. The driver will be…

So far, I’ve gone to one Pure Stock race with this Pontiac, and it ran a 13.56 @ 102.5 MPH. It had gone considerably quicker in the past with previous owners, but there are reasons for that. Back then, it also had manual steering, race shocks and a loose front suspension and anti-roll bar bushings. I wanted the Pontiac primarily as a comfortable street cruiser, so I decided to trade some quarter-mile performance for that. Also, I was really just making shakedown passes with the fresh engine. I later learned that it liked a lot more total timing than I had dialed in that day.…

THE NUMBERS TOTAL SALES: $21.3 million TOP MUSCLE CAR SALE: 1970 Oldsmobile 4-4-2 W-30 convertible, $308,000 UPCOMING AUCTIONS BY RUSSO AND STEELE DATE: June 10-12, 2016 LOCATION: Newport Beach, California DATE: August 18-20, 2016 LOCATION: Monterey, California CONTACT: www.russoandsteele.com LEGEND CONDITION: 1=Excellent; 2=Very Good; 3=Average; 4=Poor; 5=Major Project RESERVE: Minimum price owner will accept TOP BID: The highest offer made (but vehicle did not sell) SELLING PRICE: What the vehicle sold for AVERAGE SELLING PRICE: Average market value of vehicles in similar condition Russo and Steele bucked a bit of a trend in the Arizona auctions and turned in better results than its 2015 sale in Scottsdale, while other auction houses weren’t so lucky. Reporting $21.3 million in sales versus $19.7 million in 2015, Russo showed a roughly 7.5 percent…

CARLISLE FORD NATIONALS SALUTES 40 YEARS OF THE STARSKY/HUTCH GRAN TORINO Starsky & Hutch, which premiered on ABC television in April 1975, was hardly the first crime drama to feature an automobile in a starring role. It was, perhaps, the first show to spawn a limited production run of copycat cars from a major automaker, and four decades after the debut of the 1976 Starsky/Hutch Ford Gran Torinos, the cars retain their cult following. On June 3-5, the Carlisle Ford Nationals will salute 40 years of the “striped tomato” Gran Torinos with a display featuring cars from the television series and 2004 movie, along with production examples built for consumers by Ford. On February 9, 1976, after receiving numerous inquiries from fans of the show, Ford announced a limited production…

SPECIFICATIONS PRICE Base price . . . . . . . . . . . . . $3,535.00 Price as profiled . . . . . . . . $3,987.75 Options on car profiled . . . AM/8-Track radio, $201.60; console, $53.05; four-speed transmission, $198.10 ENGINE Type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Chrysler B-series 90-degree OHV V-8, cast-iron block and cylinder heads Displacement . . . . . . . . . . 383 cubic inches Bore x stroke . . . . . . . . . . . 4.25 x 3.375 inches Compression ratio . . . . . . . 9.5:1 Horsepower @ RPM . . . . . 335 @ 5,200 Torque @…

SPECIFICATIONS PRICE Base price . . . . . . . . . . . . . $3,122 Price as profiled . . . . . . . . $4,075 Options on car profiled . . . 351-cu.in. 4V V-8, $25.91; Select-Shift Cruise-O-Matic transmission, $200.85; Traction-Lok differential, $63.51; Visibility Group, $11.16; Wide Oval tires, $14.29; Sport Deck rear seat, $97.21; power steering, $94.95; power front disc brakes, $64.77; tilt-away steering wheel, $66.14; AM/FM stereo radio, $181.36; front bumper guards, $12.95; tachometer and trip odometer, $54.45 ENGINE Type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Ford 351 “Windsor” OHV V-8 (M-code), cast-iron block and cylinder heads Displacement . . . . . . . . . . 351 cubic inches…

ENGINE The Firebird H.O. was only available with a single engine: a high-output version of the division’s 350-cu.in. V-8. Furnished with a four-barrel induction system, hot camshaft and a pair of big-valve heads usually found on the larger engines, it was rated for 325 hp. BRAKES Typical of the era, the Firebird H.O. was furnished with four-wheel hydraulic drum brakes. Power assist was optional, as was a power front disc system. The 1969 disc system welcomed an improvement over ’68’s in the form of single-piston calipers. TRANSMISSION No fewer than five transmissions were available to the H.O.’s customer base. Standard was a column-shift three-speed, which could have been swapped for a floor-shifted three-speed, one of two four-speed manuals, or the famed Turbo-Hydramatic 400. INTERIOR As with the exterior, the H.O.’s…

It is hard to explain what this car means to me. It ties together so many of my favorite childhood memories, including my passion for auto racing. It’s not just about owning a cool car. It’s also about owning and preserving a piece of racing history. Mark Donohue was killed over 40 years ago, and I feel like I have become a caretaker with this car. I get as much enjoyment discussing Mark’s career and racing successes as I do driving or displaying the car. Every car guy has heard of Roger Penske. Most of them know how successful his race team has become. Most of them don’t know how it got there, but this car helps explain it.…

If one wants a service- able muscle machine with lots of low-cost opportunities, then, one can hardly go wrong with the venerable small-block combined with the 1968-’74 Nova chassis. Who knows if that’s what was on the mind of this car’s original purchaser, but that’s what he got when he took home a 350/four-speed Super Sport back in the mid-1970s. That kind of practicality also wasn’t on the mind of Derek Redden, of Muncy, Pennsylvania, when he first saw his ’74, but it has served him well. Rather, Derek, who was only 16 at the time, just knew that his neighbor had a neat old car and it was up for grabs. It took some doing, but in the spring of 1998, Derek was ultimately able to talk his father…

VICARI TAMPA CLASSIC & MUSCLE CAR AUCTION PREVIEW Vicari Auction hosted its first Tampa event of 2016 on April 1 and 2 at the Expo Hall on the Florida State Fairgrounds. April’s auction coincided with the Festivals of Speed event in St. Petersburg and the NSRA Southeast Street Rod Nationals in Tampa. Of interest to muscle car aficionados were lots like the red 1967 Chevelle two-door sedan. A former six-cylinder car, the Chevelle now boasts a 327-cu.in. V-8, disc brakes and five-spoke mag wheels. Being a post model, the sedan had that extra air of toughness that will stand out from the typical hardtops and convertibles at any show. Mopar enthusiasts had the opportunity to grab a piece of modified muscle of a different stripe with the 1972 Dodge Challenger…