Quote:
Originally posted by Superman
A '68 Barracuda with a tweaked 426 engine would be one of the most frightening experiences you can have in an automobile.
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Back in the early '80's when I was heavily into drag racing my '69 Super Bee 383 four speed, one of our inner circle came up with a '69 'Cuda. It was an original SS/AA class race car. To translate for the guys not familiar with NHRA class designations, "SS" was Super Stock; obstensibly "stock" cars with some allowable modifications. "A" was the highest class, which is pretty much like road racing, and the second "A" was for "automatic".
In the course of a couple of years, I had the opportunity to make a few passes in that car. I can't remember the exact times and trap speeds, but they were in the high 9 second range at over 140 mph. Being an automatic, it was relatively easy to drive, even with its full manual valve body. Launches were easy; left foot on the brake to hold it, run the motor up to just over 5,000 RPM as the tree started to count down, then just side-step the brake on the green. It wouldn't wheelie as impressively as the same car with a four speed, but it would certainly get daylight under the front wheels. Just plain way too much fun.
Funny, Supe, we must have way more in common than either of us likes to admit. When I bought my 911 about five years ago, I had been out of the loop on all things car. I was going to buy another MOPAR; this time with a hemi in it. HA! Good luck; any average old Road Runner, a real one, was fetching $20k and up; really nice ones far more. With a 383; hemi cars were well over $50k by then. Then one day I saw a 911 for sale and stopped to look; I thought the price was a miss-print. I looked at more, learning that it was no miss-print. I bought my 911 for a fifth of what I would have paid for a suitable MOPAR.
I had owned the 383/440 cars; a '66 Sport Fury 383 four barrel automatic, a '67 R/T 440 four barrel automatic, a '68 Road Runner 383 four speed, and finally a '69 Super Bee 383 four speed. All purchased for, and subsequently sold for, about a grand. All in pristine condition. That was the post-gas crunch market on muscle cars in the late '70's to early '80's. Also in the mix was one pristine '67 GTO 400 four speed; also a thousand dollar car at that time. My gawd, if I had kept any one of those... Oh, and hemi cars were out of reach for me at the time at a whopping $3000-$5000. Dammit all... hindsight...