Recent content by topside

Shoulder belts attached (when in use) to lap belts that have a short male end sewn to them. When not in use, the shoulder belt buckles clipped to brackets mounted at the outer sunvisor brackets.

Fran Hernandez at Mercury - a drag racer from literally the earliest days - tossed things upside-down with the Logghe cars for '66 - a leap from Chrysler's '66 program, but that's a different story and best left for another thread if it materializes.

Personal, yes - the point is that weight reduction on the car started early on, and certainly other guys were doing stuff like that as well. Racers don't tend to leave anything alone, especially the sharp ones...

Back in the '70s, I was working with fiberglass on Funny Cars, off-road racers, and such. One of the body suppliers would get a rental car, blow it apart, and make molds off it; then reassemble the car and return it a bit worse for wear. Those molds would then be duplicated and/or altered to fit...

Lots of aluminum on Z11s - topped by Pontiac: aluminum exhaust manifolds. Really. Not long-lived, of course...

There was nothing behind the face plate of the "rallye" cluster in my ex-SS/IA Duster - had 3 aftermarket gauges in it, set in blank panels. As for the aluminum dash, it would be interesting to know if that was from Day 1 or swapped in later - those cars were constantly being modified & updated...

No, it hasn't - based on my previous cars (down to low-10s), it should be mid-13s around sea level. It was intended for that & low maintenance.

Actually, I have over $24,000 in it - so, yeah. Plans changed, though.

Has a '69 340, balanced/blueprinted, J heads, Comp HFT 233/240 & 474, adj rockers, 9.0:1, Speedmaster intake, Holley 750DP and Eddy 1406, Hookers & 2.5" exhaust, MP ignition, new gas tank. It's happy on pump premium. 727 trans, RMVB, modified quadrant (direct 1-2), deep pan, cooler, converter...

Same bumper, step pads for the 9-passenger cars. But handy in any case.

Sox: Chevy, Mercury, Plymouth Landy & Leal: Ford, Dodge Jenkins: Chevy, Plymouth, Chevy Strickler: Chevy, Dodge Etc, etc...

Yes, VII was & remains an AT car. That was actually the beef Tommy Grove had with the deal: he wanted a 4-speed and Chrysler said no. So, Tommy made a deal with Ford and left.

Those Ks were intended for drag strips: straight line driving on a smooth surface. Like the lightweight fenders & panels vs. elbows/whatever, they won't tolerate much abuse. There are photos of the Commandos & Landy's 10/15s with the quarters wrinkled/dented, but I don't know if that was from...

Well, OK - I'll repeat the story of the Mg K, courtesy of Cecil Yother, who I've known for decades (also worked with & for him and a bit on the Missile VII restoration). Many years back, I saw footage of him in one of the 2 '64 Missiles @ Famoso, where the car makes a hard right a few feet out &...

The 0E109490 reads like the partial VIN of a '70 model from the LA assembly plant. It's not particularly unusual for an block casting date to be well in advance of assembly and installation.