Innholdsfortegnelse for February 2018 i Hemmings Muscle Machines

THE ART OF MOPAR By Tom Glatch, photography by Tom Loeser • Motorbooks www.quartoknows.com • 800-328-0590 • $50, plus s&h Few would argue the unique aesthetic merits of Chrysler’s high-performance products, as these Dodges and Plymouths enjoyed bold, original styling, bright colors, and eye-catching, youthful graphics. It’s not often that this automaker is celebrated in print, which makes this beautiful coffee-table book even more exciting. Photographer Tom Loeser has captured the essence of 25 performance Pentastars, ranging from a 426-powered 1963 Plymouth Sport Fury Super Stock to a 2016 Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat, and has done so with incredible studio lighting. Tom Glatch authored the historical text, taking care to include statistics and road-test information, and this is a fine accompaniment to the photography, which is comprised of numerous…

ENGINE There was no reason to hold anything back when it came to the GSX and, to match the visual appeal, engineers made sure each was fitted with at least the base 455. A couple hundred bucks extra would net more grunt in the form of the legendary 455 Stage 1: Its valves were larger (2.120/1.755-inch intake/exhaust), while a more spirited camshaft touted higher-lift (.490-inch) and longer-duration (316-degrees intake, 340-degrees exhaust), adding 10 extra horses to its rating. TRANSMISSION No three-speed manual with this brawler. It was instantly shelved for a four-speed manual issued as standard equipment. That was accompanied by an 11-inch clutch with a spring-load listing of 2,450-2,750 pounds, according to period literature. What some may find interesting is that 400 of the 678 original GSX owners opted…

When you think about the many performance carburetors offered down through the years, the Rochester Quadrajet is hardly considered one of them. Even though it was installed on a multitude of GM passenger and performance vehicles from the ’60s through the mid-’80s — as well as some Chrysler and Ford products — it just doesn’t get the respect it deserves. Especially when you remember that it was cinched down atop many muscle-machine engines right from the factory! Since there are so many variations of the Q-Jet, each one with a different factory application, we assembled some ID information to help you determine what to look for when you’re scouring the swap meets, boneyards, and even online sources for the correct carb for your car. First released in 1965, the Quadrajet…

Jeff Yost’s 1968 Pontiac Tempest wagon is no ordinary family hauler — not by a long shot. And not only does he continue to take the historic racer blazing down the quarter-mile, but the car also has a thick history file from other racers in the Midwest, dating back to 1970. Note that name on the side: Nemesis Two. A 1969 GTO Judge, the original Nemesis, featured a Ram Air IV Pontiac V-8 and an automatic transmission. Campaigned by Jerry Stealy and his wife, Judi, out of their Iowa home, the Carousel Red Goat made quite a name for itself on the quarter-mile tracks throughout the Midwest back in the early ’70s. Jerry Stealy set a national record in E/SA class in Dallas with Nemesis. Unfortunately for the Stealys, Nemesis…

KING OF THE HILL, REDUX The 2019 Corvette ZR1: 755 hp, 210+ mph, and a shaker hood — coming this spring For decades, Chevy has affixed the ZR1 prefix to its ultimate small-block Corvette. A handful of hot, high-revving, LT-1-equipped Corvettes from 1970-’72 wore the alphanumeric first; they featured upgraded suspension, cooling, and brakes, and were initially not available with luxury options like power steering or a radio. Then came the “King of the Hill” version’s 32-valve, all-aluminum mill that sent heads rolling when it arrived in 1990. This engine, dubbed LT5, disappeared with the end of the C4-generation Corvette, retiring before most of the rest of the world could catch up. Chevy revived the ZR1 in 2009, for a screaming-hot version of the C6, with a supercharged 6.2-liter V-8…

Just finished reading Terry McGean’s “The Big Pull” in the Decem- ber issue (HMM #172): great column! Here are some pictures from my house garage with my 1974 Charger project I currently have going. As you can see, I am getting ready to pull out the factory 318/904 tranny combo and install my recently rebuilt 440 with a 727 transmission. The new engine is a pump-gas-friendly build with a mild cam, aftermarket Mopar Performance aluminum intake, and a Holley vacuum-secondary carb set-up; the transmission has a nice shift improver kit. Both were redone by good friends of mine, and I have been working on the project as time allows. So far, removal of the 318 has been all on me — no one has stopped by to help… yet! I’m…

Hands up, who remembers the Dare to be Different movement of the early ’90s? Offered up in the mainstream enthusiast press after years of worshiping at the altar of the small-block Chevy, you’d think that “different” would mean something. Anything. Was a turbocharged flathead Ford part of this movement? No. Did someone adapt GM TPI to a nailhead Buick? No. Who built a Hemi intake with a single two-barrel carburetor for each cylinder on the block? No one. In the end, Dare to be Different (D2BD) boiled down to what little-seen or unexpected sheetmetal you could drop onto a caged, Chevy-powered back-halved Pro Street-style chassis. Edsel? Wacky. Geo Metro? Kooky. Nash Metropolitan? Mind-blowing. Borg-ward Isabella? Beyond reason. Pop on a Pro Stock hood scoop to cover the inevitable carburetor(s) poking…

Pro Stocks are a divisive category of drag racing. Some bemoan the death of the old Super Stock classes of the 1960s and insist that drag racing has turned into a “money game.” Without delving into that political morass, let us instead observe that for any given human endeavor, at some point sentimentality becomes a factor. When Pro Stock drag racing debuted in the early 1970s, it was the Next Big Thing, but that was almost a half century ago, and at this point there is plenty for those who were impressionable youths in the 1970s and ’80s to wax nostalgic about today. Thus, it should come as no surprise that a group has cropped up who collect the Pro Stock cars of old, restore them, and continue to race…

THE NUMBERS RM SOTHEBY’S TOTAL SALES: $133,000,000 TOP MUSCLE CAR SALES: 1964 Shelby Cobra 289; $1,100,000 1953 Cunningham C-3 Coupe; $1,100,000 WORLDWIDE AUCTIONEERS’ TOTAL SALES: $7,500,000 TOP MUSCLE CAR SALE: 1963 Chevrolet Corvette Z06; $357,500 UPCOMING AUCTIONS RM SOTHEBY’S: March 10, 2018; Amelia Island, Florida; 519-352-4575; www.rmsothebys.com WORLDWIDE AUCTIONEERS: January 17, 2018; Scottsdale, Arizona; 800-990-6789; www.worldwide-auctioneers.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 Although Monterey Car Week, on the picturesque peninsula in California, is anchored by the world-renowned Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance, the…

NORTH AMERICAN EAGLE SELECTS DIAMOND VALLEY FOR LAND-SPEED-RECORD ATTEMPTS Not much exists on the alkali flats of the Diamond Valley in central Nevada. The northern end contains a few sage grouse and miles of uninterrupted flat and dry lake bed. And that’s just what Ed Shadle wants for his run to 800 mph and the world land-speed record. Shadle’s team has considered four different sites for its attempt to take the world LSR (currently 763.035 mph, set by Andy Green at Black Rock Desert in Nevada in 1997): Diamond Valley, Black Rock, Bonneville, and the Alvord Desert in Oregon. They ruled out Black Rock due to its popularity with outdoor enthusiasts and Bonneville due to the rough surface and lack of sufficient room to run at their target speeds. Alvord,…

Convertibles are a remarkably polarizing body style. At one time, only an open car could be taken seriously as any kind of performer. Preferably a two-seat roadster, although the right close-coupled touring car could do the job. Roll-up windows somewhat diminished the panache of the muscular drop-top, taking them closer to the softness of coupes and sedans. As bodywork increasingly became a structural element, the missing roof also became a reason for additional weight, as convertibles required increased stiffening in body and frame — negating the mass-reduction benefits of early open bodies. Nevertheless, throughout the 1950s and ’60s, convertibles were still a desirable vehicle to many—even as muscle cars. What ultimately may have done in the mainstream ragtop was the increasing affordability of air conditioning. With on-demand cold air on…

It was an overcast afternoon in the spring of 1975. American Graffiti had only hit the theaters a year and a half earlier. Two 15-year-olds, me riding shotgun and my best friend, Joe Nowak, in the back seat of my parents’ high-compression 394-cu.in. ’64 Oldsmobile Dynamic 88, were parked on the side of Pumpkin Swamp Road with my almost 21-year-old brother, Don, at the wheel. School had just let out, and we were waiting to catch a glimpse of an “old Plymouth” we had heard about, rumored to be very fast. Pumpkin Swamp Road, a perfectly straight two-mile-long road lined with onion fields, was a dead ringer for Paradise Road and a scene right out of American Graffiti. It was not a stranger to fast cars nor the occasional street…

RECORD-SETTING YENKO IN VEGAS Mecum pulls in $22 million in Sin City, with a pair of Yenkos atop the leader board Wisconsin-based Mecum staged its first-ever event in Las Vegas from November 16 to 18, achieving a solid $22 million in gross sales over the three-day event. The top-five cars were all endowed with American V-8 horsepower. Most notably, a pair of Yenko Camaros topped the entire sale. Yenko reportedly made 64 Super Camaros in 1968, each ordered from the factory with an L78 396-cu.in. V-8 under the hood. At Yenko’s shop in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, his crew removed the 396, swapped in a 427 short-block topped with the 396’s cylinder heads, aluminum intake, and Holley carburetor. Today, less than a third are believed to survive. YS-8021, a ’68 Yenko Super…