...another post reminded me of another old story, a true story
...about 15 years ago a buddy of mine, the best MOPAR mechanic I ever knew, built a 50 Mercury to run the roads with....chopped top, shaved, lowered etc etc...it was so low to the ground, the side pipes and fender skirts were ground off nearly an inch from the bottom, sparks flew everywhere it went....a pretty nice job to say the least, but he never really worried about the small details, he built it to run, and run hard...it was a 440 6 pack, built with every trick he knew from years of building race cars....it had really high gears(high top end) and he loved to run it really fast on the interstate....
...one night, on a trip back from a cruise in in Indy some guys pulled along side the big red Mercury, pointing, laughing and trying to get him to race....Bill ignored them for a short while, until he had had enough...the guys in the Camaro took off and left the Mercury behind by a couple of lengths until the Chevy ran out of wind, around 110-115 mph...Bill closed in on the Camaro, front bumper rubbing their rear bumper several times, a few love taps he called it, they looked scared to death...the Camaro was taking a beating from the old Mercury at about 120 mph....finally, after playing with them, he pulled out from behind the Camaro, pulled along side and the guys looked scared to death, and their jaws dropped as the 440 6 PACK Mercury pulled away with ease..........we never knew what the top end was on the old Mercury, but no one ever passed it
