Was that the "RED WITCH" on T.V.?

[Chevy454]

Charley:

Was watching PHR(?) and saw what appeared to be the "RED WITCH", and then they mentioned your name, so I knew that it must have been true! Looked good, but I was curious...what engine was in it? I just got to see bits and peices of the show, but what I saw was AWESOME!!!!

[Charley Lillard]

Nope. That was the Thrasher. It was Popular Hot Rodding's "Car of The Year". It has a 427" small block that makes 614 hp on pump gas. 6 speed with AC and gets about 17 mpg. Has been clocked at 170 mph and will turn a corner like a Go-cart. The Red Witch is a 67 with a aluminum 532" 630 hp , 9-1 comp engine. It was Hot Rod Magazine's "car Of The Year" in 1996. The Red Witch is in Detroit right now. My Wife and I are gonna drive it from Detroit to Ca. on Power Tour in a couple weeks. Oh Boy. The show should air on TNN again tomorrow. These 2 cars really do take the fun out of driving the Stock type stuff.

[Chevy454]

C:

I want to know...does it ride and drive as good as it looks? If so, "WOW", cause it looks A-W-E-S-O-M-E!!!! What has been done to it chassis wise?

To me, it looks like the best of both worlds: todays ride/performance, with yester-years classic lines/personality. I have considered getting a new muscle car, but they seem to lack the personality the old cars do, while the old cars lack the drivablility (sp?) of the new cars. It appears it is now possible to have the best of both worlds.

For those of you who missed it, here is a link to the show with Charley's car on it: http://www.phrtv.com/219808/index.asp

[Edited by Chevy454 (04-07-2001 at 05:42 PM).]

[Charley Lillard]

Thanks... Driving it is the most fun part. The front suspension has bee modified by the use of screw jacks, revised A arm geometry, Stielow built spindles, relocated tie rod attachment points, etc. 13 1/2" Baer Disc brakes all around, Viper T56 6 speed trans with a Chevy input shaft, Currie 9" rear, Landrum rear springs. There are a couple good web sites ...One is Pro-touring.com. A couple others are Detroitspeed.com and Waynedue.com. Wayne Due makes a Killer Rectangular tube subframe for first gen Camaros that shaves 150 lbs off the front of the car. PS... The Viper shown on the show is a Lingenfelter modified 725 hp ? That would be fun...............

[Edited by Charley Lillard (04-07-2001 at 06:52 PM).]

[Jeff H]

Wasn't that car yellow at some time? Still a sweet car no matter what color it is.

[Charley Lillard]

No. The Yellow one you are thinking of is called The Twister, built by Kyle and Stacey Tucker. Their web site is Detroitspeed.com. The Twister has the first engine that was in the Thrasher.

[Denis]

hey, charley, do all your cars have names?

[bowtie3168]

Neat!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Chevy454]

Charley:

I'm gonna try and make it over to Springfield, MO, and check out that car of yours! What usually takes place at one of the stops? What time do you think you guys will roll in?

Hey, is anyone else going on the Power Tour? Does anyone know if Christiansen is going on it again?

[Chevy454]

Charley:

Well, I didn't get to go, but it sounds like you had a blast! Have you heard what the path of next year's Power Tour will be? You mentioned that Christiansen made the entire trip also...was he in his green '69 Yenko? (Note: I think you should post that story about the late model Camaro trying to catch you over here!) That Red Witch must be brutal!

[Charley Lillard]

Yep, Larry had the Green car. He added a 5 speed and 2 series gears to be able to Cruise. Maybe I can cut and paste my other Post ? I also need to Post a Photo but have yet to figure it out.

[Charley Lillard]

Power Tour was great. Lost a Diode in Alternator on the first day but other than that the car ran great. Averaged about 16.5 mpg. For great pics go to compcams.com and find the power tour 2001 link. Larry Christiansen drove his 69 Yenko the whole way also. I think the estimate was between 6 and 7 hundred cars that went the whole way. I have never seen those parts of the Country before so it was extra fun for me. Valentine one Radar Detector probably paid for itself a few times. Some days we left at 10.00 am and others we left at 8.00 am. Usually we would get to Destination at about 2.00 pm. At about 6.00pm there was a drivers meeting each day to talk about the next days drive and then the sponsors would have drawings for stuff like hats, shirts, bump steer kits, etc. Then Sponsors would throw hats and shirts out into the audience.
My Freeway speed was usually 85-95. Had one extended at about 105 for awhile with a PT Cruiser with me the whole way. At the next stop he said he saw my Radar detector and figured he would just do what I did. My speeds were generally faster than the pack so we did alot of waving as we drove by. At one point I guess we passed a group of about 5 cars together that all had CB radios. A minute later I see a red 93 Camaro coming fast. As he flys by I downshift to 5th and the chase is on. My spseedo only goes to 120 and it was long gone. Just as I catch him a big rig moves into the left lane to pass someone and we are both hard on the brakes. We slowed in time but it sure got our attention. Kinda dumb now that I think back. Later at the show one of his friends stops by and says that when I drove by their group they Radioed "Go get him Bubba" to their Buddy. He said Bubba radio back and said he didn't get the job done. Bubba stopped by later and said he had a 383 with a Paxton Supercharger. He said he was doing 160 when I caught him. Oh Boy !! This was probably the most fun car type thing that I have done. It really is fun and everybody was great. You get to talk to lots of people from everywhere. We would be in the middle of nowhere and some car club would be on the shoulder of highway waving and holding up Banners, pretty Cool. If you are a Car Guy you will Love Power Tour. Whatever you drive make sure it has highway gears. I think at 85 mph I was at about 2200 rpm. There was even 2 Gray haired, bearded teachers from Hot Rod U that drove a 12000 mile Yugo from Phoenix to Pontiac and then all the way West. They were getting 36 mpg. I have a Pic of Larry Christiansen and myself sitting in the Yugo. Larry has the only other Yellow ZL1 so the caption shoud say something like we traded 2 ZL1's for this fine low mile Yugo. Its a long time to be away from home but man is it worth it. Junk food across America. Kevin Oeste from Hot Rod TV sat me down for an interview and had me tell him all about the car so it might show up on Hot Rod TV at some point.

[Chevy454]

5 speed & 2.XX gears...NICE!

Yeah, you can cut and paste the story from Camaros.net. Read THIS PAGE (http://www.yenko.net/ubb/ubbcode.html) to learn how to insert images!

[Edited by Chevy454 (05-15-2001 at 09:09 AM).]

[Belair62]

Clill that sounded like a blast ! I'm sure it's a good thing your speedo only went to 120 because your wife would have strangled you when you got out if she saw 160+ ! We missed you in Joliet...sure was a crappy day in Chicago .....

[Charley Lillard]

The Weather was nice in Effingham. Believe me, she knew we were going fast. The Popular Hotrodding TV episode with my 69 featured is gonna air again this weekend on TNN.