Retired electronics guy who appreciates big cars with lots of torque at low RPM and would rather put the money into the drivetrain and chassis/suspension than into rims and paint jobs. Air conditioning is a requirement here in Texas.
Previous vehicles I'd have again without regrets:
- 70 Delta 88 sedan with a 455.
- A rustbucket of a 70 Cutlass SX with 455 and factory Hurst his-n-hers shifter.
- A rustbucket of a 70 GTO convertible, 400 powered, edelbrock dual plane torker, converted from TH400 to a 4-speed stick, which then got about 18MPG at 70MPH due to the 'highway gears' that were part of the automatic transmission setup, It was especially fun because one could be doing 70-80, throw it into 3rd, and run away from most other vehicles on the highway. No A/C but didn't care on that monster.
- For my pennance, I bought a 1971 pinto with the 2.0 Liter and converted it into a daily driver + weekend SCCA racer. The Esslinger Engineering variable cam timing gear and many other mods for breathing, plus an optically triggered, self-modfied CD ignition let me set the cam timing for street or track and wrap it up to about 7000RPM.
- 72 cutlass with a 350, which I fixed up and sold to finance something else.
- 71 Buick Skylark, swapped out the 350 and put in an Olds 455.
- 68 eldorado with 472. Lots of performace for something that heavy + premium gas.
- 73 eldorado with the 500. Driving that car convinced me a big car can get up and move. Lots of fun to cruise around.
Demanding work got in the way for a couple decades and required other kinds of vehicles, but now happily retired and revisiting the whole big car thing. My ideal cadillac engine would be one of the low compression 500CID designs to run on regular pump gas, and I'd like to get as close to 500 FT LBS torque from 2000RPM to 4000RPM as I can. (Cad company may help!) This with a low-stall converter and probably TH400, as well as low numerical rear end gear ratio should benefit fuel economy at moderate speeds. Reliability is important and big old cars are very durable once rebuilt, and easy to work on but they need serious guts to push them. Lots of research to do and that's one reason I joined.
Previous vehicles I'd have again without regrets:
- 70 Delta 88 sedan with a 455.
- A rustbucket of a 70 Cutlass SX with 455 and factory Hurst his-n-hers shifter.
- A rustbucket of a 70 GTO convertible, 400 powered, edelbrock dual plane torker, converted from TH400 to a 4-speed stick, which then got about 18MPG at 70MPH due to the 'highway gears' that were part of the automatic transmission setup, It was especially fun because one could be doing 70-80, throw it into 3rd, and run away from most other vehicles on the highway. No A/C but didn't care on that monster.
- For my pennance, I bought a 1971 pinto with the 2.0 Liter and converted it into a daily driver + weekend SCCA racer. The Esslinger Engineering variable cam timing gear and many other mods for breathing, plus an optically triggered, self-modfied CD ignition let me set the cam timing for street or track and wrap it up to about 7000RPM.
- 72 cutlass with a 350, which I fixed up and sold to finance something else.
- 71 Buick Skylark, swapped out the 350 and put in an Olds 455.
- 68 eldorado with 472. Lots of performace for something that heavy + premium gas.
- 73 eldorado with the 500. Driving that car convinced me a big car can get up and move. Lots of fun to cruise around.
Demanding work got in the way for a couple decades and required other kinds of vehicles, but now happily retired and revisiting the whole big car thing. My ideal cadillac engine would be one of the low compression 500CID designs to run on regular pump gas, and I'd like to get as close to 500 FT LBS torque from 2000RPM to 4000RPM as I can. (Cad company may help!) This with a low-stall converter and probably TH400, as well as low numerical rear end gear ratio should benefit fuel economy at moderate speeds. Reliability is important and big old cars are very durable once rebuilt, and easy to work on but they need serious guts to push them. Lots of research to do and that's one reason I joined.
