But that's what it was. Some might also call them "Old School" muscle cars. It seems like actual muscle car sightings out on the road these days are getting more and more far and few between. But when you spot one, it grabs your attention quickly. The car I saw today went even further. It gave me a flashback of my youth. It was a red '69 Chevelle SS 396. But what really caught my attention were the classic 8" deep dish Cragar SS wheels on the rear and the 15 x 3 1/2's on the front. Bias ply tires, naturally. The slight rake, the Lakewood ladder bars, the bottom of the old chrome Fram fuel filter canister slightly poking out from below the Chevelle's rear bumper, and yes, the distinctive sound of that old Crane "Fireball" cam. Back in Edison, NJ when I was about 14 or so, there were many cars in my town that were done like this.The one guy down the street from where I lived always had some really nice Chevies. Mostly Chevelle SS's, but several Vette's too. He was the guy in the neighborhood who was a mechanic for a living and actually "knew his stuff". We all looked up to him. Rich was his name. At that age, you never forget the sound and the feel of your first ride in a '70 LT1 4-speed Stingray. One night Rich and the guys were all going out cruising [with an occaisional race too] and Rich took me along with him. I'll never forget the gear whine of the M22 and the crackle of those factory sidepipes. Rich could drive too, we outran his buddy's black '70 Stingray with its original but tired LS5 390 h.p. 454 in it. Now I wouldn't do any of these things to my own car these days, but when you're 14 you don't forget the first muscle cars that captured your imagination. One of the little things I remember is that back then it used to be considered cool to wire your reverse lights on all of the time. Maybe that was an Edison thing though. I heard that yellow headlights were [or are] a Michigan thing. Can anyone name any other "local trends" for hot street cars that they remember from the '70's? So I have to admit, that idea you all have of the MP class really should take off and flourish. The draw for many I think, would be the early '70's period correct theme.
Mike, when Casey, Brian and I envisioned this a while back, it basically was for those period car's just to the left of pure stock, but with tastefull speed shop weekend extra's. In that era, I was the manager of Murray Auto Speed Shop in Coral Gables...man we sold bookoo amounts of stuff. Hedman headers, Crower cams, Accell, Mr Gasket, Manley, Moon, Mallory lighters, Cragar's....yada, yada, tons of stuff I kinda dropped the ball of furthering this MP thingy myself this year whatwith the heart attack/stroke deal I had... BUT, I'm getting itchy for some action now. Mighty Mouse is alive and well, buts it's easier to put headers (oh no) on it than cut the body for taillight mod's for F.A.S.T. :af: My Stage 2 GS is running pretty good too, I firmly believe this MP class could flourish, but it needs added direction from a few more players than what is now involved. Miller's buddy's 300 turns my crank like you wouldn't believe... man, I like that car !! I gotta secret car deal going now that may be purty interesting if it comes about, HO, 3-2's, 4 speed..... and I'm still on the hunt for a keeper '69 4 speed GTX. JH JH
F.a.s.t 300 Another friend of our's was going to loan Brian a 394" stroker to throw in the 300 for the Year One race,but time just didn't let it happen :ball: It would be interesting to see what a high compression big cube smallblock could do in this light-weight 300 :eek2: Might just upset a Big Block car or two? :TU: Hey Jim, are you saying Brian better not get goofy and offer this car up for sale?
Mighty's motor is 392" of HIGH compression fury , but they never put an LT-1 in a '69 Chevelle, HOWEVER, that doesn't mean it wouldn't be a bad-a$$ hombre'... and, i'm not saying Brian is goofy at all, I just have a sweet spot for silver car's.. what does that 300 weigh in at w/o driver??? I also had a black/black '68 L79 Chevelle hardtop way_back_when, neat car. JH
Need's to go on a diet The car weigh's 3230-3240 depending on which track it's weighed at, and this is with absolutely NO weight removal anywhere :eek2: 69 could be a factory heater delete,radio delete,etc. plus there's lot's and lot's of other places to do weight removal. I think a person could get the car down to almost 3000 without doing a ton of work,creepy huh? This car's weight totally floored me, by far the lightest 68-72 GM A-body I've ever heard of, especially a stocker with zero weight removal. Heck, it wouldn't need to be an LT-1, you could take a set of 300 h.p. heads and cast iron q-jet intake, have Gessler work em' over, plus a pair of exhaust manifold's like Mighty Mouse's, a big-squeeze short block with light weight internal's, and this car would be nasty :spank:
Tom, MM's motor already has the CORRECT heads.... , and I just happen to have a trick Qjet intake now, and a correct # tricked out Hedworth Qjet... been thinking seriouslyabout just making MM a 350-300 config....the Nova actually weighs a little more than that 300 does... JH
