Fellow Car Nuts:
What is up with all of the 289 activity lately? All of a sudden we have been swamped with 289 orders! We usually have some in stock, but I sold the last 2 in stock yesterday and we have 6 on order right now with several, serious pending sales! 3 more will arrive on a container next week! What is happening?!?!?
Could it be that small blocks are getting popular...as in, just as popular as big blocks?!?!?!
Lynn Park called up the other day and told us he had just helped a customer of ours finish our first 289 street car. He said it was the BEST handling car he had ever driven. My eyes got wide??? What, I have seen this guy race Daytona Coupes, 289 FIA cars, several 427 cars…
Then,
Ned Scudder called me and told me he just bought a small block engined, 427 bodied, original COB car. He would have purchased any of the originals he wanted…what was he thinking. So I called him…or dropped him a line, don’t remember which. He told me he had driven the big monsters all he wanted to and he wanted a car that didn’t overheat in traffic and one that was more tractable…
Then,
We had 2 customers recently put small blocks in their 427 bodied cars and I had the chance to drive them...
Ugh, oh…
can i say this—can I come out of the closet…
I was impresssssssed! I sat down and calculated the power to weight ratio of a 330 horsepower small block in one of our new lightweight cars to the power to weight ratio of an original big block...I was stunned--it was within 5%.
I guess most people just don't understand how much power the 427's, (or should I say, the stroked monster 490+ cubic inch engines) are making today compared to the original 427’s. The original was FAST--today we are crazy—maybe a little bit too crazy.
I must admit I love both, but the small block is really, really pulling on me now. The last small block car of ours we weighed tipped the scales at a scant 2046 pounds. The magic 1999 pounds is now within reach and I have a goal to break the 2000 pound barrier shortly.
After driving the small block with the incredibly cool new Tremec 600 (with the almost perfect gear spreads), I couldn’t believe what I was feeling. The 2046 pound car was so nimble and light, we had to reduce the spring rates 3 times to get it to quit bouncing down the road! Acceleration was incredible and dare I say…the fan NEVER turned on! What would it be like to drive one of these babies that didn’t melt your shoe to the accelerator pedal! I thought I was dreaming. I felt we had “discovered” a completely new car. The lightweight small block pushed weight balance of the car back to the rear at a 52% REAR weight bias!
I can’t believe it…even as I am typing this, I just got another order for ANOTHER 289! What is happening to my old Big Block World?
Maybe the English were right…
David
