[adam woodmancy]

My 72 Luxury LeMans which i bought off the original owner when i was 17. It was really rough, he owned apartments and basically used it for a work truck (literally) It he took the torsion rods out of the trunk and but a handle on the outside of the trunk so he could lay his ladder across the sideways and set the trunk lid down on it and bungy cord it shut.. My dad and I were building a 70 gto chassis car and had a couple different gto street car projects, so we bought the 72 basically as a parts car for the GTO's but i ended up driving it daily for the next 7 or 8 years. We paid $500 bucks for it and on the way home i had a blow out.. When the older gentleman we bought it from saw my dad several weeks later he asked how it was doing and my dad said good, but we had a little excitement on the way home. The guy out of the blue pulled out $200 and handed it to my dad and said "tell your boy to go get new tires." I never have forgotten that wonderful act of kindness. The gentleman's name was Engle B. Palmer, and he was quite the character. When the town decided to build a new public pool, Engleben matched the city's investment, plus a dollar just to get one up on them... thats how he was.. He has since passed on, but i always used to drive past his house, hoping he would catch a glimpse of it and know that it was being taken care of. In honor of him, everyone refers to the car as "engleben". Its funny how all the gto's have come and gone, and the one car that stuck in my heart, was the one i didn't care about when i got it.. I drove it to high school, and college. I was driving it on 9-11, i won my first non jr dragster track championship in it, my first wally, basically most of the good firsts of my life happened in that car. I hurt the motor in 2009 in september, the week before he was supposed to be in the Div 3 race of champions at indy, and as i was leading sportsman points and running 3rd in pro as the season wound down. I had other things to race, so i decided to tear engleben apart and do a bunch of things it needed... Well, as it goes a lot of the time, it has taken longer and cost more than i planned, but he is finally coming back together again and i look forward to cruising the old 72 on friday nights, and racing him in brackets or hopefully in the NMCA Nostalgia Muscle Car class or Open Comp class soon! It still has the from uncle to father to son hand me down 400 motor that it has had since the original 350 2bbl came out, and while its not the nicest or the fastest, i wouldnt trade it for anything. And that's our story

Mr palmer's new tires he bought for me. The car under the tarp was a 70 455 H.O grenada gold car. the drivetrain was long gone, and it had severe rust in the rear from a leaking back window.


my Dad, Scott and I at the track.. Probably 2001. the car still had the 350-2bbl and a lot of rust I was probably 18-19 at this time.


another of the same era.


In 2004, the original 350-2 came out for what we thought was a lower end noise... turnout out to be loose converter bolts, but i had worked at a machine shop after school to pay for machine work on a hand me down 1970 400 that belonged in a gto originally owned by my uncle Dick and then my father. It had a hard life, and came to me in peices. It was bored over 30. but otherwise stock, built with sealed power replacement parts.
Overnight it went from running a best of 9.98 - low 10's in the 1/8 to 8.60 in the 1/6 on its first pass.. there was no turning back!

Unfotunately, the 350 or so hp pointed out a lot of weak links that the 175 hp 350 didnt show. The car was terribly inconsistent and tore up a couple th350 transmission. the worn out bushings became a glaring problem, so i did the best i could while saving up for upgrades

In spring of 2005 i had upgraded the rear suspension, bought a solid th400 trans from Coan, and decided to get the old boy cleaned up. An old friend of my dads who lived near by offered to paint the car. He installed the patch panels, took out dozens and dozens of dents, and did it all for a price i could afford.. Considering the shape it was in, and being a side time job in a dirt floor garage, it came out respectable and i was thrilled!

I had slowly tweaked on the motor, and converter, installed a 12 bolt with a 3.73 gear and knocked the e.t. from 8.60 to 7.90-8.0 in the 1/8th without changing anything internal on the motor.



Engleben and I were very successful bracket racing from 2007 - 2009 when the old 400 finally had a hiccup. It broke the oil pump drive rod and fell down the motor and actually beat its way through the windage tray and finally got caught between the crank and the bottom of a cylinder locking the motor up. To my surprise, the bearings looked great, the crank and block checked out uncracked, and the motor has since been upgraded with Edelbrock heads and a solid flat tapped cam. Using stock replacement parts again, the motor made 490 hp and 480 ft lbs on gasoline and 523 hp and 505 ft lbs on methanol. I kept the rpm limited because of the 40+ year old rods and the heavy speed pro pistons, but it was still making power as the rpm's rose, so im not sure what the peak would be.






In championship form.. 2009





It will be 6 years in september 2015 since Engleben has moved under his own power, but with ugrades from front to back, in almost every possible place, i am excited about the adventures we have yet to have, and love remembering all the ones we have had. He is getting close!




stay tuned