----- Original Message ----
> From: paul stenquist <[email protected]>
> To: Pentax-Discuss Mail List <[email protected]>
> Sent: Friday, June 5, 2009 6:25:45 PM
> Subject: Re: Car History (was Re: Consumer Reports on "cool cameras")
>
> This will be a good memory test for me.
> Let's see. The first car I ever bought was a 1934 Ford Tudor. I paid $150 for
> it
> in 1963. It came with a Pontiac engine laying on the floor where the back
> seat
> shold have been. With the help of three buddies, I pushed it home -- about a
> mile and a half. Put it together and drag raced it. It went 12.56, 112 mph.
> The
> Pontiac engine was a 1960 NASCAR 389. Lucky find.
>
> My first driver was a 1957 Ford Fairlane 500 with a 312 V8. Paid fifty bucks
> for
> it in 67. It had bad steering parts. Used it to deliver pizzas until the
> right
> front wheel fell off. Literally. I chiseled the VIN tag off the door post and
> abandoned it on a Chicago southside street. A 57 Dodge followed, then a 57
> Desoto. Both had the 325 V8 and no floorboards. They had rusted out. Next was
> a
> 62 Studebaker Lark convertible with a flathead six that had a burnt valve. I
> used it to deliver pizzas, but totaled it when I rear ended someone. A 62
> Pontiac Catalina convertible followed. It had a four-speed and a 389, but it
> had
> been converted from an automatic, so it had too high of a rear axle ratio and
> went through clutches. I eventually put a 4.10 : 1 ring and pinion in it,
> which
> was really too low for that stock motor. Oh well.
>
> About that time I sold the 34 Ford and bought an old top fuel dragster. I
> built
> an injected Pontiac engine with 12:1 compression, a roller cam, and
> mechanical
> fuel injection (an enderle/algon hybrid of my own design). It ran 8.65 187 on
> 70% nitro, but I couldn't keep head gaskets in it, even with copper O-rings.
> Pontiacs had only ten head bolts in those days.
>
> My next drive was a 61 Olds, followed by another 62 Pontiac, then a 59
> Pontiac.
>
> I sold the dragster and bought a crashed 442 Olds funny car with a
> supercharged
> 426 Hemi that was pretty badly damaged. I also bought a 67 Barracuda funny
> car
> with no drivetrain. It was the original Chi--Town Hustler and had been
> campaigned and stripped by someone else after Austin Coil and company got rid
> of
> it. I rebuilt the hemi and got a friend to build a competition torque flite,
> and
> I put them in the Barracuda. I couldn't afford to run it, so I essentially
> gave
> it away to the guy who was going to drive it and let him take over the
> financing. I worked for him for a percentage of the gross. We named it Flite
> Master, which was the name of the transmission builder who gave us the free
> gearboxes (which had to be changed every run). It went 7.42, 205 at Kansas
> City. The best it had done in its Chi-Town days was 7.35, 197. But it was
> only
> with the advice of Coil that I was able to make it work that well.
>
> My driver at the time was a mint 1969 Lincoln Mark III. It eventually shorted
> out while parked in my driveway and basically burned to the ground. It was a
> beautiful car. Sad. I followed with a 63 Impala Super Sport that was kind of
> trashed.
>
> After the Barracuda, we built an all new funny car: a 1973 Dodge mini
> Charger,
> which was a shortened and narrowed fiberglass Charger body on a tube chassis.
> The Charger managed a best of 6.51, 225 at New York National Dragway on Long
> Island. It was called Qu Voe Charger. Qu Voe was an automotive additive
> company
> that gave us 10K. A lot of money in those days. After two years we replaced
> the
> Charger with a 1974 Corvette named Fever. It was yellow and beautiful. but it
> handled like doo-doo, as a result of the short tail and not enough rear
> downforce. It did a best of 6.35, 237 but crashed violently.. Eight end over
> ends at over 200 mph and a ball of flame. . The driver walked away with a
> concussion and broken ribs. After that we ran a Mustang that looked like a
> police car, complete with mars lights, and was called Chicago Patrol. It ran
> 6.41, but it was short lived, because the guy who drove it and owned it went
> to
> jail. That, of course, is another story for another day.
>
> My daily driver at the time was a 1969 Javelin that belonged to the girl I
> married. That was followed by a 1973 Hornet, because only an AMC dealer would
> take the Javelin in trade. Next was a Toyota toaster van. By the I was
> working
> for car magazines, so I always had a press car. Got into advertising shortly
> thereafter, working on the Jaguar account and bough a Jag 79 XJ12L in 1985.
> Kept
> it for 22 years. Next were company cars from ad agencies: a Lincoln Town Car,
> a
> Buick Park Avenue, and a Dodge Intrepid. That was followed by a Dodge
> Stratus,
> then another Intrepid. A Dodge Caravan came in there somewhere. I also leased
> a
> Dodge Durango, a Pt Cruiser, and a Jeep Grand Cherokee.
>
> While working in LA I found my 55 Chevy BelAir Convertible and shipped it
> back
> home to Michigan on a Chrysler enclosed transporter with a couple of Vipers
> to
> keep it company. I've owned the Chevy for nine years now, and it's pretty
> close
> to mint, with 25K on the clock since it's frame-off restoration. My daily
> driver
> is a four-door Jeep Wrangler, a fun machine.
>
> As a footnote, I should add that from among all those Dodge and Jeep
> vehicles,
> not one of them has ever had to go to the dealer for repairs other than brake
> lining replacement. They've been pretty much flawless.
>
> Since it's Friday night, I'm going to take a ride down Woodward in the Chevy.
> I'm writing a article for the New York Times about the dream cruise and how
> it
> fits into the depressed Detroit scenario. It's going to be a time line
> countdown, and it's to start taking the pulse of the guys on the street.
> Paul
>
> On Jun 5, 2009, at 7:50 PM, John Sessoms wrote:
Do you still wish you had the blown 426? The engine, I mean...!?
The owner of our Dodge dealership had a 1969 Super Bee with a 426. It was a bit
retro for the time, but it was one hell of a b body. The 426 had the rat
roaster NASCAR style intake with a single 4 barrel Holley. It was cool.
He got one of the very first Vipers, but I was long gone by then so I didn't
get to drive it. I got to take the Super Bee over to a photo shoot once. I
really enjoyed that :-)
http://www.primelensphoto.com/superbee3.jpg
-Brendan
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