1. 2003 Pontiac Vibe. My second most reliable vehicle I've ever had. Itching 160,000 kms. It's a long way from Pontiac's attempt at a re-label attempts like back in the Firenza days.
2. 2005. Dodge Ram "Daytona". This is a short box, regular cab version of Mopar's tribute to the good old Charger Daytona stock car. It sports Cat-bac exhaust, "Super Chips" ECU flashing and a K and N type intake. There's not many of the regular cab editions.
3. My tired 1979 Pontiac Gran Prix Stock Car. 350 SBC with steel crank, four bolt main, 194 heads and an RV type cam. "Your doing 24 seconds on a half mile oval....on street tires, surrounded by 40 some other street stock cars on street tires! What are you nuts?"
Fun is the word. I raced this car @ Race City in Calgary from 1999-2001. It was in the "Enduro" class which ment just that.....Endurance. It was typical to race an entire afternoon in a "Twin 200" event or an evening 300 lap event. Lot's and lots of laps. The whole idea was just to finish the race. Usually the field started with 40 some cars and it was a miracle to see 20 cars at the end.
While my pit crew was a help at quick repairs at the track, helping swap engines in the off season or changing the odd blown tire during a race, they were really helpful in getting me out of the car at the end of the day. I was normally exhausted.
Wouldn't have missed those days!
The car rests at an acerage now. I haven't fired it up for over three years now. Who knows what that engine is like now?
D.T.
__________________
"Repulsive since 1959"
2015 Camaro SS1 2014 GMC Sierra 1969 GTO 2005 Dodge Daytona Short Box Regular cab P/U 1979 Pontiac Grand Prix Enduro stock car
Your post reminds me of the 1950s around Spanaway Speedway 3/8 mile and SeaTac Raceways 1/4 mile tracks here in the Puget Sound country. In 1957 I was in the 7th grade helping the neighbor and his son (Bill and Bob Stein) with small stuff on this 1934 Ford and other flathead powered cars, as well as 1934 Chevs and Dodges. We built a car a year for 6 years. Sometimes 2 per year. For our effort we got a free trip to the weekend races on Friday, Saturday nights and Sunday afternoons at Silverdale Speedway, a dirt track. What a great learning experience for kids.
I have attached a picture of the first car we raced in those days. This car was found in the woods about 7 years ago and restored to new rebuilt condition. You might want to preserve your racer so 50 years from now you can tell great stories about your youth. Don't let it rot in your harsh climate. You'll be sorry.
... It's a long way from Pontiac's attempt at a re-label attempts like back in the Firenza days...
Depending on which side of the Canada / U.S. border you are on, Firenza means something very different. In the U.S. it was the Chevy Monza-derived H-body Oldsmobile from 1978 - 1981 & the J-body from 1982-88; in Canada Firenza was the renamed Vauxhall from 1971 - 1972 that was dropped in disgrace due to appalling quality control (there was labor strife in the U.K. factory where it came from). Remember those things? They were sold at Canadian Pontiac-Buick dealers.
I would admit that as a child, when other folks were taking thier Kids to Church, Mom was taking me to the Sunday afternoon Stock Car races in Lethbridge at the Whoop Up Fair grounds near Henderson Lake. My following and love for Stock Car Racing carried into my teens as I was a pitman/mechanic's helper for a Junior High School teacher in Edmonton. He had a sprint car at the paved, 3/8 mile Westwind Oval in Winterburn Alberta.
Just my interest back then kept me away from learning how to smoke cigarettes behind the 7-11. I was too busy to do-nothing and get into serious trouble back then. I just got dirty fingernails. And I think there's nothing wrong with that. Even today.
You are right, maybe a guy should spruce good old 47 one day?
d.T.
__________________
"Repulsive since 1959"
2015 Camaro SS1 2014 GMC Sierra 1969 GTO 2005 Dodge Daytona Short Box Regular cab P/U 1979 Pontiac Grand Prix Enduro stock car
Don't let it rot in your harsh climate. You'll be sorry.
Hey John I realize you aren't too far south of us but our climate really isn't that harsh here in western Canada. There are some pretty solid old cars here. Our local average rainfall is 11 inches and our snowfall is 4 inches so that doesn't do too bad for our old iron. Either way we don't like to see them rot.
in Canada Firenza was the renamed Vauxhall from 1971 - 1972 that was dropped in disgrace due to appalling quality control (there was labor strife in the U.K. factory where it came from). Remember those things? They were sold at Canadian Pontiac-Buick dealers.
This took me a while, but I went through my old sales catalogues and by goodness I found a 1972 Canadian Firenza brouchure. They called it the "Tough Little Fun Car from General Motors". Ha. I don't think I saw any of them on the road after 1980? 120 cu. in. mill, standard 4 speed, we're lookin' at 77.5 HP. And that's with 7.3:1 compression ratio. Anything British back then had bad eletrical ("The Prince of Darkness"), bad brakes, and early rust. The GM people said in the sales catalogue that "the Firenza went through a hard time at Punishment Park , a most demanding GM proving ground." They built the 2 door sedan, 2 and4 dour sedan SL, a door door coupe SL, and even a 2 door SL wagon. Now that would be rare!
Interesting reading. And right beside this calalogue in my collection is it's competitor, the Simca 1000. Now we're really dredging up a gem..........
D.T.
__________________
"Repulsive since 1959"
2015 Camaro SS1 2014 GMC Sierra 1969 GTO 2005 Dodge Daytona Short Box Regular cab P/U 1979 Pontiac Grand Prix Enduro stock car
In the UK the Firenza was even smaller than the picture above and only available as a coupe. It could however be ordered with a 2.3 which made it quite quick for the time and they are still raced to this day. The South Africans even built 500 with 302s.
I was normally exhausted.
