Charles – Thanks for dropping by and giving us some of your insight.
Here is what he provided:
Hi, i’ve never heard of the Chevy reaction in 38 years of studying GM’s history. Pontiac was violating GM’s rule of limiting cubic inches of cars smaller than full-size to one cubic to every ten pounds of car’s weight, so cars like Pontiac’s Tempest/Le Mans, Buick’s Special/Skylark, Old’s Cutlass/F85, and Chevy’s Chevelle/Malibu were limited to 330 cubic inch displacement. Pontiac marketed the 336 as a 326, and after some time, someone in GM figured out the actual bore and stroke made 336 cid. Pontiac had to change the 336 down to the 326. Then for 1964, Pontiac (Thank You – John DeLorean) created an option for the Le Mans, the GTO option, since the standard Le Mans engine obeyed the limit rule, there was nothing in the rule saying you couldn’t offer an optional extra cost, bigger engine. Can you say 389 cid, 348 horsepower ?, OH YES, turn it on, wind it up, blow it out, GTO.
So I just can’t let the 283 go. I will find one, restore it and hang it from my garage ceiling, umm…yeah..I don’ t think the misses will have a problem with that….ok maybe just store it a corner of the garage..or turn it to a coffee table..yeah……um…no.
Check out his 1966 Corvair with 300 hp 283.
Link is here: http://www.automobilemag.com/reviews/driven/1012_1966_corvair_corsa/index.html
REVIEWS:
First Drive: 1966 Corvair Corsa
From the December, 2010 issue of Automobile Magazine
By Don Sherman
Photography by A. J. Mueller
The Chevy Corvair’s swing axles and heavy tail are implements of the devil, at least according to Ralph Nader’s Unsafe at Any Speed diatribe. Paul Siano, the creator of the mid-engine Siano Special, doesn’t buy any of that. He has owned, modified, and drag-raced Corvairs for more than half of his seventy years without suffering a single unintended spinout.
Siano bought — brand-new — what began life as a 1966 Corvair Corsa after supercharging a Volkswagen Beetle and owning a ’64 Corvair Monza Spyder convertible. He drove the coupe 50,000 miles before ripping out the stock 180-hp turbo engine.
A vintage Crown Manufacturing kit provided the means of upping the cylinder count and moving the engine from the back porch to the rear seat. That package included a tubular-steel subframe, an engine-to-transaxle adapter plate, a new transmission input gear, cooling-system pipes, a new shift linkage, and two new antiroll bars.
Siano’s prize possession is a rare, experimental, 283-cubic-inch aluminum engine block that General Motors pitched out as scrap. Engine builder Bryce Flinn added a roller cam, aluminum heads, and the induction overkill. Siano fabricated the necessary bits and brackets with an emphasis on minimal weight. He also added four-wheel disc brakes, Minilite wheels, radial tires, and a Ron Davis aluminum radiator.
Siano didn’t partition off his eight-pack of Weber intake trumpets, because he’s a patron of the rolling, reverberating, internal-combustion arts. Living with Webers is not for the meek of heart. When cold, they spit and stumble. When they’re up to operating temperature, they fill the interior with a combustible cloud of reversion gases. Smoking is discouraged.
Headphones are available for those rides when hearing preservation takes precedence over the din of a barely muffled Chevy V-8. Only two things keep the whirring water-pump pulley from biting the occupants’ elbows: the flush bolts that Siano installed in place of hex-head screws and every human’s natural preservation instincts
REVIEWS:
First Drive: 1966 Corvair Corsa
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When we drove to the test track, Siano’s homebuilt special revealed evil streaks: quick but heavy steering, vague shift linkage, and a throttle pedal that offers yes and no but very little maybe. However, a few miles were enough to establish an amicable working relationship.
Offered the opportunity to redeem itself, the Siano Special settled into stride to post a reasonably impressive performance report: 0 to 60 mph in 5.2 seconds, the quarter mile in 13.9 seconds at 104 mph, and a top speed of 130 mph. More amazing, the handling balance is excellent, offering just under 0.90 g at the limit of adhesion and only a touch of easily controlled oversteer when the fourteen-inch BFGoodrich Radial T/As finally let go. The cobbled-together chassis held firm over bumps, and the dampers kept body motions nicely controlled throughout the testing gauntlet.
Back in the Corvair’s day, GM fiddled with various mid-engine sports cars, only one of which (the Pontiac Fiero) ever made it to a production line. Leave it to a motivated Corvair enthusiast to demonstrate what can be achieved by adding a couple of cylinders and relocating the engine to a more productive location.
The Specs Engine: 4.6-liter (283 cu in) OHV V-8, 300 hp (est.) Weight: 2600 lb Weight distribution f/r: 44.0/56.0% Drive: Rear-wheel
That’s an email from a reader. Been under the weather for a few days and a heavy workload this time of the year where I “pound salt” (hopefully a fair ratio of people get that).
So here is what is coming up:
Finish up the series on the 326 Pontiac engine.
Finish up the last couple entries for the Name That Car Contest (tally for this latest round coming up).
This was a 4 cylinder wonder. A common misconception was that the Mustang II was just a Pinto. I’ve even call them that myself. But in reality they only shared a few parts.
Of course these were all either 4 (2.3L) or V6 (2.8L) powered
Ok stop right now. I know what some of you are thinking. A 1978 Mustang II….. oh please!! There were no muscle cars in the mid and late 70’s. There were no power house Mustangs on the market at that time.
While that is true, the Mustang II did sell over 1 million copies. We had one in our family when I was in college. A 1974 Mustang II Ghia:
It was a 4 cylinder and the picture above is an exact match.
The design of the Mustang was developed by Gene Bordiant with help from the Italy based Ghia studios. Good thing, because Ford started out looking at having Pinto as the base model Mustang II or the Maverick.
By 1975 Ford realized that offering only a 4 or 6 cylinder Mustang wasn’t going to cut it. So they made modifications to squeeze the 5.0 L (the famous 302) back under the hood. Of course long gone (at the time) was the massive horse power of the old 5.0L. The 1975 Mustang only mustered 122 to 139 hp’s.
By 1976 I guess Ford was feeling it oats and designed a Cobra II package for the Mustang II. It was a looker:
1976 Mustang Cobra II
But is labeled “all show and no go” by most critics. I like the look!!! Just to make less exciting you could get the package on a 4 cylinder!!! WHY??? WHY??? WHY???? Oh well. The package was added by Jim Wangers’s Motortown company but only for 1976. (Can you say “collector status”? – yes.) Ford began adding the kit at the plant.
1978 the company wanted to one up the Cobra II and created the King Cobra.
The “Boss of the Mustang stable” came only in a hatch back (no coupe). It held the 302 with a 4 speed manual transmission, power brakes and steering. T-tops were an option ($587) and an automatic transmission could be added for $225.
Want to talk about the 700 pound monkey (or snake?) in the room? Ok…what about that hood? Oh the scoop was just fine, in fact it made it look almost normal. You either loved or hated that cobra on the hood.
The Snake!!!
1978 King Cobra
For 1978 Ford sold 4318 units. 1979 saw the first Mustang Fox body, which is now legendary.
Ok…we are rollin’ along now. I’m also running these over on Armed Forces Car Club, so there will be two winners, one for this site and one for theirs.
Here is the next car.
This is (again) a 60’s era car. This is not of the Big 3 but this company brought us some excellent cars with some healthy power plants under the hood.
In it natural state (right off the assembly line), this car was not a muscle car, but now days you can find them with all kinds of transplants.
