Muscle Car Wars from when we were Teens

[Simplysmn]

Hey Big It's not going anywhere no Problem I will save it for you go Hunting we can Talk Car's Later

 

[KATOOM]

I grew up in the muscle car era. Absolutely fun times back then.

'69 Camaro
'70 Camaro
'70 SS 454 Chevelle

I dreamt about all three... I had my specific preferences on each one too but I wont bore you all with that.

 

[jhenderson]

My senior year in high school I drove a 66 Chevy II SS with an L79 327. The group I hung around with drove, in no particular order. A 70 Mach I, 70 Chevelle SS454, 69 Chevelle 396, 68 Nova SS 350 with a 4 speed and a bench seat( kinda rare) , 66 289 4 speed Ford Futura, 69 Z28, and one character had a 63 4 speed 409 dual quad Impala rag top. Needless to say, we were all in vo-tech auto shop. A bunch of teenagers abusing vehicles that would now be worth a lot more than my home.

 

[DHayden]

In HS I had a 72' Monte Carlo, most of the guys had 68-72 Chevelles, Camaros and Nova's with a few GTO's and Cutlass's sprinkled in. A good condition Chevelle of those years could be had for 2500-3500 bucks....wish I could go back.

 

[moparguy]

I bought my 340 Duster in 1971. Did a amateur restoration back in 87, had it painted and built a new engine (new block and all internals). It now has about 5K miles on it since the freshening job.

Drove it on my birthday back in August and while cruising down an isolated stretch of blacktop a few miles from the house it suddenly came to a stop, to get it moving again I had to plant the right pedal to the floor, then powershift all the way to 4th. It did get a bit squirrelly in second but finally hooked up and then time to find 3rd.

That's now my new b-day tradition, at 67 not sure how many times it'll happen but it sure felt good and the grin was genuine.

​

 

[Shadrach]

I remember those 340 cars well. I had a 70 Demon with a 4 speed. Car was driven hard and put away wet when I bought it but I wanted the drive train for a street rod that I was going to build. I still have a 340 block in my garage. Once I bought an aluminum intake with 3 holleys on it for a small block for $200. I thought I was doing good when I sold it later for $235. That was over 40 years ago. sigh

My first car was a 65 Valiant with the 273 power pak engine. I had a 69 Barracuda fastback. It only had a 318 but had 45,000 miles on it at the time. I had a 68 Charger R/T, a 67 GTX 440, 2 74 Road Runners - both with the "GTX" package and 440s. One of those I drag raced. It was fully street able but I did get it to run 12.97 @ 107 mph. Can't keep everything.

Ahh the good old days. David

 

[Wayne M.]

Like jgilliot, I was a teen in ‘86. That was a good year. It was the rebirth of muscle. I do remember everyone stealing deals on classic muscle (to wit, a COUPLE of 1970 6 pack, 4 speed Mopars for about $2000 each) including my own Duster I bought in 1984 as a beaten street car from Brooklyn for $200.
But in ‘86, there were some cool cars coming out. I distinctly remember just before that, how dull the new cars were. Just seeing dual exhaust or a tachometer got you excited, so here comes Ford with its injected 5.0 with FACTORY HEADERS! How cool was that? Then Buick with the Grand National, and even Mopar with Carroll Shelby helping with a few turbo cars. I remember peering at a ‘87 Mustang LX T top (rare) 5 speed on a dealer lot. The sticker was $8900.
Hey moparguy, is that a ‘70? What color is it? Very nice redo.

 

[Bob Wagner]

This is coming up for sale soon

 

[jgillott]

Like jgilliot, I was a teen in ‘86. That was a good year. It was the rebirth of muscle. I do remember everyone stealing deals on classic muscle (to wit, a COUPLE of 1970 6 pack, 4 speed Mopars for about $2000 each) including my own Duster I bought in 1984 as a beaten street car from Brooklyn for $200.
But in ‘86, there were some cool cars coming out. I distinctly remember just before that, how dull the new cars were. Just seeing dual exhaust or a tachometer got you excited, so here comes Ford with its injected 5.0 with FACTORY HEADERS! How cool was that? Then Buick with the Grand National, and even Mopar with Carroll Shelby helping with a few turbo cars. I remember peering at a ‘87 Mustang LX T top (rare) 5 speed on a dealer lot. The sticker was $8900.
Hey moparguy, is that a ‘70? What color is it? Very nice redo.

My cousin Todd purchased a '86 Iroc Z (5.0L) and then I bought the '87 Corvette. We thought we were king of the hill back then.

 

[moparguy]

Wayne, yep it's a '70, 340 4 speed car in it's original color... E5 Rallye Red. The only obvious deviation from pure stock is it's running Dark Argent wheel centers vs the Light Argent that it came with. I always liked the Dark Argent centers (stock on 1971 cars) and swapped with a pard about 30 years ago.

I did in a foolish moment cut the dash back in the 80's and upgraded the now very collectible thumbwheel am radio to a Sony unit. Bad decision, but the Sony still works and that's whatcha did back in the day.

Had the Duster (my second car) since early 71, 47 years. Wife and I used to cruse the drive'ins looking for the local "fast" cars for a little fun. Always claimed stock, even with headers, 4.56s or 4.10's or 3.91s, 1,000 cfm T'quad or whatever that weekends combination was. Most believed.....for a while.

Ran everything from stock AVS to Comp AFB, Holly, 1000 cfm Thermoquad but most fun was a tuned 6 Pak with 4.56's. Best time running E Stock in the 70's (headers and 7" slicks along with blue printing were about all that was allowed) was a 12.70 at 105 on a 12.5 national record. Many engines over the years, now stock.

In 1988 I had a good E5 repaint applied that's still passable 30 years later, but it's getting abit long in the tooth and could use a strip and fresh paint. At that time also freshened the interior with YearOne's help. Built a new engine using a new block, crank and rods/pistons which Lunati balanced. It's got about 4,000 miles on it since then.

After letting it sit in the shop from 2006 till late last year (2016) I pulled it out, changed the fluids, put on a set of new repop Goodyear Polyglas, did a Eastwood job on the gas tank, went through the brakes, added Dot 5 fluid and took it for a drive. 1'st in 10 years. After a few drives I decided to update the carb with a Demon Street 625 with the black poly float bowl to deal with ethanol gasoline and now it's the nice day, sorta daily driver again.

Don't know why I let it set so long, headslap.



RonR

 

[TMyers]

They may have labeled the mid 80's Mustang, Firebird and Camaro muscle cars but 190 to 215 HP from V8's. Rich kids thought they had something...

My best friend had a 65' Chevelle with a LT1 350 and 2 speed power glide. I had a 67' Camaro with a 327/300hp with a 3 speed manual, geared 308. Stoplight to stoplight his car was unbeatable. My car had endless top-end. A wonder we lived though those years.

 

[endoscott]

my FIL had a 67 Camaro rally sport convertible, 327 4 speed. I could have had it but had no place to store it at the time-that thing would be worth a lot of $$ now. Pretty rare car. Super fun to drive too. Yeah, its amazing we all survived those days. Dumb luck more than anything.

 

[fest3er]

...Yeah, its amazing we all survived those days. Dumb luck more than anything.

And superior reflexes, superior peripheral and forward vision, superior hearing, greater tolerance of CH3-CH2-OH, and minds void of all thoughts except sex, booze, and velocity.

 

[Wayne M.]

I just had a fantastic experience this afternoon! I saw Bullitt on the big screen! Yup, I caught wind that the UA cinema was going to show “Bullitt” on this day with two shows. I jumped at the chance, and it was awesome.
Much to my amazement, there were only THREE people in this whole 2PM show. Once I realized that I had the whole place to myself (imagine that) I moved to center/ center. I really felt like I was along for the ride on those hills! And you’re able to see details that you just can’t see on DVD at home.
While I wasn’t a teen in ‘68 (I just discovered light that year) I was a teen when the movie achieved cult status.
Keep your eyes peeled. You have to catch this if you can.

 

[endoscott]

Couple of iconic cars there. I almost bought a Mustang like that-love the sound of those Ford V-8s, but then my Roadrunner sounded just a little better! God that thing was loud. I got a ticket once for "loud and unnecessary noise". What's that all about? It was completely necessary....

 

[Wayne M.]

Indeed, the chase in this movie was done as faithfully as possible with microphones on the streets and in the cars. It’s so true it’s incredible. I know both engines well, and that Mustang, with it’s 390 and it’s raspy note FE motor, and that R/T Charger, being what could only have a 440 or Hemi, (it’s common knowledge that that car had a 440) and it being a 4 speed sounded like the 440 R/T Charger I owned myself.
If I could go see it again in a theater, I would in a heartbeat.
Now I’m hoping they show Vanishing Point!

 

[SnoKing]

my FIL had a 67 Camaro rally sport convertible, 327 4 speed. I could have had it but had no place to store it at the time-that thing would be worth a lot of $$ now. Pretty rare car. Super fun to drive too. Yeah, its amazing we all survived those days. Dumb luck more than anything.

I had a 67 SS 350 4 speed with the Rally hood. De-badged.

#ad

 

[PBJ2500CTD]

Indeed, the chase in this movie was done as faithfully as possible with microphones on the streets and in the cars. It’s so true it’s incredible. I know both engines well, and that Mustang, with it’s 390 and it’s raspy note FE motor, and that R/T Charger, being what could only have a 440 or Hemi, (it’s common knowledge that that car had a 440) and it being a 4 speed sounded like the 440 R/T Charger I owned myself.
If I could go see it again in a theater, I would in a heartbeat.
Now I’m hoping they show Vanishing Point!

Ooooo...Kowalski...and the Honda motorcycle "upholstery"...and the sweet harmony of Mopar roar and 4 speed whine. Got the DVD many years ago. Not much over dubbed in a lot of Challenger scenes. Sounded a lot like my old 70 Road Runner 440+6, only quieter.

 

[Wayne M.]

Ooooo...Kowalski...and the Honda motorcycle "upholstery"...and the sweet harmony of Mopar roar and 4 speed whine. Got the DVD many years ago. Not much over dubbed in a lot of Challenger scenes. Sounded a lot like my old 70 Road Runner 440+6, only quieter.

Sure that’s another defining car movie. You can bet that 6 pack scream is real. Something else I’ve experienced in real life. And that 18 spline 833 gearbox. That whine of machinery from Syracuse.
These cars just ooze character. Something cars today just don’t have.

 

[endoscott]

And you could work on those things. I was 17 when I rebuilt the transmission on my Roadrunner in my Moms basement laundry room. Synchros kind of worn, front bearing failing etc. My Mom was happy about it because with the transmission out of the car I couldn't drive it. She never once got in that car. You old guys will remember doing rebuilds using the Motor Manual eh? Parts blowup diagrams for every car. Worked for me back then. Damn those trannies were heavy!