Innholdsfortegnelse for December 2016 i Hemmings Muscle Machines

“The thing was, back in the early ’80s, we thought there weren’t many muscle cars left, and that the ones we were seeing were all rare treasures ...” Last week I caught up with an old friend from the “old neighborhood” back in the New York suburbs. We’ve both had the gearhead bug since childhood, so talk soon turned to cars from back in the day, with recollections of specific cars from that time and place. Soon we were shooting references back and forth, each one seeming to trigger another. The thing was, back in the early ’80s, we thought there weren’t many muscle cars left, and that the ones we were seeing were all rare treasures, which seems a bit laughable viewed from today’s perspective — local muscle cars…

FORD BLUE VINTAGE COOLER CJ Pony Parts • www.cjponyparts.com • $149.95 As collectors of old cars, we appreciate vintage styling. We’re drawn to the durability, simplicity and boldness that is often inherent to not just automobiles but to all kinds of objects of the era before plastics were primary materials and planned obsolescence undermined engineering. And this all-metal cooler, offered by CJ Pony Parts in blue powder coat and embossed with the Ford oval logo, appeals to us for just this reason. Fabricated of rust-resistant zinc steel, it reproduces both the look and the build quality of the portable ice boxes so commonly found midcentury in the trunks of cars bound for beaches and drag strips alike. At five gallons and measuring 18 inches x 8.75 inches x 12…

If you get down next to the beach and boardwalk, you can still find it. A blocks-long loop of streets in rundown Asbury Park, New Jersey, an adjective that certainly applied during the late 1960s. North some 13 blocks on Ocean Avenue, over to Kingsley, back down south. Past Convention Hall, the Empire Bar, the Stone Pony, Mrs. Jay’s Beer Garden and the giant Exxon sign that gave this fair city light. Places and faces immortalized in the lyrics of Bruce Springsteen. Every block set off by traffic lights. Where the Hemi-powered drones did stoplight combat. If you lived “downa Shore,” this was where you went to cruise and smoke off the guy in the other lane. This classic Ford was purchased and revived specifically to attack these streets, known…

Your ballots cast for Muscle Machine of the Year determined that Ken Lisk’s 1-of-124 ’71 GSX earned top honors. Fending off strong competition from worthy nominees, the rare Lime Mist Buick was fastidiously restored, has earned multiple accolades since and has an extensive single-family ownership history that dates back to mid-1971. It also possesses a high level of performance. Though the GSX became the “GSX Ornamentation Package” code WA5 for 1971 and could be ordered on the GS 350, the go-fast components that had been part of the 1970 WE1 GSX option remained available à la carte, and the GSX could still be ordered on the GS 455. This 455 example is equipped with an M21 four-speed and 3.42-geared Positive Traction differential. It was also factory fitted with the hood…

“Even before the nostalgia drag racing craze took off in high gear, Maple Grove Raceway in Mohnton, near Reading, drew outstanding crowds to its Ford Motorsport Nationals back in the early 1980s, which was complete with all types of Blue Oval cars to whet the appetite of Ford enthusiasts. Here are two of Ford’s top early Super Stock, A/FX and Funny Car drivers dueling it out, as near-side Phil Bonner in the famous Daddy Warbucks fuel-injected Mustang takes on fellow Ford legend Gas Ronda in his legendary Mustang sponsored by Russ Davis Ford. These were huge, huge shows. Maple Grove’s president at the time, Mike Lewis, who later went to work for the NHRA, was an absolute expert at bringing the stars out for these all-Ford shows. This same year,…

“We’d work“ on our cars all night and then head over to the famed Bob’s Big Boy for a bite.” I was glad, really thrilled, when somebody asked me recently what it was like to be a kid in the San Fernando Valley during the Fifties, when everybody was crazy about cars. Boy, did I like that idea. Yes, indeed, I’m a kid from the Valley, raised up from childhood in Van Nuys. That’s pretty much right in the center of the Valley. I don’t get asked this too often, but no, my parents were not from California. They were from Louisiana, a little town near Shreveport called King River. Like thousands of other people, or millions, they migrated out to California, and I was born in a hospital in…

HMM PRODUCT TEST: MOTHERS TIRE RENEW Quick-spraying, easy-on, wipe-off tire-shine products make the chore of keeping your sidewalls looking good and protecting them from the elements—be it road grime, brake dust or just about any other contaminant—easier. But what if you really don’t want that show-quality, extra-bright shine? Well, then, Mothers has just what you’re looking for. Mothers’ portfolio of car-care products reads like an encyclopedia of just about anything you’ll need to clean, polish or shine any part on a car. The company’s Back-to-Black line includes plenty of options for rubber, vinyl and plastic parts both inside and outside the car. For tires, they have two options, one with a high-shine, show-car appearance, called, appropriately enough, Tire Shine. The other is Tire Renew, which we recently tried on the…

THE NUMBERS TOTAL SALES: $34.6 million TOP MUSCLE CAR SALE: 1965 Shelby Cobra 289 Roadster: $880,000 UPCOMING AUCTIONS BY BONHAMS DATE: January 19, 2017 LOCATION: Westin Kierland Resort and Spa, Scottsdale, Arizona CONTACT: www.bonhams.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 Car week in Monterey is largely about European machinery. Whether it’s the swept-fender classics on the lawn at Pebble Beach or the high-revving sports cars turning wheels in anger at Laguna Seca, European machinery (and select American stuff — bona fide sports cars, elegant classics, American-powered Euro GTs) is at the heart…

A LITTLE T/A The Dodge Challenger’s desire to resolutely revisit every facet of 1970 continues unabated with the Challenger T/A. It comes in three flavors: T/A, T/A Plus and T/A 392. Yes, we know that the SCCA limited displacement to five liters in the Trans-Am class; recall that Mopar’s homologation specials had 340-cube V-8s, so they weren’t quite track-legal either. As you might expect from a car borrowing from its road-racing history, Dodge has fortified the T/A with its Super Track Pak. The suspension has been lowered by half an inch, and includes Bilstein shocks, high-performance brake lining, a three-mode stability-control system that can be turned off completely, and grippier 20-inch rubber on forged-aluminum wheels. (Unlike on the original T/A, the tires are the same size front to rear.) A…

When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive—to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love, said Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius in his immortal Meditations. As a Stoic, Aurelius espoused natural order, professed moderation in all things, and believed that actions spoke louder than words. And so, despite the idea that machinery is not necessarily in keeping with that natural order, and the ’66 Oldsmobile 4-4-2 W-30 on these pages certainly not in keeping with the temperate nature that defined the Stoics, we suspect the noble Roman would still have rather enjoyed himself being strapped in for a ride. Moderation was not really Oldsmobile’s milieu. Ritzier than a Pontiac, but not quite up to Buick levels of snootiness, the Oldsmobile was solidly…

Someone struggles to overcome a monumental challenge. That pretty much summarizes the plot of every literary work from Beowulf to the screenplay for Disney’s Star Wars Part Whatever: The Force Nods Off but Reawakens In Time for Another Sequel. Those same words can also be applied to 99 percent of the automotive restorations that’ve ever been performed in the history of automotive restoration. Sometimes it’s just minor stuff that pops up. But often it’s multiple challenges arising all at once or occurring in rapid, money-siphoning succession. What separates the shining HMM Restoration Profile feature from the cars that eventually degenerate back into half-finished “barn finds,” is the tenacity of the project vehicle’s owner and its restorer. The people who insist on making things right no matter how much time and…

Brilliant skies and a packed house again blessed eastern New York as the 24th edition of Musclepalooza sponsored by Dark Horse Customs, smoked and roared its way into the record books over Labor Day weekend. Approximately 750 show and race cars crowded their way into the pit area and onto the field at Lebanon Valley Dragway, halfway between Albany, New York, and Pittsfield, Massachusetts, in the otherwise quiet little village of West Lebanon. The Valley of Speed, as the track owners call the place, was indeed that on Labor Day weekend as the asphalt thumped with the sound of big-bore performance horsepower in every category from Pure Stock to weekend bracket racing to the wildest Super Pro and Top Sportsman cars. Musclepalooza is the Lebanon Valley strip’s biggest event, a…

NASCAR SPEEDWAY ADDENDUM I read the article about the Speedway Division and thought it was very well done. But the article failed to mention the fact that Buck Baker won the championship for those speedway cars. Those photos were given to me by the late Buddy Baker’s widow, because she wanted us to have it for our museum, the North Carolina Auto Racing Hall of Fame. Buddy always said to me that nobody mentioned that his father had won the open-wheel championship, in addition to the two Cup titles that he captured during his career, for which he was much better known. I just wanted the record to reflect that. But the fact that Nash sixes and Ford flatheads raced competitively against the overheads in that series just mystified me.…

Nyle Wing and his crew at Wing’s Auto Art might spend 400 hours on the body surface of a restoration project, yet only eight of them are actually spent in the spray booth to lay on paint. The rest of that time is spent block sanding. Sanding, sanding and more sanding. It’s the method of smoothing the small surface waves, the high and low spots, to ensure the panels will be straight and smooth enough for a mirror-like, concours-level finish. “A great paint job is all about the prep, and that’s what we’re talking about here,” says Nyle, who’s been restoring muscle cars for more than 25 years. “You can lay on the color flawlessly, but if the surface isn’t perfectly smooth to begin with, you’ll never achieve a show-winning…

SPECIFICATIONS ENGINE Block type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Chrysler RB-series V-8, cast iron Cylinder heads . . . . . . . . . . Chrysler “906” cast-iron Displacement . . . . . . . . . . . 440 cubic inches Bore x stroke. . . . . . . . . . . . 4.32 x 3.75 inches Compression ratio . . . . . . . . 10.5:1 Pistons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O.E.-type forged aluminum Connecting rods . . . . . . . . . O.E.-type steel, 6.76 inches long Crankshaft. . . . . . . . . . . .…

In late 1973, freshly equipped with a new Texas driver’s license and some money saved for a car, I embarked on a quest to find my first ride. Like a lot of kids of that era, I was keen on Trans Ams and Camaros. Coming from a GM family—my brother, Jay Harrison, owned a ’66 Chevelle SS 396 and a ’57 Chevy — I didn’t really have any interest in Fords, especially 1971-’73 Mustangs. But some friends of mine who knew I was in the market kept telling me to “at least take a look at this bad 429 Mach 1” for sale by Mark Ryalick, a kid in another neighborhood . One friend had an impressive ’70 Boss 302 Parnelli Jones edition, so I finally agreed to check out…

Monterey Car Week, an internationally known celebration of high-end automobiles held each year in and around Monterey, California, provides several opportunities for enthusiasts to acquire a muscle machine of their own. Last month, we whetted your appetite with the results from Bonham’s Quail Lodge Auction, and now we’re pleased to highlight the rest of the Monterey sales. MEMORABLE MUSCLE AT MECUM MONTEREY The first of the Monterey sales for 2016 was The Daytime Auction by Mecum Auctions, held in Monterey on August 18-20. Mecum has the distinction at this year’s Monterey Car Week of having presented some lucky buyer with the most affordable muscle car of the week — a 1989 Chevrolet Camaro, with trailer, that had been professionally prepared for SCCA racing. It’s tough to call a $9,000 expenditure…

December 1-3 Mecum Auctions Kansas City, Missouri . . . . . . . 262-275-5050 December 2-3 The Raleigh Classic Raleigh, North Carolina . . . . . . 919-269-5271 December 4 Pomona Swap Meet Pomona, California . . . . . . . . . 714-538-7091 December 4 Sumter Swap Meet Bushnell, Florida . . . . . . . . . . . 727-848-7171 December 11 Hi Performance Swap Meet Long Beach, California . . . . . . 800-762-9785 January 6-8 Collector Car Auction and Show Fort Lauderdale, Florida . . . . . 561-533-7945 January 6-15 Mecum Auctions Kissimmee, Florida . . . . . . . . . 262-275-5050 January 8 Open Classic Car Show Sunrise, Florida . . . . . . . .…

FIRST 200 MPH STUDEBAKER-POWERED STUDEBAKER HEADED TO MCACN Andy Granatelli couldn’t do it. Though he named his twin-supercharged Avanti the Due Cento for his 200 MPH goal, all he could muster at Bonneville in 1963 was 196 and some hundredths. The goal seemed even further out of sight when Studebaker exited the car business, but one marque enthusiast made the goal a reality 30 years later, and now the Avanti Ron Hall used to run 200 MPH will go on display at this year’s Muscle Car and Corvette Nationals MCACN. With the help of friends and fellow enthusiasts, Hall and his team managed to put together a 1963 Avanti powered by a 304-cu. in. Studebaker V-8, topped with one Paxton SN92 supercharger and good for up to 630 horsepower. The…

ENGINE Saleen’s Mustang SSC was only available with a high-output version of Ford’s venerable 302-cu.in. V-8. Saleen modified the 5.0-liter small-block, managing to coax out a then-noteworthy 290 horsepower. BRAKES Bringing the power-enhanced SSC to a controlled stop was managed by a four-wheel power-disc brake system. Utilizing grooved rotors with a five-lug bolt pattern, the setup was based on Ford’s factory Mustang SVO arrangement. TRANSMISSION Like most proper sports/performance cars of its day, the Saleen Mustang SSC was fitted only with a manual, in this case a performance version of the Borg-Warner T-5 five-speed. INTERIOR With the exception of one SSC, the rear seats were eliminated to make space for a speaker enclosure for the Pioneer sound system. Stock front seats were replaced by leather-shod, articulated FloFit buckets. CHASSIS Saleen…

BEST IN SHOW 1967 Chevrolet Camaro Z/28 RS Ronald Casadei; Edison, New Jersey BEST ENGINE 1970 Chevelle SS Richard Recupero; Eatontown, New Jersey BEST PAINT 1963 Pontiac Catalina Brett O’Hara; Beacon, New York FAVORITE AMC 1974 Javelin AMX Louis Rizzo; White Stone, New York 2ND PLACE AMC 1979 AMX Ron Conklin; Jeffersonville, New York FAVORITE BUICK 1987 Grand National Mike Vogel; Belchertown, Massachusetts 2ND PLACE BUICK 1970 GSX David Cleveland; West Hampton, MA FAVORITE CHEVROLET 1967 Camaro Z/28 RS Ronald Casadei; Edison, New Jersey 2ND PLACE CHEVROLET 1961 Biscayne Mark Colombi; Southwick, Massachusetts FAVORITE DODGE 1969 Charger Daytona Frank Massa III; Plainfield, Connecticut 2ND PLACE DODGE 1968 Dart GTS 383 Gary O’Brien; Feeding Hills, Massachusetts FAVORITE FORD 1969 Shelby G.T. 500 Ed Shaw; Somerset, New Jersey 2ND PLACE FORD 1970…

I have to thank my dad for introducing me to cars — especially Ford Mustangs. I remember, from the age of 12, helping him restore his 1967 Mustang (with the 390 FE big-block) that he ordered from the dealer in 1966. Well, I say helping him, but I was probably in the way more than anything. However, it was great to spend all that time with him. Once we got it complete (he did all the work himself, including the paint), he, my mom and I went to all the local car shows in the summer. It was great! As I was nearing college age, he sold that car after owning it for 22 years (and two complete restorations) to help pay my tuition. I always felt a little guilty…

Despite sharing the architecture of the popular Road Runner, the 1969 Plymouth GTX offered distinct and exclusive content, including a standard 440 engine and TorqueFlite transmission, where the Road Runner featured a 383 and standard manual gearbox. Both were, of course, available with the 426 Street Hemi, but the GTX also featured more sound deadening and other elements that made it the “gentleman’s” muscle car. And, like so many muscle cars, the story of Jack Johnson’s ’69 GTX begins when a young serviceman returned from Vietnam, walked into the dealership and drove off with the liberation of 440 cubic inches. The dealership was in Joplin, Missouri, which was only about 285 miles along Route 66 from the GTX’s St. Louis assembly plant, and the new, young owner reportedly raised hell…

IF A LITTLE IS GOOD... Q: Your column in HMM #156, August 2016 states that you should dilute your anti-freeze at a 50/50 ratio with water. I am sitting here reading the back panel on a jug of Prestone, which states that by going to a 70 percent antifreeze and 30 percent water mix, you will gain an additional –50 degrees and a +11 degrees of protection. Now, I trust your opinion, but I have been mixing my antifreeze this way for many years. What are your thoughts on this? Obviously there is an advantage in protection. Are there any disadvantages? Gregg Zahora Phoenix, Arizona A: Yours is a very good question; many are confused by this. Anti-freeze is a combination of glycols, additives and other chemicals that are the…

The experiences of Ken Crawford, of Grants Pass, Oregon, are like an early history of hot rodding. Ken was raised in Oxnard, California, about 60 miles up the coast from Los Angeles. Born in 1925, Ken was a teenager in the immediate prewar years when Model A’s and ’32 Fords had begun in earnest to replace the Model T as hop-ups. In the late ’30s, needing a car for his paper route, Ken saved up his money and started looking for the right candidate. With $100 burning a hole in his pocket, he found a (barely) running and driving 1934 Ford coupe that could be his for that amount. Ken set forth with limited tools and even more limited knowledge to get the Ford into better condition. With the help…

1958 CHEVROLET DISC-BRAKE CONVERSION PROBLEMS Q:I have a 1958 Chevrolet Bel Air. The previous owner did a body-off restoration and used a donor engine and transmission from a 1986 Camaro. The front brakes were converted to disc, but I am unsure what year spindles were used. The rotors on the car now are 11-inch. He also put Global West suspension on both front and rear with Wilwood 12-inch disc brakes in the back. I bought the Wilwood 140-12459 brake kit for a 1959-’64 Impala to convert the front discs to 12-inch for better stopping power, but this kit will not fit the existing disc-brake spindles. I am trying to order the correct kit, but the problem is identifying the spindles I have on the car now. If I can’t, I…

“...a functional term that serves a purpose regardless of how ridiculous it sounds...” I can’t recall how many times I’ve heard and used that nonsense term to describe almost anything that either has no name or has a name but that has been temporarily or permanently forgotten. My father was the first person I ever heard use it to express a statement — something like, “Where is that blamed whatchamacallit?” “Blamed” is also an oldtimey word they would use instead of the F-bomb or the D-word, at least around us kids. It really is a great word since it can be also used in the automotive hobby to describe anything we can’t quickly recall the actual name of. I know it wasn’t just a local New York term as I’ve…