1970 Oldsmobile Cutlass W-31

The W-31 was a Cutlass with a 350 CID Performance Option, not a 442 Option and was only built for 2 seasons, in 1969 and 1970. Engine upgrades included the use of what's become known as the 308 camshaft, which was actually the unit's duration; the camshaft also touted .474-inch lift and an intake/exhaust valve overlap of 82 degrees. The engines were factory blue printed units by picking components off the production line that were matched in weight. The Connecting rods for the W-31 engine were particular to the engine The Cylinder heads were also specific to the W-31  Completing the fuel/air induction system was an aluminum intake manifold with a "performance calibrated" 750-CFM Rochester Quadrajet as well as the W25 low-restriction air cleaner assembly. Above that was a new-for-1970 air induction system: twin scoops on top of a fiberglass hood with chrome hold-downs.

Only 1029 of these made. The rarest of the high performance Oldsmobile made.
Behind the engine is a Muncie M21 4 Speed Trans w/ Hurst Shifter. Dual Exhaust, RLimited Slip Rear-End. Manual Brakes, HD 4 core Radiator. the W-31 package automatically upgraded the front and rear coil-sprung suspension to the FE2 heavy-duty components, including special springs and tubular hydraulic shocks.

The Varsity, !964 Mustang Introduction And A1968 Datsun Road Test

Stories, videos and photos by Miguel Caparros.

An Automotive tradition in Atlanta is the cruise in the 1st Thursday of every month. The Varsity down town cruise in has been going on since the 70's. It is hard to imagine Thursday nights with out the thousands that flock to the Iconic anchor of the Varsity empire that is billed as the worlds largest drive in with out what is with out question is one othe the largest gathering of cars in Atlanta. I have never been able to put an actual number on the crowd, the fluidity of the event makes it very difficult. Some visitors have their spots that they have been at for two generations and others just float in and out but many stay past the departure time of 9pm. One interesting thing I noticed when I first attended 4 years ago was the diversity of the people and the wide range of the ages. 

Here is my Tribute Video to The Varsity Downtown.

1965 Ford Mustang GT Fastback. 

In 1964 I was the luckiest kid in the world. I lived a few subway stops form the New York Worlds Fair. Dad took the whole family on opening day and I was presented with a golden ticket. I could get in to the Fair for the next two years any time I wanted!  And you know I did!  The first day was very special as it was the Introduction of the Ford Mustang.  The Ford Pavilion is the first place we went. Since we were there early the line to ride in a new Mustang was not very long, I picked a red convertible for us to sit in for the ride inside the Ford pavilion.  The following April I would meet Carol Shelby at the New York International Car Show, he gave me a poster of the GT350. Four years later I would own one of Mr Shelby's creations. Thirty years later I would be working for him. I guess you could say the Mustang was an important part of my life.  Where the GT 350 was very good for what it was intended it was not the best street car in the world, Hair trigger clutch, a very stiff suspension and lots of noise are not acceptable in a daily driver, unless you happen to be a teen ager, or race car driver or both! The Mustang Fastback presented in this video is in my opinion the best compromise of  Style and Performance as any car of the period. This GT even came with the milder of the two 4 barrel V8 with a rated 225 HP. The optional engine was a solid lifter High Performance unit that was rated at 271 HP and was the basis for the GT350 engine that put out 306 HP. The GT was a dream to drive, Smooth, a transmission that was a smooth to shift, the clutch was firm and did not need the strength of The Governator to push the pedal down. The suspension was firm without being jarring. If you wanted to abuse your self you could order it with out power steering, something I would never suggest as the manual steering is not only slow but very heavy at low speeds. The GT350 came without power steering and a very fast ratio that made it almost impossible to steer at anything below 25 MPH, I remember the GT350 it came with an ad for Weider muscle building system.  Today the GT is a wonderful collector car that can be driven any where.  The closing credit Photo is the roof of the New York Pavilion at the Worlds Fair. You may remember it from the movie Men in Black, the flying saucers! This was the roof of the building that connected the two buildings supporting the saucers. Much to my mothers horror I laid down on the floor and took the photo on that first day. 

Here is the Video of the Mustang.

In the early to mid 60's Datsun was the one on the move in the US market while Toyota was still sleeping.  Datsun was taking on the British car industry head on as it recuperated from WWII. Datsun was one of the companies that benefited from the leadership of  W. Edwards Deming, he was chosen by the Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers (SCAP) a title held by General Douglas MacArthur during the Occupation of Japan following World War II.

I remember the first time I saw an SPL 311 and my reaction to it. The quality of build seemed much better than the MG, Triumph or Alfa Romeo, given the fact that much of the technology was under license from US and  Great Britain.  As great as the quality of the mechanical aspects were concerned, the quality of the interior vinyl and plastics left much to be desire.  In spite of that, they slowly chipped away at the established manufacturers with a product of superior 

mechanical quality and value for the money spent. The SPL 311 line finished in 1970 with the Datsun 2000, A car that had to be taken very seriously as a performance sports car. It was the follow up that put the final nail in the coffin of the British dominance, the 240Z, Fairlady.
Driving impression of the Datsun 1600 from 1968.  First thing I noticed was the size of the car, it felt bigger than an MG Midget but smaller than the MGB. The controls and switch gear had a quality feel to it and the standard Am Fm radio was completely integrated into the dash. Also well integrated was the heating and ventilation levers and switches and they had a light feel as opposed to some of the British cars that felt as if you were trying to move a rail road track change lever with a tooth pick.

One stab of the gas pedal and a light pull of the choke and the car started right up and the choke was not needed after a few seconds and the engine settled to a smooth idle.  The clutch was unusually light as was the shift the lever. As I took off I could immediately sense that although the steering was light it did not have the precision of the British rack and pinion and the ride motion was both soft and choppy at the same time. Getting on the power made me smile as the little 1600 had power equal to if not better than the 1800 in the MGB. But it was the great feel of the gearbox that got my attention. Both precise in movement and light in feel.  Taking it through my favorite set of twisties in Coral Gables It felt good but not as well planted as an MGB or my own Alfa. But there was no question in my mind that Datsun had a winner here, specially when you take into consideration the price. 

The video on this Datsun is here.

John Cuda's Addiction And Sensible Hot Rod S

Story By John Cuda
One sweltering hot summer night when I was 9 years old I was playing on the living room floor with my hotwheels cars.I had a large wall built with a stack of cars and I was ramming my favorite black chevy van with flames painted on the side into the wall of cars to see how many I could knock over each time. After about the 90th pass through the stack of cars I heard a loud pop outside that sounded like a firecracker.

I immediately jumped up and ran out the door thinking my neighbors just scored another garbage bag full of fireworks from their Uncle that owns a fireworks distributor in Ohio. I was not so lucky.

I heard one more "crack" and noticed this car rumbling down the hill towards our culdesac slowly with it's headlights off. It stopped again, I heard another "crack" and saw a flash. I immediately thought that someone was throwing firecrackers at the neighbors houses just to start trouble as usual so I stood there with my chest pumped up on my front stoop ready for anything with my black, flamed hotwheels van in hand.

The car then parked in front of my next door neighbors house, but this time I was able to see more of what was going on due to the streetlight between our houses. Someone inside this car was leaning out of the passenger window and was shooting a small caliber rifle into my neighbors houses. After two more shots, they slowly pulled in front of my house and aimed the gun at me...and being the crazy, fearless wild child weathered by four older Brothers I started yelling every obscenity I knew and I tightened my grip and took that black flamed weapon that previously crashed through giant barriers of matchbox and hotwheels cars repeatedly and threw that thing as hard as I could right handed and side armed at the face of the guy holding that rifle. Just then time seemed to go in slow motion as the black flamed van left my hand.

I saw the passenger duck as the van slammed into the roof of the car just missing his head as it bounced hard up into the air, and then he aimed the rifle at me and fired immediately.I actually felt the bullet whiz past my ear and it got lodged in the brick fascia of my house we later found out.

Just then the driver stepped on the gas pedal and I heard the most devastating, awe inspiring, bloodcurdling, and scary sound I have ever heard in my life. Tires were spinning and white smoke billowed, but all I could hear was the sound of this engine under the hood of this half orange, half primered beast of a machine.
All the fear of the gun and my involvement suddenly vanished and turned into a scary, jealous type envy that made me wish I was the one stepping on that gas pedal. As I was standing there in awe I finally noticed my Mother shaking me like Ralphie from a Christmas story after he pounded the snot out of Scut Farkas."Johnny, Johnny, are you okay?" "Yeah, Mom, I'm fine."

Shortly afterwards the cops showed up and took mine and all the other neighbor's statements about the events of the night.As it turns out the punks shot at a cops house up the road and just missed hitting his sleeping baby Daughter's bassinette by inches.

I was proud to mention my award winning side arm throw that almost took the face right off of the gunman, but for some reason the officer told me that I did a bad thing.I had a real hard time understanding that because I was not afraid of those punks.My brothers were harder to deal with than those goofballs.

I ended up testifying against three hoodlums in the courtroom, they seemed to have hired the dirtiest lawyer on the face of the planet. For some reason I did not understand, they got off scott free. From the the courtroom testimony I was able to find out that that car they were driving was a 1970 Plymouth Roadrunner with a 426 Hemi and a four speed as the pictures and courtroom comments revealed.

The lawyer basically had to pry the picture out of my hand when I was asked if this was the car they were driving. I stared and had a half cocked smile on my face as I muttered out the word "yesssss", and later my Mom said I looked just like I did that night when she was shaking me.

Since that night I have been branded, bitten by the Mopar bug to the core and have owned and lost some really good creations from Ma Mopar over the years and currently have a sick creation of my own that really makes the purists cringe.
Those local punks with the rifle have been in trouble with the law many times since this incident including busting a neighbors nose to the other side of his face with a giant crescent wrench after following orders from his delusional Dad but through the power of facebook it seems they have all settled down for the most part as of late.

By Miguel Caparros  See The Video

When I first saw this car my reaction was, what a sensible car! It is big but not huge, it will seat six in comfort it has a great stance and presence. It has all the mechanical upgrades that make it a great driver, I could even live with the color. The only thing I would change would be the Instruments.

A new body style in 1941, it had to do service until 1949. It took GM a year longer than Ford to come out with their first post war designs. These cars were Americas work horse. Very few of the 1941 production survive and they even made a few during the war as military vehicles. The Fleetmaster was a special model. The regular sedan had a much taller window treatment Making the Fleetmaster and the Coupe Stylemasters look like they had a chopped top. Today Chevy fans are digging some of these cars out of chicken coops and making some very nice Rest Rods and great long distance cruising. Please note a special option on the rear bumper, a center bumper guard or override. The interesting aspect of this extra guard was that they had to design it to fold down to clear the opening of the trunk.

A Fishy Story Or How Plymouth Got The Jump And Lost The Race To Ford.

By Miguel Caparros

The 1964 1/2 Ford Mustang was the first Pony Car. Chrysler Plymouth did their best to try to steal the thunder of the April New York Worlds Fair Introduction, by releasing the Plymouth Valiant Barracuda on April first, two weeks before the opening of the Fair. Chrysler did a great job incorporating the large glass fast back onto the mundane Plymouth economy car and actually created a niche for the car.  It was not until 1965 with the introduction of the "S" package that the Barracuda was actually taken seriously as a performance car. Plymouth was ahead of the curve in SCCA Road Racing and the Barracuda was always in the running in the early Trans Am Series.

It was not until the 1967 introduction of the second generation A body Barracuda that the car was taken seriously by the enthusiast. With a truly fresh design and the addition of a coupe and convertible to the fastback, sales were brisk but nothing in comparison to the Mustang and the Camaro Firebird duo from GM. For such a low production numbers, Chrysler gave its buyers every thing from the legendary 225 six to the ground pounding 2 four barrel 426 Hemi V8.

In my opinion the best balanced of all the "Cudas" was the1968-69 340 powered fastback. Find a nice one of those with the S package, a "6 pack" intake and carburetors, some modern tires and suspension and you would have a butt kicking very usable street, track and show car. Although the 3rd generation of cars with the big block power are very celebrated today. The second generation A bodied cars were the most graceful with well designed lines with little or no gimmicks.

1970 saw the introduction of the 3rd generation Barracuda along with its brother for Dodge, the Challenger. By far the most aggressively designed of all the pony cars, they were also the biggest. The need for space for the big block motors led Chrysler to build their new Pony cars on the "E" platform shared with the full size Belvedere and Coronet. In racing Dodge and Plymouth Super Bird aero cars were the cars to beat in NASCAR and on the drag strip that duty fell to the Cuda, and Challenger. In 1970 the hottest racing series was not NASCAR, it was the SCCA's Trans Am Series. With the win on Sunday Sell on Monday mind set all the manufacturers had official and un-official road race teams. The crowds were huge with some venues having as many as 70,000 attendees. The #48  Plymouth Cuda AAR (All American Racing) with Dan Gurney, Sweede Savage and Sam Posey. A friend of mine bought the ex Dan Gurney/Sweede Savage car and I had the opportunity to flog this car at Infineon Raceway (formerly known as Sears Point, California) My first reaction was, "my god, this thing is huge" and that it was. It felt wider than any thing I ever drove on  road course and only exceeded when I drove Ken Epsman's 1963, Mercury Marauder with no power steering. Check out Sam Posey's Road & Track article of his reunion with the sister to the car I drove and his original 1970 race car.