<VV> Thems wuz the daze

[Padgett]

>The guys I knew would be laughed off the street if they had
>AC in their car.   :)
>We wuz hardcore back in them thar days.

And back in the day, all my V-8 autocross cars had a/c including the '70 GS 
that used to beat Z-28s regularly. Keep in mind that the Z-28 was developed 
to meet a five liter limit imposed by the SCCA for TransAm racing and used 
a 327 block with a 283 crank. Sure the 350 would out torque a Z-28 and the 
Dodge 340 was even better just as a good 440 six pack would usually outrun 
a hemi.

Also remember that in the 60s and 70s, street tires were *terrible* (used 
to have a 70 Grand Prix with a Muncie, friends called it "asphyxiation" 
from all of the tire smoke. Wasn't going anywhere, just smoking the tires - 
"up in smoke" had a very real meaning then.

In 67 and 68 (before an all expense paid trip to SEA) I was seriously 
autocrossing a 210 hp Camaro with a QJ on top. No internal mods. Could beat 
the mustangs in A Sedan because it had posi, an AADCO rear sway bar (in 
case you ever wondered why the aftermarket rear bar on a 67-69 Camaro ran 
through the stock muffler, I lived ten miles from AADCO and had side pipes 
on mine.) and was running 10.45x15 Goodyear Blue Streak rain tires (none of 
this DOT business back then).

So you cannot compare cars of then unless you know the rules. A good Z-28 
would put out about 440 hp at 7000 rpm, just an L-88 was pushing 600 at the 
time (430 hp rated). Once you found a way to get the power to the ground, 
was no question which would come in ahead (and a lot of clutches got fried 
trying to do just that). Is difficult to really appreciate now but back 
then anything less than 400 (and really 427) cubic inches was considered a toy.

Padgett