Sun, Rain, Salt Eat Camaro in Hawaii

While on our way to see the Punchbowl Cemetery in Honolulu, my wife and I encountered this fine example of not enough corrosion protection.  Hawaii is surrounded by the Pacific Ocean (hence the geographical desription as an island), so there is fine salt dust in the air on occasion and on the wet side of the island, a lot of rain.  This Camaro actually looked pretty good.  The plastic panels don't rust, so even if the frame collapsed, the car was still recognizable.  Most cars of its age are long gone as the local climate probably made them look very much like Swiss cheese.  At least the owner found good use for this one.  It wasn't on blocks unfortunately.  Maybe they should have offered the car as a premium to the biggest donor.

200 MPH in a Trans Am. Not Kidding!

There have been at least two Firebirds built to break 200 mph.  Back in 1984 the guys at Car and Driver got Gale Banks, a California hot rodder, to modify a Firebird Trans Am that they took to Mrs. Orcutt's driveway in the desert and tried mightily to do it.  The obscure roadway was a flat, straight, two-lane frontage road that connected the independent woman's California-desert house to the nearest Interstate-40 entrance/exit.  It was four miles long and free of traffic and damage.  It was built as required by law for her when the new highway cut her off from the old Rte. 66.

After at least two unsuccessful attempts, two engine rebuilds, and major improvements to the cooling system, the radar gun registered 196 mph.  Banks wasn't satisfied and dialed in more turbo boost and worked another trick or two.  This time the car was claimed to have hit 204 mph before a small bushing in the distributor failed and the spark-timing advanced too much causing detonation and the immediate disintegration of the V8 engine.  Nevertheless they succeeded in converting an American muscle car into a road machine that none of the exoticars at the time could catch, regardless of the pedigree or sticker price.


Most of the Car and Driver report can be read at

http://www.bankspower.com/magazines/show/640-super-trans-am

where there is a pdf available by clicking at the bottom of the web page.


Two things are for sure: 1. the Firebird was an adequate and inexpensive platform to convert into a supercar beater, and 2. the Car and Driver guys were either very brave or escapees from the asylum.  I rather think it was the latter.  They were nuttier than the test pilots to the north at Muroc.  


A second 200+ mph Firebird was built by Polly Motorsport of Norway in about 2008.  While still street legal in Europe and looking like a normal Trans Am with a body kit, it was definitely a special car .  The engine produced 1400 bhp which propelled the car over 407 kph or 252 mph at the Papenburg, Germany, test track.  That's as fast as James May went in a Bugatti Veyron in the BBC's Top Gear show, Series 9, Episode 2.  

Polly Motorsport claimed the 1987 Pontiac could go even faster, but I don't know if they ever demonstrated it, and unlike the Veyron, it didn't cost over $1 million.  There have been lots of drag racing Firebirds that could go faster than this car, but they were useless anywhere but on a drag strip.  This car could serve for grocery store runs or taking the kids to school, then a spin  by the Salt Flats for an attempt on a world speed record.  What a machine!  See it at
http://www.autoblog.com/2008/12/22/europes-fastest-street-legal-car-is-a-252-mph-pontiac-trans/
and on Youtube hitting 200 mph
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWl6QGcJOf0

Stories like these demonstrate why F-body cars were beloved by so many.  Cheap speed couldn't look better or be more available to the common man.  Contrary to the clenched fist inscriptions on lavatory stall dividers, PTTP  means "Performance to the Plebes."  F-body cars delivered that for so many over about four decades.  Even now it lives on in the new Camaro, a car that looks retro, but actually derives from the very non-F-body Holden Commodore of Australia.

Z28 Captures R&T Trophy at Indy Concours

At the Indy Celebration of Automobiles over the weekend, the authors of Road and Track magazine gave their prestigious award to David Renshaw of Fisher, Indiana and owner of a gorgeous 1969 Chevrolet Camaro Z28.  On board was a 302 cid V8 and a 4-speed transmission.  It was chosen over some really fabulous cars including loads of Pebble Beach entrants like a Stutz Bearcat and other high-end vintage vehicles.

 

Even though cars like this could only do 0-60 in a reported 7.4 secs, everybody thought the F-body cars were the coolest things on wheels.  Today a Toyota Camry SE with V6 can reach 60 mph in 5.7 secs, but in the Surfin' '60s, the Z28 was really hot stuff.

  R&T said they picked the Camaro because of....(drum roll and fanfare)......their nostalgia for the cars of the Trans-Am racing series of the '60s.  What is their not to love?  Look at those great lines!  It's definitely not a Camry. This proves once again that F-body cars never die. They just end up on blocks!  Thanks to R&T for the above photos.

Did you know there was a better Camaro right here in North Salt Lake?  Also did you notice the white Camaro convertible with red stripes and interior in the background of these photos?

At our Eaglewood Festival of Speed last year, David Jacobs showed his fantastic 1968 Camaro  SS convertible. I think it had a 396 cid V8 in it.   He has since sold the car.  It occupied a place of honor in the Harrison Auto showroom in Bountiful until an infatuated buyer could no longer contain himself.  I don't know how much was forked over, but I am sure that it was a lot.  Here is a picture of David's great F-body car at the NSL car show last July.  Sorry it's a bit hidden.

Secondly, there was another beautiful red-on-white 1st Gen. Camaro SS convertible in SLC. 

The car was having some problems, but it still looked great.

  Once in a while owners really do fix up their old Camaros and drive like they were in another era.  I'm sure the guy got his SS running again.  He obviously kept it up with a gleam in his eye and a lot of TLC.

Tornado Damage?

Found in Critical Condition next to a Body Shop

How did this late model Firebird get damaged?  Since it was in Bartlesville, OK, I couldn't rule out a tornado hit.  There were no crumpled panels, yet the driver-side door wouldn't close.  The ragtop was there and that would have been the first of the Firebird's feathers torn off in a whirlwind.  The hood had been removed and was leaning against the junker beside it.  What happened?  

 The console cover/arm rest cushion in the center was missing.  They were never attached very well to the lid and it was easy to tear them loose.  There was a release on the driver's side and a hinge next to the passenger, so it didn't open front-to-back, but side-to-side.  It looks like someone expected the former and lifted hard.  Ooops!  The Tee-handle shifter meant this car had an automatic transmission.  Too bad.

The alternator is not in the right place for an LS1 V-8, so I figure it had a V-6 which still made them pretty peppy.

One very bad feature of F-body cars was that the engine sat right between the front wheels.  The axle-line went right through the crankcase.  This put so much weight over the front wheels that it affected the balance of the car and deprived it of rear traction, exactly the wrong thing for a muscle car.  Without some really strange suspension calibration, it would have understeered like it was slipping in an Oklahoma ice storm, but the engineers softened the rear suspension so much and stiffened up the front anti-sway bar and springs to neutralize the handling.  In fact it was pretty easy to get it to oversteer, especially by applying some of the monstrous torque from the V-8.  Oddly, it worked well.  I have a vague memory of Phil Hill once saying of the Camaro SS, a V-8 cousin of this Firebird, "I could lap one of these all day."

  

It was sad to see such a good-looking Firebird with broken bones.  The popped door meant a bent frame.  The poor car was langushing inside a chainlink fence, but not yet consigned to the crusher.  When that happens, your dreams get crushed, too.  Maybe that's why so many owners hang on to them even when they're terminally ill.

When this version came out on the market in 1993, there were few cars that could keep up with them, and none at the price.  The V-8 Trans Ams and Camaros did 0-60 in about 5.8 s, quarter mile in about 13.5 s at over 100 mph, and a top speed of 160 mph, all for about 25,000 dollars.  Cheap speed, indeed!

My grandson, Liam, came with me on this walk.  See the stroller over yonder?  I think he was sad about the car, too.

Burlesque or Donny and Marie?

Is This Car Wholesome?

Below is an F-body that will never die.  If it ever was on blocks, it probably will never sit on any again.  Nan and I happened upon a little car show at one of those fake aluminum train-car diners while we were on vacation in Rhode Island.  I had to stop.  Nan rolled her eyes, but she let me indulge myself, proving once again that she really does love me.

This car had to have been the owner's "trophy mistress."  I dare you to find a fingerprint on that piano finish. The enormous and classic "Screaming Chicken" on the hood attacks your eyes.  This is the steel equivalent of a feather and rhinestone-adorned burlesque dancer as found in places like Las Vegas.  The paint, decals, stripes, markers, and the shaker hood are the plumage,  heavy make-up, minimal bikini, and high-heeled shoes of the glamour girl.  It's all for show and it works.

Something about those headdresses resembles the Firebird above, but I can't quite put my finger on it.  That might smudge the mirror finish if I did. 

Speaking of Las Vegas, you'd agree that the Screaming Chicken hardly evokes Donny and Marie.

I understand they're playing at the Flamingo and have a sensational show.  I've got to take Nan to it.

  Perhaps Burt Reynolds and Sally Fields would better model the Screaming Chicken Firebird.  After all  it was they who made the black, golden phoenix-bedecked Trans Am famous.....or was it the other way around?

Oddly, I've never seen Smokey and the Bandit.  I don't mind being odd.

Why didn't GM reintroduce a Firebird version of the new Camaro?   The Chevy never quite had the pop and flash of the Trans Am. Here's what it might have looked like and proves it can be built.  It only takes passion and money.  Wouldn't it look perfect on Las Vegas Boulevard?

 

The Earthtone Cornhusker Special

It is amazing how people hold on to their f-body cars.  We discovered this Camaro at a motel in Nebraska.  I speculate that someone left it in lieu of paying the bill.    The color was perfect for sod-bustin'.  In Nebraska all you need is a pickup, a Camaro, beer, football, a dog, a wife. and crop subsidies.  Is there more to life than that?

 The flat tire was probably the only thing keeping it from tearing up the asphalt like in the good old days.  Hey!  It had three good tires.  The body looked pretty straight. and there didn't appear to be much rust.  The glass was okay and the mirrors and door handles were still attached.  No red tape over the tail lights neither.  (Gotta sound like a Cornhusker.)  With one tail pipe, this was probably a V-6 model.

 F-body cars really were almost as good as a wagon or hatchback.  Flip down the back seat and fill it up with stuff.  It's amazing how much can be carried, things like space-saver spares, groceries, old burger wrappers and pizza boxes, luggage, building materials, and whatever else you might imagine can fit under that huge piece of glass.  We hauled a big load of wedding gifts for some friends once in my red T/A.   The poor backseat cover in this car has seen too much sun, I'm a-frayed (Get it?)

 This car could be a decent restoration project.  I'll bet the owner would say, "It runs good.  I'm gonna fix-er up.  Gotta fix that flat first."
  We were traveling in the yellow Nissan Frontier you can see in the background. I told my son, "Stop, stop!  I gotta get a picture of that Camaro over there."

Is that a Ferrari???

A neighbor kid once asked me if my 2000 WS6 T/A was a Ferrari.  It had over-the-top styling, enough muscle to be dangerous, and was admired everywhere I went.  I got this car up to 150 mph once out in the western desert.  That was fast enough for me.  Lots of bang for the buck.

I took these pictures in the Wasatch Mountains of Utah on the Alpine Loop east of Mt. Timpanogos.  It was a beautiful car in a beautiful place on a beautiful day.  I used them on the net to help to advertise the car. I sold it to a young avionics engineer in the USAF who had owned two Firebirds in the past.  His wife and he couldn't resist this one after they found the listing.  He had  dreamed for years of owning this version.  I'm sure he'll never let this F-body die or even see blocks.