- Joined
- Mar 10, 2011
- Messages
- 5,960
- Reaction score
- 108
- Location
- Oklahoma
- My Car
- 1971 Boss 351
1971 Mustang Sportsroof
1972 Q Code 4-speed conv.
I bought my first performance car in 1973, just as the factories were getting out of HI Perf stuff but the aftermarket exploded to fill the void. Some of it was junk but Scheifer, Hurst, Crane, Holley, Edelbrock, Hooker, Mallory and others filled the needs of those wanting more from their cars. Ford produced the coolest stuff but not much ended up on cars I encountered on the street. When you consider inflation a lot of it has been pretty constant in terms of true cost.The thing that killed Motorsport for the average guy was the withdrawal of the factories. When they were involved with the sport, just about anybody could go down to their local parts place, get factory quality proven Hi-Po parts and go racing, geez they even had tech workshops that would come to the dealers and show the people what the latest parts were and also how to set up your Hi-Po gear to get the most out of it. After the factories shut down their racing programs, that all died and it was left to the aftermarket companies to fill the void. It was then that the price of everything performance related jumped, leaving to little guy to really struggle to try and keep going, or stop racing all together. Unfortunately, those good old days are long gone and will never, ever return.
Sic I agree hp has never been cheaper than now. Our conversion rate has killed things a bit here but the last 5 yrs have been very good parts wise and in advances in technology. Its been a bit of a golden age for you guys in the USA with the factories delivering some very impressive cars Shelbys from Ford HellCats from Dodge even COPO cars from Chevy again all at very reasonable money respectively. We have none of the big 3 offering anything near those cars and what we have that is close is far more expensive and much tamer. The clock has to be ticking it surely wont last much longer unfortunatelyI bought my first performance car in 1973, just as the factories were getting out of HI Perf stuff but the aftermarket exploded to fill the void. Some of it was junk but Scheifer, Hurst, Crane, Holley, Edelbrock, Hooker, Mallory and others filled the needs of those wanting more from their cars. Ford produced the coolest stuff but not much ended up on cars I encountered on the street. When you consider inflation a lot of it has been pretty constant in terms of true cost.The thing that killed Motorsport for the average guy was the withdrawal of the factories. When they were involved with the sport, just about anybody could go down to their local parts place, get factory quality proven Hi-Po parts and go racing, geez they even had tech workshops that would come to the dealers and show the people what the latest parts were and also how to set up your Hi-Po gear to get the most out of it. After the factories shut down their racing programs, that all died and it was left to the aftermarket companies to fill the void. It was then that the price of everything performance related jumped, leaving to little guy to really struggle to try and keep going, or stop racing all together. Unfortunately, those good old days are long gone and will never, ever return.
I think we're reliving the good old days right now (at least here in the States). Depending who you believe, US inflation is 500-1000 percent since I bought my first V8. A new Super T 10 cost about $375 when I was making $3.25 and hour. Now a T56 is about $3K. In 1969 Chevy sold two aluminum engine Corvettes. At about 10K Chevy felt there was no market Stingrays with tons of power at double the price of a base model. In 2015 Chevy sold about 9000 Z06 Corvettes (80-120K) with 650 HP. A friend bought a '15 GT Mustang, new for $29K, a real performance bargain. Shelby's can be had with as much HP as the wallet can stand. I do expect this to all end just like in 1971/72 due to the same reasons, government regulation, fuel and insurance cost.
Exactly right about the aftermarket and the average guy in his street car, but for race teams it changed the landscape big time. The factory stopped making these parts and the aftermarket wasn't building complete racing engines for racing teams like the factory was. As David stated a complete HM racing engine was in the $2000 range, when the Cammer came out, you could walk into the dealer and purchase a complete 660+ engine, ready to go for $3000. In the mid 70's an aftermarket block was $1500-$2000, just for a block and bare cylinder heads were $1000+ a pair. Considering what complete engines from the factory were worth a few years earlier to the cost of a few parts now more than a whole engine use to be worth.I bought my first performance car in 1973, just as the factories were getting out of HI Perf stuff but the aftermarket exploded to fill the void. Some of it was junk but Scheifer, Hurst, Crane, Holley, Edelbrock, Hooker, Mallory and others filled the needs of those wanting more from their cars. Ford produced the coolest stuff but not much ended up on cars I encountered on the street. When you consider inflation a lot of it has been pretty constant in terms of true cost.The thing that killed Motorsport for the average guy was the withdrawal of the factories. When they were involved with the sport, just about anybody could go down to their local parts place, get factory quality proven Hi-Po parts and go racing, geez they even had tech workshops that would come to the dealers and show the people what the latest parts were and also how to set up your Hi-Po gear to get the most out of it. After the factories shut down their racing programs, that all died and it was left to the aftermarket companies to fill the void. It was then that the price of everything performance related jumped, leaving to little guy to really struggle to try and keep going, or stop racing all together. Unfortunately, those good old days are long gone and will never, ever return.
I think we're reliving the good old days right now (at least here in the States). Depending who you believe, US inflation is 500-1000 percent since I bought my first V8. A new Super T 10 cost about $375 when I was making $3.25 and hour. Now a T56 is about $3K. In 1969 Chevy sold two aluminum engine Corvettes. At about 10K Chevy felt there was no market Stingrays with tons of power at double the price of a base model. In 2015 Chevy sold about 9000 Z06 Corvettes (80-120K) with 650 HP. A friend bought a '15 GT Mustang, new for $29K, a real performance bargain. Shelby's can be had with as much HP as the wallet can stand. I do expect this to all end just like in 1971/72 due to the same reasons, government regulation, fuel and insurance cost.
Very interesting thread. Lets think that something that brings prices up of everything we buy today is liability and insurance against it. We live in a society where if something goes wrong it has to be someone else's fault so law suits are expensive and way to common. So on top of the direct costs to make a product we need to consider the liability costs and all the overhead that includes marketing, payroll and bunch of other #&$p.
1971 M-code Mach 1
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