Bill is a pretty typical Olds guy. He likes his cars to be fast and look good, but he also likes to be comfy when he takes his wife Cathy out cruisin’. Their 73 Cutlass does all of that and more. Bill picked up the current engine from a guy in Ohio that had difficulty keeping the combo running. Bill and the previous owned agreed on a price and Bill brought the engine to us in milk crates, which we freshened and tuned up. It consists of a stock block with the Mondello bottom end girdle and matching oil pan. The crank is an Eagle 4.250 stroke cast unit, with their ESP H beam rods attached. The pistons are Probe pieces, with Total Seal conventional rings sealing them up. The heads are Edelbrock Performer RPMs that have been CNC Ported and had 2.19/1.68 Stainless valves in them. The valve springs are dual from PAC, and with lightweight tool steel retainers, Scorpion Roller Rockers, and a Jomar Stud Girdle. The Cam is a street roller from Scott Brown at Competition Components with 268 @ .050 and .700 lift. The Intake is a port matched Edelbrock Victor, with a Holley Dominator converted to run on E85. A TCI Converter is plugged into the TH400, connected to a 4.10 gear. Bill runs Warren Gear in Michigan, so you only get one guess as to where the 12 Bolt was assembled. The car is raced in the same trim as it is driven, full 3″ Exhaust to the bumper, 9″ Hoosier radial slicks. and weighs in at a portly 3985lbs. The car has run a best of 10.85, and has been in the 10.90’s regularly. With some more ironing out and testing, as well as a few smaller mods, we are looking to see Bill and Cathy’s Olds in the 10.70’s
Congrats to long time customer and friend Jim Monson on being interviewed for Ford Racing Nation after his first six second pass. Great working with you Jim! Keep up the good work!
Lot’s of cars have interesting stories, and Doug and Nancy’s Skylark bracket car is no exception. In Doug’s words:
“I found this car on a used car lot around 1997. It was rust free Texas car with a totally shot interior and a 350 with a rod knock. I let my friend know and he went to look hoping to make a full race car out of it. When he went the car was still there but he was told it was sold. The next month I drive by and it’s still sitting there. I call my friend who goes back and finds out someone put money down but never came back so he bought it for $800. We drove it home with a rod knock about 5 miles expecting it to grenade. We gutted the motor/trans/interior and let it sit. A short time later a local machine shop gave us a rebuilt 73 455. Someone dropped it off to be rebuilt many years ago and never picked it up. Having a car and a motor sitting there we decided to build a “fun car”. A local junk yard gave us a TH400, we built a 4.10 12 bolt chevy from a spare housing, used some old MT headers from the rafters, bought a performer intake, found an old 3310 Holley and threw it all together. The best the car ran was 12.80’s with a total investment of about $1500. I drove the car off and on for about 10 years, usually taking it to Buick races to have fun with. 3 years ago I bought the car from my friend and shortly afterwards I bought a 12-1 stage 1 engine and ran 11.70’s.”
Looking for better ET’s, Doug built the engine in the car now. It’s budget minded, but still uses good quality parts: The Block was machined by Bobb and Geof at Finishline, and assembled by Doug. Wiseco Pistons were used, and swing on 6.635 BBC H beam rods. The cam is a custom flat tappet from Competition Components, 260 @ .050 on the intake side, and .600 lift with Comp Cams 1.6 Gold series rocker arms. Heads are CNC Ported Edelbrock RPM’s with an upgrade to 7/16 rocker studs. The intake is an SP1 single plane with an adapter to run a 9375 Dominator (1050). Improved oiling comes from a Finishline scavenger unit. Doug used some innovation and some spare parts for the ignition, using a stock buick distributor and converted it to electronics using a Mopar pickup and corresponding orange control box. Neat idea Doug. The converter is a 4000 RPM Coan unit, and the 12 Bolt houses 4.10 gears. Exhaust consists of 2″ Headers and 3 1/2″ pipes and Dynomax bullet mufflers. Best ET so far is 10.60 @ 127+ mph. The skylark weighs in at 3500lbs. Oh, and the other cool thing? Nancy is Doug’s sister in law and shares the driving duties on the blue Buick! Here’s a video of the car in action
Hot rodding is alive and well in Germany. Check out Dennis Stoffers’ 1969 Chrysler 300. Very cool! I love these old C-Bodies, they are unusual, but cool. And they are big. Really big! This one runs well too. How’s 12.80’s weighing in at 4300+ pounds? And it’s docile enough to drive everywhere. Very cool. The bottom end is a basic 440 that’s .030 over at 10.75 to 1. A set of home ported Edelbrock Performer RPM heads with Competition Components springs and hardware were bolted on, topped with a Edelbrock CH-28 dual quad manifold and twin Edelbrock 600 carburetors. The camshaft is a small custom mechanical flat tappet from Scott Brown at Competition Components, around 235 @ .050 and .530 lift. The 727 is fitted with a B&M holeshot converter, and the rear end houses 3.91 gears. Exhaust is handled by a set of 1 3/4 headers and a 3″ dual exhaust with 3″ Magnaflow mufflers with tailpipes to the back of the car. None of us are ever satisfied with how fast the car is, so this winter Dennis plans to step up to and 1 7/8 or 2″ header and put one of our 9.5″ PTC converters in the car. With those changes and some more work, Dennis hopes to see some 12.50’s out of the car. Great job on a cool car Dennis.
Big Congrats goes out to long time friend and customer Jim Monson on his first 6 second pass at the NMRA event in Bowling Green this past weekend. 6.94 at 201.73! Great Job Jim, all that hard work has paid off. Jim’s incrementals: 1.12/ 60 ; 2.99/ 330; 4.52/ 660; 6.94. Well Done!
Jim runs a small block Ford with a single 106MM turbo and a powerglide. The rotating assembly and valvetrain are all Competition Components items.
We have been working with Steve Webb for a while. We first did a small roller cam for his Naturally Aspirated 347 Ford that eventually went 10 teens at 128MPH. When Steve decited to switch to a turbo combination, he called Competition Components. Scott Brown spec’d the Ross pistons to fit the new Dart Block, as well as the cam and other valvetrain items. It’s first weekend out, Steve’s new combo went 9.40’s at 145 on pump gas with only 7 PSI of boost. For the NMRA Race in Columbus this past weekend, Steve decided to step on it a bit and run some VP Fuels C-12 in it and give it some more boost. First pass off the trailer, he was rewarded with an 8.90 @ 157 with 14psi Boost. Steve kept leaning it out over the weekend, and by the time the weekend was over, he had run an 8.70 at over 159MPH. Congrats Steve! Keep in mind, this was only the second weekend out with the car at only 14psi. Lots more to come! If you get a chance, you should check out Steve’s Website here.
Here’s is a rundown of Steve’s set up:
Engine: SBF 364
Heads: AFR 205’s
Camshaft: Custom Scott Brown (Competition Components) Solid Roller Grind
We always like to see something a little different. Bruce Wilson’s Buick 455 Powered Jaguar is definitely different and exceptionally well done. The Jag was rescued out of Smitty’s Junkyard in Pasadena, MD. The body and interior look pretty much as you see here, surprising with the 200,000+ miles. Someone had gutted the driveline and left the shell. The car still has the original leather seats, real wood dash and power windows. Now that’s different for a 9 second racecar! When Bruce picked it up, they put it on the trailer with a forklift and gave him a weary “good luck”.
The body was shipped of to Clark’s Racing Chassis, to get the cage and Ladder bar rear suspension put in it. The front suspension is stock Jag, with custom drag shocks fitted by Bruce. Peters Sheetmetal fabrication handled the hood mods, and Dave Wilson at Southern Automatics handled the transmission.
Tom and Bubb at Burtonsville Performance Machine were put in charge of machining and assembly. The Engine is a basic 464 CID combination, with a stock crank, 4.350 Bore CP flat top pistons, and TA Performance Stage 1 heads that have been fully ported. The Cam is a custom flat tappet from Scott Brown @ Competition Components. A Dominator is perched atop a KB Wildcat intake (Now the SPX) and sealed to the custom hood.
The Jag really hauls the mail, running a best of 9.71@ 137 best with a 1.32 sixty foot time. Not bad for a 3300lb car running a 3.50 gear. No, we aren’t kidding! Usually though, Bruce takes some timing out and short shifts to run 10.00 Index races. This past weekend, Bruce was runner up in the naturally aspirated shootout series in Maple Grove, where he is currently the Points Leader. Congrats Bruce!
We managed to get Brian’s 72 Buick GS to Norwalk for the Annual Buick Raceday and get some passes on it. On the dyno, it made 703 HP, full results here. We had a great first outing running three passes in the 10.60’s right out of the box. The engine has been dyno’d, but we hadn’t made any passes in the car, so we weren’t quite sure what to expect. We had some charging issues which plays hell with the MSD ignition boxes, and a big hesitation on launch, so overall we were very pleased with our first outing. I’m sure with some attention to detail, and getting issues straightened out, the car will run even better.
Overall, the Norwalk Buick Raceday is a great event, and it was nice to be able to put faces with all of the names of the Buick guys I have spoken to over the years. Roberta, Bill and crew do a great job putting this event on. If you have an opportunity, you should check it out. More info here: Buick Raceday: Facebook Page
