Innholdsfortegnelse for August 2017 i Hemmings Muscle Machines

 Here in the Northeast, the change in seasons always seems to put me in mind of swap meets. Fall brings Hershey and one of the main Carlisle events, plus one of the Englishtown swaps; the other Carlisle and E-town meets come in spring. These events were once near mythical gatherings to me and my gearhead buddies when we were teens who’d yet to venture out to one. Other guys we knew with dads or older brothers into cars had been already, and they’d come back to tell us tales of $10 Holley carbs, $20 aluminum intakes, and all manner of other wish-list items for bargain prices. The lure was powerful stuff. “ We’d walk every row, scan every pile, and rummage box after box, and sometimes a treasure or two…

CASLER CHEATER SLICKS California Car Cover www.calcarcover.com • 800-423-5525 $19.99-$21.99 Whether you were a drag racer or a hot rodder, any high-performance enthusiast in the 1960s knew and respected “cheater” slicks. This vintage-inspired Gildan-brand T-shirt (item 0065N) recalls the days when Los Angeles native Bill Casler established a winning reputation enjoyed by his famous Casler Racing Tires on the strip and street. This Ontario, California-based business made those slicks by shaving off the tread of bias-ply tires, then topping the carcasses with fresh rubber extrusions, and hot mold-forming the iconic flat tread and square shoulders that were so famous in the period. The Cheater Slicks shirt sports a durable, screen-printed image, and is pre-shrunk 100-percent cotton for true comfort. It’s available in sizes Medium-3XL. 1969 DODGE CHARGER American Muscle…

Which of Vinny Sprance’s big-block 1969 Chevrolet Nova SS’s would you like to know about? The burgundy one with the black vinyl roof, which he bought new? The one wearing 41 coats of hand-rubbed black lacquer, a car he street raced and owns today? Maybe the silver one that he couldn’t stand the sight of, or the pearlescent white one with the candy-color ribbons he drove back in the mid-Seventies? You may have figured out by now that this is a trick question: They’re all the same Nova, the shifting hues simply reflecting the changes in Vinny’s 48-year relationship with the car. Don’t expect to see any further changes in color, though. After multiple trips to the paint booth, this 37,000-mile example is just the way that Vinny, a former…

ENGINE: Beyond the base 302 V-8 under the hood, the Torino GT could have been optioned with two-barrel versions of the 351 Cleveland and Windsor V-8s, along with a four-barrel 351 Cleveland. Though the hottest small-block offered ample output, with 300 hp, the 429 “Thunderjet” big-block (costing $192) provided 60 additional horses to play with. Serious gearheads probably would have sprung for the 370-hp, 429 Cobra Jet or the 375-hp, 429 Super Cobra Jet engine options, the latter hitting the wallet for another $421. TRANSMISSION: The three-speed manual was offered in two configurations: standard and heavy-duty form, though few of the latter are known to have been installed. Buyers should also be aware that the Toploader four-speed manual used 28-spline and 31-spline output shafts for both the close- and wide-ratio…

“ Supper’s on,” my grandmother announced from the kitchen, as the aroma of simmering spaghetti sauce, meatballs, and ziti drifted down to the cellar. Not a moment too soon, as I had worked up an appetite from hours of treasure hunting in the wonderland of family memories that filled my grandparent’s basement and backyard shed. The time could be any Saturday, Sunday, or weeknight in the mid-to-late 1970s; the place was “the old house,” my grandparents’ white, 1950s ranch-style home in northeastern New Jersey. I was anywhere from six to 12 years old, and we lived close by. Rummaging through the stacks of cardboard boxes invariably rewarded me with prizes that ranged from my grandfather’s World War II memorabilia from when he served overseas, to my father’s and my aunt’s…

SPECIFICATIONS ENGINE Block type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1974 Ford 351W small-block; cast-iron Cylinder heads . . . . . . . . . . Trick Flow Twisted Wedge; aluminum Displacement . . . . . . . . . . . 408 cu.in. Bore x stroke. . . . . . . . . . . . 4.030 x 4.00 inches Compression ratio . . . . . . . . 10.5:1 Horsepower @ RPM . . . . . . Unknown Torque @ RPM. . . . . . . . . . . Unknown Camshaft type . . . . . . . . . . . Hydraulic roller Duration. . . . . . . .…

It is an axiom of hot rodding that the first race took place as soon as the second automobile was constructed. If so, there’s a good chance that Joe Jagersberger was somehow involved. Not only was he driving, racing, and improving the earliest automobiles, but his most famous product is even today on the lips of auto enthusiasts, more than six decades after his death. Joseph W. Jagersberger was born in Vienna, in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, on Valentine’s Day, 1884. As a young teenager, Jagersberger took an engineering apprenticeship with the Vienna Factory Branch of the Daimler Motor Company, while at the same time taking night classes at the Politechnikum Wien (Vienna Institute of Technology). His racing career began in 1897 when, in a Vienna-to-Salzburg event, he served as riding…

AUCTIONS AMERICA’S AUBURN SALE Thousands converged on the Auburn Auction Park for Auctions America’s sale, held May 11-13 in Auburn, Indiana. The combination of the auction and a joint AACA/CCCA meet in what was billed as a “Triple Crown” event led to one of Auction America’s top Auburn Spring results to date, with $10.2 million in total sales. The sale was led by the offering of the former Level 5 Motorsports Collection, entirely without reserve. Nearly 350 vehicles and 450 lots of automobilia crossed the block, and 83 percent found new homes. Bidders represented 38 states and 11 countries, over one third were first-time participants at an Auctions America event. “With strong attendance from start to finish and exceptionally great weather, this was without a doubt one of our best…

“ Taking a muscle car for a drive creates a feeling that, if bottled, could be used as a medical prescription for the grumps ”. Happiness can be contagious. It’s pretty hard to be around folks who are happy and not catch the happy bug. But I have several car buddies who seem to prefer gravitating toward grumpsville as a regular state of being. It might be age, the state of the world, family problems, money worries, or whatever — we’ve all been there. But there seems to be one common automotive remedy to the onset of persistent grumpification, and it’s our muscle cars. Taking a muscle car for a drive creates a feeling that, if bottled, could be used as a medical prescription for the grumps. “Take a slug…

CHEVROLET SS: THE LAST OF THE LINE? With government subsidies drying up and intense competition from lots of imports on one of the most open markets in the world, Australia is getting out of the car-making business. Ford closed up shop there last year, Toyota will stop in October, and GM’s Holden subsidiary will shutter its doors that same month, the last car off the line likely a Commodore V8. So, why are you reading about Toyotas and Australian government subsidies in this magazine? Well, the day we write this, reports are coming in that the final Chevrolet SS, equipped with an LS3 all-aluminum V-8 and a six-speed manual, rolled off the company’s Elizabeth, South Australia, assembly line. The related, but stripped-down Caprice PPV police vehicle has also met its…

In the big, full-color brochure that Dodge had printed for the 1968 Dart line, the company declared, “More people come back for ‘seconds’ than any other car in its class. Does this tell you something about the Dart?” Well, we might argue it tells us something about those people, too. Take Gary O’Brien, for instance. The retired Agawam, Massachusetts, police officer first owned a 1968 Dodge Dart GTS 340 in 1988. A veteran of other Mopars, including some hot B-body examples, Gary regretted selling that Dart and set about looking for another one. His love affair with the Dart goes all the way back to his youth. “When I was a kid, like in ’68, my family owned them,” he says. “My aunt had one that she bought brand new.…

FOUR-DOOR FOX I have been wanting to write and say that I enjoyed the column on “Not the Right Number of Doors.” I have a 1984 Ford LTD LX that now has the drivetrain from a 1990 Mustang 5.0 H.O. and a World Class T5 five-speed manual. I also have a 1996 Mustang GT convertible. Both cars are show quality. Guess which one I drive and show the most? Yep, the LTD, and it takes home the awards. And yes, it has more doors than the Mustang. Bob Moody Via email The LTD LX was an interesting offering when it came out for 1984. Most people still aren’t aware that it ever existed, and few were sold. We’ve heard that the concept came from a Ford exec who had attended…

Millions of Mopars left the factory with the ubiquitous 83/4-inch rear axle. It was Chrysler’s midrange passenger-car axle, offering greater torque capacity than the lighter-duty 8 1/4-inch rear end used on most Slant-Six-powered and other lower-end V-8 vehicles, but not quite the bomb-proof strength of the Dana 60 used in many of the cars powered by the Hemi or other top-shelf V-8s. Introduced in 1957 and employed through about 1974, the axle Chrysler produced came in three basic versions, which varied by the size of pinion bearing and corresponding pinion stem diameter. There was a 1 3/8-inch pinion-stem diameter, a 1 3/4-inch pinion stem and the later-style with a 17/8-inch tapered pinion stem. Each variant is generally known by its 1964-and-later casting number. The 2070741, or “741,” axle used the…

ALTITUDE CONCERN Q:I have a question regarding a trip my girlfriend and I are taking this September to Pikes Peak. We are planning on taking my ’64 Chevelle four-door, which has the original 283 that was rebuilt some years ago. It is very mild with a .030-inch overbore and a 300-hp/327 cam. I’ve replaced the Powerglide with a 200-4R overdrive, rebuilt the suspension, and added four-wheel disc brakes. The car was my first and has been with me through good times and bad. It’s been my daily driver, show car, and road-trip car. I drove it to North Carolina in 2010 and Michigan in 2012. Upon returning from Michigan, I was only a few miles from home and was rear-ended. That catastrophe led to the car’s restoration and the upgrades…

On Saturday, December 18, 1968, my oldest brother, Steve, and my father went to a morning dentist appointment in West Denver, Colorado. Several hours later, my brother appeared at my folks’ house driving a brand-new Dodge Super Bee. I was instantly struck by the car, with its 383 Magnum, B5 blue paint, white tail stripe, and red-line Uniroyal tiger-paw tires. For whatever reason, my dad and brother had stopped at Dodge City on West Colfax Avenue on the way home from the dentist, and the rest is history. Shortly after, we drove the Super Bee on a goose hunting trip to southeast Colorado. On the way home, my brother (naturally) got a speeding ticket. My brother had just graduated from Colorado State University in Ft. Collins and apparently figured he…

MODERN DRIVELINE FOR 1955 T-BIRD Q:I fully enjoy your Q&A section in Hemmings Motor News and HMM— very thorough and detail informative. My question to you has a history to it. Back in the 1970s when I was just a youngster, I was fortunate to own a 1955 Thunderbird that had an engine swap from the 292-cu.in. to a 428. That swap was amazing. I know the swap included a C6 automatic transmission, which meant that parts of the mid X-frame had to be cut and custom motor-mount supports welded in. I sold that car back in my young and dumb teenage years, much to my regret. Now some 50 years later, I have another 1955 T-Bird that is completely original, a classic that I think has spent many years…

NATIONAL CORVETTE MUSEUM RESTORES 1984 CORVETTE FOR FAMILY OF FALLEN POLICE OFFICER Burke Rhoads, an officer with the Nicholasville, Kentucky, police department, loved Corvettes, but in 2015, in the middle of the home restoration of his 1984, he died in a duty-related traffic accident. When his widow later sought advice on where to get the car painted from the National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green, Kentucky, the staff took on a project that would ultimately see the Corvette restored, at no charge, for officer Rhoads’s family. Lacking a budget for such an endeavor, the museum sought donations from suppliers like PPG Automotive Refinish, Corvette Central, Auto Zone, and Midas, while a local shop, Final Finish, supplied the labor to repaint the car. Mechanical work was carried out by the museum’s…

There are few absolutes when it comes to restoring our favorite muscle cars. Details of finishes and build processes that have become accepted norms can sometimes be challenged by aspects of some cars that just don’t seem to fit the mold. Assembly practices may have varied from plant to plant or from year to year. Possibly there were running changes, or the plant ran out of a particular item and had to temporarily or permanently amend a procedure because of it. Whatever the reasons, these anomalies only serve to add interest and vitality to an already thriving hobby, and they keep many dedicated researchers studying the fine points that will contribute to furthering future restoration efforts. Frank Arone, owner of Arone Restorations in Homer City, Pennsylvania, came upon an example…

I recently bought a 1968 Chevy II Nova SS with a big-block. The car had been stored since 1973. It is an old drag car with 6,500 original miles. It is still lettered up with vintage custom paint. I have a lot of history on the car and a few pictures from back in the day. The car was ordered new at Hall Chevy, and I even found the original salesman. It was ordered with the L78 375-hp 396, bench seat, four-speed and 4.88 gears. Once they could not get the 396 to go any faster, the dealer helped them out with an L88 427. Ralph, the driver, kept breaking axles, so they put in a Dana 60 with 5.13 gears. The car was raced from 1968 to 1973, and…

Sleeper? Factory Experimental? It’s hard to characterize the spirit of this Falcon wagon exactly, except to say that it’s fast and fun — which is really what counts in the world of hot rodding. This two-door wagon may look close to stock on the outside, but it’s very different from the way it left the San Jose, California, assembly plant in September 1961. Its performance may have historically minded folks recalling Arnie Beswick’s 1962 Pontiac Tempest wagon, Mrs. B’s Grocery Getter, (and the bags of “groceries” in the back are a winking acknowledgement of the station wagon’s decidedly non-performance role in automotive history), but the steel wheels and lack of lettering hints at a street-racing past. The Ford Falcon was conceived by the highly pragmatic Robert McNamara in…

HMM PRODUCT TEST: MOTHER’S CALIFORNIA GOLD SYNTHETIC WAX We’re just getting into a late-blooming summer here in the Northeast as this is written, and that means it’s time to clean up the fleet. We’ve all got our favorite go-to products for car detailing, but every so often something new and potentially interesting comes over our transom. This time it’s a relatively new Mothers wax. Years of messing with cars and living in sometimes harsh climates has left us fans of Mothers waxes, mainly for two reasons: They leave a silky finish behind that looks good, and that finish really seems to last a long time, judging from the way dirt rinses off and water beads even weeks after an application. The most recent product we tried from Mothers is a…

THE NUMBERS TOP MUSCLE CAR SALE AT BONHAMS: 1968 Pontiac Firebird Trans-Am race car, sold for $225,000 post-auction TOP MUSCLE CAR SALE AT RM SOTHEBY’S: 2004 Saleen S7, sold for $473,000, including 10-percent buyer’s fee TOP MUSCLE CAR AT GOODING: 2006 Ford GT, sold for $275,000, including 10-percent buyer’s fee TOP MUSCLE CAR AT MOTOSTALGIA: 2008 Shelby GT500, sold for $29,150, including 10-percent buyer’s fee 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 The Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance annually presents the world’s finest classic,…

August 2-4 Iowa Gas Swap Meet/Auction Des Moines, Iowa . . . . . . . . . . 515-321-7930 August 3 Hemmings Cruise-In Bennington, Vermont . . . . . . . 800-227-4373 August 3-5 Mecum Auction Harrisburg, Pennsylvania . . . . 262-275-5050 August 4-5 Hot August Nights Virginia City, Virginia . . . . . . . . 775-356-1956 August 4-6 Das Awkscht Fescht Macungie, Pennsylvania . . . . . 610-967-2317 August 4-6 Pontiac Nationals Norwalk, Ohio . . . . . . . . . . . . . 567-227-9011 August 5-6 Elkhorn Parts Swap Meet Elkhorn, Wisconsin . . . . . . . . . 608-244-8416 August 6 Long Beach Hi Performance Swap Meet Long Beach, California . . . . . .…