Here comes the Judge

[markjohnson]

You know, this does bring up a point that's not talked about very often. Mainly, the speed potential of some of these '60's and 70's musclecars on skinny, bias-ply tires. Talk about a high-speed, and even panic braking, nightmare! It's a wonder that not as many people died as could have. How would you even drive a 4-speed, 400+ horsepower, 4.11 gear'ed car in the rain or snow? Kinda fun to think about!

[Keith Tedford]

Back in the day, I don't think any of the tires available were speed rated for the speeds that some cars were capable of. Our Firebird, even at the 130 mph indicated on the speedometer, was as stable as at 60 mph. The Chevelle, with 4.10 gears wasn't going to be going 130 mph and have the engine stay in one piece. For the first three years, I drove our COPO Chevelle summer and winter. With 4.10 gears and the M20 transmission, the car was actually very good in the snow. With the idle set at 1200 rpm, I could just let out the clutch and the car would pull away without me even stepping on the gas. That engine had manners plus. Our '68 Ram Air automatic Firebird was pretty useless in the snow. No weight in the rear I guess. I have always preferred a standard transmission for winter driving. Put an inexperienced person in one of these cars in rain or snow, and they could very likely end up wrapped around a hydro pole. Spinning the tires at any speed was pretty easy to do. As far as braking goes, I never had a problem with the disc brakes. For the most part I ran big tires which probably helped too.