Innholdsfortegnelse for September 2018 i Hemmings Muscle Machines

“ Muscle fans in particular seem to have an affinity for pickups…” I recently became a truck owner for the first time, and before I’d had it for even a month, I began to get an old, familiar sense about the new ride. There’s something about pickups that enables them to somehow endear themselves even to those of us who aren’t necessarily “into” trucks. But if you’re an enthusiast of motor vehicles of some sort, you’ve probably felt a touch of fondness for a truck at some point. Muscle fans in particular seem to have an affinity for pickups, whether as parts chasers, tow vehicles, or as the beater that allows the good car to stay in the garage during the week. My truck is new only in the sense…

1967 MERCURY COUGAR SHELF Summit Racing • 800-230-3030 • www.summitracing.com  • $109.99 While the Mustang was an instant bestseller, it didn’t take long for Ford’s upscale pony car, the 1967 Mercury Cougar, to become an iconic performer in its own right. This car’s highly distinctive “electric razor” grille treatment would soon be recognized and respected on both road and track. Summit Racing now offers a stylish way to pay tribute to the first-generation Cougar with this convenient wall shelf (item SBL-7580-135); it’s 19-inches long, 6 3/4-inches deep, and 7 1/2-inches tall, made of cast resin, and carefully hand-painted. The durable tempered clear glass top is ideal for displaying small collectibles or framed photos. Shipping is free in the continental U.S., or this item can be picked up in a Summit Racing store…

Embodying contemporary styling and a long-hood/short-deck silhouette, Dodge’s pony car contender finally arrived for 1970. The new E-body Challenger and its Plymouth counterpart, the Barracuda, were shorter than the B-bodies and the A-body Dart, but wider than the latter. By incorporating some of the forthcoming 1971 B-body’s components, including the cowl, many chassis parts, and more, development time and cost were reduced. A further benefit was that the R/T and ’Cuda performance variants could be equipped with the powerful 440s and even the 426 Hemi. Built on a 110-inch wheelbase, at 191.3 inches long and 76.1 inches wide, the Challenger had a 2-inch-longer wheelbase and 4.6-inch-longer body length, and it was 1.2 inches wider than the Barracuda. The Challenger also featured distinctive styling to project an upscale image. At $3,266…

You might’ve read elsewhere in this issue how Canadian Tony Lucas rolled into HMM Musclepalooza in May with this 1970 AMC AMX and drove off with our Favorite AMC and Best in Show honors. For a follow-up act, the firefighter from British Columbia — who’d already trailered his AMX upwards of 3,000 miles one way to New Lebanon, New York—then trekked up to our headquarters in Bennington, Vermont, where his AMX was the hands-down pick for Favorite Independent at our June 7 Cruise-In. This wasn’t an easy victory as Tony’s trailer kicked off one of its wheels en route, and he braved tick bites recovering the rogue rim in a weedy roadside ditch. An AMC three-fer sweep is unheard of in our world, though we are always rooting for Kenoshians,…

If you’ve been following along with our Chevelle project, you already know that the intent of this endeavor is to give our SS 396 a power boost without making any alterations that can’t be put right back to stock later on. This car is an older restoration that has been a good driver, but the stock 396 and TH-400 were starting to seem a little flat. We figured we could remedy that with a bigger big-block, so we procured one of Chevrolet Performance’s ZZ427 big-block crate engines. Backing that up will be one of CP’s Supermatic 4L85E overdrive automatic transmissions. Last month, we reported on our findings from a test-fit installation, where the engine was lowered onto the stock mounts and the transmission was then raised into place to see…

When I was 14 years old, I gave my uncle 20 dollars for his six-cylinder 1950 Ford. This would be the start of my change from pitching baseball to turning wrenches. After not-so-careful driving around the backyard, the engine dropped a rod. Two days later, the engine was hanging from a tree. So, off to a junkyard for a replacement. Installing the throw-out bearing backward caused the “new” motor to return to the tree. In high school math class, I literally counted down the seconds to my 16th birthday. So, on Monday, November 25, 1963, I rushed to the Michigan Secretary of State office… only to find it closed. This happened to be the day of President John F. Kennedy’s funeral. I was forced to wait another 86,400 seconds! My…

Early March in northern Florida can be quite refreshing, especially if you’re attending the Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance from the still-frigid snowbelt regions. Facing the prospect of sunny skies and pleasant daytime temps, thousands descend upon the shoreline community, located just north of Jacksonville, to see and be seen with countless automotive gems from our past. While the famed collector-car gathering is undoubtedly the focal point, there are several other vintage-car activities taking place during the days prior, such as the Bonhams auction. Based in San Francisco, the American arm of Bonhams & Butterfields held its fourth annual Amelia Island Auction on March 8, at the Fernandina Beach Golf Club. With the auction tent brimming with bidders, Bonhams warmed up the crowd with 36 lots of automobilia before moving on…

TOM “THE MONGOOSE” MCEWEN, 1937-2018 Over a career that spanned nearly 40 years, Tom “The Mongoose” McEwen won just five NHRA nationals, yet established himself as one of the best-known drivers in drag racing’s history. His skill at promotion reshaped the sport, attracting sponsors and catapulting it from obscurity onto television screens across the country. On June 10, McEwen died at age 81. He began racing at 16, running a ’53 Oldsmobile at Santa Ana Dragstrip in Irvine, California. A progression of faster vehicles followed, including gas coupes, altereds, dragsters, and later, Funny Cars and Top Fuel dragsters. McEwen’s “Mongoose” nickname came in ’64, initially as a strategy to entice Don “The Snake” Prudhomme into a match race. It worked, and in September 1964 McEwen bested Prudhomme in two straight…

Ed Nowakowski is familiar with fast Fords on the drag strip. Back in the 1970s, he ran an SS/I stick ’71 Mustang in a partnership with Jack Roush and racked up a number of records. So many, he says, that Roush suggested taking it a little easier at the track. “He told me that too much of a good thing would draw the attention of NHRA,” says Ed. “And that would bring a weight penalty and more.” But it was hard to keep a good Blue Oval down, and Ed drove to a win at the U.S. Nationals. He was driving the only Ford in the staging lanes. “It was 1979 or ’80 and there were 19 cars in the class,” he says. “After the race, there were 18 Chevy…

When this writer’s father liberated a 385-hp, 425-cu.in. Oldsmobile Toronado V-8 from its front-wheel-drive prison and installed it in the engine bay of a 1965 4-4-2, he was, knowingly or not, following in the footsteps of legendary performance guru George Hurst, who did the same with a 455 in his new 1968 4-4-2. That kind of installation wasn’t exactly groundbreaking. Rumors swirled for years (and were later confirmed) that certain 1964 GTOs got 421-cu.in. V-8s posing as stock 389s when passed out to magazine testers. That was something the factory wasn’t allowed to do as a regular production option, thanks to a company-wide edict limiting engine displacement for intermediate bodies at General Motors. In fact, the original GTO was an end run around a 330-cu.in. maximum. Later, GM would raise…

Today, we understand that Pontiac’s Firebird Trans Am was the last bastion of affordable performance out of Detroit in the ’70s. It helped bridge a gulf between the throbbing muscle machines of the ’60s and early ’70s, and the high-tech EFI brigade that launched in the mid ’80s and continues today. A lot of other cars were made to look the part, but the Trans Am had it all going on: power and style in equal measure. History provides a modern context. It’s also part of why the second-gen Trans Am market has been going crazy lately at the auctions. But for people living day-to-day trudging through the polyester malaise of the mid-’70s, without the benefit of foresight, all a high-performance fan saw out of Detroit was darkness... even in…

This was Tony Lucas’ first total restoration and he achieved show-winning results. His advice to other first-time AMX restorers? “Get one as complete as possible. Know the car and know the hard-to-find parts. For instance, if you bought this car without a grille, you can expect to pay $3,000 for a replacement because 1970 is a one-year-only car. The hood, fenders, bumpers, rear taillight assembly, the interior, the emblems, and the rocker trim are also unique, and 1970 is the lowest production year of 4,116 cars.”…

No matter if your automotive passion is focused purely on domestic iron, or if your tastes extend to appreciate imported delicacies, you will find plenty of excitement and eye candy on central California’s Monterey Peninsula during the 10 days that lead up to the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance. The party begins Friday, August 17, on Alvarado Street in Monterey, when the Monterey Classic Car Week Kick-Off show takes place between 5 and 7 p.m.; head into the hills that weekend to take in the Monterey Pre-Reunion Races at the world-famous WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca. Read on for key information about the important events most likely to engage and entertain American-car enthusiasts the following weekend, August 24-26, but don’t forget the numerous smaller happenings in this region — including car shows,…

Our summer kick-off has become a tradition for many Northeastern muscle car fans, and we’ve been fortunate to have great weather for most of the events we’ve held since the very first. But, into every life a little rain must fall, and we got some of ours on Sunday morning as MP XXVII was just getting started. No one was too pleased when word came down from track management that the bad weather wasn’t going away, and that we’d have to shut down for the day, but we were grateful when so many participants and spectators came back on Monday to try again. It proved to be worth a return trip, as the show on the alternate date turned out quite well. By noon, the show field had filled out…

LOW RIDER Q: I have been an HMM subscriber for many years, and it is my favorite magazine. My question is not technically a “how to,” but more of an informational one. Whenever I see a classic muscle car (or any classic car) driving on the road, the body always appears to be sitting down lower on the chassis in comparison to modern cars. It looks as if they have less ground clearance; like they’re hovering over the tires. Is this just me hallucinating, or is there a technical reason for this? Frankly, from a visual perspective, I like the stance of modern cars. I’m considering buying a muscle car, and if I do, is it possible to change this lowered stance? George Andronica Via email A: For the answer…

BONHAMS MOVES CARROLL SHELBY’S PERSONAL COLLECTION; MECUM SELLS IN DENVER; RUSSO AND STEELE IN NEWPORT BEACH Bonhams is not a name that usually conjures up muscle cars, nor do the money-paved streets of Greenwich, Connecticut, but the one-day sale held in conjunction with the Greenwich Concours on June 3 featured 23 vehicles from the personal collection of Carroll Shelby, including the very first 1999 Shelby Series 1 made. The Oldsmobile Aurora V-8-powered sports car had a one-off prototype supercharger that gave the car 600 hp. Bonhams reported an auction record for a Series 1 with $313,000 for the sale (buyer’s premium included). Other cars in the collection were several 1980s Dodge front-drive products, a handful of both classic and modern Shelby Mustangs, and others including a unique 1983 Dodge Shelby…

RACK-AND-PINION FOR CHEVY PICKUP Q: I have a ’58 Chevy Fleetside pickup. I am thinking about putting a Mustang suspension clip on it. Or a rack-and-pinion unit. You have any ideas or options? Ron Hutcherson Via hemmings.com A: Both options are now available from aftermarket suppliers. You can opt to replace the original manual steering box with a rack-and-pinion unit from Brothers Truck Parts, or you can make a complete front-end changeover with a kit from suppliers such as Classic Performance Products. The Brothers Truck Parts’ power rack-and-pinion unit requires the addition of a power-steering pump and hoses; however, it will bolt-in easily to your stock 1955-’59 straight-axle suspension. It will work with your stock steering column or with an aftermarket column, as long as it…

“Some inherited a preference from their parents, others from contemporaries who might have been a little older...” The muscle-car hobby is a lot like sports and politics, right down to T-shirts, hats, and jackets promoting whichever is your favorite. For as long as I can remember, which is way back into the murky automotive depths of the ’60s, everyone I knew (and currently know) had a specific make of car that they preferred. Some inherited a preference from their parents, others from contemporaries who might have been a little older and owned a street machine or muscle car. In my case, I never really developed a preference until around 1964-ish, when factory performance in midsized vehicles became all the rage in the popular automotive magazines. We looked up to older…

TORQUE MEETS TRACTION WITH MIND-BENDING RESULTS We were in attendance at the 2017 New York International Auto Show when Fiat-Chrysler announced that it would be producing a version of the Jeep Grand Cherokee with a Hellcat engine and all-wheel drive. It seemed a novel idea — a sport utility vehicle with 707 horsepower. Something that FCA would do possibly just because it could, as a show of engineering acumen and for a little extra attention. So we didn’t take it too seriously. Not that we didn’t think they’d build it — the company was presenting the model as a production reality. We just couldn’t help viewing the whole thing as a scheme to generate shock value. Our lack of enthusiasm wasn’t helped by the fact that Dodge had just used…

I’ve always been a Ford guy. My father had them, and my first car was a 1960 Falcon. For me, the Torino was originally a cost-effective alternative to the Mustang and one that was a great secret for a while. They’d almost give you Torino parts at swap meets, but that’s all changed now. People have realized the model’s performance capability and rarity, so I’m glad I stocked up on all the parts years ago. Along with this car, I’ve got three more Cobras, including another Drag Pack car. I’ll get to them all someday, but I feel fortunate to have discovered them before the rest of the market did.…

ENGINE Block type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Pontiac cast-iron V-8 Cylinder heads . . . . . . . . . . Pontiac cast-iron OHV 6X castings, modified by Butler Performance Displacement . . . . . . . . . . . 400 cubic inches (406 with .030-inch overbore) Bore x stroke. . . . . . . . . . . . 4.151 (4.12 + .030) x 3.750 inches Compression ratio . . . . . . . . 9.5:1 Pistons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . JE forged aluminum Connecting rods . . . . . . . . . Carillo Horsepower . . . . .…

DECAL DETAILS Just read Mark Underwood’s May letter regarding 1978 Trans Am shaker decals and your response (“Decal in Absentia,” Backfire, HMM #177). My experience is entirely different. My wife, Donna, and I took delivery of our specially ordered Gold Special Edition ’78 Trans Am on June 5, 1978. It was built in California in May and had the 180-hp 400 Pontiac engine, with the “6.6 Litre” decal on the shaker. My understanding at the time was that the 220-hp engine got the “TA/6.6” decal, while the other Pontiac engine like ours got the “6.6 Litre” one, which is entirely borne out by our car. My only regret is that I didn’t order the 220-hp engine and the WS6 suspension. It was one of the last items on the order…

“It was like no other clandestine contest in my brief history, because ultimately it was defined by stark terror.” Well, you just didn’t line up against a lot of traffic in daylight and let the clutch fly. You did it when civilians wouldn’t be looking, or were sleeping, something. Things could easily get out of hand, maybe seriously bent. Certainly, that was a part of the attraction. That kind of potentially perilous behavior was the only thing that meant squat to late-adolescent jerks. Like us. There was the racing aspect, and there was the thought that something really exciting would also come of youthful rebellion that was blatant and in complete disregard of written rule. Morally wrong? Nah. Illegal? Sure! Maybe we’d even learn something from it, although we weren’t…

BEST IN SHOW 1970 AMC AMX Tony Lucas Abbotsford, British Columbia, Canada BEST ENGINE BAY 1967 Chevelle SS 396 Ron Jacobsen Hudson, New York BEST PAINT 1968 Plymouth Barracuda Keith Van Emmerick Shirley, New York FAVORITE AMC 1970 AMX Tony Lucas Abbotsford, British Columbia, Canada 2ND-PLACE AMC 1969 Javelin SST Jeffery and Jeanne Holmberg Wilbraham, Massachusetts FAVORITE BUICK 1989 LeSabre T-Type Jeff Heath Chicopee, Massachusetts 2ND-PLACE BUICK 1987 Regal Turbo T Rick Warner Poughkeepsie, New York FAVORITE CHEVROLET 1968 Chevelle SS 396 David Bouvier Smithfield, Rhode Island 2ND-PLACE CHEVROLET 1969 Camaro Z/28 Dave Murawski Bristol, Connecticut FAVORITE DODGE 1968 Charger R/T Joe Samperisi Catskill, New York 2ND-PLACE DODGE 1970 Challenger Todd Schoeller New Milford, Connecticut FAVORITE FORD 1967 Mustang GT Bob Enright Mahopac, New York 2ND-PLACE FORD 1964 Falcon Sprint…

HMM PRODUCT TEST: HARBOR FREIGHT DAYTONA PROFESSIONAL 3-TON SUPER DUTY STEEL FLOOR JACK Harbor Freight has stepped up its game in terms of quality in recent years. Though still the go-to place for tools, supplies, and shop equipment on a tight budget, the company now offers some true value alternatives for professionals who rely on their tools day in and day out. Take this heavy-duty — excuse me! — “Super Duty” 3-ton floor jack. Not long ago, Harbor Freight added the Daytona line of professional jacks to its existing Pittsburgh-branded steel and aluminum floor jacks. Having been burned by bargain jacks from that once-great department store so many of us home mechanics used to shop at, we decided it was time to purchase something of better quality, but without breaking…

SEPTEMBER 8/30-9/2 RM Auctions Auburn, Indiana 260-927-9797 www.rmsothebys.com 1 Worldwide Auctioneers Auburn, Indiana 800-990-6789 www.worldwide-auctioneers.com 1-2 Silver Auctions Sun Valley, Idaho 800-255-4485 www.silverauctions.com 7-8 Mecum Auctions Louisville, Kentucky 262-275-5050 • www.mecum.com 8 VanDerBrink Auctions Clear Lake, Iowa 507-673-2517 www.vanderbrinkauctions.com 29 VanDerBrink Auctions Hartford, Wisconsin 507-673-2517 www.vanderbrinkauctions.com Check dates with auction houses before traveling…

August 30-September 2 RM Sotheby’s Auburn, Indiana. . . . . . . . . . . . 519-352-4575 September 1 Worldwide Auctioneers Auburn, Indiana. . . . . . . . . . . .800-990-6789 September 1-2 Silver Auctions Sun Valley, Idaho. . . . . . . . . . .800-255-4485 September 2 Hemmings Musclepalooza XXVIII West Lebanon, New York . . . . 800-227-4373 September 2 The Lime Rock Auction Lakeville, Connecticut. . . . . . .203-335-4643 September 2 Sumter Swap Meet Bushnell, Florida . . . . . . . . . . . 727-848-7171 September 6-9 Charlotte AutoFair Concord, North Carolina. . . . . 704-841-1990 September 7-8 Mecum Auctions Louisville, Kentucky . . . . . . . . 262-275-5050 September 7-9 Springfield…