Ol' Fart's Firebird Fantasy

[Mark Yacavone]

Okay, I remember the article, and your driver...somewhat...but what is or was her full name, and yours?

Oh ,and let's get this out of the way right now:

[oldskool]

Originally Posted by Mark Yacavone

Okay, I remember the article, and your driver...somewhat...but what is or was her full name, and yours?

Oh ,and let's get this out of the way right now:

OK, I think I can explain all this. My name is Don Hurst. They named a shifter after me.

My wife goes by her initials, which are T & J. She doesn't like her real name that much, so everybody has just called her TJ now for about 40 years. She just said "But I'm not really that old."

Now, about Freddie: Back in the old days, most people named their car. So TJ named her car "Easy Lovin". She designed all the numbers and lettering herself, and cut them out of Mylar decal material. That name came from the Freddie Hart song by the same name. It was one of her favorite songs back then. In fact, it was a lot of people's favorite song. If the online info is correct, the song won top country song of the year in both 1971 and 1972. It was #1 on the country charts for 3 weeks, even reached as high as #17 on the Billboard chart.

And as you can imagine, it got a lot of air time on the radio, on both pop and country stations. TJ just said she even remembers it being played over the PA system at some of the tracks where we raced.

So, when people saw that name on her car, they all could relate it to that song.

[oldskool]

TJ used the EZ name thru the '78 season, then changed it to "Born Again". One pic below shows her blasting off at I-20 Dragway in Tyler, Texas, in '79.

The other pic shows her '67 Bird which ran a best of 11.82 in '88. Beginning around '76 into '77, all the local tracks we ran switched to bracket only, with very few exceptions. They did have an IHRA points race in Tyler in '78. But they also ran a 16 car bracket field at that race. TJ won it from the #16 position.

[Dan Lattimore]

Mark probably has more insight on this --but--We looked at that 75-76 455 but if I'm not mistaken the head CCs jumped about plus 20 CCs from 1974. At a loss of about 2 compression ratios we decided to pass.

68 Firebird. The 400 combo rated at 327 like Brent runs can run the index without much trouble or expense. If you want it to be a killer, then you need a good trans converter and some testing time and effort. You will have to rpm these some to make them run well.

the 350 combo could be an interesting deal. Good compression, better heads for the smaller size. 305 is a good place to start with these. This should run the index without much trouble. Parts should be easy to find, as well.

Either car you build should get you into the game without a munch of expense, getting to the next level is the harder part. Expense wise

[oldskool]

We'll get around to possible 350 and 400 combos later. But since I already have a couple of 455's together, I wanna discuss 455 combos some more. I already mentioned using a '76 TA.

But now I wanna explore the possibility of using one of the heavier bodies. One of my Pontiac heroes from the old days was Jack Mullins. We saw him run at a points race in Jackson, MS in the mid '70's. He ran a screamin 389 and a 4-speed in a big heavy wagon.

Jack won some big races. I think it was at the US Nationals where he beat the factory Mopar driven by Judy Lilly(Miss Mighty Mopar). I think he was responsible for several hp refactors on the 389 Pontiac engine.

Another famous Pontiac racing wagon was the "Tons a Fun" Lemans wagon. I think Gary and Charlene Wood both won races in this wagon--actually there were at least 2 of them.

http://www.hotrod.com/cars/featured/...ntiac-history/

I can see at least 3 advantages of using a wagon. (1) They are heavy, putting you in a much lower class. (2) A lot of that weight is in the rear, which should help increase traction. (3) If you can find one that hasn't been crushed, it should be cheaper than a TA.

Now there are several other big cars that were about the same weight as the wagons. Some of these had a real long wheel base--123". Some, like the Grand Prix, had a shorter wb--116"

Now, my thinking is that the big cars with the real long wb would be the least desirable for a drag car. I would think that either a Lemans or a GP would be a little easier to hook up, than the big car with the longer wb. What do you guys think ?

One other advantage I can see that the heavier cars might have is that you can run the stiffer radial slicks with a lot of air pressure. They will still hook because of the extra weight over the tires, especially the wagons. And the higher air pressure will produce less rolling resistance.

After looking at the list of '76 models that can run a 455, it looks to me like the Lemans wagons with 116' wb might be the best choice. Next would be the 112" wb 2-door Lemans. Then the GP's. I'd say that the Cats and Bonnies with 123" wb would be the worst choices.

http://www.classracerinfo.com/Engine...px?ENGINE=2107

Now, here's a question for you guys. The big wagons have a 127" wb and weigh 5000lbs. Is this just too big for Stocker ? Or can it still be competitive because of it's slower index ? Will all that extra weight be harder on parts, causing failures ?

Also, do any of you guys know if the '76 Lemans and Lemans Wagons had the 8.5" rear end ? What about the GP ? Cat's, Bonnies, & Big Wagons ?

[oldskool]

Now, I think all these '76 Pontiacs except for the Birds had coil spring suspension. The Cal-Trac type set-up seems to be pretty much std equip for today's leaf spring Stocker.

But how about the coil spring cars ? On my '69 GTO, all I did was stiffen the rubber bushings with finishing nails, and run air bags, with more air in the passenger side bag. It worked OK on a mid 12 sec car.

http://www.jegs.com/p/Air-Lift/Air-L...43887/10002/-1

So what is the best legal set up for the coil spring suspension on one of these heavy cars ? If there are any aftermarket parts involved, please list brands and part numbers if you have them. Links to them would be great.

Whether I use a coil spring car or not, there is probably somebody who will read this who can benefit from a detailed description of a good coil spring set-up for a Stocker. Thanks in advance for sharing this info with us.

[HandOverFist]

Variations of these work well... http://www.summitracing.com/parts/hal-5213/overview/

[oldskool]

Originally Posted by HandOverFist

Variations of these work well... http://www.summitracing.com/parts/hal-5213/overview/

OK, that's one vote for no hop bars. Is that what most of you coil spring guys are using ?