[b-man]

.....about 15 years ago. This was about a year before you could buy a 3" system from an aftermarket source.

The pipes are pieced together from .060 wall 304 stainless steel tubing and 12 mandrel-bent 90-degree sections. I used 3-1/2" Flowmaster race mufflers with reducing cones to mate up with the 3" pipes, the same thing was done to mate the 2-1/2" collectors to the 3" pipes.







Tight clearance to the trans crossmember and floorpan, to maximize ground clearance.



Transition to the muffler.



Over the back-braced axle.





I fabbed some 3" splitter tips to finish it off, a '64 GTO needs them for the right look. I built some gravel shields for the forward pipe since the car was to be used for drag racing for a while.





Now that the GTO is done with bracket racing duties, it's going back on the street. I hope my neighbors won't mind the noise.

[jwcfbd]

nice job

[71firebird400]

Nice Work!

That looks awesome.

[David Jones]

Beautiful work!

Might want to swap tires before you put it on the street. Those look dangerous on many levels.........

[Brandi Kay]

frekkin awsome!

[A.W.Dille]

SSSSSSSSSSSWWWWWWWWWWWWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEETTTTTTT T!!!! If the neighbors don't like your portable alarm clock then they can[t take a good joke then can they?

[b-man]

Originally Posted by David Jones

Beautiful work!

Might want to swap tires before you put it on the street. Those look dangerous on many levels.........

Thanks for the kind words all.

The slicks were already worn-out 4-1/2 years ago, that was when the old goat retired from racing. They now only serve to hold the rear of the car up, until I get the new 15X8 plain-steel wheels that I'm having made and mount up the new 275/60-15 street radials.

[steve]

there is a house for sale in my hood..i'd love to hear it in the morning.....

[grandville455]

Man what a nice job on the exhaust!!

[shaker455]

Very Nice Job!

Lets see the rest of the car!

[b-man]

Originally Posted by shaker455

Very Nice Job!

Lets see the rest of the car!

Okay, you asked for it. Here's the old goat in all of it's faded glory.

It never has been much to look at, however it was a good, reliable and consistent bracket race car for over a decade until I retired it. It was never one of the more popular cars to show up at the races, either because it was too ugly or too competitive I'm not sure which.

Been sitting outside for about 10 years now so it's been doing a slow-and-natural surface rusting/paint-stripping routine. I lost interest in bracket racing a few years back and the car itself and was thinking of selling it. But now I'm missing driving it (I knew this day would come ) so it's time for an injection of cash, some TLC and a new life back on the streets.



A std-bore 1974 455 lives up front with 197 HO heads. Fuel is metered by a puny 650 Holley DP carb. This will drive shaker455 crazy, but I've never even had the float bowls off to see what jets are in it.

Here you can see the twin-snorkel 1974 air cleaner I modded that's plumbed into the cowl for cool air, and the 1964 twin-belt arrangement for added reliability. Never tossed a belt even once while racing, low-RPM 455s with a 5200 RPM shift point do have their advantages.



A shot of the Cheetah SCS shifter, Autometer gauges and rust-free floor pans. Passenger seat recently re-installed, only the driver's seat was in the car while it was a race car. Bare-bones race machine for sure.



Battery stashed in the trunk with 2-0 welding cable for sure-starting, the stock Pontiac starter that came on the car when I got it 18 years ago is working perfectly.



Fuel line routing at the rear is temporary, I was using what I had laying around when the old lines rotted due to age. The PCV breather pipe was extended to accomodate the added carb spacer/intake height and new snorkel location.



My Torker II with some time spent removing the webbing and crossover, no internal mods at all.



Front suspension has travel limiters built into the upper A-arms, 1967 Firebird springs and Koni drag shocks are used. Stopping is provided by 1969 Grand Prix 11" front discs and 11" Ford rear drums, manual brakes stop this car quickly.



This chain limits engine movement.

[71firebird400]

I appreciate this sort of thing. And not to take away from the high dollar race cars, its just that something like your GTO is a lot more realistic for us regular people.

Nice Car!

[Stuckinda60s]

Really sweet and well done. Times??

Rich

[b-man]

Originally Posted by Stuckinda60s

Really sweet and well done. Times??

Rich

Best times at the 2700' altitude desert track where I did most of my racing (Los Angeles County Raceway in Palmdale, or LACR) was 12.22 @ 108. The air (density altitude) was actually 2400' all day which never happened again, the car ran in the 12.20s all day that day. On another very good day she ran 12.30s all day up there, but usually between 12.40 and 12.60 depending on the weather of course was where I'd dial in. Air quality is most often well above 4000' there, we race in lousy air most of the time.

Took her once down to Carlsbad Raceway near San Diego, on an August morning ran 12.055 @ 110.29. I know this car can run high 11s, I just don't have access to a sea-level track close by. Pulled both front wheels off the ground on that 12.05 pass, you could really feel the extra horsepower in that good air near sea-level.

The 455 still has the original pistons, rings and bearings in it from 1974. Compression is about 8.6:1, the #197 heads are milled .025 and it runs good on 91 octane.

This is a very low-maintenance race car. I gave it an engine and transmission oil change once a year and would check the ignition timing (locked at 38 degrees) every couple of years or so and put a new set of slicks on it about every 2-1/2 years.

When it was time to go racing I'd spend about 2 hours washing it, airing up the tires, tying it down on the trailer and loading up my '70 C20 Chevy pickup. That's it.

[shaker455]

B-man,
That's one cool ride and I'm onboard for you to drive it again rather than sell it....MAN it's a 64' GTO!...can't sell that!

As far as the carb...."not gonna go there" just like I accecpeted the fact your never going to tell me who the girl is?...LOL

Very Cool!

[mrtonegto]

Bart you are an artist - that's one beautiful system!

[fast72lemans]

That looks perfect, you must have tons of patience. You will probably need to change the mufflers, the baffles(or chambers) are most likely long gone.

BTW.....Nice trunk floor and floor pans......I don't think I've ever seen virgin floors on a 64.

[b-man]

Originally Posted by fast72lemans

That looks perfect, you must have tons of patience. You will probably need to change the mufflers, the baffles(or chambers) are most likely long gone.

BTW.....Nice trunk floor and floor pans......I don't think I've ever seen virgin floors on a 64.

Thanks again guys and gals for the props.

Yes, it does take a bit of patience to see a project like this through. I put the car up on four tall 6-ton jackstands and crawled underneath it to fit up the pipe sections in my garage.

And crawled under again, again and again.

It was all worth it though, to have some kind of prominent feature on my car that nobody else has. The pipes make a wild one-of-a-kind sound going down the track. The mufflers are still in good shape as the car has only seen time on the race track, add that to the fact that the dry desert air preserves steel pretty well (witness the floor pans, won't see 'em like that in PA ) so no replacement will be due for while.

The next mod planned for the car's new lease on life will be a new induction setup. When I lift the hood there will be something 'different' under there that might help stimulate some conversation.



I sure do love this old heap.

[Karch]

Wow, B-man...I wish I knew you did that back then.

Very nice work.

BTW, you can't race on PCH?

[Larry Navarro]

Looks like tri-y headers?