HPBCANADA.COM

TALK ABOUT THE GOOD OLD DAYS!!
Muscle Cars with false lower horsepower ratings for insurance reasons and car manufacturers giving new car 50,000 mile warranties!!
Beat the crap out of car.. blow the motor, transmission or rear end or all of them. Have it towed for FREE to the dealer, get a free loaner car while yours was it the shop and then get an No Charge invoice in the end.
AND the warranty was transferable to the second owner!
10 miles to the imperial gallon........280 BLUE Sunoco was 40 cents a gallon!
Big Block motors...454...427....426 Hemi...440 and my favorites the small block solid lifter Chevy...265...283...327....302.....1970 350 LT1.... all approximately 11 to one compression..... Problem with the big blocks on the street was they would load up because of the low RPM street driving and you had the get them on the Highway every few days and clean them out. Not so with the small blocks......411 rear end.....M22 transmission..forget the 6500 redline...7000 to 7500 not a problem....just drop the hammer and let it happen.
Plus that solid lift SOUND! Sounded like coins dropping on a metal tray!
And my one ride out of Golden Mile Motors down Eglinton in a 1967 L-88...M-21...411 coupe! Neck is sore just thinking of it.

I've got a 427 M22 sitting under the stairs in my shop lol. Off road side pipes and all...

I REALLY like the old stuff...but...we are now living in the golden age of horsepower. The LS powered Vette's of today would be hard to catch by much from that era. Back then you could actually afford a badass car though...I know Sr. had reasonably new vette's even in high school. The average kid can't do that today.

THAT WAS THE BIG DIFFERENCE! You could buy a new muscle car for $3000.00. Most common were the low end models such as two door post models. A new Corvette was $7000.00 in 1969. USED muscle cars were cheap. Car make loyalty was very strong. Lot's of street racing from Harvey's on Jane Street.....very similar to the Outlaw TV series. The Corvette guys would have the Drag Strip for Corvette only drags as special events. No question the modern stuff is much superior......BUT, back then you actually play with your toys on the street.

HARVEYS JANE AND 401
https://ontariorodders.activeboard.com/ ... -jane-401/

ANOTHER DIFFERENCE......THE CANADIAN DOLLAR WAS 14% MORE THAN THE US DOLLAR!!
Lot's of good performance stuff on the other side of the border.....drive down for a few days and come back with high performance stuff already installed in your car. Speed Shops down there loved the Canadian buyers and offered drop in complete engine and tranny packages. They even had interior packages. Swap them out in 24 hours...exchange.

Lot's of car clubs, swap meets, all face to face communication and weekend trips.

I grew up building cars, had a '72 Nova, '79 GMC 3/4 ton, '80 Corvette, none were stock and they were all serious street contenders back then. My 'Vette was making 500hp with a built 383 and didn't see a lot of taillights, but a Fiero with a 3800 sc swap would always hang with me. That started me rethinking what a good performance car was. Why build a gas guzzling iron dinosaur that won't idle in traffic and would overheat without the hood off when you could get decent fuel mileage, more than enough power, decent idle quality and A/C that works in a modern package? With the computer controls we have now carbed 350's (and their counterparts) are pretty much dead to me. I mean, drive a Taurus SHO; twin turbo V6 that would eat most pre 2000s performance cars, has all wheel drive and is capable of 12L/100km average? Even turbo 4 bangers now are seriously fast. My daily driver now is a 3800 sc that gets 9L/100 km and has enough power to anhillate the tires anywhere under 60km/hr and everything works, I'm not wrenching on anything. That's cooler to me now than most other vehicles I've owned.

For most people the cars they saw in their teen years were the ones they wanted to have. For me as a teen it was a rare occasion that you saw a 1957 Corvette on the road. It made my day, I wanted one of those cars! I was likely enough to own several BRAND NEW Muscle cars and Corvettes between 1966 and 1970. Years later I could not understand why collectors would pay $100,000.00 for those cars. I had owned new ones and they were terrible compared to the new models. I liked to drive them, not sit a parking lot and wax it. In later years I got a 57 Vette and a 57 T-Bird.
I belonged to both clubs. I drove the cars in the summer as my everyday drivers and I never babied them. I even Drag Raced the 57 Vette at a couple of corvette only drag meets as I did with my 1970 LT1 . Rick Eaton and I would beat most of the normal big block Vettes with our small blocks.

I think of the 'good' engines as less over rated than the lesser engines. SAE net was a big change. 400 of today's HP will smoke 400 of 60's HP. I get that tires are better but trap speeds lb for lb are a higher for a given HP now.

But cost is also way up. The average guy is not buying a new muscle car every two years like the cool guys on our bay at Cooch used to.

Now cars are not toast after 50,000 miles. I've got 100,000 miles plus on my 2007 Miata and its still in fine condition. I remember my father's 65 Plymouth that needed new springs and shocks at 50,000 miles and his 1970 Dodge wagon that needed everything at 100,000 miles.