I love the Sticky on this Intro board. Here's the deal with me and mine. My dad and I used to own a junk yard, before the city built up and refused to renew our license to build a new suburb. So we carried on from our backyard, recycling metals, and building a few rods. The last one we built, we went 50-50. It was a 1958 392 Hemi, from a gorgeous Crown Imperial. We drove that car from the Toronto, Ontario, Canada area with the whole family to Fort Lauderdale (8 people (my gramps came)) 'cause they wanted to see the 2 properties they bought (they weren't swamp land). Dad and I stopped at every junkyard from Scranton Pennsylvania to Mississippi, until we found a 1958 D-300 392 Hemi with the Solid Lifter Heads and dual 4's, and cam. He wanted to build an Aluminum Breadwagon Funnycar . We took too long to build it and the NHRA changed the rules by the time we were ready. Hi-body Vans were out. A 3 mph crosswind across the lanes with a 950 HP Brick is risky business for the drivers and the spectators. We pulled it and shoe-horned it into a nice 1965 Dodge Monaco convertible. We had to nip off the A-Frames by 3/8" to get it in, and add a real hood scoop, hood locks, dual exhaust with two mufflers and a resonator on each side! And he kept the Nitro system! Now dad had all kinds of pals in the Police Force, who knew him from our yard. We had been going to college together (B.SC. IND Eng.) and by the time we graduated, the car was done. I had a nice 1969 Caprice convert 396, and he took the Hemi. He had a HEAVY FOOT! Within 2 months, he called me and begged me to buy his half, so he could pay the fines! Mother would not let him take $4,000 out of the family account, for 2 months of fines. I bought my half, he paid, and I passed everything but gas stations! I even passed a radar-plane while it was coming off the runway at 80 MPH. Two highway patrol cars were VEED around the bend waiting for me. But they didn't have their Radars up, and they let me go. One of them had known my dad's reputation as a speed freak, in this car, and asked if he could try it. I gave him the keys. He came back WHITE! Now, 37 years later, I'm on the Save the Old cars mission (My own mission). There's so much pressure to kick off the older cars, by the tree-huggers, that I figured I prove them wrong, or build my car to be Climate Friendly with printouts of my emissions, with different fuels, homemade fuels, and free fuels, and still get decent performance (the original 302 had 145 HP and 23 MPG (Cdn Gallon). This 200 I6 had 120 HP and (29 mpg Cdn Gallon). I've got the 200 running at 130 HP and 40 MPG, with fine-tuning only, no engine mods. This summer, I hope to put a V4 or V6 Ford Diesel in there from a 1996 era Ford Ranger. I should get 55 mpg, stock. But with better injection, and other tweaks, I can cut the SO2, the soot, the CO2, and the NOX to way below what the Hybrids can do, and still get 145 BHP (not advertised), and 215 ft lbs of Torque.
The Jalopy Journal
