I mentioned to one of my coworkers that every once in a while I will come across someone who tells me about their "stock" muscle car where they could raise the front tires off the ground with it. My cowoker said, "Believe it or not I have a picture of my friend's 69 GTX 440 Six Pack with daylight between the ground and his front wheels." I don't believe that it is completely in factory dress. Were there any muscle cars (back in the day), that could lift the front wheels off the pavement, right off the assembly line?

 

Not even close. Aside from the fact that the cars didn't have enough HP, torque, or gearing, the stock tires couldn't put the power to the ground. Please post the photo here, as I certainly don't believe it. Any photo of a stock musclecar with "daylight" under the tires is driving over a bump.

 

sure all the time lol .. right out of the Dealership

 

Yeah right!! Never would i believe story like that!

 

Maybe, just maybe some of the early 60's factory Superstock cars, once the engines had been balanced and blueprinted and the suspensions had been set up for racing. Or maybe a '68 Hemi Dart, but again the suspension would have to be dialed in and any of these cars would have required slicks.


As far as a factory stock car on street tires getting the front wheels in the air goes ... nope.


In high school, I had a '64 Chevy Impala with a 409 and a Muncie. It FELT like it might be able to pull the front wheels, but it never did.

 

Okay okay it did happen one time for me. There was a guy stuck in a mud hole up to the frame in his 66 chevy nova. I 64 ford galaxie 390 thunderbird engine and 4sp and they talked me into pulling him out i was 16 teen at the time! I tried and just spun the tires but this one guy weighted about two hundred and his buddy close to three they both set down on my deck lid and car did raise the front wheels up and pulled that nova out. They said it pull the wheels up about three inches. My car smelled real bad the clutch had slipped a little. The next day i found out how bad the clutch started going out it needed to be replaced. Note to self never do that again. This was in 1972 when this happened.

 

I'm sure having that extra force counter acting on the back helped a lot with that.

 

Notice in the ad for the 64 they don't show The landing or aftermath.

 

My car could do it, 100% stock with no aftermaket or non factory pieces. I'd go to the trunk, remove the spare and take out the jack. I swear I could get her to lift at least one of the front tires (Uniroyal Steel Belted Radial) 6-7 inches off the pavement....no lie!

 

My dad often managed both front wheels off the ground in a Fordson tractor, mind you he was pulling out tree stumps......

Roger.

 

My torque monster 413 in a 66 Satellite Convertible could pull if I bounced 2 or 3 times with 100,000 miles on the front shocks. Earned me a broken motor mount and a blown transmission.

 

My first two cars were Darts with the 318 V8. It was so front heavy and had so little weight in the back that the traction was awful. You had to keep the tank full, and sandbags in the trunk if you wanted any sort of traction. With stock tires the hook-up was so bad that I could smoke the tires just taking off from a dead stop. Given that my 318 Dart preferred burnouts to traction, I can't imagine that any of the bigger motors would do any better ... but I'd like to give it a try on a Hemi Dart if I could ... or even a 440 Dart.

 

That's not an ad. That's Motor Trend magazine beating the crap out of a press pool car. I recall a recent article, possibly on WAC, about the story behind that photo.

 

 

I think he means he could lift one front wheel 6-7 inches off the ground by using the jack. At least that's what I hope he meant, because that's the only way it could have happened.

 

Cars typically aren't able to pull the front wheels until you get into the low to mid 12's. But that requires a lot of traction and a set up suspension to take advantage of it. Although I don't doubt many factory cars are able to get into the 12's with maybe a super tune, slicks and headers. I have yet to see a showroom stocker get even close to lifting the wheels.
My 70 Cutlass was a mid 12 second car with a pair of headers and slicks but I never got the wheels off the ground. Probably because the suspension was practically dead stock except for the air bags. It was a street car. It would take loose shocks, loose sway bar, loose front springs, etc. to get the wheels hanging.

 

Current NHRA Stock Eliminator classes look like the classic musclecars of yesteryear but are in fact purpose built racecars that are far from "showroom stock". They retain some OE parts (that are generally heavily modified) but it is the tire compounds that are light years from what was available "back in the day", and superbly tuned engine, drivetrain, & suspension components with the benefit of modern technology that allow these non street legal "stock" vehicles to "raise the front tires off the ground"... on a well prepared drag strip. These cars are "stock" in outward appearance only and a far cry from what was available from the dealer's showroom floor. A quality NHRA Stock musclecar entry is 1-2 seconds (1/4 mile) quicker than the production version.

As RROLDSX posted, I too have seen cars "bounce" the tires off the ground but most had 90/10 ft shocks (or worn out stockers), and 6 cyl ft springs (or stockers with a coil or two removed). This procedure is not conducive to quick, or fast, acceleration rates which would seem to be the goal. The "stories" of wheels up stock muscle cars are part of the urban legend... right up there with "my uncle would put a $100 bill on the dash and ....."

It was nonetheless a great time to involved with cars....

 

Joe, here's my contribution; my ("stock" ) '66 Vette, wheels up!

 

Kinda like the poor cars in Smokey and the Bear and The Dukes of Hazzard.

 

Yeah, I remember seeing Vettes just like that in the showroom...

Very cool, and as real racers know, any effort that goes into lifting the front of the car is NOT accelerating it down the strip.