Driving

nah,no dyno stats on my 2 current rides... I had the oldsmobile 455 mill dynoed when I bought it as a crate engine - after I blew up the 350 that my cutlass originally had - so I knew the exact stats and had it on a paper print out to back up the engine seller's claims...
other than that I never actually hooked any of my rides to a dyno machine...

the fairlane has a rebuilt 289 ci mill from a '67 mustang and a c6 tranny from the same... 9" rear but nothing special in the way of mods/hi-performance because it's a full kustom, not meant to be raced/driven hard... very extensive body mods on it though including the whole rear roofline moved forward about 10", extended fins, reshaped/radiused wheel wells, etc., etc...

my stude puts out around 400 hp...
it has an early '70s gmc 400 ci small block from a truck [so it's the stouter 4 bolt main block]... rebuilt, bored 0.40 over and stroked... around 10.5:1 compression... old school single plain edelbrock intake [with oil filler tube '60s style], holley 650 cfm 4bbl carb... shortie headers w/straight dual exhaust, open, no mufflers... 12 bolt gm rear end with 3:73 gears, th350 tranny, rebuilt w/shift kit.... 4 wheel disc brakes, power... rack and pinion steering, non-power, etc... radir mags, and radir bias-ply [non radial] white wall tires... 10 wide mags on the rear with 10.5 wide drag 'cheater slick' rubber...

I'm not into new cars at all but if ii remember correctly those supercharged caddies have some balls and can turn/handle very well... wishin' ya that you'll start drivin' that ride asap... without wheels we're much more prone to depression, etc...

as far as hand controls they're the most basic push-pull type, nothing fancy...plus I have an additional 'bar' bolted to the handle on account of my lack of grip so I can just slide my hand between the main handle and that bar... the simple 'palm grip' on the steering wheel fulfills the same function for my right  hand... I got used to this set up so I stayed wiith what works for  me but if you're new to driving you might want to experiment with other types of hand controls... there are a few variations, such as twist-push, push down-push, etc... if I were just getting back to driving I would definitely try out those options, some of the more recent types sound like they offer better control and less effort...

Aug 25, 2014 8:15:06 GMT -8 DJ said:

Wow, a car with 400+ ponies from the 1930's is no joke, that's impressive! Yeah these cars are great for show, I probably wouldn't drive em too hard either.

The Caddy is a beast, it's currently at 469HP stock. I'm waiting to get the stage 1 & 2 intake I ordered a couple weeks ago. Can't wait to hear that supercharger whine! My future mods are changing the upper and lower pulley (hopefully with no belt slip), bigger injectors, custom larger headers and I wish I could do straight pipe exhaust and remove the cats & mufflers completely but that's illegal and the chances of getting pulled over are really high. Probably going to throw in some magnaflow mufflers to keep things legal but still have the car roar. My goal is to get at least 500rwhp but that'll probably take a year or two.

well, it costs money to go fast hehe... for now the stude has respectable power but nothing to jump up and down about...my ex-cutlass was waaaay more brutal with over 550 ft/lbs of torque and also a posi 3:73 geared rear end despite similar hp stats on paper ... I'd peel/chirp the tires in all 3 gears if I kept the go pedal buried and I had it clocked at mid-12 second quarter mile - on those bf goodrich street tires I used year round for daily drivin'... the stude will likely do only a high 13 second 1/4 as it is set up right now... but I'm also trying to keep it traditional/old school in the early to mid 1960s as far as mods/parts go, it's a traditional '60s drag rod/hot rod recreation except for a few smaller details/upgrades.... I don't like the later billet/plastic look of hot rods, my thing is 30s - early '60s traditional style....

I might actually sell both rides soon and finally do the 'proper' quadriplegic thing and get a freakin' van... my body/health/condition has just deteriorated badly in the past 3-4 years and I'm no longer able to feel comfortable driving the crap out of a car... transfering in/out also becomes an ever increasing problem... I'm no longer able to transfer into my stude without some boost/assistance from someone [its rad ass-high drag track rake/stance puts the driver's seat quite up there]... despite having the left running board modified to fold down/up automatically when the door opens/closes....

and the fairlane will likely go too - although I can still transfer in/out of it on my own, I now have great difficulty pulling in my wheelchair behind me and stowing it in the rear... I need one good practical daily ride which I can always access and drive without anyone's help/assistance... so I might have to sell both and use the $ to buy a good used van and set it up with a bed in the rear, lift w/manual hydraulic back up, good ground clearance, strong diesel mill for ultra long life, etc... it'll hurt but form follows function in my life and practicality must come before anything else.... age and relatively long quad/wheelchair status does not treat me well hehe...

if any para/quad is interested in a bad ass turn-key hot rod or a full kusttom with a huge cred on the kustom car scene, i'll take 16k for my stude and around 38k for the fairlane, no haggling/bottom line...

hell, the fairlane is known by just about everyone who's anyone on the kustom/hot rod scene including the very top car builders/painters, including hetfield of metallica, who's a friend and 'beatniks cc' club brother to the dude whom I bought this ride from [dennis mcphail, a legendary tattooist/kustom artist himself]......it had major article/photo features in 4 hot rod/customs magazines as well and it's got a premium builder/owner pedigree....

both rides are mechanically excellent and the fairlane was just redone cosmetically with around $15k + high end paint job done by a hall of fame kustom/hot rod painter/bodyman using very difficult technique and many different coats/types of expensive paint... there aren't many painters like him left alive who are masterfully skilled in combining flake/pearl paints and spray them perfectly...  both have no power steering and it is indeed quite a bit more difficult to park sans p/steering - especially for a quad like me - but adding a power steering option is relatively simple with a brand new custom p/s kit...it would cost about 1.5k - 1.8k w/ all parts and labor included or much cheaper if swapping slightly used parts...or keep it old school and stay with manual steering, if I can do it as a quad, any para should be able to handle it even better than I do...

just throwin' it out there should anyone want to own a bad ass ride, or both....

sorry, don't mean to try to sound like I'm hocking my wheels for sale in an unrelated thread, just a heads up if any para/quad wants to have a kickass set of wheels... or two.... I'd let both rides go for around 50k btw...

dj, sounds like a plan re-caddy but aren't you a young dude and rather inexperienced driver still?... I don't think I'd choose a 500+ rwhp ride as my first or even second car man... that's a lot of power and can easily get away from you... it also will make the car most likely tougher to handle in the daily beater mode and make stuff break/wear down faster and harder.... not as dependable....

you know, I left my very first car over 10 ft above the ground on a tree in ft. tryon park in manhatttan when I was barely 16... after less than 3 days of 'proud ownership' hehe... the engine bllock wound up 3-4 inches from my chest after going through the fire wall and the car was squashed at both ends down to about 1/2 total length... 

it's easy to overerestimate one's ability to drive - after an initial driving period - without some serious miles on one's clock...and at least a couple of serious crashes... and - I was in perfect physicall condition and the car wasn't even a super powerful beast [it was a '74 pontiac ventura cpe with a vanilla 350/350 combo, posi rear w/ highway gearing and only mild modifications...

if this is your first, or even a second car since becoming disabled I think you should reexamine your plan for now... you can always add more power and after a while of owning the caddy you might decide it'll be money better spent on hoppin'-up a different set of wheels down the line...

also, if this is your only car, for now at least you might want to rethink that plan for now for another reason - to keep it more reliable.... I was somewhat nuts to have a radically modified '60s big block as my daily beater for several years and the one single worst aspect of it was a huge budget required to keep it dependable, as well as mega-fuel bill of 93 premium gas because I could easily go through the whole tank at 5-6 mpg with a simple hard run to manhattan and back [ I live about 30 minutes from nyc] ... i'll be the first one to admit it's not for most sane or reasonable people, however....

imo, you should have a back up daily beater  - either more or less cool ride - for dependable duty AND a kickass ride with big balls to supplement the need for 'speed therapy' treatment... just my opinion of course but backed up by vast life experience, not just on the road....

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