If you found one of these race cars today how would your restore it?

[turbo69bird]

Restore the car stock

Restore the car to as raced

Let’s assume they are all dealer owned cars raced by the dealer themselves . Not privateers
Only because ( for some ) it narrows the complications to some extent.

[Pusher_Man]

I know it’s not an option and doesn’t answer your question but if I found one then I would leave the sucker as is. Old, lettered up race cars peg out the cool meter in my book. Especially if they have original paint and lettering!

[turbo69bird]

Originally Posted by Pusher_Man

I know it’s not an option and doesn’t answer your question but if I found one then I would leave the sucker as is. Old, lettered up race cars peg out the cool meter in my book. Especially if they have original paint and lettering!

I would fully agree w that, but for arguments sake let’s assume they need a resto.
I’m just trying to gauge which way people prefer these old race cars stock or race. It’s kind of an ongoing ( friendly) argument between two friends. But let’s also assume it’s not totally hypothetical because we are trying to decide if people actually had to put their hard earned $$ up for an actual resto which way they’d go.

[BJCHEV396]

Originally Posted by Pusher_Man

I know it’s not an option and doesn’t answer your question but if I found one then I would leave the sucker as is. Old, lettered up race cars peg out the cool meter in my book. Especially if they have original paint and lettering!

Small World...that Mustang Cobra Jet,pictured above,was a local car up here in Ottawa and was owned and raced by Dave Benn and I had a chance to buy it around '73 or '74.Dave worked for a local Cottman Transmission shop and I met him thru a friend.I had just sold my '71 LS5 Camino and was looking for a new ride.I went to see the Mustang and the deal we discussed,if memory serves me,was around $3000 to $3500.00.Dave would install a " more friendly" street gear in the rear and take his name off the body but leave the snake and decals on the car.I thought about it long and hard but I figured that the car would be a cop magnet if I drove it on the street and I was a die hard Chevy guy!I bought a '65 Corvette instead.Wish I remembered more details about the motor and transmission but I don't.Dave sold the car and bought a Camaro and was sponsored by Leftley Motors in Rockland,Ontario.

[1967 4K]

Notice this car has wing glass doors so it’s a 67. It also has front and back side markers, so it’s a 68. If you pay attention to some of the old photos from back in the day you see this.

[turbo69bird]

Originally Posted by 1967 4K

Notice this car has wing glass doors so it’s a 67. It also has front and back side markers, so it’s a 68. If you pay attention to some of the old photos from back in the day you see this.

In the case of the Stephen Pontiac pro car , they would update the body every year to look like the next years model. But it was the same car .
They couldn’t do that with the 69 so when it carried over into 70 they just changed the paint scheme by lettering it different.

The 70 up body actually ran in the 71-73 seasons the car wasn’t delivered til late (half way through season) 70 and being in the north east the season was pretty much over by the time it got dialed in.

It seems the RAV engine was tested in my 69 because the car has two hoods with it one hood was cut for the dual quads. No one can remember for sure . Doesn’t help (the memory ) that all the cars were painted similar. Of course that’s what helped me get this car in the first place ..

Many probably don’t know it (even Pontiac guys) but the Ram air V engine was a very rare beast only given out to racers in most cases, the one I have was also topped by a RAV dual quad intake and carbs that only 4 racers got ahold of. (When I go to shows I get comments that it’s not even a Pontiac engine in there ) the last picture is of the exhaust gasket layout the ports aren’t in the normal Pontiac exhaust arrangement
The engine was mainly designed to be a contender in super stock , but was forced to run in pro because they never got installed in car bodies, do to a shortage of the A frame forged connecting rods.

The DS series of part numbers means developmental series or service. It shows up mainly in engineering test engines or parts not production parts

[L72copocamaro]

Really loaded question. To me, if it has a pedigree, keep it as raced. Otherwise feel free to do whatever your preference is.

[Pro Stock John]

For me it would depend. If we were talking a super rare Camaro for instance, like a ZL1, the car is worth a ton restored.

If we are talking a somewhat rare car but it spent it's whole life as a race car, a '69 Z/28, I'd probably restore it as a race car if it was all cut up already and had ladder bars, tubs etc.

I think when the car has the potential to be worth 6 figures most folks would restore to stock.

[turbo69bird]

Ok well most of those cars pictured are 6 figure + cars

I don’t want to interject what I think at this time because I don’t want to sway things .

[turbo69bird]

Didn’t want to leave the olds guys out.

And since this is probably gonna get ugly w out some parameters let’s assume it’s a stock eliminator car appropriate for the year of the car, pretty much in its stock class form not all caged, tubbed and changed
From
It’s regular form . It’s basically stock w bolt ons and blueprinted, headers, slapper bars or bolt on ladder bars, basically a day 2 race car .

Sorry guys thought this would be easier .