Lot’s of cars have interesting stories, and Doug and Nancy’s Skylark bracket car is no exception. In Doug’s words:
“I found this car on a used car lot around 1997. It was rust free Texas car with a totally shot interior and a 350 with a rod knock. I let my friend know and he went to look hoping to make a full race car out of it. When he went the car was still there but he was told it was sold. The next month I drive by and it’s still sitting there. I call my friend who goes back and finds out someone put money down but never came back so he bought it for $800. We drove it home with a rod knock about 5 miles expecting it to grenade. We gutted the motor/trans/interior and let it sit. A short time later a local machine shop gave us a rebuilt 73 455. Someone dropped it off to be rebuilt many years ago and never picked it up. Having a car and a motor sitting there we decided to build a “fun car”. A local junk yard gave us a TH400, we built a 4.10 12 bolt chevy from a spare housing, used some old MT headers from the rafters, bought a performer intake, found an old 3310 Holley and threw it all together. The best the car ran was 12.80’s with a total investment of about $1500. I drove the car off and on for about 10 years, usually taking it to Buick races to have fun with. 3 years ago I bought the car from my friend and shortly afterwards I bought a 12-1 stage 1 engine and ran 11.70’s.”
Looking for better ET’s, Doug built the engine in the car now. It’s budget minded, but still uses good quality parts: The Block was machined by Bobb and Geof at Finishline, and assembled by Doug. Wiseco Pistons were used, and swing on 6.635 BBC H beam rods. The cam is a custom flat tappet from Competition Components, 260 @ .050 on the intake side, and .600 lift with Comp Cams 1.6 Gold series rocker arms. Heads are CNC Ported Edelbrock RPM’s with an upgrade to 7/16 rocker studs. The intake is an SP1 single plane with an adapter to run a 9375 Dominator (1050). Improved oiling comes from a Finishline scavenger unit. Doug used some innovation and some spare parts for the ignition, using a stock buick distributor and converted it to electronics using a Mopar pickup and corresponding orange control box. Neat idea Doug. The converter is a 4000 RPM Coan unit, and the 12 Bolt houses 4.10 gears. Exhaust consists of 2″ Headers and 3 1/2″ pipes and Dynomax bullet mufflers. Best ET so far is 10.60 @ 127+ mph. The skylark weighs in at 3500lbs. Oh, and the other cool thing? Nancy is Doug’s sister in law and shares the driving duties on the blue Buick! Here’s a video of the car in action
Tags: Buick 455, CNC Ported Edelbrock Heads 60049, Competition Components, Flat tappet cam