The cars that time forgot...

[SkylinerRon]

John, do you know Jeff Lee?  He is from that area and has raced a 70 AMX NHRA Stocker for a couple decades.

AMC had lots of "X" Models, 72 up Hornet 2drs, Hatchbacks and wgns!

Pacer V-8's weren't an easy bolt-in like a Gremlin or Hornet. Lots of mods required.
Little known info,  Pacer frt suspensions were a bolt-in like a pinto but, wider, bigger brakes, 5 lug wheels and rack&pinion.

Ron.

[Zapato]

Had forgotten all about those Pacer front ends, now remember a magazine article where they sliced a couple inches out of the middle of the cradle, welded it back together and bolted it to an early Ford.

Also forgotten till now for me were the bolt on front spindles with disc brakes. In this area lots of guys were using them on trailers. Remember toying with the idea of milling the spindle off my 41 ford and bolting on a pair of those spindles. Am sure someone probably pulled that off.

Lots of good ideas came from many of the companies that didn't survive the 60s/70s. I was given at one point a (64?) Studebaker Cruiser had the earliest example of a cup holder I'd ever seen in a car. In the glovebox lid. Drop the lid pull up the secondary lid and push it back to keep contents in place and lift up the dual cup holder.

I should have removed that dash and steering wheel out of that car before it went away, both pristine.

Zap-

Ron, I may be wrong but don't remember Pinto front suspensions being bolt ons, seem to think guys carefully cut that whole part out of the cars then cut them to fit. Unlike the very popular and true bolt in Corvair front ends that were done almost from day one and into the late 70s.

[Ford Blue blood]

Zap you are correct.  The Pinto, like the M II was out of a unibody car.  You had to cut the cross member from the car, trim to fit and weld it to the chassis.  Re enforcing plates were advisable as well.  My 36 Chevy (351C/FMX) has about 80K on a M II that was cut out of a donor.

[Fonz]

I lived and raced in Phoenix during this time.  They were located in Mesa, AZ., just south of the Beeline Dragway track.  Randall also ran a "very quick" bright red, two wheel drive "open" Jeep in the AHRA stock classes.  The required safety equipment was just a clean STP T-Shirt!  LOL 

We raced the Don Sanderson Ford Falcon in Modified Production and Hot Rod classes.  It was a 289 run at 9# and 10# per cubic inch.

Other car dealers in the Phoenix area were also active during this period.  Brown and Hoye Chevrolet ran a record holding Corvair, and Rudolph Chevrolet ran a A/S Chevy II.

Many thanks for sharing this personal experience! The last speed shop I heard going was Lipman AMC / Jeep in Conneticut. They did a visual and performance conversion for Pacer called "Diablo" It had the 360 motor, because I think even Police issue 401s were unavailable on a crate motor basis by this time.

The 1972-79 Ford midsizers with separate chassis were nice riding, handling cars. The 351 CJ and 460 motors were strong for the time, you could get a 4 speed thru '74, and the later 400M wasn't bad as an econo/performance compromise of the day.

Merc XR7 U Tube



Gran Tomato