1973 Imperial Le Baron

Let's hear all the gory details about your car and how it became alternative fuelled.
Steptoe
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Post by Steptoe »

Doint get carried away with a high stall unless u have a highly modified engine...a 2500 is about as far as u want to go for street
Even taht over a stock (which are about 1800 ball park) u will notice the slipage around town under light acceleration..and it will effect your economy quite markedly
I gave her a few seconds before hitting the pedal, but apparently not enough to be a gentleman

Mistake...nope
Once behind the wheel gender disappears..
A couple yrs ago The hot rod club had a social day at the 1/4 mile...
The guys showing off what their strret cars could do...even their daily drivers, wifes shopping cars... :roll:
THEN one of the ladies deceded that the wifes/girl friends/daughters should have ago....and being "gentlemen" with egos we agreeded
MISTAKE!!!!
Damn near in every case on the 2nd and 3rd runs everyone of the ladies pulled better times... :shock:
At day, even now, the ladies have not forgotten...
A sad day for chauvinism lol
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Imperial73
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Post by Imperial73 »

Steptoe wrote:Doint get carried away with a high stall unless u have a highly modified engine...a 2500 is about as far as u want to go for street
True. I ordered a 2200-2400 stall converter, mainly because this unit is of a superior quality compared to the stock one, and the price difference is only 50 euro. If I remember well, the standard converter for my car in 73 was 1900-2200 rpm. So it shouldn't make much difference. With my engine setup (low revving 440) and gearing, a higher stall wouldn't make sense anyway.

Imperial73
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Post by Imperial73 »

Well well, the new transmission is installed for a few months now, and the new stall converter makes a huge difference :D

Imperial73
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Post by Imperial73 »

This weekend, we had the Dutch Moparnationals. Possibly one of the last times I ran the car, since it's possibly sold....

Yesterday, I ran the car on the sprint strip (today was rainy) and the new tranny/converter made for a HUGE difference. I ran very consistent runs of 9 sec at 110km/h (69mph) which isnt too bad for a car weiging some 2.5 tonnes with an almost stock 440 on LPG. So the whole Impco + MSD setup seems working really well.

http://nl.youtube.com/watch?v=ljhxQkuE0W0

http://nl.youtube.com/watch?v=zWmybKY20YI

Later during the night I got the feeling that the car started to cut out. And today, things got worse. I feared for the tranny I spent a lot of money on. Luckily, it was something much simpler and cheaper. After some 14.000km (9.000miles), my cap + rotor looked like this:

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Also, I really liked my German friends anti-trailer-queen-attitude, he drove his 4-speed Hemi Runner to the Netherlands, attended several meetings during the weekend, also ran on the strip, and drove back to our Nationals through the rain.

Image

Steptoe
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Post by Steptoe »

9 sec 69mph thats not a 1/4 mile????
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Imperial73
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Post by Imperial73 »

True, the track was way too short for a quarter. It was more something like "almost" 1/8th mile.

Steptoe
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Post by Steptoe »

Do u guys have purpose built 1/4 mile tracks over their?
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Imperial73
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Post by Imperial73 »

Well, because of this environment thing, and also because we have one of the most bureaucratic countries in the world, its hard to setup a real track. But there's one old airport that serves as a dragstrip 3 times a year, with track preparation etc.

Steptoe
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Joined: Fri Feb 02, 2007 8:32 pm
Location: JAFA , New Zealand

Re: 1973 Imperial Le Baron

Post by Steptoe »

Little story
Back in the late 60s early 70s..
We had nothing, and the boy racers of the time...todays Hot Rodder
So a few guys got together, formed a club Pukehoe Hot Rod Club (google it)
After a heap of fighting local beuacrats, got permissin to close off a local road in a new industrial subdivision
Kerrs Rd, Manukau City , Auckland
Here they organised and ran Sunday Drags for couple yrs...then someone got killed and got closed down
But as this was happening they where raising funds to build their own 1/4 mile...
The one of the guys uncles or something had some swamp land on his farm 45 mins south of Auckland Meremere
Then came serious fund raising, debentures, shares ..what ever could raise funds...and a lot of volunteer labour and such
Then it opened...in those days the top fuels where getting into the 6 sec marks in the US...And A Kiwi Garth Horgan was right there with them....And from memory so was A lady in Sweden....
Anyway now Meremere Drag Strip is a Multi million dollar track, and also has off road and Dirt track racing circuits..Events every weekend all yr round, and still run by the HoT Rod club..
Hired out to other clubs, rods and import guys, Fathers day events ..nostagia events u name it..they have it.

Currently down the road , being built is a full scale road circuit of international standards

From Small beginings, hard work, a vision of a few boy racers hanging out and just cruising the main street....

Oh and every yr there is the Anual import boy racer vs old school V8...yeah some of those jappers can hual A55e, but still no match for us old school guys.
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Imperial73
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Re: 1973 Imperial Le Baron

Post by Imperial73 »

Car is almost sold, the LPG system is out of the car.

Last friday, I took a few very funny pics. I spotted a white Fiat 500 parked along the road, hope the resolution from the cell phone pics is sufficient :lol:


Image

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Steptoe
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Joined: Fri Feb 02, 2007 8:32 pm
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Re: 1973 Imperial Le Baron

Post by Steptoe »

The little truck was driving from Perth to Syney..right across the Aussie deserts etc.
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