Is my memory really that bad???

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'64 Cuda

'64 Cuda

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Had to take the kids shopping out of town last night & it was almost 10:30 when we got home. Got ready to settle down & watch people waste their money at Barret Jackson. As I was flipping channels I came across a show I hadn't heard of before on the National Geographic Channel. Didn't catch the name but it was kind of like the Wrecks To Riches show but with different people.

They had found a 1969 Z28 in a junkyard or something. Pretty much just a shell, but it had a couple of -- marks or something where the paint code should have been on the body tag. They said this meant that you had to know somebody who knew somebody who knew somebody at GM because this let you order the car in any GM color. They sanded down to find the original color & then completely restored the car. They did EVERYTHING down to ordering correct nuts & bolts, finding some rare 302 Z engine block etc. to bring this car back to as new. Built the engine & dyno tested it at 400 something horsepower. The main guy said he probably had over $100,000 in the car when they were done.

The idea was to take it to an auction & get the money back, but they wanted to be able to say the car was "Track Tested" before they sold it. The show tried to make a big deal about the risk they were taking by drag racing the car, & how they could wreck it or damage the motor or whatever. Showed a video 3 or 4 times of a similar car hitting the wall in a race.

So, they ran the car & it did a 16 something quarter at 88. something mph. They were happy & the announcer said that was "Pretty Snappy" performance. Then they ran it against a 1969 Mach I. They didn't show any numbers that I saw but the Mach I blew the Camaro away.

Then they took it to the auction & he finally lifted his reserve & the car sold for $60,000 something.

Now my question. 16 something at 88 mph???? Am I losing it? Is it because it didn't have headers? I seem to remember those cars running better than that. We might have been off in our numbers but it was pretty much a given that you needed to run in the 14's or you were going to be laughed at. But even high 15's if you were a second off or just overly optimistic about what you could run. 16 plus for a 302 Z28? Pretty Snappy? Am I just getting old & senile?
 
Had 100,000 and sold it for 60,000 I am guessing he had less than 100K in it or is just stupid for taking a loss.It ran 16's and they were happy with it WHAT IN THE F***... This sounds like another Clown like Wrecks to Riches Barry White........
 
After they ran the car all of the guys who worked on it were all arm in arm in a group smiling for pictures. They seemed really proud. It was a nice looking car, but they didn't earn any bragging rights by running those numbers as far as I'm concerned. They should have skipped the track session. At least then they could have honestly told the buyer "Hey, I didn't know it was so slow." The guy who bought it was a collector who had a big warehouse or something & was going to put it next to some other super rare Chevy he had.

When the bidding stalled the seller went to the car, got in & started to move it off the block in the hope of getting the bidding going again. Didn't work. He finally waved his arm out the window & shouted that he was lifting the reserve. After the auction he said that it was a gamble & sometimes you lose & he'd make it up on the next one or whatever. During the show, when he said he had over $100,000 in it, he laughed & said something like "Don't tell my wife.."

I'm thinking now the show might have been called CarCzar or something like that.
 
I watched that show. owner was such a dilly. when he said 100k invested, I said no way he`s gonna make a profit. I thought it ended at the strip and I missed the auction. And yes the stang smoked the camero bad! BTW the show was called Car Czars. maybe the stang had slicks, it did`nt show its tires?
 
Saw the same show and thought the same thing about the 16 sec time @ 88 MPH. My Daughter's Honda Civic will make runs faster than that.
The clincher was the alleged $40,000 loss between what he claimed he put into it ($100,000) v. what it sold for @ auction ($60,000). What kind of business model is that?
Also, not to nitpick, but when they started the project they quickly realized it was a rusty shell. Why they virtually rebuilt the car is beyond me, especially when the only unique thing about it was the supposed color delete on the info tag on the firewall. Now, if that particular Camaro was the one in which you had your first Male-Female Experience, so to speak, MAYBE I could see putting some money into it to restore it, but not $100,000.00
The guy doing the resto didn't even seem to have any emotional attachment to the car, from what I saw.
Just My Humble Opinion.
 
I didn't see the show in question but a 302 Camaro should run a hell of a lot faster down the quarter than 16 seconds. 12 years ago my daily driver was a 75 Olds 442 with a bone stock 350 Olds (factory rated at 160 HP) and a T-350 and highway gears and it ran the quarter at 15.8's @ 85 MPH all day long. The only thing not stock on my car was true dual exhaust.

olds442.jpg


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mopar head said:
maybe the stang had slicks, it did`nt show its tires?
Click to expand...

Don't think traction was a big problem for the Camaro. They showed it wheel hopping a bit on one of the runs but I've seen people do a lot worse & still run decent. If they hadn't done the dyno run then maybe it could be blamed on tuning. I guess they didn't really do anything to maximize the combo. Maybe he was short shifting. I REALLY expected more from the car. Had to be the dill-rod driving it.
 
I didn't see the show, but it sounds like another show convincing people that these cars are worth alot more than they are.
 
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