Uncle is a lot like Paul Harvey in that he always looks forward. I confess that because I detest the time we live in and its insanities, I like looking back and dreaming.
I can remember going to the 4th or 5th Mopar Nationals in Milan Michigan. I only had a 2.2 Charger at the time and it ran 15 flat. I was astounded by how many wing cars were running mid 15's. I tried like crazy to get paired up to run one, but they always switched me out of line. I think it was to save the ego of the rich kids. It would've made a sweet Pic though!!
Street cars always seem to be real fast until you line them up on the 1/4 mile! I’m sure I’m not the only one who thought a car was so fast! Until your track time shows up lol
Those "winged" 15 second cars were prolly driven by people with no track/Christmas tree light experience with stock radials losing traction with 3:23 gears and so on.
I still have all of my issues of Cars Illustrated, and I bought them new. I rode my bike to the 7-11 or the U-Totem because I wasn't yet old enough to drive. One day, a lime gold '68 Shelby GT500 KR was for sale in the dirt lot next to the 7-11, totally stock down to the mag look hubcaps, faded original paint. Asking price was $6500. What a time to be alive and a car guy.
Your work back then was inspiring to us Mustang 5.0 guys. I was stoked when I duplicated your effort of getting a 5.0 into the 13s....then I got sorta serious, adding blow, eventually turbos and finally a supercharger to the old 88.
Back in the 80s/90s, I always thought that the best car magazines came from publishers on the East coast. The only ones worth my time out of California were Car Craft and P.H.R. because they had more tech articles. I will ALWAYS prefer print magazines over online "subscriptions". Unfortunately, car magazines that are actually worth reading are hard to find in print these days.
SOUNDS SO CRAZY TO WATCH THE MAN WHO WROTE ALL THE ARTICLES I READ BACK THEN. I still have that magazine in top drawer at my moms. Back to the futur alright ! No wonder I loved those magazine so much. You still are #1 story teller to me!
I remember the road tests. The Lincoln LSC that was taken to Wall Street to do burnouts and an 87 or 88 Dodge Daytona Shelby Z that was coaxed to a high 14 quarter
I'm into my MOPARS, Got a right hand drive Australian CH which came from the factory with a 318 now running a freshly rebuilt 440 with a Whiplash cam and straight pipes. Same body as a Polaris. One of three in the UK.
I still have that issue, great stuff ! Cars illustrated, Hi Performance Mopar and Mopar Action were the best. I still subscribe to Mopar Action. Couple of my favorite stories where quater million dollar street race and the drag test between the 4 barrel vs sixpack on the 440 Dart Sport. I still go back and read them from time to time during our long New England winters. Cheers !!
I remember the issue with the drag times from an '88 Daytona Shelby they tested. 14.6 I Believe. That's pretty damn good for an 80's front wheel drive four banger. I bought a totaled '89 Daytona Shelby and pulled the motor to put it into my '86 Daytona Turbo Z. I put a Mopar Super 60 turbo, cam and computer and other parts on it along with a full port/polish, larger valves, five angle valve job and a straight three inch exhaust. 3500 stall Converter and I took 300 lbs of weight off of it. After all that it ran a 12.3 at Numidia dragway on Firestone Firehawks. Bright red, t-tops, digital gauges. Looks similar to the Daytona in The Wraith. I'll never sell it😃
I remember that issue. I was 10 years old and convinced my older brother to buy the magazine for me. He was excited bc I showed interest in cars. And that story is the one that started the sickness in me. I didn’t realize that was you. Now I know who to blame. And to thank.
Good days. I had subscriptions to all those publications ! Back when Car magazines were FUN and had GOOD writers and stories. Thank you Tony for the great memories ! BUICK Sold at least one Turbo Regal to us thanks you (25,000 in 1986 ! ) . Priceless ! Glad you are still kickin butt with cars .. don't ever stop !
Hey Tony, Tim here, i'm a Pontiac guy, but remember MOPAR ACTION magazine!!!......yep!!.....and its SO cool u had easy acess to E-town.........my brother knew Vince Napp personally......so i have a reasonable pedigree, for days of old.....(Boy was he bummed when Vince passed).....and his heirs, only made sure E-town went away.....so, ur flogging of a Hemi Daytona/Superbird, from MOPAR ACTION, was somethin i probly saw.......we kept on on that shit, no matter the manufacturer, as we wanted to know our competition well........maybe u dont like memorabilia, but it brings back GOOD times for me!!!....PEACE to you my brother!!!
This is one of your best vids yet. It goes into telling us all where you came from. That same magazine is where I first started reading your articles but the Charger was not what got my attention, it was the on on the 400 to a 470, "Build a 470 Cube Face Distorter". It was very good in that it put things into a simple easy to replicate process and the only special part was a set of pistons which back then were maybe $500, now from the right Ross dealer just under than $1000. Cheap for a 400 that could pass off for a stock 383 but eat 440s for lunch. I also loved the pic of you standing beside the Roadrunner as if to say "shissssssssssss" as if you're hiding something. I know you have plan for your channel and you want to look forward but one of these Retro videos featuring some of the old articles would be really good to put into the mix now and again and you have plenty of material. Good job Tony. DC
When I was a kid on Long Island every car with a crane cam ran 10's, or at the very least low 11's. Then when we got to the track my GTO was running high 12's and beating them. I think most had no idea what an actual 10 second car would feel like. But it was fun times and great memories. The fastest bone stock car back in the day I had ever seen was a 390 AMX that ran low 13's easily, usually with a bit of wheel spin. Easily a legit 12 second car.
I still sorta remember reading Tony’s articles in Mopar Action at 15 years old in 1985 and loved his writing style and detailed descriptions of sounds smells and physical feedback. Later on, the Mustang articles were on point. 😊
I wish you would talk about the magazine days a lot more actually. Including the Mustang stuff. I’m definitely a Mopar guy especially 1st gen Road Runners, but bought a new 89 Mustang GT in part because of your tech articles on the fox bodies.
"The Elephant Sings Tonight: Beep Beep, Stomp Stomp, See the Rats Run" One of my all-time favorites. Right up there with the 6-BBL Road Runner road test where you nearly got stuck in wet grass and blew up the muffler. LOL
I'm the same way; I write something, and I move on -- very seldom to revisit it. But every now and then, if someone requests it, I'll take a trip down memory lane. I'm an '80s kid, born in '80. I used to read my dad's MuscleCar Review mags and stuff, even back then, Shedding some light on the backstories of some vintage articles, like this one, or the Turbo Buick series, is always cool. Keep it up, Tony.
Hard to believe i am now watching the man who was involved with the mopar magazines i use to collect in the late 80's this is amazing. I probably still have that issue in a box hidden away. I just remember the picture of that burnout
I love these stories from your magazine days. As a kid in high school I had subscriptions to both HPM and Mopar Action. I would devour every issue, and I'm quite sure I still have this one in the basement. The burnout in the red paint was the best!
I came into Mopar Action a few years after you were there. Ehrenberg became my hero with the Green Brick. They tried an event at Maple Grove, big publicity in the mag...swap meet, show...etc. Maybe half a dozen vendors, not many cars. But Ehrenberg was there. I walked up and said "You must be E-booger". He said, with a straight face "You got a warrant?" Cracked me up.
I've always been of the opinion that Hemis received more hype than they deserved, and preferred the 440. To be fair, those late 60's muscle cars had plenty of motor. They were suspension & tire handicapped. Newer cars get a lot of their 1/4 mile glamour from great launches. I think 3/8 mile or 1/2 mile tests would have leveled the field quite a bit when those big blocks come roaring back late after getting hooked up.
The Hemi was never practical for anyone other than a serious drag racer, and the only reason they were ever offered to the public in the first place was so Chrysler could run them in stock cars in NASCAR. A well tuned 340 Duster or Dart would give them a good run, if not show them their tail lights. That said, with the right gear ratio, drag slicks, and super tuned and especially in a lighter car like a Cuda, those things were about the fastest stock musclecars of their day.
@@debluetailfly They had hemispherical head designs and worked well but were never "hemi" cars. that is a trademark name. Burger king sells hamburgers but not big macs if that makes sense.
Mopar Action was my favorite and I do remember that Daytona article, I had always wondered about the red smoke. Funny how so many migrated to the Mustang in the late 80's and early 90's but we had no choice, Mopar had nothing for us then. And now all these years later rather than read DeFeo I watch him on youtube....Happy New Year!
A little nostalgia is a good thing. I subscribed to HiPo Pontiac, CI, and Vette back in the day. Still pissed at GM over the whole Pontiac thing, but that's GM. Hell, I'm a little surprised the Corvette is even still around considering that lot. My '91 Formula 1LE was obtained entirely due to the article on that car in HiPo Pontiac. Good times. I do recall some of the editorial whining in Vette when the editorial team changed. Something, something about flogged cars and alleged bad behavior. I had a bet with myself that the guilty party was Tony and...well, here we are.
@youtubesucks2001 My best old school buddy has stacks of old issues and is currently subscribed too.Cant count how many times we have dug up old issues looking for tech on our fleet of Mopars.
Your Yellow A12 RR story totally shaped my HS days and frankly my mopar life, "the 1-2 powershift that blew one of the mufflers off!!!.....hell yeah, I need one of those! And the 500 foot burnout! That was cool too!
I think I probably still have the issue of that mag if I dig deep enough in my collection of old car mags. But my favorite old mags are the ones from the 60s and early 70s when the cars were new and the car mags were testing them right off the showroom floor. I think Cars Illustrated or one of the Mopar mags from the 80s actually reprinted a few a those original tests. One of my favorite was a test of the 69 1/2 440 6bbl Roadrunner.
I think I have that's magazine? I bought every Mopar magazine that has ever been printed. I still have most of them. My 71 Demon 340 was featured in Moperformance Magazine back in 1985 during a Muscle Car shootout at Quaker City dragstrip. Great memories and I still own that car.😊
Those old magazines were a huge part of my youth! Didn’t go anywhere without an old Mopar or car magazine back in the day. Constantly on mind were drag racing Mopars.. The good old days of American muscle..
I remember that, I read anything with your name on it. I really liked the article on the Dodge Demon, that was a really good story. I may still have it.
My '70 Challenger 426 hemi , 3.23 gear, TF,,PB am./fm, headers, slicks period. best run 13.37 at 107 some change, hitting 3rd gear just before the traps.
@@danielslocum7169 Dan you're right but the 50 mile round trip would be hard un the engine, 3:55 maybe. gas 18 cents high test during "gas wars: off brand.
55-60 mph 3000 rpm;not too bad. 70-75 mph 4000 rpm; no fun! engines w giant intake ports tend to be a bit lazy without a high numerical gear ratio;especially when pulling a lot of weight. its definetly a trade off. worth it if you like to win.@@josephszot5545
Street and Stip Supercar blew away every other magazine on the shelf! I only got issues #1 and #3 before it dissappeared and i couldn't find it anymore. I was craving more Tony DeFeo!
I grew up in New Zealand, not New Jersey. For US monthly Car magazines, I paid dearly in 1984 to 1988, about NZ$11.99 for each magazine, as New Zealand devalued it's currency under the IMF downgrade. Thanks Robert S McNamara. Ended up, I got to use my local library and swapped my massive Encyclopaedia supplies to horse trade so I got to see all the best magazines. For all the Counter Reactionary Revisionists who say you were a hack, screw you guys. US Mopar Muscle was the most serious Ground Pound. 🔩 & Bolt Lightening ⚡.
I used to buy them mags up the top of Nth Queensland, so u had some circulation back then . Could of bought a plum crazy Cuda for $15k too but i was only 18 and evry penny went into a hardtop 69 Dart. Ahh take me back
Growing up in the 1980’s with the Malaise Era cars I could only dream of the classic muscle cars of the 1960’s and early 1970’s with envy. The speed and power were the thing of myth and legend. By the time I was old enough to drive in 1986 they were already becoming collectible and out of my price range. Tests like this are great, not only because they document the cars as they really were “from the factory” but also because it proves that modern muscle cars of the 2010’s and 2020’s are far superior to their ancestors in virtually every aspect of performance
As somebody who has actually owned cars for over 6 decades I can say you are wrong. Late 50's & early 60's big GM cars were wonderful stuff, very reliable, and highly preferable to the newer cookie cutters. New cars have the advantage of technology but with all the plastic & built in flaws along with terrible build quality I'll take a loaded up 58 Chevy or a 60 Olds over anything made today.
Yep. My uncle had 2 wagons. 440s. He rebuilt the 440, and wanted 12.1 compression. The engine builder didn't do it and gave him 500 cubes. Sigh. Anyway, he never had dirty oil, changed it yearly, out of guilt. Spark plugs ways clean. Almost no emissions. They were 100% conversions, not the dual fuel junk. It's guaranteed 110 octane, at almost half price gasoline. No carburetor to mess with (its a toilet plunger, sucks what it wants).
How Funny I had that issue and I would get MOPAR action for many years every month of the stand and I had subscriptions too off and on over the years. I had to make room in the house last year and had to dump 3 full size trash cans full of magazines. In a way I felt bad but just getting rid of all the magazines had over the years from the 70 up to the early 2000 was like getting a new room in the house.
So you actually got meetings will publishers and pitched ideas for magazines and they published them? Talking about that process would be good for a few episodes.
I HAD that issue in storage at my sister's until it was thrown away during the cleanup after my sister's house caught on fire 2 days before Christmas 2 years ago.
That’s one of the few old copies I have of any of them. A friend and I were arguing over who was gonna buy it as they only had one left. He won the coin toss. Loaned it to me a few years ago and then passed away a few weeks later.
I seldom throw away a car magazine and never a Mopar mag... not on purpose anyway. And all of Tony's articles, the technical and the narratives, were worth keeping. And I knew all of the tech or most of it before I read it. It was just well written.
Tony DeFeo, Richard Ehrlenberger, Steve Dulcich, David Freiberger were my favorites of that era. Before that there was John Baechtel, John Dianna, and before that, I forget his name, but the Road Test Magazine guy in the early 60's. Also, the Cannon Run guy. Brock.
I started reading Mopar Action right around then. I assumed it had been around for a while. Lol. I used to love to hear in the early 90's of doing the push wars with minivans and then Neon's, also using nitrous on rental car Neon's and taking the Dodge Spirit off road out west with good tires😂
Tony is humble, his magazine articles we're second to none. I read them as soon as they hit the newsstand. he could get cars to go faster than anyone else. And did it on the street! loved Every second of it. Bought A tpi Corvette because of an article he wrote. Thanks for the memories Tony
11:22 Cars needing "rehabilitation" after testing isn't uncommon. I remember Jeremy Clarkson once mentioning in an interview that most of the ultra-expensive, Ultra-rare exotics they tested at Top Gear got sent back to their respective manufacturers in a box.
Correct - Top Gear had a contract with a large commercial repair facility that the cars would get sent to after filming, so they could be returned in an "as new" fashion.
Thanks Uncle Tony. Still have many of those old issues around including the one featuring the '69 Daytona. Always wondered how you got the red tire smoke, now I know lol
I still have ALL of those magazines and a lot of others from the 80’s & 90’s, probably could have bought a Hemi with what I spent on magazines! I clearly remember that article, and many others. Especially fond of the Boss 351 vs 5.0 comparison (I had both at the time). Also dug the 13 second 318 Satellite, lots of good basic tech in that one. And as for giving cars back in pieces, how about the 440 4 bbl vs 6 pack comparison where you didn’t turn up the fuel pressure? Pure gold!!
Remember a Car Life article some in the late sixties featuring a modified VW bug and how it would make the bigblock Mustang following "breath real hard". Some of those bugs were running in the 12s NA back in the eighties.
LoL😂 yeah I remember all of y'all's articles on the fox body that I still own three of today. And I distinctly remember the one where y'all share with us how to secretly hook up nitrous and hide the bottle in the passenger door. That was my first and last experience with nitrogen and I still own the same 89 GT Heavenly modified even though thanks to the nitrogen I totaled it due to not replacing brake lines and the right front wine busted in a 15 mile an hour curve that I was drifting at about 45 after I hit it at 55.. I manage to hold it just fine around the curve but before I could get my tail in back in my Lane a semi in a hurry trying to get to his drop destination in time on a late Friday after I had just knocked off work as a dredge boat engineer and showing off a little for my co-workers following behind me in a 89 Ford Ranger which was really holding its own enable to witness the whole thing before it ended with the semi clipping my tailend . And the rest is history and I've never used nitrous since only propane with my diesels today. Thanks for sharing Tony I enjoy all your content, so keep it coming and thanks for keeping us updated on the new adventure in the new shop at your new location. 👍 Respectively, Bo
I remember that issue and also thinking, that isn't a drag car. But hey, back then it was hard to find magazines that covered Mopars. If it wasn't for Direct Connection/Mopar Performance, aftermarket parts were hard to find. If you had a Chevy, no problem, lots of choices.
One of the great pioneers of video road testing in the late 60's early 70's was Bud Lindemann. Most of his tests can be found on RU-vid. Here is a Hemi Charger: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-wLX1h6jvWYs.html
Just type Bud Lindemann in the search and you'll find lots of tests. The acceleration times are all over the place but the test driver was very skilled at getting those crude machines around the road course. Watching the understeer is hilarious. @@drppr76