I was reminded, in another post, about something I discovered a couple of weeks ago. Tony DeFeo, the guy who went 13.85 in a stock T-type, has a website and a podcast. He's got a bunch of old articles scanned, and talks about hot rodding through his experience. The first episode's intro is WAY too long, but it's got some good stuff in it. I grew reading his 5.0 Mustang content, and he talks about his car and how he almost had a Yugo instead. The podcast can be found in the normal places. His website is https://uncletonysgarage.com
I used to read Cars Illustrated, great car mag! They used to street race all their test cars. The Turbo-T article was great! Probably the best write-up on the T...
https://www.listennotes.com/podcasts/uncle-tonys-garage/episode-4-mission-impossible-QkdJBgatNzf/ Some fast secrets from Dave Dudek Really appreciate the heads up. Luv me some Tony D and Neil V from back then in the cars illustrated days.
I like how they scanned several of the original articles from the magazine too. The one on the Lincoln Mk VII was cool - can't imagine doing burnout photos in Manhattan now, or at least not without it being authorized, permitted, etc...
I see they have the Turbo T test on there with the back story! I know what I am reading while I eat my lunch... https://uncletonysgarage.com/2018/07/31/way-back-machine/from-buick-with-balls/
Cars Illustrated sure stood out from the rest of the car mags back then. Great style of real-world writing, kinda like the Road Kill of the 1980's. I met Tony and the gang at the 1st GN Showdown at Englishtown's Raceway Park. I made it to the semifinals in my '79 turbo Regal, running mid 14's with the stock 2.41 rear. They were impressed and asked to do a feature on the car. I met them on a weekday at the track where they were testing a new vette. We had the track to ourselves which was super cool. I did a couple of runs in street tune. Then I gave the wastegate rod a couple of turns to crank up the boost and did another run. Well, that just smoked the right rear tire..... all the way up to the 1/8 mile mark! Tony flipped out, he just couldn't believe my luxo-cruiser could run like that. He took it for a run and practically giggled like a little girl when it hit boost. Turbo lag was pretty bad, about 2 seconds from idle, but when it hit boost it really took off. I still recall the loud THUMP sound from him flooring the pedal.... that was his style, all business, no mercy! Here's the feature that appeared in 'Supercar', the Cars Illustrated sister mag. You can see the 1/8 mile burn out in the left lane at the front corner of the hood.
I was into 5.0 cop cars back then. I remember seeing this and thinking I should get a Mark VII and have fun with it. They're probably cheaper and less abused than 5.0's from the same era, now.
My parents had an ‘86 Continental that was like a four door Mark-fuelie 5.0, four wheel discs, air suspension, JBL multi speaker stereo. It was a sweet ride until it was out of warranty and both the suspension and ABS systems started to fail. I too wanted an LSC-still think they’re very cool. The next gen (Mark VIII) with the 32 valve 4.6 looks funny and apparently is even worse to maintain. Patrick
Walt, I would love a readable copy of this article as I have a turbo regal that could be a twin to it. Send me a PM and I'll get you an email address
