Dr.Jass
Pastor of Muppets
Recently a customer of mine with a '72 Challenger called me asking if I have any 3.23 gears lying around for an 8¾". I thought I did, but apparently the last set went in the latest scrap run.
This guy just spent $6K on a 414-inch stroker motor (because he was stupid enough to bore a 360 block .060" over though it would have cleaned up at .030", but that's a discussion for another day). The car's not his daily driver... it's a fuckin' toy.
He wanted to know about the 3.23s because he can't bear driving the car with the engine turning over 3 grand on the highway with the 3.91s currently in it. The fuel mileage is too bad, and the stroker singing is just too much.
What the hell ever happened to hardcore car guys? We've become so spoiled by the overdrive transmissions in our newer daily drivers that we think our musclecars should be the same way? What ever happened to the joy of instantaneous power when the throttle's punched? Did we lose our appreciation of pipes singing?
He later called me about some parts for an A518, and before I looked up Part 1, I asked him if this was for the Challenger. He confirmed, and I tried really hard to explain to him the butchery needed to install that trans in his car. He seemed nonplussed, like the overdrive was worth how much hacking and slashing it would take to get that trans in his car... "They make a kit now!" was what he said. I asked if they explained in the "kit" directions how badly he'd have to carve up the car, and he didn't know other than to say it came with a new trans crossmember. I asked him upper or lower, and he didn't even reailze that the part to which the trans-mount crossmember bolts is the upper and an integral part of the front subframe.
C'mon, people... have we lost it completely? By and large, these cars are weekend cruisers and the occasional ride to work. Doing 500 miles in a weekend in my 4.10-geared '73 Challenger 340 bothered me not one whit. I drove nearly 7,000 miles in my '72 Charger 440+6 with second gear being the highest option and it was my daily driver (that included 2,500 miles in one week, driving home from Atlanta and back).
I know gas is expensive and revs equal poorer mileage (in most cases), but it's a plaything! Enjoy the good old days as they were... deep gears, goofy acceleration, and all the evils that became of cars that were built when gas was less then fifty cents per gallon.
If that's too much, sell the car and go back to driving your late-model Silverado.
69.5 and Fishy are completely exempt from this thread. You boys give 'er hell with those 5.33s!
This guy just spent $6K on a 414-inch stroker motor (because he was stupid enough to bore a 360 block .060" over though it would have cleaned up at .030", but that's a discussion for another day). The car's not his daily driver... it's a fuckin' toy.
He wanted to know about the 3.23s because he can't bear driving the car with the engine turning over 3 grand on the highway with the 3.91s currently in it. The fuel mileage is too bad, and the stroker singing is just too much.
What the hell ever happened to hardcore car guys? We've become so spoiled by the overdrive transmissions in our newer daily drivers that we think our musclecars should be the same way? What ever happened to the joy of instantaneous power when the throttle's punched? Did we lose our appreciation of pipes singing?
He later called me about some parts for an A518, and before I looked up Part 1, I asked him if this was for the Challenger. He confirmed, and I tried really hard to explain to him the butchery needed to install that trans in his car. He seemed nonplussed, like the overdrive was worth how much hacking and slashing it would take to get that trans in his car... "They make a kit now!" was what he said. I asked if they explained in the "kit" directions how badly he'd have to carve up the car, and he didn't know other than to say it came with a new trans crossmember. I asked him upper or lower, and he didn't even reailze that the part to which the trans-mount crossmember bolts is the upper and an integral part of the front subframe.
C'mon, people... have we lost it completely? By and large, these cars are weekend cruisers and the occasional ride to work. Doing 500 miles in a weekend in my 4.10-geared '73 Challenger 340 bothered me not one whit. I drove nearly 7,000 miles in my '72 Charger 440+6 with second gear being the highest option and it was my daily driver (that included 2,500 miles in one week, driving home from Atlanta and back).
I know gas is expensive and revs equal poorer mileage (in most cases), but it's a plaything! Enjoy the good old days as they were... deep gears, goofy acceleration, and all the evils that became of cars that were built when gas was less then fifty cents per gallon.
If that's too much, sell the car and go back to driving your late-model Silverado.
69.5 and Fishy are completely exempt from this thread. You boys give 'er hell with those 5.33s!
