We Haven't Had A Good Car Thread In A While...........My '67 Chevelle

[jackie schmidt]

I have had this car since 1994, it has gone through a couple of reincarnations, the latest is all drive line oriented. Last Summer, I installed a new TCI 6X 6Speed Automatic, and I just finished the installation on my new engine, a 540 cubic in Big Block.
The engine features a Dart Big M Block, 4.5 bore, a SCAT 4 1/4 4340 Crank, Forged Flat Tops, Custom Hyd Roller Cam, .675 lift, .234 degrees duration at .050, Air Flow Research 290 CNC Ported Heads, and a port matched RPM Performer Intake, Lemons Headers, Rick's Stainless Steel Gas Tank. Compression is 9.8 to 1.

I specifically designed this engine to be a real street engine, burning what ever premium unleaded is in the pump, while making gobs of Horsepower and Torque down low in the RPM Band. On the Dyno, she made 662 HP at 5800 RPM, and 682 ft lbs of Torque at 4300. Idles smooth at 800 rpm with 14 inches of vacuum.

USA Race Engines built the engine for me.

This thing is absolutly brutal, the close ratio 6 Speed Auto has the perfect gear spread for this engine. When you nail it, it feels like the afterburners kick in.

While I am not able to shoot much due to a heavy work schedule at this time, I am still spending money on the one thing that counts, having fun.

Let's see some other cars

 

[mike in co]

have to be a registered user to see the pics....


mike in co

 

[Joe Woosman]

Soooooooo.... How does she corner??? He he. Thats a lot of horsepower to get hooked up on the street. I once built a street car (sorta) with 750 horse. Was pretty much unusable and no fun at all to drive. No matter how sticky the tires there was no hope of getting it to hook.

 

[mikeearly]

Jackie, that sounds like an absolute beast .....

I'll bet that is a ball to drive!

Mine is from a little more modern era .... http://www.mdephoto.com/MDEPHOTO_Cars/mustang/index.html#201011_1dsm4001520 Mine is the white with grabber blue stripes. With the tune it is putting out a little more than 550 at the crank. Suspension is Ford Racing Performance Products and Rousch; other minor mods to engine cooling system, supercharger cooling system, and few other items that represent momentary lapses of any financial reason what-so-ever

Mike

 

[mike in co]

i was never into big muscle cars..i followed and worked road racing, f1, canam, nascar on road courses.

i built a 1960 bug......VW BUG YOU SAY!!

TIME PERIOD..1972....
1800 cc
scat crank
wild cam...one of two i owned both..power range was narrow..4500to 7500..with an 8000rpm limiter...
car had a roll cage tied into suspension points
no heater no radio no carperts
fibreglass one pc hood and fenders...
2" dropped front axle
now this was a street car...daily driiver...25 mpg for 16 yrs
two 2bbl webber carbs
8000 rpm in 1/2...7500 rpm in 3rd....in 16 yrs never had it flat out in 4th.
stock gear ratios but lots of durability mods to the transaxle.......including 5 mounting points.
did do over 120...and the numbers say if you drop another 1000 rpm for 4th gear..top end would be 135+/-.....
oh for the days when you could get real premium gas....
raced it in hawaii....short road course type stuff( we had part of the new highway before it opened)
it weighed all of 1500 lbs....
it was stolen in 1981....fed hot car list...
oppps i forgot...
dry sump oil system scavanging pump and supply pump ...9 quart sys

mike in co

 

[jackie schmidt]

I'll bet that is a ball to drive!

Mine is from a little more modern era .... http://www.mdephoto.com/MDEPHOTO_Cars/mustang/index.html#201011_1dsm4001520 Mine is the white with grabber blue stripes. With the tune it is putting out a little more than 550 at the crank. Suspension is Ford Racing Performance Products and Rousch; other minor mods to engine cooling system, supercharger cooling system, and few other items that represent momentary lapses of any financial reason what-so-ever

Mike

Nice rides, Mike. Hot Rods are Hot Rods. Period.

My younger Brother has a CTS-V Cadillac Station Wagon that he ordered with a 6 speed standard last year. It comes off the showroom with that 565 HP supercharged LS engine. He just shipped his to Lingenfelter to get their stage 3 system installed. When he gets it back, it will have about 780 hp and a equal amount of torque. I have no idea what that thing is going to feel like.

I will try to access my Photobucket Account and get some picks.

 

[Hombre0321]

Hot Rods and Muscle Cars are just a cool thing. I have owned a couple of these for many years, the old 49 Ford F-1 I built while stationed at Camp Pendleton back in 1977, if that truck could just talk. It has had 11 different engines in it over the years from a 454 to a buick nailhead. Today it sports a Desoto Hemi and a BW 4 speed. The little red pontiac is a 39 model and I built that one three years ago.

Roland

 

[mike in co]

354 firedome ???

Hot Rods and Muscle Cars are just a cool thing. I have owned a couple of these for many years, the old 49 Ford F-1 I built while stationed at Camp Pendleton back in 1977, if that truck could just talk. It has had 11 different engines in it over the years from a 454 to a buick nailhead. Today it sports a Desoto Hemi and a BW 4 speed. The little red pontiac is a 39 model and I built that one three years ago.

Roland

 

[Chism G]

"Muscle Cars"

I rode in Jerry Stillers Dodge Viper Sports Car. These things come off the showroom floor with 600+ HP. The sound is awesome. The intimidation factor is off the scale.



Glenn

 

[jackie schmidt]

Wow, Mike, you are showing your age.

Those first generation Hemi's have to be the coolest street rod engine ever, except for maybe a Buick Nail Head.

I have never admitted to being much of anything except an old Hot Rodder, my wife asked me why in the world I wanted that gosh awful monster I just had installed in the Chevelle, and the best answer I can give her is 'because".

I love modern Hot Rodding. We can all remember when all you had a choice of was reworked Factory stuff, or extremely expensive aftermarket parts. The very first set of Air Flow Reasearch Heads I ever owned was in 1977 back in my Boat Racing days. They were the old 'snow flake' Chevy aluminum castings, with the exaust side welded up, raised, and D-Ported, then angle milled 1/4 inch. In todays dollars, what I had to give for those heads would have cost $20,000.

Now, it's a matter of making a choice for the application you want. It's amazing the selection of heads, blocks, cranks, cams, induction systems, etc, that is no more than a phone call away. 496 cubic inches used to be the practical limit, now it's middle of the road. I stopped at 540 inches simply because I did not want to go to a tall block, too much hassle getting everything in the car.

We used to make street horsepower with 13 to 1 compression, big flat tappet cams, and hogged out stock heads. No idle, no vaccuum, ill tempererd, and you had to rev the darn thing untill the belts came off. Now, you can build a massive cubic inch engine, get heads that flow big numbers with maximum port velocity, Hyd Roller Cams that are computer designed to be perfectly compatible with the other parts, and you have a rather "mild" engine that will shred the tires, scare the cr-p out of you, but idle smooth, have great vacuum, run cool, and make lots of power down where you can use it.

These are great times for Hot Rodders.

 

[Joe Woosman]

These are great times for Hot Rodders.

Yes in deed. I've got a 2011 Shelby GT500. They were 550 horse stock. A quick pulley swap on the supercharger and it's 650. Swap the supercharger and it can be 800. The thing that blows my mind is how drivable they are due to variable cam timing and traction control. I have no fears at all of letting my wife drive it. When I first picked it up I was not real impressed. Then I realized what traction control was all about. In the old days you had to be quite skillful at back peddling to keep them straight and in traction. Not so much anymore. At highway speeds you can mash the throttle and watch two black marks lay down in the rear view for as long as you're in it but no sensation of tire spin at all. Then I got to thinking this isn't very fun. I wana drive it like the old days. Turned the traction control off and at about 60mph she turned right sideways on me in the blink of an eye. After some quick counter steering and a new pair of shorts I had gained some respect this new technology.

Other great new technology is the diesel trucks. My F-250 is making 520hp and 1150tq on a rear wheel dyno! And this isn’t even impressive for a diesel anymore. Basically a stock truck with an intake, exhaust and programmer. It’s pretty cool blowing the doors off hot rods at stop lights. An 8000 pound truck in 4WD with the turbo spooled making that much torque leaves pretty darn hard!

 

[Andrew B]

"Good times for Hot rodders"

Amen.

You can buy a well mannered, civilized, luxurious car today with handling and horsepower that you would have called somone a liar about when we were teenagers (53 now). In recent years, I have owned a Chrysler 300 SRT8 (425 hp - awesome tourer), a Shelby Mustang (500 HP), an Infiniti M56 (423 hp - hated it) and now am on my second Cadillac (2009, 2013) CTS-V (556 HP).

As far as I am concerned, the Cadillac is the best piece of American iron ever to roll out of Detroit. Ever. Nice car, looks good, rides well, nice on the inside, handles well and will smoke the tires thru 3rd gear with a top speed of 198.

In the 80's and 90's, who ever thought we would see a resurgence of cars like these right out of the factory. Not me. With a few exceptions, Detroit was cranking out boring.

I am with Jackie on this one. Can't explain the need to feel the G's push me backwards into the seat. But it sure makes me smile. "Because" is as good as it gets.

 

[Bill Gammon]

Years back I spent 9 years in a 55 Chev Stocker, bought a front engine rail, rebuilt it, took it for some testing at Sparta, old baffed out 301 in it and after the very first run, 110 or something like that, the wife caught up to me in the push car. I still had not gotton out of the rail and the very first thing I said to her? "9 YEARS IN A DOOR SLAMMER WHEN I COULD HAVE HAD THIS" not knocking door slammers, but a rail is everything!!! at least it was to me. Just an observation!! The only problem I ever had was getting that Maple Surup to ignite!!!! EH!!!

 

[mike in co]

jackie,
old in years only....
started my engineering back ground in ICE's..internal combustion engines.
the heads on the vw had about 100 hrs of work ...each...all hand labor port polish match combustion chambers to 1/10 of a cc, 5 angle valve job, rocker arm geometry to be correct, spring height...and on......
6 1/2 lb flywheel for quick revs opposite of a drag car.

when gas octane bit the dirt, i lowered the compression, backed off the cam...but could still break the transaxle case if i nailed it in second gear....which is why i went to five mounts.

mike in co

 

[Joe Woosman]

Years back I spent 9 years in a 55 Chev Stocker, bought a front engine rail, rebuilt it, took it for some testing at Sparta, old baffed out 301 in it and after the very first run, 110 or something like that, the wife caught up to me in the push car. I still had not gotton out of the rail and the very first thing I said to her? "9 YEARS IN A DOOR SLAMMER WHEN I COULD HAVE HAD THIS" not knocking door slammers, but a rail is everything!!! at least it was to me. Just an observation!! The only problem I ever had was getting that Maple Surup to ignite!!!! EH!!!

Never drove a rail but drag racing bikes did the same thing to me. Lead me into designing and building fuel injection on bikes before the factories were doing it. Was quite the science experiment. Learned an aweful lot about engines.

 

[jackie schmidt]

Joe, when I quit Boat Racing in 1979, I decided to get into something "safer", drag bike racing. We raced the old "Hog Rallys" and some IDBA Events.

A good friend and fellow boat racer was a big Harley guy, and I started out with a gas modified Shovel Head Big Twin , and in short time progressed up to a "high gear only" fuel Harley. It was on a Kosman Frame, I literally hand built the engine, 128 cubic inches with a Shovel lower end and Sportster cast iron heads, heavilly modified. I built the cases, cylinders, used Carillo Rods, 5 1/8 stroke S&S Flywheels, and had a 2 1/4 bore S&S Super Carburator . It would about 8.70 at 160 on 98% with about 3 ounces of Propoline Oxide to help it out, untill I went off of it at the old Houston International Drag Way in Dickenson Tx on a test night in 1983.

It did not kill me, but just about did everything but. That ended my desire to race, but I still like to go fast.

 

[Bill Ohio]

I thought I would find the time to get into the vintage muscle car thing, and even bought two '68 Camaros a few years back for such projects. But there they sit to this day, covered, and ready for somebody to appreciate them and actually get them out on the road or at least in a garage being wrenched on. One is a numbers matching 327 2-speed Powerglide coupe with factory air, and the other was (before I bought it) an SS/RS 396 4-speed. When I bought it, it came with a built 350, Speedway quick-change racing rear end, TH400 with B&M shifter thing (hate it), and much of the original dash replaced with racing stuff. However, I have a Muncie 4-speed and a 12-bolt rear end to try to bring the car back into a more road-worthy configuration.

Anybody looking for such projects? PM me!!!

They're both in Danville, CA.

In the meantime, we drive a 2010 Audi S4 and a 2011 BMW 1M. Watching the BBC's 'Top Gear' has affected us, including our wallets.

 

[David Halblom]

George, you should

seems like alot of shooters are gear heads as well

hve known that. Go Figure. Just some of us did stuff on true engineering studies, not Brutes. SCCA wrench turning was and is a challenge.
David

 

[Al Nyhus]

I grew up around NHRA Stock and Super Stock drag racing. From my early teens until my late '20s, that's all I did. This was my best car, a '67 Camaro that I ran in SS/IA and SS/JA with a 327/275 Powerglide combo. I built the car from the ground up including the narrowed 12 bolt, the ladder bars, subframe connectors and roll cage. The index for SS/IA was 11.52 at the time and the car would consistently run 2 tenths under which was pretty stout at the time. It never qualified lower than 11th at any NHRA event. One cold, clear morning at a Division 5 Points Meet at Gimli, Manitoba, the car went a stout 11.07 to tie the existing National Record..... a backup run of 11.06 and I'd have the record. On the backup run, the car stood on the rear bumper and I knew it wasn't going to happen. I spent the next couple hours pulling the alum. oil pan and having an Alky Funny Car racer TIG weld a few seams.... .

The car in National Dragster Magazine:

Heads up against Jim Cook from Denver in a Chrysler factory backed SS/JA Duster. He and I both ran 11.32's....the win light went on in my lane.

Cooling it down before the semi finals in Brainerd, Mn.:

I bought and sold a lot of 409 cars and parts to help finance my way through school. This is a '62 Bel Aire 409/425 four speed that I did. I sold the car to a collector in Colorado:

Better days......my wife and youngest daughter before we headed out for some ice cream cones:

 

[Rembrandt]

Let's see some other cars.

Unlike some of you, my expertise was not on the power side of things, rather the looks. Restoration and paint.....here's a few of the older ones.
67-65 Corvettes

67 Corvette

71 Jag XKE V-12 Coupe

57 FI Corvette

62 Corvette

....even dabbled in dune buggies for a short time....