Re: Best Tow Car
 

68 Olds 442 convertible dark green w/light green top and interior 400 4speed of course

73 GMC Sprint SP (el camino ss) 454 4speed swivel buckets flat tow up the hill on the mass pike to lebanon with ease, then with a trailer later

2 more el caminos than its been motorhomes since 1985.

flat towing was really the safest towing back then, even the lack of brakes didn't seem to matter.

Re: Best Tow Car
 

Vic:
Yes, both 87 and 88.

I laugh now thinking about how I towed that TR to Beech Bend and then ran that '71 GS tow car in the bracket class. Got to the semi final round and red-lit.
So the next day we loaded up the TR and headed back to California.

I still think how lucky I was to not break that GS tow car. :)

Re: Best Tow Car
 

1978 GMC Suburban,,,,,454,,th400,,,3:73s . With an Isky cam and a 2 1/2 in Turbo Muffler exhaust system (remember them?),it ran good and sounded nice.Looked good too, with 2 tone blue and white paint and aluminum wheels. Pulled my 66Nova SS like nobody's business with my first car trailer. I had to "borrow" my dad's plates off his boat trailer,,,think he ever found out??
Danny Durham

Re: Best Tow Car
 

This was my father's racing buddy back from 1968-1972. One of the coolest combinations of tow vehicle and race car I have ever seen.

Re: Best Tow Car
 

Chad,
Now that combo looks 'Super Cool'.
What Drag Racing was originally supposed to be.

Enclosed trailers today, No good.
Nothing cooler than being on the highway and seeing a Race Car
on the back of a trailer.

Did anybody ever flat tow with a VW??
PC

Re: Best Tow Car
 

This is a very cool rig I saw at Mission today..

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Guess our favorite would have to have been our 1976 3/4 GMC Subruban. Was as I understand it, a made for Cananda version. Still had regular gas neck in the 55 gallon gas tank, but had U.S. guage pack. Leaded gasa 454 with a 6 qt pan, 2 qt oil cooler, factory transcoolers and 400 turbo. Changed out the 4.11 to a 3.73 from a GM motorhome. Towed an open trailer with our 4000 # stocker and related parts with ease. Got around 10 mpg towing and got as high as 13 mpg just driving. And would run with the big dogs of the time.....and best of all Ohio called it a station wagon per the title. They were not considered a truck. 16 1/2 wheels, large swing out tow mirrors, big reese hitch,factory electric braking for trailer, and even being built on a 1 ton chassis, was told by the state to stay off their scales.

Re: Best Tow Car
 

I had a 59 El Camino 348/250 hp/4 speed to tow the H & H Turkin Wagon (55 sedan delivery E/G). The H & H (Heavy Haulers for chubby owners), Turkin (half turkey,half chicken) and it was a wagon. You can't make that up.

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Gezzzzz......Jeff driving a Chebbie.......No wonder you drink......lol.

Re: Best Tow Car
 

Now that was nearly 50 years ago. I saw the light and was saved by Mother Mopar. Interesting footnote to history. When we got the franchise in the Summer of 68, we had an A/MP Nova with a 427 Chevy. We had Southland Dodge written on the side for Indy. We won Indy that year over Platt and Payne's A/MP Ford on a hole shot. When it was written up in National Dragster, it had a 426 Hemi in it. That was back when the factories had both hands and feet in the mix.

Re: Best Tow Car
 

I used a 1976 Buick Estate Wagon to pull my open trailer. 455 with 2.41 rear gear, t400. All my friends I towed with always had to tell me to slow down. It just started to feel right at 70mph.LOL

Re: Best Tow Car
 

Forgot about this one.
1969 Pontiac Bonneville Station Wagon
428/390HP H.O.
A mint condition, all black car, w/Ansen Brite Finish Mags
The fastest Tow Car I ever saw.
While towing a GTO race car on the trailer, it passed most of the
Stockers that were driving to the track.
Nobody could keep up with it. Could run 100+ mph all-day long.
pc

Re: Best Tow Car
 

I had a '71 Olds 98 2dr with a 455 and T400. I was using a 4' tow bar and towing hubs then. Very comfortable, great gas mileage and would tow that 3150 lb '56 Chevy as fast as you wanted to go. Could hardly tell it was back there. Just set the Cruise Control and let her go.

Had a '64 Grand Prix with the single 4bl 421" before that. Muncie 4 spd. Plenty of power, comfortable,but it needed premium fuel and didn't get the milage the Olds did.

Went from the Olds & tow bar to a ramp truck. There went the gas mileage.

Re: Best Tow Car
 

Just sold my Bock Dragstar trailer this year, one hell of a trailer.

Hammer

Re: Best Tow Car
 

Jerry Stein towed his '64 Plymouth Max Wedge A/SA to Atlanta one year with a matching '64 plymouth station wagon with a 426 street wedge and open trailer.

JimR

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"Went from the Olds & tow bar to a ramp truck. There went the gas mileage. "

Yeah Ed , but the one ton ramp truck was the safest way to tow.

Very little swaying ,decent ride, you only feel each bump twice instead of four times, easier on tolls, (that would be the Will Rogers Tnpk for you) and you could haul *** at 80 mph, all day and night..

Re: Best Tow Car
 

Id like to see everyone go back to open trailers and ramp trucks. There would be more room in the pits. Cant turn back the clock though.

Re: Best Tow Car
 

x tech man
you would get rid of evereybody over 50
with the heat they have heat strokes and die!

Re: Best Tow Car
 

vic,
Is that a good thing?

Best Tow Vehicle.
1968
TV Tommy Ivo's Dodge truck, with side glass panels.
You could see the (2) rails inside the box panel.
Push car over the cab. 1968 Corvette 327/350HP, 4-speed, w/3.70 gears
pc

Re: Best Tow Car
 

In 1986-1990, my 63 Pontiac Parisienne Safari station wagon did the job, pulling my 61 Biscayne on a dolly trailer. Factory 340 HP 409 4 speed. I changed the rear gears to 3.55 for towing the car.

Re: Best Tow Car
 

Now THAT is what I call a neat tow car. How many 63 Pontiacs (Parisienne's) have you seen with a 409 AND a 4 speed built by the factory !

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We also have the Turner Turnpike between Tulsa and OKC. I ran 80 all the time towing. Did pay double at the toll gates. Oklahoma really likes toll roads. I have a Pike Pass under a tee top in the race car, and one in the motor home now. It reads the one in the race car, inside the trailer. Whoda thunk it?

Re: Best Tow Car
 

Guess it depends where you are, Tech Man !
Well, these are 64's:
Here's my 64 Parisienne Safari project car... documented 400 HP 409 4 speed ( this is the large port, 11:1 engine, using the Z11 cam ). PS, PB, PRW, posi. Colour is Sunfire Red Metallic / Ermine White roof.
How many ?
One(1) built. Not one pink one. One only built.

then, while looking for parts for it, a guy said to me, "hey, I have the pink wagon with a 409" ?
He did... sort of. Around 1977, some low-life street rodder needed metal for his project, and cut the roof skin off this car. the wagon was a in a yard ( engine/trans had long before been removed ) with 200 other cars. This guy saw 409 valve cover gasket laying over the hole in the floor for the factory 4 speed shifter, and the tach up in the corner of the dash, and decided yes, this is the one... and took a cut off saw to it.
64 Pontiac Laurentian 9 passenger Safari wagon.
Documented 340 HP 409 4 speed... yes, same colour as the 400 horse car.
How many ?
again, one(1) built
I'm actually just about to start work on this one

Re: Best Tow Car
 

Those Safari cars were 'top-of-the-line'

Pete,
Post your story on the 'Worst Tow Car'.
1966 International Harvester Travellal.
Poor rear suspension. Upper frame section ripped out during
a trailer tow to New York National in 1970, and the trailer hit a guard-rail along Sunrise Highway.
Left the Travellal there on the side of the road. 3-weeks later, the
Travellall was still there. No one wanted it.
Engine blew out so much oil-smoke, it looked like one of those
neighborhood 'Bug-Sprayers'. A quart-a-day-Charlie'

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Ahhhhh yes.....back when they made cool cars with real metal in them and not the junk we see today. Who cares about gas milage.....lol.

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This got my vote....

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Some of us STILL HAVE open trailers and dream of stepping up to a ramp truck !...............LOL

Re: Best Tow Car
 

Back in the day it wasn't unusual for guys to flat tow stocker's or trailer dragsters with old Hearses. Some painted them but most just left them black, if you were lucky you could find a hearse flower car that had a small pickup bed for your tools and stuff.

Neatest combo I saw was a 1950 Studebaker with a Pontiac OHC 6cyl, 4 speed and 1956 Olds rear flat towed by a Hearse flower car with the funeral home name still on it. The car ran in the six cylinder gas class, I think it was I/gas. Pretty neat rig built by a bunch of Airmen from the local Air Base.

JimR