Most Under-Performing Musclecar Ever Produced?

[hemidup]

Being a Mopar fan, I've owned some dogs. 65 Plymouth Satelite 383, 69 Plymouth 440 GTX. Switched over to A body 340 Darts and the wow factor was back. My 69 327 Camaro was also a dog as well as my 76 455 Trans Am.

[Geerhead55]

I can remember back in the day, I never saw a slow 340 car. The first car I ever rode in that made me wake up and take notice was a 64' 289/ 4spd Fairlane. I was in 8th grade in the middle 60s and watching the driver grab a gear blew me away.
As far as the 66-67 Chevy IIs go, there were 6 of us that had them in the early 70s, with 2 of them real L-79 350 hp 327 cars. They had those mono leafs that shook your teeth out every time you grabbed a gear, until you went out and bought some traction bars. Then you could grab second gear and the keys would pop out of the ignition!
Mine was a 275 hp/ Glide SS car that I eventually swapped to a Super T-10 with 4:88s and a real healthy 331 and it wasn't even fair how it mopped up on the street. Getting in the 12s was no problem and it ran 11s with a little work and some 9inch M&Hs.
Jim Parsons and Terry Harmon had their SS/O 66 Chevy II in the NW at that time and I idolized that car and tried to pattern my car after them. I think Jim still has his car to this day,,I wish I still had mine. My 2 cents,,,Danny Durham

[larrylomascolo]

A friend of mine bought a brand new 72 chevelle SS,350 auto do not remember h.p but it was lazy ,at the same time another friend had a yellow 69 340 4spd dart swinger with dog dish hub caps ,it was a factory jewell ,he cleaned up sunday nights and he pounded that car ,bone stock with good year polyglass bias tires,.,he wrapped it around a tree ,totalled it.

[John Leichtamer Jr]

Had a 69Dart 340 4-speed .did my fair share of street racing
and not to many cars beat it. Made alot of guy very unhappy.
only paid 2650 new at the dealership. Those were the days.

Hammer

[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.

[Jeff Lee]

And I forgot...I lived through the disco years and had a '77 & '78 T/A with that fabulous 403 Olds engine. Yep...all show , no go!

[Jeff Lee]

I hate getting off topic but with all the talk of the '66 Chevy II L79, it reminded me of a local car. A guy built a '64 Valiant. It was silver. It had a completely stock '69 340 under the hood with the exception of fender well headers. 4-speed. 4.56 gears. The car was built by a guy that was a fanatic on weight savings. Acid dipped body parts. Aluminum nuts and bolts holding it all together. No sound deadener. Homebuilt single reservoir master cylinder. It was a really nice looking, yet plain Jane car. Ran 11.80's or so. It didn't take much in engine mods to get it in the 10's and still a true street car.
Shows what weight (or lack of) can do for you.
Wonder whatever happened to Dean's old Valiant?

Hmmm....in SS/G I only need to weigh 3005 #'s, race ready...Hmmm
Here Cobra Jet

[danny waters sr]

I would say the 71 Merc Comet GT ,302 two bbl only as well as the Maverick Grabber. These cars looked fast ,but had no performing motors. I bought a 71 Comet Gt new and jetted the 2bbl and a set of cut-outs and ran 14.98 best. (also had a 25"x 7 cheater tire), with stock gear. It would burn the right rear tire( with the street tires) off though.

[Oclk Dlux]

Originally Posted by danny waters sr

I would say the 71 Merc Comet GT ,302 two bbl only as well as the Maverick Grabber. These cars looked fast ,but had no performing motors. I bought a 71 Comet Gt new and jetted the 2bbl and a set of cut-outs and ran 14.98 best. (also had a 25"x 7 cheater tire), with stock gear. It would burn the right rear tire( with the street tires) off though.

Don't knock the 2BBL too much :^) A friend of mine in Las Vegas had a stock '69 Nova with the 250/350 2BBL. That car completely outran my stock '78 Camaro 4BBL Z28! Shocking! Embarrassment city! Those "Jimmy Carter specials" were the biggest overpriced slugs around. The only GM V8 from that era that was worth anything was the L82, and it was overpriced too!

All that changed with TPI, yay!

[Paul Ceasrine]

My original thought was correct.
Based on cost and performance, the 1969 Boss 429 is the
most under performing musclecar.
Boss 429 engine, big-port aluminum heads and aluminum intake,
Holley carb (though under-sized at 735 cfm), and 3.91 gears as standard.
Pretty much a 14.10 machine. Not a good choise for C/Stock.
PC