[north]

The year, circa 1984. The place, a wide straight smooth boulavard around midnight.

I am cruising with my buddy in my then GTO, a 69 black droptop with parchement interior and top. It was a kinda rusty car but somehow looked good. Fat rubber on a set of cragers but otherwise stock looking. For GO it had a 400 with a 650 holley DP, headers, T400 and 3.36 Safe T Track.

As I coast up to a stop sign a black mopar packing a Hemi swings up beside me in the opposing lane, he does a 5mph stop and nails it. I do the same and he has a car length jump on me. My tires hook up nice and I am keeping up to him, at first. Then slowly he pulls me, so that by the next stop sign (1/3 mile or so) he has me by several car lengths as he blows through the intersection well into the century club. I turn to my friend who is giving me the look and say to him, "hey, it WAS a Hemi, what's your problem?" He just smiles.

There is a problem: See, the sinister black Mopar was not a Charger, not a Challenger, not a Roadrunner, No, it was a 1984 or so Aries K car!! For those of you behind in your 80's car history studies K cars came with a 2.2 but a Mitsubishi made 2.6 was an option and it was a Hemi (a 100 or so HP Hemi but a Hemi) even had the factory Hemi emblems.

In fairness those 2.6 engines in a tin can like a K car were probably a pretty quick car by the pathetic mid 80's standards but still I had a 69 GTO for chr*** sake. An explanation is clearly needed, especially since it ran nice and felt fine in normal driving.

I found out a few things as time went on, first my engine was a hybrid of sorts: 76 400 block with the factory dish pistons that delivered 7.6/1 stock, next the car had a set of lo-po heads from a 75 455. The net effect was about 6.0/1 compression (it did NOT ping!). Next was that nice looking Holley double pumper; looked good but since it was a square bore carb it probably would have worked better if it was not bolted onto a stock 76 spreadbore intake. Net effect of that was that the throttle plates on the primaries hit the intake at about half throttle.

Final kick was that the guy who had put all this together was a mechanic called Goofy, well named he was. (when we first started that motor in his shop it knocked like crazy, teardown revealed that he forgot to tighten two rod bearing bolts)

Overall result was probably 100 odd horses but up to partial throttle it was a nice cruiser (in a mid 70's smogger 400 kind of way). And hey, it was a Hemi that smoked me!

[rtanner]

dude im sorry to here that i would not have told that story. unless it was on someone else.

[PonchoV8]

The first hemi head was a Duesenburg wasn't it? It wasn't a Mopar for sure.

Check out the re-ermerging VW scene. You'll get your hat handed to you repeatedly in that bracket.

[My19GTO67]

Doug, I know what you mean about the VW's. I should have never sold this, a 1968 Meyers Manx. 1915cc, 48IDF Webers, full flow oil system, Special heads fully ported and polished, titanium valves, block and cylinders done at rimco in CA, also SBC connecting rods, balanced and weighted crank, all of the go fast goodies in a 1200lb car. Used to run 12's at E-town. Fun to spank the 5-slow mustangs with it!
Bruce

[vidguy]

I saw a Special on TV about the Meyers Manx and the builder Bruce Meyers (Right?) . How he pioneered the Baja Racing scene... Muta been a waycool time in SoCal back then..

Very cool MANX!!! I WOULD drive that, believe it or not...

[Jeff Walker]

Hey North, don't feel bad. It does remind me of the first car I attempted to hop up. No it wasn't a Pontiac(hadn't got that smart yet, but I was fresh out of college).

I had a 77 Ford LTD II with a 302 in it with a hurt piston when I got it. So when I pulled it out I HAD to put the Crane Fireball cam in that my dad had laying around. He told me that it was probably to big for what I was doing but what did he know, rember I was just out of college, and for auto mechanic even. I also had put 351W heads on it and an Edelbrock Performer with a 600 Holley. Of course I didn't do anything with the converter, although I did put 3.25 gears with a posi in the rear. Well when I was done I had a car that was a real turd off the line, from 2500-5500 RMP was almost respectable and any RPM's over that, you were wasting your time.

Oh and how bad was it off the line....Bad enough that from when taking off from a stoplight against a Pinto, I lost!!!!

I got a very good eduction of what not to do with that car...

[YVEYANT]

Some stories are better left untold!!!

[GT182]

Yeah but told story or not, you see all kinds of stuff up there in Montreal. There are cars hidden away up there that would make you drool all over your keyboard. And the women..... never mind... you have to see them to blieve it. Dontchya John?

I've been thru Montreal 2 to 3 times a week back in the late 70s to Nov of 93, and twice a day from 93 to 94. John might know who Anchor Motor Frt was, remember GM in St. Therese, and who3 J Fuels is.... I would imagine. But, GM is no longer there, the plant was leveled a few years ago and Anchor Mtr Frt went out of Champlain NY in Nov 93. He might even know of the Champlain Hotel too. LOL

[Red Coupe]

I have one word for you: Turbo.

[squidtone]

Hey, I wouldn't feel so bad. Chrysler made some screamer 4 cylinders in the 80's.

There are guys fiddling with the 4 cylinder turbos which you could get from the factory that are doing some crazy stuff.

Here is a link to a youtube video of a 80 something dodge MINIVAN with a turbo 4. This thing is in the low 12s.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=2EPg0ObAchs

http://youtube.com/watch?v=S_eJlPd59x0

Makes you think about hopping up the wifes minivan....

[66goat_boy]

Oh man, that is too funny. It's also sad that the Hemi is worth more than the k car

[north]

That explains it!!! Maybe my goat wasn't really a piece of s**t, it must have been that K car was a 12 second sleeper!!! or maybe it was just my car?

[455RM]

Originally Posted by squidtone

Makes you think about hopping up the wifes minivan....

Oh I am...

Modified Series II Supercharged 3800 (L36 short block with ported and polished L67 top end, OBD II conversion, headers, 2.75 mandrel bent exhaust, dual Flowmasters, underdrive pulleys)

4T65-HD with shift kit and 3.73 diff

4 wheel disc brakes

Addco rear sway bar

KYB GR2s all the way around

Eibach lowering springs

16x8 GP 5 spoke wheels with 245/50/16 tires

Trans AM Formula steering wheel

Heads Up Display

Not sure what my little Dustbuster will run, but it sure cleans up the competition...

[hpp]

I think the only reason that guy in the GTO lost is because he had to slow down because he sh** his pants. He could not believe his eyes... "Im talking about the you tube video".

[GTOnly70]

Hell, we had a '82 Aries wagon with a 4-speed that probably would have run with a '76 '400 with a 6.0:1 compression...