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My good friend Gary (Dr. Noble) picked this old copy of HOT ROD up. I enjoy the old magazines a great deal, and this one had a great article in it he knew I would like and I thought some of you would get a kick out of it as well.





Click to view full screen. Made them big enough for decent reading.

As is any article written about this man, This is a fascinating read. The ability to see all those small detail items amazes me.
Calling him just an innovator would be the understatement of the century. Legal or not, His thought process has got to be one of the all-time mystery's of the Automotive world. I would love to know how much HP was saved by all the many small items that stacked up to make winners out of his cars. I remember the first time I understood the weight to HP balance, and its importance in any race car. I cant imagine how much deeper Smokey was able to think than the Average great wrench/ builder.
Thanks Harry, I enjoyed that.
Bob

If it wasn't for some shenanigans by some big money creepies, we would have been driving cars that got 40-60mpg on 100 octane regular. The man was a genius even superior to Preston Tucker. What a mind.

I have a great book on Trans-Am cars by David Tom, according to that there probably was never a fully legal Trans-Am car. The rules were written by the SCCA and I guess the intention was that you should take a car off the showroom floor, slap on a set of racing tires and some roll bars and go racing. For the most part factory parts were supposed to be used. New parts were supposed to be available from dealers before they could go into a race car. The manufacturors usually took shortcuts with that and the builders did as well. There is a big section about this car in the book.

Good read! Thank you for sharing! :D

Vic Edelbrock jr. now owns that car. He did a restoration on it and he likes to
talk about the tricks he found. I can listen for hours.

No, as I say, not a conspiracy at all. Just big bucks repressing genius. Here's the engine.
http://www.legendarycollectorcars.com/f ... ive-video/

Interesting article! Thank you for the link!

I would agree that most T/A cars would have been "illegal". From Mark Donohue running a car a full 200 pounds under the min weight limit to Titus convincing the SCCA that Pontiacs where sold in Canada with 302 chev motors because Pontiac didn't have a suitable motor to the Ford teams filling their tires with water to meet min weight for tech inspection..... everyone bent the rules. Even when Ford protested the Donohue/Penske car for being underweight Penske calmly said, so what are you going to do about it? Exclude us?? Don't think so.

Thanks for bringing back fond memories, Harry. 8-)