My Best Kill Story - 70 GTO

Back in the day......

It's Friday night and I am watching a movie with my girlfriend and another couple. At about 11:30 PM the phone rings. It is my buddy and he is really wound tight and frothing at the mouth. "Steve! you have to come down to the beach RIGHT NOW!!". Of course, I asked him "Are you okay? What's wrong?" He tells me that a guy we know from around town with a 70 GTO is holding court with a crowd around him and he is talking serious smack about me. He goes on to insist that I come down there this instant and defend my rep and take him down.

To understand why this guy is bagging on me, let me give you some background. This guy came by my shop a month or so before to talk to an employee. When he left, he attempted to put on a show. His Goat sputtered and puffed and then cleared up and accelerated away down the street. After he left, my employee told me that his buddies GTO had 500 horsepower and wanted to know what I thought. In a moment of poor judgment, I said: "500 what? 500 Goat power? Baaaaah. It looks like he is feeding his goats bondo". Well, what do you suppose my employee did? You guest it, he reported my ill-advised barb to his buddy. And, apparently, this little jab really stuck in his craw.

Back to the story........
No matter how many times I told my buddy that I did not care what the guy thought or said, he persisted and told me more and more things the guy said. It was obvious he was not going to leave me alone. I was more than 20 minutes from my house and my 64 Special but only 5 minutes from the beach, so I jumped in my GN and drove down to the beach to see if he wanted to talk smack while I was standing there.

When I arrived, my buddy was not exaggerating. All the regulars were there and here was GTO guy with his hood up professing his brilliance and superiority of the Pontiac 455. I parked in a highly visible spot and meandered over to my buddy and had a listen. When the guy saw me, he looked surprised and a little sheepish. It was obvious that he was not going to talk smack with me standing there. No worries. My buddy, being the helpful guy that he is, got face to face and reminded him of his previous statements. With a whole crowd of people now fully engaged, he started telling my buddy that we did not have enough money to race him and he does not perform for free. This is where my buddy shocks me to death and whips out 4 grand in hundreds and waves it in his face saying "Talk is cheap stud. Name your number". While the GTO guy was surprised, I may have been more surprised. It was game on.

Now you are probably wondering why my buddy had 4 grand on him. Well I can tell you not as much as I was! Turns out he was on his way home from selling a big block Chevy street strip motor when he stopped at the beach. And, this kind of machismo and big talk was right up his alley. I explained to him that in no way did I want to be responsible for his money and he said he wanted the GTO guys scalp and he did not care. He wanted this race way more than I did.

The banter begins..............
I told him my car was almost an hour trip away and it is already midnight. So, if you want, I will race you with my GN. Obliviously afraid of this car, he informed me that "turbos are cheating" and that he wanted to race my Special muscle against muscle. I said: "Pal, you have a big block with Nitrous! You are afraid of a Turbo V-6?". He did not bite, her persisted on muscle against muscle. I said: "Look man, my Special has a junk yard 350 with a little juice, you have a built big block with juice. You only want to race the Special because you are afraid of my other cars. No use. No matter what I said, or how bad the crowd ridiculed him for not racing my GN, he wanted a piece of that Special. I tried to get him to meet me at the track on Saturday night but he went into a tirade about how he can't let people see what his car can do on the timers. This guy was a serious dork, but my buddy really wanted his money bad so off I went to get the special.

A few things seeped into my memory on the way home. The car was nearly out of gasoline, the right rear tire was flat and my nitrous bottle was empty. Oh yeah, and it was past midnight. When I got home, I aired up the tire with my handy dandy cigarette lighter plug powered tire pump and headed to the gas station. My buddy had his Camaro at the beach but his nitrous bottle was the short fat magnum nitrous bottle and I used the skinny NOS bottle. Before I left, I grabbed a hand full of zip ties. Yes, zip ties.

Now, if your recall, I told him that my Special had a junk yard 350. I was not lying. The motor was out of a wrecked 73 Buick Century that only had 37k on the clock. Not only was it stock, but I never even replaced the gaskets. Stock intake, stock exhaust manifolds - stock everything except for a fantastic 650 Holley and a custom jettable nitrous system. However, the car itself was not stock. You see the Special was my sportsman class bracket car at the time. The car had 3.90 gears, 3000 rpm converter, fuel system, quarter stick, 3" exhaust and the suspension was tuned to hook dead anywhere on the Mickey Thompson S/S series stickies.

You see, I have done a bit of street racing. And, I spent every weekend at the drag strip since I was about 7 years old. When you have that kind of experience, you know what to look for in a car. I had seen lots of really mac'd out street cars run 14s and 15s. Frankly, I could tell by looking over a car closely and hearing it run about what it is likely to run. Still, you never know, and 4 grand is a lot of money.

After listening to this guys car, I could tell it did not have much compression. It was cammed pretty heavy but it was just not hitting hard at idle. Next, I could see he had a stock fuels system. Big Block with nitrous on a stock fuel system? Yeah, okay pal. Then I noticed that he had a 2 1/4" kink master muffler shop exhaust system. Lastly, he had the back of the car all jacked up with racer boy 50 series glass belts on the back. Stock rear suspension with no bags or bars rounded out this "street squid" Goat. So, I like my odds. I liked them a lot.

I arrive at the beach parking lot at 1:30am. There is only about 20 people left and they are all waiting to see this race. As soon as I get there, I say to my buddy: "Please tell me your bottle is full!". He said he only had one pass on it since the fill. Perfect. After about 15 minutes of "zip tie engineering", we were ready to go. It's time to talk money.

When we started to talk money, we notice that GTO guys uncle had arrived. I recognized him. He had been at the track off and on with a 67 Firebird that ran 12.20s. His uncle took center stage. My buddy told him: "Let's see the money man". His uncle started beating around the bush and making excuses and asking to race later. My buddy blows a gasket and gets in his face telling him he better put up because his boy has been talking smack all night and it is time to get down to business. After a near fight, GTO guy and his uncle start pooling money. After all of the big talk, the were able to put together $35 and some change. I started laughing hysterically. I said: "After all this horse-crap, running me all over town and swapping nitrous bottles you come up with $35 dollars and a hand full of change? Are you kidding me?" While I was amused, my buddy nearly threw down another scrap. It was turning into a mess. So, I said $35 buck is fine, let's do this thing right now!

And so we race................
At 2:30 a.m., we line them up on a popular street for this type of "activity". I hear the GTO guy start what looks like an Top Fuel burnout. As he rolls past me I cannot believe my eyes. Only one wheel is spinning. You have to be kidding me. You cannot be serious? Big Block, Nitrous and one wheel peel? HA!

I start to heat the Mickeys. After a short burnout, I do a full throttle dry hop. The Special hooks dead. Not even a chirp. I am filled with confidence. His uncle is starting the race and my buddy and the rest of the crowd are at the end calling the finish line. We line em up.

His uncle gives us both the thumb. We both signal back thumbs up. We are ready. I load up the torque converter to about 2200. The Special's suspension is loaded perfectly. His uncle drops his arms and I launch. As soon as the converter flashes and the car rocks back on the stickies, I hit the button. It was a bit of a gamble and it paid. The Special stayed hooked and the front suspension made an audible clunk as it topped out against the stops. I come out of the hole hard. Real hard.

At the top of first, I bang second and look over my shoulder. The Goat is barely moving and there is a little haze of smoke I can see around his left rear tire. He has spun badly! As I reach the top of second and click into 3rd a peak back reveals that I have him by 8 to 10 car lengths. I have him by a wheat field! I know a big block on the juice can motor hard on the big end, but he is not making up enough ground fast enough. I let off of the nitrous and for the last 300 feet I am blipping the throttle making the Special front suspension bob up and down. Now I am rubbing it in bad. I cross the finish line 6 cars ahead. It was a spanking.

GTO Guy and Uncle Firebird pay up their $35 and change as Uncle Firebird berates GTO Guy's driving. As we are going away, I hear GTO Guy take a mean shellacking from the spectators. I heard things like: "Dude! You just got spanked by a junk yard motor!" and "The Buick pulled the front wheels!"

It was late but my buddy and I were all jacked up from the race. We took his $35 and change in winnings to the local Denny's and had breakfast and recounted the evening. It was a great night.

 

Real cool story and it was really well written.

Nice job. Do you still have the special?

Louie

 

The Special was turned into a back halved race car. I had plans to race in the World Street Shootout series that was popular at the time. However, I sold the car on 2004 to a guy from Youngstown.

I have the bug again and have been looking around for the perfect buy. I want a 65 Skylark that is a really nice rust free driver with A/C. The racing days are behind me now.

 

Good story!

 

:ball: I had a 70 GTO, best car I ever owned... Right car for the right time in my life... Man I miss that one!

 

I sure would like to know how you got such amazing street traction.

Mind telling me what the setup was on the ole 64 Special....Pleeeeze?
Converter, gears, front and rear springs, sway bar, upper or lower control arm relocators, anti roll bar, etc.????

I love stories like that. Thanks, I'll fall asleep tonight replaying that in my head.
But, I'll wake up hoping for a traction recipe like yours. Holler back.

GB, 67 GS 455

 

Heh awesome.

 

Great story!

 

This car did not have a lot of money in fancy parts. What it did have was many many hours of tinkering during test and tune at the drag strip.

Here was the basic formula:
Worn out V6 springs in the front with 90/10 front shocks. Front sway bar removed.

Factory springs in the back with boxed and welded rear control arms with new urethane bushings. I used air bags with more pressure in the right side than the left. I can't remember the exact pressures anymore but it is typically different with each car anyway. I would drive around on the street with the same pressure in both, then drop the pressure in the left for battle. I made a home brewed "pinion snubber" and spent hours getting the contact point just right. The back tires and rims were 15x7 rallies with a tall Mickey S/S soft compound tires. I dont remember the aspect ratio but they were 28 and some change tall with about a 8" or 9" foot print. There was some "massaging" of the wheel housing involved.

The thing about this car was that the engine was so weak without the nitrous that hooking up was no problem. With the nitrous was another story. For that everything had to be just right and timing of hitting the button was crucial.

I would find a "quiet area" and launch the car. This allowed me to "read" the launch marks on clean pavement. I could then get the tire pressure and bag pressures just right so that the whole tired was planted on the ground and both the left and right clean marks were near equal. Adjusting the snubber was a matter of feel.

The end result was this car would deliver a mid 1.7 60' on the street. Back then, the was outstanding because the tire technology was nowhere near what you can buy now.

 

I thoroughly enjoyed that story gent.
Alot of reminiscing going on in my mind right now.... :Brow: :3gears:

 

Awesome story. I love to shut up a loud mouth. It sounds like you had a sweet little set up with that car.

 

Love that story!I used to beat up on loud mouths like that in a 79' 4 door malibu with a hot 355.Stock 229 V6 suspension,worn out shocks and no front sway bar would let the old brown turd rock back hard enough to pull 1.7 60's on a set of 10 inch Sportsman Pros and hook as well on the street.The car would only go 7.70's off the hose but nothing felt better than heariing the losers friends wear him out after I would chew them up with a 4 door that had a quilt thrown over the seats for the added granny effect.
Love some good old street action!

 

$35 and some change!:laugh: :laugh: :laugh:

 

Oh my goodness yes! I could have more fun in a couple hours out on the bridge than I did all night at the drag strip.

 

Good story, good kill.

Mikey

 

Great story

 

Car is owned by Mike VanHorn in Mineral Ridge (Y'town area) now. Should be back on the track late this year or next year..

 

God I can't stand up from behind my desk right now!

 

I hope so. That was always the thing with me and that car. Every time I would get one thing done, I would go overboard on something else. I hope to see it when it is done. I have a lot of hours in that frame and cage.

 

Highly enjoyable read! Congrats on the spanking.

Scott