Balr14
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Jul 31, 2019
- Threads
- 30
- Messages
- 2,563
- Reaction score
- 2,367
- Location
- SE Wisconsin
- First Name
- John
- Vehicle(s)
- BMW Z4 M40i
The Maverick was a good car for drag racing. It was light, and didn't need a lot to make it quite solid. Plus, there was adequate room under the hood. My brother-in-law had a Maverick bracket racer, 540 CI stroker with Powerglide. It could run high 9s, but ran very consistent 10.2 dial-in. He had the same drive train in a Vega bracket car, but the frame rails would twist.This!! A 1971 Maverick Grabber. The car came factory with a 302, bucket seats and a floor shifted C-4. It was all original never wrecked, no rust and never spent a night outside since new. I grew up detailing this car every weekend for guitar string money! Waxed every f'n inch of the car twice a year including the underside and engine bay. You could eat off it! 1000's of hours and 10's of thousands of dollars later, I had an honest N/A 10 second street car. 13:1 cast iron block with early 67 GT cylinder heads, cast crank with Carrillo rods, 700" lift mechanical roller cam. Ya....I had to run 116 octane, but hell it was less than $5 a gallon if I bought it buy the barrel. The car hooked and went straight on the street or track. Stop light to stop light.....I embarrassed more than a few SBC and big $$ BBC! 4:30 gears with a 5500 rpm stall in a 2400lb car was tailbone breaking with DOT legal slicks on the street! Pulling the front wheels off the ground launching at will was awesome!!
I sold it to a guy I met thru a Maverick forum that lived a few hours away from me in Mission, British Columbia Canada. He had been after me for years about buying the car. I told him....not for sale 100's of times. I had the motor and trans out after a few seasons to freshen the motor and have the convertor checked. The motor was fine...just rings and bearings. The convertor was showing heat related issues so, Jim @ JPT had me send the C-4 back to him in Michigan to get updated with his latest billet internals. He fell on some hard times w/family and health issues so I missed the Seattle good weather season. It sat for almost a year and life happened! I started touring more....kid went off to college @ UCLA playing baseball, so I caved. $25K for a Maverick and trailer in 2002 was good money and I finally sold it. Trailered it to Canada and handed over the keys! Spent the weekend firing up the motor and showing him how to time, adjust the valves/carb etc. Broke the motor and trans in on jackstands and said my goodbyes! He raced it a couple times and attended a bunch of cars shows, but couldn't leave well enough alone! Decided he wanted more power and sent the Victor Jr. intake to N.O.S. and had it plumbed for nitrous. Took it to a test and tune and first launch he wheelstanded to car into the right lane retaining wall. Folded the passenger side front suspension and shock tower. Cheese grated the whole passenger side along the wall. I saw the pics and posts on the Maverick forum and seriously felt like I'd lost a child! First forum I've ever been banned for life on! Still f'n kills me today!!! My new MACh1 helps!!!
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