Nice cars other than x-fire

[LE BARON]

By 1971 the party was over. Insurance companies were charging triple premiums for high-horsepower cars and gas prices were creeping up.

Most people gave up and bought a boring sedan.
But 30 absolute maniacs walked into a Plymouth dealership and said "I don't care."

They ordered the 1971 GTX with the 426 Hemi engine. It was the last year for the legendary Elephant motor. The GTX was supposed to be the "grown up" Road Runner. It had better sound deadening and nicer seats and a smoother ride.

So you basically had a luxury cruiser with a race car engine. It was the ultimate flex. It is the "Fuselage" body style which some people hated back then but today it looks like a spaceship. Seeing one of the original 30 Hemi cars today is like seeing a unicorn in the wild.

 

[LE BARON]

In 1968 General Motors had a strict corporate edict. No mid-sized car could have an engine larger than 400 cubic inches. They said it was for safety but really they just wanted to protect the Corvette.

Oldsmobile was tired of getting beat by 440 Dodges so they came up with a plan. They partnered with George Hurst (the shifter guy).

They told the GM bosses "Oh we aren't building these cars. An outside shop is building them."

It was a lie. They managed to sneak the massive 455 cubic inch V8 from the Toronado into these cars right on the assembly line using a special code. The result was 390 horsepower and a pavement-cracking 500 lb-ft of torque.

It was faster than the 442. It was faster than the GTO. It was a luxury car that fought dirty. And it featured the famous "Dual Gate" shifter which let you shift it like an automatic or slam through the gears like a manual. They called it the "His and Hers" shifter which you definitely couldn't get away with today.

 

[LE BARON]

General Motors finally lifted their ban on engines larger than 400 cubic inches in mid-sized cars. Chevy wasted no time. They dropped the LS6 454 V8 into the Chevelle SS.

It was rated at 450 horsepower but we all know that was a lie. It was closer to 500.

But look at this car. It isn't Arrest Me Red. It isn't Tuxedo Black. It is Gobi Beige. The original owner was a genius. He ordered the most violent street engine in history but he painted it the color of a hearing aid.

He did it to fly under the radar. The cops didn't look at him. The insurance agent didn't look at him. But when he opened up that cowl induction hood at a stoplight he left every Corvette and Hemi owner in a cloud of beige tire smoke. It is the ultimate wolf in sheep's clothing.

 

[LE BARON]

In 1964 John DeLorean was running Pontiac and he wanted a two-seater sports car. He didn't want a heavy cruiser. He wanted a Mustang fighter.

So he built the Banshee. It was brilliant. It had a fiberglass body and a clam-shell hood. It was tiny and aerodynamic and it weighed 500 pounds less than a Corvette. Even with a smaller engine it would have absolutely embarrassed the Corvette at a stoplight.

DeLorean presented it to the GM bosses and they were terrified. They knew that if they let Pontiac sell this car for a lower price nobody would buy the Corvette anymore. So they killed the project instantly.

But here is the insult to injury. Look at the fenders. Look at the profile. GM killed the car but they stole the design and used it for the 1968 C3 Corvette. Pontiac did all the work and Chevy got all the glory.

 

[LE BARON]

Understand how unhinged Dodge was in 1968.

They wanted to dominate the Super Stock class at the drag strip. So they took the smallest car they had which was the Dart and they sent it to Hurst Performance with one instruction. Make it light.

Hurst went crazy. They replaced the fenders and hood with fiberglass. They installed chemically thinned glass that would shatter if you looked at it wrong. They removed the window cranks and used a leather strap to hold the glass up. They threw out the back seat and the radio and the heater.

But the craziest part? They acid-dipped the steel doors to make the metal paper-thin.

Then they sledgehammered the shock towers and stuffed the massive 426 Race Hemi into the engine bay. The result was a car that weighed 3,000 pounds and had 425 underrated horsepower. It ran 10s right off the trailer. It barely had brakes and it couldn't turn a corner but man did it fly.

 

[LE BARON]

Why the Viper died.

It wasn't because it was slow. In fact the 2017 ACR destroyed almost every track record in the world. It had an 8.4-liter V10 and an aero package that generated 2,000 pounds of downforce. It stuck to the ground like chewing gum.

So why did they kill it?

Because of a federal safety regulation called FMVSS 226. It required all cars to have side-curtain airbags. But the Viper's roofline was so low and sleek that there was physically no room to install them without redesigning the entire car.

Dodge looked at the cost and decided to pull the plug. It is the only car in history that was executed for being too low and too cool. It went out fighting and we are all poorer without it.

 

[LE BARON]

If you were cruising Woodward Avenue in 1967 and a guy named Jimmy Addison pulled up next to you in a silver GTX you should have just turned right and went home.

This was the "Silver Bullet."

It was the ultimate hustle. It looked like a clean comfortable street car with full exhaust and a vinyl top. But that was all a lie.

The doors were fiberglass. The hood was fiberglass. The battery was hidden in the trunk for weight transfer. The Hemi mufflers were modified to make it sound quieter than it actually was. Under the hood was a highly modified 440 Super Commando that was tuned to absolute perfection.

Addison would lure guys in by acting like it was just a regular muscle car. Then the light would turn green and he would run a 10-second quarter mile on the street. He didn't just beat people. He embarrassed them.