Innholdsfortegnelse for February 2021 i Hemmings Muscle Machines

Terry: Having read the “The Right Rollers” editorial in the November issue (HMM #207), I wanted to take a moment and say thank you. It was a great piece, and you were right on the money with what you had to say. It’s amazing how a different set of wheels and tires can change the look of a vehicle, both positive and negative. I, too, have a set of 15 x 7-inch Rally wheels on my 1972 El Camino, and I love the look of the car with them. My 1972 Chevelle has 17 x 8 American Racing wheels, and I love that look also. I think the Chevelle would look terrible with the Rally wheels, but that is only one old geezer’s opinion. One of the first things I…

MAGINE STOPPING AT A ROAD SIDE CAR SHOW on a whim while traveling home from vacation, discovering one of your dream Mopars amongst the participating rides, and then learning that it was for sale. That scenario played out for Tim Winnie back in 2009, when he and his wife Eileen stopped at an Applebee’s in West Palm Beach, Florida, to check out a parking lot car show during their drive back to Jeannette, Pennsylvania. At that show, they found this Plum Crazy 1971 340 Challenger with a Shaker hood and longitudinal side stripes without “RT” callouts on them. Tim investigated further by scanning the fender tag and noting that among the many other codes, N96 for the Shaker was there, as was the E55 for the 340 engine, FC7 for…

Idon’t think anybody knows as much about the details of this car as I do because of all the research I’ve done. Pretty much everyone else who owned it thought it might be the first 1969 Z/28. We can’t prove that, but 95 percent of the pictures GM has in its archives [of ’69 Z/28s] are of this car. I’m pretty confident that this could be the first one, though you can’t say it definitely.…

CUSTOM MUSCLE GOES UNDER THE GAVEL While there will always be traditionalists who insist things are best kept as originally intended, it’s human nature to want to put our personal stamp on our favorite belongings, those things that help us express our personality. For car guys and gals with an individualist streak, this desire extends to our vehicles. Unsurprisingly, regular followers of Hemmings Auctions have seen a good number of customized American performance cars and trucks cross the block in recent months. “One thing that seems to catch the attention of the purists and speed demons alike is modified muscle cars,” says Auctions Editor Terry Shea. “Whatever you call them — restomods, Pro Touring, hot rodded — those engine-swapped, chassis-stiffened, big-tired machines with slick paint jobs will always be a…

FCA UNLEASHES AN 807-HP REDEYE CRATE ENGINE Need a little more grunt for your 318 Barracuda or Slant-Six E-body Challenger? How does 807 horsepower and 717 lb-ft of torque sound, courtesy of FCA’s latest crate engine offering, the Hellcrate Redeye Supercharged HEMI? Announced on November 6, the 6.2-liter HEMI V-8 is topped with a 2.7-liter supercharger that produces 14.5 psi of boost, compared to 11.6 psi in the standard Hellcrate engine. Strengthened internals (forged steel crankshaft with revised balancing, forged alloy pistons, powder-forged connecting rods, and twice the piston cooling) not only cope with the added boost, but permit a redline of 6,500 rpm, 300 rpm more than the standard Hellcrate. The Hellcrate Redeye comes standard with a flexplate for mating to automatic transmissions, but Mopar also sells the parts…

IN A YEAR THAT HAS SEEN MORE than its share of uncertainty, it was questionable if the 26th-annual Pure Stock Drags would even be held. We are pleased to report that the event went off as usual, providing a little bit of normalcy as 109 muscle cars returned to Mid-Michigan Motorplex. Of course, the event was held under the rules of 2020. No outside spectators. Social distancing was practiced in the pits and on the track. Elbow bumps replaced the pre-shootout handshakes. Our Canadian racers were locked out. Many longtime competitors decided staying home was in their best interest. In many ways this year was different, but the action on the track was exactly as it has always been. Michigan treated us to two beautiful fall days of weather, there…

ENGINE SWAPS HAVE been a part of hot rodding history almost since the internal combustion engine came into being. Mankind’s incessant need for speed, and a fascination with improving the performance of anything mechanical, has given rise to an almost unimaginable combination of powerplants shoved between the frame rails of nearly anything on four wheels. Early on, the flathead Ford V-8 fed most of the passion for performance, especially for returning World War II veterans who were eager to transfer much of what they’d learned in the motorpools and on flight lines to bare-boned jalopies that were inexpensive and easy to work on. Propulsion systems took a new direction, however, with the introduction of the small-block Chevy in the mid-Fifties. The instantly ubiquitous Bowtie engine was quickly embraced by both…

“STROKER” ENGINES HAVE long been a solution to building more power and there may be no better example than the ubiquitous 383-cu.in. Chevy small-block. At a glance, building it seems almost as simple as making s’mores by mashing toasted marshmallows and pieces of chocolate between some graham crackers: A 0.030-over 350 block plus the 3.75-inch stroke from a 400 small-block crankshaft (versus the 350’s 3.48-inch stroke) equals stroker nirvana, right? Not exactly. Because of the unique design and production features of the 400, dropping its crankshaft into a 350 wasn’t originally as easy as all that. First, the 400 was the only Chevy small-block to have the larger 2.65-inch-diameter main journals, where the 350 (and other post-1967 small-blocks) had 2.45-inch mains. But turning down the mains of a 400 crankshaft…

2021 JEEP WRANGLER RUBICON 392 THE FACTORY-BUILT BRO-JEEP: 470 HORSES, 0-60 IN 4.5 SECONDS, ON SALE SHORTLY Remember when Jeeps were thrifty little off-roaders, four- and six-cylinder engines plugging away through all four wheels? Was it Enzo Ferrari (or perhaps his right-hand man in America, Luigi Chinetti?) who called the Jeep “America’s only sports car”? Not only would the old man flip his wig to see Jeep and Ferrari under the same corporate umbrella, he’d be amazed to see one perform as well as the example seen here. As threatened a few months ago, Jeep has pulled the trigger on the 2021 Wrangler Rubicon 392: a 4x4 packed full of FCA’s 392-cu.-in., 470-hp, 470 lb-ft V-8 that will reach 60 mph from a standstill in just 4½ seconds, and break…

THIS FAIRLANE ROLLED OFF THE LINE about five days before the Mustang made its debut. Perhaps gearing up for that new car caused some shortages for other models. How else do you explain that this Fairlane came with a 1963-type interior and a too-long driveshaft? It’s not as though the intervening years are a great mystery. Current owner Don Antilla, of Southbury, Connecticut, acquired the car only in early 2020. He’s known of it since 1966, though he didn’t finally get to see it until very recently. He’d been bugging its second owner to sell for more than 54 years, but that fellow, Mario Muollo, was more interested in street racing the solid-lifter Fairlane than restoring it or selling it. He finally stopped driving it around 1993 (the last date…

YOU CAN’T SWING A CHAMBERED exhaust pipe without hitting an armchair Camaro expert. They’re at the gas station, the auto parts store, at local shows, and all over the internet — oh, especially the internet. It’s understandable, though. The Camaro in general — and first-generation cars in particular — are hugely popular, ever approachable, and there’s been volumes, upon volumes, written about them. Camaros are easy to get to know and even the most obscure examples of the breed have few secrets these days. But the Hugger Orange 1969 Z/28 on these pages would likely confound many armchair experts. At first walkaround, the car has clearly been restored to a show-stopping standard. Yet why aren’t the stripes quite right? Why does it have quarter-panel trim louvers, yet no wheelhouse or…

IF THE CRUSH OF HUMANITY and hour-long bathroom lines were keeping you from attending the Barrett-Jackson auction, have we got news for you. At the October 22-24 event, held at the company’s traditional location at Westworld in Scottsdale, Arizona, there was no one around to stand in your way. The “automotive lifestyle experience” that Barrett-Jackson uses to entice people into its doors was largely superfluous, with only a bare minimum of people on the premises. The bad news? Unless you were buying or selling a car, were a guest of a buyer or consignor, or worked there, you probably weren’t getting in the door to experience it. For the first time ever this past October, the public wasn’t invited to share in the fun at Westworld. If you were buying…

ELKHART COLLECTION The PR department at RM Sotheby’s has released the results of the Elkhart Collection auction in Elkhart, Indiana, with total sales exceeding $44.3 million. More than 240 collector cars and an expansive selection of memorabilia were offered during the two-day event. The top American muscle car sold was this 1966 Shelby G.T. 350H. The legendary Hertz “Rent-A-Racer” was believed to be one of only 85 with a four-speed manual transmission. It spent most of the last 35 years in storage and its most recent and thorough restoration finished up in 2002. Chassis SFM 6S590 had authentic Hertz-specific chrome Magnum 500 wheels, wore the right red oxide primer overspray, and had period-correct lap belts. Replacement items included the windshield and a 1967 289 high-performance block. When the bidding ended,…