2009 Woodward Dream Cruise

Another Woodward Dream Cruise has come and gone. Sorry for the delay in regards to posting the pictures and a quick review, but life has been busy with an upcoming wedding in addition to a never ending list of house projects.

This year's cruise was a change for the better in my opinion. Year after year, corporate involvement seemed to grow, and with that growth came more spots consumed by the corporations. Displays, stages, and vip area's for those with connections. Prime spots at the cruise have cost $100 or more for many years, but the spots available have also been slowly disappearing by corporations and others who wanna cash in on the cruise. This year, with the dismal economy and dying automotive corporations, it was a bit more back to the roots. There was more of a concentration on the car, and the corporations were nearly transparent.

Unfortunately, I didn't have the cruise date off this year, but that didn't stop me from getting up and hitting Woodward for a solid 5 hours during the morning/early afternoon before I had to head in for work. Every year I've been, not once has the Dream Cruise disappointed. It is an automotive animal that has outgrown even the biggest gearhead's expectations. It's Disneyland for the car guys/gals. Enough on my thoughts though, I'll let the pictures do the talking this year.

These airbrushed flame jobs still blow my mind!

Sweet Anglia.

Rear window of a Pontiac GTO....RIP Pontiac.

Even the exotics make it out.

Yes, those are steel tracks. This guy was breaking who knows how many laws. I'm sure there is an ordinance against steel tracks on a vehicle somewhere.

This guy whittled his car outta wood.

These cars always remind me of the scene in Top Gun when the crazy/obsessive chic is stalking Maverick.

Yes, those are electronic boards. Yes, the owner is a dork.

This was like $3,000. I'd TOTALLY drive one of these, thought the 318 would have to make way for a Hemi.

Click below for more pictures!

2009 Woodward Dream Cruise

Stahl's Automotive Foundation

While surfing the net, looking at Tucker Torpedo sites, I stumbled upon a museum in metro Detroit that I never even knew existed. I've added a link under "Car Museums" to the right.

Stahl's Automotive Foundation

The Art of Bench Racing

Bench Racing: The imaginative means of racing through communication.

Bench racing has likely been around as long as racing itself. Whether it be theoretical cars, or simply engine combinations, or anything else automotive related. I often find myself doing it more and more often, though almost always lack a competitor in the other lane.

Most recently, the focus has been on my daily driven 1989 Pontiac Formula. This may seem a little odd, as my 1969 Camaro will in all actuality be the primary focus as time and money permits. Like any gearhead though, the gears are always turning, and I can't help but start formulating a plan for what I want to do with this car.

If I were to use a single word to describe my frame of mind, it would be OVERKILL! I find myself thumbing through my magazines each and every month, formulating a plan. When the throught of building a healthy LSX engine with 400-500 hp, the next thing that crosses my mind is the lack of structural integrity with a 3rd generation F-Body. So, how does one fix this?

I learned my lesson with my 1969 Camaro the hard way. Within months of a ground up restoration, and fresh new paint job, the body developed stress cracks on all 4 pillars. This with frame connectors already in place, and a 400 hp small block in the engine bay. Now, take my Pontiac, with it's open air t-tops, and it is about as solid as a wet noodle. A trip through the parking garage at the local mall exposes just how flexible the body is. You can hear the t-tops repositioning, you can feel the gaps with your hand opening and closing when going up each ramp to the next level.

How does one fix this problem? Well, with my Camaro it was to the tune of a 12 point roll cage. So naturally, it should come as no surprise that a full roll cage seems like the only possible solution to me. Whether or not I will bring myself to go to that extreme won't be known for years down the road. Yet when 250 hp and 340+ ft/lbs of torque is flexing the body, I know what to expect when the power is nearly doubled.

As for a powerplant, there are so many options these days, and it seems those options keep growing with each passing month. There are plenty of choices if I were to keep the factory block as a foundation. There are more induction options that my mind can handle, and vortec style heads are also an option with most inductions. Yet I can't help but look at the LS series and start to drool. An all aluminum engine would drop the weight of my Formula significantly, and by today's standards, it's 3,400 lbs is amongst the lightest players on the block. With little effort, I could get my car into the power/weight ratio of a Z06 Corvette, and still be sporting a full cage!

Then there is the possibility of boost. Turbos and Superchargers raise the power level to the point of insanity. 1,000 hp isn't all that radical any longer, or even that hard to achieve. There is a part of me that is still old school, the part of me building a 650-700 hp naturally aspirated big block chevy, only to be topped off with a 250 hp shot of nitrous. That part of me would be somewhat jealous of a boosted small block Chevy exceeding those numbers. I guess it's because no matter what cars I build in my lifetime, my 69 Camaro is to me what the Corvette is to Chevy. A car that sits on the throne, one in which the power levels are not to be infringed upon. Perhaps it's nothing more than an unwritten law, but at the same time, the idea of dethroning the king is something that simply shouldn't be spoken aloud.

Such a moral delimna only has one solution, my Camaro would simply need to become a full blown race car, sporting a 14-71 blower with power levels out of reach of anything else that would share a bay with it. Ah yes, the art of bench racing. :)

Dual exhaust on a 3rd generation F-body.

A few weeks ago I had true dual exhaust installed on my 1989 Formula. I was fortunate enough to already have a Formula with the dual catalytic convertors in place. I assessed several options as to how to install a true dual exhaust system, as the space is tight and options are very limited to say the least. I still have factory exhaust manifolds, and the cats were still in place, as was a rotted out/falling off Dynomax muffler in the stock location.

I had initially pondered going without a muffler, using the dual cats and instead of having a y-pipe after the cats, run dual exhaust to the back. I decided against this plan, and instead simply replaced the cats with mufflers. I went with Moroso spiral flow race mufflers. These mufflers are a bullet style muffler, 4 inches in diameter, and a perfect fit to replace the space occupied by the cats. The install took the better part of the day, and a local shop did a half way decent job. The welds could have been better, but the bends turned out pretty nice, as did the final product. The one downside is I had to go with 2 1/4 inch exhaust, as 2 1/2 inches would have been way too tight. 2 1/4 duals is still better than a single 2 1/2 inch intermediate pipe it replaced.

I knew that these mufflers were going to be loud. I was even afraid that they would be too loud. At idle, as well as at cruising speed, they sound damn good. At about 2,000 rpm's, and under full throttle, they sound like a glasspack system, which I'm not real impressed with. I've pondered whether headers would deepen the sound, or simply make it louder. Another option is going with a Flowmaster muffler, which I almost had gone with initially. The advantage would be a quieter muffler, yet still sound tough. The Moroso mufflers only quiet the exhaust note about 6 db and are basically intended for all out race cars where all you have to have is a muffler in place, with zero regard for noise. The Flowmaster is a dual in/dual out muffler, with the main disadvantage being that with it being a single muffler, running your pipes in/out becomes even tighter.

For now, I'll leave well enough alone. Perhaps down the road, when I do an engine swap, install headers, and change up the rear suspesion creating more room to work, then I'll consider other options. For now, I'm simply happy to have a dual exhaust system in place.

Automotive Apocalypse Now

Detroit wins...

The race to the bottom....a term used in recent years to predict the outcome of the direction we've been heading. For Detroit, we are on the brink of announcing "Houston, we have touchdown." I'd say we are there, except there is still a part of me that believes the worst is yet to come. It was over a year ago that I first asked the question "Is it the beginning of the end?" while writing about just how good the automotive lineup was, though not forgetting that gas was also $4 a gallon. Man what a year can do!

I believe Ford had already put everything up for collateral, and I mean everything! Their buildings, equipment, and even the Ford name itself. Ford was desperate, they needed money, and were seeing their own demise if things didn't work out. Fortunately for them, things have turned around, as they were the only one of the Big 3 who didn't require bailout money.

Chrysler soon began talks about the possibility of joining forces with GM as a means to survive, a plan that looking back, may have been no worse off than Chrysler joining up with Fiat.

GM, well, GM seems to be about 2 steps behind Chrysler. GM, for whatever reason, seems to be more to the governements liking though. Why else would the government force out the guy running the show and take control of the company? There is a name for when a government takes control of corporations, most notably when it was the largest company in the world, it's called Communism.

Who is to blame? I have a difficult time saying it's Obama's fault, as he's really no more to blame for the troubles than the past presidents, or Republicans for that matter. Our Federal government has failed us for decades, leading our country down a path that only rewards us with failure.

The United States of America: A country that rose to power through the age of Industrial Revolution. An era, that had we been without, would not be where we are today. Yet somewhere along the way, in the interest of "globalization," it was deemed unimportant to produce the products here any longer. It was found to be more economical to build the products in third world countries, where the labor was cheap, and the profits for corporate America was greater, and here we are.

Though the auto industry is the main focus, it goes way beyond that, it goes so far as one can paint all manufacturing with a broad brush stroke. I buy made in the USA products when I can, and when I say that, I don't mean when it's practical. I mean "Whenever I can find products made in the USA, I buy that product." I'll spend the extra money, money that myself and most others don't have. I do so because I realize the result of not doing so, more Americans lose jobs.

There is no doubt in my mind, this is the worst the economy has been during my 32 year life. Though perhaps not quite to the level of The Great Depression, it is definately the direction we are heading. Our politicians fail to comprehend what the failure of the auto industry means, just how many jobs are truly effected by shutdowns. It goes way beyond the industry itself. It goes way beyond the suppliers. There automotive industries reach is lengthy enough that it touches almost every other industry out there, manufacturing or not.

As I said, Obama is not to blame for the problems before us. They have been coming to light for decades, as the dismantling of the manufacturing sector, exporting it to other countries, has become the norm. I can however question whether taking over GM was the right move. I can also question how telling an American company, Chrysler, "Merge with Fiat or go out of business" is in the country's best interest. With Fiat having the option to own up to 55%, it undoubtedly will once again be a foreign company. This time however, it won't lead to American vehicles designed here with German influence. This time around, the American vehicles are on the chopping block, and an Italian company will simply use the American company's dealer network to force small, economical, fuel efficient cars that most of us don't want, directly down our throats.

What does America want?

There is always going to be a market for the small, often tiny, fuel efficient cars. This market however is not as big as those in charge right now seem to believe. Myself, and most others I know, laugh at SMART cars, and even cars the size of a Ford Focus isn't even on their radar. Arguably, maybe bigger is simply the American way. This isn't Europe, we don't have troubles parking our cars on narrow streets. Gas isn't $8 a gallon either, and however much it does go up, will always probably be significantly lower than our European friends. Make the vehicles we like more efficient. Stop making our cars so damn heavy! 40 years ago cars weighed a little over 3,000 lbs, with the full frame, full size heavy hitters tipping the scales at about 3,800 lbs. Today, most all of our cars tip the scales at 4,000 lbs or more. Mind you, this is even with lighter materials, such as aluminum, used throughout. It's a losing battle trying to gain increased mpg when you keep tacking on more weight year after year.

Here is a concept: Let's build cars for the sole purpose of transportation. Do we really need all the electronics being placed in cars? Is a paper map really that much of an inconvenience? Do we really need 6 or 8-way power seats? Heated seats? Cooled seats? In my mind, a 3,000 lb car should be the target, and I'm not willing to sacrifice mid-car size either. Go back to the basics, even to the point that I'd be willing to roll up my own windows in a new Camaro, Challenger, or Mustang. I can reach over and lock my own doors too! A back to the basics approach is what is needed.

It's truly a shame, as to this automotive enthusiast, these are the best of times in my life as far as vehicle selection. Sadly, we'll likely lose the Challenger in a few years. The Camaro may stick around for it's life cycle, perhaps 7-10 years, then disappear once again. The Mustang will likely be the lone survivor, but what fun is a musclecar without any competition? I think a repeat of the 1970's will be in order, one in which deminishing horsepower numbers, year after year, will be the norm. This time however, instead of emissions/gas shortages as the culprit, it will be a government that wants us all driving econoboxes.

Me, I'll simply make due with what is already out there. Hopefully, I'll be able to get a new Camaro in a year or two. Perhaps get a winter beater to drive, to lessen the salt impact on the Camaro. For me, I have about 80 years worth of cars to choose from, including fiberglass replicas, and steel reproduction musclecars. If worse comes to worse, I'd rather drop $30,000-$40,000 in building a superlight reproduction musclecar that gets 30 mpg and puts out 400 hp than be forced to drive a small car that I didn't enjoy.

I question whether or not it's too late for change. We've lost so many companies along the way. I'm guessing there were literally 100's of automotive companies around 1900. 100 years later, the numbers continue to dwindle. Maybe companies got too large, perhaps our anti-trust laws have failed us. Why is it that built in to the bailout loan to the auto industry they weren't told "From here on out, until this loan is paid in full, all new production will be inside the United States!" Instead, more Americans will lose their jobs, more production will be outside our borders, and prices will remain the same. The only remaining question, with middle class America quickly becoming extinct, who will be left to buy these foreign made products?

R.I.P. Pontiac

Pontiac will always have a place reserved close to my heart. At 15 years of age, my first car was a 1989 Pontiac Firebird, Maui Blue with a 305 TBI and 5 speed transmission. That same Pontiac was also my last gift from my Grandpa, prior to him unexpectedly passing from a heart attack. So it also had sentimental value to me. Looking back, I'm surprised my parents agreed to allow me behind the wheel of a V8 powered modern muscle car. Granted, it was a base model, the 305 only pushed 170 hp. If there were a saving grace, it would be the fact that the engine was backed by a 5 speed. Only many years down the road would I realize just how rare finding a 5 speed in these cars really was. Over the years I think I've only seen a couple other cars equipped with manuals.

The styling drew me in during my childhood, featured during a made for tv show starring Gary Coleman. I can't recall a single detail about what the movie was about, but I do remember the black Pontiac Trans Am with gold ground effects and gold eagle on the hood. I'll never forget that car. I later had a slot car that was an exact copy of it. Perhaps that's why at a time when S10 pickups were the latest craze, I fell in love with the Pontiac instead. I wasn't the only one, as 4 or 5 of my other friends at the time also got Firebirds for their first car, and even today, I often run into more recent friends that state they had one back in the day.

I've heard the mullet jokes, the jabs at t-top cars, and the 1 generation off "JOE DIRT" comments. Yet unless you've been behind the wheel of one of these cars, you wouldn't realize the "EXCITEMENT" that the gave the driver. Now there were plenty of downfalls of the 3rd generation, such as the t-tops that almost always leak, the structural integrity...or should I say lack of? The flip up headlights sooner or later fail, and are not cheap to fix by any means. No, the cars were far from perfect, yet options during that era were far and few between. You had the Camaro/Firebird or the Mustang. Including the Monte Carlo/Regal is sort of a stretch, since they were gone by 1987, and never really offered the same level of handling or power. The Corvette, well, how many of us can afford Corvettes?

Shotly after I got my Firebird I began wrenching on it. I did what I could to help the engine breath, on a high school budget. A new exhaust and open element air cleaner gave it a bit more of a throw back to the muscle car era sound and look. Over the years I had that car there was perhaps one defining moment, and instance that sticks out among the rest....my first pass down the drag strip.

I traveled down to Norwalk, Ohio to hit up the Pontiac Nationals at Norwalk Raceway Park. It was a car show/drag race event. I had planned to enter my car into the car show portion of the event. I was initially disappointed when told I was too late to register for the car show, but then the attendate informed me I could still register to race. Race? The thought hadn't even crossed my mind. Perhaps slightly pressured by the attendant taking the money when informed that my class was about to run, and I'd have to hurry through tech inspection. With the encouragement of my friend in the passenger seat, the decision was easy.

That first trip down the track was undescribable. It wasn't fast by any means, as I think I ran high 15's, maybe even 16's, at around 80 some mph. Yet to me, that was the hook, line, and sinker. It's the reason my 69 Camaro sits with a 12 point roll cage, awaiting it's 900-1,000 hp engine to be built and dropped between the rails. That Pontiac was the ground work, it's what pursuaded me to enter into an Industrial Technology program at CMU, something that I don't regret even today while working in law enforcement. That program taught me much of what I know today about cars, and gave me access to machinery that I'll likely never get to use again first hand.

Sadly, the car, along with the sentimental value, was lost during the spring of 1996. I had stored the car at my parents while off at college. While home for spring break, I took out insurance and got the car out. A few hours later, it was totaled, thanks to another driving blowing a stop sign. Perhaps as important as the sentimental value and the memories, the fact that I had put blood, sweat, and tears into that car only to see it turned into a ball of metal was heart breaking. For those who customize cars, give them an owners personal touch, modify them over the years, there is a whole different attachment that somebody who uses a car just for tranportation. It's not just a car, it's a way we express ourselves, what we build and how we build it is telling a story about who we are.

I got the insurance money, which was a surprisingly good pay out, and that's when I went older, 20 years older. Ironically, my 1969 Camaro rolled down the same assembly line my 1989 Pontiac Firebird did 2 decades later, a 2nd generation cousin of my Camaro if you will. My attachment to my Camaro is as strong today as it ever was, though I never forgot about my Pontiac.

In the spring of 2004, my parents hand-me-down 1990 Regal was on it's last leg as far as the body went. It was lookin' rough, and it was time to replace it. I knew what I wanted, I simply had to track it down. I got online, did a nationwide search, and surprisingly I only had to travel as far as the thumb of Michigan to find the car I wanted. Of course, as you may have guessed, another Firebird was in order. It had to be a 1989 since that's what I had. It also had to be Maui blue, since that's what my first one was, and secondly, because you just don't see too many that color. 170 hp wasn't gonna cut it this time around though, neither would a base model. Though the Trans Am is what first caught my eye, my years of wrenching on cars convinced me that lighter is better, and I had no need for 150-200lbs of ground effects. A 1989 Pontiac Formula 350/auto Maui Blue was what I was heading to look at, and what I would end up buying.

I really miss the 5 speed, but given the choice between a 5 speed or a 350, I went with the 350. As most know, Chevy/Pontiac never put the 5 speed behind the 350, so it was an either/or situation. The first drive was creepy, and moving just the same. Felt like my first car all over again, except now there was a bulging hood out the windshield instead of the flat draping hood. Power was great, and the gearing with the 700r4 made the thing a beast from a dead stop!

Here I am, 5 years later, and looking at the surface rust and age starting to show. 141,000 miles now, about 70,000 more than when I bought it. I'm hoping to get at least one more winter out of her, then she'll get her due. Parked during the winters, and then an ongoing restoration that will spray on new paint, more power, a manual transmission, a stiffened chassis, and put on a diet. I'm not letting this one get away! Though perhaps not technically my first car, it has all the feel good emotions of a first car, and in my mind, I'll always see it as my first car....just reincarnated as a Formula!

2005 Ford Mustang Commercial - Tear jerker

Bench racing with the neighbor

Today while out walking the dogs I stopped by to talk with the new guy in the neighborhood, the "$100,000 Camaro guy." I already had established a perception of what this guy's car must be like. I pictured one of those high dollar cars that you see at Cobo, the ones never driven on the street, the ones with chrome plated brake rotors and wet sanded/buffed floor pans. Man, I couldn't have been further from the truth! This guy showed me pics and vouches that he has knicks and scratches and pushes the car to the limit. Perhaps even more importantly, many of the future mods I was planning for my Formula, he's already done.

First and foremost, I wanna put my car on a diet and get it down to the 3,000 lb range. That's a drop of about 440 lbs! This guys car tips the scales at 3,100 lbs. Many of the weight saving materials had already crossed my mind, but I was shocked to find that he still has an iron block/iron heads in the bay. Drop in an LS1 and the weight would likely come in at about 2,950 lbs! A weight that is simply unheard in today's performance market. Our conversation really made me realize, 3,000 lbs is more easily obtainable than I had imagined.

Having already traveled down the path, my new neighbor will be good for a wealth of knowledge later on down the road. I'm sure I'll be able to show him a thing or too when it comes to old school performance as well, as I'm sure he's never played in the big block arena.

Give me a brake!

Awhile back my brakes started squealing, and as usual, while annoyed, I let them go until they stopped squealing. I knew what would be coming next, grinding. Sure enough, about a week ago while applying the brakes I heard just a faint sound, a sound that sounded a bit like metal on metal. A day later, there was no mistaking it, my brakes were done for!

So I milked my brakes along for a few more days, until my two days off where upon I could repair them. I waited until my dad was visiting, as I knew if I simply drove to the store, bought the parts I thought I would need, something would be forgot...right about the time the brakes were all torn apart and the car undrivable. My prediction would have been dead on too.

I no more than got the car jacked up and wheels off when the first obstacle presented itself. Now I know that at some point in the past I had an allen wrench that fit the brake calipers. I looked everywhere, and it was nowhere to be found. So, I added that to the list of things I needed and ventured to the parts store in my dad's truck. By the looks of things, one rotor was toast, no turning that one to clean it up. The other side appeared ok, so I went with 1 rotor and a set of pads. Upon returning home, I removed the calipers on both sides, then the rotors. It was then that I realized that while the surface seemed ok on the passenger side, the thickness was beyond gone. After some thought, I'm pretty sure these are the factory original rotors...with 141,000 miles on them! While putting the new rotor on the driver side of the car, I realized something else, they neglected to sell me the rear seals to hold the wheel bearings in the new rotor. Oh well, since another trip was in order, I'd simply pick up a set up seals to go with my 2nd rotor I needed.

As luck would have it, the 1st rotor I picked up was the last rotor in stock. The Murray's employee called up the road and verified that another store had one they would hold for me. After returning home, I realized that this is why I hate working on brakes so much. For whatever reason, it just never goes smoothly for me...and it appeared the fun wasn't over.

After installing the used bearings inside the near calipers, I finished up the driver side. I pumped the brakes a few times, just to see how they'd feel, forgetting that I had the passenger caliper off, so the pedal felt soft considering the caliper extended the piston all the way. As I ventured over to the passenger side, I so the piston fully extended and attempted to push it back in. I no more than touched the piston and it fell out, breaking the rubber seal, and emptying all the brake fluid onto the garage floor. Yeah, this is why I hate doing brakes!

After removing the brake line from the caliper I placed it on the bench. After fighting with it for what must have been a good 30 minutes, I got the piston back inside the rubber seal, and pushed back into place. Everything went smoothly from then on, with my neighbor assisting with the bleeding of the brakes. I crossed my fingers during that first drive, hoping everything went together ok. After several hard stops, the brakes started to come alive, and now the car stops better than it has in many years.

As I flipped throught he pages of one of my new magazines, I see that Baer has a kit out for Firebirds/Camaros. It's a 6 piston kit with 14 inch rotors, all for the price of $2,500! I'm sure when the day comes to rebuild/restore my Formula, something along those lines will be in order. Till then, I guess I'll make due with the Chinese crap from Murray's to slow my car.

Hidee-Ho Neighbor

Today while out walking the dogs I met the new neighbor. Ok, so maybe the guy lives like 8-10 blocks up, but he's still in the neighborhood. He had a hoody on that read "Camaro" across the front. Almost immediately after introducing myself I inquired "You got a Camaro?" Truth be told, by tomorrow I'll likely have forgot his name, but not the fact that he has a 1990 Iroc Camaro with around $100,000 invested. Sound like a lot? You'd be surprised how quickly it all adds up. By the time my Camaro gets back on the road, since purchase, I'll probably have a good $50,000 invested.

Any way, we talked cars for a bit, and garages soon follow. He intends to build a garage, and I suggested insuring it's high enough to have a car lift. Seems a car lift was already on his mind. Yeah, I think we're gonna get along just fine neighbor!

While out galavanting today, shootin' guns and taking guns to get serviced, I stopped into Les Stanford, the Corvette King. I wasn't interested in a Vette, I wanted to know when the new Camaros will be arriving, and just how much the monthly payments are gonna be. The dealer expects them to arrive in the next week or two. With my other half now leaning towards buying her truck, when her lease is up, perhaps that will allow for a new Camaro sooner than expected. I like a good number of new cars out there, though nothing has ever drawn me to the point that I'd be willing to pony up the cash to buy a new car.

For me, the new Camaro gets my blood a pumpin', raises the hairs on the back of my neck, it captivates me the way a car is suppose to. I know the writing is on the wall, with higher mpg requirements, rising gas prices, and the push to be green, these days of the Camaro, Mustang, and Challenger will likely be short lived. Or perhaps worse yet, the second coming of the 1970's, when horsepower levels drop to down right pathetic, and mpg becomes the most important aspect...with styling even getting tossed out the window. We were so close too! Enjoy these few days while they last, as I feel the industry is once again about to be changed drastically.