THE GOOD ANGEL DRIVES...
pg 2

           Steve’s dad found a ‘66 Biscayne at a show and the next thing you know he came home with this plain-Jane post car, complete with a 6-cylinder and Powerglide. It ran like a top, but Steve thought it would be cool to make it go fast. Having a little experience with that body style (I used to have a street-driven ‘65 Impala that ran 8.30's at 4,000 pounds), I have parts that were on my car through out the years. As it evolved, my garage became full of the "big car" parts.

            We pulled the old motor and transmission and pressure washed the undercarriage and engine compartment. We painted everything DP90 satin black for that clean stock look. A 12-bolt came next with 3.73s, a light-weight spool, and Strange Engineering 35-spline gun drilled axles. We started with a stock housing, re-welded the axle tubes and added C-clip eliminators. We prefer a spool rather than a differential simply because it takes so much rotating mass out of mix. The T/A cover isn’t a joke. It applies pre-load to the main caps and strengthens the rear end even more.

            We turned down the outer part of the drums to remove rotating mass and used Kevlar brake shoes to slow down 4,300 pounds. It has 1350 style yokes on the rear end and transmission.  To keep the driveshaft from coming through the floor when we treat it mean (I’ve done it) Quartermaster Industries built us a 3-inch chromemoly unit. We braced and gusseted the rear crossmember so it wouldn't rip out of the car (done that, too). The stock lower control arms were boxed but we used adjustable chromemoly upper arms fitted with Aurora spherical rod ends. We also made the Panhard bar out of chromemoly, again with Aurora ends, to keep the rear end centered securely.

            Next, we rebuilt everything in the front end, added disc brakes we got off a ‘70 Impala, swapped the power steering box for a manual one, and finished it off with a big 1-1/8-inch anti-sway bar. We modified the wheel tubs slightly to accommodate larger rear tires. The frame was also tweaked by cutting the outside of the spring pocket. Then, we used a flat piece of 1/8-inch plate to cover the exposed spring.

            Inside the gas tank, I welded a baffle to keep fuel from uncovering the bung (that’s a funny word to me) upon acceleration. We moved the real battery into the trunk for weight distribution, but kept a fake empty one up front to fool the competition. It’s wired up and you could jump the car from it, but it only weighs a few pounds. It was used as part of a display we got from a gas station that went out of business.

            Now, the motor has a little history. It was in my Impala when we drove it from LA to Detroit on the ‘97 Hot Rod Power Tour, a long run for a car that ran in the 9's back then. Steve was there every mile of the way, so he knew what the 540 motor ran like. It had been under my work bench for a few years collecting dust, and I told Steve we should put it in the Biscayne. We struck a deal. It had fuel injection so we had to switch manifolds to put a Holley in its place, along with a Holley mechanical fuel pump, but otherwise that’s really all we had to do. The Turbo 400 is just rebuilt unit with an 11-inch converter. The fins were furnace brazed for strength, but otherwise it's just big and tight.

            The paint is good but not perfect. It’s a car you can drive around and then leave in the Home Depot parking lot and not worry if someone will scratch it. The interior is also stock, right down to the cold temp light. And the speedo goes waaaaay past the 120mph mark. One night I took a couple of guys for a ride on the expressway and they freaked out when they noticed I put the car in 3rd at 95 (and 3rd will go a while longer). I was doing 140 when they asked me to lift...pussies!

            The Biscayne is a sleeper in every sense of the word: stock interior, no gauges, dog dish hub caps on painted wheels (although the rears are custom-made 10-inchers), Mickey Thompson P295/60X15 Drag Radials, and a very quiet exhaust system. Scott Brown at Straightline Performance had a part in designing these mufflers with a 3.5-inch inlet, big body, straight-through type and man, they are quiet! Then Mike Klopeck at Motive Motion built a complete exhaust using mandrel bends.

            Also, the motor has two separate NOS nitrous plates. The nitrous solenoid for the first stage was purposely left further away from the carb to help the car apply power less violently. The car leaves on the 100hp pill. At a certain point it shuts off and turns on the 250hp shot.  We also use a Holley regulator with a spring that allows fuel pressure to be set as high as 10psi.

            How does it run? Well in the old days when we street raced my answer would have been, “If I told ya I’d have to kill ya,” with a smile on my face. But Now, I’ll tell ya. It’ll go 10.20's on radials--driving to and from the track! If we stepped on it a little harder, a 9.90 wouldn’t be out of the question. That’s at 4,300 pounds on pump gas!

            When you have a car like this the problem is where to race it. We took the Biscayne to Atlanta for the Year One Experience, made a few easy 10.50 runs (it was spinning the tires a lot, a problem we have since fixed), and the track official said “Hey this is a really nice car! Very cool. Now put it away.”  I guess going 10's with no cage and stock seat belts was just pushing it.