[Dr. Eric M. Schiffer]

I promissed you some picture of memebers of the orginal "High End Club" as we gathered on our usual Thursday night at the Big Boy on Telegraph in Bloomfield Township. The gathering was mostly to celebrate Joe Ruggirello's '80 birthday. We represented the '50's, '60's and '70's-80's street racers.

Although Jim Wangers could not attend he and Royal Pontiac were well represented by John "Cheater" Polizter, "Fast" Freddie Foreman and myself.

[higgenslake]

Biff's was located at the southeast corner of Woodward and Bowers in Birmingham.

[bpenrod]

On yellowbullet now. http://www.yellowbullet.com/forum/sh...ight=telegraph

[ANDYA]

Originally Posted by Dr. Eric M. Schiffer

Say good night to the Blackbird as it is now in hibernation for the long Michigan winter.

Looks like it's getting close to the time for the Blackbird to come out of its Winter snooze

Dr. Schiffer, is there a modern day version of the High End Club and do they still meet late at night for some "bench racing"?

[Dr. Eric M. Schiffer]

Originally Posted by ANDYA

Looks like it's getting close to the time for the Blackbird to come out of its Winter snooze

Dr. Schiffer, is there a modern day version of the High End Club and do they still meet late at night for some "bench racing"?

I removed the headers from The "Black Bird" and sent them out for a ceramic (re) coating about three weeks ago. My GTO needs a few tweeks. So I'v only used my Z06 a couple of times. While sunny it temps on Saturday morning have only been in the high 30's to 40's. Not real good traction. I am not as breave a sole as so many others.

As for the "High End" club. I have to find out where these "old guys" now meet since the Big Boy they had been meeting at closed a couple of weeks ago.

I could not even begin to tell you how many gatherings of the guys are all ove the Detroit area every week.

There is a large group of "oldies" that call themselves the "Breakfast Club". They includ George Deloran and Bob Laravee. Bob is the guy who has orginized shows known as "Autorama" and "World of Wheels" around the country since the 50's. They meet every Saturday morning, starting at 6 AM at restaurant called the Ram's Horn in the City of Rochester just off Rochester Rd and I-59 . As the weather gets better you'll see hot rods, muscle cars and classics. Several of these guys will show up with a group I meet with in at the Pasteiner's Auto Zone Book Store in Birmingham, on Woodward Ave just north of 14 Mile rd, from 8 AM until 10 AM. My group is a bunch of guys from the indusrty. Current and retired VP's, designers, special project guys and just plain old car guy's.

For instance last week end Mark Stielow brought an engineering ZL1 Camaro. Mark can be seen with his '69 Camaro ZR1 called the "Red Devil" in the current Optima battery comercial and on You Tube.

I could not even tell you all of the hot cars that show up every Saturday in nice weather.

Every day and night around the Detroit area there are weekly "free" gatherings throughout the summer. Like the Dream Cruise, unless you live here you can never imagine the amount of cars that are here. After all, all of those automotive industry, supplier, mechanic's et. al., retirees need something to do...So why not fabricate something and make it better!

Heck a bunch of us went to an open house of some ones 108 car collection this last Saturday. Most of these guys came either from the "Breakfast Club" of the Ford/ Mercury Restorers". There are many hidden collections all over the Detroit area.

Sorry, but there is no short answer to your "High End" question.

[Dr. Eric M. Schiffer]

Here is a sampling of our Saturday morning gathering at Pastiener's Auto Zone Hobby's on Woodward in Birmingham. A few people have posted it on Youtube. I see both my '68GTO but mostly my yellow Z06 made it onto their film. Most of the Youtube stuff I found was from 2009.

You will see a blue Buggatti Veron. Ken Lingenfelter, Lingenfelter Performance Engineering bought that one. Ken will bring a different cars all the time.

1) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXKelF2xMq8
2) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfHy38ACiZo
3) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oza6f...feature=relmfu
4) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ko7T1...eature=related
5) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWo2f...feature=relmfu

Then we have Bakers in Milford, MI every Sunday. They get over 1,000 cars on a nice day. It too is free. Bakers is just down the road from the GM Proving Grounds.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iwa-kni6o3k

This should give you a micro look at the summers here.

[Dr HEMI]

3 pages.....TONS of Silver Bullet info:

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/s...d.php?t=237077

[Dr HEMI]

Silver Bullet info links:

http://www.perthcomputerhelp.com/gre...llet/index.htm

http://www.carcraft.com/featuredvehi...gtx/index.html

http://www.myrideisme.com/Blog/woodw...et-last-words/

http://www.silverbulletgtx.com/index.html

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/s...d.php?t=237077

http://www.boulier.com/billy/story_o...ver_bullet.htm

http://www.hotrod.com/thehistoryof/1.../photo_08.html

http://www.dragzine.com/features/car...silver-bullet/

http://www.moparmagazine.com/2009/ju...ult_doors.html

http://www.automobilemag.com/feature...edere_gtx.html

[rad400]

Sounds like he was a good man and one hell of an engine builder.

[brut4s]

Dr Schiffer or anyone else, in memory of Mr. Shelby any stories you can share?

[Dr HEMI]

Originally Posted by brut4s

........anyone else, in memory of Mr. Shelby any stories you can share?

I heard that after Shel's heart transplant and recovery that his friends
had a roast for him.

Dan Gurney rose to the podium and said that he heard that it wasn't a
transplant at all but in fact a first time installation.

[383man]

Wow this is sure alot of crap. Yea sounds like Jimmy never one a race according to the info here. To bad he is dead to defend himself but its kind of funny how some said that Harold Sullivan made the story about the unbeaten Bullet. Well for your info the Bullet was well know before Harold ever even owned the car as was the unbeaten story. I sure can say I never heard about an unbeaten car called the blackbird but yet it beat everything it raced. Yea right ! Seems the story is they raced once that is the Bullet and Blackbird and they say that someone else owned the Blackbird when they raced and yes the Blackbird got spanked but good. Even if the Bullet claimed to run lower 10's but according to this post only ran 11.80's. I dont know why you all have to make such a big deal about the fact that a 67 Hemi GTX was real fast and beat a Pontiac. Not alot of real street cars ran 10's back in 1970. You all make it sound like the Hemi is no facter then a V/6. Gee I wonder why no Pontiacs ever ran in Pro Stock in the early 70's when this was going on ? Or why they did not get weight put on them because they dominated Pro Stock in the early 70's which the Hemi did. And as for Jim Wagners we all know he dont lie. Just ask him about a 64 GTO with a special 389 that somehow years later was found to be a 421. And he needs a new rug as his really looks bad !
But dont get me wrong as I like Pontiacs alot as I do all muscle cars but I hate to see stories get changed all around just to make one car brand look good ! See Ya. Ron

[LUST01]

383man, I can tell you did not read all 29 pages. You miss the point that all these Detroit street racers of this time period, Jimmy Addison, Jim Wagners, John Polizter (come on his nic name is "The Cheater) and others mentioned in this tread were first class bull ****ters. The didn't admit to losing or if they did they would put the blame on a bad tune or a broken rocker, They rarely mentioned et's, they were very cautious about who they lined up against. They all probably extended the finish line from time to time to win a race. They all played starting line tricks. Jim Wagners will be the first person to admit he pulled fast ones on fellow street racers, magazines etc. He didn't admit to it back in the day but now that he is older and the muscle car era is 30 years ago he talks about how he slipped in a 421 in a GTO to give it better press coverage or during a rematch street race, how he and his driver substituted a faster but almost identicle GTO for one that lost a race. He also had enough cars in his stable, if you beat one, he had a faster one for a rematch. If you read all 29 pages, Jimmy Addison even admitted to losing a few times when he was older and the street racing thing was in his past. As for your beloved Hemi, you have Pontiac to thank for that motor. Look back and see who was winning NASCAR and the NHRA races in 1961 and 1962 before GM put a corporate ban on racing. Chrysler's wedge motors were not winning, so they went back to the drawing board and their past and came up with the new 426 Hemi. which I admit is on hell of an engine. While Chrysler and Ford were free to race and come up with new ideas and engines, the GM divisons had to keep things on the down low and supply what support they could give out the back door because of the corporate ban on racing. Makes you wonder what Chevy, Pontiac and even Oldsmobile would have come upwith if they didn't have the corporate ban do deal with.

[383man]

Actually the Mopar wedge motors were cleaning house in 63 in NHRA Superstock. But the wedge was not a great NASCAR eng. Yes Petty did win some races in 63 with a wedge but it was not dominate at all in Nascar as it did in NHRA. The Hemi was really born because Mopar wanted to win the 64 Nascar Daytona race and dominate in Nascar.
And even though GM was said to drop out of racing in 63 I cant see where it made much difference other then they were not building factory race cars as the hi performance parts were still being made and performance cars were still being built. They still built the 396-427 eng in 65 and the GTO came out in 64. I mean GM might have said they were out of racing but you know as well as I do they made some very strong muscle cars through the 60's that fell right into NHRA Superstock and Stock classes. And of course the ZL1 Camaro sure is not a family car. I would say Mopar still built some factory race cars through the 60's but GM was building and selling more muscle cars. Ron

[Diego]

Originally Posted by 383man

And even though GM was said to drop out of racing in 63 I cant see where it made much difference other then they were not building factory race cars as the hi performance parts were still being made and performance cars were still being built.

Ron, are you forgetting that GM capped out its engines at around 400 cid through 1969? Aside of the Hurst/Olds and COPO cars, GM had to fight 428 CJ Fords and 426 and 440 Mopars.

For the rest of you Pontiac guys, you may be interested in this:

http://board.moparts.org/ubbthreads/...page=0&fpart=1

[rad400]

You forgot the 428 motor. Can you mopar guys stay on your on forum.

[383man]

Originally Posted by Diego

Ron, are you forgetting that GM capped out its engines at around 400 cid through 1969? Aside of the Hurst/Olds and COPO cars, GM had to fight 428 CJ Fords and 426 and 440 Mopars.

For the rest of you Pontiac guys, you may be interested in this:

http://board.moparts.org/ubbthreads/...page=0&fpart=1

That is true but they had the 427 in the Vette and you could get the 427 in the COPO cars from what I understand. Course they did lift that in 1970. Hey I like GM cars also but I just dont feel the story some are telling about Jimmy Addison is correct. Beside you need some other opinions every now and then to you on your toes. I was just drooling over a very sweet 64 GTO last week at a local car show. It was dark metallic blue and the paint really looked good. And I will be honest the 64 is not my favorite year GTO as the 65 is. But this just looked so sweet and was all stock with the 3 dueces. Ron

[383man]

Here is another board with some of the story also. Ron

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/s...d.php?t=237077

[383man]

Originally Posted by rad400

You forgot the 428 motor. Can you mopar guys stay on your on forum.

Na. I visit a few other brand boards as I like all muscle cars and have broused here some. I just had to give my side of the story since I think some of it is not true. Ron

[Diego]

Rad400, why is Ron not welcome here? Because he has the temerity to dispute folklore? I would think PY is a place where we can discuss automobiles without discrimination.