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Original Message
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| RE: I think we should just be happy... |
| By Mike McQuesten - 11/28/2001 12:20:48 AM; IP 63.50.108.227 |
I guess I just have to throw in .02 to a nickels worth on this. It's fun to have a friendly debate if it's short and the parties agree it doesn't really matter anyway. A Ford engine is a fun challenge to build no matter which design. Flatheads to Cammers (and I'm talking about the 4.6/5.4 as well as our vaunted 427 SOHC).
A very good friend of mine loves the big Lima 385 series. This a guy, who in the sixties, ran a '61 HP Starliner, 375 horse car. Then a '65 'stang fastback K-code, in excellent tune, with 4.56s on a regular basis. Then back to an FE in a '67 GT500. This is the friend who tweeked the Shelby until it would run mid 13s on the best bias ply rubber that was available in '69. But then in late '70, he sold the Shelby and bought a nearly new Cyclone Spoiler, 429SCJ/C6/drag pack w/3.91s. This grabber blue Merc was a gorgeous beast. And it was quick but he wasn't satisfied and started tweeking like he'd done to the '67 GT500. Mondello heads, an after market cam and a few little things. It ran very respectable times in the mid 13s. All of these cars were his daily drivers, sun, rain or snow. All ran the stock HP exhaust manifolds. He honestly would go deer hunting with the Spoiler. He always got the buck. He still does. Gut it, cut off the legs/head and into the Spoiler's trunk that good eatin' buck would go. He lined the trunk with a tarp so the car always was kept show clean. In those days we could only afford one damn car.
Steve and I still enjoy a good debate over the merits of the FE compared to the '29/'60 series. My ace in the hole with this debate is the time my '66 Fairlane GTA hung with him fender to fender for over a half mile. I'll admit he'd did removed the tweeked SCJ and installed a mildly built 429 T-bird ThunerJet 360 horse. This was around '73 or '74 with our first gas shortage crisis. He'd also replaced the 3.91s with 3.50s. But we've always had fun debating this. I have a very healthy respect for the 385 series. What the can do and what they have been built to do is impressive. The potential for reasonably priced horsepower is obvious. Steve has a similar resect for the FE. To us, the FE offers a lot of fun. It's pure Ford heritage. It's a great feeling when you beat a chevy boy at the strip and he looks under the hood of your old Ford. Walks away scratching his head wondering where that design ever came from. And how could it beat his 4 bolt whatever....
Now days, Steve runs a '00 Lightening that he constantly is tweeking. In stock trim it ran 13.7/102 at our local drag strip last summer. A few changes are being made this winter to see if high 12's in total street form are possible. And what does he go hunting in? A '76 F150 4X4, w, 428/C6, 3.50s, E-brock Performer intake, Autolite 4100, 1.12-600 CFM, with HP shorty exhaust manifolds.
Just to keep him off my back I keep a '73 Lincoln out back with the entire 460 power train. I keep promising to make it a near future build project........right after the next three FEs! |
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