Hope everyone has recovered from heavy eating and traveling, I know I need to rest up before Christmas, maybe even drop a couple of pounds ahead of time.
I’m also to attempt to meet my goal of 500 posts before the end of 2011. (Yes this one counts).
I have a couple of contests coming up with some auto related DVD’s to give away and some a couple of parking lot finds, and a feature car or two.
So swing by and drop me a comment.
Thanks for reading.
Tim
I have 14 CD/DVDs to give away.
So I’m going to give the next two individuals that sign up for my feed a copy of the DVD Classic Automobile Films.
If you are reading this, grab my feed and then send an email too:
timsweet@average-guys-car-restoration-mods-racing.com
Include the address you’d like to have the DVD send to. It’s that easy.
I don’t share any information with anyone, nor do I keep that type of information, even for my own purposes.
“Honey…I found our next vacation spot..hear they got a nice Motel 6 nearby!!!” “Honey…can we go now?!!! The Turkey will keep until next week!!!”
Everybody knows that saying “I’ve died and gone to heaven”, and this applies to most enthusiasts in this junkyard full of old decrepit Ford Mustangs. Especially, the project guy that has an old classic sitting in the garage. I’m sure it could go either way, though, as some might consider this a sore sight with so many wrecked and rusted ponies. This is the Colorado Mustang Salvage Yard.
Soooo, anybody down for some campin’?!
Colorado Mustang Specialists, Inc. began in a two-car garage in 1972. Mustangs were as numerous as hippies on a Boulder park lawn, easy to buy, fix and sell. So, a would be University of Colorado student found a lucrative way to pay his rent and tuition. After graduation the diploma went in a drawer and the horsing around got serious. Wrecked, junked and abandoned Mustangs were cheap and plentiful, so the collection started that eventually led to the worlds largest Mustang salvage yard.
Most recent and exciting to us is the addition of modern fuel injection conversions, for 64-1/2 to 85 models. These conversions and related parts let the novice enthusiast bring his early Mustang into the new millennium with a computer driven, fuel-injected, V-8 power train, meeting todays standards without changing the Mustangs classic design. We predict these conversions will open a fun and exciting new era of Mustang enthusiasm.
One of my regular readers, Bill, posted the following question in response to the piece I wrote on Chevy engines. Bill asked…
“No 454 V8 in 1971? I guess that motor came later. ..”
That get me to thinking so I did a little more research. The references I’m use are “Ultimate American V-8 Engine Data Book” by Peter Sessler; “Standard catalog of American Cars” by John Gunnel and “110 years of the American Auto” by James Flammang and Auto Editors of Consumer Guide. I try not to get too much from the Internet at large.
Interestingly enough the 454 is briefly mentioned in the Ultimate American V-8 Engine Data Book, but there aren’t many details. That reference shows that the 454 was available in 1971 as a 4V producing 365 horse power. It doesn’t show under any model just as a general option for Chevy’s. I’m assuming it was just a 400 block with a different bore and stroke.
The 454 was developed by 1970. It’s bore was 4.251 in and had a 4 inch stroke (where as the 400 had 4.251 in bore and a 3.75 stroke). There were other version in 1970 and 1971, designated as the LS5. This version of the 454 was used in the 1970 and beyond in Corvette for one instance and was used in Chevelle.
Interesting that it isn’t referred to in the mentioned references for 1971 year.
Hold the presses!!!!!
It appears that in the reference “Standard catalog of American Cars” by John Gunnel that the 454 was left out off the comprehensive listing of engines for 1971. However, the 454 was use in the SS version of the Monte Carlo – 1,919 were produced. For the Chevelle 80,000 were sold with the SS badge of those only 19,992 were with the 454.
1917 Chevelle SS 454
1971 Monte Carlo SS 454
And in this reference I found the answer to a question I’ve had for some time. About 5 years agoing I was at a car show and ended up talking to a guy with a 1971 Nova SS. It had a 454 as the power plant between the shock towers. However there were 7,015 Nova SS packages sold, none had the 454 as the option.
Thanks for the spark to follow this up Bill.
Thanks for reading.
Tim
Oh yes this will be an interesting series.
We are going to start of with a well-meant attempt by Chrysler to meet the oil crises from 1973 to 1980. Introducing the Cricket!!!!
1973 Cricket
This car was actually a US spec’ed Hillman Avenger.
It featured the Avenger’s 1.6 liter pushrod engine. This car’s top speed was 84 mph and took a merely 19.8 seconds to get to 60 mph (I bet you were thinking 100 mph!!).
The car was horrible slow and because it was detuned for as part of the US requirements it ran poorly.
Here some of it features:
– Quick Rust fenders and body parts
– PVC coated foam interior for safety
You are going to want one after you see this ad:
[vodpod id=Video.15696452&w=425&h=350&fv=%26rel%3D0%26border%3D0%26]
Thanks for reading.
Tim
If you read any of my pieces on Engines, you’ll know that I enjoy learning all I can about the various makers’ details on their features. I thought that I might start a series that took a year by year approach to what the US automaker build and used in the cars they produced.
So here is the engine line up for the 1971 Chevys.
Of course Chevy had the V8’s in 1971, not yet strangled by smog control, as well as 6 cylinders and 4 cylinders.
All of the 6’s were inline (often referred to as straight 6 – for the pistons all being in a straight line configuration) these were 250 cubic inch displacements – (very similar to the Ford 250, with the exception of the Blue upping the compression to 9.1:1 vs Chevy’s 8.5:1). These were cast iron with hp running about 145 with hydraulic lifter, and normally topped with a Rochester one barrel carb. Any car that had a 6 in it had this engine and it was an option with most any Chevy model.
1971 Chev Inline Six (this one is in a Chevy Nova)
Next up is the 4 cylinder used exclusively in the Vega (remember those?). They were inline 4’s with Over head Cams, aluminum block (not iron) and managed to displace 140 cubic inches. The compression ratio was less than they 6 at 8.0:1 with hydraulic lifters and a one barrel carb.
Vega Four Cylinder
There were 3 basic V8 that year the 350, 400 and the 307.
The 350 cid was cast iron with overhead valves and compression ratio of 8.5:1 with an hp of 245 hp when it was topped with a 2 barrel Rochester carb. These were widely used in the Biscayne, Bel Air, Impala, and Monte Carlo.
The 400 was cast iron as well with matching stats. However due to the larger bore (4.125 vs the 4.00 for the 350) and longer stroke (3.75 inches compare to the 350’s 3.48) it was able to push the hp’s up to 255 (umm..seems like a lot of work for 5 hps) when it was topped with the same 2 barrel carb.
The 307 rounds this out with its cast iron block and over head valves, it to had the compression ratio of 8.5:1 but with a smaller bore and shorter stroke (3.875 and 3.5 inch)it bu down roughly 200 hp. The 307 was used in Chevelle, Malibu, Nova and the Camaro.
Thanks for reading.
Tim
All new for 2003...almost.
Yes that’s correct for the 100th year of production Ford build a total of 6 Model T-100 to commemorate the year.
These weren’t restored cars, they were all new parts. The bodies were made in Sweden, coupled with available aftermarket. The engine, suspension parts, transmissions were created from the original drawings.
Model T Reproduction Engine
The T's transmission - could replace the original unit, however the gear pattern is not the same so the internal will not match up.
For more check out the PDF below.
http://www.mtfca.com/encyclo/T-100.pdf
Thanks for Reading.
Tim
Photos courtesy Corvette Mike of New England
Many, many 1978 Indianapolis 500 pace car replica Corvettes were mothballed with hopes of the cars turning into super collectibles, so finding a low-mileage example today isn’t hard. In fact, there are seven for sale in the December issue of Hemmings Motor News. One, formerly on display at the Corvette museum in Bowling Green, has just 116 miles on the clock. Another is advertised as having been driven just 700 miles. If you want a car you could actually drive, there’s a 1978 Indy Corvette with 22,900 miles.
Unfortunately, the demand predicted for these cars back in the Disco Age has yet to arrive. If you like ‘Vettes, you wouldn’t kick a 1978 pace car out of your garage, but as Corvettes go, these are considered lackluster performers and too many were built for them to ever be considered rare.
According to the Corvette Black Book, the original plan was to make 300 of the black and silver ‘Vettes. Mike Yager’s Corvette Bible claims 2,500. Had Chevrolet stuck to either of those figures, Indy Pace ‘Vettes would probably be more collectible today. But for Chevrolet, the profits these cars were raking in must’ve been as irresistible as coke at Studio 54. The Indy cars received a lot of hype, so demand went through the roof and Chevrolet cranked out 6,502 copies – more than one for each dealer.
With a base price of $13,653 compared to the standard Corvette base price of $9,446, the Pace Cars were expensive and profitable because they were loaded with “mandatory options.” Power windows, power locks, removable roof panels, rear window defogger, air conditioning, tilt/telescoping column, AM-FM radio with 8-track (or CB radio at extra cost) – all were included. Even this probably doesn’t help the value of these cars as luxury tends to be the exact opposite of what Corvette collectors crave today: radio delete, heater delete, oversized fuel tanks (when they were available), manual transmissions. You get the drift – racing-related stuff on a Corvette is hot. Stuff that you would normally associate with a Caprice Classic is not.
Anyway, receiving almost as much press as these cars received when new is a barn-find pace car offered for sale by Hemmings advertiser Corvette Mike. The car has been all over the Internet due to the fact that it has only 13 miles on the odometer. It’s even covered in an authentic layer of scurvy storage grime.
The pace car’s bonafides include a CB radio, Gymkhana suspension and the 220hp L82 350, all of which are cool. The fact that it’s an automatic makes it a little less so. Check it out for yourself over at Corvette Mike’s.
1911 oh… that was a great year! Well I don’t actually have any proof of that, but there sure were a lot of new car makes that year. Here the list:
Alpena; ArBenz; Atterbury; Carhartt, Case, Chevrolet; Colby, Crow-Elkhart, Dalton, Gaylord, Havers, Hupp-Yeats; King; Lenox; Mighty Michigan; Motorette; Nyberg: Penn; Rayfield; R.C.H.; Roader; Rogers; S.G.V.; Standard Electric (yes electric); Stutz; Stuyvesant; Virginian; W.F.S.
So who were the leaders for that year?
Ford out-paced all with 69,762 Cars.
Second up was Studebaker/EMF with 26,827.
1911 Studebaker...you can't use just '11 any longer - someone might think this was a 2011 Studebaker
Willys-Overland up next with 18,745 and Maxwell about 2,000 less at 16,000.
One of the 16,000 Maxwells
Buick came in at fifth with 13,389, beating out Cadillac with 10,071 cars.
Hudson and Chalmers finish up the list with 6,486 and 6,250 respectively.
The 1911 Chalmers - look at that stance!!!!
1911 Milestones:
– International Motor Company was formed (MACK)
– Buick sets a speed record, running 20 miles in just over 13 minutes.
– First Indianapolis 500 was held and won by Ray Harroun in a six-cylinder Marmon Wasp – 6 hours, 42 minutes and 8 seconds of drive time.
The Marmon Wasp
Thanks for reading.
Tim
