In The Beginning

[firstgenaddict]

So what was up with the lack of 350 emblems on the front fenders?

Do you recall, WAS there a SS wheel as a spare?

GREAT STORIES BY THE WAY!!!

[ZiggyL78]

Originally Posted by 67BelAir427

Great stories Ken !
I met Matt Avery at the Solid Lifter Showroom in 2019. He was writing that article on the Black Panthers and I put him in touch with a friend of mine Bernie Coffey who was a mechanic at the original Gorries in 67. Bernie was able to share with him some of the stories of the dealership back in the day. Bernie recalls that the dealership had a multilevel parking garage and that many mechanics would stay very late on a Friday night as customers came in for a super tune before street racing. he says he can still recall the sound of the cars in the parking garage with open headers on a Friday night.

Hi Marc. Great stuff. You sure seem to know all the right people

I didn't know much about the Black Panther. I thought there was a dealership on Avenue RD that sold them and that was it. They weren't a big hit with the Harvey's crowd as everyone that came in had the 327 and was beyond slow. There was a rumor about a few that had the 427 but know one ever actually saw one. CU soon.

[ZiggyL78]

Originally Posted by firstgenaddict

So what was up with the lack of 350 emblems on the front fenders?

Do you recall, WAS there a SS wheel as a spare?

GREAT STORIES BY THE WAY!!!

Hi. Sorry. Can't remember on either. The car came with the proper stripes. I think I got dinged in a parking lot and told the painter to fill in the stripes. No idea on the spare. Thanks

[ZiggyL78]

Originally Posted by CamaroNOS

Yes I did notice the white wheels, cool. I will be looking for some more stories hopefully soon.

Regarding the Gorries Chev Olds dealership, this was the dealership that was building the 1967 Camaro Black Panthers in either a factory 327/210 HP or the crazy 427/425 HP dealer conversion Camaros.

Check out the articles from Mecum and Hagerty regarding these 67 Camaro conversions. Lance Hill from this site is also referenced as a big influencer in the muscle car/NHRA world.

https://monthly.mecum.com/2019/11/01/on-the-prowl/

https://www.hagerty.com/media/opinio...pecial-camaro/

Paul

Cool. Lance was the top Chevy builder/racer in the country. Even his employees at the shop became famous Chevy mechanics and racers.

[ZiggyL78]

Originally Posted by GM Powertrain

Your writing style reminds me of how Joe Oldham wrote and Tony Defeo wrote during his Cars Illustrated days.
Great stuff!

Well thanks. You and I are from the same mould. All your cars are some of my favorites and you've had a lot of Buicks as have I. You will like the stories of the Buicks if I ever get that far .

[ZiggyL78]

So I'm walking through the pits with a buddy one day. It was a big show weekend and the new Pro Stocks were there all lined up. I heard something coming behind us and I turned around and it was a blue Vega wagon. It was Jungle Jim Liberman in his Pro Stock Vega wagon. When he drove by I looked at the back and all I could see was tire. It looked amazing. I looked at my buddy and he said Forget it man. That car would cost a fortune to build. 6 weeks later I called him up and said I have to pick up some parts. Do you wanna come? 1 hour later we are pulling into the back lot of Belmont Chev Olds. Davey wanted to wait in the car but I told him I needed a hand. We checking were out all the new cars. There was a midnight green Vega Panel Wagon sitting all by itself at the end of the aisle with nothing else close to it. It was late November and we had our first snow fall. The color was very dark and it had tinted glass. The snow had covered the drivers side window and we were standing on the passenger side. It looked like the car had dark tinted glass. You could barely see inside the car. Kind of dark and mysterious. Davey came up and said what are you looking at? I nodded towards the Vega. He looked and stopped instantly. Are you f**king kidding me!!! Are you going to buy it? I said I already did. We checked the car out. It was a 73 Vega Panel Wagon. Dark Midnight Green with black interior and tinted glass. It had one cheap beige seat in it and not many options. Tinted glass, HD battery, front disc brakes and HD cooling. No carpet.

It was listed as a truck with a truck ownership. Most buyers would be using them as a parts delivery truck. It came with a 3 spd manual trans and a 4 cylinder aluminum block motor. It was $2352 out the door! After driving it a few months on the street it was time to get started.

I called around looking for a chassis shop. Don't forget. This was 1972. There were not a lot of performance chassis shops around. After searching for a couple of weeks and getting ready to take it over the border I called Beatty & Woods. At first they didn't know anyone in Toronto that did that kind of work. Someone called me back the next day and gave me a number of a guy who worked on Hot Rods. His name was Dave Jackson and he was a good fabricator but he had never done a full back half or any job this big. It took a lot of talking and finally he decided to give it a try. He started on the car a couple of weeks later. On my third visit to his shop I met Wally Clark. He was a well know racer. He was a great guy and knew his shit. I figured if Wally was getting work done on his Vega here then I was in the right place.

I picked up a Dana 60 rear from the Courtesy Chev drag car that had crashed at Georgetown. We checked the rear end for straightness and one axle was bent. Luckily the rear came with a second set of Quarter Master axles so all was good. Dana axles are like baseball bats compared to a 12 bolt. The rear came with a 5:87 gear. Perfect for the street. lol. When I got the car all together I realized I could get a fairly wide tire in but the stock rear quarters could not take more then a 26" tall tire. Perfect. lol. I wanted to get the car all sorted out before I had the quarters opened up and the car painted. I remember sitting in Harvey 's behind the building and driving to the road. I could easily get the car into high gear before reaching the road. Talk about an eighth mile car. It didn't have much top end but not many could take me at a light.Emoji

Dave cut the floor from the back of the front seat to the rear bumper. The Dana fell right in as it was made for a Vega. Except for front end limiters the front end was all stock. I even kept the 4 bolt spindles and original coil springs.
I used the Hooker Swap Kit as there wasn't many available and it was well designed and came with 3 piece headers, motor mount plate and a trans crossmember.

At this point the car had a ladder bar suspension, mini tubs, 6 point cage, SBC, Muncie 4SPD and a Dana 60 with original paint. All tin work was steel. Even the stock hood and bumpers. I had picked up 2 bucket seats from a 1970 Celica, 3 gauges and a tach. This combo was Stage 1.

When I first started on the car I found my 1st shop at Sheppard & Meadowvale. That area was a well known street race spot and only about a couple of miles from Altona RD which was one of Toronto's most famous street race areas.

The shop was a stand alone building that was all brick with a cement floor, house size furnace, a huge loft and washroom. I still remember the first time I checked it out. It was a cold winter day and I expected to find a shop with a lot of junk stored. It was wide open and clean! Even the washroom. I stood in the middle of the main floor and it was warm enough for a T shirt! It was big enough for 4 cars. No drafts, leaks or cracks. I brought my stereo from home and I still remember the first song I played. lol. And no I wasn't dancing. Well. Maybe just a little .


Play That Funky Music
Play

It was an amazing shop compared to my dad's wooden garage with no insulation. I remember putting a set of 90/10 shocks in the Chevelle. It was winter time and below zero. I'm under the car and I pick up a nut and it actually stuck to my fingers! That's how cold it once.

So come Sat. morning and starting bright and early and the first job is remove the hood. The hinge assembly is welded on. Not bolted. Basically the hinge is welded on both ends. There is a solid pin that slips through both hinges with a C clip holding it together. I remove the C clips and the hood will still not come off. I look at it for 20 minutes and I just don't get it. I want the motor out on the floor today. I make some calls and no won has a clue. All my buddies are working on Chevelles and Camaros. I sure hate to start cutting things on a new car, but there is no other way. So we cut the hinges with a hack saw. Ouch!1 month later we weld the hinges back together. A year later I'm talking to a buddy at at GM dealer and he is working on a Vega. He's pulling the hood and asks me to hold it. So he goes to his tool box and I'm waiting to see him bring out some Hi Tech tool to do the job. He walks over with a large flat screw driver. Oh come on!!! He takes the screw driver and prys the one hinge apart. He then looks at me and says. What are you waiting for? An invitation? I snap out of my trance and look at the hing that is still hooked up. I move the hood side ways and the pin slips right out. DOH! I just couldn't believe that GM would design a hinge that you pry apart with a screw driver. Geez.









I got the 327 from the Chevelle on an engine stand and fixed a few leaks and painted it Chevy orange. It dropped in fairly easy with only a few mods. The headers were the most work but still went in fairly easy. This swap kit required you to cut a hole in the front wheel well for one of the header pipes to go through for more clearance. The inner stock wheel wells in a Vega are reinforced steel to help the unibody. I decided to keep the front end stock. The only mods I did were front end limiters and tow bar mounts. I also was running the original 4 bolt front spindles.

You don't see many people flat towing race cars any more but back then that was quite common. One problem that I ran into with the stock front end was the front crossmember was bolted in!!! So every time the car pulled the wheels and came down(which was a lot)it would try and spread the front wheels. I was getting a front end alignment every couple of weeks. When the front end was out of alignment the car would not straighten out coming out of a right hand turn while flat towing. The front tires would then scrub across the pavement and I would have to stop the tow vehicle, jump out, straighten the front wheels through the side window and then run back and get in the tow vehicle before somebody behind me would start honking his horn. Ya sure. It kept me in good shape but it was embarrassing. The only good thing about the whole deal was that when it started doing that I knew it was time to get the bear claw out and adjust the front end . For the first year before I got it fixed I would actually take a longer route to the track that had less right hand turns. LOL

[dykstra]

Love the clear valve covers!

[CamaroNOS]

Another great story.

Being from here, I can identify from my earlier days playing with frozen tools and hardware. The things we do to go faster.

The final product looked great, what times did it run with those crazy ass gears? Did you have enough engine to cross the line?

Paul

[useless tony]

I was 15 years old and rode my bicycle to a girlfriends place. Afterwards I decided to ride over to the nearest McDonalds (Warden and Sheppard) and couldn't believe the number of muscle cars in the parking lot. Turns out I had accidently stumbled upon the local car hangout. This Vega was one of those cars (although by this point in time there had been a colour change).

I am really looking forward to the stories.

Sorry to hear of your diagnosis Ken

[ZiggyL78]

So it's 1975 and the car is finally all sorted out and running well. I took the car to John Rossiter to check all the angles as the car does not feel right when it leaves. Turns out the custom ladder bars and mounts are all wrong. So I order all new stuff from Allison. Bars, mounts and brackets. We also cut the rear quarters to accept a taller tire. Each outer wheel well is cutout as a rectangle. Then you section that piece right in the middle at the highest point of the stock wheel well opening. As far as I can remember they added a 6" section which allowed for a 14 X 32 tire.

After I had the quarters opened up I decided to paint the the car. I had a guy who would paint almost anything including a color change for $750 and that was a quality job not a quick splash. At first it was going to be all white. It looked good but it just needed something to make it pop. I decided on a red stripe and I was happy with the way it turned out. I also put a reasonable gear in the car. I think it was a 4:33 but I'm not sure. With a 28.5" tire the car drove great around town. I drove it to the track a couple of times but it really made me nervous thinking something would break and I would be stranded. No cell phones back then.

So paint, glass hood, gears, ladder bars,350 SBC, tunnel Ram, crash box and 11.50W slicks were all done in the winter of 75. The car was all back together and ready for the car show. Speed Sport was one of the largest car shows in Canada and I was in that show at least 10 times. If you look at the pics you will see the fork lift lifting my car to the upper level. A buddy of mine told me not to watch them lifting the car up. I thought he was joking. OMG!!! When the car got near the second floor that fork lift started swaying like there was a strong wind. I kid you not. I was actually shaking!!! The fork lift guy jokingly said don't worry. I have only lost 2 so far this year! Haha. I wasn't laughing.

You'll hear me say this a couple of times. There are certain times in your life when you get a "SPECIAL FEELING" that you might never feel again. We all know those special times. When I had to drive the car up on the platform for the fork lift was one of those times. The headers were open and I'm in enclosed building jammed with Hot Rodders. Everyone is setting up their display. First I turn on the the electric pumps. I have 2 660 Holleys on the tunnel ram. That means 4 fuel bowls to fill. The car starts easy if you know how to do it. And of course this is one of those times were it might not start. A few people are watching as I hit the starter for about 5 seconds and then hit the ignition switch. WAM! Just like I knew what I was doing. Everyone drops what they are doing and turns and looks. I creep the car towards the platform which has a ramp/lip about 5" high. A perfect place to stall. The motor is cold so I bring the revs up to about 1500 as I slip the clutch. I get it on the platform and that is done. Of course I am totally straight faced as if I know what I am doing. We set the display up and walk around checking out the rest of the cars.

That weekend I pickup The Toronto Sun Newspaper and there I am on the front page! Geez! How did that happen? The car is almost in the centre of the pic. When I get to the EX everyone I know and a few I don't know make a crack. So one friend says how did you pull that one off? I said what? YOUR CAR ON THE FRONT PAGE OF THE SUN! Oh. That. Those guys have been bugging me for years to do a feature on the car.LOL.

The car show was the greatest part of the winter. It seemed like every year there was a blizzard on that weekend. It didn't matter. We were young and stupid. Always under dressed. We never wore a hat, boots or gloves. When you got to the car show there was always a huge lineup of cars to get in on the Thurs. That was setup day as the show opened on Fri. They had to get about 300 cars inside on one day. It took about 3 hours to finally get in.

I remember one guy asking does it have a heater? A heater? Of course the car has no heater. That's like asking does it have AC. Ya. It's called a window. The only heat the Vega provided was headers through the floor. lol. My cousin Dave had come down to help me. We would take turns sitting in the Vega or Dave's driver which did have a heater.

So one year I decided to go to The Street Machine Nationals. It was either the first one in 1977 or 78. Indianapolis. If you look at the pic of the white Caddy that was how we got there. Not everyone used a truck as a tow vehicle in those days. A big Caddy or Lincoln worked great. You could get a killer car back then for about $1200. Mint perfect. Get the proper hitch with trailing arms,Air Bags and a tranny cooler and you were good to go. Turn on the AC, plug in a tape and get out the map! Geez. No GPS. I don't know how we did it back then. Oh well. Even though we got lost more then a few times we arrived with out a sore back and a headache. I always remember arriving at a track for a big meet and seeing some guy who came from way out of state in a ramp truck. Some of them actually had to sit there for 10 or 20 minutes trying to get some feeling back in their legs. LOL. More then once we would pull into the local Steak & Shake and some guy would be limping away from his truck and say to me. How does that thing tow? I always said I don't remember I keep falling asleep! LOL. That one always got a good laugh. And after dinner I would walk by the same guy at his table and I would be faking a bad hip. Guys would almost choke on their food because they were laughing so hard! God. I miss those days so much.

Friday night at the motel was almost more exciting then being at the fair grounds during the show. After dinner we came out of the steak house and the streets were out of control!!! People were 6 deep on either side of the street. It was totally jammed. Remember those Special Feelings.

The streets were backed up with every imaginal hot rod/street car that you could think of. Don't forget this is 1977. Even though there were Cops everywhere we took over the city for the weekend! Actually the Cops were pretty good. They let us get away with murder. Well almost

We were just down the street from our motel. I grabbed a couple of lawn chairs and found a space. We were enjoying the show and a couple of bubblies helped pass the time. We ended up sitting by our neighbors from the motel. They were from Chicago. Street Outlaws? Who were they!!! These guys were doing it long before them. One guy had a Silver 70 Chevelle SS 454. This car had a clutch turbo!!! The motor was warmed over LS7 and it sounded like a Pro Mod with mufflers. We were all telling our stories and watching the show. These guys were serious street racers. I could tell just by the way they were talking. One of them asked me if had brought anything. I said. Ya that's my Vega on the trailer. The other guys says. The white one with the pro stock scoop? Ya. So after the 500 questions things had calmed down a little on the street. I had a few bubblies and was feeling fine.The cars driving by looked great but no real action as there were some Cops around. The crowd was cheering every time a car did a dry hop or some thing. So I thought it would be a good idea to bring the Vega down and do a couple of drive buy.Not a good idea. Burp!

So we pull the car down from the trailer.1ST MISTAKE I open the Nitrous bottle.2ND MISTAKE. I start to pull up to the road and a couple of guys stop the traffic.Everyone is standing now. I think that was how I missed the Cops in the crowd.OOPS! The motor is dead cold. 3RD Mistake. I do a couple of dry hops. The Nitrous is hooked directly to the throttle. No button.3RD MISTAKE. I bring the revs up to 5000, drop the clutch and hit the gas. Did I say the motor is dead cold? I think the tach does a couple of 360s. lol. Now I can't remember what the guys told me on whether the flames or the scoop went higher then the hydro lines when the car BACKFIRED!!! I shut the car down and rolled into a parking lot. I'm already flipped out with what has happened. I unbuckling my harness and just as I reach for the pin in the shoulder bar 2 big hands reach in the window and show me a new quick way to get out. I ask them if there's a problem. For some reason that makes them even madder. They turn I mean spin me around and throw me against the car and award me with a new bracelet. So as they are giving me shit I see a small group of people come running over. So one Cop is blasting me and telling me where I'm going to be sleeping tonight when the other Cop taps him on the shoulder and motions him to turn around. Well that small group of people is now a large crowd that have surrounded the car. I don't know how many there were but they were easily 20 deep. One guy comes out of the group and hands me my blackened scoop which I swear was still smoking. LOL. I was going to hold it up in triumph to the crowd, but I decided the Cops wouldn't enjoy that. The Cops are not yelling anymore. They have a short little chat and one of them walks over takes my bracelet off and gives me a warning. That was it. I'm dumfounded. What just happened?

Next morning I am talking to the Chicago guys. I said I don't get it. I thought I was going to jail. They told me there was no way they were going to let them take me anywhere.