That thing actually had a detuned 455 rocket motor in it and a muncie 4 speed with a 3:42 gear. If you used a little smarts and gave that car a W-30 tune up and made a cam change, it would be a screamer. GM was basically into plugging holes in the giant 455 cubic inch air pump under the hood-IE detune the beast instead of figure out how to make it smog friendly. It has a factory full dual exhaust, so its no pig.
I own a 74 Z-28, big bumper, gotta hook the seat belts up before you crank it or you gotta open the hood and press the fluorescent "reset" button to refire the car. When I pulled the motor out to rebuild it I discovered a steel crank, windage tray, pink rods and factory forged pistons with a set of screw in studs with guide plates, 2:02/1:60 heads with a factory780 cfm quadrajet. It was an L-82 corvette motor and with a basic LT-1 tune it is a beast. M-21 Muncie and a 3:73 posi and I'll tell you, it's a runner. It's the last of the factory dual exhaust Z-28's and quite honestly, it's somewhat of a rare car in it's original factory configuration. I have departed from the "keep em like the general built em" crowd after I joined up here a whole lot of years ago, but this one i might just keep factory. A lot of folks whine about the big bumper cars, but it's apart of GM history.
I personally think the 442 is a cool car and super rare. I wouldn't kick the colonaide bodies, they are the next progression in the hobby.
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Jim
Last edited by Ummgawa; 02-09-2011 at 06:51 AM.
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