Well one thing we can count on for sure, is that things will always change.
For nearly 10 years my 1970 Mustang has been a great joy. I’ve taken it from a 6 cylinder lady’s car (I say that purely because it was first owned by a lady, who in turn, handed it down to her daughter and it had some dainty pin striping) to a proud muscle car.
We suffered a couple flat-bed trips, a problematic carb and leaking power steering, an AC unit that got less miles per oz of coolant then the engine did in miles per gallon and invented some new cuss words!
We survived a few charity drag races and won a bunch street light mini drags, took home a couple of car show trophies and placed a lot of smiles on passerby faces and kids when I let them sit behind the wheel.
But things change and I’ve enjoyed my Mustang thoroughly. But it’s time to move on so my Mustang is going to a new home, where it will enjoy the company of four other Mustangs.
I will miss the old steed but so proud of where it started and where it is now.
So fare well old friend…on to new adventures.
1970 Mustang Mods for 300 HP
So what’s next for me? Well there is my 1965 Bridgestone motorcycle and many more car shows and SCCA with the my C7 Vette and a surprise coming up….oh…no you are just going to have to wait to find out.
So stay tuned for some more mods, car shows, racing and classic/muscle car reading.
One of our (myself and my better half) favorite things to do is road trip to out of the way places. Once there, I have a limit to how many shops, art galleries and “antique” stores I can handle. So we’ve taken to the back streets to look at the local neighborhoods. My wife is an interior designer and she loves architecture so we are always keeping eye out for interesting homes and buildings and I love cars so I’m always on the lookout for what’s in the backyard.
So that is what led us to this unique discovery outside of Bisbee, Az. The next few blog entries will be what we discovered in the area.
Lowell, Az is nearly a ghost town, surrounded by the mining town of Bisbee. The story goes like this: there is this fellow who had something to do with starting and promoting one of the largest motorcycle events in the world… The Sturgis, South Dakota motorcycle event!!
Some call it a ghost town, but it is not. There is a food co-op, a small cafe and a working motorcycle restoration shop. The rest is really a very cool set up.
Here is the town:
Downtown Lowell, Az
Coming up we’ll explore this town and find some interesting details.
There were a lot of car makers in 1908 some of the names you’d recognize like Lincoln, Imperial and Sears (yup that Sears) and some you wouldn’t like Benner, Mier and Browniekar.
The top makers were headed up by Ford with a whopping 10,202 cars produced. (This was the year Ford introduced the Model T.) The rest of the maker looked like this:
Buick – 8,820
Studebaker – 8,132
1908 STUDEBAKER – Model H, 4-cyl., 30 hp
Studebaker Electric
Maxwell – 4,455 – What’s a Maxwell? Well like many cars of this era they look like one another but here’s a pic.
Amphicar – a flip of a lever and two propellers kicked in and made water-crossing a breeze.
It was powered by an iron block and iron head Inline 4 engine with 2 valves per cylinder. It displaced 1147 cc and had 2.72 x 2.99 bore and stroke with 8.0:1 compression produced 47 hp and 61 ft lbs of torque.
For years later one of the most important cars (although not this particular version) was introduced – the 1964 Plymouth Barracuda. Little did Plymouth know at the time 6 to 8 years later the version of the ‘Cuda’ would break collector car value records.
1964 Barracuda – Glassback.
Not the powerhouse that the 70’s versions were but it did have a V8 available that net you 180 hp. Dubbed the “Glassback” because most of the slanted back was class (not unlike my 07 Corvette).
A few years later in 1970 AMC showed off their oddest car yet – the Gremlin. (Although the Pacer was arguably the worse.) Ugly or not it was a good seller and it’s standard 6 cylinder was economical and produced 128 hp. There were 872 2 passenger and 27,688 4 passenger made that year.
1970 Gremlin. Fastback or ‘no back”
Also this week Mr. Walter Chrysler was born in 1875 on April 2 and Charles Hall patented Aluminum in 1889 on the same day.
In 1923 on April 5th, Firestone produced the first balloon tire.
Spec Page is a new series where we explore a particular model’s DNA.
This post is covering a car that I’ve frankly never heard of before. Plymouth Belvedere sure is recognizable as a 60’s muscle car (yes properly powered they were muscle cars) and Suburban as big hauler. The 1954 Plymouth Belvedere Suburban was a hauler, but power house it wasn’t.
Plymouth Belvedere Suburban
So lets start with the engine. Weren’t a lot of choices in 1954 and the standard for working class cars was the Plymouth’s flat head six.It was an iron block with L-head valves. It had a bore and stroke of 3.25″ 4.64″ and a compression ratio of 7.1:1 and displaced 217.8 cubic inches. Topped with the a single carb barrel downdraft (normally a Carter Type BB model D5h2) help produce 100 hp.
Flat Head Six
All that power was transferred to the wheels was a 3 speed synchromesh on column and a Hypoid 3.73:1. Once underway stopped by 4-wheel hydraulic drum with double front cylinders. And those will be need to get this 3,000 plus pound, 189 inches (nearly 16 feet).
Supporting all this mayhem was a double-channel box frame with side rails and 4 cross members and Briggs all-steel body. The suspension was independent in the front with coil springs and torsion sway bar with tapered leaf springs and 6.50 x 15″ tires and press steel safety rims.
You could buy his car with some added option like push-button radio, heater, two-tone paint, wire wheel covers, white side walls, bumpers guards, tissue dispenser, exhaust extension deflector locking gas cap, mirrors.
