Classic Nation

After reading many entries on this website, I figured for my first blog entry that I would mix things up. This website is all about classic cars, but what about the “Retro Remakes”? So before I take the trip as a writer on this website and post my coverage from various classic shows, etc. I figured I would spice things up and dedicate this one post to the “Retro remakes and the rebirth of affordable sports cars.”

If you remember a couple years back, Ford had come out with the all new retro styled Thunderbird…. do you not remember? If you don’t, that would be due to the fact that they only lasted a short while as they were not as big of a hit as Ford had hoped. But Ford did not stop there, they wanted to push this retro style idea to the next level. So what car could Ford possibly choose that was iconic and had a cult following? If you guessed the Pinto, I am sorry as you are wrong. The correct answer would be the Mustang.

When Ford made the retro style Mustang, it sold like hotcakes and it is still selling well. But when other American companies noticed the type of money that could be obtained by this retro style market. They all decided to hop on board. Now, years later you have Dodge with the new Challenger hitting showroom floors and the Chevrolet Camaro soon to be on it’s way. What should be very interesting to see is that the competition between companies will be very reminiscent of the past when muscle cars used to be all the rave.

But back in the 60’s, muscle car sales were not at any real risk from automakers overseas. Upon the release of these new retro throwbacks, they will see competition not only from here in America but from all over the world. For example: Hyundai will soon have it’s Genesis Coupe hitting showroom floors. A korean car that is RWD and offered with a V8. Then there is Toyota who owns a big stake in Subaru (Fuji Industries) and so the two of them are working together on designing an affordable sports car to list with both brands.

So as you can see, both American and foreign companies are raising their interest in the affordable sports cars. Could this be due to the calling for smaller more fuel efficient cars, or just a repeat of the past with the muscle car wars. But my question for you the reader is that I want to hear your opinion. Do you think that these American auto makers had waited to long to hop on the “retro style” train, or are they entering at the right moment? Do you think the current gas price will drastically hinder the sales of these newly released vehicles? Will all the hype just be one big flop or will they sell sell sell?

For a little change of pace, today we are going to take a look at a question from Bryce Duchcherer of Alberta wrote us;

I am planning on rebuilding the engine in my 1982 Chrysler Cordoba this summer. I was thinking that i would like to put a different intake manifold and camshaft in it, as well as lifters, pushrods, valve springs… everything that goes along with doing a cam. It is a 318HP engine that has the 360 4 barrel intake manifold as well as the 360hp heads with 1.88″ intake valves and 1.60″ exhaust valves. I have an Edelbrock 1403 500CFM carburetor that I installed on it in January. The ignition system that is on it is the Mopar Performance “Orange Box” with a Mopar distributor and MSD Blaser 2 Coil as well as MSD Streetfire wires and NGK V-power spark plugs. I was planning on running Hooker 1 3/4″ full length headers as well as a new exhaust system with Dynomax Bullet race mufflers. The exhaust would be 2.5″ true dual exiting out the sides in front of the tires.

This car is my daily driver so it will need to be able to run well on the street, but I want something that performs well and sounds nasty. I will probably not drive it in the winter, but it would be nice to have something able to run in cold weather since I live in Alberta and you never know what the weather is going to be like. It will hopefully be a nice sleeper. I am hoping for about 320+hp at the flexplate. The transmission that is in the car is a newly re-built A904 Torqueflight. I am not sure what the differential gear ratio is, if anyone knows what the stock gear ratio in 82 Cordoba with the V8, please let me know.

I wasn’t able to find much information on this car other than on a few websites, so I wanted to post this question to the community. Does anyone have any experience with this engine setup or parts involved? Share your knowledge with us.

The Car d’Lane this year was amazing! The weather was perfect, and the cruise and show boasted some of the sweetest cars I have seen all year. Check out our picture gallery for the highlights. I’ll be posting some videos of the show and cruise soon.

In the mean time, here are some pictures from the show.

I was able to spot some other local blog postings of the Car d’Lane. It looks like Beth, Den, and Marty all had good times in CDA this past weekend.

It is that special time of year again; a time when the area’s sweetest classic cars converge on Coeur d’Alene for the annual Car d’Lane car cruise and show. This event is probably the one that I have been to more than any other classic car event, and this weekend looks like the weather will be perfect for another great one.

Last year, we saw a ton of new sweet cars that I had not seen around CDA before, so I am hoping that this year will be even bigger than before. I’ll be taking my camera and video camera out there tonight for the cruise and for the show tomorrow, so I should be able to have the new pictures and vids added to the website on Sunday. In the mean time, here are some of my favorite pics from the show last year.

Last year at this event, we also saw RBI’s creation. Hopefully we’ll see them again this year!

The Lost in the 50s show a few weeks ago was a great time. We were able to take a bunch of pictures during the cruise, and Nick even shot a few short videos. Here’s one:

Here is David and his crew in his 62 Impala SS, and Sylvestor and Deidrich in the 72 Corvette.