Innholdsfortegnelse for July 2018 i Hemmings Muscle Machines

Sam Ballard wasn’t going to be that guy. Buy a clapped-out old car. Squirrel it away for years. Then just never find the time, the money, the inspiration, or the whatever to get around to making said clapped-old car look and drive like new again. Sure, you say. But this wasn’t a four-door Dart with a Slant Six that looked as if it had been marinated in a salty brine for 20 or 30 years, then carved up like a holiday turkey. This was a one-of-503 (40 in Canada) 1969 Dodge Charger Daytona. The Winged Warrior. Lord of the Superspeedways. A glitzy-auction-house-catalog-cover car in waiting… that looked like it had been marinated in a salty brine for 20 or 30 years, then carved up like a holiday turkey. Yes, Sam…

I’ve been interested in California Specials since the Seventies, when I discovered that they had made them. I like the back end—the Shelby back end. The side scoops. It’s just different and that’s what I’ve always liked about it. I saw this ad in the Mustang Club of America’s magazine back in 2003. I called the guy and he said that the car was in Kentucky. So, my wife, Vicki, and I ran down there to check it out, and found that it was still all-original and only had 33,000 miles. The paint was really dull and you could stick your finger up through the headliner. But it was driveable and ran well. I bought it and actually drove it home to Pennsylvania that day. Vicki and I totally redid…

Afullsize engine in a midsized body, the very definition of a muscle car, was popularized in the ’60s with the Pontiac GTO, but was really preceded by the ’49 Olds 88 (and, if you really want to go back, by the ’36 Buick Century). GM kicked off the postwar horsepower craze with its state-of-the-art ’49 Cadillac and Oldsmobile OHV V-8s. It was General Motors that gave us a V-8 powered sports car (the Corvette, in 1955), fuel injection (on both Chevys and Pontiacs for 1957, with Chevy’s efforts living clear into 1965), and turbocharging (Chevy Corvair and Olds Jet-fire, both in 1962). It was only a matter of time before the performance-car concept exploded all over America’s highways. The GTO took everyone aback (including GM’s other divisions) but Chevy, Olds,…

Muscle cars and modern radial tires aren’t a recent matchup by any stretch of the imagination. The improvements radials offer in ride and handling over their bias-ply counterparts make them an easy upgrade. The problem is, if you want to preserve the factory-original appearance of your muscle machine, you’re pretty much confined to the repro offerings in original-style bias construction. Sure, radial redlines can be had, but the red ring is often tattooed on the sidewall of a current production tire. And radials with muscle-era white letters? Forget it. But Coker Tire has come up with a solution: The Firestone Wide Oval and Super Sport radials. They satisfy the aesthetics, and yield the attributes most performance-car enthusiasts have come to expect from a radial. The Super Sport redlines are offered…

It’s been said that great things start from humble beginnings. One could easily state that Worldwide Auctioneers is the epitome of such an aphorism. Founded just a decade ago, the company eased into the auction scene with a mere two regional sales — one in its hometown of Auburn, Indiana, and the other in Houston, Texas — supported by the sales of a few private collections in between. Since then, the Auburn and Houston events have become annual pilgrimages for Worldwide’s client base and general enthusiasts alike. More recently, the company, which has excelled at focusing on quality rather than volume, has expanded its schedule with forays into new market regions, including inaugural auctions in Pacific Grove, California, and Scottsdale, Arizona, in 2017. The latter of the two, a one-day…

It started with a visit to Jere Stahl’s header shop in York, Pennsylvania. Back in 1966, Stahl already had a nationwide reputation for crafting great extractors for the drag-racing scene. That’s what lured three friends from New Jersey into the Keystone State. Tony Massari had a 1962 Chevrolet Impala with a 327 and a Powerglide that he had been casually racing in G/SA, one of the fun and inexpensive NHRA “Junior Stock” classes, and he wanted a set of Stahl tubes to give him a bit more oomph. Massari’s friends, Danny and Wayne Jesel, tagged along. Not only was Stahl’s shop a Mecca for East Coast hot rodders, but Wayne was a big fan of Stahl’s racing exploits, especially his Junior Stock 1956 Chevrolet station wagon. The Jesels took the…

KEEPER T/A Enjoyed your article on the Trans Am. I am the original owner of this gem — ordered it in February 1978, and took delivery in June of 1978. Car is original and has been garage-kept its entire life. It has an original 61,000 miles and has been driven around 200 miles a year the last 20 years. Gregg Olsen Sandy, Utah PHANTOM WAGON I was intrigued by the 1966 Chevelle two-door wagon featured in the article “The Road Less Traveled” that appeared in your May 2018 edition (HMM #177). While I have seen many 1964-’65 two-door Chevelle wagons in my 69 years on this earth, I have only seen three ’66s. The first one I saw was at a Super Chevy Show in the ’90s. I questioned whether…

More and more, automotive enthusiasts today are rediscovering the joys of driving their muscle cars like they did in their youth, rather than letting them languish as “investments” or garage art. But we still depend on modern machinery for daily transport, with all the new technology we’ve come to appreciate. Living in a high-tech world, however, can certainly highlight the shortcomings of our 50-year-old iron. Acceleration simply isn’t enough anymore; now we all want a more integrated approach to performance that includes both horsepower and handling. Naturally, having sufficient horsepower isn’t much of a problem — most muscle cars had it in abundance. And a quick trip through any number of websites or catalogs that offer upgraded suspension hardware will reveal an incredible array of options.…

In stock trim, our ’67 Malibu was hardly a handler, and wallowed through the cones like a drunk on roller skates. With a puny 7/8 -inch front sway bar and no bolstering out back, the results were pathetic and predictable. But, with the addition of the components outlined here, the difference is dramatic. Body roll has been drastically reduced and the Chevelle stays much more firmly planted now, which inspired us to attack the cone course with considerably more vigor. Plus, ride quality wasn’t compromised, giving us the best of both worlds.…

HMM PRODUCT TEST: SCOTCH-BRITE BRAKE HUB CLEANER Every once in a while, we find something neat at a trade show that seems like it could be useful beyond its intended purpose. This Scotch-Brite Roloc Brake Hub Cleaner kit was designed to help garage mechanics remove the rust that builds up behind the slip-on rotors typically found on front-wheel-drive cars. The idea is simple: The Scotch-Brite wheel has a hole in the center and is fastened to a holder that has a deep recess to clear lug studs, so you can use a power tool to quickly remove the rust around the stud’s base. The kit includes a holder with a metal hub and five silicon carbide wheels. We thought it could work well for cleaning up old axle shafts for…

APRIL PUTS CLASSIC-CAR AUCTION SEASON IN FULL SWING NATIONWIDE There really isn’t an off-season for classic-car auctions, but after the January extravaganza in Arizona, the April auction scene saw sales take place across the country, nay, the continent. During a two-day sale on April 6 and 7 at the Broward County Convention Center in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, RM Auctions produced an impressive $19.1 million in sales, moving 76 percent of some 335 lots offered. The top sellers were largely classic European and American models, but a pair of 2006 Ford GTs, sold at $352,000 and $330,000, making the top-10 list. At the tail end of that leader board was a 1953 Corvette that sold for $217,250. While there were plenty of muscle cars, old and new, that piqued our interest,…

When I was in my teens, I thought I knew where all of the AMC gurus were in Connecticut. This car never came up in conversation, and the owner was practically in our backyard. His garage was climate-controlled, he parked it on carpet, and he had two car covers on it. Two! He really babied this car. He liked the way it looked and sounded, I guess, but to order the four-speed? Why he’d do that is beyond me. I’m just trying to keep it preserved — I don’t want to mess with it at all. Paint isn’t perfect, chrome isn’t perfect, but that’s the survivor charm: presentable but not show quality.…

We wanted to come up with a new combination to build a good car for G/Stock. I sat down with Jere Stahl, and we were going through the rule book. We were pretty much the first ones to put the package together and after that it spread like wildfire. We were really the first stocker that ran a Vitar Hydro as well—he’d done street-type Hydros and race transmissions, but for gassers. A lot of people say ‘this must be a lot nicer than the original,’ but it’s not. We sandblasted it inside and out.…

Ford’s introduction of the Mustang set the stage for the most successful new car launch ever. In 1965, its first model year on sale (admittedly longer than the usual calendar year given its April of ’64 introduction), Ford sold well over 600,000 and then repeated that feat again in 1966. But sales dropped by more than 20 percent for 1967, and fell again in 1968 to roughly half those early results as the competition was finally catching up. One way to boost flagging sales of almost any model is with a special edition. Dealers love them because customers like to feel they are buying something unique, something that not everyone else has. By the late Sixties, the regional dealer groups knew how to work the specials. Ford’s Colorado region had…

I have been a subscriber of HMM since day one of the magazine and have always enjoyed it. Being an AMC guy, I appreciate the coverage you give to AMCs almost every month. I was lucky enough to have my Viper Red 1970 Javelin featured in HMM in the June 2010 issue. I really liked the “Pick Your Poison” article you did in the April 2018 issue on the pair of Mustangs. In a way, the two cars kind of mimic how I built my ’70 Javelin and ’70 AMX, which I completed several years after I built the Javelin. People often refer to my AMX as the “Mad Max AMX.” It has a port fuel-injected 416-inch AMC stroker, Doug Nash five-speed, coilovers, and a lot…

While some of us enjoy the challenge of scrounging the swap meets and classifieds for our parts, others might prefer the convenience of shopping online. Sure, the components may cost more, but you can find what you need, have it delivered right to your door, and rest assured that you’re getting brand-new items. Plus, there’s always the ability to return them if they don’t fit right, or don’t meet your expectations. We found the exact reproductions of the OE offerings online at the OPGI site. The powder coated 1¼-inch front sway bar kit includes urethane bushings and listed for $126.95; larger bars are also available for extra cost. The 1-inch rear bar mirrors the profile of the factory piece; the kit is $109.99. Re-pops of the reinforced rear control arms…

General Motors’ A-bodies arrived for 1964 to compete in the intermediate car market on a 115-inch wheelbase that positioned them in between the Chevy II compact and the shortest wheelbase offered for GM fullsize models. Unlike the more radically engineered 112-inch-wheelbase 1961-’63 Y-body senior compacts they replaced, the midsize A-body had a more conventional design, and most of the basic chassis components were shared between divisions. A perimeter frame was the foundation for an unequal-length upper and lower control-arm front suspension with coil springs, spindles, ball joints, shocks, and an anti-roll bar. A rigid rear axle was located by a four-link control-arm layout with coil springs and shocks. The recirculating ball/nut steering box connected to a relay-type linkage, and 9.5-inch drum brakes were used. The bodies shared most of the…

We are the proud original owners of a fully restored 1968 Chevrolet Camaro Super Sport, 396-cu.in., 350-hp, numbers-matching car. Our car is not flashy and does not garner very many trophies at car shows, but anyone who takes the time to learn its story knows that it is quite unique. After my husband, Tom, and I made the decision that we wanted to have a family, we needed to buy a car that had a back seat, because it would not be possible to put a child in the back of our 1964 Corvette roadster safely. We settled on a Chevrolet Camaro SS in Cordovan Maroon. We sold the Corvette (big mistake) for $3,000, making it possible to buy the Camaro outright for $3,333.12, with license and tax. It listed…