Let’s hear a 340 story

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Ok I got another one. Being a Natrona Heights boy but hanging and racing with a much smaller Freeport town crowd there was always one 1969 (302) camero that I kept hearing about. His family lived 3 miles out of Freeport but I never met him. A local guy had a mechanical garage 1.5 miles from his house and rebuilt his engine and through the shops brother (a Mopar guy) kept going on about how fast this car was. Fastest car he was ever in. (Coming from the shop owner) It took over two years for the race to happen and honestly I don’t remember exactly how it happened but I think he came out one night we were going at it. We finally raced, I won, and I never heard another story about him. What’s really funny is I loved this area so much and dated several girls from this area I bought a house here in 1985, about 150 yards from his farm. Our paths have never crossed again and I don’t know if he still owns that car or not. I loved his silver and black car and other than a Mopar it’s one I wouldn’t have minded owning.
 
pittsburghracer said:
Ok I got another one. Being a Natrona Heights boy but hanging and racing with a much smaller Freeport town crowd there was always one 1969 (302) camero that I kept hearing about. His family lived 3 miles out of Freeport but I never met him. A local guy had a mechanical garage 1.5 miles from his house and rebuilt his engine and through the shops brother (a Mopar guy) kept going on about how fast this car was. Fastest car he was ever in. (Coming from the shop owner) It took over two years for the race to happen and honestly I don’t remember exactly how it happened but I think he came out one night we were going at it. We finally raced, I won, and I never heard another story about him. What’s really funny is I loved this area so much and dated several girls from this area I bought a house here in 1985, about 150 yards from his farm. Our paths have never crossed again and I don’t know if he still owns that car or not. I loved his silver and black car and other than a Mopar it’s one I wouldn’t have minded owning.
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That's funny, we had a hangout spot near the reservoir called Zumalt Park outside of Eugene. It was a small town crowd and actually where I grew up. There was a hugger orange and white 69 302 z28 that had a pretty good reputation. It was owned by an older guy out of high school. I had had my 340 swinger for a few months when I got up enough nerve to ask him to race , my car had been in my small town previous to me owning it for a couple of years, he said no way I know how fast that car is. I was very shocked by his response but I just smiled and drove away.
 
Swinger 340 said:
It's been a long time, but is that a "Fireball" cam from Crain cams. Just threw one away last year while down sizing. Had several friends that worked for Crain cams, in Hallandale, Fl.
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Yes fireball 300, I just keep oiling it up and wrapping it back in rags and sticking it back on the shelf.
 
Okay one more LOL. One of my best friends lived about a half mile down the road he was one of those kids who got great grades never got in any trouble played on the varsity basketball team pretty much everything I wasn't, but when he wanted to have fun he called me. He had a job at the local grocer and with the co-sign of his father was able to purchase a 1973 340 Cuda dark metallic blue black vinyl top slapstick, 355 gear, crane fireball cam, and Orange box ignition. That car was beautiful flawless, just dead sexy. One night we were at the gut in Eugene and we ended up in a three-car Battle Royal drag race. 66 GTO tri-power 4 speed gorgeous, 1972 roadrunner perfect fresh out of the motor shop 360 HP, and are Cuda. We raced the GTO twice jumped out to a two-car lead both times and managed to make it to the end of the strip before that big block could catch us that guy was so pissed he almost wrecked his car. Then the GTO race the roadrunner and beat it by about a car length... 340 wins again.
 
pittsburghracer said:
Ok I got another one. Being a Natrona Heights boy but hanging and racing with a much smaller Freeport town crowd there was always one 1969 (302) camero that I kept hearing about. His family lived 3 miles out of Freeport but I never met him. A local guy had a mechanical garage 1.5 miles from his house and rebuilt his engine and through the shops brother (a Mopar guy) kept going on about how fast this car was. Fastest car he was ever in. (Coming from the shop owner) It took over two years for the race to happen and honestly I don’t remember exactly how it happened but I think he came out one night we were going at it. We finally raced, I won, and I never heard another story about him. What’s really funny is I loved this area so much and dated several girls from this area I bought a house here in 1985, about 150 yards from his farm. Our paths have never crossed again and I don’t know if he still owns that car or not. I loved his silver and black car and other than a Mopar it’s one I wouldn’t have minded owning.
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A pre El Paso, Tx, Dyer St. Story from high school.

1969 the 69 Z28 just got me all kind of excited. Made a deal with my dad to let me buy one with my own lawn mower. hay bale and bean walking money. I was 15 at the time and a sophomore. After I hit 16 I could buy my dream car was the deal.
In the mean time as I'm aging, a rich *** hole junior's, dad bought him the exact Z28 I lusted after. He had it for a couple months and totaled it. His dad buying it for him and him wrecking it took away all my desire to ever own a Z28.
We had a pair of 49 Plymouths that I drove all thru high school. Use to turn them any way but loose. Lol
I later bought a 55 2 door hard top chevy that had had a 301 in it be for I got it. It had a tilt frontend.
Do you know the differance between a 301 and a 302 chevy?
Funny but my step son has a redone black 69 Z with a unoriginal 302 in it.
 
A story my oldest brother told me years ago, he graduated high school in 1970 and bought a 67 GTO, 400 4 speed. All his buddies had muscle cars, including a 69 427 4 speed Chevelle and a 70 428 SCJ Mustang with a auto. There were others too, Camaros, Chevelles, Novas and Olds and Buicks too. The Chevelle was the fastest then the Mustang. I was a kid and still remember the sound of that high compression 427.

In the summer of 71 one of the guys had a cousin from Chicago visit, he was driving a 71 Demon, 340 4 speed from Grand-Spalding Dodge. My brother said it was Plain with a rubber mat instead of carpet. Now street racing was huge here at that time and it didn't take long for the guys to start on the visitor wanting to race him. He had just driven in and wanted to rest and change the plugs and check the car over before he raced anyone but would race them the next night.

My brother said the guys started making fun of him, calling him chicken $hit and such. Finally he said I'll race but I'm putting my slicks on first. The only thing in the trunk was a floor jack and a pair of slicks so he came expecting some action. After the tire change he loads up the jack and tires and said lets go.

According to my brother there were about 15 cars that headed out to the spot. The guy with the mustang had been running his mouth the most and wanted to run the Demon first and the guy with the Chevelle wouldn't run him until he ran the Mustang. My brother said the Demon got out about two cars on the Mustang at the hit and drove off from him. He said before they could get back to the starting line it looked like a wagon train leaving and the guy with the Chevelle wouldn't race him. LOL

The guy with the Demon was here for a week and couldn't get another race. Not first hand but my brother has told the story many times over the years. He was very impressed with the little 340.
 
Let's go modern day, my son's friend had a trans am LS with headers and a few tricks done to it he hit the street drag racing pretty hard this was a few years ago before there were many turbos in this area he ran a nitrous system slicks and took down quite a few pretty fast cars he could handle the new challengers and chargers before the 392 came out. He knew my car well from my son and one morning on my way to work a few years ago out by the airport I saw him in front of me coming to a stop at the red light, comments had been made of just how much faster new cars were than our old junk so I wanted him to prove it to me. Here's my setup TA 6 pack,Max output jeted Holly's Mopar performance 288 hydraulic camshaft, speedmaster aluminum heads with competition valve job, aluminum roller rockers, beautifully balanced 69 340 forge crank bottom end with miodon oil system,p 391 rear end 4 speed competition clutch and 26 inch nitto 275 drag radials, I jumped on it and I could hear him but I never saw him till I let off at about 100. I know he wasn't on the bottle but neither was I.
 
I had the same thing happen at a ber in Hudson Fl. I have a 77 xlcr 1000 HD. The Ironhead Sportie, along with the Knuckle and Pans, had true Hemi combustion chamber. When i pulled my heads for new guides, they were, and still are, so ported, you could look Through them! No lie. Jan, and her husband, that owned Tampa v twin used to run it at Sunshine in Bradenton. Almost 7 flat in the 1/8 . And Jan has about 80# on me... Guy with a thousand pound new Harley was talkingshit, we pulled out of the bar, he jumped in front of an oncoming car on Highway 52, people ain't driving slow out there. I cut right behind and nailed it through the gears, blew right by his ***, hit 4th turned around didn't see anyone. Went back the bar, Noone there, neither him nor his cronies. Never got my 100 bucks
 
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Ironracer said:
I was pissed when they closed/ got bought out. Was over by Daytona
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I have many stories also. Speaking of Daytona, rings a bell. Leaving a car show, which I was in(Turkey Rod Run), a upper 60's Corvette, with a lady passenger were pushing me into a run. Laughing and smirking when sitting at a light. I gave them a nod, but gave them the jump, just in case they were not for real. That was all I gave them, about 3 feet. Next light, I look over, no eyes were too be seen. Both were facing forward, two hands were on the steering wheel, none were on the shifter. I just hope that was not his girlfriend at his side, because I'm sure she was not impressed.(stock 69 4-speed, with the 69 manual DC purple Cam, 355 gear, a little porting)
 
Swinger 340 said:
I have many stories also. Speaking of Daytona, rings a bell. Leaving a car show, which I was in(Turkey Rod Run), a upper 60's Corvette, with a lady passenger were pushing me into a run. Laughing and smirking when sitting at a light. I gave them a nod, but gave them the jump, just in case they were not for real. That was all I gave them, about 3 feet. Next light, I look over, no eyes were too be seen. Both were facing forward, two hands were on the steering wheel, none were on the shifter. I just hope that was not his girlfriend at his side, because I'm sure she was not impressed.(stock 69 4-speed, with the 69 manual DC purple Cam, 355 gear, a little porting)
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That's Classica Aha Haha!!!! AWESOME!
 
Back in the 90s the local track started running Friday night Club Drags . One night it was the Mopar club and the Corvette club . I line up against an early 70s Vette with my 73 340 4sp Dart Sport. Mild build with a 484/284 mp cam , LD340 and a worked 600 DP Holley . 4.10s in back (8 3/4).
Needless to say I waxed him .
HE WAS SO FUCKIN PISSED !
I told him..."it's only a Corvette"
Now he is REALLY pissed ...lol
 
mbaird said:
Back in the 90s the local track started running Friday night Club Drags . One night it was the Mopar club and the Corvette club . I line up against an early 70s Vette with my 73 340 4sp Dart Sport. Mild build with a 484/284 mp cam , LD340 and a worked 600 DP Holley . 4.10s in back (8 3/4).
Needless to say I waxed him .
HE WAS SO FUCKIN PISSED !
I told him..."it's only a Corvette"
Now he is REALLY pissed ...lol
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BIG ASSED GRIN ON THIS MOPAR MANS FACE!!!!!!!! I kind of knew what the outcome was being soon as I read what you were up against there
 
Another story regarding my 73 340 Charger....There was a Grocery store in East Bibb County off I-16 called Patterson's. It was run by a really well known salt of the Earth black family. Their Patriarch was Pat. Pat was a really BIG guy. He was probably 450-475....maybe more. Always wore overalls. He used to let us ride out and wander the about 40 acre junkyard both behind the grocery store and across the dirt road from it.

This was one of the largest junkyards in the Macon area. Pat had some of everything you could ever imagine from Model Ts to Studebakers, and of course a ton of muscle. One of my all time favorites we found in there was a 66 7 Liter Galaxie 500 4 speed car. That's 427 Ford car for those that don't know. Total badassary.

Anyway, one Friday at school me, Kirk, Mitty, Jeff, his brother Doug and their friend Brian decided we'd take the Charger out there that Saturday. I got to Kirk's house and picked everybody up. We got out of Macon city limits on I-16 and I think it was Doug says "Rob, will it do the 150 on the speedo?" At that point, I really didn't know yet, so I buried the gas pedal into the floor. BY the time it finally shifted back into high were goin over 100. It had 2.76 gears. 150 was "about" at 5 o'clock. We got that thing pointing straight down on the way to Patterson's out I-16 and I'm not talkin about for a little while. I held it there. That 340 wasn't turnin anymore. LOL

So we get done plunderin, and I drop everybody back off at Kirk's. That Monday it was school as usual. Kirk and I had auto shop together and that was off campus, in Downtown Macon. We normally took either his car or mine and we took mine. As soon as we turned into the shop parking lot, the left front tire made a loud hiss and pop and blew out. It had the Goodyear Polyglas GTs on it and they were down to the polyester cords. lol I had a new set put on that afternoon. Me and Kirk always said somebody was lookin out for our fool asses that day. Somebody tells you a stock 340 won't go 150 plus, they're full of it. I've been there and done it multiple times.

I have more. lol
 
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150 in a stock 340 charger you must have been at 6500 rpm+ cause my 340 with overdrive is hitting 6000 at 140
RustyRatRod said:
Another story regarding my 73 340 Charger....There was a Grocery store in East Bibb County off I-16 called Patterson's. It was run by a really well known salt of the Earth black family. Their Patriarch was Pat. Pat was a really BIG guy. He was probably 450-475....maybe more. Always wore overalls. He used to let us ride out and wander the about 40 acre junkyard both behind the grocery store and across the dirt road from it.

This was one of the largest junkyards in the Macon area. Pat had some of everything you could ever imagine from Model Ts to Studebakers, and of course a ton of muscle. One of my all time favorites we found in there was a 66 7 Liter Galaxie 500 4 speed car. That's 427 Ford car for those that don't know. Total badassary.

Anyway, one Friday at school me, Kirk, Mitty, Jeff, his brother Doug and their friend Brian decided we'd take the Charger out there that Saturday. I got to Kirk's house and picked everybody up. We got out of Macon city limits on I-16 and I think it was Doug says "Rob, will it do the 150 on the speedo?" At that point, I really didn't know yet, so I buried the gas pedal into the floor. BY the time it finally shifted back into high were goin over 100. It had 2.76 gears. 150 was "about" at 5 o'clock. We got that thing pointing straight down on the way to Patterson's out I-16 and I'm not talkin about for a little while. I held it there. That 340 wasn't turnin anymore. LOL

So we get done plunderin, and I drop everybody back off at Kirk's. That Monday it was school as usual. Kirk and I had auto shop together and that was off campus, in Downtown Macon. We normally took either his car or mine and we took mine. As soon as we turned into the shop parking lot, the left front tire made a loud hiss and pop and blew out. It had the Goodyear Polyglas GTs on it and they were down to the polyester cords. lol I had a new set put on that afternoon. Me and Kirk always said somebody was lookin out for our fool asses that day. Somebody tells you a stock 340 won't go 150 plus, they're full of it. I've been there and done it multiple times.

I have more. lol
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A soundtrack of that 340 at 150 must have been amazing . you were lucky don't think those tires were rated for 150mph in new condition
 
Nat said:
150 in a stock 340 charger you must have been at 6500 rpm+ cause my 340 with overdrive is hitting 6000 at 140

A soundtrack of that 340 at 150 must have been amazing . you were lucky don't think those tires were rated for 150mph in new condition
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Naw. At 17 who gave a flip about all that? lol
 
Nat said:
150 in a stock 340 charger you must have been at 6500 rpm+ cause my 340 with overdrive is hitting 6000 at 140

A soundtrack of that 340 at 150 must have been amazing . you were lucky don't think those tires were rated for 150mph in new condition
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Not an El Paso Dyer St race but an El Paso War Hiway race. War Hiway goes out into the desert to White Sands Missile Range. A very desolate Road that we used to hold midnight drag races on.
My housemate had a 66 Chevelle that he stuck a 427 down in with a 4-speed transmission an 410 gears. It ran pretty doggone good. He was always bad-mouthing my Duster so one night we decide to match them up on war Highway just above where we lived.
Light turns green and we are off. We both are running in 4th gear and we're still side by side and accelerating.
I backed off at 7000 in 4th an he backed off also.
With 3.91s I figured we were right at 140.
He stopped bad mouthing my Duster after that.
The good old days were a lot of fun.
 
Jadaharabi said:
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Not an El Paso Dyer St race but an El Paso War Hiway race. War Hiway goes out into the desert to White Sands Missile Range. A very desolate Road that we used to hold midnight drag races on.
My housemate had a 66 Chevelle that he stuck a 427 down in with a 4-speed transmission an 410 gears. It ran pretty doggone good. He was always bad-mouthing my Duster so one night we decide to match them up on war Highway just above where we lived.
Light turns green and we are off. We both are running in 4th gear and we're still side by side and accelerating.
I backed off at 7000 in 4th an he backed off also.
With 3.91s I figured we were right at 140.
He stopped bad mouthing my Duster after that.
The good old days were a lot of fun.
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Hell yeah! 340 A bodies are the shizzle.
 
Another 340 Charger story. I got that car from the older brother of a school friend. He came to school one day and said his dad was selling the car since Clay had gotten his 2nd DUI in it. Wrecked it both times. He hit a brick wall the first time and then a brick mail box. It was essentially totaled from the front, but because of the tons of room between the radiator support and front bumper, the car still drove fine. 79K original miles. I gave his dad 300 bucks for it and drove it home. Kirk and I immediately found everything but the hood in a local junk yard. The hood was hurt right at the front, but it still worked fine and was a power bulge hood so we left it alone.

Now Clay had already made sure that car had a reputation around town...and it carried over. lol One Saturday mornin, I went over to Kirk's house and we decided to take the car to the spur with a pocketwatch and see how quick it was. We swung around the block and picked up Mitty. He had a pint of Evan Williams. lol We had the 1/4 marked off at the spur as that's where everybody raced on the weekends. The local law enforcement normally left us alone and on rare occasion, even attended. lol So, we went out to the spur. I dropped Kirk off at the finish line, proceeded to the start line and turned around. I saw Kirk joggin back toward us. When I got to him he said "tan LTD cruisin up the spur" Uh oh. Bibb County mounty. He pulled in sideways takin up both lanes in front of me. So he gets all three of us out and proceeds to run licenses. Nothing came back on me and Kirk....but some garbled stuff about "dirt bikes on the street" came back on Mitty. lol He asked us what we were doin out there......like he didn't know. Real quick Kirk says "I had to piss so Rob dropped me off and was turnin around to pick me back up". Quick on his feet. lol The guy starts goin off about how the guy that had the car before me outran a bunch of them several times gettin away and they already knew the car and it's reputation and they were "watchin me" and I "better not be messin around anymore" and let us go. About an hour later we went back and from what we could tell, the car would have been in the mid 14s....maybe quicker if I couldda got it to hook. And here was Mitty the whole time with a pint of Evan Williams stuck in the back of his pants with his blue puffy coat over it. Man we were lucky that day. LMAO
 
Ok since I don’t want to act “saintish” my cousin who grew up across the street from me went to GM training school and got a job at an Oldsmobile dealership in town. He bought a 67 Cutlass that I hear was pretty rough when he bought it and it had a 330 engine with a powerglide. He painted it a metallic dark blue and the car was beautiful. Jim was not a racer and never touched the car power wise. Of course mouthy me jacked him off about slip n slide powerglide for months. Well we lined up his cutlass against my 350 (1972) cutlass. He whooped me bad. Dual exhaust added, he whooped me bad, from 2.73 gears to 3.73 he whooped me bad, from quadrajet to holley he whooped me bad. Now he never went to a drag strip even 45 years later but one night I was bored my cutlass although not fast ran like a 15.5 ET. Well six months after I had gotten my duster I took him for a nice ride then decided to show him a little power. Country 3 lane road that we always traveled. Somewhat polished concrete road. I stopped at the blinking red light and make a left turn into town. I eased into first, second, was what I thought was straight enough hit third and jumped on it. Before you could say “mashed potatoes” we had slide across my lane and two others and sat on the gravel berm looking the other direction. His eyes were like huge and when he would get excited he would rub his hands like he was starting a fire. He then said I’m not racing against this car but I want to do that again, IN A STRAIGHT SPOT. Lol.
 
The year was about 1990 my son and I had just left the biggest cruise in in our area and had made our way back into town. We never missed a function for junction it was always something we look forward to and would work for hours to make. It was getting pretty late and the streets were pretty deserted as I approached the stoplight I could see a split window vet sitting at the light. I recognized it from the cruise earlier it was perfect a high dollar machine no doubt! fuel injected 327. My 340 was pretty fresh out of the motor shop and was in fine form pushing around 400 + horses. I didn't think he would race that fancy car so I left with a mild launch but to my surprise he was off. He pulled about one car on me then the 340 wound up it was pretty close till my motor hit about 5500 RPM holding it up to around 6800 it was just too much for the vett! I could almost hear the teardrops landing on the fiberglass LOL
 
Something I didn’t post was when I started street racing my duster in 1975 headers were illegal in Pa. but we were getting close to being legal. Many over the guys I was going up against already installed them knowing it was coming. In my near stockish form it didn’t hurt my combo but a lot of guys weren’t stock. I still had a near perfect record except for the back and forth races with my Freeport friend in the blue Camero. But soon I gave in and it was time for John and his friends to become outlaws too. Off to Summit we went and for around 59.00 came home with Blackjack headers. I think install day was the day I learned how to swear. My Dad had electrical tools, not mechanical tools. So I grab some of my 2.45 hour wage and went to Klingensmiths Hardware to buy a set S&K openend wrenches. Dads Cresent although nice didn’t work to well with header bolds that were sunken in the header tubes (damn mother Mopar). Shortly after that when I had the cash it was 3/8 then 1/2 then 1/4 S&K ratchet sets. The hook was set and racing was reeling me in.
 
pittsburghracer said:
Something I didn’t post was when I started street racing my duster in 1975 headers were illegal in Pa. but we were getting close to being legal. Many over the guys I was going up against already installed them knowing it was coming. In my near stockish form it didn’t hurt my combo but a lot of guys weren’t stock. I still had a near perfect record except for the back and forth races with my Freeport friend in the blue Camero. But soon I gave in and it was time for John and his friends to become outlaws too. Off to Summit we went and for around 59.00 came home with Blackjack headers. I think install day was the day I learned how to swear. My Dad had electrical tools, not mechanical tools. So I grab some of my 2.45 hour wage and went to Klingensmiths Hardware to buy a set S&K openend wrenches. Dads Cresent although nice didn’t work to well with header bolds that were sunken in the header tubes (damn mother Mopar). Shortly after that when I had the cash it was 3/8 then 1/2 then 1/4 S&K ratchet sets. The hook was set and racing was reeling me in.
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Blackjack headers (4 bolts) were the best for my app. 72' Dodge B-300, Sportsman/Maxi Van. Installed a 69' 340/ 2.5" exhaust welded to the 2.5' chamber flanges. Just put my van to rest after all these great years (rust did it in). Kept the motor, but the Blackjack headers were also gone, do to the rust.
 
Blackjack headers , now there is a name from the past . can't believe headers were illegal back in 1975b. I had them on my car since 1972
 
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