King of the hill is always gonna be a hemi.. how many other car companies can say they got banned because they kicked the competition square in the sack and laughed when they doubled over and puked!
Man, I'm sorry...but if that's a true pedigreed T/A, you don't do that to it. T/A's fall under the category of "restore it as built - or sell it to someone who will" for me IMHO. Tons of other regular e-bodies out there to mess about with, after all.
Hemi's just simply require a little more attention on the tuning side. Pre 70 valve adjustments , and maybe more plug changes. Once dialed in, it's definitely what you would expect, and it's always the Prettiest girl at the dance! I've had mine 45 years.
Again, really REALLY nice work there - but a true AAR needs to be restored as new or sold to someone who will. Extremely rare car and precious few of them left in factory trim.... IMHO.
Yep. Ma Mopar decided to upgrade from wedges to the Hemi in order to regain dominance in racing, not the other way around. Hemi's sound different, feel different when driving them, carry all the street cred AND are worth a shittake more on the market. Most Mopar fans dream of owning a Hemi... 'nuff said.
I've never owned a HEMI so by no means am I someone who knows from experience but have read extensively about them. My take on it is the HEMI is built for racing, it's built for horsepower at higher rpm's so for a cruiser the only thing you gain is the cool factor. With that said you can't argue it's success in racing so if speed is your goal set the car up to run it like it should be ran... I look at it like a 2 stroke motorcross bike, I certainly wouldn't buy one unless I planned on running the piss out of it.
*sigh* I had one once, way back in the early 80's ('68 RR), totally base model. Rubber floor mats, the whole bit. That thing was stupid quick for stock (only options were what came with the hemi and a 727). It truly was "when all the others start laying down, the hemi comes ALIVE!" - car would scare hell out of me over 5000rpms, when it woke up and it occurred to you that you still only had drums and manual steering to hang onto the thing with. Couldn't help it, though - very addicting to let that thing romp. I remember paying like $2500 for it and selling it at a meet a year later for $6k, thinking I had just made a fortune!
Funny thing about them about then HEMIs,either you want one or you have one The difference in cost is the valve train w/rockers
The story goes, the best I can remember is that after 10 or so years, the original owner completely tore the car apart to restore it and like a lot of these projects, nothing happened, after many years go by, he passed away, widow finally sells the car but some pieces are missing. Now we're on to the next owner who again doesn't get much done AND he also passes away! So, car gets resold and again even more missing parts, there may have been another owner after that but don't remember, and somewhere along the way it was mini tubbed/ springs moved, anyway a bodyman in central Illinois ended up with what was left and painted it in the beautiful red (orig. green) you see, he was not a Mopar guy and bought just to flip as this was the time of the gen III Hemi truck adds(that thing got a Hemi?)" when the mopar prices started to skyrocket. Anyway Vince brings whats left home and built an absolutely stunning car from scratch, all documentation is there to prove it is a TA. He took it to the mopar nats. in I think 2008? and one of the mopar magazines thought enough of it to have a small article on it. Really is a nice car, Hemi of course, custom air cleaner base the mates the 2x4's to the TA hood scoop perfectly, Tremac 5 speed, 4:10 Dana, march pully's w/ A/C power windows. And if somebody wanted, nothing he did could not be reversed to put back to a 340. At the time he also had a true, Mr. norms 340 TA, unfortunately a few years ago he had a stoke and sold the cars, but another friend bought and it sits next to his #'s matching 4 speed AAR!
You are most certainly entitled to your opinion. But its HIS car and has been since around 1980 . I think he told me once he paid something like $1200 for it with a running 318 in it. Its HIS car and always will be I assure you. So he decided to build EXACTLY what he wanted with what he had . Other than the color change and the subframe connectors,,,, everything on the car can be converted back in a weekend . That car is probably the best running street hemi Ive ever driven or been in ,,,my car included.
"The Hemi turns on when the others turn off" I think Don White was quoted saying that in the Scat Pack advertising for 1970 and it's true. If you aren't topending the competition, then your Hemi has something wrong with it. I understand the Boss 429 breathed like that as well although I doubt it with the standard single 4 barrel. Honestly in street racing other cars could be competitive if you didn't run the full quarter. When you get into high gear is when a Hemi settles in and gets it all together, it feels like there is no end to it.
My sixpack and my Hemi. While, still not cheap I pieced my Hemi together out of the best parts and best deals I could come across. I still have less into it than a crate Hemi cost and it makes twice the power. Even off the bottles. Still streetable even.
Actually Ford didn't bitch, they tried to build better engines & cars.. They had a serious race engine, the SOHC 427 but when Nascar changed the rules and Chrysler tooled up Ford backed away from production runs .... But later came back with the Boss 429... They also had the Talladagas & The Cyclones.. GM was the company that always wanted to outlaw or rule out anything they couldn't compete with.. And that was true in Nascar & NHRA...
I owned a 71 Hemi Challenger, it's gone & I don't miss it... I enjoy driving my cars not sitting in car shows talking about how bad ass my cars are... Yes Hemi's can be reliable & fast but they also represent allot of $$$$ invested to get there... Considering how few Hemis are really out there you sure hear allot of stories about issues people have getting them right... The MP/Cummins Crate Hemi was always a kit, it came with most of the pieces but you know it had to come apart and be gone over with a fine tooth comb.. There were blocks with porosity, core shift, machining errors... In all the years of organizing car cruises I've never had a Hemi car come out for a second drive.... The first drive sure, then you let them know about a second drive & you hear crickets.... Those guys would rather go to a car show & talk about it while me & my buddies are out putting on the miles... I've had guys in 427 Cobras show up for allot more drives than Hemi cars... I hear about Hemi cars that get driven... But I sure don't see them...
