@panini, I've maybe seen one of those Cyclone GT's, ever, and that was back in the very early 80's. What a car to have in your collection! That's really cool you met Carroll Shelby. Been a huge fixture in m automotive world for a very long time. The man could build.........and drive!
Hearing of the others, I'm the one drooling now. Hehehe I've been working in the yard today thinking I need to give that friend of mine with the engines a call. We talked about a Coyote crate engine for the F100 once, maybe I need to talk to him again. From what I understand, those engines get 30+ mpg and have close to 500 at the wheels. DANG! Not sure if I would have my license long if that was my daily driver. I know one thing, the upgrade to PS and PB we did during the resto/mod would definitely be needed plus maye I need to think more seriously about adding discs to the other two corners.
I need to share my first car.....1966 Mustang Notchback but we shoe-horned in a 351W out of a '69 Mach1. I never could get headers in it because of how tight the engine was squeezed in and it would've helped since the guy who sold me the engine wouldn't include the heads. No problem though, I ended up putting my 289 heads on the engine and what a huge difference that made. Brought the compression ration from 10:1 to around 13.5:1 and in street trim, with no headers, full exhaust hooked up and a base 3.23 8" open rear........my best ET was 13.011. Heck, I swear I could jump on it at 45mph and make a smoke screen like nothing else. Just wish I could get it to hook-up and go. It was a tire smoker for sure. Then again, 13 sec in a 1/4 is not sitting still for a street car. Funny, it was about 3 years after I did that, CarCraft or Hotrod, can't remember who, came out with a swap to do just that. Sure wish I'd seen it when I still had the car.....would've cleared up that overheating issue.
Speaking of ultra rare American Muscle, I remember seeing these sometime back around '80 in a town close to where I grew up. First was a '69 Torino Talladega that was 100% original from what I could tell. The second was a '65 Galaxy 500 GTA with a Factory equipped tri-power 427 side-oiler. A friend had a completely original sheet metal '57 Bel Air that has a very sound 331 vette engine. 12 seconds in street trim on the same track as my 13's. I failed the $100 bill test in that more times than I care to admit.
Everything from Yenko Camaro's to Hemi 'Cuda's, Daytona's and ever Railers were on the street back then. We even had a couple Cosworth Vega's running around and a couple of these guy's had them tweeked to almost 400hp. Not bad considering base was just over 260. Imagine all that out've a fricken naturally aspirated 4cyl Vega. Makes some of the rice burners of today sound sorta tame. There were certainly a ton of motor heads in my area......me being one of them. It was great growing up in the Chicago area during the 60's and 70's. From Skips to Dukes and everything in between, like our grounds Lake Street in Addison IL, Saturday night was "Cruising night" for sure and everywhere saw its share of action.
I really can't wait to share pics of my finished daily driver.
Later
Oh yea....the 59 was that Nash or AMC. I ask because my oldest friend and his Father collected old Nash's. I remember they had a beautiful 48 convertible. Funny though........I swear it really did like most people said.......an upside down bathtub.