Speed & Supercar - October 1968

[Pantera]

My 70 came with MT rears and they would/could not hold it straight when I got on it. Some guy in a GTO came up b-side me leaving a drive-in one night and wanted to try me on.

I almost took his Right side off when I hit the next gear as I went by him like he was tied to a tree.


I think one of them is still in the back of the shop. I will give it a look and see what size it was. I am thinking it was a M-50x15. You young guys just have no idea what bias ply tires were like back then. They would not hook up on a car like a radial will now. Remember Joe?


Pantera

[djunod]

I found another article on this car... you won't believe this, it is in a magazine that my Dad bought for me in 1982. It says...

[ QUOTE ]
The car rolls on Inglewood Pos A Traction Red Line tires which aren't even made anymore. Fronts are G70-14, while the rears are L70-15s.

[/ QUOTE ]

[55chevy]

well post it man, post it

[djunod]

It has to be the same car, almost every detail is exact, down to the license plate still being there in '82... but one detail that I see that is different is that there is absolutely no mention of the mid-year Corvette side pipes.

https://www.yenko.net/photos/showgall...amp;ppuser=582

[427TJ]

The right-rear photo of the car in the 1982 book matches the right-rear photo in the 1968 Speed and Supercar "Mindbender" article. The 1982 issue also had a story written by Joe Oldham, a member of the Cars Magazine staff in the late '60s/early '70s, telling of his '69 B-M Camaro. My take on it is that the guys writing the 1982 special edition, including Oldham, culled the circa '68-'69 Motion Camaro photos from the Cars archives to use as filler for the '82 Camaro special issue. The '68 car with the NY "ML 8907" plates was, as far as I can tell, Joel Rosen's personal car and his demonstrator, as evidenced by several 1968-69 articles on the car. Benny Benzino may well have had a '68 B-M Camaro but I don't think it's the "ML 8907" car seen in the photos in the '82 magazine special. I think the 1982 article's writer (not named in the article) or perhaps the editors took a little artistic license in putting those photos with the story of Benny's Camaro. But that's just my opinion, based on researching magazine articles from the '60s, and I could be wrong. Great stories though!

Compare photo from 1982 magazine:


To the photo from the "Mindbender" article from October '68:


Note ML 8907 plate.

[Verne_Frantz]

"You young guys just have no idea what bias ply tires were like back then. "

RIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Back then, you actaully had to learn how to DRIVE the car. It wasn't engineered to account for your mindless enjoyment.

[djunod]

There are 3 photos of the ML8907 license plate in the '82 article. So, perhaps the *entire* article is made up, based solely around an ad seen in the Hemmings? It does seem possible, as the text is pretty crazy, about his job, how many gigs he'd have to do to even buy gas at the ridiculous gas prices of '82... very entertaining story.

[JoeG]

I remember Larry----That's why I had the rear wells flared, to stuff those L60-15s in there ---Could have used Z60-15s--

[Pantera]

I sure remember having to learn to drive it out of the hole like it was on icecubes and then you could finally honk down on it about 50 ft out and it would still run a little sideways all the way down the track. These kids nowadays have no idea what fun they missed back then.

So do you remember ever using ATLAS Bucrons street tires? They had two be one of the best street tires for street drag racing of their time. I ran 950x15's on the back of my 57 chev because I couldn't afford anything else. I had a buddy that worked at a STD OIL station and they sold them to old people with Caddys and when they were getting thin, that is when they worked best for racing.

Pantera

[Supercar_Kid]

[ QUOTE ]
These kids nowadays have no idea what fun they missed back then.

[/ QUOTE ]
Apparently we're not entirely too late.