What is your LEAST favorite "classic" musclecar?

[RockJustRock]

Reading through again (you use a LOT of words). Standard 283 crank, forged. Forged pistons make evil noise cold. Bad for test drives. 340, 383, 440 all cast. Cast aluminum, iron went out long before the 60s. First really mainline engine to use forged pistons was the Ford 5.0. I don't know how they beat the cold slap, but they did. It wasn't for the hearts, minds and wallets of hot rodders, but if it was Ford jumped ahead with that one. And if it was a battle GM fired back with the LS and won, deal with it. Newer Hemis just get overlooked. Read up on combustion chamber design, squish, quench and all that to see why. I don't need another headache. Harley engines, Shovelhead Hemi, Evo Wedge, big efficiency gain even though the bottom end was still designed for a water pump. REALLY long rods too!

[Polyhead]

Well rock, I wouldn't test drive a car like that no. The point is, with mopars, they are only more expensive if you are trying to buy the same part brand wise. But the thing is with them, you can go REALLY quick on junkyard parts because the factory stuff is REALLY good. I've driven 340s that spin to 7800rpm on the stock crank and rods reliably with nothing more than some time spent bringing the balance in a bit tighter. And not on a machine either. Just using a scale to cherry pick from a pile of rods which ones are closer to each other in weight and doing some filing and grinding to bring them all in within a few grams.

Mostly Old Parts And Rust rings true in the cars! You can go quick on rusty junk out of salvage yards.

Now the exception here, the slant 6. I tried to go quick in one, just wasn't working out. long rods, high piston velocities = seperating the skirts from the pistons, folding the rod over 180 degrees and spitting it into the pan when it finally split open at the top portion of the big end where the oil port was drilled through it. I did that about 6 times and gave up.

[RockJustRock]

Sorry for double posting on you. Engine design became more finesse than geometry and materials as time went on. I buzzed my 360s to nearly 7K all the time without going boom. Cast crank, pistons. Just something Chrysler called in their E58 engine code "high quality assembly". It was a really expensive option, mainly for police, but I enjoyed them.

You didn't read all those links yet, good stuff, I promise.

[RockJustRock]

Slant sixes could go. You just went for buzz when grunt was the deal.....

http://www.allpar.com/mopar/hyper-pak.html

[RockJustRock]

O.K., to cleanse the palate, back to fugly musclecars....

[Polyhead]

You didn't read all those links yet, good stuff, I promise.

Just finished, good stuff. Those prostock cams, what a thing! Make me want to try and rollerise a polyhead.... but then at that point, I should just do a swap to one of the 4.7l over head cam engines. Same combustion chamber as a polyhead more or less.

You know though, that one on rod angle actually explains why chrysler probably went with longer rods. Something they never had was good exaughst system design. (at least in the muscle car era.) So there were always big time losses there. I'm willing to bet the reason the long rods worked for them is because it helped the engine during the exaughst stroke.

When refering to forged parts, I was talking of cranks and rods. Cast aluminum pistons are the way to go for street engines, if only for the silicon precipitate that forms on their surfaces. Really keeps detonation down as it aids in piston cooling.

Something that strikes me is that, GM puts all this work into their racing programs, but so little of it every went into street cars. That's the difference between the two there. Chrysler took what they learned and put it into produciton in several cases. That said, GM IS putting race car tech in their cars now, and god does it show.

I can't beleive we are seeing cars roll out of (the ruins of) detroit with 600-700hp. Blows my mind.

[Scott Liggett]

Most of the Fugly of this era of muscle cars was the lack of any muscle.

[RockJustRock]

Unfortunately Scott, that era worked out as my prime. Speaking of fugly I rocked one of THESE....



First addition was mirrored headlight covers!

[Polyhead]

I kind of like the lil' red express though. I mean, epa says you can't build a performance car... well screw it, don't build a car, build a truck! It was a thumb in the eye of the government and I love that sort of thing.

[groucho]

I'm gonna say the question's aimed from 1970 and down in my mind as compression ratios, some aluminum intakes, and solid cams took a hit in 71. That said it's hard for me to answer as I was coming of age then (14 yrs old in 69) and I saw shit I liked in every Muscle Car that comes to mind. The "C" stripe on the 68 Mustangs, Shaker hood scoops, stripes, colors, cold air induction! I remember a road test on a Ram Air Toronado with smoke billowing like mad from the front wheel wells!! Hell, I even dug the Rambler Scrambler (S/C Rambler or whatever it was). Shit man, hood scoop from the factory, posi, FOUR speed, factory type mags, red white and blue.........Oh, and if the Marlin was considerd a Muscle Car....I was 11 when it came out and how can car nut kid not like a fastback?

[nesabo]

The one sitting in a field rotting away to be fixed "someday" or the one sitting because the owner thinks it's to nice to drive.