I hope you can view this article. Has some great cars – although the saying “keep the shiny side up” doesn’t really translate – these just don’t have one.
I’d love to spend time wandering around Cuba, just to look at the cars.
The world’s most significant all-Corvette show is moving back to central Illinois. After nearly a decade of being held at the Pheasant Run Resort in St. Charles, Bloomington Gold will be moving about 115 miles south to the town of Champaign for 2013, near where it first began nearly four decades ago.
According to Bloomington Gold CEO, David Burroughs, “Although it will be hard to beat the beautiful fairways of Pheasant Run, input from Corvette-owning customers wanted more opportunity for socializing and driving events as part of the entire Corvette show experience. It needed to become more dynamic.”
David went on to say: “Our customers own Corvettes because they are fun to drive. So, we needed a venue that not only served our exhibitors and customers who buy/sell and certify Corvettes, but also a venue that makes it easy and fun to navigate to/from and around the community before, during, and after the show. Therefore, we needed a small-town atmosphere with big-town hotels, great facilities, and quick escape routes to miles of country roads. Champaign, Illinois, has the smaller-town atmosphere, and the University of Illinois Assembly Hall grounds have everything else.”
So mark your calendar for June 27-30, 2013. Not only will this be the first year for the new venue, but it will also be the show’s 40th anniversary. And if you’ve ever attended one of the Bloomington Gold shows, you’ll know that there’s something very special planned that every Corvette enthusiast will not want to miss. In the meantime, the 2012 edition of Bloomington Gold will remain in St. Charles and take place June 21-24. For more information, visit BloomingtonGold.com.
With the upcoming release of the Shelby GT500 Super Snake many people will have an opportunity to put on of these limited edition Shelby’s inside their garage. It’s quite the opposite for the 1967 Shelby GT500 Super Snake as the person who wins this ebay auction for the only 1967 Shelby GT500 Super Snake ever produced will have the ultimate limited edition Mustang. The 1967 Shelby Super Snake sports a 427ci V8 with 520 horsepower, a 170 mph top speed and unique triple stripes. The ebay auction is set to end in a week. Check out the pictures after the fold.
The Edsel. Name sake for Henry’s son. Touted as “ugly” and a failure. I disagree.
I think they were great and I plan on own one at some point. ( I was pretty close earlier this year – just missed one at an auction.) There is just something about tooling around in one of those large and long 4 door land yacht. Anyway..one day I will, if I just borrow one for a week.
So in the last year of the Edsel what engines were available?
The car came in 4 configuration, body-wise. A 2 door sedan, a 2 door convertible; a 4 door sedan and 5 door wagon, but only two engine options.
Your two choices were of the V8 and straight six variety.
Ford‘s 292 was the V8 power plant . It sported overhead valves, an iron block and hydraulic lifters. The compression was ratio 8.8:1 and with a bore and stroke of 3.75 x 3.60. It came with a 2 barrel carb – model B9A9510-A. Interesting the block and heads were painted black and the value covers and air cleaner were red.
There was the option inline (straight) 6 cylinder. That too had overhead valves and an iron block. Bore and stroke was 3.62 x 3.60 and compression ratio 8.4:1. It displayed 223 cubic inches with 145 horse power. It was topped with a 1 barrel carb, model B9A9510F. It had the same paint scheme as the V8 but was considered a “delete” option in the Rangers series.
223 Straight (Inline) 6 cylinder with the proper paint scheme
Add 2 more cylinder and buy an extra can of paint for additional valve cover and you'll have this 292 with the proper paint.
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.
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 AmericanV-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.
