Innholdsfortegnelse for October 2019 i Hemmings Muscle Machines

I love this car. No, it’s not loud and flashy with Hi-Impact paint but that was its draw for me. I stand out at any car show, especially an all-Mopar show like Carlisle! I’ve been the only F7 green Road Runner to show up. It’s so unique: The fuselage styling, the bird head in the grill, flush side markers, the beep beep horn. Love it all. The car has taught me quite a bit. I am also a big proponent of knowing the history of the car. (Unfortunately, I have had no luck finding the first owner of mine.) It was because of my hunt for the car’s history that I started the 1971 Plymouth B Body Registry at 71plymouthbbodyregistry.weebly.com.…

Our first attempt at turning the Camaro’s cast-offs into cash took place last spring at the Charlotte (North Carolina) AutoFair swap meet. Several of the items brought what we considered very good money, or perhaps we just underestimated the market. Regardless, clean California parts attracted buyers like moths to a porch light. Naturally, we start our pricing for more than we’re willing to take and expect to negotiate to a place that makes both the buyer and seller happy. Nevertheless, the smog system, exhaust manifolds, console, front bucket seats, and rally wheels provided a nice income stream that will help fund the purchases needed to complete this project. Other items have been selling online at a surprising pace too, and all sales combined will help keep our low-buck build on…

CAMARO STOPPERS AEROSPACE COMPONENTS • 727-347-9915 WWW.AEROSPACECOMPONENTS.COM • STARTING AT $859 Fifth- and sixth-generation Camaro brake kits are now available in three configurations: Drag Race, Street-N-Strip, and Street and Show. These kits for the front and rear of 2010-’19 Camaros will enhance stopping power with components suited to the sorts of activities your car is used for. The Drag Race kit offers the lowest rotating mass and static weight to enhance ETs. The Street-N-Strip is great for both the street and track, with better heat dissipation abilities that still allow for continuous street duty. The Street and Show kit has drilled, slotted, and nickel-plated rotors for a unique look. Each kit will clear most 15-inch diameter or larger wheels. The kits include four-piston calipers, brake hats, rotors, caliper mounting…

OCTOBER 2-6 FALL CARLISLE Carlisle, Pennsylvania 717-243-7855 3-5 BARRETT-JACKSON AUCTION Las Vegas, Nevada 480-421-6694 6 ALL OHIO PARTS SPECTACULAR Randolph, Ohio 800-553-8745 6 HI-PERFORMANCE SWAP MEET Long Beach, California 800-762-9785 7 BONHAMS AUCTION Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 212-461-6514 9-12 AACA EASTERN REGIONAL FALL MEET Hershey, Pennsylvania 717-566-7720 10-11 RM SOTHEBY’S AUCTION Hershey, Pennsylvania 519-352-4575 10-12 MECUM AUCTIONS Las Vegas, Nevada 262-275-5050 10-12 VICARI AUCTIONS Biloxi, Mississippi 504-264-2277 13 POMONA SWAP MEET Pomona, California 714-538-7091 17-19 CHICKASHA FALL SWAP MEET Chickasha, Oklahoma 405-224-6552 17-19 DALLAS FORT-WORTH CAR SHOW Grand Prairie, Texas 254-751-7958 18-19 THE BRANSON AUCTION Branson, Missouri 800-335-3063 23-26 AACA SOUTHEASTERN FALL NATIONAL Mobile, Alabama 717-534-1910 24-26 MECUM AUCTIONS Chicago, Illinois 262-275-5050 24-26 NORMAN SWAP MEET Norman, Oklahoma 405-651-7927 25-26 SOMERNITES CRUISE Somerset, Kentucky 606-872-2277 25-28 LAS VEGAS CONCOURS d’ELEGANCE Las Vegas,…

DON GARLITS GOES FOR ELECTRIC DRAG RECORD As we head to press, drag racing legend Don Garlits is planning to strap himself into the cockpit of the Swamp Rat 38 electric dragster at Florida’s Palm Beach International Raceway, stage the car, and then break his existing National Electric Drag Racing Association record, putting down a pass at or above 200 mph. After setting and breaking so many records in the sport of Top Fuel drag racing, it’s no surprise that 87-year-old Garlits can’t sit still. He was, after all, the first drag racer to break the 170-, 180-, 240-, 250-, and 270-mph barriers. In August 2014, Garlits drove Swamp Rat 37, a modified Top Fuel dragster with six electric motors making more than 2,000 horsepower, to a NEDRA DR/A3 class…

1969 AMC JAVELIN SST PRICE Base price.....................................................................................................................$2,633 Options on car profiled................................................................390-cu.in. engine ($391); power steering ($95); Big Bad paint ($34); Go Package ($311) ENGINE Type...................................... AMC “Gen-2” OHV V-8; cast-iron block and cylinder heads Displacement.........................................................................................................390-cu.in. Bore x stroke..................................................................................................4.165 x 3.574 in Compression ratio..........................................................................................................10.2:1 Horsepower @ rpm.............................................................................................315 @ 5,000 Torque @ rpm............................................................................................425 lb-ft @ 3,200 Valvetrain...........................................................................................Hydraulic valve lifters Main bearings........................................................................................................................5 Fuel system ........................................... Carter four-barrel carburetor, mechanical pump Lubrication system.....................................................................Pressure, gear-type pump Electrical system..............................................................................................................12-V Exhaust system..................................................................................................Dual exhaust TRANSMISSION Type...................................................Borg-Warner M12 iron-case three-speed automatic Ratios ...............................................1st/2.40:1 … 2nd/1.47:1 … 3rd/1.00:1 … Reverse/2.00:1 DIFFERENTIAL Type...............................................AMC Model 20 with Twin-Grip limited-slip differential Ratio.................................................................................................................................3.15:1 STEERING Type..............................................................................................Saginaw recirculating ball Ratio.....................................................................................................................................16:1 Turning circle................................................................................................................33.6 ft BRAKES Type...........................................................................................................................Hydraulic Front...........................................................................................................................11-in disc Rear.........................................................................................................................10-in drum SUSPENSION Front..............................................................Independent; lower control arms, trunnions, coil springs, 7/8-in anti-roll bar, telescoping shock absorbers Rear........... Parallel semi-elliptic…

RUBBER BUMPER F-BODIES, like their C3 Corvette and MGB contemporaries, took a long time in getting the respect they deserve. Like many things automotive in the 1970s, they came from the engineering of the free-for-all 1960s, but found themselves having to cope with new realities where safety, emissions, and fuel economy were priorities instead of pure aesthetics and an exciting driving experience. Automotive engineers are a clever bunch, though, and they rapidly figured out how to rework the aging platforms they’d been given into something good looking and fun to drive, at least relative to what was being offered as new vehicles. As old-car enthusiasts look with fresh eyes at the cars of the 1970s and ’80s, many are seeing the potential to build fun, interesting machines from the autos…

WITH JUST A WEEK between the F.A.S.T. appearance at Hemmings’ Musclepalooza in New York and the F.A.S.T. Spring Nationals in Michigan, it was obvious that the East Coast and Midwest racers might not make both events (see Musclepalooza coverage on page 30). Faced with this scheduling quirk and a less-than-ideal weather forecast, the Spring Nationals still attracted 70 competitors hoping to get in the race before the rain. Friday’s weather was pleasant enough to get in a full day of qualifying, but the Saturday shootouts were a wash with four more inches of rain dumped on the soggy Midwest. F.A.S.T. SPRING NATIONALS The F.A.S.T. class was a three-entry field, as several of the heavy hitters were still waiting on engine builds to be completed. The cars that were able to…

AFTER THE FIRST SEGMENT of our low-buck Pro Touring project in last month’s issue (HMM #193), the feedback was quick to come. Most of it was supportive and some even contained ideas on how we might achieve our shoestring goal, while others scoffed and were doubtful it could be done. If you missed out on the premise, here it is: Despite spiraling build costs, we contend that most any enthusiast with a modicum of mechanical ability, a reasonable set of tools, and the inspiration and commitment to accomplish most of the work independently, can construct a respectable ride with a net outlay of about $25,000. Interested? Read on. Our plan began with a ’69 Camaro that was complete and California rust-free. We wanted to take it in the current “Pro…

MOTHERS • 714-891-3364 • WWW.MOTHERS.COM • $146.93 (SUGGESTED RETAIL) Over the past several years, a number of orbital-style buffers have come to market at the consumer level, offering car owners an affordable way to revive and maintain their paint finishes without having to do all the work by hand or to invest in the kind of pro-grade rotational buffing rig that intimidates novices with the threat of accidental paint damage. Mothers is a highly recognized brand of car care products, especially among enthusiasts, so when the company introduced its own orbital kit, we wanted to check it out. The Wax Attack II Pro-Power Polisher kit is a fairly complete setup that even includes a quite nice carrying case. Inside is the orbital polisher, three Velcro-backed foam polishing pads, three…

THIS MONTH, WE ARE continuing our coverage from January’s Scottsdale sales bonanza in Arizona with muscle car highlights from the Bonhams and Gooding & Company auctions. As we’ve done in the past, we’ll break this two-in-one coverage down on an individual sale basis momentarily, but as we go into those details, we should note that the combined take from these sales resulted in 213 of 245 cars (or 87 percent) finding new owners for a collective $64.3 million result (all sale prices include a buyer’s premium). Let’s lead off with Bonhams’ one-day festival of gavel action that witnessed 120 carefully curated cars pass under the block lamps. At the Westin Kierland Resort & Spa, the event saw 108 lots sold (90 percent) for $16.1 million, led by a 1951 Maserati…

On July 18, Chevrolet revealed the long-awaited 2020 Corvette Stingray to a crowd of gathered journalists, Corvette aficionados, and dealership personnel. On paper, the C8 sounds like an impressive package, capable of raising the model’s performance bar even higher, without an astronomical rise in pricing. The mid-engine design brings with it both advantages and drawbacks. On a track, a car with a balanced front-to-rear weight distribution will — generally speaking — handle better than a car with a pronounced front or rear weight bias. The C7 Corvette had reached the limits of what was possible with a front-engine, rear-drive car, meaning that to improve performance (and lower the all-important Nürburgring lap times), a change in platform was needed. In the real world of rush-hour commutes and weekend getaways, mid-engine cars…

IT ALWAYS COMES AS A SHOCK WHEN you ask a car owner how many vehicles he owns, and he has to sit for a moment and do the math. “How many do I have? You mean indoors?” Let us cut to the chase: Terry Gale owns at least 250 restored cars (and hundreds more unrestored ones). The overwhelming majority of these, stored indoors in a number of museum-quality buildings, are AMCs and Ramblers, with consideration given to models before (i.e., Nash) and after (i.e., Renault, Eagle) AMC’s existence. The presentation, tightly packed and impeccably clean, would make most car nuts woozy. He gleefully shows tours of enthralled enthusiasts around his Colorado compound, nicknamed “Rambler Ranch.” Within that 250-car collection dedicated to the preservation of the AMC marque, there are of…

UTTER THE NAME “RAM AIR V” within earshot of any members of the Pontiac faithful and watch their eyes light up as their heart rates elevate and they drift off to the world of what-could-have-been. The tunnel-port terror was born of a mandate from General Manager John DeLorean, who was inspired by the 427 tunnel-port Ford design. It was developed by Pontiac’s engine maestro Mac McKellar and his orchestra of engineers to take on all comers near the height of the muscle car era. A 400-cu.in. version was slated for GTOs and Firebirds. A 303-inch variant was developed by the Special Projects group headed by Herb Adams for the 1969 Firebird Trans Am, to meet the SCCA’s 5-liter/305-cu.in. displacement limit for its Trans-Am series. (There was even some tunnel-port testing…

IF YOU LIVE ANYWHERE in the Northeast, you know this year’s escape from winter involved lots and lots of wet weather. Perhaps it was the frustration built up over so many rainy days that prompted the muscle car faithful to descend on Lebanon Valley Dragway en masse, creating what proved to be one of our biggest turnouts ever. With about 500 show cars and around 300 race cars, there was a lot to see, and as is often the case, among the regular participants were cars we’d not seen previously, both on the show field and the drag strip. By now you know the deal with Musclepalooza: We do it on the Sunday of every Memorial Day weekend, and again on Labor Day weekend, and we host a car show…

THE STREET AND THE strip are worlds apart, especially when it comes to building an engine. From the burnout and staging to the launch and high-winding pull through the lights, the working life of one built for drag racing is demanding and unforgiving — and striking the razor-sharp balance between maximum performance and durability is the key to going round after round, race after race. “Horsepower is only part of the picture when building a racing engine,” according to Brian Thomson, a Detroit-area racing engine builder for nearly 40 years. “It’s more about using the right parts and assembling with precision and attention to detail that’s vastly more intricate than a high-performance street engine — that is, if you want it to live.” Even when Detroit built supercars it knew…

ENGINE The base Road Runner was powered by the 300-hp 383 with a four barrel. Optional engines included the 275-hp 340, the 385-hp 440 Six Barrel, and the 425-hp 426 Hemi. All of these are excellent engines with a rabid following — parts and information aren’t a problem. If you’re striving for a concours-quality engine bay however, tending to the details can get time consuming and expensive. Missing original carburetors on the 340, 383, and Hemi, for instance, can be tough to track down, and sellers often charge a premium for good examples. TRANSMISSION AND AXLE Road Runners were offered with three transmissions in 1971: a three-speed manual synchromesh gearbox was standard, while the four-speed A-833 manual and three-speed TorqueFlite automatic were optional. The three-speed manual Road Runner came only…

MECUM ON THE WEST COAST, BARRETT-JACKSON ON THE EAST Mecum came to Portland, Oregon, for a fourth year on June 21 and 22 with muscle cars taking eight of the top-10 earning spots, interrupted only by a 1971 Ford Bronco and a 2005 Bentley Continental GT. Sales totaled $6.6 million with 253 vehicles heading to new homes by the end of the weekend. The top sale was a 1969 Ford Mustang Boss 429, finished in Candy Apple Red that sold for $275,000. A second 1969 Mustang was the next-highest-grossing vehicle, coming in at $143,000. That two-tone silver-and-black restomod with a 427 and a six-speed dyno tested at 636 hp. Fresh from a body-off restoration, a light blue 1967 Corvette with a 427 and black ragtop crossed the block at $99,000.…