When I got started in drag racing/hot rodding, the ads in Hot Rod magazine often featured a Nitro-burning flathead Ford V8-powered Fiat Topolino coupe, driven by "Jazzy" Nelson... it was winning Top Eliminator against Chrysler Hemi powered slingshot dragsters... ran low 9's in the quarter-mile, which was F-A-S-T for the day!
That was in 1955, when I was 17.
Now, I'm going to be 70 in a little over 3 weeks... can't f***ing wait... NOT!
It's no fun at all, getting old, except for the things you can remember that nobody else ever heard of...
I can, for example, easily remember when there were no Chevy V8s... no Torqueflite, no imported cars at all on the streets.... times when the cars were cosmetically re-designed EVERY YEAR, so you could tell who had a "New" car. Can anybody here tell a 2007 Camry from a 2008??? I sure as hell can't...
It was a very exciting time to be young, and into cars because beginning in 1955, there was a HUGE horsepower war going on, up until about 1964...
FOR EXAMPLE (I'll use Chevys as an example, because I know these figures from off the top of my head from my days as a tech guy at the drags.)
Here's a list of the top HP engines for those years, in chronological order for the Brand X (Bow Ties,) beginning in 1954:
Year HP Application and pertinent equipment
'54 155 Corvette 6-cylinder, with three side-draft carbs
'55 195 Corvette V8 with 1 4bbl and hot (factory) cam
'56 225 Corvette 2 X 4bbls, hot cam, higher compression
'57 283 Rochester mech. fuel inj., "Duntov" cam, hi-compression
'58 315 348cid motor with solid cam and three 2 bbls.
'59 335 same as previous 315, but with better cam and who knows?
'60 350 ditto... 3 2bbls, LOTS of cam and compression...
'61 360? (not sure; first 409, and with only one 4bbl)
'62 409 the year-old (409cid) motor based on 348 design with 2 4bbls, hi compression
'63 430 (427 cube 409-style A/FX motor)
Of course, when the '62 Mopars with the new cross-ram 413 in a light Plymouth 2-door sedan showed up, it was all over for the 409s... LOL!
When the Hemi showed up, 2 years later, it just got worse for the Bow Ties...
It was pure joy for me to stand and watch those Chevy guys row those 4-speeds, doing their best to break those spindly, weak, G.M. ring and pinions, in a vain effort to stay ahead of the Mopar Wedges (Stages II and III), which, due to well-designed 727's seemed to win "AUTOMATICALLY." LOL!
Guess you had to be there. Well, I was....
I was 25 when the Hemi arrived in 1964.
If there's anybody on this BB older than I am, I'd sure like to hear about it!
No fun being the oldest... :angry7:
That doesn't mean I'm not HAVING any fun.
I've wanted a supercharged car all my life. Finally built one. There's a 360 Magnum with a Vortech centrifugal blower in that ugly, brown Valiant 4-door you see to the left. Had to build the "kit" myself; Vortech doesn't seem to know that Mopars exist.... but, that's okay, it was fun putting it together. Blow-thru, 750 Holley double pumper. Snowperformance Boost Cooler alky/water injection, and an MSD BoostMaster timing retard to help keep the head gaskets where they belong.
Lookin' for high 11's/low 12's... We'll see.
Bill, in Conway, Arkansas