455 one HEMI zero

Discussion in 'Kill Stories (Where Hemis Never Win)' started by cray1801, Feb 21, 2009.

  1. cray1801

    cray1801 Too much is just right.

    Took a nice Saturday drive today. Furthest I'd driven from the house since I've had it on the road, maybe 20 miles out or so. Anyway on the way home I noticed a HEMI R/T in the other lane behind me as the light went red. At first I thought it was a guy with shades on. Anyway when the light turned green I slowly eased out to see if they would jump. They did, and got just ahead of me... so I dropped the throttle. Since I was in first it started to wag it's tail until I hit second. At this time I was maybe 3 cars out. I would have like to have seen it from the other car :) Now, I had already lightened the weights in the governer but had not tested it, sure enough it shifted by 5200 rpms :rolleyes: Anyway, second caught some traction as I let off slightly.... then all the way down and let it pull through...this gave me maybe another 5 lengths. After slowing down they paced me with their passenger side window cracked for a short while then passed. This is when I saw it was a girl, wearing pony tail. She had a nice smile and I gave her a thumbs up.

    Not the greatest kill, but not bad, you know really good kills they are hard to come by these days....
     
  2. 1 bad gs

    1 bad gs Well-Known Member

    nice kill! i assume it was the new version hemi?
     
  3. faster

    faster Well-Known Member

    Shame on you beating up on poor defenseless women!

    Good kill though.

    Mikey
     
  4. RAMKAT2

    RAMKAT2 Randy

    Glad to see you back in action after all the troubles you have been through!
     
  5. Heavy D

    Heavy D Well-Known Member

    I had a kill today too! A 30ft long, 3ft high snow drift out to the driveway! Glad to here there are Buicks out somewhere having fun! :beer
     
  6. Reatta #1

    Reatta #1 63viking

    Has anyone killed a REAL Hemi?
     
  7. cray1801

    cray1801 Too much is just right.

    I've only seen a few on the street and it's been many many years, other than car shows.
     
  8. faster

    faster Well-Known Member

    Not a kill but fun to watch as this guy backed down from a V-6 in front of the crowd. Three years ago at a car show in High Springs, Florida there was a Cuda and a Road Runner with the Cuda owner talking smack about his 12 second Hemi that never looses. Rich Lassiter (GSCA Pres) was there, got tired of it, challenged him and he accepted. Rich calls me (I live 20 minutes from there) to bring the Turbo because the guy with the GS that he went with would not race it. Rich says he would cover all bets if I lost. I show up and the guy takes one look at the Turbo and drives off.

    Mikey
     
    britt'sStage 1 likes this.
  9. WE1

    WE1 Well-Known Member

    I've had the pleasure of beating up on two real Hemi's. The first was a 70 Challenger against my GSX. His was a gorgeous Plum Crazy car with a stick and Dana 60. He was a great sport about it though and was using his car for its intended purpose :laugh: I don't know how many times he tried to take the GSX out. The outcome was always the same.
    The second was a 69 Hemi Super Bee. It was a 22K mile original car. And he wasn't nearly as friendly after several races when taillights is all he saw. This was against my Diplomat Blue 70 Stage 1 during the Car Craft Real Street Eliminator race back in '85. Course back then the Hemi vs. Stage 1 debates had just started (Thanks to Mr. Roy Badie) and the magazine editor (Jeff Smith) wanted to play that aspect up. That particular group of Hemi guys were poor sports. But his car was a spectacular example..... just ran like it was tied to a tree! :moonu:
    Another Hemi race years ago had me scratchin' my head though. Lined up against a 70 Road Runner, orange in color with a stick. Great looking car, one of my favorite body styles that year in any make. He beat me to the stripe in back to back races. When it was over he came by to check out my GSX wondering what gave him a pretty decent run. He was surprised when he saw the cast iron intake with a QJ and cast iron exh. manifolds. While I was licking my wounds thinking I'd just been had by a 383 Mopar. When I walked over to check out his car I didn't feel quite so bad when I saw those huge valve covers and two carbs atop one of them thar Hemi's. His only mods was camshaft change and headers. Real nice guy though and we always had thumbs up when we passed each other on the road from then on.
    And then there was the top end race on the interstate..... back when I was REALLY stupid. I was tooling down the freeway in the GSX when a black 68 Charger pulled up alongside. From a 70 mph roll he handed me the worse butt kicking I think I've ever had. He pulled me steadily... and not by just a little bit. He pulled so hard so quick that I let off at somewhere north of 100 mph and I couldn't have counted the car lengths he had on me. I found out later it was a 440 car and the son of a well known Mopar racer in the area. In fact soon after that encounter I stopped by his shop (this would have been around 1978) looking for advice in preferred machine shops in the area. He asked me why I would waste my time with that passenger car engine and specifically a Buick. He said he had a car on a trailer with a blown engine he'd sell me for $6,500. So went to take a look. Now I ask anybody here, what do you think a 70 Hemi Challenger CONVERTIBLE is worth? That's what was on the trailer. A Plum Crazy car with white interior. Can't remember if it was a stick or auto. But it was original and in pretty decent condition. How many did they make? Less than a dozen? So rare it made my GSX seem common by comparison. :Dou: :Dou:
     
  10. 71staged

    71staged Well-Known Member

    Hey Dave,

    Thanks for the memories! Can you imagine, it's been more than one generation of drivers since those days! This generation of non-Buick drivers may not be quite aware of the Buick 455's notoriety, and probably have a little more respect for the GNs, than they would have for a GS. I'm sure, as you've travelled to work on that same stretch of I-5 in your GN, you've relived some of those earlier days.

    Take care,

    Nando.
     
  11. 65electra401

    65electra401 My 225 ain't a Cadillac

    Nice Kill! :TU:

    What car made the most power back in the day of muscle cars? Was the GSX the one with the most power/torque?
     
  12. cbcjcgreinke

    cbcjcgreinke Dam, this economy sucks!

    Lets be honest anyone out really beating on a honest Mopar Hemi in any form from in the day must be a complete retard. Out of the Mopar cataloge is fare game or after market, but the originals as rare and costly as they are should be drooled over and maybe heard now and then. I mean beat the snot out of your sbc's and ford and so on but save the rare ones be it Plymouth or Buick and so on.
    Just my opinion.:Dou:
    Go get the new production ones, though most are pretty weak. There was a new SRT 8 Challenger at the track a few months back and could only muster 13.32 for his $65,000.00?
     
  13. 71staged

    71staged Well-Known Member

    Owww,

    I think I dislocated my neck, when I read your post. Last year, when I participated in a 3 day car event in Sechelt, B.C., Canada, I had one of less than a half dozen cars, which were at a car show of over 200, that also drag raced 1/8 mile at the local airstrip the following day. With all those those musclecars on display the previous day, it was very disappointing to pair up against a lot of the regular racers on Sunday. Too many musclecar owners I've known, rest on the laurels of the magazines to prove their car's worthiness, without runnin' em like they were intended to be run. Betcha Dave K. would agree with me.
    I drive a 1971 GS 455, with the original drive train intact, and only 60k miles.


    Take care,

    Nando.
     
  14. sailbrd

    sailbrd Well-Known Member

    I was next to one at a light in the Flint cruise last year, would not bite. Would not even do a little first gear shot.

    As far as SRT8's have not lost to one yet.
     
  15. 71staged

    71staged Well-Known Member

    Acht, you're a fine young lad, Dougie! It warms my heart to hear you don't have a yellow stripe... perhaps bumble bee stripe around your 1/4s.
    I see you also own a vintage ski boat, and GN. I have a 1969 Lo-Pro California Sidewinder with 1250 Merc'. Like the GN and GS, I've wrapped the speedo on the boat. Nothin' more fun than a stress-free day out on the water.

    See you,

    Nando.
     
    Last edited: Feb 24, 2009
  16. austrian455

    austrian455 6.56 $/gal...still 455

    Killing a HEMI, yes, we all like it. 426 or one of the new 6.1 hemi´s.
    Ohh man, I need more torque and HP (to kill with a Centurion ;) )
    The only thing you will have a realy hard time to kill would be one the Ford hemi´s (427 SOHC). Even in a GS.
    Lucky that there aren´t many of them.
     
  17. WE1

    WE1 Well-Known Member

    The races I was talking about was back in the late 70's and early to mid 80's. Not sure how long you've been around, but back in the day we used the car as they were intended. There was no idea yet of repop'd Hemi engines for the street. Almost everyone beat the snot out of their musclecars. There were a few that never kicked the secondaries in but those guys are all posers, they're in it for the image alone. Not my vision of what it was all about. The values were not in the stratosphere. Heck he offered me the 70 Hemi Challenger convertible for $6,500. How times have changed!
    By your definition I must be a retard since I drive and still race my GSX. Not quite as often as days past, but why own it if you can't go out and enjoy it? The owners of the trailer queens that are kept in their hyperbaric (sp?) chambers are the retards in my book.
    Nando, next time you're down we'll take the GSX or the Stage 1 out on a little drive... :grin: :3gears:


     
  18. WE1

    WE1 Well-Known Member

    No honest Buick owner will ever try to say the 455 could compare to the hp or build quality of the original 426 Hemi's. Where we top out in power or performance they're just getting warmed up. Same goes for that SOHC engine, race bred through and through. Weird timing chain though :grin:
     
  19. sailbrd

    sailbrd Well-Known Member

    Nando,
    Thanks for the comments. I won't get stupid on the street but a little blast into 2nd gear is always fun.

    Those low profile outboards can be really fast. My ski boat is actually pretty slow but they are designed to pulling at very accurate speeds. It sounds great. The exhaust system is a pair of 3 inch brass pipes the exit just under the water.

    Isn't Squamish the home of some really wacked out crazy mountain bikers? Or is that just the general nature of the BC population?:laugh:
     
  20. 71staged

    71staged Well-Known Member

    Hi Dave and all,

    Look forward to meeting again this year. Of course, I'd love to go for a spin in the ol' Buick. I remember in about 1987 or '8, when Cheryl and I had dropped in to visit you and your family, I was in your blue car ( as you commonly called it). It was fall season, October, and frosty out. There were 5 of us in your Stage 1, and you had a 455 block stowed in the trunk, we had just picked up. It was on the main drag in Anacortes, and some joker challenged you at an intersection light. You just wasted him, and I don't even think you remembered you had the engine sitting in the trunk. The race happened so fast, I didn't have time to warn you. Your Buick had been running consistent 11.78 @ 117 m.p.h. at S.I.R. at that time. I can't imagine being out on the street in a 10 sec. car, now.
    Anyway, it's great to see some of us still have some fire in the ol' combustion chambers.

    See you,

    Nando.
     

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