Innholdsfortegnelse for January 2019 i Hemmings Muscle Machines

I restored my first mid-year Corvette in 1983, so it’s been about 35 years. The second car that we did was a red 1967 with a 435-hp 427, just like this car, and we brought it to the Bloomington show in Bloomington, Illinois, in 1988. But this is the best I’ve ever had. It’s probably one of the nicest-driving cars I’ve ever had, too. It wasn’t easy — we had the carburetors on and off the car three times while reassembling it, but now it runs beautifully.…

A NUMBER OF THINGS HAVE CHANGED since the last time the Shelby American Automobile Club held its national convention at Sears Point Raceway in Sonoma, California, back in 2010. At the time, the track was called “Infineon Raceway,” but it has since reverted back to the more familiar “Sonoma Raceway at Sears Point.” With the 2009 reorganization of the Shelby American Automobile Club’s Board of Directors (consisting of Ron Richards, Curt Vogt, Howard Pardee, and Jay Talbott), the “face” of SAAC has also changed ever so slightly. But one thing clearly remains the same, and that is the club’s unswerving dedication to preserving and enjoying (read: “driving the hell out of”) the cars that the late Carroll Shelby directly created or played an active development role in creating. That includes…

EVER WONDER WHAT IT takes to restore a Corvette to Bloomington Gold or NCRS Mark of Excellence standards? Joe Verrillo of Prestige Motor Car Co. in Clifton Park, New York, has spent the last 30-plus years buying, selling, as well as restoring national-award winning caliber Corvettes and he considers this Rally Red 1967 Corvette convertible among his restoration shop’s top builds. Its backstory is featured elsewhere in this issue (starting on page 24), but its rebuild is every bit as interesting. Joe purchased the car in 2005 and after a few months of deliberating, decided to paint it. The car then sat with fresh paint, partially disassembled for more than a decade. In late spring 2017, Joe and his three-person crew set a goal: to have the car ready for…

WE’RE GETTING INTO THE DETAILS of our engine and transmission upgrade project on the Hemmings ’69 Chevelle. The new Chevrolet Performance ZZ427 big-block is in, as is the Supermatic 4L85E electronic overdrive automatic transmission, so now we need to take care of the ancillary items to merge the new parts with our old car. The transmission has presented more of a challenge than the engine, which should come as no surprise — we stuck with a big-block engine, but the overdrive automatic is a truck-based unit that is physically much larger than the TH-400 that once resided in the Chevelle’s tunnel, plus it will be electronically controlled. Now that it’s in place, we needed a way to select gears with the new transmission without resorting to using a different shifter.…

REVIEW RM Auctions returned in October to what has long been a mecca for car-collecting aficionados: Hershey, Pennsylvania. RM totaled an impressive $11 million in sales (cars and automobilia) on 150 vehicular lots offered, with a 94-percent sell-through rate. Though the sale was heavy on prewar classics, we did spot some pretty sweet muscle cars, such as an NCRS Top Flight-award-winning, fuel-injected, four-speed 1957 Chevrolet Corvette, that sold for $159,500, almost doubling the presale low estimate of $80,000. A slightly modified 1968 Chevrolet Camaro convertible, with a 350, automatic, and “SS” badging, pulled in $28,050. After another successful Monterey sale, Mecum took its larger-than-life operation to Louisville, Kentucky, in September, and Dallas, Texas, in October. At the Kentucky Exposition Center on September 7 and 8, Mecum grossed $8.4 million on…

IT’SOFFICIAL: CHALLENGER 2 IS RETIRED Eight years ago, Danny Thompson pulled his father’s Autolite Special streamliner, renamed Challenger 2, out of storage. Then, it was a partially bodied chassis, but today the car is the fastest piston-powered vehicle in the world. Its recent record-setting 448.757-mph run at Bonneville will be its last, as Thompson has officially declared the car retired. Perhaps the most remarkable thing about the 2018 record is that the Challenger 2 isn’t a modern car. Its dual Hemi-engine design makes it difficult to service in the time allotted before impound, and it lacks contemporary safety features like traction control (which may have made this year’s passes even faster). There’s meaning in the fact that Challenger 2’s record was set on the 50th anniversary of the car’s Bonneville…

PRICE Base price......................................................................................................................$3,164 Options on car profiled.....................................................................Power steering, power front disc brakes, Rallye instrument cluster, front and rear elastomeric bumpers with body-colored mirrors, Track Pak (four-speed manual, Hurst shifter, 3.54:1 Sure-Grip axle, high-performance cooling equip.), 15-in Rallye Wheels Options added during restoration................... Shaker hood, aluminum Six-Barrel intake and three Holley two-barrel carburetors (all factory original parts) ENGINE Type..............................................................Chrysler RB-series OHV V-8, cast-iron block Displacement..................................................................448-cu.in. (originally 440-cu.in.) Bore x stroke ........................................................4.360 x 3.750 in (originally 4.32 x 3.75) Compression ratio..........................................................................................................10.5:1 Horsepower @ rpm....................................................................390 @ 4,700 (stock 6-bbl) Torque @ rpm ................................................................... 490 lb-ft @ 3,200 (stock 6-bbl) Valvetrain.....................................................................................................Hydraulic lifters Main bearings...................................................................................................................Five Fuel...................................................................Three Holley 2300 two-barrel carburetors on Chrysler/Edelbrock aluminum intake manifold Lubrication...........................................................................Full pressure; gear-type pump Electrical.............................................................................................................................12 v Exhaust......................... Cast-iron manifolds; dual TTI stainless steel pipes and H-pipe; Dynomax Ultra Flo mufflers…

PRICE Base price.................................................................................................................$4,217.75 Options on car profiled.......................... Four-speed close-ratio transmission ($184.35); 15-inch wheels ($263.30); vinyl roof covering, black ($52.70); auxiliary hardtop ($231.75); PB AM/FM radio ($172.75); transistor ignition ($73.75); side dual exhaust ($131.65); special suspension ($36.90; Positraction axle 411R ($42.15); 435-hp V-8 Turbojet ($437.10) Price with options...................................................................................................$5,844.15 ENGINE Type......................................................................Chevrolet Mark IV “big-block” OHV V-8; cast-iron block and cylinder heads Displacement.........................................................................................................427-cu.in. Bore x stroke....................................................................................................4.251 x 3.76 in Compression ratio...............................................................................................................11:1 Horsepower @ rpm...........................................................................................435 @ 5,800 Torque @ rpm............................................................................................460 lb-ft @ 4,000 Camshaft ................................................... .520-inch lift/242 degrees duration (@ .050) Valvetrain..............................................................................Solid mechanical valve lifters Main bearings...................................................................................................................Five Fuel................................Three Holley two-barrel carburetors with high-flow air cleaner, aluminum intake, mechanical pump Ignition......................................................................................Delco-Remy; transistorized Lubrication..................................................................................Pressure; gear-type pump Electrical.............................................................................................................................12 v Exhaust...................................................................Cast-iron manifolds, dual side exhaust TRANSMISSION Type..........................................................................................................Muncie four-speed Ratios..........................1st/2.20:1 … 2nd/1.64:1 … 3rd/1.28:1 … 4th/1.00:1 … Reverse/2.27:1 DIFFERENTIAL…

ON NOVEMBER 18, 2016, Mark Stornant was out for a drive in his 1969 Charger R/T. His son Tyler was riding shotgun on what Mark intended to be the last drive of the season before tucking the R4 Bright Red Mopar away for the winter. Unfortunately, a pickup truck would soon occupy the same piece of two-lane highway as the Charger. While trying to overtake a slow-moving semi-truck, the pickup’s driver crossed the narrow road’s double yellow lines and sideswiped Mark’s car. Fortunately, no one was hurt in the crash—and the pickup driver was sincerely remorseful for his lapse in judgment—but the damage was done. The truck had wiped out the entire driver’s side of the Charger, from the front fender to the rear quarter panel. More than the wrinkled…

FOR 65 YEARS, THE CORVETTE, CHEVY’S PLASTIC FANTASTIC, HAS BEEN AN ICON OF AMERICAN performance. Early on, GM placed the Corvette atop its food chain; other cars may have shared its engines, but rarely carried power ratings as high as they were in the Corvette. Though you’ve been reminded repeatedly that Corvette’s first two years were limited to six-cylinder power, it’s significant to note that even the output of those engines was boosted significantly beyond what Chevy was offering in the rest of its line. Once the division’s V-8 debuted for 1955, Corvette was off and running, prompting high-performance variations of what came to be known as the “small-block” that would often trickle down to other models. When the Mark IV big-block debuted, it was the Corvette that was presented…

MID-AUGUST IN MONTEREY means the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance, the culmination of Monterey Car Week on the famed California peninsula for more than 60 years. This world-renowned celebration of fine automobiles highlights the rarest of the rare, with alluring exotics from Europe and Full Classics from North America. This gathering has been paired with sports car racing since its inception, with legendary drivers and exotic cars battling it out, first on the tree-lined streets of the gated Pebble Beach community, and later at the now-famous Laguna Seca road course. That history of fine automobiles and high performance has driven the evolution of activities during this week, which now includes a number of high-profile auctions, among them, Russo and Steele’s annual Monterey sale. Held on August 23-25, next to the famed…

GT SOME MORE: PRODUCTION OF THE MID-ENGINED ICON TO INCREASE BY A THIRD Were you shut out of the running to get one of the new Ford GTs? Did you turn in your application, only to learn that everyone else at the club got a crack at buying the twin-turbo supercar but you missed out? Well, now’s your chance: Ford is increasing production of the icon-revival GT from an even thousand vehicles to 1,350, and the company has announced it is “re-opening the final owner application process for select global markets” as of November 8. (Whether North America is one of those select global markets is anyone’s guess.) This means that the GT will be produced through the year 2022... upping the count of automobiles that Ford will be building…

THE 1970 PLYMOUTH ’CUDA 440-6 PICTURED ON these pages was nearly lost in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, a ferocious storm that put millions of people and their homes in harm’s way, permanently and dramatically altering the lives of so many that the restoration of a car seems almost meaningless. And, yet, it’s a car that continues to bring out strong emotions from the multiple families who have owned it. John Tambascio, a restaurant owner from Danbury, Connecticut, gets credit for bringing this car back from its brackish grave, but it was his lifelong love for the ’Cuda that inspired him to get it done. John bought his first Barracuda in the mid-1980s, a black 1971 Gran Coupe with a factory brown leather interior and a 383 backed by a…

MOST DAYS OUR MAILBAG AND EMAIL BOX runneth over with letters. Some notes are complimentary, some critical, but honestly, we love ’em all. As long as people have been writing about cars, enthusiasts have been responding. Take for instance the original owner of this 1967 Corvette. Through the magic of Google, we unearthed a letter that he wrote back in 1964 to the editors of Popular Science magazine questioning the results of a comparison between the then all-new Mustang and a Corvette. The story was called “How Hot is the Mustang?” written by the late Dan Gurney and, with all-due respect to the Great One, it was mostly an even-handed report. Sure, when Gurney wrote, “[The Mustang] has the feel of a two-plus-two Ferrari.” Well, that might’ve been an exaggeration.…

ENGINE The 1986 Grand National engine was a 3.8L V-6 (3.8-inch bore x 3.40-inch stroke) equipped with multi-port Sequential Fuel Injection, a turbocharger, and an air-to-air intercooler. It produced 235 hp at 4,000 rpm and 330-lb.ft. torque at 2,400 rpm. In 1987, those figures were boosted to 245 hp at 4,000 rpm and 355-lb.ft. torque at 2,400 rpm. Buick offered Stage I and Stage II performance pieces (including blocks, heads, intakes, bearings and cams) over the counter “for off-highway applications,” though they haven’t been available for years. TRANSMISSION All Grand Nationals came with the TH-200-4R four-speed automatic, which boasted a first/second servo improved over previous years. First gear is a steep 2.74:1, and fourth was a highway friendly 0.67:1. All Turbo Regals got special valve bodies and internal pieces. A…

CORVETTE. THE NAME ALONE IS fraught with expectations. Even a standard-issue model (regardless of year or powertrain) lives to elevate your blood pressure—whether you’re looking at it or experiencing it from the cockpit. There is no stealthy Corvette, no grandma-spec version, no loss-leader economy model. Flowing fenders and fat tires advertise the potential that lies beneath. Crossed-flag badging reminds us that Corvette’s best years were forged in the fires of on-track competition. A roofline that’s lower than your belt buckle. There’s no mistaking one, in any of its seven-and-counting generations. Corvettes don’t whisper. The key to Corvette’s legendary status in the collective American car enthusiast’s heart, lies within its performance. It’s not just the engines, their power ratings rising precipitously through the second half of the ’50s and through the…

AT FIRST GLANCE, this Mayfair Maize Firebird convertible appears to be only mildly modified with 17-inch Rally II wheels and 45-series low-profile tires, which have become prevalent updates for various Pontiacs of this vintage. And there’s the Camaro rear spoiler. Even with the top down, revealing the restored black interior, it looks stock except for minor updates like the steering wheel and stereo… but wait. That FAST electronic fuel-injection control unit with the touchscreen mounted to the instrument panel offers a clue that something interesting is happening in the engine bay. Raising the 400 hood reveals the cornerstone of the project, a Butler Performance (BP) 542-hp, 461-cu.in. Pontiac engine and its dazzling details. What would normally be a blinding array of aluminum and chrome items is made subtle and sinister…

I WAS BORN INTO A CAR FAMILY. Dad and his brothers were all into cars, so naturally, I gravitated in that direction. My earliest memories were going with Dad down to the local Ford dealer where he worked and helping him out in the parts department. I can still remember the distinct smells emanating from the service area, body shop, and paint booth. Modern dealerships are way too antiseptic to reproduce that glorious mix of oils, lacquer, and rubber that permeated throughout the building. I looked forward to spending Saturday mornings doing odd jobs whenever Dad brought me along. I also looked forward to hitching a ride in his coworker’s new, red ’62 Galaxie XL convertible and watching him rowing the gears out of that massive center console. I believe…

JANUARY 1 HERBERT ERWIN NEW YEAR’S DAY AUCTION West Union, Ohio 937-544-8252 3-13 MECUM AUCTION Kissimmee, Florida 262-275-5050 6 ALL OHIO PARTS SPECTACULAR Medina, Ohio 800-553-8745 6 LONG BEACH HI PERFORMANCE SWAP Long Beach, California 800-762-9785 6 SUMTER SWAP MEET Bushnell, Florida 727-848-7171 12-20 BARRETT-JACKSON AUCTION Scottsdale, Arizona 480-421-6694 13 POMONA SWAP MEET Pomona, California 714-538-7091 16 WORLDWIDE AUCTIONEERS Scottsdale, Arizona 800-990-6789 16-20 RUSSO & STEELE AUCTION Scottsdale, Arizona 602-252-2697 17-18 RM SOTHEBY’S AUCTION Phoenix, Arizona 519-352-4575 19-20 AUTOPARTS SWAP ’N SELL West Springfield, Massachusetts 860-871-6376 19-20 NASHVILLE AUTO FEST Nashville, Tennessee 502-893-6731 20 JACKSON VNCCA SWAP MEET Jackson, Michigan 517-764-3135 25-27 GRAND NATIONAL ROADSTER SHOW Pomona, California 877-763-7469…