Shay Feral
March 6th, 2009, 07:09 AM
There are a few things in my life that takes the pain away from living, thats Furries, Erotica, and Cars...
I personally am a Muscle Car fanatic, by definition a Muscle Car is a Mid size and full size sedans with a high performance engine from the 60's and 70's. Meaning technically that Camaro, Firebird, Mustang, and Corvette are not muscle cars but in fact sports cars.
There is nothing else I would rather own than a classic American Muscle Car, I have owned a few myself, none were of good condition so dont assume I have money :P
I have driven many cars, ridden in many cars and I tell you, nothing beats a muscle car. And to top it all off, when it comes to performance a muscle car is still king of the road and will remain king until we find something else than cars to get us from point a to b.
The stereotype of low gas mileage is exactly that, and over generalized stereotype. Certainly your not going to get far on a gallon of gas from a 450 HP Chevrolet 454 big block. But muscle cars without the biggest and baddest engines get surprisingly good gas mileage if driven and maintained correctly.
I have a 74 Chevelle myself, it's a Malibu Classic trim package and it rides like a top end Cadillac. The original 400 small block was sturdy and had some torque, a 2 barrel setup and single exhaust. The torque of the 400 ci engine made up for the lack of horsepower... 180 hp factory...
Weiging in at close to 5,000 lbs, the car could climb a hill like it was nothing and cruising the internstate wasn't so hard on the engine if you kept it at speed limit *65 mph for best milage* (which almost no one does)
The car originally got 15 mpg when I first purchased the car, started running premium and the car got 18 mpg. An ignition upgrade, an MSD system, bumped the car up to 20 mpg with a noticable increase in performance.
Then a duel exhaust system, which allowed the choked up 400 to breathe a little more freely added more performance and roughly another 2 mpg. With about $400 I took a 15 mpg, 180 hp car to a 22 mpg 210 hp (rough estimate) car. I believe I could have got 25 mpg highway out of that 400 with a nice rebuild, 4bbl conversion, hotter ignition and lighter rims.
I had upgraded the car again, dropping a 350 hp 350 ci small block under the hood of my Chevelle. And I had problems with that engine from day one with oil leaks, then into a broken oil ring, fuel pressure issues (12 lbs of fuel pressure at idle, causes problems with holly carbs) and finally a bearing went out. But not before laying waste to a 96 mustang gt, and an 88 firebird.
The engine had no low end torque, but drop the hammer at 35 in first gear and your doing 60 before you know it. The car topped out at 120 mph, ran out of gear to push the car.
I love my Chevelle, but it's not exactly my favorite car. But not far off actually...
I'd love to have a 1970 SS Chevelle 454 (LS6), I'd say it's the most powerful sedan ever built. Cranking out 450 hp and 500 tq... I'd love to have one in hugger orange, w/black stripes and a black vinyl top. But these cars are becoming rare, especially here in WV. These cars if originial and in good condition can fetch between 60k - 130k
But one could be built to spec for about 20K not inculding purchase of chassis. But just building to a custom spec is usually MUCH cheaper.
another car I'd love to have is a 1970 Plymouth AAR Cuda. A car built so the cuda could be used in the scca, it's severly lacking in power in compairson to the Hemi and 440 Magnum models. But the AAR would take a much harder corner at a higher pace than it's bigger siblings.
I personally am a Muscle Car fanatic, by definition a Muscle Car is a Mid size and full size sedans with a high performance engine from the 60's and 70's. Meaning technically that Camaro, Firebird, Mustang, and Corvette are not muscle cars but in fact sports cars.
There is nothing else I would rather own than a classic American Muscle Car, I have owned a few myself, none were of good condition so dont assume I have money :P
I have driven many cars, ridden in many cars and I tell you, nothing beats a muscle car. And to top it all off, when it comes to performance a muscle car is still king of the road and will remain king until we find something else than cars to get us from point a to b.
The stereotype of low gas mileage is exactly that, and over generalized stereotype. Certainly your not going to get far on a gallon of gas from a 450 HP Chevrolet 454 big block. But muscle cars without the biggest and baddest engines get surprisingly good gas mileage if driven and maintained correctly.
I have a 74 Chevelle myself, it's a Malibu Classic trim package and it rides like a top end Cadillac. The original 400 small block was sturdy and had some torque, a 2 barrel setup and single exhaust. The torque of the 400 ci engine made up for the lack of horsepower... 180 hp factory...
Weiging in at close to 5,000 lbs, the car could climb a hill like it was nothing and cruising the internstate wasn't so hard on the engine if you kept it at speed limit *65 mph for best milage* (which almost no one does)
The car originally got 15 mpg when I first purchased the car, started running premium and the car got 18 mpg. An ignition upgrade, an MSD system, bumped the car up to 20 mpg with a noticable increase in performance.
Then a duel exhaust system, which allowed the choked up 400 to breathe a little more freely added more performance and roughly another 2 mpg. With about $400 I took a 15 mpg, 180 hp car to a 22 mpg 210 hp (rough estimate) car. I believe I could have got 25 mpg highway out of that 400 with a nice rebuild, 4bbl conversion, hotter ignition and lighter rims.
I had upgraded the car again, dropping a 350 hp 350 ci small block under the hood of my Chevelle. And I had problems with that engine from day one with oil leaks, then into a broken oil ring, fuel pressure issues (12 lbs of fuel pressure at idle, causes problems with holly carbs) and finally a bearing went out. But not before laying waste to a 96 mustang gt, and an 88 firebird.
The engine had no low end torque, but drop the hammer at 35 in first gear and your doing 60 before you know it. The car topped out at 120 mph, ran out of gear to push the car.
I love my Chevelle, but it's not exactly my favorite car. But not far off actually...
I'd love to have a 1970 SS Chevelle 454 (LS6), I'd say it's the most powerful sedan ever built. Cranking out 450 hp and 500 tq... I'd love to have one in hugger orange, w/black stripes and a black vinyl top. But these cars are becoming rare, especially here in WV. These cars if originial and in good condition can fetch between 60k - 130k
But one could be built to spec for about 20K not inculding purchase of chassis. But just building to a custom spec is usually MUCH cheaper.
another car I'd love to have is a 1970 Plymouth AAR Cuda. A car built so the cuda could be used in the scca, it's severly lacking in power in compairson to the Hemi and 440 Magnum models. But the AAR would take a much harder corner at a higher pace than it's bigger siblings.