On Jun 5, 2009, at 9:25 PM, paul stenquist wrote:
This will be a good memory test for me.
I failed the memory test. Forgot my 59 Mercedes 220S and 58 Mercedes
300d that I owned in the seventies. That's a small d 300 btw. It had a
3 litre six cylinder gasoline engine with mechanical fuel injection.
Great motor, similar to the gull wing coupe engine. In the late
sixties I had a 55 Chevy two door BelAir "post car" with a 400
horsepower 327. I did a lot of street racing with that car all over
Chicago.
Paul
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
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