Innholdsfortegnelse for September 2017 i Hemmings Muscle Machines

“…we may be in the midst of another magical period, where hot cars can be had for short money… ” I’ve spent probably way too much time daydreaming about what it might have been like to be of car-buying age back when the original muscle cars were new. I’ve even devoted space to it on this page in the past, lamenting that I never got to order my own right from the factory. In variations of those fantasies, I recognized that there was a period back then that must have been magnificent, even for those who might not have been able to buy a brand-new performance ride. I figured that somewhere around the very early ’70s, the used-car market for late-model muscle must have been amazing. All those cars, just…

GRILLE PROJECT PRINTS Nathanial Havholm californiagrilledtees.com • info@californiagrilledtees.com • $30 plus S&H We’ve all been driving and caught a glimpse of some cool car parked on a side street or tucked away behind a garage. Most times, we’re too busy to stop, but photographer and Hollywood cameraman Nathanial Havholm makes it his business to check them out. “I travel around to the different television jobs I have—sometimes four or five locations a week—with my camera, always looking for the next one,” Nathanial explains. And that’s the catch. Nathanial doesn’t set these up. He doesn’t go to car shows or make appointments with owners. His rule for his “Grille Project” photos is he must discover the cars, parked in their natural habitats. He believes their neighborhoods and owners, are…

ENGINE Only one engine was available in the 1974 Duster 360: the E58-code version of the 360-cu.in. LA-series small-block, with 1.88/1.60-inch valves, 8.4:1 compression and a Carter Thermoquad four-barrel carburetor. It was essentially the intake, carb, heads and camshaft from the most recent 340, installed on a 360 short-block. BRAKES While most Chrysler A-body models still came with four-wheel drum brakes as standard in 1974, the Duster 360 included the front discs that were optional on other models. This was the second model year that Chrysler used the single-piston discs on the A-body, which brought the larger 4.5-inch bolt circle common to other Mopars. TRANSMISSION While a heavy-duty three-speed manual was the standard transmission behind the 360 in the Duster, most were built with the familiar TorqueFlite three-speed automatic, shifted…

“ So, the only option was to simply claim that the Ram Air V was in the car… ” Here’s the set- up: Royal Pontiac’s (Royal Oak, Michigan) Milt Schornack, Dave Warren, and Brian Ballish are the antagonists in this episode of hot rodding lore. Jim Wangers was the executive from MacManus John & Adams advertising agency, holders of the Pontiac account, and the one largely responsible for the GTO’s image. He played politics on the street and used it as a nocturnal office to gauge the climate, try new stuff (from graphics to hard parts), or discover what the next performance trends would be. Wangers would ride in a chase Goat, decide what cars the race Goat would go against, and revel in the vicarious thrills. He’d successfully raced…

WHERE IS THE PEDAL? Q:I have a 1965 Chevelle SS with a 327 engine and four-speed transmission. It is a restored car with no modifications. The problem is with the manual brakes. As the car is used, the free play between the pedal and the master cylinder push-rod gradually increases, causing the pedal to go further toward the floor. The pedal remains firm with no bleed-off, and the brakes work fine. There is no brake drag as the car rolls fine and can be pushed around in the garage. If the car sits for a week the brake pedal recovers, and the cycle starts again. Any ideas are certainly appreciated. Dick Shoenfelt Via email A: When I read your letter, the first question that came to mind was, how are…

THE NUMBERS TOTAL SALES: $55.6 million TOP MUSCLE CAR SALE: 1967 Chevrolet Corvette Coupe 427/435: $675,000 UPCOMING AUCTIONS BY MECUM DATE: September 6–9, 2017 LOCATION: Dallas, Texas CONTACT: 262-275-5050; www.mecum.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 Wisconsin-based Mecum Auctions created dramatic anticipation for its Indy 2017 event — held in Indianapolis at the Indiana State Fairgrounds — by having visitors enter through a wall of fog. The outcome of this auction was crystal clear, though, as American performance cars represented eight of…

RED HOT AT GREEN HELL Chevrolet’s upcoming 2018 Camaro ZL1 1LE is the fastest GM street car ever to go around the Nürburgring’s 12.9-mile Nordschleife, turning a blistering 7:16.04 lap time. That makes it quicker than the Porsche 997 911 GT2 RS, the 991.2 911 GT3, the 2012 Nissan GTR, and three and a half seconds quicker than Chevy’s own C6 ZR1 around Germany’s famed “Green Hell” race track. More importantly, the ZL1 1LE was more than 13.5 seconds quicker than the 10-speed-automatic ZL1 that Chevy tested there last year. (The only American car to lap the Nordschleife faster is the 2010 Dodge Viper ACR.) How can this be? First, the ZL1 1LE is a little bit more aero-slick. It sports a new carbon-fiber rear wing, plus air deflectors and…

More Chevrolets have slid and slithered through the Monte Carlo Rally than Peugeots have gone rounds in NHRA Pro Stock, but the General’s Bowtie division and European rallying don’t exactly go together like baseball, hot dogs, and apple pie. So, the Chevrolet Monte Carlo’s name must have been inspired by the swank gambling Mecca on the French Riviera — not the famous rally race. It makes sense. Chevrolet’s stylists went out of their way to distance this car from its Chevelle origins and make it a crosstown rival for the upmarket Ford Thunderbird. “Monte Carlo” was an exotic-sounding name that conjured visions of well-heeled people in formalwear playing baccarat, so it must’ve seemed like a perfect fit. But a funny thing happened on the way to…

About the only thing a muscle car fan likes more than a perfect reaction time might be perfect weather. With the sun shining, the late spring air crisp and clean and not a drop of rain in sight, the show cars, racers and spectators came in near-record numbers to eastern New York’s Lebanon Valley Dragway for Musclepalooza XXV this past May 28. With over 600 cars entered, the show field filled up every available parking spot and began overflowing into any other spots we could find. The Hemmings crew gave out 29 awards to 27 cars and owners across 16 categories, including our Best in Show hardware to Frank Arone of Homer City, Pennsylvania, for his 1970 Chevrolet Camaro Z28. Frank runs Arone Restoration, and his Forest Green beauty,…

I am an avid subscriber and reader of only two magazines: Hem- mings Classic Car and HMM. I don’t have any use for any of those others with turbos, newfangled engines and 1/8th-mile tracks. I guess I’m just old school. I’ve been privileged to own over 27 classic and muscle cars since I was 16, and performed my own mechanical work on just about every one, unless I just didn’t have the special tools. I learned by OJT [on-the-job training]. I even owned a couple of “drag cars.” I just finished reading Jim McGowan’s column, “Not the Right Number of Doors!” [HMM #166] and loved it! One of my high school cars was a 1957 Chevy Bel Air four-door. Yes, four-door. Out of all my cars, I had that one…

Some of the most popular muscle cars ever produced were part of GM’s prolific A-body platform during the model years of 1964 through 1972. Divisional iterations included the Chevelle, Skylark, Tempest, Cutlass, and, of course, their more muscular siblings like the Super Sport, Gran Sport, GTO, and 4-4-2. Their abundant numbers, attractive styling, and wide range of propulsion systems have ensured that many of them are still found prowling the streets today. And if you plan on prowling regularly, you simply can’t skip maintenance. Whether you’ve been working on your ride for years or have only recently acquired it, there’s no time like the present to take a look at the front suspension and brakes. You might be surprised, as we were, once we began inspecting our ’70 Chevelle. We’ll…

HMM PRODUCT TEST: HARBOR FREIGHT ROTATING MAGNETIC LED WORK LIGHT This Harbor Freight Rotating Magnetic LED Work Light features six LEDS on a nearly four-inch-wide ball-socket-equipped swivel head with adjustable tension. It’s just under four inches tall, lightweight, and has a magnetic base, so it stays put—as long as it’s on metal, of course. Possibly best of all is its low price, which can be reduced further by using Harbor Freight’s frequently issued 20-percent-off coupons. In our experience, this work light, which requires three AA batteries that come with it, has been bright enough for our needs at an advertised 180 Lumens. It has a claimed 3-6 hours of battery life, which seems about right, but keep in mind it does dim as the batteries drain. The small, round magnet…

PERIOD PERFORMANCE AT BONHAMS GREENWICH The Greenwich Concours d’Elegance and its associated Bonhams auction, held June 3-4, 2017, are upscale events. As you might expect, that means the caliber of cars there is above average. It also means that the mix leans more toward classics and exotics than muscle machines, though the muscle machines on hand are appropriately nice. From the days before the factories would build you a bare-bones performance car, was a pre-World War II, home-constructed job, out of Muskegon, Michigan, the Lloyd Rockey Special. A combination of Ford flathead V-8 and Essex frame rails bodied as a single-seat racer based on mail-order plans put out by Ray Kuns. The car was so well made that it propelled Lloyd’s brother Glen into the Michigan Motor Sports Hall of…

August 31-September 3 Auctions America Auburn, Indiana . . . . . . . . . . . . 877-906-2437 September 2 Worldwide Auctioneers Auburn, Indiana . . . . . . . . . . . . 260-925-6789 September 2-3 Silver Auctions Sun Valley, Idaho . . . . . . . . . . . 800-255-4485 September 3 Hemmings Musclepalooza XXVI West Lebanon, New York . . . . 800-227-4373 September 3 Sumter Swap Meet Bushnell, Florida . . . . . . . . . . . 727-848-7171 September 6-9 Mecum Auctions Dallas, Texas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 262-275-5050 September 8-10 Ranchero Roundup Kamloops BC, Canada . . . . . . 250-828-2318 September 8-10 Springfield Swap…

COUGAR II SHOW CAR OUT OF HIDING FOR 50TH ANNIVERSARY COUGAR EVENT IN DEARBORN In a rare display outside of its climate- controlled cocoon, the Cougar II show car—one of Ford’s three “X-Car” concepts built in the early Sixties—was shown on June 11, at a special Cougar 50th Anniversary event, on the grounds of Ford World Headquarters, in Dearborn, Michigan. Designed by Ford dream car stylist Eugene Bordinat, the Cougar II had proportions and cues unlike anything else from Ford, including retractable headlamps. From most angles, however, it was difficult to believe the concept wasn’t influenced at least partially by the recently introduced Corvette Sting Ray. Its featherweight form packed a punch from a 260 V-8 that Ford suggested was capable of propelling the car to 170 mph. Additional features…

Restorations…some take seemingly forever, but this story is about a quick one. When reviewing the photos and considering this 1972 4-4-2 convertible’s spectacular appearance, it may be difficult to imagine that Thornton Muscle Cars in Quakertown, Pennsylvania, spent just three months taking this Oldsmobile from tattered original to AACA First Junior status. The restoration began in July 2016 and finished in September. While that may not be “reality TV” fast, it’s nevertheless quite impressive in the real world, especially when it results in a car worthy of competing at the Eastern Division AACA National Fall Meet in Hershey in early October. Combining this level of craftsmanship with speed requires skill and resources. Shop owner Troy Thornton provided the former and car owner Mark Thatcher, the latter. Troy and Mark certainly…

HEMI MEMORIES Thanks for the Hemi dyno test (“How Hot the Hemi?” HMM #167)! That was the first article I turned to, and it was a lot of fun. I had a ’63 Belvedere with a ’68 Street Hemi transplant back in the early ’80s. It was one of the neatest cars I’ve ever owned. I had it for several years and would agree with your author that the Street Hemi ran consistently and with little need for “tune-ups.” I never fouled a plug. The Carter carbs were way superior to leaky Holleys. It idled smoothly. Once, at the drag strip, a guy came by and said he laughed at it when I staged — he said it sounded like a station wagon with a bad muffler. But he had…

Drag racing today is radically different from what it was in the 1950s and ’60s. Whether that is good or bad is a matter of opinion, but for those who miss those days, there is an ever-growing revival of interest in the cars and the technology of the early years. Cars paying tribute to the gas classes, like nose-high Willys coupes and Henry J sedans, have been around for quite a while now, as have restorations of cars that ran in the hot stock classes such as “Swiss Cheese” Catalinas and Z-11 Impalas. There’s a middle ground, though, in the Factory Experimental classes, which walk the line between the unlimited creativity of a gasser and the by-the-book formula of a Super Stocker. While we don’t expect to start seeing a…

Small car, big engine. It’s the easy route to building a hot rod. When the NHRA gas classes started to get serious in the late 1950s, it wasn’t long before racers figured out that the traditional Ford coupes and roadsters were not the ideal option for a full-bodied race car. The Willys coupes of the ’30s and ’40s are the best-remembered alternatives, but those who couldn’t find, or didn’t want, a Willys had myriad other options: Studebaker Champion, Henry J, Hudson Jet, etc. When Detroit revisited the compact formula yet again at the end of the ’50s, a whole new selection of bodies became available: Rambler American, Studebaker Lark, Plymouth Valiant… but probably the most popular were the Ford Falcon and Chevrolet Chevy II. Of course, it took a few…

WHEN IS A GM T-5 NOT A GM T-5? Q:I would like to convert my 1989 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am GTA from an automatic transmission to a used T-5 I purchased out of another V-6 Firebird. My car has the 5.7 V-8 engine. What other parts do I need to make this swap complete? Ricky G Huijon Via Facebook A: You can use the V-6 T-5 transmission, but you’ll need to locate a V-8 Camaro/Firebird T-5 bellhousing, as the bolt patterns are not the same. These are specific to 1984-’92 F-bodies because they mount the transmission at a 17-degree angle to the engine, so the shifter will be easier for the driver to reach. You will also have to locate a larger clutch disc with a 1.0-inch 14-spline center hole.…

“ … almost everything on our unique planet has gone through an evolutionary phase … This includes the muscle car parked in your garage.” Did we, or did we not start out as an ugly fish? Human evolution can be a sore subject for many. I’m certainly not an expert, but I know some car enthusiasts who fit that description perfectly. Actually, I think several of them never made it past the slimy fish stage. But, like it or not, almost everything on our unique planet has gone through an evolutionary phase, be it over the course of millions of years or just four or five decades. This includes the muscle car parked in your garage. We might take its existence for granted, but many ingenious people over many arduous…