My Garage

1979 Camaro "Spectrabullet"

UPDATE June 12th, 2006:  Things get UGLY at Rob's place when he stuffs a 454 down the 79's gullet.  The pictures that follow here represent a work in progress, but I'll let Rob himself tell the story.  Rob writes:  The Camaro's front end has made a few progressions since the first pics on Modern Muscle. Someone inquired about the air cleaner on top of the hood. Anyway here is a picture with the 4" L-88 cowl induction hood and now with the stock flat fiberglass with an air cleaner stuck on top. I took the 355 small block out and put in the 454 big block and even with the 2 1/2" air cleaner the 4" hood would not close. Result = stock height fiberglass hood with hole. Scoop and paint coming soon.

That big block was definitely shoehorned in there. The crappy thing is I work so much now and drive an hour each way that the last thing I want to do when I get home is drive some more. So I polish and clean and just screw around with the cars. The neighbors always think they are broke down. But hey, they are clueless and they don't have to be broken to have the hood up. They don't know any better. They look in there and see a motor and go oh wow a motor, yawn. People who know motors come by and say, "DAMN that's a monster". I really could care less what they think, because really when you can come home and crack a brew and polish chrome or whatever, it really makes a person feel good.

This is why the old 4" L-88 hood didn't fit. Even with this 2 1/4" air cleaner it was just too tall for it. I ordered up one of those blower looking scoops from Summit and now the tricky part...... Getting it to attach to a Dominator carb. They do not make such an animal. A little bit of rigging and I should have it on there.

One other thing....... I have under 100 miles on that big block now, but I really wanted to see what it could pull off. So I stopped it in the middle of the road and thought it was all clear and a Ranger came over the hill and saw me lined up. Well he slowed down and knew what I was up to. I figured screw it. So I gave it all she had. Roasted em through 1st 2nd and 3rd. I think the Ranger was impressed. My son was in the passenger seat I didn't know if he was going shit his pants or what was going through his mind. I know one thing is for sure after it was over and the smoke cleared he was smiling with a grin that went ear to ear. So yeah Big Block - big bucks, but I think it was worth it.

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