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A matter of honour and respect (and classic cars)

The Buick 231 V-6 engines were known grenades in their era from the late 70s to the late 80s give or take.
They were carbureted and had known oiling issues which generally spelled their demise at about the 70,000 mile marker.
The 231 was derived from a Buick 225 inch V-6, the same one GM sold the rights to Jeep where they served some of their time under those hoods. GM later bought the rights back to use them in their late 70s-80s scrap.
The engine base was later revised as what they called the 3800 (3.8L) that went on to become one of the most successful engines in their lineup. The oiling issues had been resolved in 1981 when Buick prepped and sent a turbocharged unit to compete in the Indianapolis 500. They went on to race and win in many classes of racing in the 80s and 90s including a 2500 horse unit that ran in NHRA.
Because they were known to fly apart, the engines were hard to find and if it already had 50k on it, it was already nearing the end of it's lifecycle, so it was like bolting in a failure.
The reman stuff was no better, and new crate engines were very costly at $1200 and more of the same junk.
We found out that the 231 was basically a 350 Buick V-8 missing the two front cylinders and all of the accessory mounting holes were in the same locations.
The plastic fan shrouds were made with an extension that was stapled on, so there was nothing you had to cut.
The V-8 cars were dime a dozen because they were old rust buckets by then, often only costing $100 for engines that were capable of hitting 100K miles.
The only other mods we had to do was an upgrade to the V-8 springs so the front end wasn't sagged.
With the junk car and the springs hitting the $150 marker, that left the remainder of the $800 invoice to go towards the labor.
It took about an hour to snatch the engine out of the junker and four hours to R&I the engine in the car getting repaired.
Most of the time I cleaned and repainted the replacement engines so they weren't sleazy-greasy which could use up a half an hour.
The spring job took an hour, so within 6 1/2 hours the ride was back on the road with a very reliable engine for a song.
The profit was a tad over $100 per hour back when the dealership shop rates were probably a third of that, so it was a very lucrative operation that made for very satisfied customers.
 
While not exactly micro-cars, I am actually really into the Toyota trucks and 4Runners from 1984-1988, so I'm sort of into some smaller vehicles too.
I still have my '86 4Runner out in the pole barn and there is a project truck out in the freight trailer with the Caprice.
It has a fiberglass California style stepside bed on it, an early Isuzu 2.2L diesel engine coupled up to it's transmission and transfer case, a 5 inch lift kit and a fiberglass dual power bulge hood off an early Chevy Cavalier to keep the rain off of it.

The next step for the 4Runner will be fabbing a water to air intercooler for it's 2.4L 22RE and mounting up the Eaton supercharger off a Buick 3800 V-6 on it.
I'm not after serious off the line performance out of that combo, I'm only after increased torque on the highway to keep the truck in 5th gear while pulling hills.
The present engine in the 4Runner is the early version 22R out of a 1980 Celica with the hemispherical combustion chambers and pop-up pistons set up with the '84.5 & later iteration multi port fuel injection off an '85 donor truck. It was robbed out of an earlier build that I did when I needed an engine for it.
The camshaft in it stops making power at around 7 grand as opposed to going flat at 4500 with the stock one, so it works well wound up, but lacks lower end torque at the same time.
When I assemble the supercharged engine, I will be mating the earlier hemi cylinder head to the later version lower end with it's flat top pistons to lower the compression ratio a little.
4runner:
View attachment 68277
I always ran automotive repair shops on the side to support my vehicle habits, so the equipment necessary to work on my own stuff was always available inhouse.
This image was at an active creek crossing on a county road at Viola near Wheeling, West Virginia.

Viola was home to an outlaw mudbog I used to frequent.
There were 600 horse normally aspirated 454s there running with 200 shots of nitrous oxide a good part of the time.
800 horsepower crossing a 100 foot pit with nothing more than a factory shoulder harness and a safety helmet.
No roll cages, roll bars, driveshaft safety loops and on and on.
There was nothing safe about it :p
I have video of a 400 horse Jeep CJ crossing the pit on top of the mud in under 4 seconds.
I'll try to dig the photos out I have of one that hit a huge rock in the pit that flipped on it's roof. We got the truck uprighted with a dozer pretty quick but the next time it showed up, it had a cage in it :D
 
This is the 400 horse CJ
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The skinny meats up front kept it steerable.
The best of them ran a taller gear ratio front axle to add to the stability in the pit.
 
I used to frequent the Detroit North American Auto Show, the actual premiere manufacturers show held each year.
As a guest of General Motors, we were provided admission to the show at the COBO and had access to their parking and main headquarters in downtown Detroit.

DNAAS highlighted new products, a few older historical machines and prototypes.
Some of the displays were incredible such as this one:
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The original Das Car:
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Alfa Romeo prototype:
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As a gearhead with a machining and mech engineering background, I found the cutaways to be extremely interesting:

vortec 6 l.JPG


It was an extremely difficult event to photograph due to the amount of people that blocked most of the shots, but with patience and quick reflexes, you could get a few decent captures.
 
This was captured from inside of my Caprice while driving the back stretch at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway
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I had to arrive very early to gather this shot in a no parking zone at the Indy Hall of Fame which is located in the infield of the speedway.
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I donated a winter rat I owned to this project
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It was to have a white rectangle painted on each door for the entry number.
I couldn't stand for that, so I painted the maroon body with white panels instead.
The X was painted on the roof in order to identify it during it's heat with 30 other rides.
The entire derby ran for over 8 hours due to the shear number of entries that year.
12 inch by 12 inch holes in the hood were required for fire suppression, so I angled for NACA scoops to add some flair.
The engine displacement was painted on the hood as a tribute to older NASCAR units.
Blue and yellow paint was donated by a local body and frame shop, so I did a three color stripe around the side features just to make it look cool.
That took a lot of masking and taping to custom paint a derby car that were generally splashed with color out of spray bombs, but I have always been one who wanted to stand out, so this was my take on it :D
I did most of the lettering on the car with a Sharpie marker then highlighted them with paint in a touchup gun.

The rear wheels were steelies painted silver to appear as aluminum rims then spray bombed black to simulate my signature 5 slotted mags.

The tires were painted up as a joke to Goodyear :p
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The quarters were kinked at the C pillars so the rear would hinge up after getting hit to become a battering ram instead of a sled to push.
The cooler lines for the transmission were looped so it could still drive after the radiator took a hit.
The front wheels were off a Monte Carlo, selected because the faces were filled with polyurethane that added structure to them during a side hit.

The project was built at John's Automotive Clinic, so John got his tribute painted on it too.

The car got flagged towards the end of the heat because it overheated then wouldn't restart, but it held up quite well for being in a derby.
 

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