- Local time
- 8:45 PM
- Joined
- Sep 17, 2021
- Messages
- 11,998
- Reaction score
- 80,262
- Location
- central Illinois
Welcome from Illinois!! Your 1st year Belvedere GTX is a beauty! IMHO it's one of the best looking muscle cars ever produced.
It looks like a very nice car. 440s are torque monsters and even with 3.23 gears should boil the tires from kicking the throttle from a dead stop and idle. But they can be off due to lazy timing, And if it’s a CAP car the distributor is anything but optimal. So a distributor tune up and re-configuring the advance curve can perk up the response noticeably. My 67 has factory AC which is like hauling a 150 lb passenger all the time. A 3.55 rear end and slightly looser looser converter did take care of the tendency for the tires to hook up a little early in first and drag the revs down to where it had to climb back up on the torque peak. I can’t see needing anything steeper than a 3.55 in an otherwise stock motor car but 3.73s and 3.91s are out there.My first cruise in the car today, coming from 428CJ and Boss 302, i found the exhaust note to be a little milder than what I was used to * considering factory exhaust manifolds and stock style exhaust* also the 3.23s where definitely pedestrian the idea of higher gears does appeal to me, to give it a bit more life, the car was responsive the the throttle, not overly, it was a nice cruising car..very comfortable bucket seats, power drums worked better than i expected, steering was a bit loose from what i am used to...the steering wheel was a bit bigger than what I am used to...the car is very well done very beautiful lines with that black vinyl top and black stripes along the hood and trunk really pulls everything together with maroon body colour the redline tires just adds to everything. The underside is as nice as the topside...
I am very excited to be the new caretaker, and learning more about the car and its cousins...
Excuse the more than likely frequent stupid questions
My past cars...68.5CJ mustang, 69 Mach 1 428CJ, 70Boss 302, 71 Boss 351, 69 Fairlane Cobra 428CJ
Current car... 66 Fairlane
100% agree on the above!!! Fixing a lazy distributor and poor timing settings is one of the best performance upgrades you can do to your car.But they can be off due to lazy timing, And if it’s a CAP car the distributor is anything but optimal. So a distributor tune up and re-configuring the advance curve can perk up the response noticeably.
Obviously, you don't think so? I have had Chevys, then Mopars, then fox bodies, now I have Mopars and Fox bodies. All brands have their pluses. All brands matter.Hi my first mopar (have always had Fords)..I currently own a 67 GTX 440...it has stock manifolds, and a pedestrian 3.25 rear....would you consider this a muscle car?