Re: Oddball Muscle Cars
 

Incredibly, a Checker Marathon ran in M/S at the 1984 ADRA (not AHRA) Winter Nationals at Tucson; it was actually a pristine car complete with cab benches and quarter-inch thick interior upholstery.

Concerning the supercharged '57 Fords, the Thunderbirds ran in Sports Production, (/SP), because they were true two-seaters and not subject to homologation rules. If memory serves, the Fairlanes started out in D/Stock and then got booted up to C/S and, eventually, B/S where they were shuffled off to uncompetitive oblivion.

Re: Oddball Muscle Cars
 

I also was told today that some of the 1964 Checker models had Chrysler power....not sure if they were the taxi models, or consumer models....6 or V8? Maybe the slant-six that tons of other Chrysler model cabs ran?.....I've heard stories of slant six powered cabs going well over 600 thousand miles w/out being re-built?? How true? Not sure, but everyone who remembers them says the Checkers were real rugged cars that were real survivors.... Mark Yac, you must know something about the Checker vehicles, no? WJ

Re: Oddball Muscle Cars
 

50s early 60s Checkers used Continental flat head six engines. The same basic engine as a Kaiser-Jeep.

63-64 slant 6 in most and the 6-8 door Aerobus used the 318 V-8.

late 64 Chevy six and Chevy 283/327 V-8 started to be used.

Borg Warner 3 sp stick or BW automatics were used.

The 300hp 350 was avalible in 1969.

The GM TH400 was used in 1973 and newer.

Dana 44 rear axle 1968 and newer.

There is a raceable combo in there if you want something different.

Re: Oddball Muscle Cars / Checkers
 

Oddly enough, I thought about mentioning Checkers in this thread yesterday. Did you know that they finally closed the book on Checker just this past January, 27 years after the last car was produced?

"On January 14, 2010, the Checker Motor Company ceased to exist with the sale of its Kalamazoo headquarters. It was purchased for just under $3 million by a holding company, the Jones Group, which will sell off the assets and clear the 72 acres. Checker president David Markin was quoted as saying, "It's finished. Our family is very distressed about the closing of the company, but it became inevitable."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Checker_Motors_Corporation

ps. The Buick Lacrosse is built in Canada with tooling acquired from Checker.

Re: Oddball Muscle Cars
 

Hopefully these photos come up OK, this is the ex Larry Walker "Legal Cheater" blown 57 Ford 312. I took these shots in 1972 or 73, at Mission Raceway, with an old Kodak Brownie camera. Shortly afterwards, the car went into storage for 35 or so years, hopefully it will come back out this year, back in the Larry Walker paint scheme.

Re: Oddball Muscle Cars
 

WJ,
Isn't Checkers a board-game that is played with black and red discs??? That Checker that raced at Dover was a legal Taxi, equipped with the mileage-meter and roof lights.. ..Wonder if he activated the meter when racing. What was the travel-cost back then,,, .35 cents for the first quarter-mile... I bet that car is still running... I never saw anybody kill those things....Launched like a Moose with that 3.09 first gear....
Mercury Cyclone,,,In 66', I think the 427/410 1x4 was called 'Cyclone 427',,, and the 427/425 2x4 was called the 'Cyclone 427 Super'.. ..I believe Billy Lagana of Mt. Kisco, New York (Ford match-racer) ran one. The 410HP ran in A/S and the 425HP ran in SS/B in 67'. Really a nice option for $1129 over the base price.
Paul,,,,Duck, another parachutist.

Re: Oddball Muscle Cars
 

OK, one more....Flashback to early '60's at the famous, but long-time closed NHRA-sanctioned Orange, Ma. Airport drag strip....A regular competitor there was a guy in a very cool-looking 2 door 1957 GMC blk 1/2 ton panel truck.... 283 (??)Chev small block 4 bbl. motor, headers, 4sp. stick, steep rear gear, rather narrow slicks, ran high 12's....put alot of people on the trailer...quite a screamer for back then....Don't know what was inside the motor, but it flew. On the side of truck was painted "Egg Man" Templeton, Mass. Supposedly the guy owned a chicken farm up that way and used the GMC for customer egg deliveries during the week.... THAT, is a odd combo....doesn't top the Checker, though.....:eek: :DWJ

Re: Oddball Muscle Cars
 

WJ,
The Checker may have it over that Chicken Truck by a 'Beek'.. Sounds like a good name for a restaurant in northern Massachussetts, to take your family; 'Chicken N' Checkers'..
OK, back to an ODD-BALL,, 1970 Buick Riviera GS 455/370HP,,the boat weighed in at 4400lbs. Once you got it going, how the hell could you stop it.. Probably 17.00's in the quarter..Anyone know how long it would take to stop it..about a minute...
Paul

Re: Oddball Muscle Cars
 

King of the ODD-BALLS,
1970 Oldsmobile Toronado GT,,455/400hp,, front-wheel drive. A frightening and scary beast. The GT came with a special order option
that included a special camshaft and torque converter. The car weighed in close to 4500lbs., which may be the heaviest car out their. Still could do the quarter 15.90's..Not a pretty sight.
Paul

Re: Oddball Muscle Cars
 

The Riv was a pretty good bracket car when most of us drove our racers to the track. I bought a used one in 73 or 74 and it worked pretty good on the local 1/8 mile track. It would spin the tires two or three times on the launch and kept the revs up (more or less) but by 400 feet was pulling pretty hard. It must have been a hard car for the others to judge since I won more races than my level of skill should have produced.

I always wondered about the car. Almost every other one I saw had fender skirts which made them look even more boat-like. Mine had some "mini" skirts which were only a couple of inches thick and made the car look much better. It wasn't a GS and I never could find an option for them.

As far as I know, the 455 in the Rivieras was the same engine as the non-Stage 1 GS Skylarks.

Back to a car previously discussed, that same local track had a regular who raced a Studebaker Lark with a small block Chevy. Since he was bracket racing, I never knew whether he swapped the engine into it or if it was built that way. I remember him having problems with the rear end/axles and I think he finally put a Mopar 8 3/4 in it after a while.