Crazy old terminology and parts

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user-3597028

Crazy old terminology and parts

Post by user-3597028 »

For fun, list some of the crazy old terms that you still hear guys throwing out there today. Also, some of the ridiculous, outdated parts that some dudes still think are the latest thing.

Most of these terms come from car shows, used by dudes who had a 69 Z-28 that ran 9's back in 1969...pulled 2 foot wheelies too. List the most outrageous claims you have heard from krispy oldsters that probably never ran faster than 14's as well.

Starting with obvious ones;

3/4 race cam, (1/2 race, full race etc.)
Cheater slicks.
Full house and four on the floor
full roller motor
Av-gas
Crash box
clutch flite
Duntov cam, z-28 cam, off road cam, hemi grind, etc. all the totally outdated cams that dudes still think are trick.
Turbo heads ( guilty, I have a set on an engine)
Aluminum retainers


I had a guy who swore up and down his "goat" ran 8's in the quarter. He was getting really upset when I told him it was not possible in the 70's for his street car to do so. He was real adamant and when I started probing for more info, he told me of the track. Well, needless to say it was a 1/8 mile track then, and still is today...Next, the argument was that it "used" to be a 1/4 mile track. I left it at that since I didn't want to screw up the next 20 years of stories for him.

What do you all have?
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Re: Crazy old terminology and parts

Post by MotionMachine »

I overheard 2 guys talking about engines once. One guy said that so-and-so balanced his motor so perfectly that it didn't even need motor mounts. I still get guys looking for double hump heads.
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Re: Crazy old terminology and parts

Post by Kevin Johnson »

Well, my father had a Nash Rambler with a straight six and an industrial electric supercharger. Out at Willow Run he said the top speed exceeded 140 mph -- at some point in the run the convertible top was sucked off.

My grandfather confirmed hearing him tear off in the morning to UofM from Romulus and having to deal with a number of tickets. This was back when Telegraph did not have an official speed limit -- something about safe and reasonable for conditions or some such. My grandmother borrowed the car one day and apparently managed to switch on the blower scaring her badly.

This was back in the late 1950s. I think about his car when I hear that song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nRDyUIdqnc0 and when I hear guys making fun of electric superchargers. :lol:
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Re: Crazy old terminology and parts

Post by fdicrasto »

Hey Cedar, I'm feeling like Rodney Dangerfield after reading your blog,assuming your old enough to know who R D was. Only kidding but I have actually heard some of those terms used by younger car guys once in a while. You wonder where they are getting their education from. The sad thing is that the birth of what is available today started way back in the 50's and 60's and not many present day
performance enthusiasts were old enough to experience it. By the way, " built ta da ass " and " I'm gonna blow your doors off " were expressions used often by some more sophisticated gear heads back in the day. Phil D.
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Re: Crazy old terminology and parts

Post by Dave Koehler »

MotionMachine wrote:I overheard 2 guys talking about engines once. One guy said that so-and-so balanced his motor so perfectly that it didn't even need motor mounts.
Does make for an interesting sales pitch ..with a smile.
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user-3597028

Re: Crazy old terminology and parts

Post by user-3597028 »

fdicrasto wrote:Hey Cedar, I'm feeling like Rodney Dangerfield after reading your blog,assuming your old enough to know who R D was. Only kidding but I have actually heard some of those terms used by younger car guys once in a while. You wonder where they are getting their education from. The sad thing is that the birth of what is available today started way back in the 50's and 60's and not many present day
performance enthusiasts were old enough to experience it. By the way, " built ta da ass " and " I'm gonna blow your doors off " were expressions used often by some more sophisticated gear heads back in the day. Phil D.
I really remember a lot of the terms thrown around in the 70s. I would hang around the older guys and watch them work on their cars and choppers. It's funny, because, the one guy who was my biggest hero back then, brought me his 348 3 deuce engine to build. I've been at this for over 25 years and this engine means more to me than most any other one I've ever done. He's going to come up when I get the machine work done and were gonna assemble it together. The world has come full circle :)
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Re: Crazy old terminology and parts

Post by k-star »

Lets see...

The engine spun a rod so he just took that piston/rod out and jammed a piece of wood in the bore and drove it to cali.

Had a guy argue with me tooth and nail that the difference between a M20 and M21 Muncie was that one was a short throw and one was a long throw.

1 guy had an old all aluminum v6 buick that out ran ever muscle car in the tri state area.


So fast you can't grab a 100 bill off the dash.


One old story that got passed around this area for 20 years or so was.... young Girl had a doctor for a dad, he bought her a super built Corvette and on the back she had painted "if you can beat me, you can eat me" Funny every time the story got told the year and color of the Corvette changed.
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user-3597028

Re: Crazy old terminology and parts

Post by user-3597028 »

k-star wrote:Lets see...

The engine spun a rod so he just took that piston/rod out and jammed a piece of wood in the bore and drove it to cali.

Had a guy argue with me tooth and nail that the difference between a M20 and M21 Muncie was that one was a short throw and one was a long throw.

1 guy had an old all aluminum v6 buick that out ran ever muscle car in the tri state area.


So fast you can't grab a 100 bill off the dash.


One old story that got passed around this area for 20 years or so was.... young Girl had a doctor for a dad, he bought her a super built Corvette and on the back she had painted "if you can beat me, you can eat me" Funny every time the story got told the year and color of the Corvette changed.
$100 dollar bill on the dash! Awesome. Like paper money is apparently impervious to G forces....wouldn't it just land on the dudes lap?


I did actually have an AMC spirit that developed a rod knock..I took the rocker arms off that cylinder and drove it for another year on 5! It sounded like a tractor. I even put lettering across the windshield that said "John Deere"

I remember the corvette story too...we had the same girl here but she couldn't drive well and was a real slut after a short time.
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Re: Crazy old terminology and parts

Post by donc »

Camel hump fuielie heads? muncie rockcrusher, The hot setup. The one that sticks in my mind,as a kid I worked in shop that did repair work,retired school prinicapal bring his car and a set of plugs he bought trhru JC wWhitney, tells us these spark plugs are the greatest,more power better mileage. I look at plugs , start laughing,customer gets hot, tells me I dont know nothing Im just a kid. Boss tells me do what he wants,after I road test car, its misfiring terrible. I tell boss plugs arent any good, he tells the genious, genious wants to drive car himself. Customer comes back jumps out of car, starts in with me, "you call yourself a drag racer" that young man is the Shudder of power".BTW next rain storm, cars on the hook,normal plugs back in, runs fine ,except "no shudder of power".
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Re: Crazy old terminology and parts

Post by jabba400 »

An expression we have in the race circles here in New Zealand when something fails (particularly in some spectacular fashion) it is said to have "sucked the kumara".

(A kumara is a native potato-type root vegetable with a tough, purple skin and yellow flesh. Not something, by preference, sucked).

Something fast is said to go "like shit off a shovel", and with plenty of torque "Pulls like a school boy" (whereas the lack of torque "wouldn't pull the skin off a rice pudding")
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Re: Crazy old terminology and parts

Post by Nick Campagna »

The girl and the Corvette story was told to me as a sophomore in college, in 1966, as a girl and her Thunderbird.
Is the defect in what I see, or what I'm seeing with ?
user-3597028

Re: Crazy old terminology and parts

Post by user-3597028 »

More "terms"

Goes like a raped ape!
Hauls balls
Slow as molasses running up hill in January
Balls out (old governor reference)
Sano and "boss"
Triple threat (three deuces)
Pulls like a freight train
Racing for pinks
Balanced and blueprinted (still used, I guess)
Ported and relieved
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Re: Crazy old terminology and parts

Post by Blue Malibu »

I got nawz!....That one makes me want to back hand them every time.

Stroked and Poked.

My wifes cousin told me he likes scratching of in his honda. I told him he needed to keep that one to himself.

The same cousin also had 500 hp under the hood of the honda because it had a k&n and a header pipe.

It runs like a spotted a$$ ape.

Runs like a scalded dog.

I Never have been able to figure out how many stages there are in porting a head.

Had a guy tell me one time that his 2.8 v6 in his 1985 camaro had full racing cams.

You are wrong because Summit says it will work.

My car has a Corvette engine in it. I have always wondered why GM made more Corvette engines than they did Corvettes.

Last one for the night...Was recently trying to explain to someone on the phone how to tell the difference between a 327 and a 350. He told me his brother was sticking a coat hanger in the sparkplug hole and that it had REALLY BIG PISTONS!
And does that help me tell what it is.
I told him it just means he is poking it with a wire and he needs to stop!
user-3597028

Re: Crazy old terminology and parts

Post by user-3597028 »

One of our buddies had a friend who was building a V8 vega once and swore that he had to use a short block because a long block wouldn't fit..


Blue Malibu, your buddies brother needs to quit practicing home-abortions on an engine!
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Re: Crazy old terminology and parts

Post by Blue Malibu »

:lol: Yeah I nearly dropped the phone when he told me that!
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