'While you might consider buying testing time on a vehicle chassis dyno an expensive luxury, we hope you'll at least read this article to consider the possibilities. If anything, what we experienced in creating this story wasn't what we expected, but the safety, durability, and performance unleashed would have definitely been more painful to discover and resolve without time on the chassis rolls. To learn the most we could possibly learn, we partnered with the pros at Wheel to Wheel Powertrain (W2W), in Madison Heights, Michigan, as we ran a vehicle through its paces on the company's four-wheel-drive Mustang chassis dyno.

"We need a Mopar project car." Those words have been tossed around our offices quite a bit lately. And why not? We've been working to shed the Camaro Craft image with Buick engine builds, our '64 Oldsmobile and '67 Mustang project cars, and the CC/Rambler. We'd pretty much have all the bases covered if we had something with a Pentastar on it to thrash on.

'The back of your head is someone else's problem. It's not like you have to stare at it for hours on end or use it for critical gear changes. So you can leave its destiny up to the femme with the buzzin' clippers and call it good. Not so with the dashboard on the street machine. You're gonna stare that thing down on long road trips and need to consult it during gear changes and illicit top-speed testing. It better be right. It better be good.

'Face it: Bigger is better.
Since it's a jungle out there, where the meek get eaten for lunch, if you wanna be Tarzan, you'd better swing a bigger club. The days of a 396 or even a 454 as king of the jungle are long gone. When we stumbled upon this used 496ci Rat motor for a righteous price, we snapped it up thinking we could build an affordable big-inch Rat. The problem comes from using the terms "affordable" and "Rat motor" in the same sentence. Nevertheless, that's the challenge we decided to take on. We think Tarzan would approve.

If you've been drooling over the '67 Mercury we've been transforming into a Stock Car replica over the last few issues and want to see the completed car that will be given away, here it is. In this final installment of the Timber Wolf Comet project car story, we yanked the FE 390 for a look-see at what made it spew oil, while we hung out with Russ Stevenson at Gold Coast Customs for the addition of subtle Stock Car cues to go along with the retro graphics applied last month. It makes us weep a little to know this neat stick-shifted big-block cruiser won't be in our garage for much longer, but who knows, it might soon be in yours.

`There's a saying that goes, "Everything old is new again." When it comes to our hot rods, nothing could be closer to the truth, as more and more dudes and dudettes look to the past for inspiration in the present. One of the up-and-coming retro trends is the vintage Stock car look. With their slammed suspensions, monster superspeedway gumball tires, and loud race car graphics, there's nothing else like those big-block-powered high-banks screamers from the days before NASCAR went all disco on us and mandated restrictor plates and small-blocks.

'Oops! We have a new project car. We are going to get into real trouble for this one because we just hatched this idea, saw an opportunity, jumped online, and bought a car in Las Cruces, New Mexico, without looking at it or asking anyone if this was even a good idea. Then we flew out there and picked it up just to see if it would make it home.

This is a story that many traditional small-block Chevy guys don't want to hear. They think the new Gen III and Gen IV small-block engines from GM are too expensive to build and don't make that much more power than the old engines. The truth is that while these new-generation engines are different and the parts are sometimes more expensive, there are ways to make affordable power-big power. The more progressive car crafters have already embraced this new technology and are enjoying the powerful fruits of their willingness to try new things. While there's always room for both small-blocks, if you are serious about the horsepower game, it's no longer prudent to ignore these late-model engines. They thump.

The Reality
The Rambler weighs 2,771 pounds, so we ran the numbers and came up with 461 for an engine-horsepower number. Adding a 180-pound driver and and 10 gallons of fuel at 7 pounds per gallon, the race weight is more like 3,021, so the horsepower required is closer to 483. We plucked a 360 from a Jeep Grand Cherokee, and with some Edelbrock heads, a flat-tappet Lunati cam, and 10.5:1 compression, we made 480 hp at 6,000 rpm in the Jan. '06 issue, before we dropped it in the car. We solved the equation using 6,000 rpm for the ideal trap rpm knowing that with converter slippage the final rpm would be about 6,300. We plugged in the the 26-inch-tall tire, divided it by 130, and got a rear ratio of 3.57.

'It sounded like a great idea at the time. Take one gutted musclecar and a big pile of pieces, turn this cast-off '65 El Camino into a running car in one day, then take it on a road trip. It didn't work out exactly that way, but it wasn't from lack of trying or lack of sweat. It all started when we scored the Elco through our pal Jim Peterson for the righteous price of $1,800. The reason it was so cheap was because it was a stripper-we're talkin' not even so much as a steering column. This also meant it was without all those essential little parts that are the furthest from your mind when you're staring down the relatively straight quarter-panels of a virtually rust-free car.

Pontiac 455ci

At 4.210 inches, the Pontiac 455 has one of the largest factory strokes available. The bad news is that you just don't see them laying around like you used to. Instead, Bruce Fulper at PontiacEngines.com (aka Rock 'n' Roll Engineering) showed us that the easiest way to build a 455 is to buy any '67-'75 400 block and use a 455 crank. Fulper has experimented and says the two-bolt block will live up to 900 hp with proper care and a main stud kit. The '76-'79 blocks have thinner main webs and should be avoided for anything other than a mild street build.

Road and Track

We got caught up in a mad dash to ditch the farm-tractor inline-six the Rambler was delivered with in favor of a proper V-8 and decided to fog the engine compartment flat black. And while flat black is almost universally cool, there was really nothing wrong with the factory Barbados Blue we painted over. So while the Rambler awaits what will be its third engine, we decided to restore the engine compartment to its original hue.

The 10-Bolt Bop

Phil Blake, Ortonville, MN: I didn't see in your article ("Build a 10-bolt on a Budget," Mar. '06) anything about what size gears would fit in what size housings. I have been wondering what to do with a 10-bolt Posi out of a '71 LeMans and was told I can't put 3.42 gears in it because it has 2.70-somethings in it now. I've been told I would have to start with at least a 3.08 housing. The rearend I have looks like the one in your story with the cutouts in the cover.

'We thought we were onto something good back when we decided to turn this '91 Formula into a multipart series. It seemed like the thing to do, since we could hardly believe cars like this could be bought in good shape so cheaply ($1,500). A Tuned Port 350 F-body was a coveted car in its day, being among the first cars out of Detroit since the early '70s that seemed sort of worthy of the term musclecar. Plus, chicks were into F-bodies back then.

Stock-Stick Special

Anthony, via CarCraft.com: Hey guys, I just read Matt King's article on the 400hp 302. I was wondering if I can do the same thing with my '69 302 or something close to it. If so, any chance of letting me know what I need to get my 302 kickin'?

Impersonating The Impersonator

Steve Schaffer, via CarCraft.com: How close to The Impersonator can I get with L98 heads, a Performer intake, and the same cam on my 406; would this require a different cam? I don't have the Vortec heads at this time. I'll be putting this in my '79 Camaro with a 700-R4 and 3.42:1 gears. How much horsepower and torque would this setup make?

I still ponder the question of whether my Dad bought the '67 for his benefit or mine. I know deep down he did it for me, I only wish I still had the chance to ask, or at least thank him one more time. Sadly, my father suddenly passed away in November 2000, two years before the car was completed, and he never got to see it finished. The license plate on my car reads 4YOUDAD, which is my small tribute to my father, one of the most talented guys I have ever known, who I miss dearly every day. I like to think he is looking down, smiling, and proud.

No article in Car Craft would be complete without some performance testing. The truck turned a 14.20 @ 96 mph at Bristol last fall with the Magnuson Supercharger in place. This spring, after adding the Dynatech headers, the best time at Mooresville Dragway was a 9.40 @ 76 mph in the eighth-mile. As you can see, there was basically no traction in First gear. It actually hooks better on the street.