high HP crate engines

[MaryB]

1980, friend had a KZ1000. I had just finished helping my friend get his 428 70 Mach One put together. Open headers, no hood... took it for a short test drive. Met The KZ at the light, he wanted to race to the next light... he said all he saw was a front tire by his head them we were gone... and that was one of the fastest production bikes that year. 428 was 12:1 compression, race cam, aluminum heads from Ford racing, and a massive shot of nitrous we didn't test until 6 weeks later and had wheelie bars on the car.

That engine was reliable, we went out to Idaho with it and while crossing Montana got several of the wasting natural resources tickets... for doing 140mph in between towns with no other traffic(we slowed down to 60ish for traffic and to speed limit for towns). One of the cops asked for a short ride so I hopped in his cruiser and followed LOL Ahh the good ole days of $5 tickets...

[TD1886]

my first car was a 65 impala ss convertible red with white interior with a kind or rare set up. a pretty lame 300 hp 327 but with a 12 bolt rear with 373 gears and a close ratio 4 speed. good story behind it too. we were on dads back porch listening to the tiger game with his neighbor. i just got my license and was looking for a car. somehow that came up in conversation. he looked at me kind of funny and said take a walk with me over to the house. i thought he needed help with something but by the time we got to yhe garage he had taers running down his face he opened the door and there was a cut up car cover on a car. i knew the car was there but when i was younger i didnt pay attention to it. he pulled off the cover and there was a like new ss convertable. he said it was his sons car. he bought it in 65 when he joined the army and was killed in action in 68. he told he just couldn't part with it but some punks broke into his house they destroyed some stuff and stole some things and one thing the did was slice the crap out of the car cover and top. he said its time for it to go.

it only ha 20k on it and other then the top could have passes for new. i asked him what he wanted and he said give me a grand and its your. I told him it was worth more and all he said was have fun with it. i think it cost me 300 to have anew top put on it. it wasnt the fastest car in high school but it was hands down the nicest. it carried the home coming queen in the parade my junior and senior year and my younger sisters junior and senior year. 65s were my third favorite car and that one i had would have been oh so much coller with your 409!!! that said my favorite impala and the only car ever made in america prettier the a 70 ss chevelle is a ss409/409hp bubble top impala. make mine sea mist green. if i won the lotto those would be the first three cars id buy. had the 65 and had the 70ss but tha 61 are things i dream off. thats one sexy old lady that could hold her own in a bar fight

Gosh! That's such a great story! It really made my day, thanks. My very first car was a 61 Chevy Biscayne two door sedan. It didn't take long for me to shoehorn a HP 327 in and take the 3 speed shifter off the steering wheel and replace it wis a Hurst 3 speed shifter on the floor. It already had 3.70 gears in it and I must have hit the right combo because that car ran way out of it's league.

Yeah, you had better believe I miss that 409 Impala convertable SS. 65 was the last year for the 409 and the 396 made it's debut. You are correct that the 61 Impala was the first 409 and it was also the first SS Impala, not the 62 Impala as so many thing. The Bubble Top was a really cool roof line and one that is said to have the most glass area of any car made. The carried that Bubble Top over the 62 Bel Air, then it was done. I never liked that creased roof line then started in 62 and ran till 64. Little know facts that all the 409 Chevrolets has beefed up frames, speel wheels, larger fuel lines, different rear ends.

[TD1886]

1980, friend had a KZ1000. I had just finished helping my friend get his 428 70 Mach One put together. Open headers, no hood... took it for a short test drive. Met The KZ at the light, he wanted to race to the next light... he said all he saw was a front tire by his head them we were gone... and that was one of the fastest production bikes that year. 428 was 12:1 compression, race cam, aluminum heads from Ford racing, and a massive shot of nitrous we didn't test until 6 weeks later and had wheelie bars on the car.

That engine was reliable, we went out to Idaho with it and while crossing Montana got several of the wasting natural resources tickets... for doing 140mph in between towns with no other traffic(we slowed down to 60ish for traffic and to speed limit for towns). One of the cops asked for a short ride so I hopped in his cruiser and followed LOL Ahh the good ole days of $5 tickets...

Honda V65 Magna
Weirdly, the Guinness Book of Records put forward a totally outlandish machine as the official holder of the 'fastest production bike' title in the 1980s; the Honda V65 Magna (that's the VF1100C in non-American countries).May 2, 2013, but you're right it was very fast.

https://www.visordown.com/features/t...s-10-decades-0

Kawasaki of America didn't want to sell the Ninjas, they felt it wasn't right to put a 16-17 year old teen on a bike that like with so much power and speed, but they did!! How about some of those early two stroke Kaws? They were pretty fast too!

[snowwolfe]

My current car has 668 hp. If it had 778 I would enjoy it more It averages around 22 mpg and will handle better than any muscle car built in the 60’s or early 70’s and is capable of low 11 second 1/4 runs. Plus can carry 4 adults with ease.

[Lloyd Smale]

Clevelands were boat anchors, big, heavy... unless you built it with aluminum intake and did other things to lighten the car they were good for burnouts but not all that fast

oh but mary im not a ford guy but those 351 Cleavlands with there higher comprssion and huge ports and valves were just a cam swap from eating the small block 351s for lunch. they were just like the 429 boss motors. a monster motor in about every way that they stuck a lame cam in that wouldnt let them go past 500 rpm. spun a bit faster and thoe big pots and valves made power. the biggest joke were the 2 barrel clevelands who ever made the decision to do that should have been fired on the spot. now they were boat anchors. even stock for stock i rarely saw a winsor beat a cleveland 4v.

[Lloyd Smale]

My current car has 668 hp. If it had 778 I would enjoy it more It averages around 22 mpg and will handle better than any muscle car built in the 60’s or early 70’s and is capable of low 11 second 1/4 runs. Plus can carry 4 adults with ease.

so what is it?

[TD1886]

oh but mary im not a ford guy but those 351 Cleavlands with there higher comprssion and huge ports and valves were just a cam swap from eating the small block 351s for lunch. they were just like the 429 boss motors. a monster motor in about every way that they stuck a lame cam in that wouldnt let them go past 500 rpm. spun a bit faster and thoe big pots and valves made power. the biggest joke were the 2 barrel clevelands who ever made the decision to do that should have been fired on the spot. now they were boat anchors. even stock for stock i rarely saw a winsor beat a cleveland 4v.

I'm not a Ford person, but will have to admit those 351 Clevelands ran pretty good. The very first year Ford came out with the 302 HP Boss engine it was toted by the auto world as being one of the most radical engines out of dealership. It had some of the largest intake valves ever and a crazy cam. The very next year they detuned it.

[Rickf1985]

theres some truthful memories

I was wondering when someone was going to point that all out! I was a pro racer from 68 up through the late 80's-early 90's and I have seen and heard all the horsepower stories and fantastic (and unobtainable) timeslips. You got a guy here running a 340 Cuda in the 9's at the same time I am running a top alcohol dragster in the low 8's. Must have been one hell of a Cuda!!!!!

[snowwolfe]

so what is it?

Cadillac CT5 V Blackwing

[imashooter2]

Cadillac CT5 V Blackwing

A few years ago I was in Florida to play some January golf with a good friend and we went to a local drag strip on practice Wednesday. There was a grocery getter Cadillac running 11s on street tires through the exhaust. Quiet, refined… for all I know he had the A/C on.

[snowwolfe]

I like the “stealth” factor the Blackwing offers. It doesn’t look fast so it flys under the radar. The only people who recognize it are real car guys. The car can also be purchased with a 6 speed manual.

[Lloyd Smale]

Cadillac CT5 V Blackwing

those are bad to the bone

[Lloyd Smale]

A few years ago I was in Florida to play some January golf with a good friend and we went to a local drag strip on practice Wednesday. There was a grocery getter Cadillac running 11s on street tires through the exhaust. Quiet, refined… for all I know he had the A/C on.

that would be a blackwing

[Lloyd Smale]

I like the “stealth” factor the Blackwing offers. It doesn’t look fast so it flys under the radar. The only people who recognize it are real car guys. The car can also be purchased with a 6 speed manual.

but why would you? i have a 6 speed challenger but would never have bought it new with a stick. you buy a car like that because you want to go fast so why a stick that makes you slower. yup even if you think your a powershifting sob. look at the hell cat, vette ect. you cant even buy them with a stick. same r]for the exotics. find a ferrari or labo or even a top end Porche with a stick. they dont exist. i considered myself pretty good rowing them back in the 70s but a truth many dont want to admit is the sticks were an advantage with a high winding lower torque small block but even then with the bigger motors two identical cars one an auto and one a stick most times the auto was quicker. today sticks are right up there with crank starters and oil lamps for headlights

[snowwolfe]

Lloyd,
Your preaching to the choir here. I agree with pretty much everything you said. I ordered my Blackwing with the A10 and have no regrets. Been shifting gears since getting my license in 1969 and grew tired of it.
Sorry for the upside down photo. It was correct when I loaded it. Click on it and it should be OK.

[Lloyd Smale]

you own a hell of a car!!

[TD1886]

but why would you? i have a 6 speed challenger but would never have bought it new with a stick. you buy a car like that because you want to go fast so why a stick that makes you slower. yup even if you think your a powershifting sob. look at the hell cat, vette ect. you cant even buy them with a stick. same r]for the exotics. find a ferrari or labo or even a top end Porche with a stick. they dont exist. i considered myself pretty good rowing them back in the 70s but a truth many dont want to admit is the sticks were an advantage with a high winding lower torque small block but even then with the bigger motors two identical cars one an auto and one a stick most times the auto was quicker. today sticks are right up there with crank starters and oil lamps for headlights

Lloyd, back in the day of the 4 speed the Hurst V-Gate shifter actually made the stick shift faster then an automatic. I had one in my 61 Impala Bubble Top with a HP 350 backed by a Borg Warner Super T-10 4 speed with that shifter. Many said at the time you can't drive on the street with that shifter, but it was no problem.

[TD1886]

Lloyd,
Your preaching to the choir here. I agree with pretty much everything you said. I ordered my Blackwing with the A10 and have no regrets. Been shifting gears since getting my license in 1969 and grew tired of it.
Sorry for the upside down photo. It was correct when I loaded it. Click on it and it should be OK.

Nice car. I've been driving a stick since 65!

[rbuck351]

Although I'm not a car guy, there is one car from the 60s that is my dream car. That would be the mid 60s 427 side oiler Shelby Cobra. Even a lowly 289 version would do.

[MaryB]

Although I'm not a car guy, there is one car from the 60s that is my dream car. That would be the mid 60s 427 side oiler Shelby Cobra. Even a lowly 289 version would do.

I know 2 twin brothers with FOUR 427 Mustang Mach Ones, a 427 in a Pinto(full on dragster...), and a shelf with 10 spare engines... they have a total of 28 Mustangs... all of them in mint condition!