Ban Yourself, You Car Nerd, You.

[Cloner]

Wish I had known it was here....I would definitely have gone to view the entrants.  I'll bet Egan (Gary...not Peter) would have been there if his health allows.  I'll have to call him and see if he's on board, now that I know it's happening.

BTW....this is the perfect thread for a jacking.  Let's jack!!!!!

[nicrosato]

Thread jack... on purpose...no guilt:

BTW....this is the perfect thread for a jacking.  Let's jack!!!!!

Thread jackoffs...

[Ratfink749]

Thread jackoffs...

When the car porn is good, there will always be thread jackoffs.   

[nicrosato]

For the record, I am not much of a car nerd.

Riding my Monster home from running errands yesterday, I pulled up at a light next to a restored Dodge Charger. I'm guessing it was something like a '69 to '71. A real old school muscle car, in that pukey metallic green and black. I made a muscle gesture, but the driver was simply too Jimmy-Dean cool, with wrap-around shades and his left hand dangling a cigarette out of the window, to glance over at me on my red Duc.

[Scottish]

Aaaahhh...  Where to continue?!?  Vintage Camaro's?  The Mighty '69 ZL-1 all-aluminum big-block perhaps?  The '61 Oldsmobile Turbocharged Jet-Fire all-aluminum V8 maybe?  The '66 Buick Wildcat Gran-Sport maybe for the larger vehicle crowd?

Perhaps I should delve into the various differentiations between the many differing Ford V8 engines from the 1950's until the 1990's...

Maybe a historical look at the small-block Ford from 1962 until it's demise in 1998....


Aaaahhhhh!!!  I know:  The 1969 Ford Torino Talladega.  852 examples made it off the assembly line in 1969 and it was designed in a wind-tunnel for one purpose:  NASCAR domination against the Super-Bird (and it was hugely successful too!)  I've driven one BTW... 

Street versions 'got by' with the 428CJ and SCJ engines and most were backed up to the venerable C6 automatic (as was the car I drove).  Primary differences between the regular Torino and the Talladega were:

Side-skirt ground effects (they left the sheet metal seam below the doors 1/2" longer than on the other Torino's which was highly effective at speeds over 160mph).
A different front bumper (it was actually a rear bumper from the same car with some holes filled in and different mounting brackets)
The car sat about 1/2" lower than the standard Torino's too.

The engine that powered the NASCAR Talladega's was the BOSS429 engine which was actually homologated in the Mustang chassis for 1969 in the form of the Boss429 Mustang (obviously).

The combination of the aerodynamically modified Torino and the new BOSS429 engine proved to be a very winning combination for Ford in the 1969 NASCAR series.  In fact, it was SO successful that in 1970 when the new body style Torino came out (and was an aerodynamic flop at high speeds), MANY teams reverted back to using the 1969 cars which had proven themselves to be a formidable force and still were in 1970 as well.

I have a buddy outside Calhan CO, his dad left him a junkyard. Pretty sure he had a Taladega in there. I remember because I knew they were rare. Didn't realize they were that rare. This is a great thread btw. and were the 302's in the Camaros originally used for Trans-am or Lemans series racing? I thought I remembed them being built for something big across the pond???

[KRJ]

  Hello Anson, how are You?.     From what I can remember, the 302ci restriction was a NASCAR limit on production enteries, that lead to the birth of the Z28 engine. which was  purpose built using a '69 327, large journal block, application specific forged crank with 3.0 stroke, heads were a modified version of the vette "camelback" with screw in valve studs and guide plates, a stout cam of 325/331 duration, .495/.510 lift, special "pink" rods, windage tray, etc.  this turned into the LT1 in '70-72, which had a four bolt main block, improved heads and manifold, more cam, better exhaust. both ran 11.0:1 forged pistons and made in excess of 380hp, and were offered on the showroom, expecting 100,000 miles of operation!.... thats engineering.

[KRJ]

    After looking, it was actually a SCCA Trans Am rule that prompted the 302 rule.. look to PGHiggins.

[Duck-Stew]

Z28's were built for the SCCA Trans-Am series as you indicated KRJ...  (BTW, the LT1 was 350cid and not a 302cid engine.)

Back to the purging of odd-ball Ford info from my head, here onto the intarwebz:

By 1993, the 'Fox' platformed Mustangs were getting a might long in the tooth.  They hadn't undergone a body styling exercise since 1987 and even then...the '86's looked a lot like the '87s did.    Ford knew they had to keep up the success of the Mustangs sales figures so the redesign needed to kick-ass.  While, since they didn't have time (or $) to engineer a whole new chassis, Ford did a re-skin of the '93 Mustang for 1994.  It's a substantial re-skin, but still...most all of the chassis parts didn't change.

To test fit the front-end onto a car for testing, Ford pulled 7 silver 5.0 coupes off the end of the assembly line and took them to a shop where they mated the front ends to the new 1994's onto the 1993's.  These odd-ball 1/2 breeds ran around the motor city for several months (I've seen them in person BTW) doing testing, R&D, etc...  Then, (the rumor I heard was) Ford actually sold them off to the public.    Crazy, eh?

Ford also produced a 1985 Escort Wagon Turbo with a 5-speed.  They produced exactly 1 of those.  It was blue with a blue interior, sold to and special ordered by Jack Roush.

[nicrosato]

Per my conversation with Duck-Stew about obscure auto marques, here is the Griffith: http://www.secondchancegarage.com/public/1966-griffith.cfm



I grew up in Plainview and remember going to the factory and seeing a plaid (!) Griffith in the show room.