In The Beginning

[ZiggyL78]

My first car. For a long time now I said I was going to do a story on my past with Muscle Cars. Even though I have been retire for 16 years it just seemed like I could never get it done. Within the last 2 years I have also been not thinking straight and my memory is slowly draining away. I went for some tests and they tell me I have Dimensia. So I guess it's now or never.

I posted this a while back but I just wanted to start from the beginning for anyone who missed it. It all started for me at Belmont Chev Olds in 1969. I was a teenager fresh out of high school and my father promised me $400 for a downer on a car if I passed grade 12. I lived within walking distance of Gorries Golden Mile Chev, but everyone knew that if you wanted a fast Chev then Belmont was the place to go and Dave Mackay was guy to talk to. Dave was a great salesman and he knew his sh*t. He was the kind of guy that could read the back of a Corn Flakes box and you would think it was the word of God. He showed me a couple of cars and then something out front caught my eye. It was a 69 Camaro SS350 in silver with black interior and black SS stripes along the side. The front Endura Bumper was silver not chrome, to match the body. It had a 350/300 SBC 4 Spd with 4:10 gears. The SS wheels with the white letter tires really finished it off. OMG. It was friggin beautiful. Don't forget I was a green teenager who got excited just to drive the Old Man's 425 Olds. Dave took me for a ride behind the dealer. The car was dead stock so just cruising around was nice and smooth with the quiet exhaust. After all it was practically a new car. We started back to the dealer and pulled on to the street behind the dealer. Dave geared down and let her go. Damn. It was fast for me.
It ran 14.40. Dave powered the gears like a pro. I was sold. He gave me a great deal and I couldn't get to the bank fast enough.
It seemed like an eternity before me and my dad went to pick it up. I remember I was shaking all the way there. We finalized the deal and I went to get in the car. My dad stopped me and said "I'll drive it home". When I first went to look for a car my dad said "and I don't want to see any Hot Rod or a fast car". I couldn't believe he didn't realize it was fast when he saw it. We drove to the highway and when we got on the on ramp my dad nailed it. The car put down 2 nice black stripes on the pavement and actually got a little out of shape. Oh sh"t. It's all over now. I was so close. I almost had it. I figured he was going to get off on the next exit and take it back to the dealer. Surprisingly he didn't and we made it home. He got out of the car walked over to me and yelled "I told you nothing fast!" He kicked me in the ass so hard it lifted me right off the ground. ;)

[ZiggyL78]

Sorry for the poor pics. It only took me 5 days to get this done. ;)

[Stihl]

That is a beautiful car and a great moment for father and son! You were a fortunate teen.
Hang in there.

[njsteve]

Awesome story!

I bet you the boot in your backside when you got home was your Dad's version of a congratulatory handshake.

Those photos are wonderful.

(I rotated your picture for you.)

[cook_dw]

Love the story and thank you for sharing. Father and son stories get me every time..

[scuncio]

Thanks for sharing your story. Very cool.

[carnut4life]

That was a great story Ziggy, can't wait to hear more! Love the pics too.

[LT1vette]

That looks like Pharmacy Ave or Victoria Pk in the background???

[muscle_collector]

great story and pics. thank you. i pray for the best for you and your family

[AnthonyS]

Awesome story!

Early car too, short spoiler.

All the best man, all the best.
Anthony

- my car was delivered at Gorries.

[BJCHEV396]

Thanks for sharing Ziggy!Hang in there bud.Bill,in Ottawa.

[dykstra]

Great story! Thanks for sharing.

[CamaroNOS]

Well that was my morning "pick me up story" for the day Ziggy. What a great piece of history and thanks for sharing that.

I think your Dad was pretty good s.....t.

I would love to hear a few more stories of some of your other cars if you don't mind, as I am sure you have many.

Paul

[69LM1]

Wow, great read!

Rich

[ZiggyL78]

That looks like Pharmacy Ave or Victoria Pk in the background???

Close. Warden and Rossford. Near Ellesmere.

[ZiggyL78]

Big Thanks to all. More to come.

[67BelAir427]

Great story my friend !

[dustinm]

Cool story and beautiful car

[Jonesy]

Great story!! I noticed in the pic that the front fender stripe is solid and the 350 emblems are gone. Did you remove those?

[1967Z28]

Great story. I thought Gorries was a performance dealership, no?

[ZiggyL78]

Great story!! I noticed in the pic that the front fender stripe is solid and the 350 emblems are gone. Did you remove those?

I don't know. I can't remember. lol

I think I had a minor fender bender and told the paint shop to fill them in.

[Z282NV]

Great story!

I would have gladly taken a kick in the butt if my Dad would have helped me get my first Camaro!

[markinnaples]

Thank you for a great story about your Camaro, and prayers for your health.

[ZiggyL78]

So later that day my dad went to see a movie. I went to pick up one of my buddies to go for a cruise. We came up behind a 67 Firebird 326 HO. Of course when I pulled up beside this guy it turned out to be 2 of my buddies. They asked me where I stole the car from. We all went for a cruise and had a couple of runs from a roll. I figured since I didn't know what a 326 Pontiac was that it would be NP. It was surprisingly quick and it was a toss up on who got ahead. After all the jokes and corny excuses we decided to go outside the city to make a full pass. We went to Altona road which was a famous Toronto street racing spot. I still remember how dead silent it was at night.

So as I drove home that night I looked in the rear view mirror and a cop car with it's lights on was behind me. Oh. I guess he just wants to make sure that I get home safelyEmoji. He finally hit the siren to pull me over right in front of my house. It's a 70 degree August night and half the neighborhood is on the porch relaxing. Of course most of them got up to call the rest of the family to come and see Kenny's new car before the police tow it awayEmoji.

So here we go. License ownership and insurance. Is there a problem officer? You know what the problem is. When you left that last intersection you left 40' of rubber and squawked the tires in every gear. Oh. I'm sorry. I just bought this car and I'm not very good with a 4 spd. Silence. He gave me that "Give Me A Break" look and went back to his car. I need to get the car off the road before the old man comes home. 10 minutes later he gives me a ticket for unnecessary noise and says. You are lucky I didn't get a reading on you. You'd be on a hook right now heading for the the pound. Thank you officerEmoji.

I go to start the car and nothing. Oh come on! Is anything else going to happen tonight! We screw around with it for about 10 minutes and guess who comes home?

Hi Dad. What the hell are you doing? It won't start. He jumps in the car and it starts right up. No one told me you have to push the clutch in to start the car. Doh.

2 years later I sold it to a Chevy dealer. They called back 2 days later and said the rear end was cracked and there was no spare or jack. I said. Well. The car is still under warrantee. ;)


So after I sold the SS I went looking for a new ride When I was in high school I would always see this guy in a black 68 Nova waiting to pick up his girl friend. It was a black on black bench with a 4SPD. It had tinted glass, dog dish hub caps and the optional chrome package. But no SS option. It had a serious idle and I thought it had a built motor. Turns out the car was dead stock except he had pulled off the resonators added dumps and a Hurst shifter. Compared to the Camaro it sounded amazing! I asked the owner if it was for sale? He said he had just setup a For Sale Ad for the weekend. ALL RIGHT!!! I bought the car for $1800. Some of my buddies said I paid too much until they went for a ride! I would wait for for a passenger to start talking and then hit it. If they kept talking I guess they weren't impressed. Most people didn't keep talking in this car. They usually pushed back into the seat and said HOLLY ****. I'd power second & third and that really woke them up. Don't forget it was early 70s and a lot of guys had never been in something fast. Most of them thought that there Dad's 283 Impala was a rocket. "Ya man.It spins THE TIRE in the rain."EmojiEmoji

[Bill Pritchard]

That's some stance on that Nova! Great stories, keep 'em comin'.

[Mr.Nickey Nova]

Did it have the L79 327 by any chance??

[gtomike1967]

Great stories. Thanks for sharing and keep them coming! :-)

[ZiggyL78]

Did it have the L79 327 by any chance??


Yes. It was an original L79. I can't believe I left that out.

It had a cast iron intake with a Quadrajet. I am surprised on how quick it was. I can't remember for sure what gear it had. I'm thinking a 3:55 or 3:73 with a Muncie wide trans.
I do remember that it had no problems on the highway. Well at least till I started screwing with it ;). When I took it to the spring shop the guy asked me how high I wanted the car to sit. Now don't forget I was a squirrely young kid just starting out. I told him as high as possible. I wanted to put a big tire on it and I knew the Novas couldn't take much of a tire with the stock wheel well. 2 days later I go to pick the car up. Not high enough. Spring guy says they can't make it any higher with stock springs. OK. New springs. 1 day later he calls me. The car is too high! I can't get the driveshaft back in! Awww. Sounds perfect to me. Turns out a driveshaft from a 55 Chevy goes right in. Every abandoned 55, 56, and 57 Chevy lost a driveshaft that summer. Next I pull the stock motor and off to the machine shop. Cam, headers and some head work with an intake & carb. 4:56 gears were next. Right at that time the car was no longer fun to drive. I had a box of universals and caps in the trunk. The car would drop a universal or the driveshaft every time if I powered a gear. I got pretty good at changing universals on the shoulder. Easy install as I didn't need a jack! lol. We never figured out the problem and I sold the car. Obviously the pinion angle was off a mile after the new springs.

[CamaroNOS]

Man those are some wicked skinny but tall bias ply skins on the rear.

Paul

[RonZ11]

Close. Warden and Rossford. Near Ellesmere.
That brings back memories! I went to trade school at
Centennial college on Warden near Eglinton in 74/75/76. Wish I would have looked around Golden Mile / Gorries/Belmont back then. Thanks and lets hear some more!

[ZiggyL78]

Small world Ron. I had the Nova there one year. They had some kind of deal were they would work on your car for nothing to help train the students. Of course the line up to get in was very long, sometimes 2 years or more and it could take almost as long to get the work done.

I don't know if you knew that the Petro Can at Pharmacy & Eglinton had one of the first Chassis Dynos in the GTA. That was very high tech stuff back then. I took my L78 Nova there. We never got a good reading as the car would start spinning the tires at full throttle. They put 3 guys in the back seat and 5 sitting on the rear bumper. I can't remember what happened after that. :(

[ZiggyL78]

Man those are some wicked skinny but tall bias ply skins on the rear.

Paul

Did you notice the rear white wheels? That and white headers were big at that time.

[ZiggyL78]

Great story. I thought Gorries was a performance dealership, no?

For sure. A lot of fast street and drag cars came out of Gorries.

[CamaroNOS]

Yes I did notice the white wheels, cool. I will be looking for some more stories hopefully soon.

Regarding the Gorries Chev Olds dealership, this was the dealership that was building the 1967 Camaro Black Panthers in either a factory 327/210 HP or the crazy 427/425 HP dealer conversion Camaros.

Check out the articles from Mecum and Hagerty regarding these 67 Camaro conversions. Lance Hill from this site is also referenced as a big influencer in the muscle car/NHRA world.

https://monthly.mecum.com/2019/11/01/on-the-prowl/

https://www.hagerty.com/media/opinion/the-elsinore-files/meet-the-black-panther-ontarios-own-dealer-special-camaro/

Paul

[msclassiccars]

Thanks for sharing!

The days of a '69 SS 350 Camaro with an Endura front bumper just being another used car on the front of a dealer, I wish I was around for that.

[67BelAir427]

Great stories Ken !
I met Matt Avery at the Solid Lifter Showroom in 2019. He was writing that article on the Black Panthers and I put him in touch with a friend of mine Bernie Coffey who was a mechanic at the original Gorries in 67. Bernie was able to share with him some of the stories of the dealership back in the day. Bernie recalls that the dealership had a multilevel parking garage and that many mechanics would stay very late on a Friday night as customers came in for a super tune before street racing. he says he can still recall the sound of the cars in the parking garage with open headers on a Friday night.

[ZiggyL78]

So I sold the Nova and went looking for a new ride. I found a 64 Chevelle. It was a little rough but it had some good parts. It had a Vette 327, a Muncie and 1 good tire. 2 weeks after I bought it some old woman rear ended me. She really nailed me too. She buckled the trunk so bad that it stuck up about 10" from the top of the rear quarter and the bumper was just as bad. I settled with the insurance company for cash and tied the trunk down with a rope. Perfect! I knew the car was missing something ;).I bought a new Holley with the money :).

After I got home with the car I did a full tune up. Plugs, wires, cap, points filters and oil. Set the lifters and points and changed some leaking header gaskets. It had duel points so I guess it was a Vette motor. I took it out on the highway to clean it out. I made a full pass and everything seemed to be ok. I ran most of my buddies and I only beat one.

The car had no posi and no bottom end power. It needed a gear real bad. So me and 2 friends went down to the lakeshore were all the wreckers were. The first 2 had nothing but one of them made a call and sent me down the street. So I walk into the office and ask the guy if the donor car is off the ground. He chuckles and says. Ya. It's off the ground all right. He takes me to the back were the cars are all stacked on each other. He says there it is. He points to a 65 Chevelle that is about 40' off the ground. Let me know when you get it out and walks away. Great. He turns around and comes back and says. Be careful! I finally realized he was kidding and we all laughed. How are we going to get that one down. The owner says don't worry. Give me $120 and we will pull it out.

12 bolt. Only 64-65 Chevelle's with a 327/300HP would get one from the factory. So I give him the money and he says wait here. So 5 minutes later this kid shows up driving a stripped down tow truck. He says give me 5 minutes and when I yell here it comes you catch it ;).lol. He throws the torches over his shoulder and starts climbing these cars. He gets up there no problem. He starts cutting the control arms. The rear still had tires on it. I said to the owner. I hope he doesn't bend an axle when it falls. He says, Don't worry. So now the rear end is hanging by one parking break cable. So this kid is as strong as a bull. He lifts up one end of rear to level it out and cuts the other end brake cable. The rear falls and lands square to the ground and it must have bounced about 10'. So the owner says if there is anything wrong bring it back. As we are loading it up I see the posi tag. Right on.

So I take the rear right to Rick Eaton at Gorries. I gave him a 4:88 gear set and picked the rear up 3 days later. He had to use a spacer plate which made me nervous. He reassured me and said take it out and let her rip. How did he know how I break my rear ends in? ;).

Only 2 buddies knew I put a gear in the car. So as a regular part of our day we were all going some where so we were bound to run each. First up was Steve who had a 396 in a 55 Chevy. It ran OK but was never built to be king of the block. Today he was driving his 383 70 Challenger. Steve's car and mine made for a great race. Both were 4 spds, both were loud and both were driven by a Lunatic. lol. So Steve yells out are you ready? I said. You go first, I have to check the air in my tires! lol. One two three go. I let Steve get the jump on me just to be sure I was quicker. I hit it. Bang! Bang! Bang! it was over by third gear. I look over at my passenger Davey. He can hardly talk. What the frig did you do to this thing? I said I put a gear in it ;). Geez. I thought you had swapped the motor. I have never seen a car pickup that much with just a gear. Ya. I was shifting at 4000 too;).lol. Over the next couple of weeks I ran almost every one I knew. I got most of them except one. The 55.

Wayne was the mechanic in the group. Just for any Toronto guys out there, he worked in the Gulf station at Warden and 401. If we weren't at Harveys we were at the Gulf station. If the phone rang at 2:00 AM in the station there was a street race some where. I remember these 3 hippies' in a Green 63 Bel Air 4 door with 3 on the tree with a 327/300 SBC. STOCK!!! It was one of those fluke cars that was a lot faster then it should have been. All 3 of them would jump in this 63, pool there money for gas and go hunting for a Road Runner. They won more then they lost.

Wayne drove a real Balls To
the Wall hot rod. It was a flat black 55 Chevy 327 4Spd with 4:56 gears with a one piece fiberglass front end and trunk lid. Nothing on the floor but paint and no back seat. If you have ever been in a 55 Chevy with a screaming SBC and fender well headers you will understand that there is no sweeter sound then a SBC at 7000RPM in a 55. I don't know what it is that makes it sound so incredible. Maybe the large area behind the steel dash, the bare floor or those fender well headers with the Corvair mufflers. And Wayne could shift like the wind. I don't remember why but that car had a Muncie shifter. They were one of the worst shifters ever. Hard enough to shift normally let alone power shift.
Knowing Wayne he probably did some trick work to get it to shift like that. The car ran low 12s and was tough to beat on the street. It had quite the rep. Strangers would drop by the station late at night. The 401 was just 1/2 mile away so there was always a place to run. Back then the 401 actually thinned out late at night. Now I know this will sound like BS but a friend of ours, Eric,had a 64 Vette. I had a pic of that car towing the 55 on a trailer to the track. I kid you not. If I had not seen it with my own eyes I never would have believed it!

OK. Back to the Chevelle. So the car is making good power now. Lets see how it hooks. I had these antique recapped slicks. They looked like the old slicks you see back in the 50s on rails. Some guys call them Cookie Cutter slicks because of the design of the sidewall. Just like the tires on Herman Musters rail! They were hilarious. They were 29" tall and 9" wide. They had a sidewall that started about half way up on a truck tire side wall and went straight up to the edge of the tire. They were on stock steel wheels and weighed a ton. There was so much rubber on the sidewalls that when they went flat the sidewall still supported the car and would not let the wheel to get closer to the pavement then say 4". The first ever run flats!!! lol. They did not wrinkle. They must have been over 15 years old. They worked OK if you did a 20 minute burn out. lol. They worked OK but they really killed the gear. M&H had just come out with a new tire. It was 25" X 10". PERFECT. I'll have lots of gear with these. I had put 90/10 shocks in the front and 50/50s in the back. That was it. Other then new HD universals the car had stock suspension. So I put the new slicks on stock GM 15x7 black station wagon steel wheels.

So I go and pick my cousin up and off to Sheppard & Meadowvale. There was no Zoo back in the early 70s so it wasn't very busy. I let the tires down to 14#s and pulled out onto the rubber marks from other guys racing. Have you ever tried to do a burnout with a 4SPD, no line loc, no water and new sticky tires? You have to be a contortionist. You can't slowly build up the RPMs the way you do with an automatic. So I bring the Rs up to 3000 with my right foot on the gas and the brake at the same time. My left foot is pushing the clutch all the way down. I side step the clutch and give it more gas and bang! The car stalls. Shit. I tried this way about 4 times and always stalled. So now I'm pissed. I nail the gas and drop the clutch at 6000RPM.OK. That works. The tires are smoking and I ease the car out slowly releasing the gas. The car slides out and almost stalls but I keep it going. I bring the Rs up to 5500 and drop the clutch. Wham! The car digs in and hooks. Geez. It felt like the rear broke. I back the car up to see if there are any parts on the ground. Nope .OK Here we go. Back into first. I move my butt around in the seat to get comfortable. I lean forward and get a good grip on the shifter. I bring the revs up to 4500 and as I side step the clutch I nail the gas. Now. If you have never dropped the clutch with slicks that hook you may not understand this. The car charges out of the hole for about a car length and slightly bogs but it is still pulling. I take a quick look at the tack and it's sweeping past 7000 and the car is farting & popping as the valves are floating. SHIFT!!! I pull second gear. Bang! Nailed it. The tach shows 6500 and climbing fast. Bang! I get it just before it floats the valves again. Now the revs are slowing down and I pull third & fourth and let off. I pull over to the shoulder hugging the steering wheel and looking straight ahead like I am in some kind of trance. I look over at Dave. He's gone! All I see are 2 legs sticking straight up. He's laying on the back floor with the seat underneath him. Dave! Are you OK. Holly frig! That was incredible! Throw me a rope! lol

So now people are starting talk about that POS Chevelle with the bent trunk lid. lol. Guys are coming out of nowhere and after they check the car out they want to race. They just can't believe that a car looks this bad and is quick. I even ran a couple of guys more then once. They say I had a couple of beers the other night and I wasn't ready. One of my friends yells out. Ya. You weren't ready to loose. Right. lol.

I didn't win every time. I lost a couple of times. But I won a lot more then I lost. And no one ever beat me off the line.

Sorry. This is one car I don't have a pic of. :(

[PeteLeathersac]

'

W:eek2:W stuff Zig, thanks for sharing also please don't stop!:headbang:
:beers:
~ Pete

.

[CamaroNOS]

Ziggy stop everything you are doing.

You need to write a damn book about this stuff. I love your style of writing, I was on the edge of my seat the whole time.

I hate to say it......I WANT MORE STORIES!!!!!!!!!

Paul

[GM Powertrain]

Your writing style reminds me of how Joe Oldham wrote and Tony Defeo wrote during his Cars Illustrated days.
Great stuff!

[firstgenaddict]

So what was up with the lack of 350 emblems on the front fenders?

Do you recall, WAS there a SS wheel as a spare?

GREAT STORIES BY THE WAY!!!

[ZiggyL78]

Great stories Ken !
I met Matt Avery at the Solid Lifter Showroom in 2019. He was writing that article on the Black Panthers and I put him in touch with a friend of mine Bernie Coffey who was a mechanic at the original Gorries in 67. Bernie was able to share with him some of the stories of the dealership back in the day. Bernie recalls that the dealership had a multilevel parking garage and that many mechanics would stay very late on a Friday night as customers came in for a super tune before street racing. he says he can still recall the sound of the cars in the parking garage with open headers on a Friday night.

Hi Marc. Great stuff. You sure seem to know all the right people

I didn't know much about the Black Panther. I thought there was a dealership on Avenue RD that sold them and that was it. They weren't a big hit with the Harvey's crowd as everyone that came in had the 327 and was beyond slow. There was a rumor about a few that had the 427 but know one ever actually saw one. CU soon.

[ZiggyL78]

So what was up with the lack of 350 emblems on the front fenders?

Do you recall, WAS there a SS wheel as a spare?

GREAT STORIES BY THE WAY!!!

Hi. Sorry. Can't remember on either. The car came with the proper stripes. I think I got dinged in a parking lot and told the painter to fill in the stripes. No idea on the spare. Thanks

[ZiggyL78]

Yes I did notice the white wheels, cool. I will be looking for some more stories hopefully soon.

Regarding the Gorries Chev Olds dealership, this was the dealership that was building the 1967 Camaro Black Panthers in either a factory 327/210 HP or the crazy 427/425 HP dealer conversion Camaros.

Check out the articles from Mecum and Hagerty regarding these 67 Camaro conversions. Lance Hill from this site is also referenced as a big influencer in the muscle car/NHRA world.

https://monthly.mecum.com/2019/11/01/on-the-prowl/

https://www.hagerty.com/media/opinion/the-elsinore-files/meet-the-black-panther-ontarios-own-dealer-special-camaro/

Paul

Cool. Lance was the top Chevy builder/racer in the country. Even his employees at the shop became famous Chevy mechanics and racers.

[ZiggyL78]

Your writing style reminds me of how Joe Oldham wrote and Tony Defeo wrote during his Cars Illustrated days.
Great stuff!

Well thanks. You and I are from the same mould. All your cars are some of my favorites and you've had a lot of Buicks as have I. You will like the stories of the Buicks if I ever get that far ;) .

[ZiggyL78]

So I'm walking through the pits with a buddy one day. It was a big show weekend and the new Pro Stocks were there all lined up. I heard something coming behind us and I turned around and it was a blue Vega wagon. It was Jungle Jim Liberman in his Pro Stock Vega wagon. When he drove by I looked at the back and all I could see was tire. It looked amazing. I looked at my buddy and he said Forget it man. That car would cost a fortune to build. 6 weeks later I called him up and said I have to pick up some parts. Do you wanna come? 1 hour later we are pulling into the back lot of Belmont Chev Olds. Davey wanted to wait in the car but I told him I needed a hand. We checking were out all the new cars. There was a midnight green Vega Panel Wagon sitting all by itself at the end of the aisle with nothing else close to it. It was late November and we had our first snow fall. The color was very dark and it had tinted glass. The snow had covered the drivers side window and we were standing on the passenger side. It looked like the car had dark tinted glass. You could barely see inside the car. Kind of dark and mysterious. Davey came up and said what are you looking at? I nodded towards the Vega. He looked and stopped instantly. Are you f**king kidding me!!! Are you going to buy it? I said I already did. We checked the car out. It was a 73 Vega Panel Wagon. Dark Midnight Green with black interior and tinted glass. It had one cheap beige seat in it and not many options. Tinted glass, HD battery, front disc brakes and HD cooling. No carpet.

It was listed as a truck with a truck ownership. Most buyers would be using them as a parts delivery truck. It came with a 3 spd manual trans and a 4 cylinder aluminum block motor. It was $2352 out the door! After driving it a few months on the street it was time to get started.

I called around looking for a chassis shop. Don't forget. This was 1972. There were not a lot of performance chassis shops around. After searching for a couple of weeks and getting ready to take it over the border I called Beatty & Woods. At first they didn't know anyone in Toronto that did that kind of work. Someone called me back the next day and gave me a number of a guy who worked on Hot Rods. His name was Dave Jackson and he was a good fabricator but he had never done a full back half or any job this big. It took a lot of talking and finally he decided to give it a try. He started on the car a couple of weeks later. On my third visit to his shop I met Wally Clark. He was a well know racer. He was a great guy and knew his shit. I figured if Wally was getting work done on his Vega here then I was in the right place.

I picked up a Dana 60 rear from the Courtesy Chev drag car that had crashed at Georgetown. We checked the rear end for straightness and one axle was bent. Luckily the rear came with a second set of Quarter Master axles so all was good. Dana axles are like baseball bats compared to a 12 bolt. The rear came with a 5:87 gear. Perfect for the street. lol. When I got the car all together I realized I could get a fairly wide tire in but the stock rear quarters could not take more then a 26" tall tire. Perfect. lol. I wanted to get the car all sorted out before I had the quarters opened up and the car painted. I remember sitting in Harvey 's behind the building and driving to the road. I could easily get the car into high gear before reaching the road. Talk about an eighth mile car. It didn't have much top end but not many could take me at a light.Emoji

Dave cut the floor from the back of the front seat to the rear bumper. The Dana fell right in as it was made for a Vega. Except for front end limiters the front end was all stock. I even kept the 4 bolt spindles and original coil springs.
I used the Hooker Swap Kit as there wasn't many available and it was well designed and came with 3 piece headers, motor mount plate and a trans crossmember.

At this point the car had a ladder bar suspension, mini tubs, 6 point cage, SBC, Muncie 4SPD and a Dana 60 with original paint. All tin work was steel. Even the stock hood and bumpers. I had picked up 2 bucket seats from a 1970 Celica, 3 gauges and a tach. This combo was Stage 1.

When I first started on the car I found my 1st shop at Sheppard & Meadowvale. That area was a well known street race spot and only about a couple of miles from Altona RD which was one of Toronto's most famous street race areas.

The shop was a stand alone building that was all brick with a cement floor, house size furnace, a huge loft and washroom. I still remember the first time I checked it out. It was a cold winter day and I expected to find a shop with a lot of junk stored. It was wide open and clean! Even the washroom. I stood in the middle of the main floor and it was warm enough for a T shirt! It was big enough for 4 cars. No drafts, leaks or cracks. I brought my stereo from home and I still remember the first song I played. lol. And no I wasn't dancing. Well. Maybe just a little .


Play That Funky Music
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It was an amazing shop compared to my dad's wooden garage with no insulation. I remember putting a set of 90/10 shocks in the Chevelle. It was winter time and below zero. I'm under the car and I pick up a nut and it actually stuck to my fingers! That's how cold it once.

So come Sat. morning and starting bright and early and the first job is remove the hood. The hinge assembly is welded on. Not bolted. Basically the hinge is welded on both ends. There is a solid pin that slips through both hinges with a C clip holding it together. I remove the C clips and the hood will still not come off. I look at it for 20 minutes and I just don't get it. I want the motor out on the floor today. I make some calls and no won has a clue. All my buddies are working on Chevelles and Camaros. I sure hate to start cutting things on a new car, but there is no other way. So we cut the hinges with a hack saw. Ouch!1 month later we weld the hinges back together. A year later I'm talking to a buddy at at GM dealer and he is working on a Vega. He's pulling the hood and asks me to hold it. So he goes to his tool box and I'm waiting to see him bring out some Hi Tech tool to do the job. He walks over with a large flat screw driver. Oh come on!!! He takes the screw driver and prys the one hinge apart. He then looks at me and says. What are you waiting for? An invitation? I snap out of my trance and look at the hing that is still hooked up. I move the hood side ways and the pin slips right out. DOH! I just couldn't believe that GM would design a hinge that you pry apart with a screw driver. Geez.









I got the 327 from the Chevelle on an engine stand and fixed a few leaks and painted it Chevy orange. It dropped in fairly easy with only a few mods. The headers were the most work but still went in fairly easy. This swap kit required you to cut a hole in the front wheel well for one of the header pipes to go through for more clearance. The inner stock wheel wells in a Vega are reinforced steel to help the unibody. I decided to keep the front end stock. The only mods I did were front end limiters and tow bar mounts. I also was running the original 4 bolt front spindles.

You don't see many people flat towing race cars any more but back then that was quite common. One problem that I ran into with the stock front end was the front crossmember was bolted in!!! So every time the car pulled the wheels and came down(which was a lot)it would try and spread the front wheels. I was getting a front end alignment every couple of weeks. When the front end was out of alignment the car would not straighten out coming out of a right hand turn while flat towing. The front tires would then scrub across the pavement and I would have to stop the tow vehicle, jump out, straighten the front wheels through the side window and then run back and get in the tow vehicle before somebody behind me would start honking his horn. Ya sure. It kept me in good shape but it was embarrassing. The only good thing about the whole deal was that when it started doing that I knew it was time to get the bear claw out and adjust the front end . For the first year before I got it fixed I would actually take a longer route to the track that had less right hand turns. LOL

[dykstra]

Love the clear valve covers!

[CamaroNOS]

Another great story.

Being from here, I can identify from my earlier days playing with frozen tools and hardware. The things we do to go faster.

The final product looked great, what times did it run with those crazy ass gears? Did you have enough engine to cross the line?

Paul

[useless tony]

I was 15 years old and rode my bicycle to a girlfriends place. Afterwards I decided to ride over to the nearest McDonalds (Warden and Sheppard) and couldn't believe the number of muscle cars in the parking lot. Turns out I had accidently stumbled upon the local car hangout. This Vega was one of those cars :smile: (although by this point in time there had been a colour change).

I am really looking forward to the stories.

Sorry to hear of your diagnosis Ken :frown:

[ZiggyL78]

So it's 1975 and the car is finally all sorted out and running well. I took the car to John Rossiter to check all the angles as the car does not feel right when it leaves. Turns out the custom ladder bars and mounts are all wrong. So I order all new stuff from Allison. Bars, mounts and brackets. We also cut the rear quarters to accept a taller tire. Each outer wheel well is cutout as a rectangle. Then you section that piece right in the middle at the highest point of the stock wheel well opening. As far as I can remember they added a 6" section which allowed for a 14 X 32 tire.

After I had the quarters opened up I decided to paint the the car. I had a guy who would paint almost anything including a color change for $750 and that was a quality job not a quick splash. At first it was going to be all white. It looked good but it just needed something to make it pop. I decided on a red stripe and I was happy with the way it turned out. I also put a reasonable gear in the car. I think it was a 4:33 but I'm not sure. With a 28.5" tire the car drove great around town. I drove it to the track a couple of times but it really made me nervous thinking something would break and I would be stranded. No cell phones back then.

So paint, glass hood, gears, ladder bars,350 SBC, tunnel Ram, crash box and 11.50W slicks were all done in the winter of 75. The car was all back together and ready for the car show. Speed Sport was one of the largest car shows in Canada and I was in that show at least 10 times. If you look at the pics you will see the fork lift lifting my car to the upper level. A buddy of mine told me not to watch them lifting the car up. I thought he was joking. OMG!!! When the car got near the second floor that fork lift started swaying like there was a strong wind. I kid you not. I was actually shaking!!! The fork lift guy jokingly said don't worry. I have only lost 2 so far this year! Haha. I wasn't laughing.

You'll hear me say this a couple of times. There are certain times in your life when you get a "SPECIAL FEELING" that you might never feel again. We all know those special times. When I had to drive the car up on the platform for the fork lift was one of those times. The headers were open and I'm in enclosed building jammed with Hot Rodders. Everyone is setting up their display. First I turn on the the electric pumps. I have 2 660 Holleys on the tunnel ram. That means 4 fuel bowls to fill. The car starts easy if you know how to do it. And of course this is one of those times were it might not start. A few people are watching as I hit the starter for about 5 seconds and then hit the ignition switch. WAM! Just like I knew what I was doing;). Everyone drops what they are doing and turns and looks. I creep the car towards the platform which has a ramp/lip about 5" high. A perfect place to stall. The motor is cold so I bring the revs up to about 1500 as I slip the clutch. I get it on the platform and that is done. Of course I am totally straight faced as if I know what I am doing;). We set the display up and walk around checking out the rest of the cars.

That weekend I pickup The Toronto Sun Newspaper and there I am on the front page! Geez! How did that happen? The car is almost in the centre of the pic. When I get to the EX everyone I know and a few I don't know make a crack. So one friend says how did you pull that one off? I said what? YOUR CAR ON THE FRONT PAGE OF THE SUN! Oh. That. Those guys have been bugging me for years to do a feature on the car.;)LOL.

The car show was the greatest part of the winter. It seemed like every year there was a blizzard on that weekend. It didn't matter. We were young and stupid. Always under dressed. We never wore a hat, boots or gloves. When you got to the car show there was always a huge lineup of cars to get in on the Thurs. That was setup day as the show opened on Fri. They had to get about 300 cars inside on one day. It took about 3 hours to finally get in.

I remember one guy asking does it have a heater? A heater? Of course the car has no heater. That's like asking does it have AC. Ya. It's called a window.;) The only heat the Vega provided was headers through the floor. lol. My cousin Dave had come down to help me. We would take turns sitting in the Vega or Dave's driver which did have a heater.

So one year I decided to go to The Street Machine Nationals. It was either the first one in 1977 or 78. Indianapolis. If you look at the pic of the white Caddy that was how we got there. Not everyone used a truck as a tow vehicle in those days. A big Caddy or Lincoln worked great. You could get a killer car back then for about $1200. Mint perfect. Get the proper hitch with trailing arms,Air Bags and a tranny cooler and you were good to go. Turn on the AC, plug in a tape and get out the map! Geez. No GPS. I don't know how we did it back then. Oh well. Even though we got lost more then a few times we arrived with out a sore back and a headache. I always remember arriving at a track for a big meet and seeing some guy who came from way out of state in a ramp truck. Some of them actually had to sit there for 10 or 20 minutes trying to get some feeling back in their legs. LOL. More then once we would pull into the local Steak & Shake and some guy would be limping away from his truck and say to me. How does that thing tow? I always said I don't remember I keep falling asleep! LOL. That one always got a good laugh. And after dinner I would walk by the same guy at his table and I would be faking a bad hip. Guys would almost choke on their food because they were laughing so hard! God. I miss those days so much.:(

Friday night at the motel was almost more exciting then being at the fair grounds during the show. After dinner we came out of the steak house and the streets were out of control!!! People were 6 deep on either side of the street. It was totally jammed. Remember those Special Feelings.

The streets were backed up with every imaginal hot rod/street car that you could think of. Don't forget this is 1977. Even though there were Cops everywhere we took over the city for the weekend! Actually the Cops were pretty good. They let us get away with murder. Well almost;)

We were just down the street from our motel. I grabbed a couple of lawn chairs and found a space. We were enjoying the show and a couple of bubblies helped pass the time. We ended up sitting by our neighbors from the motel. They were from Chicago. Street Outlaws? Who were they!!! These guys were doing it long before them. One guy had a Silver 70 Chevelle SS 454. This car had a clutch turbo!!! The motor was warmed over LS7 and it sounded like a Pro Mod with mufflers. We were all telling our stories and watching the show. These guys were serious street racers. I could tell just by the way they were talking. One of them asked me if had brought anything. I said. Ya that's my Vega on the trailer. The other guys says. The white one with the pro stock scoop? Ya. So after the 500 questions things had calmed down a little on the street. I had a few bubblies and was feeling fine.The cars driving by looked great but no real action as there were some Cops around. The crowd was cheering every time a car did a dry hop or some thing. So I thought it would be a good idea to bring the Vega down and do a couple of drive buy.Not a good idea. Burp!

So we pull the car down from the trailer.1ST MISTAKE I open the Nitrous bottle.2ND MISTAKE. I start to pull up to the road and a couple of guys stop the traffic.Everyone is standing now. I think that was how I missed the Cops in the crowd.OOPS! The motor is dead cold. 3RD Mistake. I do a couple of dry hops. The Nitrous is hooked directly to the throttle. No button.3RD MISTAKE. I bring the revs up to 5000, drop the clutch and hit the gas. Did I say the motor is dead cold? I think the tach does a couple of 360s. lol. Now I can't remember what the guys told me on whether the flames or the scoop went higher then the hydro lines when the car BACKFIRED!!! I shut the car down and rolled into a parking lot. I'm already flipped out with what has happened. I unbuckling my harness and just as I reach for the pin in the shoulder bar 2 big hands reach in the window and show me a new quick way to get out. I ask them if there's a problem. For some reason that makes them even madder. ;) They turn I mean spin me around and throw me against the car and award me with a new bracelet.;) So as they are giving me shit I see a small group of people come running over. So one Cop is blasting me and telling me where I'm going to be sleeping tonight when the other Cop taps him on the shoulder and motions him to turn around. Well that small group of people is now a large crowd that have surrounded the car. I don't know how many there were but they were easily 20 deep. One guy comes out of the group and hands me my blackened scoop which I swear was still smoking. LOL. I was going to hold it up in triumph to the crowd, but I decided the Cops wouldn't enjoy that. The Cops are not yelling anymore. They have a short little chat and one of them walks over takes my bracelet off and gives me a warning. That was it. I'm dumfounded. What just happened?

Next morning I am talking to the Chicago guys. I said I don't get it. I thought I was going to jail. They told me there was no way they were going to let them take me anywhere.

[CamaroNOS]

Man that was a great story and I loved the ending. I am sure it was a hell of a surprise for you to walk away from all the BS.

So did you ever get the car fired back up to show the boys in Chicago what it would do?

Paul

[ZiggyL78]

Man that was a great story and I loved the ending. I am sure it was a hell of a surprise for you to walk away from all the BS.

So did you ever get the car fired back up to show the boys in Chicago what it would do?

Paul

Yes i did. Stay tuned. : )

[EZ Nova]

Ziggy, it's a small world. Not sure when you were around, but around '90 we raced up there out of the Weston/Finch lot with a Orange '73 454 Vette on nitrous. Raced a blue COPO '69 Camaro and a few others. Competition auto wanted to run us with there '69 Camaro and even Serge Longo came and wanted us to run his challenger.

Also, we had a Ziggy from my town. You had a tubbed sb Vega with nitrous. OUR Ziggy had a tubbed SB Arrow with nitrous. WHAT A COINCIDENT. 2 ZIGGYS both with tubbed small cars with nitrous SB's......

[CamaroNOS]

Ziggy, it's a small world. Not sure when you were around, but around '90 we raced up there out of the Weston/Finch lot with a Orange '73 454 Vette on nitrous. Raced a blue COPO '69 Camaro and a few others. Competition auto wanted to run us with there '69 Camaro and even Serge Longo came and wanted us to run his challenger.

Also, we had a Ziggy from my town. You had a tubbed sb Vega with nitrous. OUR Ziggy had a tubbed SB Arrow with nitrous. WHAT A COINCIDENT. 2 ZIGGYS both with tubbed small cars with nitrous SB's......

I also ran the streets in Brantford (my home town) from 78 - 85. We had a bucket of fun messing around on King George St, Brant Ave, Hardy Rd, the 403, etc.

I saw the Arrow out many times but never heard who he ran (maybe Proctor's Vette/Radawicki's Duster/or????). What times was he running?

Ziggy with the Vega, I need more of the Toronto race action. Did you ever hear of Jim Shimizu who ran a 69 Hugger Orange/Orange Houndstooth R/S Z/28 down at Cayuga from 1970 to approx. 1977?

[Kurt S]

The SS wheels with the white letter tires really finished it off. OMG. It was friggin beautiful.
What month did you buy the 69 and do you know if it had been sitting for a while? Don't see many SS wheels on a 69. Thx

[scuncio]

I’m really digging these stories. Keep them coming!

[ZiggyL78]

I also ran the streets in Brantford (my home town) from 78 - 85. We had a bucket of fun messing around on King George St, Brant Ave, Hardy Rd, the 403, etc.

I saw the Arrow out many times but never heard who he ran (maybe Proctor's Vette/Radawicki's Duster/or????). What times was he running?

Ziggy with the Vega, I need more of the Toronto race action. Did you ever hear of Jim Shimizu who ran a 69 Hugger Orange/Orange Houndstooth R/S Z/28 down at Cayuga from 1970 to approx. 1977?

Jim (RIP) was one of my best friends. He passed about a year ago alone. It was very sad. Such great guy. He lived 2 blocks from my place on Warden Ave. I stayed with him a couple of times in Kentucky were IBM sent him for a year. Jim's Z was fathom blue. I'm not sure but I think Zedder bought the car. He will probably jump in here soon. I'll put a post together soon of the guys I knew back then. Thanks.

[ZiggyL78]

What month did you buy the 69 and do you know if it had been sitting for a while? Don't see many SS wheels on a 69. Thx

I will have to dig up some paperwork but I bought the car in the summer of 1968. There were lots of 69 SS cars around back then but I never saw another one in silver with the hood louvers, hockey stick stripes and the SS wheels. I personally think the Rally wheels looked lame and should have been used only on the Vette. Thanks

[EZ Nova]

I also ran the streets in Brantford (my home town) from 78 - 85. We had a bucket of fun messing around on King George St, Brant Ave, Hardy Rd, the 403, etc.

I saw the Arrow out many times but never heard who he ran (maybe Proctor's Vette/Radawicki's Duster/or????). What times was he running?

Ziggy with the Vega, I need more of the Toronto race action. Did you ever hear of Jim Shimizu who ran a 69 Hugger Orange/Orange Houndstooth R/S Z/28 down at Cayuga from 1970 to approx. 1977?

Well since I'm STILL in Brantford, I know those guys you named. It was Al Proctor's Vette we took to Weston & Finch. That was also THE ONLY CAR to beat my car that ran those streets, BLACK GTX ragtop. Al now plays with motor cycles and a Late model COPO Camaro he races. Mark Radawicki got out of the scene pretty much after the Duster. Ya he had the '79 Blue Z28, but it wasn't a fast car. I bought the shell from marks Duster and parted out the body parts around '87.

Ziggy with the Arrow was Rodger Zigmond. Nice guy and still around. He was a good painter and painted Eddy Stern's Candy Blue '68 427 Firebird. Roger is out of cars now. I worked with him back in 2004 and still see him from time to time before covid. Eddy still has the Candy blue firebird, but now blown and street tubbed.

If you were around you should remember Greg Teasdale. He is getting back into it as he has a few car one being a LS6 70 Chevelle. But also bought a fats '68 (??) Camaro.

So back then I had the BLACK GTX rag, 440 4sp Dana. Fast car back then and I was only 16. Only had it 4 yrs but found it last yr out on east coast in the USA. Spoke to the owner and going to try to buy it in about a yr depending on life.

I DO still own Gord Sipost's old Red '69 Nova SS. That was a stupid fast back then. I seen it beat Al's Vette AND Ziggy's nitrous Arrow out on Oak Park rd. AND he mis-shifted 4 times against the Arrow, he missed 3rd TWICE that run, and still put a car on the 11.70 Arrow.

Doug from here (427 Strato) is also from Brantford.

Man those were fun days.............

John

[Kurt S]

I will have to dig up some paperwork but I bought the car in the summer of 1968. There were lots of 69 SS cars around back then but I never saw another one in silver with the hood louvers, hockey stick stripes and the SS wheels. I personally think the Rally wheels looked lame and should have been used only on the Vette. Thanks
Summer of 68 or 69? Earliest it could have been was fall of 68.
If you have paperwork that lists the VIN, that would be amazing... :)
Thx

[dykstra]

Love these stories Ziggy, keep ‘em coming!!

[Chevelle SS 396 L78]

......
So after I sold the SS I went looking for a new ride When I was in high school I would always see this guy in a black 68 Nova waiting to pick up his girl friend. It was a black on black bench with a 4SPD. It had tinted glass, dog dish hub caps and the optional chrome package. But no SS option. It had a serious idle and I thought it had a built motor. Turns out the car was dead stock except he had pulled off the resonators added dumps and a Hurst shifter. Compared to the Camaro it sounded amazing! I asked the owner if it was for sale? He said he had just setup a For Sale Ad for the weekend. ALL RIGHT!!! I bought the car for $1800. Some of my buddies said I paid too much until they went for a ride! I would wait for for a passenger to start talking and then hit it. If they kept talking I guess they weren't impressed. Most people didn't keep talking in this car. They usually pushed back into the seat and said HOLLY ****. I'd power second & third and that really woke them up. Don't forget it was early 70s and a lot of guys had never been in something fast. Most of them thought that there Dad's 283 Impala was a rocket. "Ya man.It spins THE TIRE in the rain."EmojiEmoji

Boy does that bring back memories! Did you ever do the cash on the dash trick? I won so much money...put down a $5 or $10 and bet the passenger he couldn't grab it when I shot out of the hole! I never lost! HOLY****! was a common response! LOL!

'67 Chevelle SS 396 L78, 4-speed (M20), 4.10 Posi:

[CamaroNOS]

Well since I'm STILL in Brantford, I know those guys you named. It was Al Proctor's Vette we took to Weston & Finch. That was also THE ONLY CAR to beat my car that ran those streets, BLACK GTX ragtop. Al now plays with motor cycles and a Late model COPO Camaro he races. Mark Radawicki got out of the scene pretty much after the Duster. Ya he had the '79 Blue Z28, but it wasn't a fast car. I bought the shell from marks Duster and parted out the body parts around '87.

Ziggy with the Arrow was Rodger Zigmond. Nice guy and still around. He was a good painter and painted Eddy Stern's Candy Blue '68 427 Firebird. Roger is out of cars now. I worked with him back in 2004 and still see him from time to time before covid. Eddy still has the Candy blue firebird, but now blown and street tubbed.

If you were around you should remember Greg Teasdale. He is getting back into it as he has a few car one being a LS6 70 Chevelle. But also bought a fats '68 (??) Camaro.

So back then I had the BLACK GTX rag, 440 4sp Dana. Fast car back then and I was only 16. Only had it 4 yrs but found it last yr out on east coast in the USA. Spoke to the owner and going to try to buy it in about a yr depending on life.

I DO still own Gord Sipost's old Red '69 Nova SS. That was a stupid fast back then. I seen it beat Al's Vette AND Ziggy's nitrous Arrow out on Oak Park rd. AND he mis-shifted 4 times against the Arrow, he missed 3rd TWICE that run, and still put a car on the 11.70 Arrow.

Doug from here (427 Strato) is also from Brantford.

Man those were fun days.............

John

It’s a small world John.....I took the liberty and reached out to a few friends of mine Al, Greg and Tim regarding your version of “the facts” and here is what I learned.

Its funny that you referenced Tims GTX rag top as Tim and I went to school together back in the day. I remember spending time in that car as we would head out to Hardy Rd and Tim would gladly show you how fast that car was as he ran the car through the gears and down the marked out quarter mile. I distinctly remembering the car running through the end of the quarter at 100 mph, time after time, like clock work. Based on those numbers, that pegs the GTX about a 13:30 car which we all thought was crazy fast, back in the day. So here is my delima, how were you able to take on Al Proctor’s Corvette which ran a 11.60 with a 13.30 car and have that to be the only car that ever beat you. If I understand the facts correctly then, that would have meant that you only raced your GTX against Al’s Corvette because there were a ton of faster cars running the streets in Brantford with much better times than your 13:30.

And to add some more mystery to your story, Al confirmed that he never ran your GTX. If you really do know Al well, you know that he is wicked sharp and smart as fox.There is nothing that man forgets……nothing.

Yes, Gordies Nova was quick with a 427/4 gear/4:88’s but once again, Al Proctor never ran Gordie……ever and Al also confirmed this as well. Not on Oak Park Road as you mentioned, not on any road. Nobody ever knew how fast the Nova was, even Gordie didn’t know because he never raced it. And you know why……

Regarding the Nova running Ziggy’s Arrow, it must have quite a night for you to remember because nobody else remembers it. If the Nova took the Arrow by car length after missing all of those countless shifts, that news would have spread like wildfire through Brantford. Funny how that story was also kept quiet.

So, at the end of the day, I am perplexed after reaching out to all of my friends, the guys who actually ran the streets of Brantford only to find out all of your discrepancies. If there is anything you would like to verify with my facts, please feel free to call Al, Greg or Tim and you can quiz them.

Paul

[EZ Nova]

It’s a small world John.....I took the liberty and reached out to a few friends of mine Al, Greg and Tim regarding your version of “the facts” and here is what I learned.

Its funny that you referenced Tims GTX rag top as Tim and I went to school together back in the day. I remember spending time in that car as we would head out to Hardy Rd and Tim would gladly show you how fast that car was as he ran the car through the gears and down the marked out quarter mile. I distinctly remembering the car running through the end of the quarter at 100 mph, time after time, like clock work. Based on those numbers, that pegs the GTX about a 13:30 car which we all thought was crazy fast, back in the day. So here is my delima, how were you able to take on Al Proctor’s Corvette which ran a 11.60 with a 13.30 car and have that to be the only car that ever beat you. If I understand the facts correctly then, that would have meant that you only raced your GTX against Al’s Corvette because there were a ton of faster cars running the streets in Brantford with much better times than your 13:30.

And to add some more mystery to your story, Al confirmed that he never ran your GTX. If you really do know Al well, you know that he is wicked sharp and smart as fox.There is nothing that man forgets……nothing.

Yes, Gordies Nova was quick with a 427/4 gear/4:88’s but once again, Al Proctor never ran Gordie……ever and Al also confirmed this as well. Not on Oak Park Road as you mentioned, not on any road. Nobody ever knew how fast the Nova was, even Gordie didn’t know because he never raced it. And you know why……

Regarding the Nova running Ziggy’s Arrow, it must have quite a night for you to remember because nobody else remembers it. If the Nova took the Arrow by car length after missing all of those countless shifts, that news would have spread like wildfire through Brantford. Funny how that story was also kept quiet.

So, at the end of the day, I am perplexed after reaching out to all of my friends, the guys who actually ran the streets of Brantford only to find out all of your discrepancies. If there is anything you would like to verify with my facts, please feel free to call Al, Greg or Tim and you can quiz them.

Paul

Paul,

He is some more info you can ask your friends. Al I haven't seen or talk to in 6 or 7 yrs and your right, Gord didn't race Als Vette, it was another guy from Simcoe or Delhi that came in with Ian and the 67 390 fastback mustang. It was an out of town car. I tired to run Ian a few time, just never happened. That's why I can't say if I was faster or not. I tried to race Ron Bennett's 71 T37 with the 455 HO. He wouldn't race.

As for me running Al? Yes I did at Oak Park. Al was right lane and I was left. I even went over more to the left so I wouldn't slid into his car. Al asked to me to run as a tune up test because the next day, we went to Sparta and Al won the Covette meet. I had no business being beside that car but there was no one out that night as fast as me, so Al asked me just for the hell of it. In fact, the next day after Al won at Sparta, the 10 of us went to Fluffys Pizza in London.

No as far as Gordies Nova. It was actually a standard bore 402/4sp w 4.88s. I still have that engine sitting after Jeff Chatterson rebuilt it. Yes the only time I ever seen that car run, he raced that one night. I was at the finish line with Todd Stebbe. And Gord beat Roger. After the race, we were at the line and Bob Sinden asked Gord about a scattershield? Gord said he didn't have one! Bob said YOUR FEET ARE FUCKED UP ALREADY ANYWAY!!! Gord even said he missed 3rd twice. That car then went to Dan Bellhouse who's wife took a hammer to the quarter panels and trunk. Dan sold it banged up to Russ Savage, who inter sold it to me after he crashed his motorcycle. Bellhouse to the 4.88s out and had 3.55s. Russ to out the 3.55s and put in 4.56s. Car now has a 785Hp pump gas 69 052 blocked ZL1 with a T400 and 66 Nova 12 bolt with 4.10s.

I only lost to Al. Never got to race Ed in the firebird and I think Ziggy was done by then. Only Al Ed and Bob were the top guys then. I was going to race Bob but cops showed as we were at the line. Bill Ambeau had bought Ziggys Arrow and purchsed the 302 out of the 69 Camaro from Competition auto. And Rod Daviault has Don Douglas do the bb Mopar stroker for a Monza?? That one fuzzy because I always thought Bill and Rod should have swapped stuff as the engine bodys were the way they were.

I haven't talked to Tim since I bought the car. I don't think he was ever out running the streets after he sold me the car as he didn't have another street car.Greg I spoke to last yr but nothing about cars it was boats. And YES I was a test pass for Al the night before we won the Sarta Corvette meet.

I do not have Als number, but if you PM it to me, I will call him. Or can pm you my number to give to Al. Also, my car was a CLONED GTX built by the guy from Simcoe who now lives out by Burford. I never powershifted that car with the little supershifter under the dash. It did run 13.60 at 108 FIRST 2 times down the TMP 1/4 mile. Then went through a wheel bearing in the Dana. Car was set up by Ed Van Der Tuin.

John

[EZ Nova]

Paul, do you know Danny Bratinna? He had the stock 69 Nova SS 396/375Hp stars n strips. He told me that car 11.70 STOCK but open heads, recurved distributor and slicks. Carb was probably jetted too, but that I don't recall 100%.

[ZiggyL78]

Sun, Mar 13 at 1:53 p.m.

So the next morning I checked for any damage. I looked down the carbs and couldn't believe what I saw. The throttle blades were bent at a perfect 90 degrees. It was like someone bent them on a brake. I've seen all kinds of damage from nitrous backfires but never anything like this. I knew there was a Holley booth at the fairgrounds, so off I went carbs in hand. Luckily it was early and they weren't busy. I figured they would say forget it and sell me new carbs. One of the tech guys takes a look down one of the carbs. Are you kidding me!!! Hey Mike. Check this out. He was just as startled. I figured these guys had seen it all. What the hell happened? I've never seen anything like this before. I started to tell them the story. Mike says. Are you the guy with white Vega that blew his scoop off? Ya.WOW! I heard the story. Did the cops really try to take you away? Oh ya. He said you should go to the dog track and place a bet. Funny. I had already planned a trip to the Grey Hounds before we left for home. I didn't win. lol. So the tech guy tells me to come back at noon. I stopped at a parts store and picked up a piece of gasket material. During the backfire, the gasket between the 2 piece tunnel ram had blown out. I was all back together and running fine that afternoon. We had a great time.

The closest track to Toronto was in Georgetown. You could drive there without getting on the highway which was great for us nut bars that drove on the street with a 4.88 gear. There were many stories about that place. I was in the tower talking to the guys one night when I saw a 69 Camaro pulling up to the line. I knew the car and it was pretty quick for a streetcar. BBC 4 SPD I think it ran high 11s. He pulled into the water up to the lights and staged. It was a big meet that weekend and the rosin was down. As the lights came down this guy brought the revs up and drops the clutch on the last yellow. I kid you not. I saw his generator light come on when the car bogged really bad. I instantly heard a cling of something hitting the window on the tower. The guy blew his clutch and a piece of the clutch disc hit the window!!!. Even the track owner had never seen that before.

So after the track had been closed for a year we decided to drive by on the way home from our other track. There it was. So sad. Weeds growing up through the asphalt and remnants of the bleachers all broken up. One of my friends jokingly said. Hey. We have our cars here. Let's make a couple of passes.;)lol. Another guy says. I hope you're strong enough to carry the cars over the barricades. The cement barriers were blocking the entrance. I said I have a pretty strong tow rope. Another friend had a diesel dually. We actually pulled the barriers out of the way. Crazy. Everyone pulled into the pits and started to put their slicks on just like a regular Sunday. I wish I had more pics. Everyone was having a great time except me. There was no one for me to run. Boohoo.;)
Everyone pulled into the pits and started to put their slicks on just like a regular Sunday. Some other guys arrived. I have no idea how these guys found out what was going on. No cell phones back then. They showed up with a couple of cars. I think they lived in the area and heard all the noise. Within an hour more cars arrived and there were probably over 100 people. I should have charged $20 ahead. ;) I was getting nervous as anyone driving by would have easily seen and heard all the commotion.

A white Nova came in on a trailer. It was a big tire car and was all lettered up. I knew the car and it ran 10s. It was called the Polar Express. And of course, my bottle was empty. As you can see in the pic he was sleeping and I got him by about 2 lengths off the line. I couldn't see him but I did hear him as he was right on my rear bumper at about half-track. He started to pull me in high gear and passed me right near the end of the track. I didn't admit it at the time but I think he got me. The Cops arrived and that was the end of that day. I ran him 1 year later at the track. Instead of a street motor this time, "I was loaded for bear." LOL. Does anyone remember that saying! I now had Shafroft long rod 327 tunnel ram with NOS. I had also picked up a built 2SPD Powerglide with a brake and race convertor. Fairley new stuff for 1978.

The Glide and Brake really make things simple. I wait for the starter to guide me through the puddle and onto the edge where it is wet but not a puddle. The starter gives you the sign to spin the tires just enough to get them wet. Then he directs you 1'or 2' ahead and stop. As soon as the cars that just ran are off the track he gives you the OK to do your burnout. You step on the brake put the line lock on, let go of the brake and put the car in high gear and nail it. Some guys think if you do that the car will overrev instantly. It won't. It's hard to explain but imagine your car has rear tires that are 4' tall. You can't get the car to over-rev instantly. If you have short 26" tires and use first gear, sure. So after hitting it, you let the tach get to around 4000 the starter should signal you when the tires are smoking and to pull up. You let go of the trans brake ease off the throttle and let the car slide out onto the dry pavement and let right off once you are on the dry pavement. The car will slide about 2 feet and then squawk just as the tires bite. Even though you are now off the throttle the inertia of the tires spinning will keep them going until they bite. Back into first and you are ready to stage.

Back soon!

[CamaroNOS]

Jim (RIP) was one of my best friends. He passed about a year ago alone. It was very sad. Such great guy. He lived 2 blocks from my place on Warden Ave. I stayed with him a couple of times in Kentucky were IBM sent him for a year. Jim's Z was fathom blue. I'm not sure but I think Zedder bought the car. He will probably jump in here soon. I'll put a post together soon of the guys I knew back then. Thanks.

Sorry Ken, I just read your response to my question.

Jim sold the 69 RS Z/28 (Belmont Chev Olds car) to James Copeland in 83 and I purchased it off of him in 94. I purchased it in parts and pieces and stored it away for many years. Once I completed the restoration, I brought it to MCACN to get judged (989 pts) and left the Camaro with Nickey Performance (Stefano) and it was sold to a buyer in Chicago. The car is now in California and owned by a member on this site.

Here are some pics you will remember from the days......

[ZiggyL78]

[QUOTE=useless tony;1585640]I just remembered, I was a kid and riding my bicycle on Van Horne near Leslie and stopped to chat with a guy who had a primered 68-69 GTO in the driveway (his parents house). While I was there, a friend of his dropped by with a white '68 Runner with the Hemi badge in the hood. Was supposedly a hemi car but had a 383 in it at the time. I remember the guy with the GTO saying he and his buddies would go street racing. The GTO guy also had a '69 Camaro that he painted at the house (candy red) and as I recall, he had issues with the clear coat 'yellowing' the white stripes he had painted.

I can't help but wonder if these two were part of the Warden/Shepp, Weston and Finch, Harvey's Hot Ones crowd.

Sorry, Tony. I don't recall any of those cars.

[ZiggyL78]

We were setting up the suspension here to run this Stan guy in Oshawa. If I had to run anyone who I thought was a contender I would always test the car where we were supposed to run the day before.

[ZiggyL78]

Sorry Ken, I just read your response to my question.

Jim sold the 69 RS Z/28 (Belmont Chev Olds car) to James Copeland in 83 and I purchased it off of him in 94. I purchased it in parts and pieces and stored it away for many years. Once I completed the restoration, I brought it to MCACN to get judged (989 pts) and left the Camaro with Nickey Performance (Stefano) and it was sold to a buyer in Chicago. The car is now in California and owned by a member on this site.

Here are some pics you will remember from the days......

Sorry for the late response John. I have so much on the go now. So Jim's car was originally orange? Have you got any pics of the car when you finished the restoration? It must have been amazing. I have some of those pics. Tom Wilson who owned B&T is still around. He's on Facebook. Thanks.

[useless tony]

We were setting up the suspension here to run this Stan guy in Oshawa. If I had to run anyone who I thought was a contender I would always test the car where we were supposed to run the day before.

Wouldn't be Stan M driving a blue '68 Camaro would it?

Regarding testing the road/strip the day before ... does that mean you drove the Vega to Oshawa from Scarborough on slicks both times or did you swap tires once in the area?

Loving the stories :) and really cool you have pics too.

[ZiggyL78]

Wouldn't be Stan M driving a blue '68 Camaro would it?

Regarding testing the road/strip the day before ... does that mean you drove the Vega to Oshawa from Scarborough on slicks both times or did you swap tires once in the area?

Loving the stories :) and really cool you have pics too.

Maybe ;) I think I trailered it that night.

[ZiggyL78]

Back when I was still in High School I started to visit all the car hangouts. I kept seeing this orange Camaro driving around town. It was clean and simple. Orange on black buckets and Cragars all round (I hate those square ones);). Looking back it may have had stock exhaust. When you put a lumpy cam in a big block to me it sounds like it is choking. Mopar Hemis in a Challenger or Cuda had the same type of sound. I mean 2 1/4" exhaust behind 425+HP is a bit of a joke. I always thought GM engineers had a bit of a sence of humour. Maybe they thought there isn't much of an exhaust system that we can design that head office will and still work on these high HP cars. I think they knew that most guys were going to replace the mufflers and probably the whole exhaust system anyway.

Speaking of exhaust systems we sure did some back yard work in our driveways in those days. We had about 20 guys in our group and everyone had a piece of equipment that they shared. One guy had a welder, another had a tire machine and so on. I remember going over to my buddies house to help him put chambered pipes on his L78 Nova. I'm not sure which coins we used. I think they were quarters that we used to fill in the gaps between the head pipe and the chambered pipe. About 5 guys showed up and even after everyone chipped in we still ran out of quarters and had to raid my buddies little brother's piggy bank.LMAO. After a few beers and a handfull of quarters it was done. Of course all the jokes were flying and we were like a bunch of kids laughing our heads off. One guy said any power you picked up will not be enough to overcome the 200 #s of weld you used.lol.

So I couldn't understand why this car had no SS or 396 emblems to show it was a special model. All I did know was that I wanted it. The owners name was Angelo Colangelo. The only reason I remembered his name was that it rimed. My father was a manager of The Beer Store and he set me up with the stores bank manager. He more or less told me if I saved half the money that he would lend me the other half.

So much for that idea.It wasn't easy but I moved on and bought another Camaro. I figured I would never see the orange one again. One night hanging around Harveys a buddy of mine drives in with this orange Camaro. My buddy was a used car salesman. I knew the car right away.This was in 1972 and the car had changed hands a couple of times. Someone had blown the original motor. Ya. I know. Too bad. Back then the car hadn't reached a cult following and not yet a valueable collectable. People didn't identify the car as a COPO. It was a 427 Camaro. The car didn't sound the same as the last time I heard it 2 years ago. Who ever blew the 427 up had replaced it with a brand new crate open chamber LS7. Just for laughs they also replaced the 4.10s with 5.38s!!! To say the car was a handfull on the street was an under statement. On top of all that it was still a 4 SPD! Who ever owned the car when all these mods were done was not a nickel and dimer. The car had the best of everything and was built right. Other then all this someone had also painted the car blue.

So just to keep things interesting I bought the car. Without a serious tire a 340 Swinger could have beat this car. The car was dangerous to anyone who did not respect this kind of power. You couldn't nail this thing when ever you wanted to with real street tires. You had to get into the right mind set. Sit back in the seat and tighten up your seat belt. 1st gear was just not useable on the street. Even second was nuts and don't even think about a power shift. On a good road 3rd gear might hook but don't count on it.

A friend of mine knew the car and told me he saw the car run some low 11 second passes and had gone 11.1. The rear end was a stock 12 bolt except for the gear. It was guarantied the car would break an axle after 4 passes at the track with slicks on. The owner at that time would always have a couple of new axles with him when he went to the track. No idea why he didn't just buy after market axles he would scribe a line right down the length of the axle and check to see if the line had moved. If it had it was time to change that axle.

Gas was getting expensive and hard to find and with a 5.38 gear, 12.50 to 1 pistons, and a big cam, the car wasn't very streetable. I was also more interested in the Vega at the time so I built a low compression BBC with 3.73 gears. I drove it to the track and it ran low 12s in full street trim and pump gas.

[Stihl]

I look forward to your stories. You have truly had some fantastic rides my friend.

[EZ Nova]

Ziggy, was Ray Barton even a name runner on the street back then??

[CamaroNOS]

Sorry for the late response John. I have so much on the go now. So Jim's car was originally orange? Have you got any pics of the car when you finished the restoration? It must have been amazing. I have some of those pics. Tom Wilson who owned B&T is still around. He's on Facebook. Thanks.


NP.....I understand.

Jim's Camaro was originally Cortez Silver, see below. These pics were taken at MCACN after the restoration.

Its funny you mentioned a orange Camaro. I am sure you would also be familiar with another Camaro I owned which was a Hugger Orange/Orange Houndstooth interior car (not Jim's). This car was another 1969 RS Z/28 "GM of Canada Show Car Account" that was displayed at the C.N.E. (Canadian National Exhibition) in 1969 to promote the new GM line up. And it too was used as a drag car for quite some time at Cayuga Dragway as well.

Paul

[ZiggyL78]

Beautiful Paul. They don't get much nicer. I'm sure Jim would be proud.

[ZiggyL78]

I decided to sell the Camaro as I read in Hemmings that guys in the US were getting very good money for them. Hemmings was the only real publication that talked about collectables and advertised suppliers for restoring cars. It wasn't the magazine style, it was the catalog style which was mostly black & white and was almost 1" thick. The last time I looked you can still buy them in most large book stores. Worth the read if you have never seen one.

I advertised the car in Hemmings and sold it 2 days later for 3 times what I bought it for as a roller. We made a deal that I would pick him up at the airport and I would trailer the car to a friend of his in Michigan. Turns out his friend was the president of the AMC club of America. It was the middle of winter and I was hoping for clear weather.( Oh ya sure. NP!) ;)

At the time I was having a custom trailer built, so I bought my buddies used, I mean well used trailer as it had a expensive winch on it and good tires that I wanted. It didn't have any axles. There were 4 wheel spindles from a car welded to the frame. (Oh ya. That will work) ;). I also had a 1973 full size Mercury wagon that I had bought from my brother in-law who was a Mortician. It wasn't the funeral car. Yes. That's right. It was the meat wagon. Boy. I got ribbed about that one for a long time. YaYa. I get it. Ribbed, meat wagon. lol. It was a normal looking grey wagon as there was no tinted glass or panels were the side windows were. It did have a black vinyl roof which sort of gave it away. On Saturday nights if there was rain and no racing we would go down town and do the Young Street crawl. Yonge Street was once considered the longest street in the world and it runs right through Toronto to Lake Ontario. The main drag.

So my Nutbar friends thought it would be funny to make up a phoney coffin and put someone in it going down young street at 3:00 in the morning. Dam I wish I had gotten a pic. He did a pretty good job on this fake casket. To finish off the car he got some white shoe polish that we used on the windows of our race cars for numbers and put a name on the sides of the car. He called it WACKEDOUT FUNERAL HOME!

So here we are driving down young street late at night. The street is jammed with cars and you can hardly get the car going more then a walk. You also had to stop every 100 feet or so. It was that bad. The music is blaring and people are acting goofy as it's Saturday night. I'm driving and I can hardly see the road as I am laughing so hard that I was crying. We had the tailgate down. So I'm looking for some older family to get in front of to enjoy our funny little prank ;)

So I go extra slow so people will pass me until I see the right group. People are driving up beside us and yelling your tailgate is down. So finally an unsuspecting family gets behind us. An older couple with a bunch of kids and a big dog. So we stop and my 2 buddies in the front seat with me turn around up on their knees and lift this aluminum ladder which is under the casket and the casket starts to slide out. It falls out right in the middle of the road. Now the first thing I hear is the screams of a couple of women and then the screams of grown men. So I go to get out and my buddie pulls me back and says just wait a minute. I turn around and watch Rick jump out of the box. More screams and now I hear people start to laugh. I mean all the cars and all the people walking are watching this whole deal. So Rick grabs the box and throws it back into the car and jumps in. He says drive man.

I saw a couple of cops on the other side. So I drive off and get off of Young and turn down a side street into a parking lot. Everyone piles out and falls to their knees, we were laughing so hard.

[Bill Pritchard]

Loving the stories :) and really cool you have pics too.

x2. All the crazy stuff my friends and I used to do back in the day, no one ever thought to have a camera along to record for posterity :dunno:

[69M22Z]

I decided to sell the Camaro as I read in Hemmings that guys in the US were getting very good money for them. Hemmings was the only real publication that talked about collectables and advertised suppliers for restoring cars. It wasn't the magazine style, it was the catalog style which was mostly black & white and was almost 1" thick. The last time I looked you can still buy them in most large book stores. Worth the read if you have never seen one.

I advertised the car in Hemmings and sold it 2 days later for 3 times what I bought it for as a roller. We made a deal that I would pick him up at the airport and I would trailer the car to a friend of his in Michigan. Turns out his friend was the president of the AMC club of America. It was the middle of winter and I was hoping for clear weather.( Oh ya sure. NP!) ;)

At the time I was having a custom trailer built, so I bought my buddies used, I mean well used trailer as it had a expensive winch on it and good tires that I wanted. It didn't have any axles. There were 4 wheel spindles from a car welded to the frame. (Oh ya. That will work) ;). I also had a 1973 full size Mercury wagon that I had bought from my brother in-law who was a Mortician. It wasn't the funeral car. Yes. That's right. It was the meat wagon. Boy. I got ribbed about that one for a long time. YaYa. I get it. Ribbed, meat wagon. lol. It was a normal looking grey wagon as there was no tinted glass or panels were the side windows were. It did have a black vinyl roof which sort of gave it away. On Saturday nights if there was rain and no racing we would go down town and do the Young Street crawl. Yonge Street was once considered the longest street in the world and it runs right through Toronto to Lake Ontario. The main drag.

So my Nutbar friends thought it would be funny to make up a phoney coffin and put someone in it going down young street at 3:00 in the morning. Dam I wish I had gotten a pic. He did a pretty good job on this fake casket. To finish off the car he got some white shoe polish that we used on the windows of our race cars for numbers and put a name on the sides of the car. He called it WACKEDOUT FUNERAL HOME!

So here we are driving down young street late at night. The street is jammed with cars and you can hardly get the car going more then a walk. You also had to stop every 100 feet or so. It was that bad. The music is blaring and people are acting goofy as it's Saturday night. I'm driving and I can hardly see the road as I am laughing so hard that I was crying. We had the tailgate down. So I'm looking for some older family to get in front of to enjoy our funny little prank ;)

So I go extra slow so people will pass me until I see the right group. People are driving up beside us and yelling your tailgate is down. So finally an unsuspecting family gets behind us. An older couple with a bunch of kids and a big dog. So we stop and my 2 buddies in the front seat with me turn around up on their knees and lift this aluminum ladder which is under the casket and the casket starts to slide out. It falls out right in the middle of the road. Now the first thing I hear is the screams of a couple of women and then the screams of grown men. So I go to get out and my buddie pulls me back and says just wait a minute. I turn around and watch Rick jump out of the box. More screams and now I hear people start to laugh. I mean all the cars and all the people walking are watching this whole deal. So Rick grabs the box and throws it back into the car and jumps in. He says drive man.

I saw a couple of cops on the other side. So I drive off and get off of Young and turn down a side street into a parking lot. Everyone piles out and falls to their knees, we were laughing so hard.

Awesome story.

[CamaroNOS]

Ziggy you hit it out of the park with that story. I am sure some of those folks who saw the casket literally on Youngs St. are still traumatized today.....lol.

You mentioned the Georgetown drag strip. I think that is the track (Toronto International Dragway) that Dick Harrell crashed and unfortunately died at.

So you sold the Vega and the 69 Camaro. Now we will wait for the next chapter in your escapades.

Just keep them coming.....

Paul

[Ryan1969Chevelle]

Ziggy you hit it out of the park with that story. I am sure some of those folks who saw the casket literally on Youngs St. are still traumatized today.....lol.

You mentioned the Georgetown drag strip. I think that is the track (Toronto International Dragway) that Dick Harrell crashed and unfortunately died at.

So you sold the Vega and the 69 Camaro. Now we will wait for the next chapter in your escapades.

Just keep them coming.....

Paul

I think Georgetown used to have a drag strip, and Toronto International Dragway is actually Cayuga….. (correct?)

Ryan W31

[Tracker1]

I think Georgetown used to have a drag strip, and Toronto International Dragway is actually Cayuga….. (correct?)

Ryan W31

Ryan the Toronto International Dragway is indeed (was) The Georgetown/Acton area dragstrip (now it is all residential housing). Started out as the Golden Horseshoe Dragway. It is where Dick Harrell lost his life 09/71

I think Cayuga was known as 1320 Dragway and Toronto Motorsports Park Dragway or something like that.

[EZ Nova]

I would have to ask my buddy about 1320. As long as I can remeber Cayuga was Dragway Park Cayuga. Then switched to TMP ( Toronto Motorsports Park) when this group bought it an Uli Beari (sp??) runs it.

[PeteLeathersac]

'

Cayuga 1320 also Golden Horseshoe names were both 1970 only.
Below are a few facts from the Canadian Racer site Database as this link...
https://www.canadianracer.com/track-select.asp
:beers:
~ Pete

.

[PeteLeathersac]

'

:beers:

.

[PeteLeathersac]

'

:beers:

,

[EZ Nova]

Thanks Pete. I believe the local car club, Piston Pushers, has the original Chrondek Christmas Tree from the strip too?

[67BelAir427]

TID poster.

[PeteLeathersac]

'

Cool if the Chrondek Tree exists, pic of it also more on this TID F'book page...
https://m.facebook.com/Friends.Of.TID/photos/?ref=page_internal&mt_nav=0
:beers:
~ Pete

.

[PeteLeathersac]

'

More TID/Golden Horseshoe pics/clips on YouTube as links below...

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=JjPcQbnUtQs

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTuKLNw1jpQ

:beers:
~ Pete

.

[67BelAir427]

Hey Pete,
Rob Potter's Dragway Memories videos on You Tube are great !




Great show at the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum last Sunday.

Marc

[EZ Nova]

'

Cool if the Chrondek Tree exists, pic of it also more on this TID F'book page...
https://m.facebook.com/Friends.Of.TID/photos/?ref=page_internal&mt_nav=0
:beers:
~ Pete

.

Pete, it IS GOOD news. Just spoke to the President of the Piston Pushers a couple hrs ago when I seen him. Mentioned the 1320 Dragway and he remembers racing his '69 L78 Nova there.

As for the ORIGINAL tree? YES it still exist but I was a bit wrong. The club borrowed the ORIGINAL Chrondek Tree from a local engine shop guy by the name of Don Douglas. Don is in possession of that original Christmas tree.

[ZiggyL78]

I was watching a Chevelle on Ebay one night and I was curious on what it would go for. It wasn't just another Big Block Chevelle. It was a fully restored, black on black, 69 Chevelle SS, 396/375, 4 spd, post sedan, with factory 4.56 gears and paperwork. I had just sold one of my race Buicks with an enclosed trailer and bought a new open trailer so I was good to travel. I'm not sure but this being 20 years ago I think the bids stalled at 31K which was less then the reserve. I remember there was a lot of talk on the net about this car. The car was fully restored.

So I loaded up the truck and trailer and set the GPS to Nova Scotia. It was a long haul for an empty trailer. Without any weight on them, they bounce around. When I got there I got a room near The Magnetic Hill. It was pretty cool. So I went to look at the car and it turned out to be pretty nice. I took it for a test drive and everything checked out. The reserve was 33K on the car and that's what we agreed on. I got the car home with no issues. The next day I checked the car out and everything looked good. Of course, there are always some areas that you want to change for your own personal taste. I decided I was going to race the car in F.A.S.T. series in Michigan. I pulled the headers and replaced them with stock manifolds. I ordered Poly Glass tires and changed rear gears back to 4.56. Someone had put 3.55 gears in the car which did not work with the L78. I got a 780 Holley 4557 and a bunch of other repo parts to finish the car. The only place the car needed any kind of work was the engine bay. My favorite. All back to stock. Even though I took the headers off the 4.56 gears really woke the car up. 1ST & 2ND and sometimes 3RD were totally useless. I was just hoping that the track would give me better traction. I had a great time at the track and met some really nice people and won my 3 races. I didn't qualify for the finals but I still had a great time. Please excuse the link for pics. It's the only way I could remember on how to post pics. Thanks

https://www.kijiji.ca/v-short-term-rental/barrie/wanted-69-chevelle-post-sedan-ss/1612828965?undefined


https://www.kijiji.ca/v-short-term-rental/barrie/wanted-69-chevelle-post-sedan-ss/1612828965?undefined

[Jeff H]

Ziggy, you just triggered a though on the 69 L78 Chevelle with 4.56 gears and there is a current thread here https://www.yenko.net/forum/showthread.php?t=171198. I wonder if it's the same car.

[Chevelle SS 396 L78]

https://www.yenko.net/forum/showthread.php?t=171198

On this car, it obviously had A/C, and I know of no original L78 Chevelles that came from the factory with A/C. Maybe I missed something?

[PeteLeathersac]

'

More great stuff Zig, please don't stop also sorry for sidetracking w/ the Toronto area Dragway stuff.
Love to hear more of the '69 L78 Post and what happened to it also any chance you still have paperwork?
4:56 or 4:88's were special for '69, some info notes Copo 9511 necessary and Canada paper may include extra info?

Cool update on the Chrodek EZ and what a piece of history!

:beers:
~ Pete

.

[ZiggyL78]

'

More great stuff Zig, please don't stop also sorry for sidetracking w/ the Toronto area Dragway stuff.
Love to hear more of the '69 L78 Post and what happened to it also any chance you still have paperwork?
4:56 or 4:88's were special for '69, some info notes Copo 9511 necessary and Canada paper may include extra info?

Cool update on the Chrodek EZ and what a piece of history!

:beers:
~ Pete

.

NP Buddy. You can muddy up my thread anytime with Toronto history. ;)

[useless tony]

Speaking of Vega's and Toronto street racing, there used to be a charcoal grey BB Vega with a tube chassis (I think the owners name was Manny ... I would guess this was somewhere around 1985). The car sat so low in the front that the front corners of the valve covers protruded through the hood. He also ran a massive slick on the street. I think I saw it run 10.70 at Cayuga. Anywho, one night of street racing on the 404 (when the 404 ended at Bloomington) the cops showed up so we all split. I later heard that the cops caught the Vega and wanted to tow it (due to the slicks) but the car was so low in the front, if they hooked it from the back the nose would drag and they couldn't get a hook under the front because it sat so low. As the story goes, the cops ended up allowing him to leave with the warning of "if we ever see that thing out here again, you'll be sorry". I never did see it on the street after that.

Another about a Vega and Toronto street racing ... I remember reading a newspaper article about street racing in Toronto (I don't think it was the same article that had Dieters Cougar in it, I think this article was much later) and they had interviewed the owner of a yellow BB Vega who stated that, although he enjoys hanging out at Weston and Finch, he refuses to race on the street (obv that is what anyone would say ...). Welp, a month or two after the article and isn't the yellow Vega spotted (not by the cops), carrying the front wheels in the air, through an intersection :haha: Me street race? No way, I'm just here to watch (wink wink)

[EZ Nova]

Speaking of Vega's and Toronto street racing, there used to be a charcoal grey BB Vega with a tube chassis (I think the owners name was Manny ... I would guess this was somewhere around 1985). The car sat so low in the front that the front corners of the valve covers protruded through the hood. He also ran a massive slick on the street. I think I saw it run 10.70 at Cayuga. Anywho, one night of street racing on the 404 (when the 404 ended at Bloomington) the cops showed up so we all split. I later heard that the cops caught the Vega and wanted to tow it (due to the slicks) but the car was so low in the front, if they hooked it from the back the nose would drag and they couldn't get a hook under the front because it sat so low. As the story goes, the cops ended up allowing him to leave with the warning of "if we ever see that thing out here again, you'll be sorry". I never did see it on the street after that.

Another about a Vega and Toronto street racing ... I remember reading a newspaper article about street racing in Toronto (I don't think it was the same article that had Dieters Cougar in it, I think this article was much later) and they had interviewed the owner of a yellow BB Vega who stated that, although he enjoys hanging out at Weston and Finch, he refuses to race on the street (obv that is what anyone would say ...). Welp, a month or two after the article and isn't the yellow Vega spotted (not by the cops), carrying the front wheels in the air, through an intersection :haha: Me street race? No way, I'm just here to watch (wink wink)

Tony, as I was reading your first paragraph, my mind remember a YELLOW BB Vega with a Nash 5 speed I used to see at Cayuga. Then your 2nd paragraph you mention a YELLOW Vega that launched hard and carried the wheels.

The YELLOW one I remember was The Saturday Night Special that was Ray Mercer's car I think who owned it? I heard it did run the streets a bit. 511 inch was on the big scoop on the tunnelram.

[useless tony]

The Weston/Finch yellow Vega (as I remember it) was a street car, not lettered up like Saturday Night Special (I also saw SNS at Cayuga) although I guess it's possible the Weston/Finch car morphed into a lettered drag car but I think the two were around at roughly the same time though so I can't say either way really.

[markinnaples]

Speaking of Vega's and Toronto street racing, there used to be a charcoal grey BB Vega with a tube chassis (I think the owners name was Manny ... I would guess this was somewhere around 1985). The car sat so low in the front that the front corners of the valve covers protruded through the hood. He also ran a massive slick on the street. I think I saw it run 10.70 at Cayuga. Anywho, one night of street racing on the 404 (when the 404 ended at Bloomington) the cops showed up so we all split. I later heard that the cops caught the Vega and wanted to tow it (due to the slicks) but the car was so low in the front, if they hooked it from the back the nose would drag and they couldn't get a hook under the front because it sat so low. As the story goes, the cops ended up allowing him to leave with the warning of "if we ever see that thing out here again, you'll be sorry". I never did see it on the street after that.

Another about a Vega and Toronto street racing ... I remember reading a newspaper article about street racing in Toronto (I don't think it was the same article that had Dieters Cougar in it, I think this article was much later) and they had interviewed the owner of a yellow BB Vega who stated that, although he enjoys hanging out at Weston and Finch, he refuses to race on the street (obv that is what anyone would say ...). Welp, a month or two after the article and isn't the yellow Vega spotted (not by the cops), carrying the front wheels in the air, through an intersection :haha: Me street race? No way, I'm just here to watch (wink wink)

Is the Cougar you're referring to the one that is in the popular street racing video with the Springsteen soundtrack? The video looks like it was professionally done.

Found it: https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=street+racing+video+cougar+springsteen+&&view=detail&mid=D58C29DBA828EF178BDAD58C29DBA828EF178BDA&&FORM=VRDGAR&ru=%2Fvideos%2Fsearch%3Fq%3Dstreet%2Bracing%2Bvide o%2Bcougar%2Bspringsteen%2B%26FORM%3DHDRSC4

[EZ Nova]

When I bought my 052 block ZL1 I was going to do a Motion Vega ZL1 tribute. I thought that would have been the cats-ass. But shop owner convinced me to do a '69 Vette tribute, so going that route.
I might still go with a Vega tribute of some sort. Was thinking of a Ls, but still thinking "another" Alum block BBc, seeing as I have 3 now.

[ZiggyL78]

I just had a chat with Dieter. A street racing legend around here and yet a real humble guy.
He sent me this article from the National Post way back when.

Thanks Dieter.

[ZiggyL78]

Is the Cougar you're referring to the one that is in the popular street racing video with the Springsteen soundtrack? The video looks like it was professionally done.

Found it: https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=street+racing+video+cougar+springsteen+&&view=detail&mid=D58C29DBA828EF178BDAD58C29DBA828EF178BDA&&FORM=VRDGAR&ru=%2Fvideos%2Fsearch%3Fq%3Dstreet%2Bracing%2Bvide o%2Bcougar%2Bspringsteen%2B%26FORM%3DHDRSC4

The video was done sometime around 1978. Dieter did it for a project in college. He had access to pro cameras and equipment from the college.

Here is his car when the 1970 Canadian Ford Drag Team owned it.

https://www.dragzine.com/news/flashback-friday-canada-gets-its-own-ford-drag-team-in-1970/

[markinnaples]

Thanks for sharing. So was that Cougar destroyed in a crash as Dragzine states?
Bummer if so.

[ZiggyL78]

I don't think so. Where did you hear that?

[ZiggyL78]

[QUOTE=markinnaples;1588510]Thanks for sharing. So was that Cougar destroyed in a crash as Dragzine states?
Bummer if so.

I don't think so. Where did you hear that?

[PeteLeathersac]

'

Above link wouldn't work for me, is this the same clip...
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=AYGS-epJNs0
:beers:
~ Pete

.

[markinnaples]

[QUOTE=markinnaples;1588510]Thanks for sharing. So was that Cougar destroyed in a crash as Dragzine states?
Bummer if so.

I don't think so. Where did you hear that?

From the Dragzine article that was posted:

Today, half of the Ford of Canada Performance Clinic cars are known to remain. The Cougar was sold in 1971 and raced in Ontario until the mid ’90’s when it was reportedly destroyed in a crash.

[EZ Nova]

Mark, magazine do get it wrong sometimes. I looked at a 1965 Ford falcon with he K-code 289/271Hp, toploader and 4.30 gears. Now the magazine states only 7 total were built. I was told by the owner it was more like around 40? And, at the time, factory sponsored Ford racer Don Henderson, told me he believe there almost 1 for every 2 Ford dealers in Ontario. BUT since they were not well know for advertised, most were just sold as V8 Falcons.

I have seen what was believed to be a white with red int, and the black with red I was looking at buying. Plus the "Teacher's Pet" car in Motor Trend.

[PeteLeathersac]

'

A few more pics of subject Cougar when w/ the Ford of Canada Performance Team.
Note names of those in the '70 Summernationals newspaper article including Wally Parks etc.
Is this car confirmed dead/alive also what of Dieter as he'd know also looks like he's on F'Book?
:beers:
~ Pete

.

[PeteLeathersac]

'

:beers:

.

[ZiggyL78]

and I quote...

I was told the car was in a crash, but that was just a rumor. The person that has it now, found it sitting in a driveway in Brampton, the person i sold it to passed away and his girlfriend sold it for $2500. to him. The car needed a repaint of the original colours and it had a big block 428 CJ replace a mild 351 Cleveland that i put in the car when i sold it, it was never in an accident..
Dieter

[markinnaples]

Yeah, I had no idea whether the mag was right or not, just sharing what was said.
Thanks for the update. I wonder if the Lost Muscle Car Facebook page could find it. They've had a lot of luck finding some cars that people were looking for.

[ZAPPER68]

Speaking of rumours...the Mercury Cyclone is supposed to be in Edmonton AB in the same condition as depicted in the photos.

[ZiggyL78]

So I want to veer off down a different road here because I had so much fun with this car I think you guys will enjoy the story. When I got involved with the Buicks back in the late 80s I was on the main Buick forum and I met this girl.

Long story but she became my GF and she lived in FL. Yes. How convenient. So for you Canadians out there if you have never gone out with an American girl, all I can tell you is you better have a strong rope and a stronger horse!

So 1 day I'm getting bored and I wanted to get away by myself. I couldn't just say. Well. I think I will take a little trip and I will see you in a couple of weeks and I don't know where I am going. Oh ya sure. Have a wonderful time. lol.

So plan B was to start a fight and see ya later. Works every time. Geez. I hope she isn't reading this. I had a buddy who owned a nice motel in Tampa. So off I went from Ft Myers. It was the middle of winter back home. No way was I going there. So I hung out going to the show, the dog track, and looking at cars for sale. I hadn't owned a Vette except for a rough 67 coupe. Another story. There was one of the largest used Corvette dealers in the country in Tampa so off I went. Man. I had never seen so many used Vettes before. So I decided I was going to spend somewhere around 20K and a C5 would work. You could pick your color as there were that many. I liked Magnetic red so I started hunting I had about 5 cars to choose from but nothing really got me excited. The girl running the place said she didn't have anything like what I wanted. Now, this dealer had it down on rebuilding Vettes. They would buy a crashed Vette tear it apart and cauterize all the parts. 80% of the crashed stuff was thrown out. Then they would sandblast a frame and powder coat it. The driveline is next and all body mounts and small stuff are new parts When you buy a used Vette not many guys replace body mounts, belts, plugs, wires, bulbs, hoses, windshields,etc.All such stuff is replaced with new. Because they have done it so many times the car goes together like clockwork with all quality stuff. These people take pride in their work and do it all right. All good body parts are picked out and assembled. The color of the car is decided and into the paint shop, it goes. After painting about a 1000 Vettes these guys knew their shit and every car came out almost perfect. The interior goes in next. If you have ever worked on a Vette you realize that the car is almost built to be easily assembled. Most shops drop the chassis out of the body to do a re&re. I did it once. Never again.

So I'm walking out of the yard and go by the shop and there it is. A Magnetic red(burgundy) coupe and it's just being finished. I look inside and it is an auto with tan leather and a virtual dash. So I go into the showroom and ask the girl what the story is and was expecting her to tell me it was sold. She told me to sit down and goes into the shop for about 10 minutes. I really don't think she knew a lot about the car. She comes back and says. Sorry! Oh no. It's sold! Sorry, Ken. I totally forgot about that car. She was the sales manager which I like as I would rather work with just one person. She gives me a number which of course is more than I want to spend. I try all the tricks and she is not moving. I think she started at 26500 and dropped to 25900 which was cheap for a nice C5 this clean. But even though this car was amazing it was BRANDED. Even though the car had no major parts rebuilt it still is branded. I told her I had 2 other cars to look at and I WALKED! I know. I can't believe I did it either. Remember. I have never owned a late model Vette and this car was like new. I was a bachelor on vacation in Florida. When I got back to the motel my message light was flashing I knew it was her.

We ended up settling at 24500. I went back to the dealer to settle up and she told me the car would be ready in two days. Two days later I'm on the patio of the motel waiting for the car to arrive. After having lunch I see the car coming down the street. It looked great, especially with the 5 spoke wheels that I added into the deal. Two guys get out of the car and one guy hands me the keys. He told me he has driven over a hundred C5s and that this one was as good as any of them. The other guy shakes my hand and says nice car. After they leave I take the car to the back where my room is to check it out. The car was like new. The tan leather went really well with the Magnetic Red.
04-19-2022 03:58 PM

[ZiggyL78]

So after I bought the Vette I planned a trip to Gainsville to meet some friends. I had been waiting for "Ghost Rider" to come out and it started the day I was leaving for Gainsville. I decided to go that night. Even though the movie was a little corny I really enjoyed it. I came out of the show and it was a perfect Florida night. I got on #75 with the tops off and I was off. I'm doing about 75 or 80 and these two guys go by on a pair of fast bikes and they're flying. I had been driving Buick GNs for quite a while and normally I wouldn't chase anything in high gear. These cars are really fast but they are not that quick on the top end without all the good stuff. Wait a minute. I'm not in a GN I'm in a LS1 Vette. These cars can go 180 with just a tune. I nail it and here we go! I can barely see their tail lights but soon I start to real them in. I passed them at 162 MPH!!! I came to my senses and slowed down and they caught up to me. They slowed down and looked the car over and gave me the thumbs up and took off again. I said to myself "you f**king idiot". You're in the US chasing 2 bikes at over 150 in a car you have only owned for less then a week!" Just as I'm contemplating what could have happened, out of nowhere this State Trooper pulls up behind me with the welcome lights flashing. Oh. I guess he wants to congratulate me on nailing those 2 bikes ;) Geez! Now I'm done. He comes up to the car and says Mr Ziggy . How are you tonight? How does this guy know my name? How is Jane ? How does this guy know all this information? He tells me my GF had called the cops to pull me over as I forgot my pills. Wew! What a relief! I told him I just grabbed a few for the trip. He says OK. You take it easy. I thank him and then I do a smoking burn out as I disappear down the highway. Kidding. lol.

After going home a few weeks later I decide the car is not quick enough. Strange EH? ;) I buy a used Cierra single turbo kit from a guy on the Corvette forum. Pretty easy install, but I am sure glad I had a hoist in the shop. Actually installing the new fuel system was the hardest part of the job. After everything was installed I programmed the stock ECM. I had a little experience tuning the GNs which helped a lot. I took the car out for a few shakedown runs to get the car set up. A buddy comes along to monitor the ecm. We set the boost and check the O2s. I also perked up the gas with some C16 just for some extra protection while testing.

[useless tony]

I believe I may have occasionally seen this car in Ajax.

I remember hearing it (at idle) and thinking "that is one hell of a cam for a car that needs to pass emissions" :cool2: (there was no question in my mind that this was not just a "cat back" exhaust I was hearing).

I am guessing, based on the pic you posted of the engine completely out of the car, that the modifications didn't end with a bolt-on turbo ;)

[ZiggyL78]

Single turbo motor sounded stock until you whacked it. The motor you heard was a 408 stroker. LQ9 with stock truck heads and twin turbos. It made 711 RWHP and went 9.90@145 3rd pass down the track. Too bad I sold it. It was an easy 9.40 car with better tires and some suspension work. My wife wouldn't get in the car after that. LOL.

[useless tony]

WOW :cool2:

Keep the stories coming please :)

[ZiggyL78]

My first L78 was a grey Nova SS. I found the car in the Auto Trader magazine. I still have the ad. The car had well-faded grey paint and needed lower quarters. I let a buddy of mine buy it as I had my Vega and a 454 Chevelle. He had also owned an L78 Nova back in the day. He took the car to a friend of ours who painted most of our cars. It turned out great. He also added headers, a Tarantula intake and a 750 DP Holley. The car was a rocket right from the start. He had the car for about a year and then I bought it off him. I added 9.00 x 27 slicks, a shift kit and true dual exhaust, and a 4.56 gear. It ran 12.40s all day and a best of 12.20 during a funny car meet with Rosin on the track for extra hook. I'm sure the car would have ran a 12.0 with a little more tuning in the right air.

I did well at the track beating some fast cars. Hemis,440 SIX PACKs, 428 CJs were a joke. I'm not saying I never lost, as I did. But on the street where I could pick and choose my runs, I never lost. I ran L78 x 15 tires to knock down the 4.56 gear. Believe it or not, they were regular street tires and hooked very well most of the time.

One of the best times I had with this car was on a weekend when a group of guys from our Harveys at Brimley and Eglinton took a trip to the Harveys at Jane and Wilson. Jane and Wilson was at the time the most famous hangout for fast cars in Toronto. It was also about 1 mile from Belmont Chev Olds, one of Toronto's largest GM performance dealers in the GTA.

Long story short. I set up a run with a guy named Tony who had a fast LS6 Chevelle. He now drives Pro Mods. Really nice guy. Tony asked me what gear I had. He wouldn't run anyone who had more gear than he did. He had 4.10s. I had 4.56. I told him 4.10s. Little white lies were OK as long as you didn't take a guy's money Emoji I remember when we got back from the race he said to me. It sure sounded like you were revving awfully high on the highway for 4.10s. I told him I was in 2nd gear just to shake him up. While we were talking a guy named Ralph was listening. There were always some sarcastic remarks which was all part of the deal. I finally said to Tony that next time I will have to give him a couple of lengths. Everyone was laughing except Ralph. He said f*ck this, let's go. I asked him how many lengths he wanted. That just pissed him off even more. Ralph is one of the best Mopar mechanics in the country. He had a 340 Challenger at that time which I thought was going to be a waste of time. No one as far as I knew had a fast 340. When we went out with a bunch of cars to the country at 3 AM the preliminaries were usually 340s, 383s,302s,327s, and 390 Fords.

Back then races were more exciting because we didn't have drag radials and the technology we have today. If a slower car hooked because it had less power or the more powerful car spun it was a whole new race. I remember one night there was a 427/435 Vette that was racing a 440 Cuda Auto. Of course, the Vette was a 4 SPD and he really had to walk it out of the hole in 1ST and 2ND to get the car to hook and lay into it in 3RD. The Cuda would always get 2 or 3 lengths on the Vette and then the Vette would start pulling and catch the Cuda just after the finish line. Like clockwork. Every time. After about 4 runs the Vette gave up and left. He came back about 1 hour later and wanted to go again. I talked to his passenger who told me he went and got a full tank of gas and let some air out of the tires. Rumor has it his fat ass brother was in the back under a blanket. lol.

Everything went about the same as in the previous races. 1ST gear the Vette is all over the road. In 2ND gear, the Vette was still spinning but it wasn't going sideways as before. Now the Cuda barely had a 1/2 car on the Vette going into 3RD gear. The Vette driver powers 3RD into 4th and I thought, OH YA. HERE WE GO. We got a race here. "Like a Freight Train" was the saying back then describing a car catching another car on the high end with big power. Now it was the Vette that put 3 cars on the Cuda. It was an exciting race.

When I ran Ralph we were pretty even out of the hole. When I hit second gear I jumped a 1/2 car ahead and into 3RD the race was over. What a great night.

[BJCHEV396]

A great read Ziggy!Hang in there bud.

[ZiggyL78]

Thanks. I'll try to sort out some pics later.

[WILMASBOYL78]

Great stuff...my original 70 L78 had the 4.56 gears and all the other goodies. Ran high 12's at Dover...really screamed with those gears. :flag:

Really enjoyed your story and the photos...more please :3gears:

-wilma

[Bill Pritchard]

Love this thread, Ziggy. Amazing that you took so many pictures back in the day....my friends and I did not, unfortunately.

Regarding the L78 Nova, did you ever try out the "Houdini" shifter, where it would shift itself from first into second gear at full throttle?

[ZiggyL78]

Love this thread, Ziggy. Amazing that you took so many pictures back in the day....my friends and I did not, unfortunately.

Regarding the L78 Nova, did you ever try out the "Houdini" shifter, where it would shift itself from first into second gear at full throttle?

LOL. Yes, I did. I never heard it called that though. If a TH400 was stock it had a built in safety where it shifted on its own from 1ST to 2ND just before the motors redline. I never tried it on any Muscle Car but it was a riot in my tow car. If a passenger didn't know that a 400 had this function, they would flip out the first time it happened. If you look at the pics I just posted you will see my old blue 67 Olds 98 down the street from the Nova. On the outside it was let's say rough, but on the inside it was rough. LOL. It had a 425 Olds with a TH400. That motor was a stump puller that would not die.

Thanks for posting.

[EZ Nova]

Ziggy, Funny, I just picked up a Nicely done 1970 W30 convert clone. NEVER heard that you can't kill a OLDS BB.

[EZ Nova]

My first L78 was a grey Nova SS. I found the car in the Auto Trader magazine. I still have the ad. The car had well-faded grey paint and needed lower quarters. I let a buddy of mine buy it as I had my Vega and a 454 Chevelle. He had also owned an L78 Nova back in the day. He took the car to a friend of ours who painted most of our cars. It turned out great. He also added headers, a Tarantula intake and a 750 DP Holley. The car was a rocket right from the start. He had the car for about a year and then I bought it off him. I added 9.00 x 27 slicks, a shift kit and true dual exhaust, and a 4.56 gear. It ran 12.40s all day and a best of 12.20 during a funny car meet with Rosin on the track for extra hook. I'm sure the car would have ran a 12.0 with a little more tuning in the right air.

I did well at the track beating some fast cars. Hemis,440 SIX PACKs, 428 CJs were a joke. I'm not saying I never lost, as I did. But on the street where I could pick and choose my runs, I never lost. I ran L78 x 15 tires to knock down the 4.56 gear. Believe it or not, they were regular street tires and hooked very well most of the time.

One of the best times I had with this car was on a weekend when a group of guys from our Harveys at Brimley and Eglinton took a trip to the Harveys at Jane and Wilson. Jane and Wilson was at the time the most famous hangout for fast cars in Toronto. It was also about 1 mile from Belmont Chev Olds, one of Toronto's largest GM performance dealers in the GTA.

Long story short. I set up a run with a guy named Tony who had a fast LS6 Chevelle. He now drives Pro Mods. Really nice guy. Tony asked me what gear I had. He wouldn't run anyone who had more gear than he did. He had 4.10s. I had 4.56. I told him 4.10s. Little white lies were OK as long as you didn't take a guy's money Emoji I remember when we got back from the race he said to me. It sure sounded like you were revving awfully high on the highway for 4.10s. I told him I was in 2nd gear just to shake him up. While we were talking a guy named Ralph was listening. There were always some sarcastic remarks which was all part of the deal. I finally said to Tony that next time I will have to give him a couple of lengths. Everyone was laughing except Ralph. He said f*ck this, let's go. I asked him how many lengths he wanted. That just pissed him off even more. Ralph is one of the best Mopar mechanics in the country. He had a 340 Challenger at that time which I thought was going to be a waste of time. No one as far as I knew had a fast 340. When we went out with a bunch of cars to the country at 3 AM the preliminaries were usually 340s, 383s,302s,327s, and 390 Fords.

Back then races were more exciting because we didn't have drag radials and the technology we have today. If a slower car hooked because it had less power or the more powerful car spun it was a whole new race. I remember one night there was a 427/435 Vette that was racing a 440 Cuda Auto. Of course, the Vette was a 4 SPD and he really had to walk it out of the hole in 1ST and 2ND to get the car to hook and lay into it in 3RD. The Cuda would always get 2 or 3 lengths on the Vette and then the Vette would start pulling and catch the Cuda just after the finish line. Like clockwork. Every time. After about 4 runs the Vette gave up and left. He came back about 1 hour later and wanted to go again. I talked to his passenger who told me he went and got a full tank of gas and let some air out of the tires. Rumor has it his fat ass brother was in the back under a blanket. lol.

Everything went about the same as in the previous races. 1ST gear the Vette is all over the road. In 2ND gear, the Vette was still spinning but it wasn't going sideways as before. Now the Cuda barely had a 1/2 car on the Vette going into 3RD gear. The Vette driver powers 3RD into 4th and I thought, OH YA. HERE WE GO. We got a race here. "Like a Freight Train" was the saying back then describing a car catching another car on the high end with big power. Now it was the Vette that put 3 cars on the Cuda. It was an exciting race.

When I ran Ralph we were pretty even out of the hole. When I hit second gear I jumped a 1/2 car ahead and into 3RD the race was over. What a great night.

Funny, when we were building my '69 Nova back in the '90's, We found one of those "twisted" Edelbrock intake. At the time, my buddy was helping out Barry Paton, IHRA A/FC champ car owner, and he looked at that and said, "I help design those twisted intake YEARS ago?" So not sure if it was that to the torker, or the Tarantula.

Tony with the LS6. Maybe Tony Pontieri?
Ralph, is that RAPID Ralph?
What about Serge Longo's Challenger back then? Or Bla Bla Pontiac?


I did buy, and still have Mike Papadamou's 498" NHRA Pro Stock motor. Mike had sold the heads and intake to Ron Viggiani for his 1966 Nova. That 66 ran through Rolling Thunderz Ned and Serge. I ended up buying the top end of Ron and getting the engine back to NHRA specs. THEN found our the heads hit the firewall on a '69 Nova! So I bought Ron's 66 Nova.

So NOW, my '69 Nova that was mentioned previously from "back-in-the-day" in currently powered by a '69 ZL1 475 incher that make 785Hp. I still have Viggiani's 66 and the Ex Papadamou 498. The car has John Carinci's "converter-driven" Liberty that was from John's 499 A99 Hemi Cuda. But I also acquired Andreachhi's 706 Fulton setting Pro-Mod motor. That deal went 6.32 in Mod Mod, then Lil Ricky bought it and went 6.70 in Outlaw 10.5.

[useless tony]

I remember Mike P and his white Toyota Celica from way back. He used to call the Warden and Sheppard guys "hamburger racers" :) :)

Met Serge T (from Rolling Tz) when I was in my teens, we were friends for years. He drove his parents 4 door '78 Delta 88 and when he blew up the 307 (I think that's what it had), he installed a healthy 396 BBC in it. Had a lot of fun and a ton of good times with Serge over the years. Sadly, he is no longer with us. You meet a lot of people during the course of your life and I can honestly say Serge T was truly one of the good ones.

Last time I saw Serge L's Challenger, it was a gutted shell, up in the loft at a chassis shop in Scarborough (Don P's). It wasn't too long after that the shop closed up. No idea what happened to it.

[EZ Nova]

Tony, yes, unfortunately Serge T passed away. I meet him and Ned about 2005. I have worked WITH Rolling Thunderz since about 2016.

Ned has taken Serge's son Sasha under his wing and he now works for Ned learning the high performance game. BUT there is a lot of things happening and that I can't get into, due to ongoing legal proceedings.

As for Mike Celica? That car probably had the BEST name for any car I can think of!!!!!!!

[CamaroNOS]

Just another great street/drag racing story Ziggy. Sent you a PM.

Maybe you need to write a book for us yoyo's with big letters, simple words and lots of pics......lol. I would be your first customer.

Keep those stories coming.

Paul

[GM Powertrain]

LOL. Yes, I did. I never heard it called that though. If a TH400 was stock it had a built in safety where it shifted on its own from 1ST to 2ND just before the motors redline. I never tried it on any Muscle Car but it was a riot in my tow car. If a passenger didn't know that a 400 had this function, they would flip out the first time it happened. If you look at the pics I just posted you will see my old blue 67 Olds 98 down the street from the Nova. On the outside it was let's say rough, but on the inside it was rough. LOL. It had a 425 Olds with a TH400. That motor was a stump puller that would not die.

Thanks for posting.

I used that feature often in my L34 '67 SS Chevelle I had in '85 and my '66 396 Caprice I also had. Drop it in first and stand on it and wait for that Turbo 400 to "blow shift" into second with a satisfying bark from the tires. Always fun.

Love the BB Nova you had as well as the Turbo Buicks ( I have both currently.) You have great taste in cars!

[ZiggyL78]

Just another great street/drag racing story Ziggy. Sent you a PM.

Maybe you need to write a book for us yoyo's with big letters, simple words and lots of pics......lol. I would be your first customer.

Keep those stories coming.

Paul

I thought that's what I was doing. Anything over 3 letters I have to ask the wife.;)
PM sent.

[CamaroNOS]

Ha ha....your the best Ziggy.

Paul

[ZiggyL78]

I was on YouTube and found this vid. I can't believe I forgot it in the C5 chapter.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bNuKidXK8TY

[LT1vette]

Zig... Did you ever run down on Eastern Avenue below the "new" Gardner Exp?

I had a 72 Riviera GS, I would run 5.0L Mustangs and beat them. They'd be PO'd getting beat by their Grampas car... LOL

[useless tony]

Zig... Did you ever run down on Eastern Avenue below the "new" Gardner Exp?

I had a 72 Riviera GS, I would run 5.0L Mustangs and beat them. They'd be PO'd getting beat by their Grampas car... LOL


Are you sure you mean Eastern ave?

Commissioners street (south of Eastern/south of the Gardiner) was a popular location for street racing.

[CamaroNOS]

I was on YouTube and found this vid. I can't believe I forgot it in the C5 chapter.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bNuKidXK8TY

Now your a movie star Ziggy, what else are you holding back on......lol.

Paul

[EZ Nova]

Ziggy, looks like you were racing Steve "splash" Damianidis's street car with the SSRE power. His '68 Camaro race car was quick back in the day. Small world as that same '68 Cararo used to be John Carinci's car.

[useless tony]

I saw a grey Vega wagon with a blower at Cayuga many years ago. I remember being told it was your old car.

I may have heard it was based out of the Hamilton area at that point.

[ZiggyL78]

Ya. He bought the car as a roller and paid all the money. He then gutted the car and made a full chassis. He should have bought a stock Vega. Not to smart.

[PeteLeathersac]

'

:beers:

.

[PeteLeathersac]

'

No blower but the '73 Wagon below is for sale out Bowmanville way, cage/anything look familiar?
It's on F-Book Marketplace advertised as a 1973 Chevrolet Volt, try clicking here...
https://m.facebook.com/marketplace/item/1483509712070078/?ref=browse_tab&search_query=1973%20Chevrolet%20Volt&tracking=%7B%22qid%22%3A%22-5651321880922517228%22%2C%22mf_story_key%22%3A%225 666053363429102%22%2C%22commerce_rank_obj%22%3A%22 %7B%5C%22target_id%5C%22%3A5666053363429102%2C%5C% 22target_type%5C%22%3A0%2C%5C%22primary_position%5 C%22%3A-1%2C%5C%22ranking_signature%5C%22%3A0%2C%5C%22comm erce_channel%5C%22%3A503%2C%5C%22value%5C%22%3A0%7 D%22%2C%22ftmd_400706%22%3A%22111112l%22%7D
:beers:
~ Pete

.

[PeteLeathersac]

'

:beers:

.

[ZiggyL78]

Hard to tell. But very possible. I did make the home made( RS :) ) bumper by cutting the centre section out. Also I left the 4 bolt spindles on the front but it's hard to see.

Thanks for posting.

[LT1vette]

Are you sure you mean Eastern ave?

Commissioners street (south of Eastern/south of the Gardiner) was a popular location for street racing.

You are RIGHT. I knew what I meant !!! LOL

[useless tony]

Totally meaningless story crossed my memory today ... many years ago at Weston and Finch, there was a guy named Mark with a 68 (maybe 67) Mustang fastback. I think it was blue. He had a hot looking girlfriend who may have possibly had her own Mustang. At some point in time, my friend Serge T (mentioned earlier in this thread) and I went to Marks house so Serge could purchase some headers for the 428 Serge was putting in his drag Mustang (71-72).

Fast forward quite a few years and another friend and I decide to spend some time at the Toronto Zoo. While there, I spot two women with several kids in tow. One of the women looks just like Marks girlfriend from years ago. I stroll up to her and politely ask "are you married to a guy named Mark" ... she growled "I was" with a look like I was Marks lawyer and she had lost everything because of me.

That was the end of that conversation.

I can't imagine someone so miserable being divorced :dunno: :grin:

I told you it was a meaningless story.