[GNT]

I was 20 years old in 1970.I was an avid street racer and back yard mechanic.I lived in Toronto Canada the 4th largest city in North America,so we had a fairly big street scene happening.I knew almost all cars that had a V8 and a 4 barrel.As mentioned before the W30 was considered the buisness man's muscle car.They were far too expensive for your average guy and frankly they were not that fast.A well tuned W31 could out run a stock W30 and compared to the heavy hitters like LS6 Chevelles,6 pack Runners and BB Vettes the W30 wasn't even in the game.Don't get me wrong.I love these cars and they can be made to run.I'm just giving a flash back to how things were back in the day.I still remember my first ride in one.A friend of a friend pulled into Harveys one night with a green W30 with headers,4:33 gear and some special tuning by Lance Hill.That car left like a bullet off the lights but once rolling not too much punch.I was a greasy kid who had been in a lot of hot rods and race cars.I couldn't believe how nice a ride it had and especially how quiet it was inside.You would put the power window up and it was like a sealed container.Amazing.The guy who owned it had way too much money and not much knowledge of cars.He showed up one night at a local street racing spot to watch the cars run.The big boys didn't usually run till about 2 or 3 in the morning so the preliminaries usually included about 500 340 Swingers and 383 Runners and some SB Chevies.One guy in a warmed over Duster called out the W30 and found out real quick that he was no match for BB Olds.After a couple of more vitories the W30 guy started to get a fat head and a little mouthy.My BB Nova was down with a busted axle that night but a friend of mine had a LS6 Chevelle and gladly volunteered to show this guy how it's done.The Olds wacked the Chevelle by about 2 lengths out of the hole as the Chevelle was a 4 speed with 4.5 gears and had a serious traction problem.I still remember the girl friend of the Olds guy jumping up and down in her high heals on the side of the road as the W30 looked like it was going to win.I leaned over to my friend chuckling just as the Chevelle was pulling second gear."Hold on man.Watch this"Well.By third gear it was all over and the Chevelle gave it to the W30 by about 10 cars.The next Monday morning I dropped by the dealer to pick up my axle and here is the Olds on the hoist.I guess he was getting more parts for the come back but it never happened.
Anyway.About 20 years later I drifted away from the older musclecars and started playing with GNs.I opened my own shop and had a lot of fun building and racing those cars.About 3 years ago I started to get back into the older stuff and started to buy some cars to fix up.I was shocked to see that W30s and Stage 1 GS cars were almost at the bottom of the heap as far as value.Back then you could get a killer deal on one of these cars and even today they are priced way to low.The W30s are starting to come around now but he GS cars are still under valued.A GS stage 1 dead stock was faster then a LS6 Chevelle and a nicer ride.People just didn't know about those cars and only now are they starting to recieve the recognition they deserve.
Anyway.