Quote:
Originally Posted by Fordzilla
A nasty fire breathing 1969 Mustang with 1000+ horses at the wheels. It's like driving on ice.................all the time....  |
Not quite a 2nd gen Camaro, but I owned two different '74 Trans Ams, both with 455's. The first one had molded in flares, a modified suspension and the engine was built up and massaged by a certifiable Pontiac guru/fanatic. I don't know how much HP/TQ the beast actually made, but it was an antisocial, rip-snorting brute with more low end grunt than a D9 Cat.
It didn't like sustained high rpm flogging, but what an arse kicker on the street. It ate up just about anything that came along and at high idle, you really had to stand on the brake at the lights as the torque threatened to overwhelm the rear drums. It WAS like driving on ice in the summer time and on the infamous black ice of the Northern Alberta winters, every drive was an E-ticket, crap-your-pants, white-knuckle experience. Had to get pulled out of the snow banks more times than I care to remember.
Hell - one time I'll never forget, the rear end came around on a very slow turn in a quiet neighborhood just enough to nudge the front wheels over the curb and into the snow. I told my two buddies to hop out and push while I feathered it in reverse (more like feathering the brake pedal as at idle, the back tires were already spinning like crazy on the icy road.) The two wimps weren't budging the car and I was cussing and yelling at them to put their backs into it. Finally in an impulsive fit that only a young guy can have, I jumped out, car still in reverse and gave the front end a mighty shove.
Well suddenly, the rear tires found bite and we stood there like three dummies with our mouths open as the car flocked off backwards down the street, driver's door wide open. It went about half a block before gracefully arcing into someone's driveway, bending the driver's door backwards on a red Monte Carlo's bumper and ended up against the people's house, growling and belching, with the back tires spinning away in a cloud of smoke and ice fog.
By the time I ran up, a horrified looking lady was peeping out the door so I started apologizing and stammering my assurance that I would pay for the damage to her car and the siding on her house while my pals arrived slipping and falling on the icy road out front. The entire scene must have been too bizzarre and terrifying for her and she told me it was ok - just take the car and go away.
She didn't have to tell me twice and we hustled to beat it out of there before she changed her mind and called the cops. We managed to bend the door back around only about 2/3's of the way and it was no fun driving home holding the door at 20 below. That car was bad enough with two hands on the wheel and I ended up with frostbite and a firm resolution to buy a winter beater so I could keep the damn Trans Am parked.
Gawd, I loved that ol car - but it was an uncouth brute and one day a couple of years later on a drive with the wife to be (we were out shopping for kitchen knives) I impulsively traded it in on a shiny, T-topped '82 TA that was sitting on a dealer lot. I thought it was time to become more civilized, but I was shocked to see a tear roll down Pauline's cheek as we drove away in the newer car.
Later, when I had a nice black/gold '85 TA, I still missed the old '74, so I bought another clean 455 automatic car for about $3.5K. It was well kept and bone stock, so I immediately ordered the flare kit, bolted on a set of headers and dual exhausts and shod it with some big fat Mickey Thompsons. The old Poncho mechanic was gone though, so it never was as nasty as its predecessor and two years later, I traded both cars in on a low mile '86 Corvette.
Now you have me waxin' all nostalgic - I might just dig up a photo of that old brawler and post it here. Love those 2nd gen F-bodies!!