Man all you old guys are blowing my mind with the muscle cars you used
to own,
and the encyclopaedic knowledge of the muscle car era. Jeez, you even
remember your and your buddies' 1/4 mile times!
My story is much less dramatic, spending most of my youth with the ass
out of my pants. But I did find the loot to get into fast "muscle"
bikes, and I did have an infamous moment of glory one time. At our local
drag strip, all the fast cars belonged to a club known as The Cluster
Busters. They built a project car, a T-Bucket with a big motor, eight
open pipes and two four barrel carbs. It was the custom to run the bike
drags and the car drags separately, and bring the fastest bike and car
together at the end of the day to race for "Top Eliminator".
This particular day I was the fastest bike, running a full house 500
Triumph that never broke into the 13's on its best day going down hill.
The Cluster Buster T-Bucket and I lined up for the big race, and as
usual, I got the hole shot and was half way down the strip before the
beast got its breath and really started to haul ass. My Triumph usually
went across the line at about 100 mph, and the T-bucket usually turned
in the 12's and hit the line at about 140. So at the 3/4 post the car
normally goes by the bike like it was standing still.
Only this time at 3/4 distance, I was climbing under the paint all
puckered up waiting for the blast as the car went past, but no! I made
it to the line and no car.........
I had won! Wow!
Back down the return road and off to winners circle, only to be met by a
bunch of sad faces. The car had lunched its flywheel, and there was no
scatter shield. I had indeed won the race, but a piece of the hot
flywheel hit a spectator, and put him in the hospital with serious
injuries. I got my trophy, but it was a sad day for drag racing.
I still have the trophy some where....
Dave Munroe
First Muscle Cars
On Olds
Listers,
My first car was a 1954 Olds Super 88 convertible with a 324 cube V8,
4-throat Carter WCFB and dual pipes/scavengers, 4-speed, dual range
Hydramatic - would blow away '55 -'57 Chevies with sticks and 283
Powerpaks
- could run mid-15s at the Half Mon Bay Dragstrip. My buddy Al Bernal
had a
'56 Buick Century with a 356 (?) nailhead/three speed stick that could
nail
me if we raced a long enough distance. A co-worker had a 1956 Pontiac
Safari wagon with a 1957 Bonneville fuel-injected V8 and a B & M
hydro-stick that would run with the best of them. My cousin Sandy had a
1957 Stude Silver Hawk with a stick that could outrun a brand new 289
cube/4-speed Mustang.
The Super 88, Century and Bonneville were sold on the promise of power
and
raced with factory support to prove their abilities, as did Chrysler
with
the 300 series. This should be used as a turning point - when
performance
became a virtue that superceded prudent, steady and economical driving
(spoken like a true Morris Minor owner!).
The true first muscle car should be the 1932 Ford V8 - power to the
people!
When the Merc came out in 1939, it was even faster than the Ford. Then
there were the Twin-H 308 cube Hudson flathead straight eights that
could
beat most early Olds Rocket 88s.
Rick Feibusch
Venice Beach, CA
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