[njsteve]

And here is the infamous piston that saved the car. Had the 2nd owner not been drunk and installed it backwards on the rod, the car would have ended up as a chopped up bracket racer back in 1975. I spoke with one of his buddies who was present at the initial startup of the ill-fated engine. He commented that they all wondered what the "ticking" sound was when it initially fired up. And then the engine just stopped. He noted that when it stopped, it came to such a abrupt stop that the whole body of the car jerked to the left momentarily, compressing the suspension on one side for an instant. I now keep this momento in the glove box.