I’m going to let Doug tell this one in his own words. Unfortunately, Doug could not dig up any pictures of his old ride. That’s a shame. I’ve added a couple of pictures of the same model that he owned. Let me tell you, if was tough finding pictures of a 1969 Coronet 440 4-door. Take it away Doug . . .
Imagine this car as white with a hardtop. |
It was a gimme car. My first car was a 68 Chevy Impala 327-4bbl that burned enough oil to fog for mosquitos. With my Dad’s help, we convinced the shop that sold it to us that they had to know all the things that were wrong with the car when they sold it to me. Rather than get all nasty, we suggested a simple swap-out with anything he had on the lot.
He said he had a 4 door Coronet that ran great, but the paint was screwed up and it had one tear in the driver’s seat vinyl. Hey, it was an upgrade from the first one. As I soon found out, it burned a lot of rubber, but no oil.
Ignore the dinks and dents plus add a hardtop and this one is close. |
It came with an old set of snow tires that someone had pulled the metal studs out of. There was a new face in motorsports in the mid-seventies and it was MoPar Direct Connection. I had to pick-up their initial brochure and in no time was convinced by the ad that said you could increase your HP and torque if you added a windage tray to your oil pan. The ad swore it was an easy to install over the counter bolt-on that worked by keeping sloshing oil in your pan from touching your spinning crank.
Again close but add stock wheels. |
My ace friend Dave had a motor hoist and it really was the talk of the neighborhood when my Dad came home from work and asked “why do you have the oil pan off the car.” I told him some bull about there being too much sludge in the motor and I did not want it to burn oil like the first car did. We picked the engine and trans up high enough to get the pan off with everything still in the car.
A few test burns at the private road leaving Burger King on night shifts, and I was convinced the drive train was bulletproof. Those snow tires really howled once they got hot. So a few nights later when we were shooting the bull in the Almart parking lot after closing hours, the guys started lifting the rear of my Coronet up and down chanting “burn-out.” They soon disappeared in tire smoke.
Nothing like Doug’s car! |
While the car was exposed to a lot of burn-outs and high rev activity, I am sure there were never enough G-forces involved for the windage tray to make a difference. But, it never did break and I became a believer in the durability of the later model 318 V8. Or maybe it was the cover photo of Darrell Alderman’s Pro Stock Arrow pulling a wheel stand.