.

the car junkie daily magazine.

.

Question Of The Day: What Automotive “Bigfoot” Rumor Would You Like To Actually See In Real Life?


Question Of The Day: What Automotive “Bigfoot” Rumor Would You Like To Actually See In Real Life?

A “Bigfoot” rumor works like this: it seems that everybody knows about it, except nobody knows details, has no proof, and the ones who have claimed to have seen it are the most likely to be lying about it. And when it comes to cars, brother, there are tons of them. From such muscle car era rumors as the 1972 440 Six Pack Mopars to the Apple car, there’s all sorts of myths out there. But which one would appeal to you? Would it be finding the elusive 1971 Challenger T/A, which appeared in an ad but never appeared in life? (The ad was an airbrushed 1970.) Maybe it’s the Shelby Maverick from Mexico, which nobody can prove ever existed?

71_ta_ad

For me, the mythical creature I want to see in person is a little more mundane but no less tame. The rumor goes like this: sometime in either the late 1980s or early 1990s a county in Florida set aside some of their Dodge Diplomat and Plymouth Gran Fury ex-cruisers for drug interdiction purposes. These cars had their 318/904s yanked out and replaced with something a little more special out of the Mopar Performance catalog. There’s a bit of disagreement as to what, exactly, the motor was, but most believe it was a crate motor 360 backed to a 727 transmission, though a few claim big-blocks were swapped in instead. Power is usually guessed at 350 wheel horsepower with well over 400 ft/lbs of torque, and that top speeds pushing 145 MPH was normal. In addition, chassis and brake upgrades were made, and that at least a couple of these cars are still being used. With that kind of performance, could you blame me for wanting to see what one of these “cruisers” could be all about?

What other mythical cars have you heard about? Maybe it was the sheriff who had a GM crate engine in his Caprice, or maybe it was the one-of-none Pontiac that a neighbor had but you never saw. They’re out there…if you believe…


  • Share This
  • Pinterest
  • 0

40 thoughts on “Question Of The Day: What Automotive “Bigfoot” Rumor Would You Like To Actually See In Real Life?

  1. Nick D.

    I’ll go with the ’73 Grand Am SD-455. I’ve heard there’s a few out there, even though Pontiac said otherwise

      1. Nick D.

        Well, there was at least 1 GTO, because Cars tested one. I’ve seen a very precise replica of that car, right down to the engine, paint color stripes and options, and it was a badass ride. Probably wouldn’t have saved the GTO but it would have been a good sendout

  2. starterguy

    Heard a story that the US Government bought some 1965 Lemans four doors, black, plain jane cars, and they were all equipped with the 421 super duty engines. Suspected they were bought by the Secret Service.

    1. Lee

      Very much like the rumor . . . that turned into actual cars . . . that the FBI bought a couple of specially made 1966 Hemi 4 DOOR Dodge Coronets. There are 3 of them. Don Garlits owns one of them – a white one.

  3. cyclone03

    I think mine was real , in the 60’s the Air Force had a fleet of El Caminos with 427’s to chase U2’s on landing.
    In the early 80’s the stock number for the replacement engines was still active.
    We ordered one for fun one night and got the @$$ reaming of a lifetime the next day from the First Sargent.
    Later we found out from the supply guy they found 12(!) of them at Edwards AFB.

    But a 1967 427 Powered (W code) Mustang would be nice.

    1. Nick D.

      As for your Mustang idea, I’ve heard the rumor that one of the 427s from one of the LeMans-winning GT40s ended up in a Ford exec’s kid’s Mustang. That’d be a hell of a car too

      1. Lee

        LOL – that’s an old rumor. The “kid” was Edsel Ford II.

        He and I went to the same college back in 1970: Babson College. Now Babson had some very wealthy kids going to it so Edsel had to have a car that stood out from all the others, and he did . . .

        He had the ONLY 1970 Boss 351 Mustang (was not available to the public until 1971). It was a specially made car just for him by Holman Moody – there was a metal plate on the console saying so. It was dark candy apple red with a gray leather interior – a non stock Ford color and the car had experimental side pipes – sort of like the 1969 Corvette.

  4. Lee

    There was a rumor back in I think 1968 that the New Jersey State Police had a few 1968 Hemi Dodge Polaras as highway pursuit cars. Never saw one. AFAIK, they all had the 440.

  5. Lee

    Another rumor . . . actually a real car that a magazine tested that was supposed to go into production but never did – the rumor is a few did get built and sold is the 1966 427 SOHC Galaxie. Ford was looking to run the 427 SOHC in NASCAR and was making plans to holmogate the engine but NASCAR hit Ford with a 10% weight peantly if they ran the engine. This meant that Fords with the 427 SOHC would have to weight 4400 lbs while all other cars would weigh 4000 lbs. Ford abandon the idea.

  6. Lee

    It’s interesting to note that for years, there was a rumor that Chevrolet built a 1968 Z/28 convertible. All of a sudden, the car actually surfaced. It was built for GM exec. Pete Estes. It had 4 wheel disc brakes, a cross ram dual quad intake (both were over the counter parts dept available) and a cowl induction hood (only available on the 1969 Z/28)

    The car is currently owned by Dana Mecum (Mecum Auto Auctions)

  7. Wes

    The Cadillac CTS-V powered by a complete Tesla Roadster battery and electric drive system. Wait. I did see it. Nevermind.

    Engineering project between Tesla and Bosch to develop the ABS system for the Model S/X vehicles. It sat in a dark corner of the Fremont plant after the project was over, neglected, for almost four years. The Roadster battery pack took up the entire rear seat area and the drive unit fit nicely between the rear wheels barely poking through the trunk floor. Where the shifter normally sat was the push button selector and LED screen. Poor car was dismantled earlier this year and discarded.

    There are also rumored to be a Toyota Tundra, a Chrysler Town & Country minivan, and an S197 Mustang running around the Bay Area with the Model S powertrain/battery as test mules, too.

  8. Scott Liggett

    I have family from Missouri. All my life I heard about the special ’49-’50 Fords that had race spec flatheads for pursuit specials. All were maintained by Ford techs, not the motorpool mechanics. They were not to touch them. When removed from service, they were taken back by Ford.

    Iowa State PD had ’68 GTX’s Persuit Specials with worked over 440’s and 4 spds. A coworker had the one his dad drove on duty. He bought it at auction. It was B5 Blue, or equivalent and you could see the the outlines of the decals at an angle. They were designed to chase down the hot cars of the era.

  9. Scott Liggett

    Since buying my ’70 Caprice with an original LS4 454. I have people telling me about the unicorn 1970 LS6 Impalas. Though I have never seen an LS5 powered one. Same unicorns were the L-88 427’s in 69 Impala SS. Yeah sure.

    1. Lee

      The LS6 (in 1970) was only put into the Chevelle SS by Chevrolet. It was never an option on any other Chevy, including the Corvette.

      There was a “dealer” installed LS6 1970 Monte Carlo built by Dick Harrell. The only one of it’s kind.

      The LS5 showed as an option for the 1970 Impala in the sales brochure. It was rated at 390 hp. I do believe a number of Impalas/caprices and even Kingswood Estate station wagons were built with the LS5.

      The L88 was never installed by Chevy in anything but the Corvette (1967 – 1969). Some dealers like Nickey Chevroet and Baldwin Motion did install them in the Camaro but they were crate engine transplants.

    2. geo815

      My old man had a 4 door 70 Caprice with an LS-5. I was just a peanut at the time, but I remember getting pushed back toward the trunk more than once. Cried when he got rid of it. Never seen another like it. 3.73 12 bolt, TH400. Power everything, a/c, Rally wheels, metallic blue, white, vinyl top. I blame that car for my addiction. LS-6? Damn, that must’ve been fun.

  10. Turbo Regal

    How about a 70 Monte Carlo convertible? A dealer brochure from back in the day had an illustration of one. Or better yet, a 4 speed Monte Carlo SS454?

    1. Lee

      That 1970 MC convertible picture was just an artists rendering. Chevy was toying with the idea but data at the time showed that convertible sales were dropping severely so they canned the idea.

  11. ANGRYJOE

    There were rumors of a 70/71 Sport Furry GT with 440 6 packs that floated around when I was younger. They exsisted much like the Titanic did prior to 1984…people knew there was at least one but no one knew where….Since the internet became such a intergral part of our lives there have been 11 of these cars documented….I’ve seen photos of one…a basket case that has been for sale for 30K for about 10 years….I have never seen a picture of a real one that is all together….I’ll take one…in black or green please.

    1. Scott Liggett

      The LS-7 was a strictly over the counter engine. Never installed at the factory in any car.

  12. Lee

    Probably one of the most famous “bigfoot” muscle cars was the 1970 Hemi Road Runner Convertible. Plymouth production records show that there were 4 of them built – one was exported to Canada. Of the 4 made, one was destroyed in an accident shortly after the owner took possession. The other 3 – no one has ever seen hide nor hare of them.

  13. Appleseed

    I want to see a running “doomsday” Hemi., the DOHC hemi made in response to Ford’s Cammer.

  14. Tyler Garrett

    I went to HS in the late 70’s, A fellow classmates father was a district parts manager or some such thing for GM and was a hard core car guy.

    Kid rolls up to shop class one day driving a gloss black (call it a ’77) El Camino, equipped with current model Corvette slotted wheels, Corvette seats with complete matching pearl colored interior, and a……..Oldsmobile 350 DIESEL. As factory looking as could be.

    Kid daily drove a V8 Vega Wagon swapped using all factory Monza parts and a crate LT-1, Duals exited to passengers side, you could pull up to people and it sounded like a shitty running vega. The red paint, wood grain and Monza stock slotted mags really set it off.

    Not exactly Unicorns but really cool shit built by a guy that knew the parts book backwards and forwards.

  15. geo815

    Anyone have one of those 70-something Mustang II’s with a factory, cammed up 390, made for the South Carolina State Patrol? Supposedly good for mod-10″s. No, I don’t have any oceanfront proprty to sell in Yuma, CO – just puking what I heard. Cool if it was true, though.

  16. mooseface

    My own automotive “Bigfoot” is as far from this beaten path as it gets.
    Rumor has it that near the end of the FZJ80’s life, the UZJ100 wasn’t ready for a full debut, and so the last few 80s out the door were made with the 1Uz-FE engines and 4-speed overdrive transmissions slotted for the Hundys on release.
    If true, it’s pretty much the best of both worlds: 150 pounds less weight up front, about 90 more horses, and a higher rev limit in the tried and true 80-series chassis. One can dream.

  17. Charles Moxley

    back n the late 80s worked for a guy who bought and sold a lot of government cars police cars ect one time he got a whole group of Kansas hyway patrol cars something like 25 at one time anyway we hauled them all n cleaned em up and run most of them though the auction this one car was rougher than the group this thing and wouldn’t hardly pull itself one day got to looking it over and discovered the timing had been messed with someone had retarded it way back so set the timing and this car was brutal motor was a 360 4 barrel 727 trans and a 323 posi would leave black marks a block long anyway these cars were blue early to mid 80s dodge diplamats kinda fits the story don’t ya think peace all

  18. Ron Ward

    Hmmm…. Automotive bigfoot…. lemme see…..

    How about the Little Red Express trucks with “factory” W2 heads? Yeah…. seems to be a lot of rumors, but I’ve never seen one fitted with W2’s from the factory.

  19. Dave Dusterberg

    On the W-2 equipped Lil’ Reds’, none came from the factory with them. The original proposal for the Lil’ Red was to include them but that part got nixed. I worked for Northland Dodge in Columbus Oh. for a while when Jim Thompson was Service and Parts Director. They did install W-2s on the Lil’ Reds the dealership sold. I worked in parts and there were still a couple pairs of heads on the shelf when I was there.

  20. Pushrod Power

    I remember going to the Sacramento Auto museum a few years back and there was a late ’80’s Ford Granada on display with a supercharged 302 and 5 speed. From what I remember the placard said (I really wish I would have taken a picture of it) the car was special ordered by a guy in Nevada from Ford using “special” order codes or something of that nature.

  21. nxpress62

    The aluminum head L78 option on LS-6 chevelles in 1970. Supposedly 1 exists (and a convertible also..)

  22. nxpress62

    Or the Z-30, dunno how serious GM ever was, but it amounted to all the 302 solid lifter goodness in the 400 block, for the 71? camaros..

  23. Bill

    There’s always a rumor floating around about there having been a brown ’83-’88 Monte Carlo SS being produced by the factory. No one’s ever seen it or has been able to confirm it even exists.

    Also, there was speculation that some ’84 SS cars had factory T-Tops or the 2004R overdrive transmission that came in the ’85-’88 cars. The 2004R is the most likely since the factory could have made the switch to the new transmission right before the model year change. Still, no concrete evidence of either.

    1. Bill

      From montecarloss.com: “There were supposedly 3 1984 Monte Carlo SSs at the end of that year production run that that received the TH-200-4R transmission.”

Comments are closed.