Here is a nice little mod anyone can do during a long cold winter. How's a 160 MPH speedo look. I got this one from a Firebird floor shift car. The Firebird and LeMans clusters are very much intechangeable from 1970 to 1981 Firebirds and 1973 to 77 LeMans. Anyway, a bit of dremel tooling here and there and we made up a shift quadrant decal by scanning the original. I'm pretty sure I have the only Canadian LeMans with a 160 speedo.
I'll get a better picture once the 3 feet of snow in front of my garage door melts.
When I think about it! WE will have the last laugh, when the Southern boys are cooking in the heat! and we are blowing cool air, off our snow piles, in June
You know it is -11 here in Toronto this morning so I used photoshop to crop and enlarge the photo I have, it works out pretty well. I may never see the LeMans until May!
Glad my little mod is such a hit. It really looks factory installed and is fun to play it up at cruises with on lookers who have never seen such an animal in any car let alone a LeMans. We set the odometer to match the original one we removed and tagged and dated the cluster body.
I put a 160 MPH speedo in my 55 GMC last year. do you think they can get me for racing? the only way this thing will hit 160 is in freefall, its got the air dynamics of a brick.
i figured i can post it on this site, its one of those darn canadian GMC with a chev drivetrain
I put a 160 MPH speedo in my 55 GMC last year. i figured i can post it on this site, its one of those darn canadian GMC with a chev drivetrain
First - Where does one get a 160 speedo for a 55 GMC ?
Second - I always figure a GMC is a "Pontiac" truck, I mean they are sold in Pontiac dealerships here. HQ for GMC is in Pontiac Michigan too and US GMC's used Pontiac V8's in the 50's.
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Ray White, Toronto ON
1973 LeMans 454 "Astro-Jet"
Built March 9, 1973 - Oshawa ON
1993 Corvette Convertible LT 1
Polo green metallic & tan - Bowling Green Kentucky
First - Where does one get a 160 speedo for a 55 GMC ?
Second - I always figure a GMC is a "Pontiac" truck, I mean they are sold in Pontiac dealerships here. HQ for GMC is in Pontiac Michigan too and US GMC's used Pontiac V8's in the 50's.
nice thing about my dash is that the gauges are standard aftermarket size. so i ordered the stewart warner nostalgic wings series.
Talking about 160 mph speedo's ; back in 1963 I spotted a new Parisienne 2 door hardtop at the local GM dealer (Trapp Motors) that had a 160 mph speedo. I opened the hood expecting to find a 409 inside. Instead there was a 2 barrel 283 . All of the other new Pontiacs on the lot and in the showroom had the usual 120 mph speedometers. Seems like somebody at the factory slipped in the wrong speedo for that particular car.
This type of factory mismatching also happened later on in the mid 60's. for example a friend of mine bought a brand new 1966 Chev Caprice that had the 396 badges on the front fenders plus the 396 stickers on the engine. Years later he was rebuilding the motor and discovered that it was really a 427 cu in motor.
This stuff was happening due to labour problems at the auto factories in those years.
I'm not sure a 160 mph speedo is what I need. Like riding around with a double-dog-dare staring me in the face all the time. Speeding ticket in the making!
Drove a '73 GMC (or it might have been a Chev) half ton with a 454 a long time ago. Speedo was wrapped all the way around and back to 30 mph. No idea what that translates to. Coulda used the 160 speedo then.
I will agree with 66 Beau. Back in 74 when I was a mere 17 our neighbour at our family cottage had a 73 Chevy one ton Cheyene 454. He was an old timer with money but he took a shine to me. My dad had a pile of junk to take to the dump so our neighbour handed me the keys to this puppy. Of course I knew what was under that hood and the way home from the dump was a bit more roundabout than going. I 'm not sure I have ever driven a vehicle with a more powerful engine.
1wheelpeel, As far as testing the 160 speedo in the LeMans, I have to admit to not having enough guts or having too much brains to not have tried it, probably a combination of both.
-- Edited by 73SC on Monday 10th of May 2010 11:31:26 PM
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Ray White, Toronto ON
1973 LeMans 454 "Astro-Jet"
Built March 9, 1973 - Oshawa ON
1993 Corvette Convertible LT 1
Polo green metallic & tan - Bowling Green Kentucky
in June 
