Muscle cars the factory should have built
 

I'm sure that every one of you as me at one time or another imagined, bench raced about or maybe even actually created one of these muscle cars.

Anyone of us could have been a Don Yenko, Carrol Shelby, Geroge Hurst, or Mr. Norm if the factory's would have just listened.

It would have been so easy as all parts were readily available and fit without modifications to existing platforms.

In many cases some of these actually made it to the prototype stages but for whatever reason, be it fears of insurance surcharges, bean counters, emissions, or internal politics none ever became production packages.

This is my list in no particular preferance of cars that the factories should have built.

65 and 66 Buick Skylark Gran Sport with the 425-360 HP dual quad LX engine.
I'll bet they would have sold a lot more GS's.

67 Impala SS 427 with 427-400 and 435 HP tri power engine.
Some say that the car was all set to go and was killed off by Zora at the last second. The triple louvered medalions on the hood would substantiate that story.

67 SS 350 Nova Why not????
Didn't want to steal any Camaro thunder I suspect.

70 1/2-71 Camaro Z/28 350 LT-1 with Holley tri power. It was on the drawing board all ready to go and got nixed.

70 SS 454 Camaro and Nova Another why not?

66 Olds 442 with a 425 and L-69 tri power package.

65-66 Pontiac GTO with 421 376 HP tri power engine
What moron at GM decided that over 400 cubes in a intermediate was taboo?

69 Pontiac GTO and Firebird wth RA-IV equipped 428 Talk about embarrasing your SS 396 chebbies.

70 Pontiac GTO with a 455 RA-IV. Another why not? 400 cube ban was lifted, RA-IV parts were on the shelves so why not?

71 AMC Hornet SC 401 instead of the 360
That would have been a serious no brainer

68-69 Plymouth Valiant 100 2 door sedan beer can with a 340
Along the same theme as the succesful Road Runner
Talk about a cheap screamer

69 up 440 6 pack A body
I know that there were still born plans for a 440+ 6 Demon, but can you imagine a 69 Dart or Cuda on the street with a 440-6?

71 Demon-Duster 340 six pack
Another serious why not? Plenty of left over TA/AAR parts. As a matter of fact Mopar scrapped a ton of carbs.

67 Mustang-Cougar with a 427 instead of the 390. Dumb, dumb, dumb.
Ford had the car, the motors, and the transmissions. Prototypes were built, and tested. The engineers were all for it, but the bean counters studies showed that the public only needed the 390.
Yeah right.
How'd that work out for FoMoCo fans on the street and at the local tracks?

68 Mustang 302 Tunnel Port.
Wow, what could have been.
Killer heads, shaft rockers, dual quads and a (lol) 245 HP rating. Yeah, Ford was on to something with those HP ratings.
Engines were allocated and built, cars were bucked, yet never happened.
Why not? Semon "bunkie" Knudson that's why.

69 Boss 429 with the better cam and Holley tri power carburetion.
Intakes were cast, carbs were engineered and tested, and....would not pass emissions.
NPD owns one of the prototypes.

70 Mustang-Cougar 429 375 HP SCJ
Engine was already planned for Torino and Cyclone so why not the Mustangs?
FE was dead, 428 CJ had a great run but was already dead in everything but the Mustang and Cougar so why not?
Aftermarket would have had a year sooner to start developing speed equipment and who knows where it could have gone?

71 Mustang Boss 351C Holley tri power.
Another one that was actually ready to go but killed off at the last second. Quite a few of the intakes made it out before scrapping and a floating around.

All the above were either ready to go or could have easily been built by the factory with off the shelf parts.

I left out the more outrageous combos such as 427 Tunnel Port Mustang, or L-88 Camaro, or Hemi Dart (oh yeah, they actually built those) for obvious reasons.
Mostly practicality and cost.

Feel free to add to this thread espcially if you can think of any more that I may have missed.

Re: Muscle cars the factory should have built
 

I often wondered why Ford never promoted the 66-69 Falcon as a performance car. Similar shape and size to the 68-72 Nova, same engine bay as a Fairlane, so the 428CJ would have been a drop in. Chevy seemed to sell a good number of SS396 Novas at that time.

Re: Muscle cars the factory should have built
 

Yea the 69 Cuda or Dart with a 440-6 but with a 520 lift solid cam and a much better exhaust system. The 67 Cuda and Dart 383 with the large valve 915 heads and the manifold it got the next year plus a 750 Carter instead of the little boy. One of the main reasons the 340 and 383 factored HP are so close is because they use the same small carb. The 426 street wedge uses the same carb, mani style and head as the 361/305 which is why it is now factoed at 300HP. Until the thermoquad came along, all of the single four big blocks were under carbed.

Re: Muscle cars the factory should have built
 

Never mind. I missed the year car you were talking about.

Re: Muscle cars the factory should have built
 

New Dodge Challenger with both sizes of hemis, no power acc. , no sun roof, no AC, cheap wheels, cheap interior, no stripes. Bring the price point way down so most everyone can afford a new bare bones, high performance Challenger ala 68 Road Runner concept.
And I don't mean the drag pak cars which kinda do that except with a huge price tag and street legality issues.

Re: Muscle cars the factory should have built
 

Would've loved to have seen '68-'69 L-88/ZL-1 Novas.
Danny Durham

Re: Muscle cars the factory should have built
 

66-67 fairlane with hi riser heads on the 427

Re: Muscle cars the factory should have built
 

On the Chevrolet platform, for 1967,,,,,

Chevelle SS427 (427/425 HP, L-72)
It would have been the perfect 'Street/Strip' musclecar,
It could have forced the NHRA keep the AA/S class for 1967,,,

Impala SS427, with the 427/400 HP (L-68 Tri-Power with Oval-port heads)
Another perfect combination made for each other,,,,,

Nova SS, continuing with the 327/350 HP (L-79)
Just as everybody started to figure out what a good combination this car was in 1966,
they forgot to continue the 'pocket rocket' in 1967,,,,,,

Corvette,,,,,,396/350 HP,,,,,,LS-34 (Holley carbed, hydraulic cam and oval-port heads)
Would allow the Corvette to have a 'streetable' big-block,,,,,,,,

Camaro,,,,,,,,327/300 HP,,,,,,L-75 Corvette engine,,,,,,,, but with a twist,,,
Holley-carbed (585 CFM), hydraulic cam, but with 2.02/1.60 valved #291 cylinder heads.
10.25 - 1 pistons, and 2.5" exhaust manifolds.
The Corvette engine in a 'bare-bones', stripped down Camaro,,,,,,with no options other than a radio and heater,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, A 'cheap-priced' Junior Stocker.

Re: Muscle cars the factory should have built
 

Chrysler 300 with a 426 Hemi 64? I guess they figured there wasn't a market ----Trevor

Re: Muscle cars the factory should have built
 

Ford/Mercury really should have put something/anything nastier than a 302 2bbl in the '70-'73 Maverick or Comet. Holding on to the Boss(302) engine for a couple more years would have made a fun ride!!

Re: Muscle cars the factory should have built
 

As I remember the SK mr heads were as good or better than Hr?

Re: Muscle cars the factory should have built
 

no sir

Re: Muscle cars the factory should have built
 

I did the tunnel port in a mustang for them. In 1983 I purchased a 427 tunnel port from Mickey Thompson that Ford had given him. I put it in a '67 mustang and it ran 10.80's bone stock with headers, 3500 stall and 4.56 gears.

Re: Muscle cars the factory should have built
 

'64-'65 Chevy ll and Chevelle with the Corvette 327/365 hp.

'64-'65 falcon with the 289/271hp with 4sp.

'63-'65 Valiant/Dart with the hyper-pack 225 slant six and 4sp.

'64-'65 Mopar B-body with a street friendly Hemi.

'68-'70 AMX with a 401 and cross ram.

'67-'70 Mustang with the 427 with dual quads.

'64-'65 Fairlane with a streetable 427.

JimR

Re: Muscle cars the factory should have built
 

Jim,,,,,

You sure like those Mopar Packages,,,,,;)

Always wondered,

1965 1/2 Buick GS
The car only weighed #3393 lbs.
With a, 425/380 HP,,,,,,,,(Y48 option, dual-quad intake and radical cam)
Wt/Hp = 8.93
Car optioned with 4.45 Gears/Posi-traction and Belanger Headers

May have forced the NHRA to create a BB/Stock Class for 1965,,,,,,
8.70 to 9.29 Wt/Hp Factor
That would have been nice,,,,,,,,,,,,

Re: Muscle cars the factory should have built
 

Alex,
You left out your friends Stage 2 Buick. (Wait, they actually produced all the parts and sold them as a kit, just not installed. Wonder what fool thought that plan up.) Imagine it with a 'glass hood, plastic fenderwells, and aluminum heads!

Re: Muscle cars the factory should have built
 

425 in a 442 definitely would have been a good combo!

Re: Muscle cars the factory should have built
 

Re: Muscle cars the factory should have built
 

351 need spring towers cut.
A neater car would have been the German Capri that was imported here. Here is some in sight on the in 1971 Ford of Germany built a kit to put the Boss 302 in these cars. %0 were built for South Africa for Rally teams. Engine fit perfect you could build good headers and put a large oil pan on. Only problem was the real wheel wells were very small.
Ralph

Re: Muscle cars the factory should have built
 

455 in the 1970 Firebird. Of course, it would have been better with the RAIV round port heads. But, even with the #64 D-ports, it would have been a great way to introduce the 2nd gen Birds, IMO.

But, as it was, there was never a high compression 455 in a Bird. :(

Would have also been nice to have a 455, or at least a good 400 in the X-body '74 GTO. It's a shame the GTO went out with only a low CR 350.