In The Beginning

[ZiggyL78]

Sun, Mar 13 at 1:53 p.m.

So the next morning I checked for any damage. I looked down the carbs and couldn't believe what I saw. The throttle blades were bent at a perfect 90 degrees. It was like someone bent them on a brake. I've seen all kinds of damage from nitrous backfires but never anything like this. I knew there was a Holley booth at the fairgrounds, so off I went carbs in hand. Luckily it was early and they weren't busy. I figured they would say forget it and sell me new carbs. One of the tech guys takes a look down one of the carbs. Are you kidding me!!! Hey Mike. Check this out. He was just as startled. I figured these guys had seen it all. What the hell happened? I've never seen anything like this before. I started to tell them the story. Mike says. Are you the guy with white Vega that blew his scoop off? Ya.WOW! I heard the story. Did the cops really try to take you away? Oh ya. He said you should go to the dog track and place a bet. Funny. I had already planned a trip to the Grey Hounds before we left for home. I didn't win. lol. So the tech guy tells me to come back at noon. I stopped at a parts store and picked up a piece of gasket material. During the backfire, the gasket between the 2 piece tunnel ram had blown out. I was all back together and running fine that afternoon. We had a great time.

The closest track to Toronto was in Georgetown. You could drive there without getting on the highway which was great for us nut bars that drove on the street with a 4.88 gear. There were many stories about that place. I was in the tower talking to the guys one night when I saw a 69 Camaro pulling up to the line. I knew the car and it was pretty quick for a streetcar. BBC 4 SPD I think it ran high 11s. He pulled into the water up to the lights and staged. It was a big meet that weekend and the rosin was down. As the lights came down this guy brought the revs up and drops the clutch on the last yellow. I kid you not. I saw his generator light come on when the car bogged really bad. I instantly heard a cling of something hitting the window on the tower. The guy blew his clutch and a piece of the clutch disc hit the window!!!. Even the track owner had never seen that before.

So after the track had been closed for a year we decided to drive by on the way home from our other track. There it was. So sad. Weeds growing up through the asphalt and remnants of the bleachers all broken up. One of my friends jokingly said. Hey. We have our cars here. Let's make a couple of passes.lol. Another guy says. I hope you're strong enough to carry the cars over the barricades. The cement barriers were blocking the entrance. I said I have a pretty strong tow rope. Another friend had a diesel dually. We actually pulled the barriers out of the way. Crazy. Everyone pulled into the pits and started to put their slicks on just like a regular Sunday. I wish I had more pics. Everyone was having a great time except me. There was no one for me to run. Boohoo.
Everyone pulled into the pits and started to put their slicks on just like a regular Sunday. Some other guys arrived. I have no idea how these guys found out what was going on. No cell phones back then. They showed up with a couple of cars. I think they lived in the area and heard all the noise. Within an hour more cars arrived and there were probably over 100 people. I should have charged $20 ahead. I was getting nervous as anyone driving by would have easily seen and heard all the commotion.

A white Nova came in on a trailer. It was a big tire car and was all lettered up. I knew the car and it ran 10s. It was called the Polar Express. And of course, my bottle was empty. As you can see in the pic he was sleeping and I got him by about 2 lengths off the line. I couldn't see him but I did hear him as he was right on my rear bumper at about half-track. He started to pull me in high gear and passed me right near the end of the track. I didn't admit it at the time but I think he got me. The Cops arrived and that was the end of that day. I ran him 1 year later at the track. Instead of a street motor this time, "I was loaded for bear." LOL. Does anyone remember that saying! I now had Shafroft long rod 327 tunnel ram with NOS. I had also picked up a built 2SPD Powerglide with a brake and race convertor. Fairley new stuff for 1978.

The Glide and Brake really make things simple. I wait for the starter to guide me through the puddle and onto the edge where it is wet but not a puddle. The starter gives you the sign to spin the tires just enough to get them wet. Then he directs you 1'or 2' ahead and stop. As soon as the cars that just ran are off the track he gives you the OK to do your burnout. You step on the brake put the line lock on, let go of the brake and put the car in high gear and nail it. Some guys think if you do that the car will overrev instantly. It won't. It's hard to explain but imagine your car has rear tires that are 4' tall. You can't get the car to over-rev instantly. If you have short 26" tires and use first gear, sure. So after hitting it, you let the tach get to around 4000 the starter should signal you when the tires are smoking and to pull up. You let go of the trans brake ease off the throttle and let the car slide out onto the dry pavement and let right off once you are on the dry pavement. The car will slide about 2 feet and then squawk just as the tires bite. Even though you are now off the throttle the inertia of the tires spinning will keep them going until they bite. Back into first and you are ready to stage.

Back soon!

[CamaroNOS]

Originally Posted by ZiggyL78

Jim (RIP) was one of my best friends. He passed about a year ago alone. It was very sad. Such great guy. He lived 2 blocks from my place on Warden Ave. I stayed with him a couple of times in Kentucky were IBM sent him for a year. Jim's Z was fathom blue. I'm not sure but I think Zedder bought the car. He will probably jump in here soon. I'll put a post together soon of the guys I knew back then. Thanks.

Sorry Ken, I just read your response to my question.

Jim sold the 69 RS Z/28 (Belmont Chev Olds car) to James Copeland in 83 and I purchased it off of him in 94. I purchased it in parts and pieces and stored it away for many years. Once I completed the restoration, I brought it to MCACN to get judged (989 pts) and left the Camaro with Nickey Performance (Stefano) and it was sold to a buyer in Chicago. The car is now in California and owned by a member on this site.

Here are some pics you will remember from the days......

[ZiggyL78]

Originally Posted by CamaroNOS

Sorry Ken, I just read your response to my question.

Jim sold the 69 RS Z/28 (Belmont Chev Olds car) to James Copeland in 83 and I purchased it off of him in 94. I purchased it in parts and pieces and stored it away for many years. Once I completed the restoration, I brought it to MCACN to get judged (989 pts) and left the Camaro with Nickey Performance (Stefano) and it was sold to a buyer in Chicago. The car is now in California and owned by a member on this site.

Here are some pics you will remember from the days......

Sorry for the late response John. I have so much on the go now. So Jim's car was originally orange? Have you got any pics of the car when you finished the restoration? It must have been amazing. I have some of those pics. Tom Wilson who owned B&T is still around. He's on Facebook. Thanks.

[CamaroNOS]

Originally Posted by ZiggyL78

Sorry for the late response John. I have so much on the go now. So Jim's car was originally orange? Have you got any pics of the car when you finished the restoration? It must have been amazing. I have some of those pics. Tom Wilson who owned B&T is still around. He's on Facebook. Thanks.

NP.....I understand.

Jim's Camaro was originally Cortez Silver, see below. These pics were taken at MCACN after the restoration.

Its funny you mentioned a orange Camaro. I am sure you would also be familiar with another Camaro I owned which was a Hugger Orange/Orange Houndstooth interior car (not Jim's). This car was another 1969 RS Z/28 "GM of Canada Show Car Account" that was displayed at the C.N.E. (Canadian National Exhibition) in 1969 to promote the new GM line up. And it too was used as a drag car for quite some time at Cayuga Dragway as well.

Paul

[ZiggyL78]

Beautiful Paul. They don't get much nicer. I'm sure Jim would be proud.

[ZiggyL78]

We were setting up the suspension here to run this Stan guy in Oshawa. If I had to run anyone who I thought was a contender I would always test the car where we were supposed to run the day before.

[useless tony]

Originally Posted by ZiggyL78

We were setting up the suspension here to run this Stan guy in Oshawa. If I had to run anyone who I thought was a contender I would always test the car where we were supposed to run the day before.

Wouldn't be Stan M driving a blue '68 Camaro would it?

Regarding testing the road/strip the day before ... does that mean you drove the Vega to Oshawa from Scarborough on slicks both times or did you swap tires once in the area?

Loving the stories and really cool you have pics too.

[ZiggyL78]

Originally Posted by useless tony

Wouldn't be Stan M driving a blue '68 Camaro would it?

Regarding testing the road/strip the day before ... does that mean you drove the Vega to Oshawa from Scarborough on slicks both times or did you swap tires once in the area?

Loving the stories and really cool you have pics too.

Maybe I think I trailered it that night.

[Bill Pritchard]

Originally Posted by useless tony

Loving the stories and really cool you have pics too.

x2. All the crazy stuff my friends and I used to do back in the day, no one ever thought to have a camera along to record for posterity

[ZiggyL78]

Back when I was still in High School I started to visit all the car hangouts. I kept seeing this orange Camaro driving around town. It was clean and simple. Orange on black buckets and Cragars all round (I hate those square ones). Looking back it may have had stock exhaust. When you put a lumpy cam in a big block to me it sounds like it is choking. Mopar Hemis in a Challenger or Cuda had the same type of sound. I mean 2 1/4" exhaust behind 425+HP is a bit of a joke. I always thought GM engineers had a bit of a sence of humour. Maybe they thought there isn't much of an exhaust system that we can design that head office will and still work on these high HP cars. I think they knew that most guys were going to replace the mufflers and probably the whole exhaust system anyway.

Speaking of exhaust systems we sure did some back yard work in our driveways in those days. We had about 20 guys in our group and everyone had a piece of equipment that they shared. One guy had a welder, another had a tire machine and so on. I remember going over to my buddies house to help him put chambered pipes on his L78 Nova. I'm not sure which coins we used. I think they were quarters that we used to fill in the gaps between the head pipe and the chambered pipe. About 5 guys showed up and even after everyone chipped in we still ran out of quarters and had to raid my buddies little brother's piggy bank.LMAO. After a few beers and a handfull of quarters it was done. Of course all the jokes were flying and we were like a bunch of kids laughing our heads off. One guy said any power you picked up will not be enough to overcome the 200 #s of weld you used.lol.

So I couldn't understand why this car had no SS or 396 emblems to show it was a special model. All I did know was that I wanted it. The owners name was Angelo Colangelo. The only reason I remembered his name was that it rimed. My father was a manager of The Beer Store and he set me up with the stores bank manager. He more or less told me if I saved half the money that he would lend me the other half.

So much for that idea.It wasn't easy but I moved on and bought another Camaro. I figured I would never see the orange one again. One night hanging around Harveys a buddy of mine drives in with this orange Camaro. My buddy was a used car salesman. I knew the car right away.This was in 1972 and the car had changed hands a couple of times. Someone had blown the original motor. Ya. I know. Too bad. Back then the car hadn't reached a cult following and not yet a valueable collectable. People didn't identify the car as a COPO. It was a 427 Camaro. The car didn't sound the same as the last time I heard it 2 years ago. Who ever blew the 427 up had replaced it with a brand new crate open chamber LS7. Just for laughs they also replaced the 4.10s with 5.38s!!! To say the car was a handfull on the street was an under statement. On top of all that it was still a 4 SPD! Who ever owned the car when all these mods were done was not a nickel and dimer. The car had the best of everything and was built right. Other then all this someone had also painted the car blue.

So just to keep things interesting I bought the car. Without a serious tire a 340 Swinger could have beat this car. The car was dangerous to anyone who did not respect this kind of power. You couldn't nail this thing when ever you wanted to with real street tires. You had to get into the right mind set. Sit back in the seat and tighten up your seat belt. 1st gear was just not useable on the street. Even second was nuts and don't even think about a power shift. On a good road 3rd gear might hook but don't count on it.

A friend of mine knew the car and told me he saw the car run some low 11 second passes and had gone 11.1. The rear end was a stock 12 bolt except for the gear. It was guarantied the car would break an axle after 4 passes at the track with slicks on. The owner at that time would always have a couple of new axles with him when he went to the track. No idea why he didn't just buy after market axles he would scribe a line right down the length of the axle and check to see if the line had moved. If it had it was time to change that axle.

Gas was getting expensive and hard to find and with a 5.38 gear, 12.50 to 1 pistons, and a big cam, the car wasn't very streetable. I was also more interested in the Vega at the time so I built a low compression BBC with 3.73 gears. I drove it to the track and it ran low 12s in full street trim and pump gas.