Innholdsfortegnelse for June 2017 i Hemmings Muscle Machines

“But there are aspects of car learning that don’t come easy, no matter what we read or observe. These are the areas that can be seen as the black arts.” It’s kind of a shame that the basic education system in this country tends to leave many of us with a distaste for formal learning. I recognize that this isn’t universally true, but I think plenty of us experience a certain unpleasant feeling when the thought of entering a classroom is suggested. Admit it — you’re not really excited about the idea. I know plenty of people who did well in school and went on to have successful careers as a result, but even lots of them will bristle a bit at the thought of further lectures, study time and…

CARROLL SHELBY: A COLLECTION OF MY FAVORITE RACING PHOTOS Art Evans and Carroll Shelby • CarTech • www.cartechbooks.com 1-800-551-4754 • $34.95 plus $6.95 s&h It would not be an overestimation to say that there are dozens of books touching in some way on the life and work of the famed race driver, automotive designer and entrepreneur Carroll Shelby, so when another crossed our desk we wondered what it could possibly have to add? Turns out, the answer is pictures. Lots and lots of wonderful pictures. Toward the end of his life, Shelby became interested in creating a memoir and enlisted the help of racer, motorsports writer and friend Art Evans, but Shelby’s failing eyesight made working with text difficult. That’s when they hit on the idea of, in Evans’ words,…

Oldsmobile’s Toronado conveyed a sleek, modern exterior design that was fortified with ingenious engineering beneath the surface. Though this story is about a ’70 Toronado GT, the final model year for the first generation, it actually begins with the inaugural ’66 edition of Oldsmobile’s personal/luxury/performance car. Mike Markowski was a sophomore at Penn State University, working toward an aerospace engineering degree when he first saw the new Toronado. He was instantly captivated by its attention-grabbing styling and distinctive mechanical attributes. And who could blame him? Oldsmobile’s new version of GM’s revised E-body broke with convention in many areas. Its Unitized Power Package (UPP) neatly nestled a 425-cu.in. V-8, transmission and differential under the hood without reverting to transverse mounting of the engine. The trans was next to the engine and…

ENGINE: We noted that the base V-8 in the SS was the 195-hp 283, a two-barrel small-block, the architecture of which was based on the original 265 of 1955. Whether in two-or four-barrel form, the 283 featured a 3.87 x 3.00-inch bore and stroke, with two-bolt main journal caps retaining the crankshaft. Though still in the small-block family, the optional 327 was considered a performance upgrade, and was available in three power ratings for the 1965 SS. TRANSMISSION: In base form, the SS was offered with a three-speed manual, a Muncie unit that could have been upgraded with an optional overdrive. Installation of the overdrive unit would impact the standard final drive ratio for the differential. On the option chart was a close- and wide-ratio four-speed manual, along with a…

So, I’m reading contributor Rocky Rotella’s excellent article on a ’78 Pontiac Trans Am Macho T/A (“Boosted Blackbird,” HMM #157, September 2016) and I remember an earlier article on one of these cars, another ’78, by Mike McNessor, who is now the editor of Hemmings Motor News. I looked that one up (“Macho Poncho,” HMM #61, October 2008) and was rereading it when it suddenly dawned on me: Hey, I drove a Macho T/A back in the day. I immediately went to my old files and there it was. The one I drove was a ’79. Along with old pal Marty Schorr, at that time the founder/editor of Thunder Am magazine, I picked the car up right at Mecham Pontiac in Glendale, Arizona, near Phoenix. You’ll remember Thunder Am as…

SPECIFICATIONS ENGINE Block Type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Chevrolet GEN VI big-block; cast-iron, four-bolt mains Cylinder Heads . . . . . . . . . . Chevrolet Performance aluminum oval-port Displacement . . . . . . . . . . . 502 cubic inches (ZZ502 crate engine) Bore x Stroke. . . . . . . . . . . . 4.47 x 4.00 inches Compression Ratio . . . . . . . 9.6:1 Horsepower @ RPM . . . . . . 508 @ 5,200 Torque @ RPM. . . . . . . . . . . 580 @ 3,600 Camshaft Type. . . . . . . . . . . Hydraulic roller Duration.…

My life was about as all-American as it got in 1971, when my love of muscle cars started. I played baseball in little league and was enjoying the summer. My buddy and I were being driven to our games by his big brother in none other than a 1970 Chevelle SS that he had purchased the summer before. It was Fathom Blue, with a four-speed, a bench seat and stripe delete. I can still remember riding in the front seat on the way to the games and feeling the torque of that big-block Chevy. I told myself right then that I would get one when I was old enough. Several years went by and it was still my dream to own a Chevelle. It was now the summer of 1977,…

RM SOTHEBY’S AT SCOTTSDALE Last month we ran out of space before we could present the sales of RM Sotheby’s at its Scottsdale, Arizona, auction, held January 28-29. Some of the more intriguing lots included a 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air convertible, unusually equipped with the Ram Jet fuel-injected 283-cu.in. V-8 in its slightly milder, 250-horsepower guise, and a column-shifted three-speed manual transmission. Odd fare in a world where most Bel Air convertibles seem to be Power Pack/Powerglide cars. The hot drop-top sold for $99,000. Similar to the Chevrolet was a 1961 Ford Galaxie Sunliner, itself also equipped with a three-on-the-tree and the hottest Ford mill of 1961, the triple-carb, 401-horsepower 390-cu.in. big-block V-8. The unassuming Starlight Blue Sunliner changed hands for $88,000. Speaking of unassuming, most people, upon spying a…

“...from now on, I’ll have a different attitude toward these full-body, two-too-many-doors creations.” How many times have you heard that statement? According to most muscle machine enthusiasts, the right number of doors is two. One front door on each side, with no more door handles behind them, and it’s been this way for many, many years. However, that long-standing preference just might be changing to some degree. Back in the ’60s, many four-door cars rolled off all the major manufacturers’ assembly lines with big engines, four-speed transmissions and performance rear ends. But can we really consider them muscle cars? It’s amazing how we can look, but really not see. I can’t imagine how many nicely restored and modified four-door high-performance sedans I’ve seen at local and national marque events, but…

THE PROMISE OF YEAR-ROUND MUSCLE MOTORING What happened to us? Snow-belt Americans used to be perfectly willing to forge out into the snow with only the rear wheels providing traction, spinning a pair of snow tires that hadn’t evolved since about 1950. No high-performance winter rubber, no traction control, and for the vast majority of us, no all-wheel drive (AWD). It’s just what we did each winter. Somewhere along the way, we lost a bit of our sense of automotive adventure, and AWD has become a mandate in many households that experience frozen climes for part of the year. The resulting sacrifices rear up whenever considering the next new car. Mustangs, Camaros, Challengers and pretty much any of the other neat V-8-powered rear-drive modern muscle cars all get knocked off…

Woodward Avenue wasn’t the only cruising hotspot in the Detroit area back in the Sixties and Seventies. There were scenes all over the metro area, with Gratiot Avenue on the east side rivaling famed Woodward in the breadth and depth of iron on the street. They motored between sites such as the Jupiter Drive-In and ubiquitous Big Boy restaurant. Enthusiasts across the country knew the name Gratiot for the pioneering mail-order speed shop Gratiot Auto Supply, which famously employed Linda Vaughn in national print ads and local TV spots. It got its start along the avenue, with a huge showroom full of parts in Detroit that grew into several stores throughout the area. A young Bob Kessler was one of Gratiot Avenue’s regulars in the late Sixties and made the…

When you start to gather cars on a golf course at a Ritz-Carlton property, finding American performance and race cars is seemingly not always given the priority that coachbuilt classics and European sports cars get, but the organizers of the Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance have embraced performance cars since their first show 21 years ago. In the past, they’ve presented awards in NASCAR, Trans-Am, Greenwood Corvette and other categories of interest to our readers. For 2017, the concours included a Camaro class, several race car classes that attracted American entrants and sports car classes that included the likes of cars created with the Shelby name on them — cars that stacked up well against those from Europe whose names ended in vowels. The Camaro class included both Yenko and other…

MISSILE MIS-FIRE As one close to the Motown/Mopar Missile cars, I was astounded to read that the Dart Sport pictured on the top of page 45 of HMM #165, May 2017, was the famous “Wire Car.” That Dodge IS NOT the Wire Car — the Wire Car is a Plymouth Duster, as you can see in the accompanying pictures. Note the support cables (wires) that hold up the back of the body, seen in the rear window shot, seen above. Joe Pappas (former Don Carlton crew chief) told me that with the magnesium “tin work,” the car was so light that once the powertrain, axles and all other removable items were taken out, the bare shell could be carried around the shop by two guys. Ready to race, it weighed…

Sometimes, we encoun- ter things in life that just “are.” Case in point: We don’t really know why it is, but we’ve never heard of a Chevy 383 stroker small-block that was a slug. And we’ve confirmed it using our very own non-empirical butt-dyno. Without question, every 383-powered vehicle we’ve ever ridden in or driven has been an exceptionally strong runner. Some claim it’s an optimum bore-to-stroke ratio that creates the powerful performance. Others say it’s simply the added cubic inches. But rather than participate in that endless discussion, we’ve decided instead to build one of our own so we can experience the thrill of a big-inch small-block for ourselves on a regular basis, because not only do they run well, but modern parts availability has made building a 383…

CANADIAN MOPAR Q: My questions involve my 1968 Barracuda 340 four-speed. It is basically stock. The machine shop said it was around 10.1:1 compression. The only deviations from stock are an Edelbrock LD4B intake and #1405 manual-choke carb. The exhaust manifolds are stock, too. I noticed when I had a rocker cover off that a valve seemed loose in the guide (wobbled). The Viton valve-stem seal had also come loose and was riding up the valve stem. The heads went back to the machine shop to see what was up. When disassembled, they found a black, crystalized sludge on the back of every intake valve. Their thought was poor ignition, but I’m not sure that’s the the real reason. Any thoughts on why this would happen? Is there a chance…

What makes a one-owner car? This car — in the same family since 1964 and a dedicated drag racer for nearly all of that time — makes a good case that it’s a one-owner machine in a certain sense. Jack Sampsel couldn’t turn down a ’55 Chevy hardtop for $50, even with a blown engine. A junkyard 265 got the car on the street for a brief time serving as Jack’s daily driver. Then, in 1965, a wrecked ’61 Corvette donated its 270-hp 283 and four-speed, and a race car was born. Initially the ’55 was dubbed The Fugitive and its only pieces of speed equipment were headers, an Edelbrock cross-ram and some fabricated traction bars. Jack customized the grille, giving the car a distinctive appearance in period photos, and…

CAMARO RPO J65 METALLIC BRAKE SHOES Q: Where can I get OE metallic drum-brake shoes for my 1967 SS/RS Camaro? They were an option I ordered on my Camaro, and I am now restoring it. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Larry Hoover Via Facebook A: Just to be clear for those reading, the more familiar RPO J56 was a heavy-duty metallic brake option available only on the 1967 Camaro Z/28. Like the RPO J52 front disc-brake package, which could be ordered on any Camaro model in 1967, RPO J56 consisted of sintered metal front disc pads and used the same composite material on the rear shoes. Only 205 Z/28s were sold in 1967 with the RPO J56 — about a third of the total Z/28s (602) sold in 1967.…

RICHARD PETTY PRESENTED WITH ROBERT E. PETERSEN LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD Racing drivers aren’t generally household names in the U.S., but Richard Petty is surely an exception to this rule. Petty is known simply as “The King” to his legions of fans, and no NASCAR driver has ever won more races, more Daytona 500s or more events in a single season (27, in 1967). On March 27, Petty was presented with the Robert E. Petersen Lifetime Achievement Award at a gala dinner held at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles. In the words of the Petersen Museum’s executive director, Terry Karges, “Stock car racing is one of the most uniquely American forms of motorsport and nobody casts as big of a shadow in that world as Richard Petty. His larger-than-life…

If you had the cash, and you wanted a car that could do it all — scoot, stop, corner, cruise and coddle your hind end in tasteful opulence all the while — then Chrysler’s 300 was one-stop shopping for the American car buyer. And with a base price approaching $6,000 in 1960 money, one could argue, it damned well should be. Gobs of torque, the luxury feel of a European sedan, and a ride/handling combination that was nothing short of what a sports car could approach were all part and parcel for Chrysler’s famed Letter Car. You’d never know it by looking, but model year 1960 was a year of innovation for Chrysler Corporation. The style of the company’s full-size cars, so radical in 1957, seemed almost old-hat by 1960.…

There are many ways to describe the 1966 Ford Galaxie 500 7-Litre —“stately,” “unusual,” “powerful,” “desirable”— but “corrosion resistant” definitely isn’t one of them. It’s the curse of all postwar cars driven through the winter months in places where roads have never been on low-sodium diets. From the drip rails to the frame rails, anywhere rust could sink its teeth into our favorite old cars it did — most hungrily in the hidden creases, pockets and folds of the body and chassis. And rust, as Neil Young told us, never sleeps. Once it’s been pulling all-nighters inside a quarter panel wheel opening or trunk floor extension... well, to paraphrase from another of Mr. Young’s songs, the damage (is) done. Fortunately, some old cars are too near and dear to their…

If you’ve never laid eyes on a Canadian market full-size 1969 Pontiac before, it’s no stretch to say that Dave Plummer’s stunning example is perhaps the best you’ll ever see. It’s an interesting car by any standard, beginning with its birth at the Oshawa, Ontario, assembly plant, to its current status as a finely restored muscle machine. Most enthusiasts are aware of some of the unusual Canadian GM cars, such as the compact Acadian and intermediate Beaumont, but Pontiac’s full-size offerings were likewise distinctive. Rather than being built on the U.S. market’s Catalina or Bonneville chassis, Canada’s big Ponchos were manufactured on the Chevrolet Caprice/Impala frame, resulting in a somewhat smaller car than their American counterparts. Compare wheelbase and length of Dave’s Pontiac, which measures 119 and 216 inches, respectively.…

HMM PRODUCT TEST: PITTSBURGH 2-INCH TEARDROP MALLET We like when simple stuff works well. Recently, while taking a metal shaping class, I got to spend plenty of time pounding on sheetmetal — both steel and aluminum—to learn how to shrink and stretch using time-honored methods. That meant lots of swinging various hammers and mallets. At one point, while attempting to make a vintage hot rod style teardrop-shaped “blister,” I needed to exercise some finesse in persuading the aluminum to move a bit more, without overdoing it. In the school’s shop, I found a nice, light, wood-handled, plastic-headed hammer with a pointed side and a rounded side. It proved to be perfect for the detail work that the bigger, heavier hammers we’d done our initial forming with might have mauled. Where…

THE NUMBERS TOTAL SALES: $22.1 million TOP MUSCLE CAR SALE: 1969 Boss 429 Mustang – $335,500 UPCOMING AUCTIONS BY RUSSO AND STEELE DATE: June 2-4 LOCATION: Newport Beach, 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 There was a selec-tion of engaging muscle cars to fit most budgets at Russo and Steele this past January, and buyers responded. The total for the Scottsdale event was reported to be $22.1 million, which would mean that sales increased each year over the last…

June 2-4 All Ford Nationals Carlisle, Pennsylvania . . . . . . . 717-243-7855 June 2-4 Russo & Steele Auction Newport Beach, California . . . 602-252-2697 June 4 Sumter Swap Meet Bushnell, Florida . . . . . . . . . . . 727-848-7171 June 8 Hemmings Cruise-In Bennington, Vermont . . . . . . . 800-227-4373 June 9-11 Leake Auction Tulsa, Oklahoma . . . . . . . . . . . 918-254-7077 June 13-17 Petit Jean Show and Swap Meet Morrilton, Arkansas . . . . . . . . . 501-727-5427 June 16-17 Mecum Auction Portland, Oregon . . . . . . . . . . 262-275-5050 June 16-18 Pittsburgh Parts-A-Rama Prospect, Pennsylvania . . . . . 412-366-7154 June 17…