We'll start with My First Car
This is my first machine. It was a 71 Pontiac Gran Prix with a 455 cid big block. It was my high school car so I really didn't do a whole lot to it, just drive the crap out of it, although, with a 455 it didn't need much more, except maybe a posi rear-end. It would smoke that one tire for a full quarter mile. It was fast off a roll, only ever lost two street races in it. My high school bud Dan can attest to that. Me and Dan used to bus tables in Phoenix back then, and dump all of our tip money into the gas tank. AAAHHHH, the good ole days.....
Next is one of my wife's old rides,
Her 1955 five window Chevy pickup.
This was a hard running machine. It had a Kieth Black built 305 followed by a manual valve bodied TH-400 an old 12 bolt posi rear-end. The bed was full aluminum with a 5 gallon spun aluminum fuel cell mounted behind the cab. We didn't do any road trips in this one. It also had a full ratchet shifter, by B&M of course. The guy who owned it before her claimed he had a tunnel ram on it and it ran 12's at the strip. When she had it, it had a Holley 600 on an Edelbrock intake and it was fast as hell.
The next one is, should I dare say?
A 1981 Toyota Supra
Yeah, yeah, so it's a Japanese car. I'll tell you what though, it smoked several V8 powered American machines in it's day. Especially 3rd generation 305 Camaros. This was the second generation of the Supra. The first ones were really Celica's with a crappy in-line six. The second generation, Toyota bumped the in-line six up to 2.8 liters and made the car about six inches longer than the Celica. This particular one had the cats removed and a classic Hush Thrush installed. Sounded great, ran awesome. The Supra was up to 180,000 miles when we sold it, and it still ran great....
Next is the ole work truck....uhhh, track.
Nothing fancy here, just a US Army issue M113 Armored Personnel Carrier. Talk about your off road vehicle, this baby would climb anything and easily swim the deepest of muds with it's approximate 8:50 gear ratio. Lots of fun to drive.
Next is a picture of two:
My old Camaro and my wife's Mini Cooper.
First the Mini. If you've never seen or driven one of these, you're missing out. The whole car is about 10 feet long and weighs under 1,000 pounds. It has a 45 horse 1,000cc 4 cylinder and really low gears. Top speed is only about 75 mph, but off a red light, it goes like crazy. Chirps the front tires into 3rd. This particular one was slightly lowered and had 10" mags (10" diameter, not width). Overall, this car was really fun to drive.
Next the Camaro. This car was the biggest money vacuum I've ever owned, but I had a lot of fun with it. The engine was a 2.8 liter V6. The biggest hunk of crap Chevy ever made. I took this motor and put a huge cam in it, got some hi-po heads from PAW, and threw on a Edelbrock Torker 2 intake with a Holley 390cfm 4bbl on top. A lot of mony to put into a V6, I know, but this was now no ordinary V6. It would run with the 5.0 Camaro's with no problem. In fact, when we went on our Switzerland trip, I got my 2.8 liter to run at well over 130 mph behind a Mercedes 500SL on the autobahn for almost an hour straight. No easy feat for a V8, let alone a little V6. Unfortunately, Chevy did not design the bottom end on this motor to make this kind of power, so I lost the bottom end three times. I owe a big thanks to my pals Dave and Eric for helping me build the car. I know we all learned a lot with this motor.
Now for my toy:
The 1984 900 Ninja Drag Bike
Yeah, it's another Japanese rice burner. I'll tell you what though, where else could you get a street machine that will run low 11's for $2,500. You can't. My brother-in-law has 8 grand into his big block 69 Camaro and it's still 2-3 tenths slower than my bike was. Oh yeah, if your wondering why so slow for a bike, it's was never run at low elevation. I raced at Bandemere in mile high Denver. It would cream the street GSX-R 1100's and ZX11's on the track. Even giving up 200cc's. It had lowered gears, a straight through header, carbs re-worked, all the good drag racing electronics, and a wheelie bar for really hard launches that make you hold on tight. What fun...But, after three years of not riding it and racing on four wheels, I dusted off the crotch rocket and took it for a blast down the 1320 and decided this two wheel stuff was for nuts, so I sold the Ninja.
Next is my wife's new car,
Her 1996 Z24 Cavalier
What can I say here....fully loaded, sun roof, cd player, power everything, 150 horse 4 cylinder. This thing will move out. Unfortunately, it has a 108mph rev limiter, so we can't really see what she'll do on the autobahn. Rats, oh well.....
Next is an 1985 Mustang GT
Another good deal going down....This car was originally owned, built, and sold by my best freind Dave in 1996. The guy that sold it to me has no idea what he had. It's got a 302 with a big cam, Weiand intake and a Carter 4bbl, a shift kitted C4 tranny with a 2500 stall converter, and a locker rear end. The guy sold it to me for $500 because it had a blown head gasket....or so he thought. It turns out the intake manifold was loose. I threw some new gaskets in and tightened it down, it ran like a champ. I would have loved to keep this thing and make a bracket car out of it, but I have my Blazer, and the Blazer is a Chevy. Sorry Ford fans, the Stang was sold for $1,900 (a lot more than I paid for it).
And finally, one more shot of the Blazer
Work is always continuing on the truck. Next major modification will be a new engine with Keith Black 10.3:1's, Luanti cam and headers . A ladder bar rear suspension is also scheduled for this winter. I also hope to have a Lock-Rite locker in place before the first drags this spring. Combined with a set of Mickey Thompsons out back, I should see a dramatic increase in 60 foot times.
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I think my fire breathing
winged friend would you to send some mail.