It Doesn't Exist... Or Does It?

I remember working for a computer company back in the 1990's, where my boss gave me one of the most memorable quotes when it came to working in this field (or any other field for that matter); "Documentation is your salvation." Likewise, if there was ever a time in history when myths and folklore were rampant, especially when it came to high performance, it was the 1960's. There were numerous cases where a manufacturer would state that a particular vehicle, engine, or option did not exist, was never offered, or was never built - but yet we see example after example showing otherwise. The problem was, the documentation process was much different 50 years ago. Overall, the job of vehicle production numbers was done satisfactory, but in some cases it was just downright lax.

The late 1950s and early ‘60s weren’t exactly straightforward days for drag racing fans. In 1957, the Automobile Manufacturers Association banned factory-backed racing efforts altogether…yet it still went on behind the scenes. Fast forward to January 1963 when General Motors officially severed its racing ties - again - putting to bed some of the most brutal factory race cars that had ever been built. Case in point; the Super Duty Catalina's that Pontiac had been building for the oval and the drag strip. With that in mind, this car pictured - a Pontiac Catalina Super Duty built in April 1963 - simply should not exist. Yet it does. Somehow, this 1963 Swiss Cheese Catalina was snuck down the production line, presumably when no GM higher-ups were looking, has a finished build date of April 2nd, and designated as a “company car” for engineering purposes.

1967 was a year of change for Dodge and Plymouth. It was the debut year for their official super cars, the Dodge Coronet R/T and the Plymouth GTX. The "street" Hemi was entering it's second year of  production and was advertised heavily in performance oriented magazines. This would be year that Plymouth and Richard Petty would absolutely dominate the banked ovals. With all this success going on, 1967 is also one of the foggiest years for documentation. To help promote (and sell) Chrysler's new muscle cars, the manufacturer discontinued the availability of the 426 Hemi option in the non-performance trim level Coronets as well as the wagon. Ditto with the Plymouth Satellite that didn't have the GTX option, regardless of the configuration of the doors. Yet well over two dozen examples exist, all assembly line built, including convertibles. They're not supposed to exist, but they do.

We all know that Chrysler built in conjunction with the Hurst corporation the most competitive factory drag racer in automotive history - the 1968 Dart and Barracuda. However, due to the Super Stock nature of the beast, there were explicit instructions that these vehicles could not be driven on the street nor registered as such. Besides, all models were pretty much sold to race drivers. So, we know the cars exist, but what about this street driving? Again, there are examples of these beasts hitting the public tarmac legally. The Barrett-Jackson auction is great fro unearthing this kind of stuff. Groove on the bright yellow (and the Pennsylvania inspection / registration sticker) 1968 SS Dart. Imagine driving that rig around in stock form...


Officially, Ford never stuffed its Boss 429 V-8 between the fenders of a Mercury Cougar, but that’s not to say that none were built in this configuration. In fact, two cars destined for the drag strip ran the engine, and the one driven by Don Nicholson was featured at the 2014 Fords at Carlisle. As the Super Stock ranks featured more and more factory support in the late 1960s, Ford was looking for a competitive edge against Chrysler, commissioned skunk works builder

Kar Kraft to build two 1969 Boss 429 Mercury Cougars and then sold them to drag racers “Dyno Don” Nicholson and “Fast Eddie” Schartman for the princely sum of $1 each. The Boss 429 Cougar experiment, however, proved a dismal failure as the cars proved too slow to be competitive, even with additional tuning. Nicholson reportedly swapped engines in his Cougar shortly after taking delivery, opting to run Ford’s single overhead camshaft 427-cu.in. V-8. So - what ever happened to the 2nd Cougar?  Rumor has it, that after Schartman sold the Cougar, it changed hands several times and was eventually registered and street driven in the mid to late 70's.

There are probably many more examples that we haven't brought up here. Share your stories! Would love to hear them!

Until next time, peace out.
Dave

Being Damn Cool In Winter

Okay - I'm guilty.

I swore I would never use the word "winter" before the season actually began, but there it is. It's equivalent to using the term "Holiday Season" at the end of October. You know it's coming, why rush it? However, I was actually inspired yesterday by the sum of these two factors; Hot Rods + Winter. As I was proceeding slowly in the drive-thru lane at my local bank on Saturday, I saw a nicely done mid 30's Ford pickup truck in the pharmacy parking spaces right next door. Beautiful flat black paint, savage sounding big block engine, the works. It wasn't mint, but it was far from being a basket case or project in process. I couldn't get out of line fast enough before the driver hopped in his classic ride and took off. Granted, it was a beautiful sunny day, with temps around 53 degrees. For the uninformed, that's a heat wave here in Maine when it's mid-November.

That vision and experience brought me back to a story Hot Rod magazine did a number of years ago. They had a staff member do a road trip from Nashville to L.A., approximately 2000 miles, during the month of January. Did I mention they were driving a topless channeled roadster? With no hood or fenders? When I first read this, a very similar journey immediately went on my bucket list. Their plan was to drive for five days on I-40, with a day or two extra in case of bad weather.

Of course, they ran into one day of rain, ice, and snow. Yes, they experienced one or two mechanical issues, but were very minor by comparison. The wild thing was driving in a topless roadster in 20 something degree weather. Think about that for a moment. Would you do 2,000 miles in a rig like this? So let's say you're not that hardcore. What about doing the same thing in a fully enclosed late 40's street rod?

I would make a trek like that without even blinking an eye. I remember driving my street / strip Mustang in the middle of January (when the temps rose above 35 degrees all day). This was usually the cut-off point. If it was between 25-30 degrees, the engine with its aggressive roller cam really let me know it wasn't happy. If the thermometer dipped below 20 degrees, the Mustang wouldn't even start. I've driven more "civilized" hot rods and muscle cars during the winter, but only as an absolute last resort. My best event to date was driving my '71 Dodge Charger R/T through city traffic with approximately six inches of snow through a majority of intersections because my trusty four wheel drive Bronco was giving me some sort of grief. And the R/T had old-school big ass Mickey Thompson 50 series rear tires. Fish-tailing didn't even begin to describe things. But what a commute!

However, I had the chance back in February 2015 to drive the ultimate winter hot rod - a brand new AWD Chrysler 300C. While it only had the V-6, it did have a nice set of Bridgestone Blizzak WS-80 snow tires on it. With almost 300 horsepower on tap, all-wheel-drive, heated everything, a responsive sport suspension, and weighing in at over 4200 pounds, this thing was literally an unstoppable tank on wheels. I drove that car for weeks when I was a fleet service manager for a large rental company. I managed to get this car by accident... literally. The Ram 2500 my district manager was going to get me was involved in an accident, so this was the next best thing until the truck was fixed. After about four days, I never looked back. Even after the truck was fixed, I didn't want it. No matter what the weather, the car never got crossed up - I got sideways a few times - but that was my own stupidity. If I had about 40 grand I'd buy one; then trade it in before the warranty ran out. With all the bells, whistles, and options, that is one car I would not want to see repair bills on. The maintenance stuff was bad enough...

Until next time, chill out.
Dave

Veteran Cars

This Veterans Day has been especially thought provoking. I attended a ceremony yesterday in central Massachusetts with my wife and family to honor her deceased father for his service in the Vietnam War, which also happened to be the 50th anniversary of the start of the conflict. That war was always surrounded by conflict. Technically, American soldiers were in Southeast Asia for a couple of years before the US government "recognized" it as more than a police action. We all know of the protests, the disrespect, and the lack of recognition those brave men and women faced when they came home from Vietnam. It was not pretty. Yesterday, my wife's father as well as over 120 veterans finally received the long overdue recognition for their service.

Have you ever read stories about how a young man purchased a new muscle car, but then had to store it because he was drafted, shipped overseas? You read further where he had big plans for the vehicle upon his return, but never did. I had the chance to talk to an elderly couple some 30+ years back about the 1970 Plymouth Roadrunner their then 18-year old son purchased brand new only to be drafted a month or so later. It was way more haunting to actually hear the story and view the car, which the young man's parents still had.

The Roadrunner was immaculate after all those years. The young man's father routinely washed, waxed, and kept it clean. He had it serviced twice a year by the same old school mechanic, who was also a good friend. Whatever fuel was left in it after 12 months, it would be drained and replenished with another tank full. The father drove the vehicle once a month to keep all the vehicle systems in working order. I remember opening the doors to look at the interior; that new Chrysler vinyl smell was ever present. There wasn't even 2,000 miles on the odometer. When I closed the doors gently, they still had that new car click. The vehicle wore the few modifications the young man did to the vehicle before he left - the mag wheels, the headers on the big block engine, and a peace sign decal on the drivers side rear vent window. It not only left me in awe but it was very haunting and sad.

But what about the veterans who did return? When looking at muscle cars, it's impossible to argue which one was the weapon of choice. One reason is because the war dragged on for years and new models were coming out annually. One thing that is for certain, is that a high performance cars were an important purchase for them. Whether it was to reclaim the youth they lost when they went oversees, or just to enjoy the extraordinary feelings those cars gave them. Perhaps is was to forget, for a little while anyway, what they had went thru, or it might have been the models they picked because they had dreamed about them while in service.

Again, we salute them, welcome them home now if they were not welcomed home as they should have been back then, and are thankful that we can enjoy the cars we love today because of their service, and all other servicemen in the past, present, and future. We salute you.

Until next time, peace out.
Dave

What Are Voting For Again?

A friend of mine posted on Facebook this past week - "You know this election is really bad when my atheist friends are saying; "Thank God this is almost over." And so it is..." While we here at Full Throttle are not taking sides, (are there any sides to take?), it got me to thinking about some of the same BS the automotive industry has gone through. And true to form, when we human beings get involved, some of the deepest BS has been self-imposed.

Now, before the hate mail comes flying in, let me do some clarifying - the automotive industry and especially the racing industry have made a vast amount of improvements throughout the decades that are way too numerous to count that have not only saved lives, but have bettered the industries as well. The problem seems, is there never really is (or has been) a balance. First always comes a burst of innovation in one area, then there's a period of correction to allow things to catch up or balance out. Two classic examples were NASCAR racing from the early 60's, and funny cars from the late 60's.

In regards to NASCAR, as the tracks got better, and engine power was rocketing through the roof, speeds were increasing rapidly. Track records were being broken faster than store-front windows during an inner-city riot. Drivers were complaining the cars were getting too fast and more than a handful to drive. The problem was, tire technology as well as chassis, steering, and suspension setups were not keeping pace with engine power and smoother tracks. Tire blowouts were very common as were blisters on drivers hands after the race. It took a few years, but things finally balanced out. But not before a few lives were lost due to the imbalance.

Taking a brief look at funny cars from 1966-1968, not only were they crude, but twitchy as hell. Did I mention also rather unpredictable? Many a driver like Don Nicholson, "Fast" Eddie Schartman, and Dick Landy got out of the funny car scene due to one too many close calls and back into Pro Stock. Schartman recalls when he got his first look at his flip-top 1966 Mercury Comet funny car; “I walked in there, looked at the car, and said, ‘What the hell is this?’ It was a dragster with a body on it and the driver in the back seat and not the front seat, where you belong. I told them, ‘I can’t drive something like that.’ My car would run 125 mph, but these things would do more than 160. They were a real handful; they never wanted to go straight. On my first pass, I went 166 mph and took out the finish-line lights. It took me several runs to get the hang of it and actually keep the damn thing in my lane. People loved them, the demand to see them race went through the roof; the phone was always off the hook. But, man, those cars were nuts."

Now - getting back to the BS - mostly people. If there's anything more dangerous than enemies with an ax to grind, it's fickle friends, as Bill France and NASCAR found out in 1957. By that point, the auto companies (mainly the performance divisions) were heavily involved with stock car racing. Basically, it boiled down to pure marketing. Cars that ran well in NASCAR tended to sell well too. The Automobile Manufacturing Association, a group comprised of the heads of most major car companies, took a rather dim view of the horsepower wars. To help appease their concerns, Bill France banned the use of superchargers and fuel injection. In a rather surprising move, he also banned the car companies from using race results in their advertising.

But on May 19th, 1957, tragedy struck the Grand National event run at the Martinsville Speedway. Billy Myers was leading the race in his Mercury when he collided with a lapped car driven by Tom Pistone. Myers' Mercury was sent spinning and cannon-balled through the guard rail and a fence, becoming airborne. That was bad enough - what resulted should have never happened. There was a big sign right there that clearly read "NO Spectators." But there were people gathered around that area to enjoy an up close view of the race and Myers' car struck seven of them, four being seriously injured, including an eight year old boy. The race was red flagged to let the medics attend to the injured, and never resumed because of rain. The wire services and other media quickly broadcast the tragedy in time for the evening news and morning papers. Most accounts included a note that Myers was driving a Mercury, and that's not the sort of publicity the auto maker needed. The media seemed to forget the no spectator area aspect of the story as well.

The rest is history. A few weeks later the AMA met, and on June 6th, 1957 they reached an accord. All the major auto manufacturers agreed that they would no longer have any association with or support auto racing of any sort. At least until 1960-61 when Pontiac and Chevrolet couldn't take it anymore. Things would continue to evolve, especially when it came to racing. The safety changes that would occur over the next 10 years would be staggering.

Maybe that's what we need to do - put a ban on all things political for approximately 4 years, let things chill out, and have the balance be somewhat restored. Then maybe things might change for the better. It just depends on us people.

Until next time, peace out.
Dave