I had the same thought about the Mach E being called the Thunderbird. The use of E-bird would have been a natural. ... View more

When I was in high school, I was looking to update the smokin', wheezing 383 in my 69 Road Runner.  It was 1978 and hot rods, big blocks and high-performance engines were widely available in junkyards for next to nothing.  I went to my local salvage yard and they had just pulled in a Superbee that had been mangled in an accident.   The junkyard owner said he was told it had a 440 in it, and if I wanted to go pull it, he'd let it go for $250.  He said he'd toss in the transmission for another $75.   When I got to the car, it turned out it was a Six-Pack car.  I quickly got the tripod hoist set up and got the engine and transmission out.   ... View more

I'd use the car to go back in time and ask Doc Brown to fix it... ... View more

But they have stickers that look like Ford and Chevy and Toyota emblems! With realistic looking headlights and everything... 🙂 ... View more

What a fascinating life story. I have worked at USDOT for a decade, and I am saddened to know that I missed the opportunity to meet Mr. Merritt. ... View more

I guess beauty is in the eye of the beholder! I like the Sebring body style. In college I had a 69 Roadrunner, and my roomate, coincidentally, had a 71 Roadrunner. My 69 had a 440/727 setup (not original) and his car had a high performance 340, 4 speed, and an 8 3/4 rear. He had gone through the engine and it had a solid lifter cam, high compression pistons, ported heads, headers, etc. It also had been lowered, had big (for the era) tires and wheels, upgraded brakes, and heavy duty anti-sway bars, KYB shocks, and hi-rate springs. My car was a quarter-mile car (mid-12s) while he had set his car up for top speed, assisted by a set of gears that were something like a 2.76 ratio. I remember being on the interstate one night cruising along at well over 150 mph and the car was stable. Cars today can do that easily, but 40 years ago, that was remarkable. My Roadrunner is just a memory, but he still has it and it now had a 408 stroker with a Tremec 6 speed. He says it is far faster than it used to be... but I am far older and wiser now, so I will take his word for it! 🙂 ... View more

For 13 years I owned a 68 Impala SS427 Convertible with a 4 speed transmission, and a 12 bolt rear. I sold it about 20 years ago when I moved to a home without sufficient garage space (a situation since rectified). I had no idea it was a 1 of 200 car... although it did garner a lot of attention at local and regional car shows. When thoughts of 'the one that got away' come up, of all the 40 or so cars I have owned, this is the one I put at the top of the list. Even more now that I know of its rarity! Thanks for the article and the memories. ... View more

35 years ago, I had a Monte Carlo SS454, 4 speed and it wasn't a car to by trifled with. essentially a luxo version of the Chevelle. It was quite a sleeper and I really wish I had kept it... ... and my Road Runner, and my Challenger, and my Mustang GT, and my Impala SS Convertible, and my Jag XK120. If I got my wish, I'd need a MUCH larger garage, but also positioned well for retirement! 🙂 ... View more

Hemmings dyno tested an L88 with a factory rated 435 horsepower The engine actually put out about 575 horsepower. https://www.hemmings.com/stories/article/ratified#&gid=1&pid=2 ... View more

I had a LeBra on my 88 Mustang GT - and I agree with your assessment!    A friend had a "Car Phoney" complete with the fake antenna.  It was so real that I once picked up the handset to make a call.   I hope that some day in the near future, the 'donk' dies. I have an 85 Monte Carlo, and I see a lot of G-bodies in my area that are riding on 24 or 26 inch rims and they look like jacked up trucks.  To each their own, but those are horrendous looking IMHO. ... View more

When I was a kid, the local Plymouth dealer had a brand-new Superbird that languished in a back storage lot for years.  I first found it while riding a bike through the rows of new cars in 1974... At the time I didn't know what it was, but a salesman told me about the car and how it came to be created by Plymouth.    Somehow this small town dealership in rural WV had gotten one - complete with a Hemi and a 4 speed - with the intent of selling it to a wealthy gentleman that had a stable of hemi powered cars he had previously bought from the dealership... but he balked.    So it went on the sales floor and the price proved too high for the townsfolk.  Gas prices spiked and nobody was buying gas hogs, so it was moved to the back lot and sat there for years.  I heard that it sold to an out-of-towner that spotted it while passing through town.   Years later, when I had gotten my drivers license and my first hotrod (a 69 Road Runner), I took it to a local car show, and I parked it next to another Road Runner.  The owner was the gentleman with all the Hemi-powered cars I'd heard about 4 or 5 years earlier.  His RR was a hell of a lot nicer than the modified mess of a ride I had bought... its 383 smoked, the transmission slipped, the seats were torn up, but it still spun the tires, and that was all my 17 year old self needed in a car.    So, it turned out that he had 5 Hemi cars in total - a GTX, a Charger, a Road Runner, and a 'cuda.  He told me the 70 'cuda was the reason he didn't have the money to buy the 70 Superbird.  But to me, the coolest car he had was a Coronet station wagon with a Hemi and a 4-speed.  He said he ordered it with that drivetrain to tow his Airstream on vacations.  I bet it towed the hell out of it!    He said that if he ever sold any of his cars, he'd let me know.  After college, I joined the Navy.  When I returned home from a deployment in the late 80s, I stopped to see him and his wife told me that he had died unexpectedly and she had sold his cars to a collector. ... View more

Done!  I can't think of a more worthy cause... I hope he fully recovers and enjoys driving his classic for many years to come!  ... View more

In the 1950s, the first "B" block MOPAR engine was a 350. ... View more