Forgotten V8 Cars That GAPPED Everyone On the Track!

[@g-pawmikey5508]

I Had the 455 Buick grandsport dual quads. Step on the gas, the tach swung right, The gas gauge swung left. I contributed to the gas shortage Of the early 70s

[@Trumanwuzdabomb]

The GTO did not come out until 1964.and it had a 389.

[@keith3970]

It was LeMans with the GTO Option in '64.

[@gman-xd5hd]

My grandfather bought a new 1963 Lark, black outside, maroon & cream inside, bucket seats, 289, 4 speed, disk brakes. My grandfather said I bought a new car, go out to the garage and take a look ! I was a 13 year old car kid, I ran to the garage, I couldn't believe what I saw(his last car was a 1959 Rambler American)! Wow, a four speed, COOL ! He did consider the Avanti, but he passed $$$.

[@MrTheHillfolk]

Pops said Grandma had a couple of Larks. Liked the Studebakers. Grandpa had a 56 Tbird, but before that he had a straight piped Kaiser Darren,which you could hear him coming for miles 😂

[@willymccoy3427]

My second car was a junkyard escapee '60 Lark with a 289 and 3spd manual with overdrive. I drove it through high school and sold it back to the junkyard for what I gave for it when I joined the Navy. That was a tough ol' car.

[@vernanderson4358]

Interesting but some errors per usual whenever Studebaker performance is talked about. The 64 model super Lark R3 ran not only 12.6@ 114 mph but also topped out a phenomenal 150 mph. OR 12 MPH FASTER than Any Corvette from 63-65. That's FAST. Both such were not equalled by ANY big 3 so called muscle cars except for the super stockers. And they were track ONLY drive able, not traffic friendly like the Stude R3'S. Stude had at least 5 MC's before the gto or 8 YEARS ahead of Detroit. Go to utube cars and zebras and watch as Studebaker R2S and R3'S shut down the Detroit so called MC's. Not until the 69-70 era could Detroit equal the R3'S performance. And even then NONE of them could match Studebakers top end speeds of 150,158,178 MPH from way back in 1963. NONE. First MC's and first AND BEST pony car in the Avanti. All other ponies were come lately wannabee Avantis.

[@MrTommyboy68]

Thank you for mentioning Studebaker. every one else pooh-pooh's them off. My father was a Studebaker man and we had a 59 Lark from new and my father was looking at the new 64's in late 63. Our local Studebaker dealer was a gear head and in late 63 he had a Wagoneer with the sliding steel sunroof and ordered the R-2 "Super Lark" package which gave suspension upgrades, and disc brakes to name a few. I saw it and fell in love. It was dark blue with a light blue vinyl interior. He loaded it out with options relatively rare in the 60's (for a dowdy Studebaker). The only option you couldn't get was A/C with the R-2 engine. My eyes glazed over when he took it for a test drive. My mother had kittens when he pulled up to the house and my sister and I were in the third row seat with the sunroof open. She quashed THAT idea real quick. She was worried (as were a lot of overprotective mothers at the time) saying it wasn't safe and we'd get thrown out if we were in an accident and she knew my father would let us ride in the back with the sunroof open if we got bribed with a DQ treat if we wouldn't rat him out. So, that 86'd that. So what did they buy? A 64 VW bus. With a canvas sunroof. I was crushed, but what could I do? We picked it up at night so my mother didn't notice it until the next morning. Talk about madder than a wet hen, but we were stuck with it for 3 years. She did everything she could to fix the roof so it wouldn't open. One of my neighbors were Studebaker fans and had an assortment of Larks and Daytona's and the oldest son bought a R-2 Avanti. Black on black and it sounded mean. I was always begging for a ride but he put it into a small pond in January about a year after he bought it. I was heartbroken.

[@jaswmclark]

My parents had a '59 LARK with the flathead 6 (its last year) and the 3 speed manual. They were not interested in performance, but at the time Studebaker was the distributor for Mercedes-Benz and I am sure the german firm influenced the suspension design and handling as on a curvey country road it could show its tail-lights to the bloated dinasours from contemporary north american manufacturers. 0 to 60 acceleration isn't everything.

[@troyandog8749]

Mercedes had nothing to do with Studebaker engineering. Studebaker was the distributor, nothing more. Even then, Benz felt they were better than anyone else.

[@JamesBurris340]

I had a small stroker version of the 340ci in my 71 Demon340. It was a 373ci Scat kit that consisted of the crank, rods and pistons, all forged steel and forged aluminum, not cast. Nothing special about the J-heads, other than they were the 202/160 valve heads, no porting or gasket matching. An ancient Edelbrock LD340 intake, Holly 850cfm, and a full 3 inch TTI X-exhaust system with Flowmaster Super 10's. It ran really, really, well, and sounded amazing through the exhaust. I will sing the praises of the 340 engine to anyone who will listen. They are that, good.

[@vanceblosser2155]

You should have mentioned the Hurst Rambled shown in your thumbnail. My cousin owned one of these and it was surprisingly fast.

[@phantomblott1]

I owned a 1969 SC Hurst Rambler in 1974. It was one crazy car that would gather so much attention. Not exactly what one would call a family car, AMC left a lot of horsepower out of the 390 engine. Very little needed to be done to get the 390 well into the 13 second bracket. AMC like it's sister company Studebaker, did an awesome job on their cars. It's just too bad the they could not have merged together and keep building cars.

[@rossriley3818]

Studebaker real desires a lot of love ❤️

[@JohnSample-h6n]

I think Ford’s 351 HO and Chevrolet’s 350 LT1 were among the best.

[@MichaelRoy-hc3lz]

The "hippo" 289, sheesh. I have that engine in my 65 Falcon convertible with a top loader. That's an awful strong 271 hp, feels more like 325.

[@keith3970]

Dude,there is no F35 and in '68,there was no W31.Sheesh!

[@johnmartin6854]

Studebaker 😮

[@laingconley5316]

Nobody calls it a “hippo” 289. It is a “high po” 289. It had the same compression ratio as other 4bbl 289s.

[@shanemitchell477]

Depends on what book you go by.

[@LionsTigersBears]

Was it henretta hippo

[@davidhigby3607]

Don't see that too often.. A Steudy and Rambler racing.

[@ludedude5228]

Chryslers 340 blocks between 1968 to 1971 had steel cranks , strong main cap webbing, good rods and high compression pistons . Installed a Torker 340 intake , 750 Holley , Super comp headers , Purple shaft 509 cam , Crane roller rockers . 4:30 Suregrip rear . Bullet proof Chrsler 4 speed in a Duster " Ran high 11's all day on pump gas ⛽ Destroyed many big block egos back in those days 😁

[@GearHeadHam]

At about 3:45 I think you mean 400 and 455, not 400 and 445. But that's OK. This seems like AI anyway. And about 3:58 it shows driving on the left side of the road. 4:08 it's F85, not F35. And at 4:24 it shows a 76 or 77 Cutlass while talking about the W31 which was dropped after 1970. And everyone pointed out the hippo already.

[@AdcoxRobert]

The 440 was "bumped up to 290 HP"? Yeah? When? Because the 3 X 2 bbl carb 440s produced 390, not 290.

[@kennethroberts3667]

The very first true muscle car!!!! Pontiac Tempest GTO!!!! 389 Tri-power 4-speed!!!!

[@txdean1166]

Nice video. A few I forgot about. Thanks!

[@judgegixxer]

My dad had an orange 69’ bird with the 350HO. Loved that car.

[@NormanNunnally]

You missed the American Motors rogue v8

[@RossD8]

Had me a 289 Studebaker. Miss it dearly.

[@blackholeentry3489]

I've owned and driven Pontiacs ever since the early 60's.....although I did get temporarely sidetracked with Kaisers, my last one being a '54, which I, with a lot of effort, stuffed a 389 cu in Pontiac V8 engine in it.....drove that car all over the USA, was a real sleeper and a riot to drive.....and walked away from many a surprised person with it. Now, I have driven a Pontiac Fiero since '89.....and on my 3rd (wore out two others).....an 88 V6 5 speed. I have put a total of over 400K on three of them since I bought my 1st 84 in '89....and is the ONLY true mid engine sport car the USA car industry ever made....that I'm aware of. My local mechanic has his eyes on it and has made me promiss him....whenever I do get ready to sell, please, please, please.....give him first chance at it. Today is senior night at the local casino....think I'll fire it up and see what I can stir up there! BHE

[@2wattsout]

"Ford made 28,268 Fairlane 500 Sport Coupes for 1963, with approximately 1200-1300 believed built with the Hi-Po 289 “K-Code” 289" - Source Hemmings. Also, according to the 1965 "Ford High Performance" catalog on page 20, the 63 Fairlane 289 Hi-Po sported an 11.6:1 compression ratio. I would imagine a few of these made it into the earliest K-code Mustangs before they went to the 10.5:1 ratio. The A and C codes were less than 10:1. You can find photos of these early 11.6 heads online. Seems to me they were ~48cc. And no, there never was a "hippo" 289

[@carlthornton3076]

Very Good!

[@jimvet5975]

the key words, the high performance 340, ( light weight ), known for the cam wanting to cork screw out the front and the block cracking, a good all around street stock performer. My brother bought the 69 cuda, didn't last long, me chevy. 327, 350 396 401 454, awesome engines. I even ran Chevys first over head value engine, 273, full little engine. Put The Z kit in it, ran like the big boys

[@GearHeadHam]

The first Chevy OHV engine was the 265. Or are you just referring to the small block Chevy in general?

[@bartjacobs3394]

I'm a hard core Ford man but I was very saddened by the discontinue of Pontiac and Oldsmobile they were very competitive a and would run with the best of all muscle cars .😢😢

[@patrickquirk-qz8ri]

Mercury too.

[@joelalexander5338]

“Hippo 289”? No.

[@mensaconservative7887]

Red light drag racing is all muscle cars are good for. They’re big heavy ugly two door sedans with monster engines. Useless for anything else.

[@MrTheHillfolk]

I love watching the Bud Lindemann late 60s road test of the impala with the 2 barrel 396,I believe it was a 67 or 68 impala. You'll love watching it go around the road course, the outside front tire folds under so bad you cant see the whitewall, and youd swear its gonna rip the chrome rocker moulding off. What a boat in the corners,its hilarious.

[@GearHeadHam]

Ouch. OK. Don't bother trying anything else with them then, like open road racing, auto crossing, road trips, cruising, etc. Too much fun for you perhaps. Do you know what open road racing is?

[@RobertKinne-lh8wn]

Studebaker. AMC. Love um