Nice cars other than x-fire

[LE BARON]

efore the Cobras and the Le Mans win there was a borrowed British roadster and a Texas kid who had never raced a day in his life.

In May of 1952 Carroll Shelby rode up from Dallas with his friend Ed Wilkins to a sports car event in Norman Oklahoma. Wilkins owned a modified MG TC and let Shelby take the wheel for the small displacement race. Shelby later admitted he had no idea what he was doing beyond going as fast as the little car would allow. He won that heat. The victory put him into a second race against faster machinery including Jaguar XK120s. He won that one too.

The MG TC was already a favorite among postwar American enthusiasts for its light weight and willingness to take power. Stock output sat around 55 horsepower from the 1250 cc four. Race prepared examples like the one Shelby drove could push past one hundred. That afternoon in Oklahoma the little roadster proved fast enough and Shelby proved natural enough that the rest of his driving career followed in short order.

He always credited that first MG with changing the direction of his life. The rest of the legend started right there

 

[LE BARON]

Insurance companies and the government finally caught up. By the time 1971 arrived the high compression monsters were gone.

The 1970 Chevelle SS carried the last of the unrestricted big blocks. Buyers could still order the 454 LS6 rated at 450 horsepower and 500 pound feet with 11.25 to 1 compression, solid lifters, rectangle port heads, and a Holley four barrel on an aluminum intake. Only about 4,475 of those engines left the factory in Chevelles and El Caminos. The milder LS5 454 and the 396 that was really a 402 were more common, but the LS6 was the one that defined the peak.

Everything after that year got soft. Compression ratios dropped for unleaded fuel. Camshafts went milder. Horsepower numbers fell and the cars grew heavier. The SS badge stayed around a few more seasons but the real thing ended in 1970.

These black cars with the white stripes are what the factories built when nobody was looking over their shoulder yet.

 

[LE BARON]

While Duntov was still figuring out how to make the Corvette a real sports car, Oldsmobile already had the engine that could embarrass it.

The 1954 Super 88 convertible sat on the new longer lower B body with the freshly enlarged 324 cubic inch Rocket. Four barrel carburetion gave it 185 horsepower and a solid 300 pound feet that arrived early. That same basic engine, tuned harder, went into the F-88 concept Duntov helped develop. The result was a fiberglass two seater on a Corvette chassis packing roughly 250 horsepower and a four speed Hydra Matic. Chevrolet brass saw it and panicked. The project was killed before it could reach production and steal the young Corvette’s thunder.

Only 6,452 Super 88 convertibles left the plant that year. They were the practical expression of the same Rocket power that almost made the sports car division look second rate. Soft green paint, whitewalls, and the long low look of the new body made it the kind of car you could drive every day while the concept that threatened to rewrite the rules stayed locked in a warehouse.