[Rory McNeil]

The way that the performance cars from the 60`s to early 70`s were ordered by the dealerships could easily make the differance between a fast car, and a slug. Although I was a few years to young to buy a musclecar new, (born in 1957), I was able to buy a number of them as fairly late model used cars. Among them were 2 70 Mustangs with the 300HP 351 Cleveland 4 barrel engine (1 had the Ram Air Shaker hood scoop), a 66 Fairlane GT/A 390 auto, and a total of 5 R code 428 Cobra Jet Ram Air Mustangs and Fairlane Cobras. From the factory, none of the cars I just listed had a rear gear ratio lower than 3.50, most were 3.00 or 3.25, and the 351 & 390 cars didn`t even come with a limited slip (Traction Lock) diff. So in stock form, mediocre ET`s, and lots of wheelspin resulted. At that time, it seemed that very few non Cobra Jet or Boss cars had decent gear ratios, despite the fact that they were available. Among the cars that I took to the track, 1 of the 70 351C Mustangs ran 14.72@94 MPH bone stock, with a 3.25 open diff and FMX auto. I installed a set of $79. Cyclone headers,hooked into the factory exhaust system, and the OE Holley 600 from my 390 Fairlane, and it ran a best of 14.22@99 mph. I never ran my 66 Fairlane 390 in stock trim, but with just gears,headers, slicks, a mid 500" lift GK hyd cam, and a Holley 780, and a pair of stock 428CJ heads, it ran 12.6@110MPH thru the mufflers, with the stock torque convertor. The slowest of the 428CJ cars was the 69 Fairlane Cobra fastback, with a C6, PS & PDB& A/C, and 3.00 gears, which went 14.3@96MPH, all stock, at 4150lbs with me in the car. My 70 Mach1 428 4 speed with 4.30`s (added afterwards), and my 69 Mach 1 automatic with 3.50`s, would each run 13.4 -13.5`s thru the crappy exhaust and on 14" 60 series tires, with little more than timing & jetting fiddling. I was doing quite a bit of "for fun" street racing in the 70`s and early 80`s, and some of the stronger cars were the MoPar 340`s,& 440 six packs, 375HP 396 Novas, 427 & 454 Vettes, and other 428CJ Fords. Some of the Street Hemis ran strong, but like many of the solid lifter, hi performance cars at the time, keeping them well tuned was more than the average guy was willing to deal with.