best memory
one of my best memory,s involving a bit of hp,
Back in the very early 1970s swapping from a SBC to a BBC engine in the later 1960s corvettes was not considered too be particularly difficult and as mentioned previously places like motion performance sold LS7 BBC crate engines for under $2K.
I took the time to carefully rework my cylinder heads,
I added a radical chevy/crower roller cam, a vertex magneto,hooker comp headers ,
(back when that was hardly common) I ordered and installed a balanced 4.25" 4340 forged steel 6.385" rod, stroker assembly , crane roller rockers,
one of my best memory,s involving a bit of hp,
thats easy, I had built a 1968 vette, in the mid/late 1970s with a full roll cage, a dana 60 rear and 4.11 rear gears and a m21, and a 13.7:1 cpr 496 bbc engine with crower injectors at the time.
MY corvette was dark maroon but it looked similar to this corvette with the crower injection sticking through the hood
I wanted to go to the track, to play with the car, and my buddy wanted to go also,
so Id asked a buddy with a pick-up truck to transport my slicks,
floor jack, tools etc. and follow me,
as I carefully cruised in top gear at about 45mph to the track,
remember I had on street tires,
about 1/2 way to the track a yellow big block 454 1970 chevelle pulls up next to me ,
starts doing the lets run sucker dance, reving and lunging, letting off etc.
, I had no desire to street race but there was no one else around,
it was a long strait highway, and I was only 24-26, at that time,
so when he just let off the fourth time... I knew I'd have no traction,
so I eased into the throttle just enough to start the car to accelerate and waited till he started to pass..........
.at about 60 mph, as he pulled even I nailed it,
the rear street tires turned too smoke impressively and I could see long black parallel lines on the highway behind me through the tire smoke...
and that continued, up to about 100 mph plus, I lifted at 130 mph,
with the chevelle well to the rear....he followed me to the track,
we talked and he could not get over the smoke boiling from the tires and LOOOOONNNNNGGG black highway stripes.......silly but destroying street tires ...
that made me feel good, even thou it was no trick to destroy street tires with that corvette.
It ran consistent 10.25/137mph times and traction was a problem even with slicks, a tubed rear and a 4 link.
you eventually develop a "FEEL " for the car and understand,
that there lots of things you can,t get away with driving like a fool on,
like wet roads and gravel , driving a car with that kind of power means you have to exercise a great deal of judgement and restraint,
and you get that from experience , when you screw up, but in my case I got tired of driving a car that almost always seemed to attract a police tail after a few minutes,
even if I drove it like I had a gallon of nitroglycerin on the passenger seat,
injector stacks,sticking out of a corvette hood and a loud rhythmic rumble from the exhaust seems to attract morons and cops like a magnet
close runner up
I had a 1965 tempest/ GTO clone with a 496 BBC engine, I was constantly modifying,
that Id painted Pontiac blue, and installed a 1970 corvette tri-power intake on the car,headers,a bigger ZL1 cam ,
and 12.5:1 pistons, at one point,that made it a great street car combo,
with a 421 Pontiac fender decals and valve cover decals, the car looked fairly stock,
but sure sounded radical,
I had a great deal of fun with that car even thou it only ran low 12s and a few rare high 11 second times,
but in the early 1970s that was killer fast for a street car,
and I was still young, and learning as I went,
I spend every spare nickle on car parts and was having a great time.
besides I was newly married and the car had a back seat,
so drive in movies were fun.
when I think back the tempest was the car I miss the most,
it was not nearly as fast as a 1969 big block camaro I owned or my 1968 corvette,
but it was a great deal of fun to drive and by far the easiest car I ever owned to work on.
viewtopic.php?f=38&t=898&p=3239&hilit=tempest#p3239
BTW, we ALL sell cars at one time that we later regret ,
"Sellers,remorse" generally sets in only after a few years when you've forgotten the crap you went thru with the car and only remember the good points.
I regret selling several cars , cars I really would currently love to own,
but your forced by time , storage room,and finances to limit what you currently own in most cases,
just take your time and select a new project or car carefully and don,t jump into something you don,t truly want simply because the price is good or you get a chance.
one of my friends, is a guy with usually enough cash on hand to buy almost anything he wants with-in reason, and hes always wanted a AC COBRA replica,
but hes settled for several mustangs, we got to discussing that one day,
and all the time and money hes lost working on cars he (LIKES) but not (the CAR OF HIS DREAMS) and he realized he could easily have had the COBRA,
hes dreamed about, so he sold the current project (lost some money doing it)
but now hes far happier as hes in the process of building his, kit car cobra dream car
you might as well go for the goal you want vs the easy route because your never going to be happy until you do!
one of my best memory,s involving a bit of hp,
Back in the very early 1970s swapping from a SBC to a BBC engine in the later 1960s corvettes was not considered too be particularly difficult and as mentioned previously places like motion performance sold LS7 BBC crate engines for under $2K.
I took the time to carefully rework my cylinder heads,
I added a radical chevy/crower roller cam, a vertex magneto,hooker comp headers ,
(back when that was hardly common) I ordered and installed a balanced 4.25" 4340 forged steel 6.385" rod, stroker assembly , crane roller rockers,
one of my best memory,s involving a bit of hp,
thats easy, I had built a 1968 vette, in the mid/late 1970s with a full roll cage, a dana 60 rear and 4.11 rear gears and a m21, and a 13.7:1 cpr 496 bbc engine with crower injectors at the time.
MY corvette was dark maroon but it looked similar to this corvette with the crower injection sticking through the hood
I wanted to go to the track, to play with the car, and my buddy wanted to go also,
so Id asked a buddy with a pick-up truck to transport my slicks,
floor jack, tools etc. and follow me,
as I carefully cruised in top gear at about 45mph to the track,
remember I had on street tires,
about 1/2 way to the track a yellow big block 454 1970 chevelle pulls up next to me ,
starts doing the lets run sucker dance, reving and lunging, letting off etc.
, I had no desire to street race but there was no one else around,
it was a long strait highway, and I was only 24-26, at that time,
so when he just let off the fourth time... I knew I'd have no traction,
so I eased into the throttle just enough to start the car to accelerate and waited till he started to pass..........
.at about 60 mph, as he pulled even I nailed it,
the rear street tires turned too smoke impressively and I could see long black parallel lines on the highway behind me through the tire smoke...
and that continued, up to about 100 mph plus, I lifted at 130 mph,
with the chevelle well to the rear....he followed me to the track,
we talked and he could not get over the smoke boiling from the tires and LOOOOONNNNNGGG black highway stripes.......silly but destroying street tires ...
that made me feel good, even thou it was no trick to destroy street tires with that corvette.
It ran consistent 10.25/137mph times and traction was a problem even with slicks, a tubed rear and a 4 link.
you eventually develop a "FEEL " for the car and understand,
that there lots of things you can,t get away with driving like a fool on,
like wet roads and gravel , driving a car with that kind of power means you have to exercise a great deal of judgement and restraint,
and you get that from experience , when you screw up, but in my case I got tired of driving a car that almost always seemed to attract a police tail after a few minutes,
even if I drove it like I had a gallon of nitroglycerin on the passenger seat,
injector stacks,sticking out of a corvette hood and a loud rhythmic rumble from the exhaust seems to attract morons and cops like a magnet
close runner up
I had a 1965 tempest/ GTO clone with a 496 BBC engine, I was constantly modifying,
that Id painted Pontiac blue, and installed a 1970 corvette tri-power intake on the car,headers,a bigger ZL1 cam ,
and 12.5:1 pistons, at one point,that made it a great street car combo,
with a 421 Pontiac fender decals and valve cover decals, the car looked fairly stock,
but sure sounded radical,
I had a great deal of fun with that car even thou it only ran low 12s and a few rare high 11 second times,
but in the early 1970s that was killer fast for a street car,
and I was still young, and learning as I went,
I spend every spare nickle on car parts and was having a great time.
besides I was newly married and the car had a back seat,
so drive in movies were fun.
when I think back the tempest was the car I miss the most,
it was not nearly as fast as a 1969 big block camaro I owned or my 1968 corvette,
but it was a great deal of fun to drive and by far the easiest car I ever owned to work on.
viewtopic.php?f=38&t=898&p=3239&hilit=tempest#p3239
BTW, we ALL sell cars at one time that we later regret ,
"Sellers,remorse" generally sets in only after a few years when you've forgotten the crap you went thru with the car and only remember the good points.
I regret selling several cars , cars I really would currently love to own,
but your forced by time , storage room,and finances to limit what you currently own in most cases,
just take your time and select a new project or car carefully and don,t jump into something you don,t truly want simply because the price is good or you get a chance.
one of my friends, is a guy with usually enough cash on hand to buy almost anything he wants with-in reason, and hes always wanted a AC COBRA replica,
but hes settled for several mustangs, we got to discussing that one day,
and all the time and money hes lost working on cars he (LIKES) but not (the CAR OF HIS DREAMS) and he realized he could easily have had the COBRA,
hes dreamed about, so he sold the current project (lost some money doing it)
but now hes far happier as hes in the process of building his, kit car cobra dream car
you might as well go for the goal you want vs the easy route because your never going to be happy until you do!
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