Before computers.......

[electra225]

Back in the day, back when you could use junkyard parts that cost less than new, you could fix your car cheap and hop it up without spending much money, which no kid really had anyways. Olds 324's, Buick 322's, Pontiac 317's were THE hop up engines if you were a GM guy. The Ford guys had their flatheads, Chrysler guys had the Hemi. Even the 6-cylinder Chrysler flatheads could run pretty well with a few hop-up goodies added. JC Whitney provided motor mounts, clutch connection hardware and adapters so you could use a "hydro", a Dual-Range HydraMatic automatic transmission behind almost any engine ever built, and could put that in almost any vehicle ever built. You could get motor mount setups to add a later engine to a truck with a beam front axle. They made brake conversions. Many times, the only difference between a low-line engine and an upper-line one was the carburetor, exhaust and head gasket. Case in point is a '56 Buick Special. It had the same 322 engine as the upper series cars, only with lower compression and a two-barrel carburetor. There was a Power pack option that gave you a thinner head gasket for higher compression, a four-barrel carb and dual exhausts. Olds did similar, don't know about Pontiac. Occasionally, someone would use a Cadillac 331 in a hop-up situation, but hop up parts weren't as plentiful for Cadillac. Aluminum heads, dual carb setups, split manifolds were available for most 6 cylinder Chrysler engines that made them run pretty well, especially the larger 251 and 265 cid versions. I knew one guy who had "opened up" a Chrysler 265 to 312 cid and ran a Hydro behind it, in a 47 Plymouth coupe. A couple hundred dollars would get you an aluminum head, split manifolds, twin carbs and a Mallory ignition for an old 6. You could mix and match carbs and ignition setups, exhaust setups and come up with plenty of cheap power.

[MEZLAW]

AH!!!! The good old days BC (before computers)

I had a 1964 Ford Galaxie 500. I changed it from automatic on the column to manual on the floor in a couple of days. Removed the whole interior and replace it with the 500XL bucket seat interior from a junkyard wreck. Also a simple operation, was to remove the 2bbl intake and replace it with a bbl intake. Today, you can't even change the brake pads without asking the computer to turn back the brake pistons. There is a lot more to gripe about but I'll stop there!