Combo's that the manufacturer left on the table ?

What combos would you have loved to own, had the combo not been killed by insurance companies, emissions rules, or the bean counters ??

Interesting stuff like Stage 2 Buicks, Ram Air V Ponchos and what not.....

 

W-43-- Hemi Head, Quad valve, 455 Olds They did not even have a dyno that could tame it back in '70. I believe that they rated it at 590 lb/ft of torque and 650 hp. Just a thought....

Don't you love the first post being an Olds Hijack!!!!:bla:

 

SOHC 427 Torino/ Fairlane / Mustang. Rode in a Galaxie once powered by a single carb'd Cammer. Belonged to Ford Engineering. Four door el cheapo Galaxie. OH MY GAWD!!! ray:

 

1996 Roadmaster 4 drs Estate Wagon Convertible with fuel injected 455 and 6 speed automatic transmission.....:3gears:

Should look a little bit like this:

 

SOHC? I second Rusty's Olds W-43 nomination.
It had DUAL overhead cams.

Too bad it wasn't a small block. Then it would've really been fast, eh Dave?

 

A factory built Vega in 1970 with the optional LT-1 engine/ powertrain. :TU:

 

Solstice LS2 or Sky LS2 for that matter...........not much from my time.

 

A-925 DOHC 4-valve Hemi If only the lifter bosses hadn't cracked
Ball-stud Hemi - what an amazing engine

 

A 403 in an 83 or 84 Hurst Olds, or a GN turbo package, or anything except that lame-ass 307.

 

TPI on my 85 Monte SS instead of that vapor locking q-jet, and a 350 instead of the puny 305.

And here's to all the dealers that wouldn't call the zone office to see if the option numbers I wanted were actually available. :moonu:

 

GM

Ls6 with the good intake - Instead of the faggy corvette low one!! Thanks fiberglass DORKS!!!!!!
LS7 cars-
ZL7 (Aluminum headed ls7-12.5 -1 454 .600 lift cam)
4 valve alum head SB chev- was a cool one

Dodge

71 hemi wing cars
hemi darts
Birth control for 6 pack cars!!:laugh:

 

I agree Tim,The LS7 in 1970 was supposed to happen.Imagine the L88 with more cubes...Corvette,Chevelle or Nova would of really been a handfull.

 

Heck, they even built a all aluminum version and tested it in a Corvette .......

 

A 427 Z-11 engined Chevelle. "A real yollin' Chevrolet..." :3gears: "A car that could have been, but by a decision on mahogany row never was..." as beautifully put by the track PA announcer

Driven by Dickie Harrell in the '64 A.H.R.A. Winternationals.
12.43 ET
117.49 mph

 

63-65 Riviera 4 speed, dual quad 425 convertible would have been nice!
John
:beer

 

1966-67 Chevelle "SS427" L-72 or tri -power :3gears:

 

Yea....but the 427 SOHC wasn't a dyno fantasy....you could actually buy one.:bla: :laugh:

I second Franks nomination! :TU:

Ford Hijack!

 

I'll chime in with a Ford vote...
The XA GT-HO Phase 4 Falcon. What? Ya never heard of it? That's because "The Man" said it was too dangerous, and if the big 3 didn't stop building "Supercars", the government threatened to pull all of it's fleet contracts, costing Ford, GM and Chrysler millions.

http://home.vicnet.net.au/~gtho4/
Cool vids:
http://home.vicnet.net.au/~gtho4/ford/video-clip.html

Also, one of these concepts would be cool. Z:beers2:M Z:beers2:M
http://www.conceptcars.it/japan/mazda/rx500.htm

 

Another Ford one that I worked on (a little). GN34. This was a midship luxury sports car in the theme of the GT-40 or Pantera. It was fully developed, ready for production, and killed by the accountants as unprofitable. (Are these type cars ever profitable?)

Only good part about it is Showa, (div of Yamaha) convinced Ford to buy a slightly detuned version of the GN34 engine from them and put it in the Taurus sedan in 1989. It was the first Taurus SHO and a real honey. Internally, we all knew what SHO stood for, not what they promoted to the public (Super High Output).

At first Ford scrapped that idea when the short block (stock Ford 3.0L) wouldn't hold up to the power and revs generated by the heads and induction package. So Showa, in typical Japanese fashion, redesigned the shortfalls of the Ford design, manufactured it themselves, and modified their proposal to Ford to now include the entire turn-key installation including engine, engine control module and vehicle wiring harness. 14,000 of them were committed for production over a 5 year period.

Unfortunately the early ones only had a 5 speed and no automatic (no problem with that here), and it was rather pricey, so sales were much less than forecast. Early clutch failures in the Ford powertrain also hurt the reputation. The clutch problem was corrected immediately but getting an automatic to hold up took a little longer and wasn't introduced until 92 or 93 time frame. They also backed off the power on the package to make the auto trans live, but offset it by increasing the displacement (3.2 if I recall). They lost the sweet spot of that original 3.0L package as they'd run circles around the 3.2.

We loved it since Ford was on the hook to buy all those packages from Showa, so they offered heavily discounted lease programs on the company car fleets to us such that we could lease one for about the same as an Escort. I loved our 91 black car, but my wife triumphed for 92 and we got an Escort for her . I tweaked it a little with the GT engine and a 5 speed in a neat little 4 door package they had, but still not even close to the excitement of that 91 SHO. I shifted it at 7000, and the fun began at 4000 when the induction system got serious and kicked in the other intake runners.

Ford's arrogance resulted in the later SHO V8 that came out in 96 or 97 on that new redesign that was a total flop. They really sounded neat with induction and exhaust tuning for sound, but were very disappointing as compared to the early ones with the Yamaha engine. In 1997, they offerred management another special deal to get them out and use up the volume. They even forced us to turn them in after six months and get another one to use up the engines. We had a black one first and a red one later. My daughter drove them 95% of the time. (Insurance paid by Ford)

Not sure how similar the more recent GT program is to that GN34.

 

Here ya go Dave:

http://www.turbobuick.com/forums/hybrids/236394-starting-my-hybrid-project-updates.html

Some others:

1968 Firebird 428HO
1970 Camaro SS454 LS-6 (or -7)
1970 Monte SS454 LS-6 (or -7)
1973 GTO SD-455
1989 Firebird Formula (stripped) w/ Turbo TA drivetrain
ANY L98 F-Body with a STICK!