larrylu Posted March 26, 2013 Report Share Posted March 26, 2013 Mike: I had a Chevelle also. Mine was a '66 SS396 325 HP. That thing would not hook up and could not go by a gas station. I think it got like 7mpg. Aztec Bronze. Albany and neighboring Schenectady maybe 7/8 miles away were connected by a 4 lane divided highway all suburban developed commercial with lots of stop lights. You could cruise till a willing challenger pulled alongside and blipped the throttle. Game on! Light after light and when you got to the other end of the strip, you could turn around and do the same thing heading the other way. There was a local gal who went on to a drag racing career Shirley (Cha Cha) Muldowney. They made a movie based on her exploits. Not sure I remember the title ....Heart Like a Wheel? In any case at that time she was running Corvettes up and down that same strip. She also hung out at a local 1/8 mile strip and eventually moved on to dragsters (pink ones) and the big time. One time I had a police cruiser pull me over late at night to look at what I had under the hood. He was just curious I guess. If stopped and suspected of too much to drink, we would be advised to go home and sleep it off. You are right....I don't know how we made it through alive. A lot of fun at the time though! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mval Posted March 27, 2013 Report Share Posted March 27, 2013 Larry: Glad you started thread. Mine was red w/ black vinyl top with i think back then a 3 speed automatic. Also 325HP. I go to shows all the time & every once in a while you see one. But the amazing thing are usually 375hp & there just weren't that many of them built, most where like ours. Yea I remember Shirley real well. She raced in St. Louis a couple times@ our drag strip. I ran my '71 Duster over there a little & was in the pits one day when Big Daddy came to town, so got to see the swamp rat up close with him, what a thrill. I had my Chevelle only about a year till I piled up & bent the frame real bad, spent some time in the hospital with some broken bones, but was really lucky. The only reason I didn't get more tickets was my dad was the main auto mechanic in town & worked on the 2 police cars & was close friends with them. But when I put those glasspacks on that made them & my dad mad, so got a couple ticket. My friend & I are heading over to Indy in May for the Mecum auto auctions there. We go every year. Neither of us has bought anything. He doesn't need anything with his '09 Challenger R/T & his '06 vette & to be honest my daughter still lives with us & keeping 3 cars going is enough work. But threatening to get one has worked with the wife to let me do almost anything to the SHO. I wish I had learned some mechanic skill from my dad but didn't, so could do things like you do but didn't. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjhpadi Posted March 27, 2013 Report Share Posted March 27, 2013 Funny, you guys started a thread like this. I didn't have a Chevelle, but did have a '69 Olds 4-4-2 with the 400 cid engine, not the W-30 option but one step below that, I think it was rated at 350 hp. With the Quadrajet carb, it really screamed when the secondaries were open. I did bracket race it a bit, but most I used it for a tow vehicle when I worked with Lew Arrington and his Brutus AA/FC. I was lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time and got to mingle with a lot of the fuel racers back then. I even helped Don Schumacher fix the body on his funny car after it blew off at the Gatornationals. Also got to spend time with Jim Liberman, and that was back when Jungle Pam was his sidekick. Yes, Shirley's movie was "Heart Like A Wheel". Just for the record, the 442 wasn't my only muscle car, I had a '67 Mustang GTA, 68 Shelby GT-350, and a 69 Mach 1. But alas, the gas crunch of the 70's got me and although I kept the Shelby I gave in and in '75 bought a Mustang II Ghia with a 4 cylinder. Stepping on that throttle was like stepping in a bowl of mush!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
larrylu Posted March 27, 2013 Author Report Share Posted March 27, 2013 Mark you have heard about the "dark side". Well welcome to the "old side". My first car project was my first car. It predated muscle cars. It was a '56 Ford Sunliner. Most '56 Fords were 292 CI engines but a few like mine had the "Thunderbird" engine which was a whopping 312 CI. Don't even know the HP. I bought it in 1960 with 50 K on it. I converted it from auto to standard 3 spd on the floor, bored and clearanced it out to 322 CI added '57 heads with 2" valves, added the factory double 4 barrel carb, Crane cam & kit, Malory Ignition, and swapped out the rear end for a 4:11. I have no idea what it put out....but I had fun with it. Actually I kept that power plant in my next 2 cars. The second of which was the only other noteworthy one. It was a '54 Mercury "Sun Valley" with the tinted front half roof. Either of those cars today would bring a pretty good price. Kind of neat that starting with Ford products I should be enjoying a Ford S H O today. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mval Posted March 27, 2013 Report Share Posted March 27, 2013 Mark: I had a '74 Mustang II hatchback with 4 cyl & 4 speed. Car was cute, slow as sin & couldn't keep a clutch in it. Amazingly I saw on Mecum site they had a restored MustangII for auction. They must be getting desperate for cars!!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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