Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Best Muscle Cars of 1969

I found this video pretty interesting, especially considering the price then vs now!
Those Hemis became pretty precious!
7mm

I never saw a Hemi Road Runner most were a 383 and fun to beat with my 65 327 SS Chevelle

Oldsmobile 442, Pontiac GTO, Buick GS. Had them at one point, fast, powerful, but hard to stop due to drum brakes. Serious brake fade.

I had a '69 GTO Judge that made more than one hemi owner poorer on Friday and Saturday nights

Had a 69' Plymouth 'Cuda fast back. 340 S.
Tricked it a bit.

'bout the only thing i could not take from a standing start were the 426 hemi and the 440.

Paid for my gas and traffic tickets doing pick-up races.

Blew it up when I tried to match a Pontiac Grand Prix. Downshifted to second @ 110 IIRC. Bad move! Blew a head gasket and he wuz' gone.

ya!

GWB

Kinda fun video but I have an L89 396 engine, it sure wouldn’t be #2 on that list. I’ve raced a 69 Camaro with that engine against my LS5 72 454 corvette and we were neck and neck through the 1/4 mile. With bias ply tires, the vette is a 13.8 second car. My neighbor had an L88 68 Camaro and it was an 11 second car with slicks, a powerglide, and 4.88 gears. It was a different beast altogether.

They must have gotten these numbers from old road and track magazines. My buddy had a 69 GTX 440 and it was damned fast too. Faster than the factory hemis unless they had headers and an aftermarket exhaust. Factory setup choked those hemis pretty bad.

Not a 69, but I had a 350 horse 67 Chevelle SS that was bad ass.

One neighbor had a 69 Super Bee with a 426 Hemi. Another neighbor had a 69 Chevelle with a 396. My bud Martin had a GTO with a 400. They were all stupid fast, but that Super B would take them. I'd take the Super Bee.

A long, long time ago, in a land far, far away, owned a twin to #8 on the list, only a 1968. Looked like the car on the opening frame of the video, except silver paint, and a crazy red head... Fun times in a different world...

Watched that last night. Good program.

Amazing that the engine upgrade was often 25% of the cost of the car. And in the case of the Chrysler 426, came with no warranty.

My aunt bought a 71 Buick Skylark GS Stage I in '73. It still had the 455 Stage I engine with big valves, ported heads, and heavy valve springs. But the aluminum rear end had been replaced by a standard 10 bolt GM rear end.

She used it as an escort car through the 70's for mobile home transporters.

My father had a Hemi Road Runner 4 spd with 4.10s. He pulled the engine out and sold the car in the 1980s for next to nothing. The guy wrecked it and it ended up in a scrap yard. A friend of Dad's went and bought it from the scrap yard in the early 90s and its still on the track to this day. That's one he wishes he had back. But he's still got the engine and transmission in the barn.

ETA: Dad currently has a '69 Super Bee 440 HP auto and a '68 Coronet 500 with a 318. Neither perfect, but good "driver" grade cars.

Go get that Road Runner back! That thing is worth a small fortune with the original engine back in it.

My favorite from 69 would be the Torino GT fastback

My choice:

1969 Ford Mustang Shelby GT350 Cobra

I sure miss my Super Bee but I am glad I sold it about 4 years ago. That car was going to kill me. I was going to work one morning following a putz driving 50. When we got to the 4 lane I signaled to pass him and firewalled it. That SOB got away from me so fast and I had it sideways in a heartbeat. I followed him at 50 the rest of the way to town.
Another time I was stuck in stop and go traffic and that 400 HP 383 didn't like to idle. When I finally got out of traffic I lit them up at every green light to clean it out. On the highway on the way home I had a hard time keeping it in a straight line and thought I had a low tire so I pulled over. I had sheared 3 of the 5 studs on the drivers side rear wheel.

My dad had one of these:
TVR Griffith 200
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TVR_Griffith_200

Not American made but had a ford 289 that put out 270 HP. It made up for the "lack" in ponies by weighing 1/3 less than all the American steel. Those muscle cars needed the big blocks to keep up with the little TVR.

I spent some time at dragstrips in the late sixties, in NW Ohio, and I can tell you Chrysler products didn't win squat. Regardless of what you did to them. It was the Chevys and Fords that were winning. The 66-67 Novas (running 327s) were kicking butt, but some Fords were right there in the mix.

Chryslers were for taking girls to the drive-ins and then sneaking it back home before Dad woke up and saw the boat was off its mooring.

My Dad was a motorhead and was always a Chevy guy. He about died when I bought that Mopar. He said his favorite car was a 64 Chevy 2 door post with a 327/350HP that he had built. He painted it "Plum Crazy Purple" in May of 1968 just before graduation. My blonde Mother was in the shop and ended up going to graduation with a purple haze in her hair. He claimed at least locally there wasn't much that could touch it. The story goes that he sold his pride and joy Holley 650 to buy my Mother's Engagement ring.

Although this was a '70

Still have fond memories of it.....

Paid $1400 to the original owner in '70

I feel rather ill after watching the video.......................):

That is an odd engine/transmission to swap into a '68 Camaro. Did he pull the original combo out to make it a special drag car?