vintage ....68 Camaro.. on board, on track

[70tangerine]

driver is well known, a real hot shoe

I am pretty sure these cars were never this good during the day, it just seems so sorted.....I dont know what gearbox/trans that is, but Im in love....:

http://www.roadandtrack.com/motorspo...h-can-am-cars/

[Chuck Miller]

Nice vid............

Might have told this one before but.........
It's late '70 and my friend and I are at Willow watching a Friday open test day...

At the pit wall we were watching this CalClub (SCCA) national competitor in his black A-Production Vette haul'n ass around (do'n laps back then probably around the mid to low 1:30's)

All of a sudden behind us a Chevy tilt bed pulled up with the yellow Roy Wood's '69 Tran Am Camaro....
In the truck's passenger seat was Milt Minter already in his suit... They all got out and started scrambling to get the car on the track as fast as they could... I learned later they were do'n the Mission Bell 200 Tran Am that weekend at Riverside and needed to test the car.

Milt got flagged on to the track just as the big block Corvette passed on the start finish straight....
We watched in awe as Milt started making up time on the A-Prod (from a standing start) on this first 'outs lap' ....
At the end of that first 2.5 mile lap Milt came out of Willow's infamous turn 9 with a full head of steam and passed the Corvette just before the stripe like he was tied to a tree....

I came away with a few thoughts that Friday....
- Even a good national level well driven SCCA 427 A/P Corvette is NO match for a professionally prepared, professionally driven 305 Trans Am sedan...
- I learned the difference of 'speed at your convenience' and 'speed at your bosses demand'...
- Milt Minter became even more of a hero to me then he already was...

Milt and the Woods Camaro came in 7th at the Mission Bell that weekend... Parnelli won in the Bud Moore Mustang
Milt's 7th was good for $1200 bucks....

.... and so it goes

[Chuck Miller]

Ooooops.....
http://www.early911sregistry.org/for...ing-suit/page2

Post #4

Sorry for re-tell, and then the re-tell again..... Oh well

[70tangerine]

love those stories.....thnx

[LongRanger]

Before falling in with funny little furrin cars, my dream ride was always a stripped '69 Camaro --- as in . .

..one seat

..no carpets, no AC, no radio, etc

..really BIG gas tank

..fiberglass bumpers, front quarters, trunk + hood

..no exterior trim/badging

..stupid-big brakes --- 8-piston in front + 6- in back



. . . and a liiiiiiiittle 5-liter Chevy V-8 . . .


. . . built by these Guys . . .
https://speedsport.com/racing-histor...zed-confusion/



I actually got as far as buying the car --- a sweet-sweet little '69 RS-350 . . . but gave it to my Mom when her Matador cr@pped-out

Ended-up slummin'-around in my Sister's '68 Bug . . . and got caught-up w/ air-cooled stuff



But --- anyone who's ever dissed a Yankee small-block push-rod V8? . . .


. . . hasn't seen/heard/smelled/been run-over by someone runnin' one o' deez rattle-can gray Little Debils




http://www.camaros.org/forum/index.php?topic=8107.180




.......

[70tangerine]

I hear ya.....


traco...pure porn,..just read that story......just fantastic!..never knew those details

detroit speed has built some 'mazing hi end 69's.....not raw stripped racers, but over the top 600-900 hp hot rods.


growing up, I lived 20 mins from Baldwin Motion

[LongRanger]

. . . growing up, I lived 20 mins from Baldwin Motion . . .

. . . = 'before Chevy'






......

[70tangerine]

is that the same "motion"?.....I never knew yet Ive seen that pic many times!

my plumber in brooklyn ny would show up at my home in 1965 or so w/ a slabside snake.....burgundy, it was love at first site for me as an 8 yo.....

[LongRanger]

. . . that the same "motion"?.....I never knew yet Ive seen that pic many times! . . .

Yup --- + Rosen helped run a 427, too . . .


. . . anyone remember the 'King Cobra'



'. . . Motion Performance Helped Transform This Cobra into a Snake to Reign Supreme

It takes some serious stones to crown yourself “King.” If you have the stuff to back up the claim, a legend may be born. Get it wrong, and your poseur status will live forever.

Take the title King Cobra. It’s totally legit for a select few cars in Ford’s past, yet completely laughable when hung on a certain ’78 Mustang II. In the case of Len and Linda Perham’s 427 Cobra, it rightfully earned the regal status lettered between the car’s curvaceous fenders.

CSX3159 left Shelby American’s LAX digs in late 1965 as a standard-issue Cobra (if there is such a thing). It wouldn’t become King until one Clem Hoppe bought it in April 1966 from Larsen Ford in White Plains, New York. Hoppe bought the factory black car with the expressed desire to go drag racing, recalls salesman and Larsen High Performance Manager Bill Kolb. In such circles, it wasn’t long before Hoppe ran into Motion Performance’s Joel Rosen at Island Dragway, where Rosen put on quite a show in his own small-block Cobra. Yes, the Joel Rosen we all associate with Chevrolet supercars was a Cobra man in his earlier years.

Rosen chuckled when speaking to us about the early days of the business he first set up in a small Brooklyn service station. “I remember calling Shelby American to try and get on board as an authorized parts dealer and talking with Don McCain, who turned out to be one of the factory Dragonsnake drivers. We got the deal, but if he’d known I was so small—I was doing my business from the corner pay phone— I don’t know.”

By the time Hoppe met Rosen, Motion Performance had already moved to Baldwin, New York. Prior to the linkup with Baldwin Chevrolet, Rosen was still a corner speed merchant, albeit one of the first to use a Clayton dyno for tuning purposes.

Rosen knew well the prowess of his own small-block racer, and Hoppe’s 427 presented an opportunity to go to the next level. It was Rosen who proclaimed the kingly designation it would wear on its flanks, and the royal treatment included a Jack Merkel–built 427, custom headers, Koni coilovers, 4.88 gears, magnesium FIA Halibrands, a gold hardtop from Rosen’s own car, and much more.

The details were spelled out in a feature story for the June ’67 issue of Speed and Supercar, written and photographed by Marty Schorr. Schorr also wore the hat of editor for Hi-Performance CARS, and he frequented the Motion Performance shop on a regular basis—even bringing test cars in for a quick tune. His story emphasized the complete domination the King Cobra enjoyed in Northeast Sports Production classes and made particular note of the fact that the car was still quite streetable.

In his recent book, Motion Performance, Tales of a Muscle Car Builder, Schorr’s account of Rosen’s first outing in the modified King Cobra at New Jersey’s Atco Dragway illustrates just how different things were back in 1966.

“My partner Jack Geiselman and I drove the 427 Cobra for more than three hours to the track, followed by a shop support car,” Rosen remembered. “We changed plugs and tires and made a couple of passes. We set the AA/SP record at 10.67, put back the street plugs and tires, and drove back to the shop. Except for almost going deaf and my back taking a beating, it was a piece of cake.”

The King Cobra had also set a NASCAR record by the time of the Speed and Supercar feature, though the article speaks in generic terms of the car’s mid-10-second e.t.’s at 130 mph. Other sources cite a ’68 NHRA record of 10.3 at 133, quick enough to wonder whether the car ever dipped into the 9s. Rosen didn’t know for sure, since Hoppe continued to race the King after Motion was no longer involved. “I will say this,” says Rosen, “there’s no question it would’ve been a 9-second car on today’s rubber. It was an absolute monster.”

It turns out Hoppe’s ownership of the Cobra was relatively short-lived. He mysteriously disappeared in 1969, never to be seen or heard from again. Owner number two entered the picture in 1973, when Carl Mentz purchased 3159 from Hoppe’s father. By then, the racing engine and black-and-gold paint scheme had been replaced by a 428 and a blue paintjob with what Mentz describes as a “snakeskin stripe.” Also gone were the rollbar and side pipes, but not the knowledge of what once had been.

“I was looking for a Cobra right after college,” says Mentz, “and the Cobra Club Vice President Mark Buchheim knew that 3159 was for sale. Its drag race history was well known, but I wanted something I could drive on the street.” To that end, Mentz put the car back to street specifications, made a color change to Guardsman Blue, installed a “correct” 427 Medium Riser from John Vermeersch, and debuted it at SAAC 2 in 1977. One additional owner enjoyed 3159 after Mentz sold it in 1981, but any street pretense was over once Shelby restorer Tony Conover purchased the car in 1994.

Conover felt strongly that the King Cobra heritage should be emphasized and set out to liberate 3159 from years of living incognito. It was “remarkably original and complete,” save for the missing racing gear. That means the interior patina is authentic, as are the engine surrounds, which now hold a fresh 427 High Riser by Bob Kriner. And that scrawled engraving of the all-important CSX number in the engine compartment? Yep, circa 1965 Shelby American. Credit Conover’s restoration shop for prepping the aluminum skin and laying down two-stage PPG in the original black hue, and Gary Barnes for the hand-painted graphics per period photos.

In 2005, the Perhams bought CSX3159, and it now resides in their collection of impressive American muscle. Mark Schwartz and the crew of Campbell Auto Restoration get the enjoyable task of maintaining the car now, and they have meticulously examined the underpinnings to ensure it can be wheeled safely and confidently. It’s too bad that any such driving avoids attempts at single-digit e.t.’s, but the Cobra is understandably too valuable to beat on in the 1320 anymore. We’ll just have to take Joel Rosen’s word about the car’s potential, and appreciate the legend of a car with a well-deserved name . . .'


http://www.hotrod.com/articles/hrdp-...a-dragonsnake/

[70tangerine]

just fantastic stuff....

I live in the White plains area now......funny

the way that body is slim at the waist and then the hips explode.......just so sexy.

One day, Ill have a 289 FIA kit......ERA, or Hi Tech maybe.